age with Peace she gave birth to a
daughter, and during his fourth term of imprisonment presented him with
a son. Peace never saw this child, who died before his release. But,
true to the family custom, on his return from prison the untimely death
of little "John Charles" was commemorated by the printing of a funeral
card in his honour, bearing the following sanguine verses:

"Farewell, my dear son, by us all beloved,
Thou art gone to dwell in the mansions above.
In the bosom of Jesus Who sits on the throne
Thou art anxiously waiting to welcome us home."

Whether from a desire not to disappoint little John Charles, for some
reason or other the next two or three years of Peace's career would seem
to have been spent in an endeavour to earn an honest living by picture
framing, a trade in which Peace, with that skill he displayed in
whatever he turned his hand to, was remarkably proficient. In Sheffield
his children attended the Sunday School. Though he never went to church
himself, he was an avowed believer in both God and the devil. As he
said, however, that he feared neither, no great reliance could be placed
on the restraining force of such a belief to a man of Peace's daring
spirit. There was only too good reason to fear that little John Charles'
period of waiting would be a prolonged one.

In 1875 Peace moved from Sheffield itself to the suburb of Darnall. Here
Peace made the acquaintance--a fatal acquaintance, as it turned out--of
a Mr. and Mrs. Dyson. Dyson was a civil engineer. He had spent some
years in America, where, in 1866, he married.

Toward the end of 1873 or the beginning of 1874, he came to England with
his wife, and obtained a post on the North Eastern Railway. He was a
tall man, over six feet in height, extremely thin, and gentlemanly in
his bearing. His engagement with the North Eastern Railway terminated
abruptly owing to Dyson's failing to appear at a station to which he had
been sent on duty.

It was believed at the time by those associated with Dyson that this
unlooked-for dereliction of duty had its cause in domestic trouble.
Since the year 1875, the year in which Peace came to Darnall, the
domestic peace of Mr. Dyson had been rudely disturbed by this same ugly
little picture-framer who lived a few doors away from the Dysons'
house. Peace had got to know the Dysons, first as a tradesman, then as
a friend. To what degree of intimacy he attained with Mrs. Dyson it is
diff