d that an ex-soldier in the Royal
Dragoons, named John Scholfield, had accused Blake of uttering seditious
words. The letter runs:--"His enmity arises from my having turned him
out of my garden, into which he was invited as an assistant by a
gardener at work therein, without my knowledge that he was so invited. I
desired him, as politely as possible, to go out of the garden; he made
me an impertinent answer. I insisted on his leaving the garden; he
refused. I still persisted in desiring his departure. He then threatened
to knock out my eyes, with many abominable imprecations, and with some
contempt for my person; it affronted my foolish pride. I therefore took
him by the elbows, and pushed him before me until I had got him out.
There I intended to have left him; but he, turning about, put himself
into a posture of defiance, threatening and swearing at me. I, perhaps
foolishly and perhaps not, stepped out at the gate, and, putting aside
his blows, took him again by the elbows, and, keeping his back to me,
pushed him forward down the road about fifty yards--he all the while
endeavouring to turn round and strike me, and raging and cursing, which
drew out several neighbours. At length when I had got him to where he
was quartered, which was very quickly done, we were met at the gate by
the master of the house--the Fox Inn--(who is the proprietor of my
cottage) and his wife and daughter, and the man's comrade, and several
other people. My landlord compelled the soldiers to go indoors, after
many abusive threats against me and my wife from the two soldiers; but
not one word of threat on account of sedition was uttered at that time."

[Sidenote: WILLIAM BLAKE, TRAITOR]

As a result, Blake was haled before the magistrates and committed for
trial. The trial was held in the Guildhall at Chichester, on January
11th, 1804. Hayley, in spite of having been thrown from his horse on a
flint with, says Gilchrist, Blake's biographer, "more than usual
violence" was in attendance to swear to the poet's character, and
Cowper's friend Rose, a clever barrister, had been retained. According
to the report in the County paper, "William Blake, an engraver at
Felpham, was tried on a charge exhibited against him by two soldiers for
having uttered seditious and treasonable expressions, such as 'd--n the
king, d--n all his subjects, d--n his soldiers, they are all slaves;
when Buonaparte comes, it will be cut-throat for cut-throat, and the
weakest mu