s now her paramour; but as he was a married man, I had the
additional mortification of having his wife come to scold me for
suffering my wife to decoy away her husband! After having been with this
_Charlton_, about a fortnight before her death, she came home very
drunk, and abused me sadly. She beat me over the shoulder with a pair of
tongs; I wrested them from her, and, as I purpose to speak the truth, I
will confess, that, in my passion, as she ran down stairs, I followed
her and gave her a blow with them on the head. Upon this she ran
directly to Mr. _Clark_ the constable, the same who since apprehended me
on the occasion of her death, to get me taken into custody. Mrs. _Clark_
kindly wiped her forehead where the skin was broke, and advised her to
go home peaceably, and make up the difference between us. This enraged
her so that she gave Mrs. _Clark_ many foul words, so that Mr. _Clark_
came to expostulate with me, not on the blow I had given my wife, but on
the ill language she had bestowed on his wife! Mr. _Clark_ and I talked
the matter over a tankard of beer, but I saw no more of my wife that
night.

"There was also one _Stroud_, a _Smith_, in the number of her intimates,
but I knew little of their concerns, more than what I understood from
his wife, who came frequently to me, enquiring after him, and
complaining greatly of my wife, for enticing him away from his family
and his work.

"These few instances I have been able to recollect, may, in some measure,
serve to give the reader of my unhappy tale, an idea of my wife's
character and conduct, which I solemnly declare, I am not solicitous to
expose, as the poor creature is dead, more than is absolutely needful,
to shew what sort of person she was, and as it may tend to clear me in
the opinion of the world. So quarrelsome was she by nature, that we
never went out together, but she would find some occasion to abuse
either me, some of the company, or even passengers in the street; if any
one casually happened to brush her in passing, she would give them a
blow in the face, and then call upon me to stand kick and cuff for her,
while she having stirred up the mischief, ran away, unconcerned at my
fate in the mob: and in our private disputes, I have been beat by her,
her mother, and a servant girl of her mother's, all at one time. Nay,
she has frequently threatened both to destroy herself, and to murder me.
A threat, she has since very nearly accomplished.

"The ni