ee other
children, who underwent the same violence of operation which had proved
fatal to the eldest brother. The instantaneous effects of the poison
created a suspicion of Haines, who, being examined, the whole scene
of villany stood disclosed. Nevertheless, the villain found means
to escape.--The uncommon spirit of assassination which raged at this
period, seemed to communicate itself even to foreigners who breathed
English air. Five French prisoners confined on board the king's ship the
Royal Oak, were convicted of having murdered one Jean de Manaux, their
countryman and fellow-prisoner, in revenge for his having discovered
that they had forged passes to facilitate their escape. Exasperated at
this detection, they seized this unfortunate informer in the place of
their confinement, gagged his mouth, stripped him naked, tied him with
a strong cord to a ring-bolt, and scourged his body with the most brutal
perseverance. By dint of struggling, the poor wretch disengaged himself
from the cord with which he had been tied: then they finished the
tragedy, by leaping and stamping on his breast, till the chest was
broke, and he expired. They afterwards severed the body into small
pieces, and these they conveyed at different times into the sea, through
the funnel of a convenience to which they had access: but one of the
other prisoners gave information of the murder; in consequence of
which they were secured, brought to trial, condemned, and punished with
death.--Nor were the instances of cruel assassination which prevailed
at this juncture confined to Great Britain. At the latter end of the
foregoing year, an atrocious massacre was perpetrated by two Genoese
mariners upon the master and crew of an English vessel, among whom they
were enrolled. These monsters of cruelty were in different watches, a
circumstance that favoured the execution of the horrid plan they had
concerted. When one of them retired to rest with his fellows of the
watch, consisting of the mate and two seamen, he waited till they were
fast asleep, and then butchered them all with a knife. Having so far
succeeded without discovery, he returned to the deck, and communicated
the exploit to his associate: then they suddenly attacked the master of
the vessel, and cleft his head with a hatchet, which they likewise
used in murdering the man that stood at the helm; a third was likewise
despatched, and no Englishman remained alive but the master's son, a
boy, who lament