ter; and, hearing of her marriage, they caused young Hayes to be taken out of bed from his wife, under pretence that he had enlisted in the army. Thus situated, he was compelled to send an account of the whole transaction to his father, who, though offended with his son for the rash step he had taken, went to a magistrate, who attended him to Worcester, and demanded by what authority the young man was detained. The officers endeavoured to excuse their conduct; but the magistrate threatening to commit them to prison if they did not release him, the young fellow immediately obtained his liberty. The father, irritated at the imprudent conduct of his son, severely censured his proceedings; but, considering that what was passed could not be recalled, had good sense enough not to persevere in his opposition to an unavoidable event.-Mr. Hayes now furnished his son with money to begin business for himself; and the young couple were in a thriving way, and appeared to live in harmony; but Mrs. Hayes, being naturally of a restless disposition, prevailed on her husband to enlist for a soldier. The regiment in which he served being ordered to the Isle of Wight, Catherine followed him thither. He had not been long there before his father procured his discharge, which, as it happened in the time of war, was attended with an expense of 60%. On the return of young Hayes and his wife, the father gave them an estate of 10%. per annum, to which he afterwards added another of 167. which, with the profit of their trade, would have been amply sufficient for their support. The husband bore the character of an honest well-disposed man; he treated his wife very in. dulgently, yet she constantly complained of the covetousness of his

disposition; but he had much morereason to complain of her disposition, for she was turbulent, quar relsome, and perpetually exciting disputes among her neighbours. The elder Mr. H. observing with concern how unfortunately his son was matched, advised him to leave her, and settle in some place where she might not find him. Such, however, was his attachment to her, that he could not comply with this advice; and she had the power of persuading him to come to London, after they had been married about six years. On their arrival in the metropolis, Mr. Hayes took a house, part of which he let in lodgings, and opened a shop in the chandlery and coal trade, in which he was as successful as he could have wished. Exclusive of his profit by shopkeeping, he acquired a great deal of money by lending small sums on pledges, for at this time the trade of pawnbroking was followed by any one at pleasure, it having been then subjected to no regulation. Mrs. Hayes's conduct in London was still more reprehensible than it had been in the country. The chief pleasure of her life consisted in creating and encouraging quarrels among her neighbours; and, indeed, her unhappy temper discovered itself on every occasion. Sometimes she would speak of her husband, to his acquaintance, in terms of great tenderness and respect; and at other times she would represent him to her female associates as a compound of every thing that was contemptible in human nature. On a particular occasion, she told a woman of her acquaintance that she should think it no more sin to murder him than to kill a dog. At length her husband, finding she made perpetual disturbances in the neighbourhood, thought it prudent to remove to Tottenham Court Road, where he

carried on his former business; but not being as successful here as he could have wished, he took another house in Tyburn Road, since called Oxford Road. Here he continued his practice of lending small sums of money on pledges, till, having acquired a decent competency, he left off housekeeping, and hired lodgings near the same spot. Thomas Billings, a journeyman tailor, and a supposed son of Mrs. Hayes by her former connexions, lodged in the house with Mrs. Hayes; and the husband having gone into the country on business, his wife and this man indulged themselves in every species of extravagance. On Hayes's return some of his neighbours told him how his wife had been wasting his substance, on which he severely censured her conduct, and, a quarrel arising between them, they proceeded from words to blows. It was commonly thought that she formed the resolution of murdering him at this time, as the quarrel happened only six weeks before his fatal exit. She now began to sound the disposition of Billings, to whom she said it was impossible for her to live longer with her husband; and she urged all possible arguments to prevail on him to aid her in the commission of the murder, which Billings resisted for some time, but at length complied.

At this period Thomas Wood, an acquaintance of Mr. Hayes, arrived from the country; and, as he was apprehensive of being impressed, Hayes kindly took him into his house, and promised to use his interest in procuring him some employment. After a few days' residence Mrs. Hayes proposed to him the murder of her husband: but the man was shocked at the thought of destroying his friend and benefactor, and told her he would have no concern in so atrocious a deed. However, she artfully urged that he was an

atheist, and it could be no crime to destroy a person who had no religion or goodness-that he was himself a murderer, having killed a man in the country, and likewise two of his own children; one of whom he buried under a pear-tree, and the other under an apple-tree.' She likewise said that her husband's death would put her in possession of 1500l., of the whole of which Wood should have the disposal, if he would assist her and Billings in the perpetration of the murder. Wood went out of town a few days after this, and on his return found Mr. and Mrs. Hayes and Billings in company together, having drank till they had put themselves into the utmost apparent good humour. Wood sitting down at Hayes's request, the latter said they had drank a guinea's worth of liquor, but, notwithstanding this, he was not drunk. A proposal was now made by Billings, that, if Hayes could drink six bottles of mountain without being drunk, he would pay for it; but that Hayes should be the paymaster, if the liquor made him drunk, or if he failed of drinking the quantity. This proposal being agreed to, Wood, Billings, and Mrs. Hayes, went to a wine-vault to buy the wine, and, on their way, this wicked woman reminded the men that the present would be a good opportunity of committing the murder, as her husband would be perfectly intoxicated. The mind of Wood was not yet wrought up to a proper pitch for the commission of a crime so atrocious as the murder of a man who had sheltered and protected him, and this too at a time when his mind must necessarily be unprepared for his being launched into eternity. Mrs. H. had therefore recourse to her former arguments, urging that it would be no sin to kill him; and Billings seconded all' she said, and, declaring he was ready

to take a part in the horrid deed, Wood was at length prevailed on to become one of the execrable but chers. Thus agreed, they went to the wine-vault, where Mrs. Hayes paid half a guinea for six bottles of wine, which, being sent home by a porter, Mr. Hayes began to drink it, while his intentional murderers regaled themselves with beer. When he had taken a considerable quan. tity of the wine, he danced about the room like a man distracted, and at length finished the whole quan. tity: but, not being yet in a state of absolute stupefaction, his wife sent for another bottle, which he likewise drank, and then fell senseless on the floor. Having lain some time in this condition, he got, with much difficulty, into another room, and threw himself on a bed. When he was asleep, his wife told her associates that this was the time to execute their plan, as there was no fear of any resistance on his part. Accordingly Billings went into the room with a hatchet, with which he struck Hayes so violently that he fractured his skull. At this time Hayes's feet hung off the bed, and the torture arising from the blow made him stamp repeatedly on the floor, which being heard by Wood, he also went into the room, and, taking the hatchet out of Billings's hand, gave the poor man two more blows, which effectually dispatched him. A woman, named Springate, who lodged in the room over that where the murder was committed, hearing the noise occasioned by Hayes's stamping, imagined that the parties might have quarrelled in consequence of their intoxication; and going down stairs, she told Mrs. Hayes that the noise had awakened her husband, her child, and herself. Catherine had a ready answer to this: she said some company had visited them, and were grown merry, but they were on the point of taking

their leave; with which answer Mrs. Springate returned to her room well satisfied. The murderers now consulted on the best manner of disposing of the body, so as most effectually to prevent detection. Mrs. Hayes proposed to cut off the head, because, if the body was found whole, it would be more likely to be known. The villains agreeing to this proposition, she fetched a pail, lighted a candle, and all of them going into the room, the men drew the body partly off the bed, when Billings supported the head, while Wood, with his pocketknife, cut it off, and the infamous woman held the pail to receive it, being as careful as possible that the floor might not be stained with the blood. This being done, they emptied the blood out of the pail into a sink by the window, and poured several pails of water after it; but, notwithstanding all this care, Mrs. Springate observed some congealed blood the next morning; though at that time she did not in the least suspect what had passed. It was likewise observed that the marks of the blood were visible on the floor for some weeks afterwards, though Mrs. Hayes had washed and scraped it with a knife. When the head was cut off, this she-devil recommended the boiling it till the flesh should part from the bones; but the other parties thought this operation would take up too much time, and therefore advised the throwing it into the Thames, in expectation that it would be carried off by the tide, and sink. This agreed to, the head was put into the pail, and Billings took it under his great coat, being accompanied by Wood; but, making a noise in going down stairs, Mrs. Springate called, and asked what was the matter; to which Mrs. Hayes answered that her husband was going a journey, and, with incredible dis

simulation, affected to take leave of him; and, as it was now past eleven, pretended great concern that he was under a necessity of going at so late an hour. By this artifice Wood and Billings passed out of the house unnoticed, and went to Whitehall, where they intended to have thrown in the head; but the gates being shut, they went to a wharf near the Horse Ferry, Westminster. Billings putting down the pail, Wood threw the head into the dock, ex pecting it would have been carried away by the stream; but at this time the tide was ebbing, and a lighterman, who was then in his vessel, heard something fall into the dock, but it was too dark for him to distinguish objects. The murderers, having thus disposed of the head, went home, and were let in by Mrs. Hayes, without the know. ledge of the lodgers. On the fol. lowing morning, soon after daybreak, as a watchman, named Robinson, was going off his stand, he saw the pail, and, looking into the dock, observed the head of a man. Having procured some witnesses to this spectacle, they took out the head; and, observing the pail to be bloody, concluded that it was brought therein from some distant part. The lighterman now said that he had heard something thrown

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into the dock; and the magistrates and parish officers, having assembled, gave strict orders that the most diligent search should be made after the body, which, however, was not found till some time afterwards; for, when the murderers had con. versed together on the disposal of the body, Mrs. Hayes had proposed that it should be put into a box and buried; and the others agreeing to this, she purchased a box, which, on being sent home, was found too little to contain it: she therefore recommended the chopping off the legs and arms, which was done; but the box being still too small, the thighs were likewise cut off, alí the parts packed up together, and the box put by till night, when Wood and Billings took out the pieces of the mangled body, and, putting them into two blankets, carried them into a pond near Marylebone; which being done, they returned to their lodgings, and Mrs. Springate, who had still no suspicion of what had passed, opened the door for them. In the interim the magistrates directed that the head should be washed clean, and the hair combed, after which it was put on a pole in the churchyard of St. Margaret, Westminster, that an opportunity might be afforded for its being viewed by the public.*