Memoirs Of Joseph Grimaldi

200 MEMOIRS OP JOSEPH GEIMA1DI.

Maekonll left, Grrimaldi haying promised to dine with him on
the "Wednesday following.

It so happened, that on the night of the 12th of March, or on
the morning of the 13th, the Edinburgh mail-coach was robbed
of a parcel, forwarded by the Newark bank to Messrs. Ken-
sington, of Lombard-street. The parcel contained bank-notes
and bills to the amount of 4500Z., payable in London; and was,
as afterwards transpired, stolen by a man, then travelling in the
mail, named Treble, who, to avoid hanging, destroyed himself. A
returned transport, named Duffielcl, received the bills, and a
strolling player, named John Knight, who, under the assumed
name of "Warren, at Salisbury and other places enacted Othello,
and other principal characters. He became the negotiator of
some of the bills by forging or indorsing them in his own the-
atrical name of Warren, and contrived to discount one at
Burton-upon-Trent, on March 17th; another at Uttoxeter, on
the 18th; a third at Congleton, on the 19th; and a fourth at
Wirksworth, on the 20th. Information that some of these bills
had been discounted at the above principal banks having trans-
pired, and a description of the person who had negotiated them
being transmitted, MackoulTs personal appearance was ex-
tremely similar to that of,the delinquent described; and he was
apprehended accordingly at Ms house in "White Lion-court, on
April 3rd, taken to the Brown Bear, in Bow-street, and on that
evening charged at Bow-street with felony, having robbed the
mail, and with forgery of the indorsements on the bills asserted
,to have been negotiated by him.. He was remanded to the 8th,
on which day Mackoull was again placed at the bar, Mr. Alley as
his counsel, and Mr. Harmer also appearing in his defence.
But it was not until the third hearing, on the llth, that specific
charges were made against him, and he was sworn to be the
person who-had obtained the money for the bill discounted at
the Congleton bank on March 19th. Mackoull, being in posses-
sion of the charge, was enabled to prove an alibi most satisfae-the kindness of the audience with so much gen-