Transcription
Confession OF EMOND. In the Jail, on the day after toe received sentence of death. The following is coppied from that spirited new paper, the North Briton. About 5 o'clock yesterday morning, Emond was brought to the calton Jail from the Lock-up-house in a hackney coach : on alighting and entering the outter gate, and appearing to he in a very cheerful and com. municative mood, with a great deal of levity and in his manner and bearing, he was accosted by an individual present as follows : ? Emond, I think you oyght to drop that levity now.' He replied, 'Mr?? I am happier now than I have been since I was in jail.' Mr-----then said, ' I hope yon are eased of a burden by having made confession of the facts.' To which he answered, ? I never denied them, but have to acknow- ledge the justice of God in all things.' Mr-----then said, ' Emond are you guilty of the murders or not? He replied in the affirmative; I am the man who comnitted the murders, for which 1 am so justly condemned.' He several times repeated the words.' God is just in alll his ways ' with reference to his own case; this took place on his way from the gate to his cell, After the trial was over a bed was made down for him ; on his entering the cell and looking at the bed, be said, ' I suppose you have been prepared for me during the day. He was answered ' Not so ; the pre- parations have only be a made since the trial was concluded. He then submitted very quietly to be roned. During this appaling conversation his firm- ness and self-possession countinued unshaken, and he slept soundly for several hours thereafter. We also extract the following from the same paper; when Emond left the Court he remained silent till he bad entered the Lock-up. house, when he begged the turnkey for a draught of water, which was given him; after which he asked for bread, which he also got and ate greedily. He then demanded this day's aliment, to purchase pens, ink, and paper, and after some talk with Christie the turnkey, received sixpence in lieu of it He exclaimed much against the evidence of Tait saying, he never made such a declaration as that fal- low swore to, to any person on earth, or until that moment when he acknowledged his guilt and said he felt much relieved in consequence; adding 1 am now resigned to my fate.' He ascribed his ruin chiefly to a haberdasher in the Southside. who. he believed. was the cause of the mis- chief between him and his wife ; hut he had determin- ed to publish the whole history of the case, as well as how the murders were done, and the greet provocation he got. Nothing, he said, grieved him so much as the thought of his poor mother, who lives in Selkirk, and is now upwards of fourscore, as he was sure his un- happy fate would bring her to the grave. He had also a brother, he said, for whom he was very sorry. While, eating nis bread he observed, "You may perhaps think I am a hardened man, but you are mistaken, I am not ; and although there can bo no pardon in my case from man, there is pardon from the Almighty, and to that I trust." ' Emond is about 5 feet 7, of rather a slender make, very near sighted, about 36 years of age, and a native of Selkirk ; his look on the whole is sullen and forbid. den. He bad been In the army fo rsome time, and on being discharged, opened a school in Selkirk which did not succeed. He then commenced as travelling Merchant and is well known in the border towns, was generally thought both steady and honest in bis dealings; he got married, had a shop in North Sunder- land previously to his removal to North Berwick, where be resided when be was taken into custody.
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Date of publication:
1830 shelfmark: Ry.III.a.2(95)
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