Page:The Trial, at Large, of William Booth and his Associates.pdf/4

 by two bars laid over it transversely, and fastened in a similar manner by staples and hasps; there were moveable ladders by which those of the prisoner's family who wanted to go into those upper rooms ascended to the trap doors, and the ladders were light, so that they could be easily drawn up after them.—In consequence of suspicions against the prisoner, and that his house contained such implements as were afterwards discovered in it, and that stolen goods were also there, the constables of Birmingham, having obtained a warrant for that purpose, and taking with them several other persons appointed special constables for that occasion, together with a party of dragoons, went to the prisoner's house; for, having been informed that the house of the prisoner was fortified and barricaded in the way that had been described, it was deemed necessary to have such a force as would have rendered resistance on his part unavailing, and therefore this number of constables and soldiers were collected, and on the 16th of March last they proceeded to the prisoner's house, and on the way having (perhaps imprudently) called at a public-house about a quarter of a mile from the prisoner's (the Boar's Head, at Perry Barr) they were seen by a woman named Dorothy Ingeley, the wife of one of those Ingeleys who were before mentioned as forming part of the family of the prisoner, who having heard or otherwise suspecting the errand on which they were going, made all possible haste to the prisoner's house, and by going a nearer way by the footpath than what the officers did, she arrived there a short time before them, and gave the alarm; this woman would be produced as a witness on behalf of the prosecution, and would prove that when she first got to the house she saw Elizabeth Chidlow, who communicated her intelligence to the prisoner, who was in the parlour, and then came to the woman (Ingeley) and affected to disbelieve the intelligence; he then returned into the parlour, and slammed the doors to, and fastened them, so as to secure the passage into the parlour, and when the officers of justice arrived they found the parlour inaccessible, the three doors in the passage being secured in the way already described; nor could any entrance be forced through the window, it being fastened by strong oak inside shutters, secured by thick iron bars not more than four inches