"SINGULAR FIDELITY", EXETER, 1843.

 Singular Fidelity was The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette's  (11th February 1843) title for the following long report from the Police Court at Exeter's Guildhall which is offered with little comment: 

"Charles Locke, a lad of very humble exterior. with a countenance that could not be called prepossessing, although containing an expression of great honesty, was charged by a female of the name of Lang, with an assault on the previous night, about 11 o'clock, -

"From the statement of the woman,  whose nose appeared to have received a remarkable depression from the effects of some recent manipulation, the prisoner was described as having interposed himself between her and the road she desired to take in Waterbeer-street, at the time in question, and wantonly committed the outrage complained of.

"In answer to questions from the Bench, the prisoner stated that he was a traveller with his master, an itinerant cheese-dealer, who had lodged at the Turk's Head Inn on the previous night.  His master had been in company of the girl before the assault took place, and had left her to go into the Inn, to his quarters. He was in a state of intoxication at the time, and the boy was fearful that the money which he carried about his person, amounting to some £10, would be obtained from him by her.

"On observing his master come into the inn-yard from Waterbeer-street, the boy went to the doorway there and obstructed the entrance of the woman, Lang, who wanted to follow, and he committed the assault by tendering her a 'back-handed smack.'  The boy had been six years with his master.   The brewer at the Turk's Head, who had witnessed the transaction, corroborated the lad's story.

"The master, who had been the cause of this fracas, but who seemed to entertain a very careless apathy as to what happened to his servant, was now sent for from the Turk's Head, and reluctantly admitted his acquaintance with the girl, but expressed the opinion that he could mind his own business better than his boy, who was a fool for interfering.

"The Bench were of opinion that the violence used by the boy exceeded the necessity of the case, and fined him 1s. and expenses, or a week's imprisonment.   The lad had no money, and was about to be carried off, when his master, touched by something like a feeling, said 'he 'ud rather pay the 4s. for'n, and so he did."

It's the way they tell them!

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