weekly allowance until she passed under the protection of Peace.
Her first meeting with her future lover took place on the
occasion of Peace inviting Mrs. Adamson to dispose of a box of
cigars for him, which that good woman did at a charge of
something like thirty per cent. At first Peace gave himself out
to Mrs. Bailey as a hawker, but before long he openly
acknowledged his real character as an accomplished burglar. With
characteristic insistence Peace declared his passion for Mrs.
Bailey by threatening to shoot her if she did not become his.
Anxious friends sent for her to soothe the distracted man. Peace
had been drowning care with the help of Irish whiskey. He asked
"his pet" if she were not glad to see him, to which the lady
replied with possible sarcasm: "Oh, particularly, very, I like
you so much." Next day Peace apologised for his rude behaviour
of the previous evening, and so melted the heart of Mrs. Bailey
that she consented to become his mistress, and from that moment
discarding the name of Bailey is known to history as Mrs.
Thompson.

Life in Nottingham was varied pleasantly by burglaries carried
out with the help of information supplied by Mrs. Adamson. In
the June of 1877 Peace was nearly detected in stealing, at the
request of that worthy, some blankets, but by flourishing his
revolver he contrived to get away, and, soon after, returned for
a season to Hull. Here this hunted murderer, with L100 reward
on his head, took rooms for Mrs. Thompson and himself at the
house of a sergeant of police. One day Mrs. Peace, who was still
keeping her shop in Hull, received a pencilled note saying, "I am
waiting to see you just up Anlaby Road." She and her stepson,
Willie Ward, went to the appointed spot, and there to their