observatory and Greenwich both uttering their voice, the Astronomer
Royal announcing that the so-called planet was merely a meteor--not
more than 400 yards in diameter, with a low velocity of two miles a
second; and its distance was less than a tenth of that estimated by
Tissot. The Yerkes observatory fixed the diameter at 230 yards. All,
however, agreed in the opinion that it must strike the earth between
ten and twelve that night.

These later announcements so much allayed the panic, that by one
o'clock Hogarth, on peeping into the note-book on the box before the
smithy, saw six signatures; and a young man who came about six P.M.
to sign, cried out: "Hullo! the book is filled up!" on which Hogarth
ran out, saying: "Don't run away on that account, I'll run and get--
" darting into the house to ask Margaret where a certain account-
book was.

"Didn't I throw it into the box of rubbish in the cellar at Lagden,
when we were leaving?" she asked; on which he threw off his apron,
and was off toward Lagden Dip to get it.

He had almost cleared the village when he was blocked by a crowd
before a cottage, from out of which were coming screams--a woman's;
and he ran in, found a man named Fred Bates beating his wife,
planted a blow on his chest.

The next morning the wife of Bates was found dead, greatly
disfigured about the face, whereupon Bates was arrested, and
Hogarth, as we shall see, was subpoenaed to give evidence of the
beating.