The time was now come for the sitting of the Court, and about eleven o’clock on Tuesday morning, the Attorney General arrived from Fredericton, with very unfavourable impressions on his mind, bringing information that the robber was still traversing the country, stealing and robbing wherever he came, without sufficient effort being made for his apprehension. The Jury also were collecting from the different Parishes of the County, bringing with them unfavourable ideas, from the reports in circulation concerning his escape. Among the many opinions that were formed on the subject, one particularly, was very industriously circulated. The prisoner was a Freemason, and it will be recollected that Mr. Dibble, the gaoler, was stated in a former part of the narrative to be a Freemason also, and that there was a Freemason Lodge held at Kingston. The public mind was strongly prejudiced against us, unwilling to believe the real circumstances of his elopement; and the Court assembled under the strongest impressions that his escape was connived at. The Honorable Judge Chipman presided on the occasion.
The Court was now ready for business, but no prisoner; yet high expectations were cherished that every hour would bring tidings of his apprehension, as he was pursued in every direction. The Grand Jury was empannelled, and the Court adjourned till next day at eleven o’clock, waiting anxiously for the proceeds of the intermediate time. And to render the means for his apprehension as effectual as possible, Mr. Benjamin Furnald, with a boat well manned, was dispatched in the pursuit with directions to follow on as far as he could get any account of him.
Wednesday, the Court again met and commenced other business; but nothing from Smith yet. In the afternoon, Mr. John Pearson, witness against him, arrived from Nova Scotia, a distance of two hundred and eighty miles. Towards evening conclusions were beginning to be drawn that he had eluded all his pursuers, and was making his way back to Nova Scotia, and the conjecture almost amounted to a certainty by the circumstance of a man being seen crossing the Washademoak and making towards Bellisle Bay.
Nothing more was heard till Thursday morning early, when Mr. B. Furnald returned, and reported that he had found his course and pursued him through Maugerville; that the night before he (Mr. F.) reached Maugerville, the robber had lodged at Mr. Solomon Perley’s, and stole a pair of new boots, and had offered the silver teaspoons for sale that he had stolen at Mr. Vail’s. That he walked up as far as Mr. Bailey’s tavern, where he stopped some time, and that he was afterwards seen towards evening under a bridge, counting his money. This was the last that could be heard of him in this place; it was now believed that he had taken an Indian to pilot him, and had gone by way of the Washademoak and head of Bellisle for Nova Scotia. This was in accordance with the idea entertained at Kingston before Mr. Furnald’s return.