MURDER 89 



committed on its miry ways. Its story rises to 

 tragic heights with the murder, on the night of 

 October 15, 1661, of no less a person than a foreign 

 Prince, Cossuma Albertus, Prince of Transylvania. 

 This unfortunate Prince, who was on a visit to 

 England to seek aid from Charles the Second against 

 the Germans, was approaching Rochester, apparently 

 on his return to the Continent, when his coach stuck 

 fast in the October mud of Gad's Hill. He had 

 already experienced the villainous nature of our high- 

 ways, and so, knowing that it would be impossible 

 to proceed further that evening, he resigned himself 

 to sleeping a night on the road. Having wrapped 

 himself up as warmly as possible, he fell off to sleep, 

 whereupon his coachman, one Isaac Jacob, a Jew, 

 took his sword and stabbed him to the heart, and, 

 calling upon the footman, this precious pair completed 

 the tragedy by dragging the body out of the coach, and, 

 cutting off the head, flinging the mutilated remains in a 

 neighbouring ditch. 



The first tidings of this inhuman murder were 

 brought to a Rochester physician, who, riding past 

 the spot some days afterwards, was horrified by his 

 dog bringing him a human arm in his mouth. Meanwhile 

 the murderers had possessed themselves of the Prince's 

 clothes, together with a large sum of money he had 

 with him, and, dragging the coach out of the ruts, had 

 driven back to Greenhithe, where they left coach and 

 horses to be called for. Not long afterwards, they 

 were arrested in London, and, being brought before the 

 Lord Mayor, the footman made a full confession. 

 The trial took place at Maidstone, where Isaac Jacob, 

 coachman, and Casimirus Karsagi, footman, were 

 sentenced to death, the first being hanged in chains at 

 the scene of the crime. The body of the ill-fated 

 Prince of Transylvania was buried in the nave of 

 Rochester Cathedral. 



Sixteen years later, we come to the ex])loits of that 

 ingenious highwayman, Master Nicks, who, one 



