he went--at Eastling, Throwley,
Sildswick, Lees, and Selling--he delivered speeches, made promises, and
obtained adherents. Then the whole party returned to Bossenden Farm.
Here there was an extensive wood, in which the true Canterbury bell is
found. The district is called the Blean, and here a condition of affairs
existed that greatly helped on the cause of Tom. In the eighteenth
century much of the Blean was taken possession of by a number of
squatters, who settled on the ground, then extra-parochial, as a "free
port," from which none could dislodge them, and there they remained
paying rent to none. Now the poor deluded peasants of the neighbourhood
conceived the idea that Tom, or Courtenay, as he had called himself, was
the promised Messiah who was come to give to them all lands to be their
own, on which each man might sit under his own vine, and that the rich
and large-landed proprietors would be cast out and consumed by the
breath of his mouth.

During the tramp of these enthusiasts about the country, a farmer
named Curling lost some of his labourers, who were enticed away from
their work to follow with the rest. Curling at once mounted his horse
and went to a magistrate, and procured from him a warrant for the
apprehension of Courtenay _alias_ Tom. Nicholas Meares, a constable,
and his brother were entrusted to execute the warrant; and on Thursday
morning, 31st May, about six o'clock, they hastened to Culver's farm
to secure the men. Upon their presenting themselves, Courtenay stood
forward, and before Meares could read the warrant shot him dead. He
then went into the house, exclaiming to those who were there, "Now am
I not your Saviour?" and then issuing from the house again, he
discharged a second pistol into the body of Meares, and proceeded to
mutilate it barbarously with his sword.

The news of this murder was conveyed to the magistrates, and they
proceeded to take steps for the apprehension of Courtenay. But the
latter at once called out his men, and they marched into Bossenden
Wood, and there profane