COLONEL BLOOD

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 302, 16 September 1933, Page 18

COLONEL BLOOD

And the British Crown Jewels An anniversary which was remembered—but not "celebrated”— recently is the attempt made by Colonel Blood to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London in the seventeenth century. Colonel Blood was an Irish adventurer who gained his military rank in Cromwell’s army. When he had finished fighting he came to London and conceived the idea of the great theft. He dressed himself up as a clergyman and made friends with the keeper of the jewels. Then he suggested that he should arrange a marriage between the keeper's daughter and a supposed nephew of his. The keeper agreed and a meeting for the young people was arranged to take place at the Tower at seven o’clock in the evening. But at the appointed time, the Colonel appeared accompan* ied, not by a nephew, but by three swordsmen, who assaulted the keeper and escaped with the jewelled crown and the orb, though they had to leave the sceptre behind. The son of the keeper and a military companion arrived soon after, the robbers were overtaken, and the jewels retrieved. Colonel Blood was arreste_d, but he put" up such a spectacular show of lovalty at his trial that he was not only pardoned, but he was afterward received into Court and granted an estate in Ireland into the bargain I — Reuter—Special to “The Dominion.”