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P92
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It
must be remembered that the outlaws were constantly surrounded by a number of
sympathisers who aided and assisted them in every way short of taking up arms,
and every one of whom richly deserved shooting. There were only two of our
party, Gascoigne and Canny, who knew the outlaws, it was therefore necessary the
men in the inn should remain until daylight, and we told them so but in order
no innocent person might be hit we instructed them to lie down and, if we fired
we, would fire high in order not to injure them. Mrs. Jones's two children were
wounded by the first volley we fired, before we knew there were others than the
outlaws present, and Ned Kelly was wounded in the foot and arm at the same time.
A man named Cherry was shot later in the night whilst disregarding our
instructions to lie down, and a young man named Reardon was wounded whilst
endeavouring to escape without informing us who he was. We fired at the flashes
of light caused by the discharge of their weapons and it was testified by those
in the hotel that the outlaws were hit several times. "Like
Achilles, Byrne clad in his armour, had only one vulnerable point, and at
five o'clock in the morning he received a shot in this place, the femoral
artery. He was in the act of drinking a glass of whiskey to the toast of
"Many more years in the bush to the Kelly gang", when he received this
shot. He exclaimed "O God I am shot, forgive me my sins", and falling
he bled to death very quickly. Sergeant Steele arrived with the Wangaratta police at a little after five. Superintendent Sadleir came with the Benalla police shortly afterwards, and other police hearing of the affair came flocking in until there were at ten o'clock forty-four police upon the ground. On the arrival of Mr. Sadleir I reported to him the steps I had taken to prevent the escape of the outlaws. He approved of what I had done and of course he took charge of all the police upon the ground. At 6.30, a.m. we were surprised by the appearance of an extraordinary figure which seemed fully seven feet high, and advanced upon us from behind our lines. His actions were not less astonishing than his appearance for he carried a revolver from which he alternately fired a shot at our men and struck himself upon the chest with it this act causing a noise like the ringing of a bell. He cried out to the outlaws in the hotel "Come out and we will whip them" and to us he said "You can't hurt me". I was armed with a Martini-Henry rifle and fired several shots at him, feeling convinced that I hit him, for I saw him stagger, I came to the conclusion he was protected in some manner we could not see, for ,it was not quite daylight, and his figure was covered by a large overcoat. I cried out to the men look out men he is bullet proof. Sergeant Steele and I were about equal distance from him when Steele, who was armed with a double barrelled fowling piece, fired two buck shot cartridges at his legs which brought him down into a half sitting position against a log. Steele and I ran quickly over and Steele caught him by the hand but could not prevent him firing another shot which, however, did no harm. I caught him by the head and taking off his helmet, he was immediately identified by Steele. We were quickly followed and assisted by some more police and Mr.Dowsett a railway guard. There was some excitement at the time and one of the men treated Kelly roughly. Another put his revolver to his head, but I pushed away his hand. Kelly became alarmed, the transition from bullying bluster to fear of death was instantaneous and he cried out "Don't shoot me; let me see it out, let me see it out.
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