Compare 1577 edition: 1 [...] what [...] after he m [...]rde| [...]ng of hir husband.After supper, mistres Arden caused hir daughter to plaie on the virginals, and they dansed, and she with them, and so séemed to protract time as it were; till maister Arden should come, and she said, I mar|uell where he is so long; well, he will come anon I am sure, I praie you in the meane while let vs plaie a game at the tables. But the Londoners said, they must go to their hosts house, or else they should be shut out at doores, and so taking their leaue, depar|ted. When they were gone, the seruants that were not priuie to the murder, were sent abroad into the towne; some to séeke their maister, and some of o|ther errands, all sauing Michaell and a maid, Mos|bies sister, and one of mistres Ardens owne daugh|ters. Then they tooke the dead bodie, and caried it out, to laie it in a field next to the church [...]yard, and ioining to his garden wall,The workers of this mis|chiefe carie out Arden [...]laine into the [...]. through the which he went to the church. In the meane time it began to snow, and when they came to the garden gate, they remembred that they had forgotten the kaie, and one went in for it, and finding it, at length brought it, opened the gate, and caried the corps into the same field, as it were ten pases from the garden gate, and laid him downe on his backe streight in his night gowne, with his slippers on: and betwéene one of his slippers and his foot, a long rush or two remai|ned. When they had thus laid him downe, they re|turned the same way they came through the garden into the house.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 This she did is colour hir wickednesse which by no meanes was [...]seable.They being returned thus backe againe into the house, the doores were opened, and the seruants re|turned home that had béene sent abroad: and being now verie late, she sent foorth hir folks againe to make inquirie for him in diuerse places; namelie, among the best in the towne where he was woont to be, who made answer, that they could tell nothing of him. Then she began to make an outcrie, and said; Neuer woman had such neighbors as I haue, and herewith wept: in somuch that hir neighbors came in, and found hir making great lamentation, pretending to maruell what was become of hir hus|band. Wherevpon, the maior and others came to make search for him.Arden a coue| [...] man and [...]errer of his priuat [...] b [...]fore common [...]. The faire was woont to be kept partlie in the towne, and partlie in the abbeie; but Arden for his owne priuat lucre & couetous gaine had this present yeare procured it to be wholie kept within the abbeie ground which he had purchased; & so reaping all the gaines to himselfe, and bereauing the towne of that portion which was woont to come to the inhabitants, got manie a bitter cursse. The maior going about the faire in this search, at length came to the ground where Arden laie: and as it hap|pened, Prune the groser getting sight of him,Ardens dead bodie is descri|ed by one of his acquain|tance. first said; Staie, for me thinke I sée one lie here. And so they looking and beholding the bodie, found that it was maister Arden, lieng there throughlie dead, and viewing diligentlie the maner of his bodie & hurts, found the rushes sticking in his slippers, and mar|king further, espied certeine footsteps, by reason of the snow, betwixt the place where he laie, and the garden doore.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 Then the maior commanded euerie man to staie, and herewith appointed some to go about, & to come in at the inner side of the house through the garden as the waie laie,Footsteps [...] alongst from the dead bodie of Arden to his dwelling house. to the place where maister Ardens dead bodie did lie; who all the waie as they came, perceiued footings still before them in the snow: and so it appeared plainlie that he was brought along that waie from the house through the garden, and so into the field where he laie. Then the maior and his companie that were with him went into the house, and knowing hir euill demeanor in times past, ex|amined hir of the matter: but she defied them and said, I would you should know I am no such wo|man. Then they examined hir seruants, and in the examination, by reason of a péece of his heare any bloud found néere to the house in the waie,A péece of Ar|dens heare and his bloud spil [...] in the house espied, as also a bloudie knife and a clou [...] found. by the which they caried him foorth, and likewise by the knife with which she had thrust him into the brest, and the clout wherewith they wiped the bloud awaie which they found in the tub, into the which the same were throwen; they all confessed the matter, and hir selfe beholding hir husbands bloud, said; Oh the bloud of God helpe, for this bloud haue I shed.