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"It's thought they were poorly advised that their quickest route to freedom would be to plead guilty and then be acquitted under the 1660 Indemnity and Oblivion Act."

"The what? Never heard of it."

"I'm not surprised. It's not something that crops up much in conversation, or even in court, nowadays. The law was repealed years ago." Charles smiled, then saw a fleeting look cross Agatha's face and immediately knew she was wondering whether he was pulling her leg. "It was a law enacted by Parliament under Charles II as a general pardon for crimes committed during the English Civil War and its aftermath. The aim was to stop acts of vengeance turning into vendettas that could relight old fires and start another war."

The waitress appeared and they ordered a bottle of primitivo. When it duly arrived, Charles insisted that Agatha taste the wine. She declared it delicious, and the waitress poured a glass for each of them and took their food order. Agatha went for the breaded whitebait as a starter followed by roast beef, traditional vegetables and Yorkshire pudding. She had been enviously eyeing other diners' generously loaded Sunday roast platefuls ever since they had arrived, hoping all the while that no one else could hear her stomach rumbling the way that she could. Charles opted for leek-and-potato soup and the roast beef.

"You've clearly been putting your history degree to good use on the Harrison case," Agatha said once the waitress had departed with their orders. "So were the Perrys pardoned?"

"Pardoned for the robbery, but not the murder. They were held in Gloucester Gaol until the next assizes in March 1661 when a different judge decided that, body or no body, all three of the Perrys should stand trial for murder.

"Then, partly because they had pleaded guilty to the robbery, the judge and jury found it difficult to accept their 'not guilty' murder pleas."

"John Perry was found guilty, too?"

"Yes. His story kept changing. His account of what had happened on the night William Harrison disappeared never really added up. At one point, he even said he'd agreed with his mother and brother that they should rob the old man, but had then chickened out when it came to killing him. Then he tried to retract the accusations altogether, saying he'd gone temporarily insane. In the end, the only thing the jury believed was that the three of them had stolen William Harrison's rent collections and done away with the old boy."

"Were they then pardoned for the murder as well?"

"Unfortunately for them, the Indemnity and Oblivion rule didn't apply to murder. All three were hanged on Broadway Hill, where the Broadway Tower now stands."

"They were all hanged together?"

"The mother first," Charles said, sampling his wine. "Some believed Joan Perry was a witch and that if she were hanged first, it might release her sons from whatever spell she had cast over them and they would then confess and reveal where old Harrison's body was buried."

"A witch?" Agatha shook her head in disbelief. "Ridiculous! Did her sons confess?"

"No." Charles paused for a moment while Agatha received her fish and his soup was placed carefully on the table in front of him. "Richard went to his death protesting his innocence and John said nothing to support his brother."

"They sound like a very strange family."

"I'm sure they were. I'm also pretty sure their neighbours in the area wouldn't have had much time for them. They may well have been regarded as a bad bunch, and the break-in at Harrison's house could well have been their doing. It wasn't uncommon for women held in low esteem to be accused of being witches. Joan may have been a petty criminal but she wasn't a witch, and the Perrys were most certainly not murderers."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because a year or so later, in 1662, who should show up in Chipping Campden but William Harrison himself!"

"He wasn't dead at all!"

"Far from it. He explained his disappearance with some cock-and-bull story about having been abducted, spirited away on a ship and sold into slavery in Turkey. He said he escaped when the bloke who bought him died and he then made his way back to England. Clearly, given that the supposed murder victim was still alive, the Perrys had been executed by mistake."

"But that's awful!" Agatha gazed out the window with a faraway look in her eyes, as if in an effort to see all the way to Broadway Hill. "The poor souls may not have been model citizens, but they didn't deserve to die for a murder they didn't commit. Why on earth did John Perry accuse his mother and brother of a crime that simply didn't happen?"