His lordship cast his eyes to the gallery, and for the first time inthat place he beheld the form and features of a lady not unknown to him,but one he had very frequently met elsewhere. Those eyes, and therecognition of the writer, were too much for the nobleman's delicatesensibilities. His face became as pale as chalk. He trembled almost asviolently as a man attacked by St. Vitus's dance. He swooned immediatelyafter he had thrust the missive unseen into one of his pockets.
This event caused what the reporters for the daily journals described as"a painful sensation" in court. His lordship was removed in his carriageto his residence in ---- Square, Belgravia, without uttering more thanone sentence.
That sentence he so uttered was an instruction to his solicitor to getthe trial postponed.
The trial for perjury, after a short interval, was proceeded with, andended in the prisoner's acquittal.
Whereupon Mr. Keeneye, as one of the counsel for the prosecution, roseafter a conference with his learned brother retained for the defence,and, addressing his lordship, begged that, owing to the sudden illnessof the prosecutor, the trial of the prisoner might be postponed. Theprisoner's counsel felt, they said, some difficulty in resisting theapplication after what they had seen, but added, that they thought theprisoner, who had done nothing to cause his lordship's illness, wasentitled to be liberated on bail. The judge, after glancing at thedepositions, said he did not see that the accused had any such claim,and declined to attach that condition to the adjournment of the case, asprayed for by the prosecution.
Clara, who from the gallery beheld all that had gone on, and whodevoured every word that had been uttered by the lawyers and the benchwith greedy ears, maintained a wonderful show of self-possession, butwas stirred by the intensest and most anxious thought. She left thecourt when this decision had been arrived at in her brother's case; hebeing, indeed, quite unconscious up to this moment as to what had takenplace in his absence, and, when it was explained to him, being leftignorant for the time of its cause.
Next session the prisoner was again brought up for trial. His lordshipattended--but not her ladyship. She was induced to remain at home by thesolicitude of her husband, who apprehended the effect upon her of thefetid atmosphere of the court. Although he had been up to the day firstappointed for the trial resolutely bent upon securing to the prisonerthe weightiest punishment he could get inflicted, he was now prepared torecommend the prisoner to mercy.
The evidence, which in the briefs as originally delivered to counseldisclosed a complete chain of proof, was remodelled. They now containeda narrative which set forth the difficulties of the theory for theprosecution, and went far towards explaining away the points against theaccused. The briefs for the defence, which as originally delivered setforth no possible answer to the charge, now contained a theory whichreconciled the evidence as it stood, or was expected to stand, with apossibility of the innocence of the accused.
A witness for the prosecution did not answer to his name when called;and the reader may be informed that this witness had gone beyond thejurisdiction of any English tribunal. The result was, that theprosecution broke down, and the culprit was liberated.
The explanation of this miscarriage of justice is simple. Pretty Clarawas the mistress of the noble lord. He had indeed seduced her some yearsbefore, and she had been living since then (unknown to his wife) underhis lordship's protection. She was the sister of the prisoner. She wasinnocent of all participation in or knowledge of the robbery. For manyyears she had not seen that brother. They were orphans. They had bothbeen thrown upon the world at a very early age to earn their own bread.She, when not more than fourteen years of age, had been placed in oneof the West-End millinery houses, and had won a promotion to the counterof a shop in Oxford Street. He had occupied a situation in a Citywarehouse, but had never obtained a promotion by the exercise of anyindustry or fidelity on his part.
Brother and sister had both diverged from the paths of virtue indifferent ways and at different times, and had been for a period of sixyears unknown to each other. Neither cared to let the other know his orher whereabouts, pursuits, and mode of life. What had become of her, thereader knows. Of him it is necessary to say, that he robbed hisemployers, who forgave what they correctly believed to be a firstoffence, but discharged him without a character. From step to step hetravelled deeper and deeper into the mazes of criminality, until he gotinextricably involved with associates in various cases of fraud,larceny, and burglary.
The mode in which the robbery had been effected was very simple. Theprisoner had won over the affections of a servant in Lord H----'shousehold, and used the information he thus obtained to effect, with herconnivance, if not her assistance, the crime for which he afterwardsstood charged at the Old Bailey. This, however, was not his firstappearance in that court. He had been there on a former occasion, andhad, as on this day, been acquitted by a flaw in the evidence againsthim. The sister, through whose instrumentality he now escaped, becameacquainted with his last crime and peril by a newspaper, which, innoticing the cases laid before the grand jury, mentioned, as a factdiscovered by the prosecution, the real name of the accused, and one ortwo instances of his early career, sufficient to prove his identity withher lost brother.
From the moment when Clara made this discovery, it had become impossiblefor her to get access to his lordship. Her first thought was to throwherself at his feet, and ask, as the only disinterested favour she hadsought at his hands, and as the highest reward for her dishonour--abrother's liberty. Foiled in this, her woman's wit suggested acommunication with the attorney for the defence. She had no difficultyin ascertaining who had that task allotted to him, and she met Mr.Wheedle, who arranged with her the stratagem which proved so successful.
* * * * *
This little episode was followed by one or two circumstances that thereader may be put in possession of. Lord H----, who was by no means astrong-minded man, accepted the incident as a warning of Providence. Hewould not for a trifle risk the enmity of her ladyship, to whom he wassomewhat attached, and he dreaded the notoriety of his own criminalassociation with the prisoner's sister. He resolved to be virtuous, andcarried out that resolution by a financial arrangement with hismistress, through the family lawyer. She, who had not been furthertainted by sin than in her illicit connexion with the prosecutor, usedthe means now placed at her disposal in a way that enabled her to gainan honest and creditable livelihood henceforth. Her brother tried to dothe same; but that wish was broken down by the constant interferencewith his good resolutions from old associates. He also tried variousmodes, like his sister, for obtaining an honest livelihood; but theimpossibility of maintaining an incognito rendered this impracticable.Ever and anon he encountered former "friends," who reviled hisintentions, and frustrated them. It was a good joke, they told him, thatnotion of his of working for a livelihood. "Did he," they askedironically, "really think of turning honest? What a funny idea!" theyexclaimed. They persecuted him in various modes. They would demand moneyfrom him, and if he hesitated they would threaten to "split" or "peach"upon him. He had to give them on such occasions all he had, and promisemore than he had or could perform as the price of their forbearance.Dogged on every hand, and finding it impossible to earn an honestlivelihood in this country, he fled from it, with the aid of moneysupplied him by his sister and brother-in-law (for by this time Clarahad become the wife of a good-natured, easy-going fellow, who held anappointment in her Majesty's Customs); and I lost sight of him amid acrowd of steerage passengers on board an emigrant ship bound forAustralia, where I hope he is now living as a creditable member ofsociety.