THE DEFENSE
On the day that Magendie took the case I had a taste of another kind of
lawing than Pitcairn's, for the London man, to speak in a common
phrase, oiled everybody. He poured oil over Carew; he drenched Hugh
Pitcairn in it; smoothed the jury with it, and I learned to the full
the legal value of the unantagonistic mind. After this he turned a
light on the case from the other side, giving it an entirely different
appearance, holding up the slateful of charges against Danvers, and
sponging them carefully off one by one, until I was amazed at his
abilities.
There were three important gentlemen, conversant with the duke's
habits, to prove that the duke's lung trouble had accustomed him to
fresh air, that he slept with all of his windows raised, and that it
was his custom to have the window open near him, no matter what the
weather. And following came Huey, with the statements that both of the
pistols had been at Stair House since before Mr. Danvers's marriage,
and that he had put one of them, with a new hagged flint, in the desk
at which his grace was writing, within a few days of the murder. Father
Michel followed, saying that Danvers had spent the evening of the
murder with him, trying to persuade him to go on a sail for a few days,
leaving his house about midnight in a composed and quiet frame of mind,
with his cap in his hand, it being his custom to go about in all kinds
of weather in that manner, a habit contracted at the English school
where he was educated. And before any one could stop him, Father
Michel, who I knew was tutored to the illegal conduct by Magendie, said
earnestly:
"I consider it my duty to state, with no betrayal of my sacred offices,
that I know, by the confessional Mr. Carmichael to be innocent of this
foul deed."
Pitcairn was roaring objections in a minute, with Carew sustaining him,
as was but legally decent; but it mattered little, for the jurors had
heard, and I knew that the holy man's words would stick in their minds
at verdict time.
Following Father Michel came two respectable serving-men from Arran,
declaring that early the morning after the murder Mr. Danvers had sent
them to Leith to say that he no longer wanted the boat, and that they
had found its owner, the one who had testified for the prosecution, in
such a state of intoxication that they could not make their errand
clear, and left the message with his errand-boy, who was produced to
verify the truth of their statements. And after him came Nancy Stair
again, recalled for the defense, to swear to a letter sent to the duke
by her the morning of the day of his demise, which read as follows:
"MY DEAR, DEAR FRIEND:
"That I love you, you know; but that I can love you with that
fondness which a wife should have for a husband is forever an
impossibility to me. Perhaps after a time we may be friends again.
I have always admired your power. Of late I have admired your
goodness as well.
"You say you will have no courage to go on without me, and I wish
with all my heart I could love you as you desire, but my heart's
all gone from me, and to one who never will know.
"'Courage to go on!' If I have it, can not you who are so much
stronger have it as well?
"Affectionately your Friend,
"Nancy Stair."
And after, Jamie Henderlin swore that it was he who ran across the
grounds, on his way home from a wedding, and that he had heard the
shots and mentioned them to his mother on his arrival at the Burnside,
thus identifying the small figure I had seen running through the shaft
of light, and wiping away the last black mark on the slate against
Danvers.
Mr. Magendie asked permission at this point to address the court,
saying that the defense had been reserved by Mr. Carmichael's wish, and
that the manner of the duke's taking off had been a known thing to both
of them for more than a week, but that Mr. Carmichael had stood his
trial in order that every charge against him might be cleared away. And
after raising public expectation to its highest, and ridiculing the
idea that a man of intelligence should murder another and leave a
weapon heavily marked with his own name by the side of the dead; or
that because a man had uttered some threats of again challenging one
whom he had already met upon the field of honor, he should be accused
of being a midnight assassin, there was called the last witness for the
defense:
"Lord Rothermel!"
The entrance of this distinguished statesman, whose friendship for the
great Pitt kept him constantly in the public eye, caused little less
than a sensation. As he took the oath, I had a near view of him; his
dignified bearing, his age, and his notable integrity showing at every
turn, the tones of his voice filling the court with a peculiar
resonance while he deponed as follows:
"I come," he said, "as a messenger from Mr. Pitt, who regrets that his
Majesty's affairs, connected with the troublous times in France,
prevent his leaving London. I have his deposition, however, and the
case has been fully set before me by him, so that I feel I am in a
position to tell the whole truth of this disastrous affair and to set
Mr. Carmichael before the world as a free man.
"There existed between Mr. Pitt and the late Duke of Borthwicke, as the
world knows, a peculiar friendship. On the third morning after the
duke's death there came to Mr. Pitt a packet, taken from Stair House
and mailed about five of the morning upon which the duke died, directed
in the duke's hand, containing three things:
"First--The findings of the Lighthouse Commission.
"Second.--Some information from the French, a document of twenty-two
pages, writ in a cipher known to but five persons in the United
Kingdom, which paper alone convinced Mr. Pitt of the authenticity of
the document; and last, a personal letter, the original of which Lord
Rothermel begged to read before it be given to the jury:
"MY EVER DEAR PITT:
"When you receive these papers--the last intelligences I shall ever
send you--I, the writer of them, shall be no more.
"A great disappointment, one which I have not the heart to endure,
together with a return of my old trouble, for I have had three
bleedings from the lungs within a month, have cured me of the taste
of living, and, by a mere movement of the trigger, I end the game
to-night.
"It is a fancy of mine to take my leave of this earthly stay
surrounded by the little dear belongings of the one I love.
"There will be much talk back and forth concerning me. I pray you
bespeak me, if you will, a brave, insolent, selfish, and
unscrupulous man of many villainies, some wit and foresight, a
disrespecter of humanity, athirst for power, and a hater of fools;
but one who, at the end, was capable of a great love for a great
woman.
"I send some verses, which are of my own making to-day. As
Shakespeare says, 'Ill favored, but mine own,' and so good night--a
long good night.
"TO NANCY STAIR
"I stand upon the threshold going out
Into the night.
The mists of old misdeeds crowd all about
And blind my sight.
"But thro' the many worlds to come, my feet
No more shall roam.
The light from thy dear face at last my sweet
Will bring me home.
"To you always, my dear Pitt,
"Borthwicke"
I was dimly conscious of the uproar which arose in the court-room, for
I was away in a by-gone time, a vision before me, clear as a picture,
of a sunny room, myself at a writing-desk overlooking accounts, and a
small curly haired child poring over a book on the rug at my feet
"_Nancy made it just like Jock's!_"
"_Nancy made it just like Jock's!_"
I can recall the fear that seized me as the duke's letter was being
examined by those familiar with his writings; the chill I felt as
Blake, who knew his hand the best, was summoned to inspect it; my
terror as he hesitated, with all the time that sing-song refrain going
over and over in my head, so loud that I was afraid that everyone in
the court would hear it; and then, far away and little, like a
wood-call, "Nancy made it----" And when Blake and Dundas identified the
writing, and O'Sullivan, the duke's own secretary, declared that not
only would he be willing to swear to his belief of the duke's hand, but
to the spirit of the document as well, I put my head on the back of
Danvers's chair to hide the tears which rolled down my cheeks, tears of
relief, but springing from a very different cause than the one
attributed for them.
There was more summing up and going back and forth, but the tension of
the trial was over for all except me and one other--one wide-eyed
little creature, sitting in her black gown, with Dickenson beside her,
on the other side of the court-room; a slender girlish figure before
whom my soul was on its knees.
I imagined her work, after she asked me to pray for her, upon that
awful night. I thought of fifty things on the second, as it seemed.
Visions came to me of Nancy dipping her head in the basin of water,
Nancy by the mail-bag in the early dawning before the officers had
come, and to that "Nancy made it just like Jock's," there came, with
terror to my soul, another jumble of words--"Accessory after the fact."
I knew that the jury consulted but a few minutes before the whole of
Edinburgh was shaking hands with Danvers, assuring him of their
never-shaken trust in his innocence, saw Pitcairn putting his papers
into the black-leather case, was conscious that Billy Deuceace was
laughing as he talked to some women, with his hand on Danvers's
shoulder. I say that I was aware of these things, but so remotely that
they seemed part of a dream, for my real thought was to get to Nancy,
to take her away, to shield her from I know not what; and leaving the
Carmichael party, I made my way to the place where she was awaiting the
carriage.
As we stood together near the doorway, Sandy and Danvers, with their
friends, passed us on their way from the court-room, and my heart bled
as I saw the look Nancy gave them, the look of pleading and affection,
which Sandy avoided by talking to the one beside him; but Danvers, and
none could blame him, considering his belief that she had done her
utmost to get him hanged, looked full at her, his eyes showing scorn of
her. I felt the slight body quiver, saw her sway back and forth for a
little, and then, with a sob like a wounded child, she lost
consciousness entirely. Hugh Pitcairn stayed by her until she was
enough recovered for me to put her in the coach, and rode back to Stair
with us, watching her all the time with an expression of alarm and
tenderness, which drew him very near to me.