THE EXAMINATION AT THE HOME OFFICE.
On the arrival of the two prisoners and the two policemen at the Home
Office, they were shown into a small room joining the one in which the
Secretary of State for that Department was accustomed to receive
individuals or deputations, and where we have already seen him in an
earlier portion of this work.
But on the present occasion the Home Secretary had to be fetched from
the Foreign Office, where he was sitting with his colleagues in a
Cabinet Council.
The police officers and the prisoners were therefore left alone together
for nearly half an hour in the room to which some subordinate official
had ordered them to be conducted, upon the motives of their presence
there being made known to him.
The crime of which Holford was accused seemed too grave and serious for
even the tamperings of policemen: still as these gentry are not merely
content with having a finger in almost every pie, but must thrust a
whole hand in when once they find the opportunity, it was impossible
that either Mr. Crisp or his colleague could leave Crankey Jem as well
as the would-be regicide unassailed with questions.
The common policeman placed a chair against the outer door of the room,
and seated himself in it with the air of a man who meant to say as
plainly as he could, "Escape now if you can."
Holford sank upon a seat and fell into a profound reverie; but it was
impossible to gather the nature of his thoughts from the now passionless
and almost apathetic expression of his countenance.
Crankey Jem also took a chair; but his nervous manner, the pallor of his
face, the quivering of his lip, and the unsettled glances of his eyes,
betrayed the fearful condition of his mind. The poor wretch already
imagined himself transported back amongst the horrors of Norfolk Island!
As for Mr. Crisp, he walked once or twice up and down the room,
surveying himself complacently in a mirror, and then advancing towards
Crankey Jem, said with a sort of official importance, "Well, my fine
feller, you've done it pretty brown again—you have."
Jem Cuffin cast upon him a look of deep disgust.
"Remember," continued Mr. Crisp, in no way abashed at this unequivocal
expression of feeling, "whatever you says to me now will probably
trans-peer in another place, as we officials express it; but if you
choose to tell me anything by way of unbuzziming yourself and easing
your conscience, why, I don't think there'd be no harm in it, and it
might do you good with the 'thorities. At the same time it's no part of
my dooty to pump you."
"I have nothing to say to _you_," observed Crankey Jem.
"Well—p'rhaps that's prudent,—'cos I'm official after all," said Mr.
Crisp. "But if so be you was to tell me how you got away from
transportation, how long you've been in England, and what you've been
doing with yourself since your return, I don't see that you could
prejjudidge yourself."
"As you've had the trouble of taking me, policeman, you'd better go to
the extra trouble of finding out what you want to know about me," said
Jem.
"You needn't be uppish with me, because I did my dooty," returned Mr.
Crisp. "Remember, I don't ask—but I s'pose you've been living in
London—eh?"
"Well—and if I have——"
"There! I knowed you had," cried Crisp.
"I didn't say so," observed Jem Cuffin, angrily.
"No—but you can't deny it, though. Well, then—as you _have_ been living
in London, _according to your own admission_," continued Mr. Crisp, "in
course you must have hung out in some partickler quarter. Remember, I
don't ask you—but I des say it was in the Holy Land."
"I dare say it wasn't," returned Jem, drily.
"Then it was in the Mint, I'll be bound," cried Crisp. "I don't ask, you
know—but wasn't it in the Mint?"
"No—it wasn't," said Crankey Jem, with a movement of impatience.
"Not the Mint—eh? Well, if you says so, it must be true—'cos you should
know best. But I s'pose you won't deny that it was somewhere in
Clerkenwell?"
"You're out again," returned Crankey Jem.
"The devil I am!" exclaimed Crisp, rubbing his nose. "And yet I'm a
pretty good hand at a guess too. Now it isn't my wish or my dooty to
pump a prisoner—but I should like to be resolved as to whether you
haven't been living in the Happy Valley?"
"No," cried Jem; "and now leave me alone."
"Not the Happy Valley—eh?" proceeded the indefatigable Mr. Crisp: then,
perceiving that his endeavours to find out the prisoner's place of abode
were useless, he went upon another tack. "Well—it isn't my business to
pump you; but I am really at a loss to think how you could have been
such a fool as to go back to your old tricks and break into that house
there—down yonder, I mean—you know where? Come now?"
And Mr. Crisp fixed a searching eye upon Crankey Jem's countenance.
"I tell you what it is," exclaimed the prisoner, seriously irritated at
length; "you want to entrap me, if you can—but you can't. And for a very
good reason too—because I haven't broken into any house at all, or done
a thing I'm ashamed of since I came back to England."
With these words, Crankey Jem turned his back upon the baffled Mr.
Crisp, and looked out of the window.
Almost at the same moment an inner door was thrown open, and one of the
Under Secretaries for the Home Department beckoned Mr. Crisp into the
adjacent room, where the principal Secretary was already seated, he
having arrived by the private entrance.
Crisp remained with the Minister for about ten minutes, and then
returned to the ante-room, but it was merely to conduct Henry Holford
and Crankey Jem into the presence of the Home Secretary and the Chief
Magistrate of Bow Street.
"You may withdraw, Mr.——ahem?" said the Home Secretary, addressing the
police-officer.
"Crisp, my lord—Crisp is my name."
"Oh! very good, Mr. Frisk. You may withdraw, Mr. Frisk," repeated the
Minister.
And the police-officer retired accordingly, marvelling how the
examination could possibly be conducted in a proper manner without his
important presence.
The magistrate commenced by informing Henry Holford of the accusation
laid against him by Crisp, and then cautioned him in the usual manner to
beware of what he said, as anything he uttered might be used in evidence
against him.
"I have no desire to conceal or deny a single particle of the whole
truth," returned Holford. "I acknowledge that I fired at the Queen and
Prince Albert—and with pistols loaded with ball, too."
"No—there you are wrong," exclaimed Jem; "for I loaded the pistols
myself, and I took good care only to put powder into them."
Holford cast a glance of unfeigned surprise on his friend.
"Yes," continued the latter, "what I say is the truth. Your manner was
so strange when you came to me to borrow the pistols, that I feared you
meant to make away with yourself. I did not like to refuse to lend you
the weapons—particularly as I knew that if you was really bent on
suicide, you could do it in other ways. But I was resolved that my
pistols should not help you in the matter; and I only charged them with
powder. Then I followed you all the way down to the Park; and as you did
not stop anywhere, I know that you couldn't have either bought balls or
altered the charge of the pistols."
"This is important," said the magistrate to the Home Secretary.
"Very important," answered the latter functionary, who, from the first
moment that Holford entered the room, had never ceased to gaze at him in
the same way that one would contemplate an animal with two heads, or
four tails, in the Zoological Gardens.
"It is very evident that the man was no accomplice in the proceeding,"
remarked the magistrate, in an under tone.
The words did not, however, escape Holford's ears.
"He an accomplice, sir!" cried the youth, as if indignant at the bare
idea. "Oh! no—he has been a good friend to me, and would have advised me
quite otherwise, had I mentioned my purpose to him. He was the first to
rush upon me, and—I remember now—knocked up my arm when I was about to
fire the second pistol."
Crisp and the other policeman were called in separately, and examined
upon this point. Their evidence went entirely to prove that James Cuffin
could not have been an accomplice in the deed.
When the policemen had withdrawn, the Home Secretary and the magistrate
conversed together in a low tone.
"This man Cuffin's evidence will be absolutely necessary, my lord," said
the magistrate; "and yet, as a condemned felon, and with another
charge—namely, that of returning from transportation—hanging over him,
he cannot be admitted as a witness."
"You must remand him for farther examination," returned the Home
Secretary; "and in the mean time I will advise Her Majesty to grant him
a free pardon."
"And Henry Holford will stand committed to Newgate, my lord?" said the
magistrate, inquiringly.
The Minister nodded an assent.
The policemen were re-admitted, the depositions were signed, and the
necessary instructions were given for the removal of the prisoners.
Two cabs were procured: Holford was conducted to one, and conveyed to
Newgate,—but not before he had shaken hands with Crankey Jem, who shed
tears when he took so sad a farewell of the lad, whom he really liked.
He himself was shortly afterwards removed in the other cab to the New
Prison, Clerkenwell.