In consequence of the intense interest naturally excited by the
approaching trial, the court-house was, as may be supposed, crowded to
excess.
There was a pause, however, at the precise moment we are describing in
the public business; for a cause having been just concluded, the judge
had absented himself for a few minutes. Persons were in the mean time
handing across the green table, stuck at the end of long, slight, white
wands, which seemed to be split at the point for the purpose, notes,
letters, and folded papers, to the various individuals who sat round,
out of reach of communication by any other means; some, indeed, employed
the still less ceremonious mode of flinging across the table little
folded notes, not larger than butterflies, of which a pretty constant
flight was thus kept up. The personages round this table we may mention,
for the benefit of those not conversant with the inside of a
court-house, were principally barristers in their wigs and gowns. The
few eminent ones, who had any thing to do, had clerks seated at their
elbows, and all had beside them large green or purple baize or serge
bags, purporting to contain papers, but in many instances, suspected of
harbouring more sandwiches than briefs. Beside the counsel for the
crown, whose business it was to conduct the prosecution of Sir Alfred
Arden, sat wedged with difficulty into the limited space allotted him,
and anxiously poring over his documents, Mr. Fips. A little above, and
immediately behind him, in the lowest row of seats appropriated to
spectators, sat Geoffery Arden, with Miss Fips, whose style of dress, if
possible, was more extravagantly absurd, and indecorously showy than
usual, which, together with the incessant swinging of her hat and
feathers, made her a most conspicuous figure. Indeed she and her
paraphernalia might be said to act most effectually the part of a flying
flag, pointing out to the spectators in general where this group of
principal characters were to be found.
It had been weighed by Lady Arden and her many friends, whether her
ladyship should await in an adjacent retired room, communicating by a
private door with the gallery, or how; or where she had better be placed
to be ready to appear with least exertion, when called upon for her
evidence. She had herself, however, decided that the suspense of not
hearing and knowing what was going on, even at every step, would be more
impossible to endure, than any agony however hard to bear, to which
being present throughout could subject her. She was therefore already
placed in the corner of the gallery, nearest the witness box, but
purposely so surrounded by a group of her own most particular friends,
as to be effectually screened from general observation. With her
ladyship was Mrs. Dorothea, Lady Darlingford, and Madeline, all of whom
had been subpoened as witnesses.
The judge now returning into court, took his seat on the bench, with an
air of even more than usual solemnity. The prisoner was called to the
bar.
"Do not, do not look!" said Mrs. Dorothea, bending across, and
interposing herself between Lady Arden and the view of the dock. But
Lady Arden had already covered her face, naturally shrinking from the
fearful trial of seeing her son enter.
Alfred appeared. He was aware that a great portion of those present must
be persons well known to him. He had no reason to shrink from the
scrutinizing gaze of any one. With quiet dignity, therefore, on his
first entrance, he looked all round the court, and few were found who
had callousness to resist his mild, calm, clear eye, the expression of
which was rather an appeal to the better feelings of humanity than that
angry defiance of his accusers, which his circumstances might have
almost justified; and which, perhaps, even he would have experienced,
had not solemn and tender regret for the fact itself of his brother's
untimely death, softened and subdued his feelings. Such was the
immediate effect, both of his countenance and his noble bearing in every
respect, as far removed from guilty hardness as from guilty fear, that
many who had on hearsay condemned now in their hearts acquitted him.
We speak chiefly of the impression made on persons in Sir Alfred's own
sphere in life; that, however, which was produced upon a much larger
body, the respectable yeomanry of the county, and tradesmen of the town,
was in general very different. Among these a doctrine had been artfully
promulgated, which though in itself perfectly just, was in this
instance, well calculated to prejudice the judgment, namely, that if
gentlemen will commit crimes worthy of ignominious punishment it is the
duty of those in whose hands the administration of justice is entrusted,
to show them that there is not one law for the rich and another for the
poor. It is not because a gentleman can get ninety thousand a-year by
murdering his brother that he is to be allowed to do so with impunity,
when a poor man, who sees his wife and children starving and steals a
sheep to feed them, must be hanged!
This popular proposition, in the abstract so perfectly just, Fips had at
the very first given out, as a sort of text to preach from, to one or
two vulgar, vehement, levelling friends of his own; and from that moment
affected himself, as became the attorney who was to conduct the
prosecution, the most prudent taciturnity possible.
Possessed, then, with these abstract ideas, and doggedly determined to
apply them in the present case, the class of persons alluded to saw in
the beautiful serenity of our hero's aspect no better feeling than a
confidence, which they were determined to show him was ill-founded, that
his rank in life was almost a guarantee against his suffering the
extremity of the law.
The indictment was now read aloud, and poor Alfred heard himself
accused, with awful solemnity, of the wilful murder of his brother, Sir
Willoughby Arden, by maliciously and feloniously administering to him a
certain portion of arsenic, in some wine and water. The prisoner, of
course, pleaded not guilty; and the counsel for the prosecution,
abstaining from opening the case by a speech to the jury, proceeded to
call and examine witnesses. The first of these were the servants who had
been hastily called into the room by Alfred when Sir Willoughby was
dying. They swore to the deceased being insensible, and in convulsions
when they entered the room, to his having been apparently in perfect
health at and after dinner; to Alfred's having, in his first alarm,
called aloud for antidotes against poison, naming arsenic in particular.
Dr. Harman was next examined. He proved, that at the time he arrived Sir
Willoughby was quite dead; that he believed his death to have been
occasioned by poison--that poison arsenic. He then under-went a tedious
cross-examination, as to the tests of arsenic. He had made poisons much
his study. He had attended the opening of the body. The state of the
stomach denoted the presence of some corrosive stimulant. Arsenic is a
corrosive stimulant. He had applied to the contents of the stomach
several tests, such as sulphate of copper, ammoniacal sulphate of
copper, nitrate of silver; ammoniacal nitrate of silver; and
sulphuretted hydrogen gas; the results of all denoted the presence of
arsenic; there was an immense precipitate of arsenic, quite enough to
kill a man. Being asked, had not every test which had been tried for the
last century and half been said to be fallacious, he replied, that if
this were true of the tests separately, yet, when the results of three
were uniform, no chemist could have a doubt, but that he had also had
recourse to the infallible test of reduction, by which he had obtained
crystals of white arsenic. Had he not said that a fit might have been
attended by similar symptoms? He had. What, then, had confirmed him in
his belief, that the deceased had died by the effects of poison? Inward
appearances, on the body being opened, and an examination of the
contents of the stomach.
Parts of this gentleman's evidence were supported by that of several
other medical men.
Some judiciously put questions then drew from the reluctant Doctor the
fact of Alfred's attempt to rinse the glass, in which a sediment of
arsenic was subsequently found, and his having, when the Doctor
interfered, made no attempt to explain conduct so extraordinary. On
this, a kind of murmur passed round the court; almost every face looked
shocked, and many shook their heads, as though they had whispered their
next neighbour, "He must, I fear, be guilty!"
The conviction was still stronger, and the horror still greater, when
Dr. Harman, so evidently an unwilling witness, literally compelled by
stern justice to dole out that portion of the sad truth each question
extracted from him; when he, with a solemn voice, a cheek pale with
emotion, and a moistened eye, described the time and manner, when, as
the prisoner was in the act of bending forward, he had distinctly seen
glide from within the breast of his waistcoat and fall to the ground, a
piece of paper marked poison, and which was found, on being lifted up,
to contain among its folds a few remaining grains of arsenic. He here
produced, being called on so to do, the piece of paper described. The
packet of arsenic being missed on the morning after Sir Willoughby's
death, from where it had lain on the previous day, was next proved by
several servants. That the prisoner knew where it lay was also proved.
The groom then swore to having seen the prisoner coming alone from the
saddle-room (a place he was not in the habit of frequenting) with a
similar packet in his hand. Next was proved the subsequent finding of a
packet of arsenic by the Coroner, in a locked escritoire of the
prisoner's, and of which the prisoner kept the keys about his person.
The packet of arsenic was now produced in court, and identified on oath
by several servants. The piece of paper which Dr. Harman had seen fall
from within the waistcoat of the prisoner, was here shown to the Judge,
and handed from one to another of the Jury, together with the packet,
from the outer covering of which, it was evident to all eyes, that the
smaller piece had been torn, apparently as the readiest vehicle which
offered, for carrying away a portion of the poison. The reluctance of
the prisoner to permit the body of the deceased to be opened, was proved
by several medical gentlemen, as well as by other persons his not, in
short, yielding this point till compelled so to do by the authority of
the Coroner.
The servants of the house, and such persons as had seen Sir Willoughby
since his return to Arden were next strictly examined, and
cross-examined, respecting his health, spirits, and sanity. All swore
without hesitation, that up to the last moment on which each had held
communication with him he had been in good health, in excellent spirits,
and perfectly sane. The elderly squire, who, it may be remembered, had
met the brothers out riding, on the day of the evening on which the
death of Sir Willoughby took place, having chanced, when the sudden
demise became known, to mention the meeting, together with the nature of
the conversation which had passed, Mr. Fips in his diligence and zeal
had made him out and sent him a subpoena.
This gentleman was next examined, and his evidence proved that Sir
Willoughby, a few hours before his death had been in high health and
spirits, and had spoken freely of his intended marriage and projected
tour. This seemed conclusive. After hearing such evidence from a
respectable and disinterested witness, it appeared quite impossible to
believe that Sir Willoughby, a few hours subsequent to this
conversation, should have sought to put a period to his own existence.
Many persons were questioned as to whether the prisoner had expressed
any doubt of the sanity of his brother, or any suspicion of his having
taken poison, previous to the time of the accusation of his having
administered the poison to his brother, having been brought home to
himself on the coroner's inquest; no one had heard him express an
opinion of the kind before the time alluded to, except indeed any
inference might be drawn of a secret knowledge that poison had been
taken or administered, from his having, in the first moments of
confusion, called anxiously for antidotes against the effects of
arsenic. The counsel for the prosecution argued, that this told against
the prisoner. It proved a guilty knowledge of the fact, that arsenic had
been swallowed. A feeling of remorse seemed to have induced the effort
to save his brother's life, even at the risk of exposure; but no sooner
was Sir Willoughby dead, than the prisoner makes every effort to conceal
that poison had been taken. For the acuteness of this remark, the
counsel was indebted to a marginal note annexed to his brief by Mr.
Fips. As a matter of form, persons were next examined as to the amount
of the property to which the prisoner, by the death of his brother
became sole heir.
When the enormous sum was sworn to, many a one sighed involuntarily to
think, from how many anxious cares one year's income of such estates
would relieve them.
Lady Arden's evidence being the next required, and every consideration
being granted to her ladyship's feelings, the Judge had humanely sent a
message round to request that Lady Arden might not be hurried.
A pause therefore ensued, during which were wrought up to the highest
pitch, expectation, compassion, and that strange curiosity incident to
human nature, to see how others can endure when suffering is extreme.