THE TRIAL AND SENTENCE.
I was greatly pleased with the honest zeal shown by John Lax, the
Porter, on this occasion. When, after snatching three or four hours'
sleep, I repaired to the House, I found that worthy creature polishing
at a grindstone nothing less than a great, heavy Execution Axe, which
had done service many times in the old, old days on Tower Hill, and had
since peacefully reposed in the Museum.
"Suffragan," he said, "I am making ready." His feet turned the treadle,
and the wheel flew round, and the sparks showered from the blunt old
weapon. He tried the edge with his finger. "'Tis not so sharp as a
razor," he said, "but 'twill serve."
"John Lax, methinks you anticipate the sentence of the Court."
"Suffragan, with submission, it is Death to divulge any secret of
this House. It is Death even for me, Porter of the House, to tell
them outside of any Researches or Experiments that I may observe in
my service about the House. And if so great a Penalty is pronounced
against one who would reveal such trifles as I could divulge, what of
the Great Secret itself?"
"Lax, you are a worthy man. Know, therefore, that this Secret once
divulged, the Authority of the College would vanish; and we, even the
Physicians themselves--to say nothing of the Assistants, the Bedells,
and you yourself--would become no better than the Common People. You
do well to be zealous."
John Lax nodded his head. He was a taciturn man habitually; but now he
became loquacious. He stopped the grindstone, laid down the axe, and
rammed his hands into his pockets.
"When I see them women dressed up like swells--" he began, grinning.
"John, this kind of language belongs to the old days, when even speech
was unequal."
"No matter; you understand it. Lord! Sammy Grout, the brewer's boy--we
were both Whitechapel pets; but I was an old 'un of five and thirty,
while you were on'y beginning to walk the Waste with a gal on your
arm--p'r'aps--and a ha'penny fag in your mouth. Hold on, now. It's like
this--"
What with the insolence of Dr. Linister, and the sight of the old
dresses, and the sound of the old language, I myself was carried away.
Yes, I was once more Sam Grout; again I walked upon the pavement of the
Whitechapel Road; again I was a boy in the great brewery of Mile End
Road.
"Go on, John Lax," I said, with condescension. "Revive, if it is
possible, something of the Past. I give you full leave. But when you
come to the Present, forget not the reverence due to the Suffragan."
"Right, guv'nor. Well, then, it's like this. I see them men and women
dressed up in the old fallals, and goin' on like I've seen 'em goin'
on long ago with their insolence and their haw-haws--damn 'em--and
all the old feelings came back to me, and I thought I was spoutin'
again on a Sunday mornin', and askin' my fellow-countrymen if they
always meant to sit down and be slaves. And the memory came back to
me--ah! proper it did--of a speech I made 'em one mornin' all about
this French Revolution. 'Less 'ave our own Revolution,' I sez, sez
I. 'Less bring out all the Bloomin' Kings and Queens,' I sez, 'the
Dukes and Markisses, the fat Bishops and the lazy Parsons. Less do
what the French did. Less make 'em shorter by the 'ed,' I sez. That's
what I said that mornin'. Some of the people laughed, and some of 'em
went away. There never was a lot more difficult to move than them
Whitechappellers. They'd listen--and then they'd go away. They'd too
much fine speeches give 'em--that was the matter with 'em--too much.
Nothing never came of it. That night I was in the Public havin' a
drop, and we began to talk. There was a row, and a bit of a fight. But
before we was fired out I up and said plain, for everybody to hear,
that when it came to choppin' off their noble 'eds I'd be the man to do
it--and joyful, I said. Well now, Sammy Grout, you were in that Public
Bar among that crowd--maybe you've forgotten it. But I remember you
very well. You was standin' there, and you laughed about the choppin'.
You've forgotten, Sammy. Think. It was a fine summer evenin': you
weren't in Church. Come now--you can't say you ever went to Church,
Sammy Grout."
"I never did. But go on, John Lax. Recall as much of the Past as you
wish, if it makes you love the Present more. I would not say aught to
diminish an honest zeal."
"Right, guv'nor. Well, I never got that chance. There was no choppin'
of 'eds at all. When we had to murder the old people, your Honor would
have it done scientifically; and there was as many old working-men
killed off as swells, which was a thousand pities, an' made a cove's
heart bleed. What I say is this. Here we've got a return to the old
Times. Quite unexpected it is. Now we've got such a chance, which
will never come again, let 'em just see how the old Times worked. Have
a Procession, with the Executioner goin' before the criminals, his
axe on his shoulder ready to begin. If you could only be Sammy Grout
again--but that can't be, I'm afraid--what a day's outing you would
have had to be sure! Suffragan, let us show 'em how the old Times
worked. And let me be the Executioner. I'll do it, I promise you,
proper. I've got the old spirit upon me--ah! and the old strength,
too--just as I had then. Oh! It's too much!" He sat down and hugged
the axe. I thought he would have kissed it. "It's too much! To think
that the time would ever come when I should execute a swell--and that
swell the Arch Physician himself. Damn him! He's always looked as if
everybody else was dirt beneath his feet."
"I know not," I told him gently, "what may be the decision of the
Court. But, John Lax, continue to grind your axe. I would not throw
cold water on honest zeal. Your strength, you say, is equal to your
spirit. You will not flinch at the last moment. Ah! we have some honest
men left."
The Court was held that morning in the nave of the House itself. The
Judges, who were the whole College of Physicians, sat in a semicircle;
whereas the three prisoners stood in a row--the Arch Physician carrying
himself with a haughty insolence which did not assist his chances:
clinging to his arm, still in her silk dress, with her bracelets and
chains, and her hair artfully arranged, was the woman called Mildred.
She looked once, hurriedly, at the row of Judges, and then turned
with a shudder--she found small comfort in those faces--to her lover,
and laid her head upon his shoulder, while he supported her with his
arm. The degradation and folly of the Arch Physician, apart from the
question of his guilt, as shown in this behavior, were complete.
Beside Mildred stood the girl Christine. Her face was flushed; her
eyes were bright: she stood with clasped hands, looking steadily at
the Judges: she wore, instead of the Regulation Dress, a frock of
white stuff, which she had found, I suppose, in the Museum--as if open
disobedience of our laws would prove a passport to favor. She had let
her long hair fall upon her shoulders and down her back. Perhaps she
hoped to conquer her Judges by her beauty--old time phrase! Woman's
beauty, indeed, to Judges who know every bone and every muscle in
woman's body, and can appreciate the nature of her intellect, as well
as of her structure! Woman's Beauty! As if that could ever again move
the world!
Behind the President's Chair--I was the President--stood John Lax,
bearing his halberd of office.
The Doors of the House were closed: the usual sounds of Laboratory work
were silent: the Assistants, who usually at this hour would have been
engaged in Research and Experiment, were crowded outside the Court.
I have been told, since, that there were omitted at the Trial many
formalities which should have been observed at such a Trial. For
instance, there should have been a Clerk or two to make notes of the
proceedings: there should have been a Formal Indictment: and there
should have been Witnesses. But these are idle forms. The guilt of the
Prisoners was proved: we had seen it with our own eyes. We were both
Judges and Witnesses.
I was once, however, in the old days, charged (and fined) before a
magistrate in Bow Street for assaulting a Constable, and therefore I
know something of how a Criminal Court should proceed. So, without any
unnecessary formalities, I conducted the Trial according to Common
Sense.
"What is your name?" I asked the Arch Physician.
"Harry Linister--once M.D. of Cambridge, and Fellow of the Royal
Society."
"What are you by trade?"
"Physicist and Arch Physician of the Holy College of the Inner House."
"We shall see how long you will be able to describe yourself by those
titles. Female Prisoner--you in the middle--what is your name?"
"I am the Lady Mildred Carera, daughter of the Earl of Thordisá."
"Come--come--none of your Ladyships and Earls here. We are now all
equal. You are plain Mildred. And yours--you girl in the white frock?
How dare you, either of you, appear before us in open violation of the
Rules?"
"I am named Christine," she replied. "I have put on the white frock
because it is becoming."
At this point I was interrupted by a whisper from John Lax.
"Christine's friends," he said, "are gathering in the Museum, and they
are very noisy. They threaten to give trouble."
"When the Trial and Execution are over," I told him, "arrest them every
one. Let them all be confined in the Museum. To-morrow, or perhaps this
afternoon, we will try them as well."
The man grinned with satisfaction. Had he known what a fatal mistake
I was making, he would not have grinned. Rather would his face have
expressed the most dreadful horror.
Then the Trial proceeded.
"Dr. Linister," I said, "it is a very singular point in this case that
we have not to ask you whether you plead 'guilty' or 'not guilty,'
because we have all seen you with our own eyes engaged in the very act
with which you are charged. You _are_ guilty."
"I am," he replied, calmly.
"Your companion is also guilty. I saw her practising upon you those
blandishments, or silly arts, by which women formerly lured men. We
also saw her on the point of receiving from you the Great Secret, which
must never be suffered to leave this Building."
"Yes," she said, "if he is guilty, I am guilty as well."
"As for you" (I turned to Christine), "you have been so short a time
in the world--only nineteen years or so--that to leave it will cause
little pain to you. It is not as if you had taken root with all the
years of life which the others have enjoyed. Yet the Court would fail
in its duty did it not point out the enormity of your offence. You were
allowed to grow up undisturbed in the old Museum: you spent your time
in developing a morbid curiosity into the Past. You were so curious to
see with your own eyes what it was to outward show, that you cast about
to find among the tranquil and contented People some whose minds you
might disturb and lead back to the restless old times. This was a most
guilty breach of confidence. Have you anything to say? Do you confess?"
"Yes, I confess."
"Next, you, with this woman and a Company who will also be brought to
Justice before long, began to assemble together, and to revive, with
the assistance of books, pictures, dress, and music, a portion of the
Past. But what portion? Was it the portion of the vast majority, full
of disease, injustice, and starvation? Did you show how the old Times
filled the houses with struggling needlewomen and men who refused to
struggle any longer? Did you show the Poor and the Unemployed? Not at
all. You showed the life of the Rich and the Idle. And so you revived
a longing for what shall never--never--be permitted to return--the
Period of Property and the Reign of Individualism. It was your crime
to misrepresent the Past, and to set forth the Exception as the Rule.
This must be made impossible for the future. What have you to say,
Christine?"
"Nothing. I told you before. Nothing. I have confessed. Why keep on
asking me?"
She looked round the Court with no apparent fear. I suppose it was
because she was so young, and had not yet felt any apprehension of the
Fate which was now so near unto her.
"Dr. Linister," I said, "before considering its sentence, the Court
will hear what you may have to say."
"I have but little to say," he replied. "Everybody in the College
knows that I have always been opposed to the methods adopted by the
Suffragan and the College. During the last few days, however, I have
been enabled to go back once more to the half-forgotten Past, and have
experienced once more the Emotions of which you have robbed Life. I
have seen once more, after many, many years, the Fighting Passion, the
Passion of Private Rights, and"--his voice dropped to a whisper--"I
have experienced once more the Passion of Love." He stooped and kissed
the woman Mildred on the forehead. "I regret that we did not succeed.
Had we not been caught, we should by this time have been beyond your
power--the Secret with us, to use or not, as we pleased--with a company
strong enough to defy you, and with the old Life again before us, such
as we enjoyed before you robbed us of it. We should have welcomed the
old Life, even under the old conditions: we welcome, instead of it, the
Thing which, only to think of, makes your hearts almost to stop beating
with fear and horror."
He stopped. That was a speech likely to win indulgence from the Court,
was it not?
I turned to the woman Mildred.
"And you?" I asked.
"What have I to say? The Present I loathe--I loathe--I loathe. I
would not go back to it if you offered me instant release with that
condition. I have found Love. Let me die--let me die--let me die!"
She clung to her lover passionately, weeping and sobbing. He soothed
her and caressed her. John Lax, behind me, snorted.
Then I asked the girl Christine what she wished to say.
She laughed--she actually laughed.
"Oh!" she said, "in return for the past weeks, there is no punishment
which I would not cheerfully endure. We have had--oh! the most
delightful time. It has been like a dream. Oh! Cruel, horrid, wicked
men! You found such a Life in the old Time, and you destroyed it; and
what have you given us in return? You have made us all equal who were
born unequal. Go, look at the sad and heavy faces of the People. You
have taken away everything, deliberately. You have destroyed all--all.
You have left nothing worth living for. Why, I am like Mildred. I
would not go back to the Present again if I could! Yes, for one thing
I would--to try and raise a Company of Men--not sheep--and hound them
on to storm this place, and to kill--yes, to kill"--the girl looked
so dangerous that any thought of mercy was impossible--"every one who
belongs to this Accursed House of Life!"
Here was a pretty outcome of study in the Museum! Here was a firebrand
let loose among us straight from the bad old Nineteenth Century! And we
had allowed this girl actually to grow up in our very midst.
Well, she finished, and stood trembling with rage, cheeks burning, eyes
flashing--a very fury.
I invited the Court to retire to the Inner House, and took their
opinions one by one.
They were unanimous on several points--first, that the position of
things was most dangerous to the Authority of the College and the
safety of the People; next, that the punishment of Death alone would
meet the case; thirdly, that, in future, the Museum, with the Library
and Picture Galleries, must be incorporated with the College itself, so
that this danger of the possible awakening of memory should be removed.
Here, however, our unanimity ceased. For the Fellow, of whom I have
already spoken as having always followed the Arch Physician, arose
and again insisted that what had happened to-day might very well
happen again: that nothing was more uncertain in its action, or more
indestructible, than human memory: so that, from time to time, we must
look for the arising of some Leader or Prophet who would shake up the
people and bring them out of their torpor to a state of discontent
and yearning after the lost. Wherefore he exhorted us to reconsider
our Administration, and to provide some safety-valve for the active
spirits. As to the Death of the three criminals, he would not, he could
not, oppose it. He proposed, however, that the mode of Death should be
optional. So great a light of Science as the Arch Physician had many
secrets, and could doubtless procure himself sudden and painless death
if he chose. Let him have that choice for himself and his companions;
and, as regards the girl, let her be cast into a deep sleep, and then
painlessly smothered by gas, without a sentence being pronounced upon
her at all. This leniency, he said, was demanded by her youth and her
inexperience.
In reply, I pointed out that, as regards our Administration, we were
not then considering it at all: that as for the mode of punishment,
he had not only to consider the criminals, but also the People, and
the effect of the Punishment upon them: we were not only to punish,
but also to deter. I therefore begged the Court to go back to one of
the former methods, and to one of the really horrible and barbarous,
yet comparatively painless, methods. I showed that a mere report or
announcement, made in the Public Hall, that the Arch Physician had been
executed for Treason, would produce little or no effect upon the public
mind, even if it were added that the two women, Mildred and Christine,
had suffered with him: that our people needed to see the thing itself,
in order to feel its true horror and to remember it. If Death alone
were wanted, I argued, there were dozens of ways in which Life might be
painlessly extinguished. But it was not Death alone that we desired;
it was Terror that we wished to establish, in order to prevent another
such attempt.
"Let them," I concluded, "be taken forth in solemn Procession to the
open space before the Public Hall; we ourselves will form part of that
Procession. Let them in that place, in the sight of all the People, be
publicly decapitated by the Porter of the House, John Lax."
There was a good deal of opposition, at first, to this proposition,
because it seemed barbarous and cruel; but the danger which had
threatened the Authority--nay, the very existence--of the College,
caused the opposition to give way. Why, if I had not been on the watch,
the Secret would have been gone: the College would have been ruined. It
was due to me that my proposals should be accepted. The sentence was
agreed upon.
I am bound to confess that, on being brought back to receive the
sentence of the Court, the Prisoners behaved with unexpected
Fortitude. The male criminal turned pale, but only for a moment, and
the two women caught each other by the hand. But they offered no prayer
for mercy.
They were led back to their prison in the South Porch, until the
necessary Preparations could be made.