THE FATE OF FAUSTINA.
Oh, what a fate is guilt! How wild, how wretched!
When apprehension can form naught but fears.
--_Howard_.
Early the next morning Ishmael went over to the prison to see the
governor relative to the removal of the body of the unhappy Vincent.
But he was told that the old Earl of Hurstmonceux had arrived at
noon on the previous day and had claimed the body of his son and had
it removed from the prison in a close hearse at the dead of night,
to escape the observation of the mob, and conveyed to Castle Cragg,
where, without any funeral pomp, it would be quietly deposited in
the family vault.
With this intelligence Ishmael came back to Judge Merlin.
"That is well! That is a great relief to my mind, Ishmael," said the
judge, and he went to convey the news to Lady Vincent and the
countess.
At nine o'clock Katie, Sally, and Jim, who were all witnesses for
the prosecution in the approaching trial of Faustina Dugald, were
dispatched to the courthouse, under the escort of the professor.
At half-past nine Judge Merlin, Ishmael Worth, Lady Vincent, and the
Countess of Hurstmonceux entered a close carriage and drove to the
same place.
What a crowd!
It is not every day that a woman of high rank stands at the bar of a
criminal court to answer to a charge of felony. And Faustina was a
woman of high rank, at least by marriage. She was the Honorable Mrs.
Dugald; and she was about to be arraigned upon several charges, the
lightest one of which, if proved, would consign her to penal
servitude for years.
The world had got wind of this trial, and hence the great crowd that
blocked up every approach to the courthouse.
Two policemen had to clear a way for the carriage containing the
witnesses for the prosecution to draw up. And when it stopped and
its party alighted, the same two policemen had to walk before them
to open a path for their entrance into the courthouse.
Here every lobby, staircase, passage, and anteroom was full of
curious people, pressed against each other. These people could not
get into the courtroom, which was already crowded as full as it
could be packed; nor could they see or hear anything from where they
stood; and yet they persisted in standing there, crowding each other
nearly to death, and stretching their necks and straining their eyes
and ears after sensational sights and sounds.
Through this consolidated mass of human beings the policemen found
great difficulty in forcing a passage for the witnesses. But at
length they succeeded, and ushered the party into the courtroom, and
seated them upon the bench appointed to the use of the witnesses for
the prosecution.
The courtroom was even more densely packed than the approaches to it
had been. It was scarcely possible to breathe the air laden with the
breath of so many human beings. But for the inconvenience of the
great crowd and the fetid air, this was an interesting place to pass
a few hours in.
The Lord Chief Baron, Sir Archibald Alexander, presided on the
bench. He was supported on the right and left by Justices Knox and
Blair. Some of the most distinguished advocates of the Scottish bar
were present.
The prisoner had not yet been brought into court. A few minutes
passed, however, and then, by the commotion near the door and by the
turning simultaneously of hundreds of heads in one direction, it was
discovered that she was approaching in custody of the proper
officers. Room was readily made for her by the crowd dividing right
and left and pressing back upon itself, like the waves of the Red
Sea, when the Israelites passed over it dryshod. And she was led up
between two bailiffs and placed in the dock. Then for the first time
the crowd got a good view of her, for the dock was raised some three
or four feet above the level of the floor.
She was well dressed for the occasion, for if there was one thing
this woman understood better than another, it was the science of the
toilet. She wore a dark-brown silk dress and a dark-brown velvet
bonnet, and a Russian sable cloak, and cuffs, and muff, and her face
was shaded by a delicate black lace veil.
Mrs. MacDonald, who had followed her into the court, was allowed to
sit beside her; a privilege that the lady availed herself of, at
some considerable damage to her own personal dignity; for at least
one-half of the strangers in the room, judging from her position
beside the criminal, mistook her for an accomplice in the crime.
After the usual preliminary forms had been observed, the prisoner
was duly arraigned at the bar.
When asked by the clerk of arraignments whether she were guilty or
not guilty, she answered vehemently:
"I am not guilty of anything at all; no, not I! I never did conspire
against any lady! My Lord Viscount Vincent and his valet Frisbie did
that! And I never did abduct and sell into slavery any negro
persons! My Lord Vincent and his valet did that also! It was all the
doings of my lord and his valet, as you may know, since the valet
has been guillotined and my lord has suffocated himself with
charcoal! And it is a great infamy to persecute a poor little woman
for what gross big men did! And I tell you, messieurs--"
"That will do! This is no time for making your defense, but only for
entering your plea," said the clerk, cutting short her oration.
She threw herself into a chair and burst into tears, and sobbed
aloud while the Queen's Solicitor, Counselor Birnie, got up to open
the indictment setting forth the charges upon which the prisoner at
the bar had been arraigned.
At the end of the opening speech he proceeded to call the witnesses,
and the first called to the stand was:
"Claudia Dugald, Viscountess Vincent."
Judge Merlin arose and led his daughter to the stand, and then
retired.
Claudia threw aside her deep mourning veil, revealing her beautiful
pale face, at the sight of which a murmur of admiration ran through
the crowded courtroom.
The oath was duly administered, Claudia following the words of the
formula, in a low, but clear and firm voice.
Oh! but her position was a painful one! Gladly would she have
retired from it; but the exactions of justice are inexorable. It was
distressing to her to stand there and give testimony against the
prisoner, which should cast such shame upon the grave of the dumb,
defenseless dead; yet it was inevitable that she must do it. She was
under oath, and so she must testify to "the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth!"
Then being questioned, she spoke of the sinful league between.
Faustina Dugald, the prisoner at the bar, and the deceased Viscount
Vincent; she then related the conversation she had overheard between
these two accomplices on the very night of her first arrival home at
Castle Cragg; that momentous conversation in which the first germ of
the conspiracy against her honor was formed; being further
questioned, she acknowledged the complete estrangement between
herself and her husband, and the actual state of widowhood in which
she had lived in his house, while his time and attention were all
devoted to her rival, the prisoner at the bar.
Here Claudia begged leave to retire from the stand; but of course
she was not permitted to do so; the Queen's Solicitor had not done
with her yet. She was required to relate the incidents of that
evening when the valet Frisbie was dragged from his hiding-place in
her boudoir by the Viscount Vincent. And amid fiery blushes Claudia
detailed all the circumstances of that scene. She was but slightly
cross-questioned by the counsel for the prisoner, and without
effect, and was finally permitted to retire. Her father came and led
her back to her seat.
The housekeeper of Castle Cragg was the next witness called, and she
testified with a marked reluctance, that only served to give
additional weight to her statement, to the sinful intimacy between
the deceased viscount and the prisoner at the bar.
Following her came old Cuthbert, who sadly corroborated her
testimony in all respects.
Next came other servants of the castle, all with much dislike to do
the duty, speaking to the one point of the fatal attachment that had
existed between Lord Vincent and Mrs. Dugald.
And then at length came Katie. Now we all know the facts to which
Katie would bear testimony, and the style in which she would do it;
and so we need not repeat her statement here. It was sufficiently
conclusive to insure the conviction of the prisoner, even if there
had been nothing to support it.
But the most fatal evidence was yet to be produced: The Reverend
Christian Godfree, chaplain of the jail, was called to the stand and
duly sworn. And then a manuscript was placed in his hand, and he was
asked if he could identify that as the veritable last confession
made by the convict, Alick Frisbie, in his cell, on the night
previous to his execution. Mr. Godfree carefully examined it and
promptly identified it.
But here the counsel for the prisoner interposed, and would have had
the confession ruled out as evidence; and a controversy arose
between the prosecution and the defense, which was at last decided
by the bench, who ordered that the confession of Alick Frisbie
should be received as evidence in the case of Faustina Dugald.
And then the Queen's Solicitor, taking the paper from the witness,
proceeded to read the confession with all its deeply disgraceful
revelations. From it, the complicity of Faustina Dugald in the
conspiracy against Lady Vincent was clearly shown. Having read it
through, the solicitor called several witnesses from among the
servants of the castle, who swore to the signature at the bottom of
the confession as the handwriting of Alick Frisbie. And then the
solicitor passed the paper to the foreman of the jury, that he might
circulate it among his colleagues for their examination and
satisfaction. The solicitor then summed up the evidence for the
prosecution and rested the case.
Mr. Brace, leading counsel for the prisoner, arose and made the best
defense that the bad case admitted of. He tried to pull to pieces,
destroy, and discredit the evidence that had been given in; but all
to no purpose. He next tried to engage the sympathy of the judge and
jury for the beauty and misfortunes of his client; but in vain.
Finally, he called a number of paid witnesses, who testified chiefly
to the excellent moral character of Mrs. Faustina Dugald, seeking to
make it appear quite impossible that she should do any wrong
whatever, much less commit the crimes for which she stood arraigned;
and also to the malignant envy, hatred, and malice felt by every
servant at Castle Cragg and every witness for the prosecution
against the injured and unhappy prisoner at the bar, seeking to make
it appear that all their testimony was nothing but malignant calumny
leveled against injured innocence.
But, unfortunately for the defense, the only impression these
witnesses made upon the judge and the jury was that they--the
witnesses--were about the most shameless falsifiers of the truth
that ever perjured themselves before a court of justice.
The counsel for the prisoner went over the evidence for the defense
in an eloquent speech, which was worse than wasted in such evil
service.
The Queen's Solicitor had, as usual, the last word.
The Lord Chief Baron then summed up the evidence on either side and
charged the jury. And the charge amounted in effect to an
instruction to them to bring in a verdict against the prisoner. And
accordingly the jury retired and consulted about twenty minutes, and
then returned with the verdict: "Guilty."
The Lord Chief Baron arose to pronounce the sentence of the law.
The clerk of the arraigns ordered the prisoner to stand up.
"What are they going to do now?" nervously inquired Faustina, who
did not in the least understand what was going on.
"Nothing much, my dear; his lordship the judge is going to speak to
you from the bench. That is all," said Mrs. MacDonald, as she helped
the prisoner to her feet; for Mrs. MacDonald never hesitated to tell
a falsehood for the sake of keeping the peace.
Faustina stood up, looking towards the bench with curiosity,
distrust, and fear.
The Lord Chief Baron began the usual prosing preamble to the
sentence, telling the prisoner of the enormity of the crime of which
she had been accused; of the perfect impartiality of the trial to
which she had been subjected; the complete conclusiveness of the
evidence on which she had been convicted; and so forth. He gave her
to understand that the court might easily sentence her to fifteen or
twenty years' imprisonment; but that, in consideration of her early
youth and of her utter failure to carry out her felonious purposes
to their completion, he would assign her a milder penalty. And he
proceeded to sentence her to penal servitude for the term of ten
years. The Lord Chief Baron resumed his seat.
Faustina threw a wild, perplexed, appealing glance around the
courtroom, and then, as the truth of her doom entered her soul, she
uttered a piercing shriek and fell into violent hysterics. And in
this condition she was removed from the court to the jail, there to
remain until she should be transported to the scene of her
punishment.
"We have nothing more to do here, Judge Merlin. Had you not better
take Lady Vincent back to the hotel?" suggested Ishmael.
The judge, who had been sitting as if spellbound, started up, gave
his arm to his daughter, and led her out of the court and to the fly
that was in attendance to convey them back to the "Highlander."
Ishmael followed, with the countess on his arm. And the professor,
having the three negroes in charge, brought up the rear. Judge
Merlin, Ishmael, Claudia and the countess entered the fly. The
professor and his charges walked. And thus they reached the
"Highlander," where the news of Faustina Dugald's conviction had
preceded them.
The trial had occupied the whole day. It was now late in the
evening; too late for our party to think of going on to Edinboro'
that night. Besides, they all needed rest after the exciting scenes
of the day; and so they determined to remain in Banff that night.