THE BEGINNING OF THE SEARCH FOR THE KEY AND THE COAT.
When Madame Goesler revealed her plans and ideas to Mr. Wickerby,
the attorney, who had been employed to bring Phineas Finn through
his troubles, that gentleman evidently did not think much of the
unprofessional assistance which the lady proposed to give him. "I'm
afraid it is far-fetched, Ma'am,--if you understand what I mean,"
said Mr. Wickerby. Madame Goesler declared that she understood very
well what Mr. Wickerby meant, but that she could hardly agree with
him. "According to that the gentleman must have plotted the murder
more than a month before he committed it," said Mr. Wickerby.
"And why not?"
"Murder plots are generally the work of a few hours at the
longest, Madame Goesler. Anger, combined with an indifference to
self-sacrifice, does not endure the wear of many days. And the object
here was insufficient. I don't think we can ask to have the trial put
off in order to find out whether a false key may have been made in
Prague."
"And you will not look for the coat?"
"We can look for it, and probably get it, if the woman has not lied
to you; but I don't think it will do us any good. The woman probably
is lying. You have been paying her very liberally, so that she has
been making an excellent livelihood out of the murder. No jury would
believe her. And a grey coat is a very common thing. After all, it
would prove nothing. It would only let the jury know that Mr. Meager
had a grey coat as well as Mr. Finn. That Mr. Finn wore a grey coat
on that night is a fact which we can't upset. If you got hold of
Meager's coat you wouldn't be a bit nearer to proof that Emilius had
worn it."
"There would be the fact that he might have worn it."
"Madame Goesler, indeed it would not help our client. You see what
are the difficulties in our way. Mr. Finn was on the spot at the
moment, or so near it as to make it certainly possible that he might
have been there. There is no such evidence as to Emilius, even if he
could be shown to have had a latch-key. The man was killed by such an
instrument as Mr. Finn had about him. There is no evidence that Mr.
Emilius had such an instrument in his hand. A tall man in a grey coat
was seen hurrying to the spot at the exact hour. Mr. Finn is a tall
man and wore a grey coat at the time. Emilius is not a tall man, and,
even though Meager had a grey coat, there is no evidence to show
that Emilius ever wore it. Mr. Finn had quarrelled violently with
Mr. Bonteen within the hour. It does not appear that Emilius ever
quarrelled with Mr. Bonteen, though Mr. Bonteen had exerted himself
in opposition to Emilius."
"Is there to be no defence, then?"
"Certainly there will be a defence, and such a defence as I think
will prevent any jury from being unanimous in convicting my client.
Though there is a great deal of evidence against him, it is all--what
we call circumstantial."
"I understand, Mr. Wickerby."
"Nobody saw him commit the murder."
"Indeed no," said Madame Goesler.
"Although there is personal similarity, there is no personal
identity. There is no positive proof of anything illegal on his
part, or of anything that would have been suspicious had no murder
been committed,--such as the purchase of poison, or carrying
of a revolver. The life-preserver, had no such instrument been
unfortunately used, might have been regarded as a thing of custom."
"But I am sure that that Bohemian did murder Mr. Bonteen," said
Madame Goesler, with enthusiasm.
"Madame," said Mr. Wickerby, holding up both his hands, "I can only
wish that you could be upon the jury."
"And you won't try to show that the other man might have done it?"
"I think not. Next to an alibi that breaks down;--you know what an
alibi is, Madame Goesler?"
"Yes, Mr. Wickerby; I know what an alibi is."
"Next to an alibi that breaks down, an unsuccessful attempt to affix
the fault on another party is the most fatal blow which a prisoner's
counsel can inflict upon him. It is always taken by the jury as so
much evidence against him. We must depend altogether on a different
line of defence."
"What line, Mr. Wickerby?"
"Juries are always unwilling to hang,"--Madame Goesler shuddered
as the horrid word was broadly pronounced,--"and are apt to think
that simply circumstantial evidence cannot be suffered to demand
so disagreeable a duty. They are peculiarly averse to hanging a
gentleman, and will hardly be induced to hang a member of Parliament.
Then Mr. Finn is very good-looking, and has been popular,--which
is all in his favour. And we shall have such evidence on the score
of character as was never before brought into one of our courts.
We shall have half the Cabinet. There will be two dukes." Madame
Goesler, as she listened to the admiring enthusiasm of the attorney
while he went on with his list, acknowledged to herself that her
dear friend, the Duchess, had not been idle. "There will be three
Secretaries of State. The Secretary of State for the Home Department
himself will be examined. I am not quite sure that we mayn't get the
Lord Chancellor. There will be Mr. Monk,--about the most popular man
in England,--who will speak of the prisoner as his particular friend.
I don't think any jury would hang a particular friend of Mr. Monk's.
And there will be ever so many ladies. That has never been done
before, but we mean to try it." Madame Goesler had heard all this,
and had herself assisted in the work. "I rather think we shall get
four or five leading members of the Opposition, for they all disliked
Mr. Bonteen. If we could manage Mr. Daubeny and Mr. Gresham, I think
we might reckon ourselves quite safe. I forgot to say that the Bishop
of Barchester has promised."
"All that won't prove his innocence, Mr. Wickerby." Mr. Wickerby
shrugged his shoulders. "If he be acquitted after that fashion men
then will say--that he was guilty."
"We must think of his life first, Madame Goesler," said the attorney.
Madame Goesler when she left the attorney's room was very
ill-satisfied with him. She desired some adherent to her cause who
would with affectionate zeal resolve upon washing Phineas Finn white
as snow in reference to the charge now made against him. But no man
would so resolve who did not believe in his innocence,--as Madame
Goesler believed herself. She herself knew that her own belief was
romantic and unpractical. Nevertheless, the conviction of the guilt
of that other man, towards which she still thought that much could
be done if that coat were found and the making of a secret key were
proved, was so strong upon her that she would not allow herself
to drop it. It would not be sufficient for her that Phineas Finn
should be acquitted. She desired that the real murderer should be
hung for the murder, so that all the world might be sure,--as she
was sure,--that her hero had been wrongfully accused.
"Do you mean that you are going to start yourself?" the Duchess said
to her that same afternoon.
"Yes, I am."
"Then you must be very far gone in love, indeed."
"You would do as much, Duchess, if you were free as I am. It isn't a
matter of love at all. It's womanly enthusiasm for the cause one has
taken up."
"I'm quite as enthusiastic,--only I shouldn't like to go to Prague in
June."
"I'd go to Siberia in January if I could find out that that horrid
man really committed the murder."
"Who are going with you?"
"We shall be quite a company. We have got a detective policeman, and
an interpreter who understands Czech and German to go about with the
policeman, and a lawyer's clerk, and there will be my own maid."
"Everybody will know all about it before you get there."
"We are not to go quite together. The policeman and the interpreter
are to form one party, and I and my maid another. The poor clerk is
to be alone. If they get the coat, of course you'll telegraph to me."
"Who is to have the coat?"
"I suppose they'll take it to Mr. Wickerby. He says he doesn't want
it,--that it would do no good. But I think that if we could show that
the man might very easily have been out of the house,--that he had
certainly provided himself with means of getting out of the house
secretly,--the coat would be of service. I am going at any rate; and
shall be in Paris to-morrow morning."
"I think it very grand of you, my dear; and for your sake I hope
he may live to be Prime Minister. Perhaps, after all, he may give
Plantagenet his 'Garter.'"
When the old Duke died, a Garter became vacant, and had of course
fallen to the gift of Mr. Gresham. The Duchess had expected that
it would be continued in the family, as had been the Lieutenancy
of Barsetshire, which also had been held by the old Duke. But the
Garter had been given to Lord Cantrip, and the Duchess was sore. With
all her Radical propensities and inclination to laugh at dukes and
marquises, she thought very much of Garters and Lieutenancies;--but
her husband would not think of them at all, and hence there were
words between them. The Duchess had declared that the Duke should
insist on having the Garter. "These are things that men do not ask
for," the Duke had said.
"Don't tell me, Plantagenet, about not asking. Everybody asks for
everything nowadays."
"Your everybody is not correct, Glencora. I never yet asked for
anything,--and never shall. No honour has any value in my eyes unless
it comes unasked." Thereupon it was that the Duchess now suggested
that Phineas Finn, when Prime Minister, might perhaps bestow a Garter
upon her husband.
And so Madame Goesler started for Prague with the determination
of being back, if possible, before the trial began. It was to be
commenced at the Old Bailey towards the end of June, and people
already began to foretell that it would extend over a very long
period. The circumstances seemed to be simple; but they who
understood such matters declared that the duration of a trial
depended a great deal more on the public interest felt in the matter
than upon its own nature. Now it was already perceived that no
trial of modern days had ever been so interesting as would be this
trial. It was already known that the Attorney-General, Sir Gregory
Grogram, was to lead the case for the prosecution, and that the
Solicitor-General, Sir Simon Slope, was to act with him. It had been
thought to be due to the memory and character of Mr. Bonteen, who
when he was murdered had held the office of President of the Board of
Trade, and who had very nearly been Chancellor of the Exchequer, that
so unusual a task should be imposed on these two high legal officers
of the Government. No doubt there would be a crowd of juniors with
them, but it was understood that Sir Gregory Grogram would himself
take the burden of the task upon his own shoulders. It was declared
everywhere that Sir Gregory did believe Phineas Finn to be guilty,
but it was also declared that Sir Simon Slope was convinced he was
innocent. The defence was to be entrusted to the well-practised
but now aged hands of that most experienced practitioner Mr.
Chaffanbrass, than whom no barrister living or dead ever rescued more
culprits from the fangs of the law. With Mr. Chaffanbrass, who quite
late in life had consented to take a silk gown, was to be associated
Mr. Serjeant Birdbolt,--who was said to be employed in order that the
case might be in safe hands should the strength of Mr. Chaffanbrass
fail him at the last moment; and Mr. Snow, who was supposed to handle
a witness more judiciously than any of the rising men, and that
subtle, courageous, eloquent, and painstaking youth, Mr. Golightly,
who now, with no more than ten or fifteen years' practice, was
already known to be earning his bread and supporting a wife and
family.
But the glory of this trial would not depend chiefly on the array of
counsel, nor on the fact that the Lord Chief Justice himself would be
the judge, so much as on the social position of the murdered man and
of the murderer. Noble lords and great statesmen would throng the
bench of the court to see Phineas Finn tried, and all the world who
could find an entrance would do the same to see the great statesmen
and the noble lords. The importance of such an affair increases
like a snowball as it is rolled on. Many people talk much, and then
very many people talk very much more. The under-sheriffs of the
City, praiseworthy gentlemen not hitherto widely known to fame,
became suddenly conspicuous and popular, as being the dispensers of
admissions to seats in the court. It had been already admitted by
judges and counsel that sundry other cases must be postponed, because
it was known that the Bonteen murder would occupy at least a week. It
was supposed that Mr. Chaffanbrass would consume a whole day at the
beginning of the trial in getting a jury to his mind,--a matter on
which he was known to be very particular,--and another whole day at
the end of the trial in submitting to the jury the particulars of all
the great cases on record in which circumstantial evidence was known
to have led to improper verdicts. It was therefore understood that
the last week in June would be devoted to the trial, to the exclusion
of all other matters of interest. When Mr. Gresham, hard pressed by
Mr. Turnbull for a convenient day, offered that gentleman Thursday,
the 24th of June, for suggesting to the House a little proposition
of his own with reference to the English Church establishment, Mr.
Turnbull openly repudiated the offer, because on that day the trial
of Phineas Finn would be commenced. "I hope," said Mr. Gresham, "that
the work of the country will not be impeded by that unfortunate
affair." "I am afraid," said Mr. Turnbull, "that the right honourable
gentleman will find that the member for Tankerville will on that
day monopolise the attention of this House." The remark was thought
to have been made in very bad taste, but nobody doubted its truth.
Perhaps the interest was enhanced among politicians by the existence
very generally of an opinion that though Phineas Finn had murdered
Mr. Bonteen, he would certainly be acquitted. Nothing could then
prevent the acquitted murderer from resuming his seat in the House,
and gentlemen were already beginning to ask themselves after what
fashion it would become them to treat him. Would the Speaker catch
his eye when he rose to speak? Would he still be "Phineas" to the
very large number of men with whom his general popularity had made
him intimate? Would he be cold-shouldered at the clubs, and treated
as one whose hands were red with blood? or would he become more
popular than ever, and receive an ovation after his acquittal?
In the meantime Madame Goesler started on her journey for Prague.