THE SENTENCE.
Richard remained in the dock. The warder who had charge of him gave him
the option of retiring, but he preferred to stay where he was till all
was over. He had at last caught sight of his mother, straining her
loving eyes toward him--with still some hope in them--from a distant
corner of the gallery; and he kept his gaze fixed upon that spot. They
had all the world against them now, these two, so clever, and yet so
wholly unable to combat with inexorable fate. Harry's evidence, and
especially the manner of it, had not needed Mr. Smoothbore's fiery scorn
to turn all hearts against the accused. To the great mass of spectators
it seemed as though Richard would have made the girl change places with
himself, and become a vicarious sacrifice for his worthless self.
The majesty of the law having withdrawn itself, a hum of many voices
filled the court-house; a munching of biscuits, a sipping of flasks. The
silence of suspense no longer reigned. The struggle was virtually over,
and the victim was only waiting his doom. It was hoped it would be a
severe one. The spectators were pitiless, and had turned their thumbs
toward their breasts. As to the verdict there was no doubt. Those who
knew the character of the judge opined that this young gentleman would
"get it hot," notwithstanding that this was his first offense. Odds were
taken that he would have fourteen years. "At all events," said one of
the small officials, in answer to eager inquiries, "more than he could
do on his head." With this enigmatical reply of the oracle its
astonished questioners were compelled to be content.
"Silence in the court--si-lence." The judge had returned. It was thought
by some that it was in the prisoner's favor that the judge had lunched.
They were mistaken, or perhaps a fatal economy had provided African
sherry. His charge was scarcely less dead against the prisoner than had
been Mr. Smoothbore's closing speech. As for the motive, upon which such
stress had been laid by the counsel for the defense, that might be a
plea for a recommendation to mercy, if the jury believed it, but it
could not affect the question of the prisoner's guilt. That the stolen
property had been found in the possession of the accused there was no
sort of doubt. If the prisoner at the bar had not himself taken it out
of the prosecutor's strong-box, who had?
Such was the form in which the case was left for the jury.
"It's UP," whispered Mr. Weasel behind his hand to Mr. Balais. Mr.
Balais nodded indifferently; the case was over so far as he was
concerned, and he was not going to employ significant action
gratuitously. That would have been waste of power indeed at his age. The
jury did not leave the box; they laid their heads together, like a
hydra, and "deliberated" for half a minute; that is to say, the foreman
whispered, "We can return but one verdict, I should say, gentlemen;" and
the eleven answered, "But one."
"We find the prisoner guilty, your lordship."
His lordship nodded approval. "In my opinion, gentlemen, you could not
have done otherwise. Hem!" Then that common phrase, "You could have
heard a pin drop," might have been used with respect to that vast
assemblage. That "hem!" was a very fatal sign with Mr. Justice Bantam,
as the bar well knew.
"I'll take you six to five in sovs he gives him seven years," whispered
one learned gentleman to another, without moving his lips.
"It seems to me you are rather fond of a good thing," returned the
other, scornfully, but with a like precaution.
"Hem!" said the judge again. "Is there any one in court able to give any
information concerning the antecedents of the prisoner?"
"We have no witnesses to character, my lud," said Mr. Balais, gravely;
"we had hoped it would not have been necessary."
"There _is_ a witness in court, please your lud-ship, a detective of the
A division of metropolitan police, I believe," observed Mr. Smoothbore,
"who knows something of the prisoner."
"Let him stand up," said the judge.
Here was an extra excitement--an additional attraction, which had not
been advertised in the bills--and the public evinced their satisfaction
accordingly by craning and crowding. Richard turned his heated eyes in
the direction of this new enemy. He had no hope of seeing a friend. The
individual in question was unknown to him. He was a tall, quiet-looking
man, whose face might have been carved out of box-wood, it was so hard
and serious, but for its keen eyes, which seemed to meet his own with a
look of recognition.
"I know the prisoner at the bar; that is to say, I have seen him on a
previous occasion, when he passed under the name of Chandos, and on
other occasions, as I believe, under other names. From information
received I attended a competitive examination, under the authority of
government."
"Do you mean that you were employed by the government, or that the
examination was a government one?" interrupted the judge.
"You'll hear something now," whispered Mr. Weasel to Mr. Balais, "by
Jove!"
"Both, my lord," explained the witness. "It had come to the knowledge of
the government that there had been several cases of personation in the
competitive examinations recently instituted both for the military and
civil services. Not only were young gentlemen, who had apparently passed
with credit, found grossly ignorant of the subjects which they had
previously been examined upon, but their physical appearance was
sometimes such as would have seemed to have disqualified them: it
appeared incredible that they should have passed the preliminary medical
examination. One was hump-backed; another almost blind. It was
understood that some systematized scheme of imposture, of
mispersonation, was at work to produce these results, and I was
instructed to inquire into it. I did so. I came to the conclusion that
only one person was concerned in the matter--the prisoner at the bar. I
had had my suspicions of him for some time. I had seen him on three
separate occasions as a candidate at public examinations. His nomination
was correct and genuine, but (as I have since discovered) it had been
issued to another person. He succeeded in every instance in obtaining
the appointments in question for his employers, who received them in due
course, though they have, I believe, since been canceled. In the case of
Chandos, a letter was written, by the supposed successful candidate, to
the authorities of the government branch--the India Board--under which
he was to serve, so grossly misspelled that the fraud was at once
suspected. In this instance the guilt was brought home to the prisoner
by the confession of the young man Chandos himself, who paid over to him
a considerable sum of money for the service in question. But I am now in
a position to prove that on several other occasions the prisoner has
committed the same offense; and, in short, if he may be said to have a
calling, it is that of personating, at competitive examinations, young
gentlemen of small ability, who are thus enabled to secure situations
and appointments which they could otherwise never obtain."
Mr. Justice Bantam had his prejudices, but he had a fair and honest
mind.
"This is a most unlooked-for communication, Brother Balais," said he,
doubtfully; "and it is not permitted you to cross-examine upon a point
of character."
"I am sorry to say, my lud," returned Mr. Balais, after a hurried
conversation with the little attorney, "that my client is not in a
position to dispute the evidence just adduced. He prefers to throw
himself upon the mercy of the court, on the ground--a very tenable one,
I think--of his youth and," he was going to add "inexperience," but,
under the circumstances, he thought it better not--"of his extreme
youth, my lud; my unhappy client is barely eighteen years of age."
"Very good," said Mr. Justice Bantam, looking as if it could not be
worse. "Hem! Prisoner at the bar: after a careful and fair trial, in
which you have had the benefit of the best legal aid, you have been
found _guilty_ of the charge of which you are accused. In that verdict I
cordially concur. The offense was a very serious one; but the endeavor
which you have made to screen yourself, at the expense of that beautiful
and innocent young girl, is, in my opinion, still more heinous and
contemptible than the crime itself. Having made yourself master of her
affections, you used your power to the utmost to effect her moral and
social hurt. You would have had her perjure herself, and proclaim
herself guilty of a crime she did not commit, in order that you might
yourself escape justice. Nobody who heard her evidence--who saw her in
yonder box--can doubt it. Still, as your counsel has just remarked, you
are but a youth in years, and I looked about me in hopes to find some
extenuating circumstances in your past career--some record of
good--which might have justified me in inflicting on you a more lenient
sentence than your offense had earned. I had no other purpose in asking
whether any thing was known of your previous career. The reply to that
question has astonished and shocked me, as it has shocked and astonished
every right-thinking person in this court who heard it. We knew to what
base purpose you had used the comeliness and youth and good address with
which nature had endowed you; and now we have learned how evilly you
have misused your talents--with what perverted ingenuity you have
striven, at so early an age, to set at naught those precautions by which
your country has lately endeavored to secure for itself efficient public
servants."
"That's neat," whispered a learned friend to Mr. Balais, reverently
shutting his eyes, as though in rapt admiration.
"Very," returned that gentleman. "He's bidding for the Lord Chief
Justiceship."
"In the whole course of my legal experience, young man," continued the
judge, "I have never seen a case which seems to me to call for more
exemplary punishment than yours. The promise of your future is dark
indeed--bad for yourself, and bad for that society which, though so
fitted to adorn and benefit it, you have chosen to outrage. I will not,
however, reproach you further; I will rather express a hope that when
you return to the world after your long probation--and it will be as
long as I am able to make it--you may be a wiser and better, as well as
a much older man. The sentence of the court is, that you be kept in
penal servitude for the space of twenty years."