NEWGATE
A man must be made of brass or wrought-iron who can enter the gloomy
portals of Newgate as a prisoner without a trembling of the limbs and a
sinking of the heart. Not even consciousness of innocence is sufficient
to sustain a prisoner, for alas! even the innocent are sometimes found
guilty. Once within the first doors I was fain to lay hold upon the
nearest turnkey or I should have fallen into a swoon; a thing which,
they tell me, happens with many, for the first entrance into prison is
worse to the imagination even than the standing up in the dock to take
one's trial in open court. There is, in the external aspect of the
prison: in the gloom which hangs over the prison: in the mixture of
despair and misery and drunkenness and madness and remorse which fills
the prison, an air which strikes terror to the very soul. They took me
into a large vaulted ante-room, lit by windows high up, with the
turnkey's private room opening out of it, and doors leading into the
interior parts of the Prison. The room was filled with people waiting
their turn to visit the prisoners; they carried baskets and packages and
bottles; their provisions, in a word, for the Prison allows the
prisoners no more than one small loaf of bread every day. Some of the
visitors were quiet, sober people: some were women on whose cheeks lay
tears: some were noisy, reckless young men, who laughed over the coming
fate of their friends; spoke of Tyburn Fair; of kicking off the shoes at
the gallows; of dying game; of Newgate music--meaning the clatter of the
irons; of whining and snivelling; and so forth. They took in wine, or
perhaps rum under the name of wine. There were also girls whose
appearance and manner certainly did not seem as if sorrow and sympathy
with the unfortunate had alone brought them to this place. Some of the
girls also carried bottles of wine with them in baskets.
I was then brought before the Governor who, I thought, would perhaps
hear me if I declared the truth. But I was wrong. He barely looked at
me; he entered my name and occupation, and the nature of the crime with
which I was charged. Then he coldly ordered me to be taken in and
ironed.
The turnkey led me into a room hung with irons. 'What side?' he asked.
I told him I knew nothing about any sides.
'Why,' he said, 'I thought all the world knew so much. There's the State
side. If you go there you will pay for admission three guineas; for
garnish and a pair of light irons, one guinea; for rent of a bed half a
guinea a week; and for another guinea you can have coals and candles,
plates and a knife. Will that suit you?' He looked disdainfully at the
dirt and blood with which I was covered, as if he thought the State side
was not for the likes of me.
'Alas!' I replied, 'I cannot go to the State side.'
'I thought not, by the look of you. Well, there's the master's side
next; the fee for admission is only thirteen and sixpence: irons, half a
guinea: the rent of a bed or part of a bed half a crown, and as for your
food, what you like to order and pay for. No credit at this tavern,
which is the sign of the Clinking Iron. Will that suit you?'
'No, I can pay nothing.'
'Then why waste time asking questions? There's the common side; you've
got to go into that, and very grateful you ought to be that there is a
common side at all for such a filthy Beast as you.'
My choice must needs be the last because I had no money at all: not a
single solitary shilling--my obliging friends when they put their purse
into my pocket as a proof of the alleged robbery, abstracted my
own--which no doubt the worthy Professor of Sacred Theology had in his
pocket while he was explaining the nature of the attack to the
Constable.
The turnkey while he grumbled about waste of time--a prisoner ought to
say at once if he had no money: officers of the Prison were not paid to
tell stories to every ragged, filthy footpad; the common side was as
good as any other on the way to Tyburn: what could a ragamuffin covered
with blood and filth expect?--picked out a pair of irons: they were the
rustiest and the heaviest that he could find: as he hammered them on he
said that for half a crown he would drive the rivet into my heel only
that he would rob his friend Jack Ketch of the pleasure of turning off a
poor whining devil who came into Newgate without a copper. 'Damme!' he
cried, as he finished his work, 'if I believe you ever tried to rob
anyone!'
'I did not,' I replied. At which he laughed, recovering his good temper,
and opening a door shoved me through and shut it behind me.
The common side of Newgate is a place which, though I was in it no more
than two hours or so, remains fixed in my memory and will stay there as
long as life remains. The yard was filled to overflowing with a company
of the vilest, the filthiest, and the most shameless that it is possible
to imagine. They were pickpockets, footpads, shoplifters, robbers of
every kind; they were in rags; they were unwashed and unshaven; some of
them were drunk; some of them were emaciated by insufficient food--a
penny loaf a day was doled out to those who had no money and no friends:
that was actually all that the poor wretches had to keep body and soul
together: the place was crowded not only with the prisoners, but with
their friends and relations of both sexes; the noise, the cursings, the
ribald laugh; the drunken song; the fighting and quarrelling can never
be imagined. And, in the narrow space of the yard which is like the
bottom of a deep well, there is no air moving, so that the stench is
enough, at first, to make a horse sick.
I can liken it to nothing but a sty too narrow for the swine that
crowded it; so full of unclean beasts was it, so full of noise and
pushing and quarrelling: so full of passions, jealousies, and suspicions
ungoverned, was it. Or I would liken it to a chamber in hell when the
sharp agony of physical suffering is for a while changed for the equal
pains of such companionship and such discourse as those of the common
side. I stood near the door as the turnkey had pushed me in, staring
stupidly about. Some sat on the stone bench with tobacco-pipes and pots
of beer: some played cards on the bench: some walked about: there were
women visitors, but not one whose face showed shame or sorrow. To such
people as these Newgate is like an occasional attack of sickness; a
whipping is but one symptom of the disease: imprisonment is the natural
cure of the disease; hanging is only the natural common and inevitable
end when the disease is incurable, just as death in his bed happens to a
man with fever.
While I looked about me, a man stepped out of the crowd. 'Garnish!' he
cried, holding out his hand. Then they all crowded round, crying
'Garnish! garnish!' I held up my hands: I assured them that I was
penniless. The man who had first spoken waved back the others with his
hand. 'Friend,' he said, 'if you have no money, off with your coat.'
Then, I know not what happened, because I think I must have fallen into
a kind of fit. When I recovered I was lying along the stone bench: my
coat was gone: my waistcoat was gone; my shirt was in rags; my shoes--on
which were silver buckles, were gone; and my stockings, which were of
black silk. My head was in a woman's lap.
'Well done,' she said, 'I thought you'd come round. 'Twas the touching
of the wound on your head. Brutes and beasts you are, all of you! all of
you! One comfort is you'll all be hanged, and that very soon. It'll be a
happy world without you.'
'Come, Nan,' one of the men said, 'you know it's the rule. If a
gentleman won't pay his garnish he must give up his coat.'
'Give up his coat! You've stripped him to the skin. And him with an open
wound in his head bleeding again like a pig!'
The people melted away: they offered no further apology; but the coat
and the rest of the things were not returned.
My good Samaritan, to judge by her dress and appearance, was one of the
commonest of common women--the wife or the mistress of a Gaol-bird; the
companion of thieves; the accomplice of villains. Yet there was left on
her still, whatever the habit of her life, this touch of human kindness
that made her come to the assistance of a helpless stranger. No
Christian could have done more. 'Forasmuch,' said Christ, 'as you did it
unto one of these you did it unto Me.' When I read these words I think
of this poor woman, and I pray for her.
'Lie still a minute,' she said, 'I will stanch the bleeding with a
little gin,' she pulled out a flat bottle. 'It is good gin. I will pour
a little on the wound. That can't hurt--so.' But it did hurt. 'Now, my
pretty gentleman, for you are a gentleman, though maybe only a gentleman
rider and woundily in want of a wash. Take a sip for yourself, don't be
afraid. Take a long sip. I brought it here for my man, but he's dead. He
died in the night after a fight in the yard here. He got a knife between
his ribs,' she spoke of this occurrence as if such a conclusion to a
fight was quite in the common way. 'Look here, sir, you've no business
in this place. Haven't you got any friends to pay for the Master's side?
Now you're easier, and the bleeding has stopped. Can you stand, do you
think?'
I made a shift to get to my feet, shivering in the cold damp November
air. She had a bundle laying on the bench. ''Tis my man's clothes,' she
said. 'Take his coat and shoes. You must. Else with nothing but the
boards to sleep upon you'll be starved to death. Now I must go and tell
his friends that my man is dead. Well--he won't be hanged. I never did
like to think that I should be the widow of a Tyburn bird.'
She put on me the warm thick coat that had been her husband's; she put
on his shoes. I was still stupid and dull of understanding. But I tried
to thank her.
Some weeks afterwards, when I was at length released, I ventured back
into the prison in hopes of finding the name and the residence of the
woman--Samaritan, if ever there was one. The turnkeys could tell me
nothing. The gaol was full of women, they said. My friend was named Nan.
They were all Nans. She was the wife of a prisoner who died in the
place. They were always dying on the common side. That was nothing. They
all know each other by name; but it was six weeks ago; prisoners change
every day; they are brought in; they are sent out to be hanged,
pilloried, whipped or transported. In a word they knew nothing and would
not take the trouble to inquire. What did it matter to these men made
callous by intimacy with suffering, that a woman of the lower kind had
done a kind and charitable action? Nevertheless, we have Christ's own
assurance--His words--His promise. The woman's action will be remembered
on the day when her sins shall be passed before a merciful Judge. Her
sins! Alas! she was what she was brought up to be; her sins lie upon the
head of those who suffer her, and those like to her, to grow up without
religion, or virtue, or example, or admonition.
By this time I was growing faint with hunger as well as with loss of
blood and fatigue. I had taken nothing for fourteen hours; namely, since
supper the evening before the attack. The first effect of hunger is to
stop the power of thought. There fell upon me a feeling of carelessness
as if nothing mattered: the night in the watch-house: the appearance
before the magistrate: my reception on the common side: all passed
across my brain as if they belonged to someone else. I rose with
difficulty, but staggered and fell back upon the bench. My head was
light: I seemed strangely happy. This lightness of head was quickly
followed by a drowsiness which became stupor. How long I lay there I
know not. I remember nothing until a heavy hand was laid on my shoulder.
'Come,' it was the voice of a turnkey. 'This is not the kind of place
for an afternoon nap in November. Come this way. A lady wants to see
you.'
He led me to the door of the common side: and threw it open: in the
waiting-room was none other than Jenny herself. How had she learned what
had happened?
'Oh! my poor Will!' she cried, the tears running down her cheeks. 'This
is even worse than I expected. But first you must be made comfortable.
Here, you fellow,' she called the turnkey. 'Take him away. I will pay
for everything. Let him be washed and get his wound dressed; give him a
clean shirt and get him at once new clothes.'
'If your ladyship pleases--'
'Change these rusty irons for the lightest you have. Put him into the
best cell that you have on the State side. Get a dinner for him:
anything that is quickest--cold beef--ham--bread--a bottle of Madeira.
Go--quick.' She stamped her foot with authority; she put into the man's
hand enough money to pay for half a dozen prisoners on the State side.
'Now, fly--don't crawl--fly!--one would think you were all asleep. A
pretty place this is to sleep in!'
The man knocked off my heavy irons and substituted a pair of lighter
ones, highly polished and even ornamental. He took me away and washed
me; it was in the turnkeys' room on the right hand of the entrance; he
also with some dexterity dressed my wound, dressed and cleaned my
hair--it was filled with clotted blood; he fitted me with new clothes,
and in less time than one would think possible, I was taken back
looking once more like a respectable person, even a gentleman if I chose
to consider myself entitled to claim that empty rank. I found Jenny
waiting for me in the best cell that Newgate could offer on the State
side: a meal was spread for me, with a bottle of wine.
'Before we say a word, Will, sit down and eat. Heavens! You have had
nothing since our supper last night.'
I checked an impulse to thank her: I drove back the swelling in my
heart. Reader--I was too hungry for these emotions: I had first to
satisfy starving nature. While I ate and drank Jenny talked.
'You shall tell me the whole story presently, Will. Meantime, go on with
your dinner. You must want it, my poor friend. Now let me tell you why I
am here. You know I was uneasy about the conspiracy that was hatching. I
feared it might be meant for you. So great was my uneasiness that I bade
my sister to keep watching and listening: this morning about one o'clock
I went to the Black Jack myself to learn if she had discovered anything.
'Well, she had discovered everything. She said that at eleven o'clock
this morning the two fellows called the Bishop and the Captain, whom I
had taken out of the King's Bench, came to the Black Jack, laughing and
very merry: they called for a mug of purl and a pack of cards: that
while they played they talked out loud because there was no one in the
house except themselves. Doll they disregarded as they always do,
because Doll is generally occupied with her slate and her scores, which
she adds up as wrong as she can. They said that it was as good as a play
to see the Attorney playing the indignant friend of the family, and how
their own evidence could not possibly be set aside, and the case was as
good as finished and done with; that the fellow went off to Newgate as
dumb as an ox to the shambles; and the poor devil had no money and no
friends, and must needs swing, and the whole job was as clean and
creditable piece of work as had ever been turned out. It must be
hanging: nobody could get him off. Then they fell to wondering as well,
what Mr. Probus had done it for; and what he would get by it; and
whether (a speculation which pleased them most) he had not put himself
into Mr. Merridew's power, in which case they might have the holy joy of
seeing the attorney himself, when his rope was out, sitting in the cart.
And they congratulated each other on their own share in the job; ten
guineas apiece, down, and a promise of more when the man was out of the
way: with a long extension of time.' I condense Jenny's narrative which
was long, and I alter the language which was wandering.
'When Doll told me all this,' she concluded, 'I had no longer any doubt
that the man whom they had succeeded in placing in Newgate was none
other than yourself, my poor Will--so I took a coach and drove here.'
I then told her exactly how everything had happened.
'I hope,' she said, 'that Matthew, if he is in the conspiracy, does not
know what has been done. Besides, the chief gainer will be Probus, not
Matthew. Remember, Will, it is just a race; if he can compass your death
before Matthew becomes bankrupt, then he will get back all his
money--all his money. Think of that: if not, he will lose the whole.
Well, Will, he thinks nobody knows except himself. He is mistaken. We
shall see--we shall see.' So she fell to considering again.
'If there is a loophole of escape,' she went on, 'he will wriggle out.
Let us think. What do we know?'
'We only know through Ramage,' I replied. 'Is that enough to prove the
conspiracy? I know what those two men are who are the leading
witnesses--how can I prove it? I know that they were suborned by Probus
and that they are in the power of Merridew. How can I prove it? I know
that Probus has talked to my cousin about my possible death, but what
does that prove? I know that he will benefit by my death to the amount
of many thousands, but how can I prove it? My mouth will be closed.
Where are my witnesses?'
'You can't prove anything, Will. And therefore you had better not try.'
'Jenny.' The tears came to my unmanly eyes. 'Leave me. Go, break the
news to Alice, and prepare her mind to see me die.'
'I will break the news to Alice, but I will not prepare her mind to see
you die. For, my dear cousin, you shall not die.' She spoke with
assurance. She was standing up and she brought her hand down upon the
table with a slap which with her flashing eyes and coloured cheek
inspired confidence for the moment. 'You shall not die by the conspiracy
of these villains.'
'How to prevent them?'
'It would be easy if their friends would bear evidence against them.
But they will not. They will sit in the Court and admire the tragic
perjuries of the witnesses. There is one rule among my people which is
never broken; no one must peach on his brother. Shall dog bite dog? If
that rule is broken it is never forgiven--never--so long as the offender
lives.'
'Then, what can we do?'
'The short way would be to buy them. But in this respect they cannot be
bought. They will rob or murder or perjure themselves with cheerfulness,
but they will not peach on their brother. Money will not tempt them.
Jealousy might, but there are no women in this case. Revenge might, but
there is here no private quarrel. Besides, they are all in the hands of
the man Merridew. To thwart him would bring certain destruction on their
heads. And if there was any other reason, they are naturally anxious to
avoid a Court of Justice. They would rather see their own children
hanged than go into a court to give evidence, true or false.'
'Then I must suffer, Jenny.'
'Nay, Will, I said not so much--I was only putting the case before
myself. I see many difficulties but there is always a way out--always an
end.'
'Always an end.' I repeated. 'Oh! Jenny. What an end!'
A Newgate fit was on me; that is, a fit of despondency which is almost
despair. All the inmates of Newgate know what it means; the rattling of
the irons; the recollection of the trial to come; a word that jars; and
the Newgate shuddering seizes a man and shakes him up and down till it
is spent. Jenny made me drink a glass of wine. The fit passed away.
'I feel,' I said at last, 'as if the rope was already round my neck. My
poor Alice! My poor child! Thou wilt be the son of a highwayman and a
Tyburn bird. To the third and fourth generation ...'
'I know nothing about generations,' Jenny interrupted. 'All I know is
that you are going to be saved. Why, man, consider. Probus knows nothing
about me; these conspirators know nothing about Madame Vallance; none of
them have the least suspicion; and must not have: that you know Jenny of
the Black Jack. Now I shall try to get a case as to the conspiracy clear
without attacking the loyalty of the gang to each other. I have thought
of such a plan. And I know an attorney. You have seen him. He is
tolerably honest. He shall advise us--I will send him here. Be of good
cheer, Will. I go to fetch Alice. Put on a smiling countenance to greet
her. Come, you are a man. Lift the drooping spirit of the woman who
loves you. Keep up her heart if not your own.'
She came back at about five: the day was already over; the yards and
courts of the Prison were already dark. My cell was lit with a pair of
candles when Jenny brought Alice and her brother Tom to see me.
Alice, poor child! fell into my arms and so lay for a long time, unable
to speak for the sobs that tore her almost in pieces, yet unwilling to
let me see her weakness.
Tom--the good fellow--assumed the same air of cheerfulness which he had
learned to show in the King's Bench. He sniffed the air approvingly. He
looked round with pretended satisfaction. 'Ha!' he said, 'this place
hath been misrepresented. The room is convenient, if small; the
furniture solid: the air is not so close as one might expect. For a
brief residence--a temporary residence--a man might ... might--I say--'
He cleared his throat; the tears came into his eyes: he sank into a
chair. 'Oh! Will ... Will,' he cried, breaking down, and unable to
pretend any longer.
Then no one spoke. Indeed all our hearts were full.
'It is not so much on your account, Will,' said Jenny--I observed that
she wore a domino, and indeed, she never came to the prison after the
first visit without a domino, a precaution by no means unusual, because
ladies might not like to be seen in Newgate, and in any case it might
arouse suspicions if Jenny were recognised. 'I say it is not on your
account, so much as for the sake of this dear creature. Madam--Alice--I
implore you--take courage; we have the proofs of the conspiracy in our
hands. It is a black and hellish plot. The only difficulty is as to the
best means of using our knowledge, and here, I confess, for the moment,
I am not certain--'
Alice recovered herself and stood up, holding my hand. 'I cannot
believe,' she said, 'that such wickedness as this will be permitted to
succeed. It would bring shame and sorrow on children and grandchildren
to the third and fourth generations.'
'You all talk about generations,' said Jenny. 'For my part I think of
you that are alive, not those who are to come. Well, so far it has not
succeeded. For the conspirators are known to me and I am Will's
cousin--and this they know not.'
They stayed talking till nine o'clock when visitors had to leave the
Prison. Jenny cheered all our hearts. She would hear of no difficulties:
all was clear: all was easy: she had the conspirators in her power.
To-morrow she would return with her honest and clever attorney. So Alice
went away with a lighter heart, and I was left for the night alone in my
cell with a gleam of hope. In the morning that gleam left me, and the
day broke upon the place of gloom and brought with it only misery and
despair.
In the forenoon Jenny returned with her attorney. He was the man who had
already acted for me. His name was Dewberry; he was possessed of a
manner easy and assured, which inspired confidence: in face and figure
he was attractive, and he betrayed no eagerness to possess himself of
his client's money. I observed also, at the outset, that, like all the
rest he was the servant (who would, if he could, become the lover) of
Jenny.
'Now, Mr. Halliday,' he said, 'I have heard some part of your story from
Madame Vallance. I want, next, to hear your own version.' So I told it,
while he listened gravely, making notes.
'It is certainly,' he said, 'a very strong point that your death would
give Probus the chance of recovering his money. Your cousin could then
pay him off, if he wished, in full. Whether he would do so is another
question. If bankruptcy arrives and finds you still living, all the
creditors would be considered together. Madame,' he turned to Jenny,
'you who have so fine a head for management, let us hear your opinion.'
'I think of nothing else,' she said. 'Yet I cannot satisfy myself. I
have thought that my sister Doll might warn the Captain that both he and
the Bishop would be exposed in Court. But what would happen? They would
instantly go off with the news to Merridew. And then? An information
against Doll and my mother for receiving stolen goods. And what would
happen then? You know very well, Mr. Dewberry. They would have to buy
their release by forbidding the exposure! Why, they are the most
notorious receivers living. Or, suppose Doll plainly told them that her
sister Jenny knew the whole case--they don't know at present--at least,
I think not--where I am--but they can easily find out--that I knew the
whole case and meant to expose them. What would happen next? Murder, my
masters. I should be found on my bed with my throat cut, and a letter to
show that it was done by one of my maids.'
'Jenny, for Heaven's sake, do not run these risks.'
'Not if I can help it, Will. Do you know what I think of--besides? It is
a doubt whether Matthew would be more rejoiced to see the conspiracy
succeed and you put out of the way, or to witness the conviction of
Probus for conspiracy.'
'Softly--softly, Madam,' said the attorney; 'we are a long way yet from
the trial, even, of Mr. Probus.'
'Jenny,' I said, 'your words bring me confidence.'
'If you feel all the confidence that there is in Newgate it will not be
enough, Will, for the confidence that you ought to have. But we must
work in silence. If our friends only knew what we are talking here, why
then--the Lord help the landlady of the Black Jack and her two
daughters, Jenny and Doll!'
'You must be aware, Sir,' said Mr. Dewberry, 'that it is absolutely
necessary for us to preserve silence upon everything connected with your
defence. You must not communicate any details upon the subject to your
most intimate friends and relations.'
'He means Alice,' said Jenny.
'We must have secrecy.'
'You may trust a man whose life is at stake.'
'Yes. Now the principal witnesses are the pretended Divine and the
pretended country gentleman. They rest in the assurance that none of
their friends will betray them. We must see what can be done. If we
prove that your Irish Divine is a common rogue we make his evidence
suspected, but we do not prove the conspiracy. The fellow might brave it
out, and still swear to the attempted robbery. Then as to the other
worthy, we may prove that he is a notorious rogue. Still he may swear
stoutly to his evidence. We must prove, in addition, that these two
rogues are known to each other--'
'That can be proved by any who were in the King's Bench Prison with
them--'
'And we must connect them with Probus and Merridew.'
'I can prove that as well,' said Jenny. 'That is, if--'
She paused.
'If your witnesses will give evidence. Madam, I would not pour cold
water on your confidence--but--will your witnesses go into the box?'
Jenny smiled. 'I believe,' she said, 'that I can fill the Court with
witnesses.'
'I want more than belief--I want certainty.'
'There is another way,' said Jenny. 'If we could let Mr. Probus
understand that the sudden and unexpected appearance of a new set of
creditors would force on Bankruptcy immediately--'
Mr. Dewberry interposed hastily. 'Madam, I implore you. There is no
necessity at all. Sir, this lady would actually sacrifice her own
fortune and her future prospects in your cause.'
'For his safety and for his life--everything.'
'I assure you, dear Madam, there is no need. Your affairs want only
patience, and they will adjust themselves. To throw them also upon your
husband's other liabilities would not help this gentleman. For this
reason. There are a thousand tricks and subtleties which a man of Mr.
Probus's knowledge may employ for the postponement of bankruptcy until
after the trial of our friend here. You know not the resources of the
law in a trained hand. I mean that, supposing Mr. Probus to reckon on
the success of this conspiracy--in which I grieve to find a brother in
the profession involved; he may cause these delays to extend until his
end is accomplished or defeated. A man of the Law, Madam, has great
powers.'
I groaned.
'Another point is that, unless I am much mistaken, this conspiracy is
intended to intimidate and not to be carried out. Mr. Probus will offer
you, I take it, your liberty on condition of your yielding in the matter
of that money.'
'Never!' I declared. 'I will die first!'
'Then it remains to be seen if he will carry the thing through.'
So they went on arguing on this side and on that side: which line of
action was best: which was dangerous: in the end, as you shall see,
Jenny took the management of the case into her own hands with results
which astonished Mr. Dewberry as well as the Court, myself, and the four
heroes of the conspiracy.
Five weeks, I learned, would elapse before my case would be tried in
Court. It was a long and a tedious time to contemplate in advance.
Meantime, I was kept in ignorance, for the most part, of what was being
done. Afterwards I learned that Jenny carried on the work in secrecy, so
that not only the conspirators might not have the least suspicion but
that even Mr. Dewberry did not know what was doing until she placed the
case complete, in his hands a few days before the trial. Jenny contrived
all: Jenny paid for all: what the case cost her in money I never
learned. She spared nothing, neither labour, nor travel, nor money.
Meantime I lived on now in hope, now in despondency: to go outside among
my fellow prisoners was to increase the wretchedness of prison. Every
morning Alice brought provisions for the day. Tom brought me my violin
and music so that I was not without some consolations.
As I remember this gloomy period, I remember with thankfulness how I was
stayed and comforted by two women, of whom one was a Saint: and the
other was--well, Heaven forbid that I should call her a Sinner, in whom
I never found the least blemish: but not, at least, a Christian. The
first offered up prayers for me day and night, wrestling in prayer like
Jacob, for the open manifestation of my innocence. Alice was filled with
a sublime faith. The Lord whom she worshipped was very near to her. He
would destroy His enemies; He would preserve the innocent; the wicked
would be cast down and put to perpetual shame. Never have I witnessed a
faith so simple and so strong. Yet to all seeming; to the conspirators
themselves; I had not a single witness whom I could call in my defence:
that a man was poor favoured the chance of his becoming a robber; that a
brother-in-law, also a prisoner in the Rules, should be ready to say
that I was incapable of such an action could not help. What could we
allege against the clear and strong evidence that the four perjured
villains would offer when they should stand up, and swear away my life?
'Have courage,' said Alice, 'Help cometh from the Lord. He will have
mercy upon the child and--oh! Will--Will--He will have mercy upon the
father of the child.'
Mr. Dewberry came often. He had little to tell me. Jenny had gone away.
Jenny had not told him what she was doing. 'Sir,' he said, 'but for the
confidence I have in that incomparable woman and in her assurances I
should feel anxious. For as yet, and we are within a fortnight of the
trial, I have not a single witness who can prove the real character of
the pretended Divine and the pretended country gentleman. But since
Madam assures us--' He produced his snuff-box and offered it--
'Why--then, Sir--in that case--I believe in the success of your
defence.'