THE SPEECH FOR THE DEFENSE
"_Nobody; I myself; farewell._"
OTHELLO
After the reading of Cathcart's letter even the appearance of the
prisoner in the witness-box came as an anti-climax. In the face of the
Attorney-General's cross-examination he maintained stoutly that he had
wandered on the moor for several hours without meeting anybody, though
he was forced to admit that he had gone downstairs at 11:30, and not
at 2:30, as he had stated at the inquest. Sir Wigmore Wrinching made
a great point of this, and, in a spirited endeavor to suggest that
Cathcart was blackmailing Denver, pressed his questions so hard that
Sir Impey Biggs, Mr. Murbles, Lady Mary, and Bunter had a nervous
feeling that learned counsel's eyes were boring through the walls to
the side-room where, apart from the other witnesses, Mrs. Grimethorpe
sat waiting. After lunch Sir Impey Biggs rose to make his plea for the
defense.
"My lords,--Your lordships have now heard--and I, who have watched
and pleaded here for these three anxious days, know with what eager
interest and with what ready sympathy you have heard--the evidence
brought by my noble client to defend him against this dreadful charge
of murder. You have listened while as it were from his narrow grave,
the dead man has lifted his voice to tell you the story of that fatal
night of the thirteenth of October, and I feel sure you can have
no doubt in your hearts that that story is the true one. As your
lordships know, I was myself totally ignorant of the contents of that
letter until I heard it read in Court just now, and, by the profound
impression it made upon my own mind, I can judge how tremendously
and how painfully it must have affected your lordships. In my long
experience at the criminal bar, I think I have never met with a history
more melancholy than that of the unhappy young man whom a fatal
passion--for here indeed we may use that well-worn expression in all
the fullness of its significance--whom a truly fatal passion thus urged
into deep after deep of degradation, and finally to a violent death by
his own hand.
"The noble peer at the Bar has been indicted before your lordships of
the murder of this young man. That he is wholly innocent of the charge
must, in the light of what we have heard, be so plain to your lordships
that any words from me might seem altogether superfluous. In the
majority of cases of this kind the evidence is confused, contradictory;
here, however, the course of events is so clear, so coherent, that
had we ourselves been present to see the drama unrolled before us, as
before the all-seeing eye of God, we could hardly have a more vivid
or a more accurate vision of that night's adventures. Indeed, had
the death of Denis Cathcart been the sole event of the night, I will
venture to say that the truth could never have been one single moment
in doubt. Since, however, by a series of unheard-of coincidences, the
threads of Denis Cathcart's story became entangled with so many others,
I will venture to tell it once again from the beginning, lest, in the
confusion of so great a cloud of witnesses, any point should still
remain obscure.
"Let me, then, go back to the beginning. You have heard how Denis
Cathcart was born of mixed parentage--from the union of a young
and lovely southern girl with an Englishman twenty years older than
herself: imperious, passionate, and cynical. Till the age of 18 he
lives on the Continent with his parents, traveling from place to place,
seeing more of the world even than the average young Frenchman of his
age, learning the code of love in a country where the _crime passionel_
is understood and forgiven as it never can be over here.
"At the age of 18 a terrible loss befalls him. In a very short space
of time he loses both his parents--his beautiful and adored mother and
his father, who might, had he lived, have understood how to guide the
impetuous nature which he had brought into the world. But the father
dies, expressing two last wishes, both of which, natural as they were,
turned out in the circumstances to be disastrously ill-advised. He
left his son to the care of his sister, whom he had not seen for many
years, with the direction that the boy should be sent to his own old
University.
"My lords, you have seen Miss Lydia Cathcart, and heard her evidence.
You will have realized how uprightly, how conscientiously, with what
Christian disregard of self, she performed the duty entrusted to her,
and yet how inevitably she failed to establish any real sympathy
between herself and her young ward. He, poor lad, missing his parents
at every turn, was plunged at Cambridge into the society of young men
of totally different upbringing from himself. To a young man of his
cosmopolitan experience the youth of Cambridge, with its sports and
rags and naïve excursions into philosophy o' nights, must have seemed
unbelievably childish. You all, from your own recollections of your
Alma Mater, can reconstruct Denis Cathcart's life at Cambridge, its
outward gaiety, its inner emptiness.
"Ambitious of embracing a diplomatic career, Cathcart made extensive
acquaintances among the sons of rich and influential men. From a
worldly point of view he was doing well, and his inheritance of a
handsome fortune at the age of twenty-one seemed to open up the path
to very great success. Shaking the academic dust of Cambridge from
his feet as soon as his Tripos was passed, he went over to France,
established himself in Paris, and began, in a quiet, determined kind
of way, to carve out a little niche for himself in the world of
international politics.
"But now comes into his life that terrible influence which was to rob
him of fortune, honor, and life itself. He falls in love with a young
woman of that exquisite, irresistible charm and beauty for which the
Austrian capital is world-famous. He is enthralled body and soul, as
utterly as any Chevalier des Grieux, by Simone Vonderaa.
"Mark that in this matter he follows the strict, continental code:
complete devotion, complete discretion. You have heard how quietly
he lived, how _rangé_ he appeared to be. We have had in evidence his
discreet banking-account, with its generous checks drawn to self,
and cashed in notes of moderate denominations, and with its regular
accumulation of sufficient 'economies' quarter by quarter. Life has
expanded for Denis Cathcart. Rich, ambitious, possessed of a beautiful
and complaisant mistress, the world is open before him.
"Then, my lords, across this promising career there falls the
thunderbolt of the Great War--ruthlessly smashing through his
safeguards, overthrowing the edifice of his ambition, destroying and
devastating here, as everywhere, all that made life beautiful and
desirable.
"You have heard the story of Denis Cathcart's distinguished army
career. On that I need not dwell. Like thousands of other young men, he
went gallantly through those five years of strain and disillusionment,
to find himself left, in the end, with his life and health indeed, and,
so far, happy beyond many of his comrades, but with his life in ruins
about him.
"Of his great fortune--all of which had been invested in Russian and
German securities--literally nothing is left to him. What, you say,
did that matter to a young man so well equipped, with such excellent
connections, with so many favorable openings, ready to his hand? He
needed only to wait quietly for a few years, to reconstruct much of
what he had lost. Alas! my lords, he could not afford to wait. He stood
in peril of losing something dearer to him than fortune or ambition; he
needed money in quantity, and at once.
"My lords, in that pathetic letter which we have heard read nothing is
more touching and terrible than that confession: 'I knew you could not
but be unfaithful to me.' All through that time of seeming happiness
he knew--none better--that his house was built on sand. 'I was never
deceived by you,' he says. From their earliest acquaintance she had
lied to him, and he knew it, and that knowledge was yet powerless to
loosen the bands of his fatal fascination. If any of you, my lords,
have known the power of love exercised in this irresistible--I may say,
this predestined manner--let your experience interpret the situation to
you better than any poor words of mine can do. One great French poet
and one great English poet have summed the matter up in a few words.
Racine says of such a fascination:
"C'est Vénus tout entière à sa proie attachée.
"And Shakespeare has put the lover's despairing obstinacy into two
piteous lines:
"If my love swears that she is made of truth
I will believe her, though I know she lies.
"My lords, Denis Cathcart is dead; it is not our place to condemn him,
but only to understand and pity him.
"My lords, I need not put before you in detail the shocking shifts
to which this soldier and gentleman unhappily condescended. You have
heard the story in all its cold, ugly details upon the lips of Monsieur
du Bois-Gobey Houdin, and, accompanied by unavailing expressions of
shame and remorse, in the last words of the deceased. You know how he
gambled, at first honestly--then dishonestly. You know from whence he
derived those large sums of money which came at irregular intervals,
mysteriously and in cash, to bolster up a bank-account always
perilously on the verge of depletion. We need not, my lords, judge too
harshly of the woman. According to her own lights, she did not treat
him unfairly. She had her interests to consider. While he could pay for
her she could give him beauty and passion and good humor and a moderate
faithfulness. When he could pay no longer she would find it only
reasonable to take another position. This Cathcart understood. Money he
must have, by hook or by crook. And so, by an inevitable descent, he
found himself reduced to the final deep of dishonor.
"It is at this point, my lords, that Denis Cathcart and his miserable
fortunes come into the life of my noble client and of his sister. From
this point begin all those complications which led to the tragedy of
October 14th, and which we are met in this solemn and historic assembly
to unravel.
"About eighteen months ago Cathcart, desperately searching for a
secure source of income, met the Duke of Denver, whose father had been
a friend of Cathcart's father many years before. The acquaintance
prospered, and Cathcart was introduced to Lady Mary Wimsey, at that
time (as she has very frankly told us) 'at a loose end,' 'fed up,' and
distressed by the dismissal of her fiancé, Mr. Goyles. Lady Mary felt
the need of an establishment of her own, and accepted Denis Cathcart,
with the proviso that she should be considered a free agent, living
her own life in her own way, with the minimum of interference. As to
Cathcart's object in all this, we have his own bitter comment, on which
no words of mine could improve: 'I actually brought myself to consider
keeping my mistress on my wife's money.'
"So matters go on until October of this year. Cathcart is now obliged
to pass a good deal of his time in England with his fiancée, leaving
Simone Vonderaa unguarded in the Avenue Kléber. He seems to have felt
fairly secure so far; the only drawback was that Lady Mary, with a
natural reluctance to commit herself to the hands of a man she could
not really love, had so far avoided fixing a definite date for the
wedding. Money is shorter than it used to be in the Avenue Kléber,
and the cost of robes and millinery, amusements and so forth, has not
diminished. And, meanwhile, Mr. Cornelius van Humperdinck, the American
millionaire, has seen Simone in the Bois, at the races, at the opera,
in Denis Cathcart's flat.
"But Lady Mary is becoming more and more uneasy about her engagement.
And at this critical moment, Mr. Goyles suddenly sees the prospect of a
position, modest but assured, which will enable him to maintain a wife.
Lady Mary makes her choice. She consents to elope with Mr. Goyles, and
by an extraordinary fatality the day and hour selected are 3 a.m. on
the morning of October 14th.
"At about 9:30 on the night of Wednesday, October 13th, the party at
Riddlesdale Lodge are just separating to go to bed. The Duke of Denver
was in the gun-room, the other men were in the billiard-room, the
ladies had already retired, when the manservant, Fleming, came up from
the village with the evening post. To the Duke of Denver he brought
a letter with news of a startling and very unpleasant kind. To Denis
Cathcart he brought another letter--one which we shall never see, but
whose contents it is easy enough to guess.
"You have heard the evidence of Mr. Arbuthnot that, before reading this
letter, Cathcart had gone upstairs gay and hopeful, mentioning that he
hoped soon to get a date fixed for the marriage. At a little after ten,
when the Duke of Denver went up to see him, there was a great change.
Before his grace could broach the matter in hand Cathcart spoke rudely
and harshly, appearing to be all on edge, and entreating to be left
alone. Is it very difficult, my lords, in the face of what we have
heard today--in the face of our knowledge that Mademoiselle Vonderaa
crossed to New York on the _Berengaria_ on October 15th--to guess what
news had reached Denis Cathcart in that interval to change his whole
outlook upon life?
"At this unhappy moment, when Cathcart is brought face to face with the
stupefying knowledge that his mistress has left him, comes the Duke of
Denver with a frightful accusation. He taxes Cathcart with the vile
truth--that this man, who has eaten his bread and sheltered under his
roof, and who is about to marry his sister, is nothing more nor less
than a card-sharper. And when Cathcart refuses to deny the charge--when
he, most insolently, as it seems, declares that he is no longer willing
to wed the noble lady to whom he is affianced--is it surprising that
the Duke should turn upon the impostor and forbid him ever to touch
or speak to Lady Mary Wimsey again? I say, my lords, that no man with
a spark of honorable feeling would have done otherwise. My client
contents himself with directing Cathcart to leave the house next day;
and when Cathcart rushes madly out into the storm he calls after him
to return, and even takes the trouble to direct the footman to leave
open the conservatory door for Cathcart's convenience. It is true that
he called Cathcart a dirty scoundrel, and told him he should have been
kicked out of his regiment, but he was justified; while the words he
shouted from the window--'Come back, you fool,' or even, according to
one witness, 'you b-- fool'--have almost an affectionate ring in them.
(Laughter.)
"And now I will direct your lordships' attention to the extreme
weakness of the case against my noble client from the point of view of
motive. It has been suggested that the cause of the quarrel between
them was not that mentioned by the Duke of Denver in his evidence,
but something even more closely personal to themselves. Of this
contention not a jot or tittle, not the slightest shadow of evidence,
has been put forward except, indeed, that of the extraordinary witness,
Robinson, who appears to bear a grudge against his whole acquaintance,
and to have magnified some trifling allusion into a matter of vast
importance. Your lordships have seen this person's demeanor in the box,
and will judge for yourselves how much weight is to be attached to his
observations. While we on our side have been able to show that the
alleged cause of complaint was perfectly well founded in fact.
"So Cathcart rushes out into the garden. In the pelting rain he paces
heedlessly about, envisaging a future stricken at once suddenly barren
of love, wealth, and honor.
"And, meanwhile, a passage door opens, and a stealthy foot creeps down
the stair. We know now whose it is--Mrs. Pettigrew-Robinson has not
mistaken the creak of the door. It is the Duke of Denver.
"That is admitted. But from this point we join issue with my learned
friend for the prosecution. It is suggested that the Duke, on thinking
matters over, determines that Cathcart is a danger to society and
better dead--or that his insult to the Denver family can only be washed
out in blood. And we are invited to believe that the Duke creeps
downstairs, fetches his revolver from the study table, and prowls out
into the night to find Cathcart and make away with him in cold blood.
"My lords, is it necessary for me to point out the inherent absurdity
of this suggestion? What conceivable reason could the Duke of Denver
have for killing, in this cold-blooded manner, a man of whom a single
word has rid him already and for ever? It has been suggested to you
that the injury had grown greater in the Duke's mind by brooding--had
assumed gigantic proportions. Of that suggestion, my lords, I can only
say that a more flimsy pretext for fixing an impulse to murder upon the
shoulders of an innocent man was never devised, even by the ingenuity
of an advocate. I will not waste my time or insult you by arguing
about it. Again it has been suggested that the cause of quarrel was
not what it appeared, and the Duke had reason to fear some disastrous
action on Cathcart's part. Of this contention I think we have already
disposed; it is an assumption constructed _in vacuo_, to meet a set
of circumstances which my learned friend is at a loss to explain in
conformity with the known facts. The very number and variety of motives
suggested by the prosecution is proof that they are aware of the
weakness of their own case. Frantically they cast about for any sort of
explanation to give color to this unreasonable indictment.
"And here I will direct your lordships' attention to the very important
evidence of Inspector Parker in the matter of the study window. He has
told you that it was forced from outside by the latch being slipped
back with a knife. If it was the Duke of Denver, who was in the study
at 11:30, what need had he to force the window? He was already inside
the house. When, in addition, we find that Cathcart had in his pocket a
knife, and that there are scratches upon the blade such as might come
from forcing back a metal catch, it surely becomes evident that not
the Duke, but Cathcart himself forced the window and crept in for the
pistol, not knowing that the conservatory door had been left open for
him.
"But there is no need to labor this point--we _know_ that Captain
Cathcart was in the study at that time, for we have seen in evidence
the sheet of blotting-paper on which he blotted his letter to Simone
Vonderaa, and Lord Peter Wimsey has told us how he himself removed that
sheet from the study blotting-pad a few days after Cathcart's death.
"And let me here draw your attention to the significance of one point
in the evidence. The Duke of Denver has told us that he saw the
revolver in his drawer a short time before the fatal 13th, when he and
Cathcart were together."
The Lord High Steward: "One moment, Sir Impey, that is not quite as I
have it in my notes."
Counsel: "I beg your lordship's pardon if I am wrong."
L.H.S.: "I will read what I have. 'I was hunting for an old photograph
of Mary to give Cathcart, and that was how I came across it.' There is
nothing about Cathcart being there."
Counsel: "If your lordship will read the next sentence--"
L.H.S.: "Certainly. The next sentence is: 'I remember saying at the
time how rusty it was getting.'"
Counsel: "And the next?"
L.H.S.: "'To whom did you make that observation?' Answer: 'I really
don't know, but I distinctly remember saying it.'"
Counsel: "I am much obliged to your lordship. When the noble peer made
that remark he was looking out some photographs to give to Captain
Cathcart. I think we may reasonably infer that the remark was made to
the deceased."
L.H.S. (to the House): "My lords, your lordships will, of course, use
your own judgment as to the value of this suggestion."
Counsel: "If your lordships can accept that Denis Cathcart may have
known of the existence of the revolver, it is immaterial at what exact
moment he saw it. As you have heard, the table-drawer was always left
with the key in it. He might have seen it himself at any time, when
searching for an envelope or sealing-wax or what not. In any case, I
contend that the movements heard by Colonel and Mrs. Marchbanks on
Wednesday night were those of Denis Cathcart. While he was writing his
farewell letter, perhaps with the pistol before him on the table--yes,
at that very moment the Duke of Denver slipped down the stairs and out
through the conservatory door. Here is the incredible part of this
affair--that again and again we find two series of events, wholly
unconnected between themselves, converging upon the same point of time,
and causing endless confusion. I have used the word 'incredible'--not
because any coincidence is incredible, for we see more remarkable
examples every day of our lives than any writer of fiction would
dare to invent--but merely in order to take it out of the mouth of
the learned Attorney-General, who is preparing to make it return,
boomerang-fashion, against me. (Laughter.)
"My lords, this is the first of these incredible--I am not afraid
of the word--coincidences. At 11:30 the Duke goes downstairs and
Cathcart enters the study. The learned Attorney-General, in his
cross-examination of my noble client, very justifiably made what
capital he could out of the discrepancy between witness's statement at
the inquest--which was that he did not leave the house till 2:30--and
his present statement--that he left it at half-past eleven. My lords,
whatever interpretation you like to place upon the motives of the noble
Duke in so doing, I must remind you once more that at the time when
that first statement was made everybody supposed that the shot had been
fired at three o'clock, and that the misstatement was then useless for
the purpose of establishing an alibi.
"Great stress, too, has been laid on the noble Duke's inability to
establish this alibi for the hours from 11:30 to 3 a.m. But, my lords,
if he is telling the truth in saying that he walked all that time upon
the moors without meeting anyone, what alibi could he establish? He
is not bound to supply a motive for all his minor actions during the
twenty-four hours. No rebutting evidence has been brought to discredit
his story. And it is perfectly reasonable that, unable to sleep after
the scene with Cathcart, he should go for a walk to calm himself down.
"Meanwhile, Cathcart has finished his letter and tossed it into the
post-bag. There is nothing more ironical in the whole of this case
than that letter. While the body of a murdered man lay stark upon the
threshold, and detectives and doctors searched everywhere for clues,
the normal routine of an ordinary English household went, unquestioned,
on. That letter, which contained the whole story, lay undisturbed in
the post-bag, till it was taken away and put in the post as a matter
of course, to be fetched back again, at enormous cost, delay, and risk
of life, two months later in vindication of the great English motto:
'Business as usual.'
"Upstairs, Lady Mary Wimsey was packing her suit-case and writing a
farewell letter to her people. At length Cathcart signs his name; he
takes up the revolver and hurries out into the shrubbery. Still he
paces up and down, with what thoughts God alone knows--reviewing the
past, no doubt, racked with vain remorse, most of all, bitter against
the woman who has ruined him. He bethinks him of the little love-token,
the platinum-and-diamond cat which his mistress gave him for good luck!
At any rate, he will not die with that pressing upon his heart. With
a furious gesture he hurls it far from him. He puts the pistol to his
head.
"But something arrests him. Not that! Not that! He sees in fancy
his own hideously disfigured corpse--the shattered jaw--the burst
eyeball--blood and brains horribly splashed about. No. Let the bullet
go cleanly to the heart. Not even in death can he bear the thought of
looking--_so_!
"He places the revolver against his breast and draws the trigger. With
a little moan, he drops to the sodden ground. The weapon falls from his
hand; his fingers scrabble a little at his breast.
"The gamekeeper who heard the shot is puzzled that poachers should come
so close. Why are they not on the moors? He thinks of the hares in the
plantation. He takes his lantern and searches in the thick drizzle.
Nothing. Only soggy grass and dripping trees. He is human. He concludes
his ears deceived him, and he returns to his warm bed. Midnight passes.
One o'clock passes.
"The rain is less heavy now. Look! In the shrubbery--what was that? A
movement. The shot man is moving--groaning a little--crawling to his
feet. Chilled to the bone, weak from loss of blood, shaking with the
fever of his wound, he but dimly remembers his purpose. His groping
hands go to the wound in his breast. He pulls out a handkerchief and
presses it upon the place. He drags himself up, slipping and stumbling.
The handkerchief slides to the ground, and lies there beside the
revolver among the fallen leaves.
"Something in his aching brain tells him to crawl back to the house. He
is sick, in pain, hot and cold by turns, and horribly thirsty. There
someone will take him in and be kind to him--give him things to drink.
Swaying and starting, now falling on hands and knees, now reeling to
and fro, he makes that terrible nightmare journey to the house. Now he
walks, now he crawls, dragging his heavy limbs after him. At last, the
conservatory door! Here there will be help. And water for his fever
in the trough by the well. He crawls up to it on hands and knees, and
strains to lift himself. It is growing very difficult to breathe--a
heavy weight seems to be bursting his chest. He lifts himself--a
frightful hiccuping cough catches him--the blood rushes from his mouth.
He drops down. It is indeed all over.
"Once more the hours pass. Three o'clock, the hour of rendezvous, draws
on. Eagerly the young lover leaps the wall and comes hurrying through
the shrubbery to greet his bride to be. It is cold and wet, but his
happiness gives him no time to think of his surroundings. He passes
through the shrubbery without a thought. He reaches the conservatory
door, through which in a few moments love and happiness will come to
him. And in that moment he stumbles across--the dead body of a man!
"Fear possesses him. He hears a distant footstep. With but one
idea--escape from this horror of horrors--he dashes into the shrubbery,
just as, fatigued perhaps a little, but with a mind soothed by his
little expedition, the Duke of Denver comes briskly up the path, to
meet the eager bride over the body of her betrothed.
"My lords, the rest is clear. Lady Mary Wimsey, forced by a
horrible appearance of things into suspecting her lover of murder,
undertook--with what courage every man amongst you will realize--to
conceal that George Goyles ever was upon the scene. Of this
ill-considered action of hers came much mystery and perplexity. Yet, my
lords, while chivalry holds its own, not one amongst us will breathe
one word of blame against that gallant lady. As the old song says:
"God send each man at his end
Such hawks, such hounds, and such a friend.
"I think, my lords, that there is nothing more for me to say. To you
I leave the solemn and joyful task of freeing the noble peer, your
companion, from this unjust charge. You are but human, my lords, and
some among you will have grumbled, some will have mocked on assuming
these medieval splendors of scarlet and ermine, so foreign to the taste
and habit of a utilitarian age. You know well enough that
"'Tis not the balm, the sceptre and the ball,
The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,
The farcèd title, nor the tide of pomp
That beats upon the high shores of the world
that can add any dignity to noble blood. And yet, to have beheld, day
after day, the head of one of the oldest and noblest houses in England
standing here, cut off from your fellowship, stripped of his historic
honors, robed only in the justice of his cause--this cannot have failed
to move your pity and indignation.
"My lords, it is your happy privilege to restore to his grace the Duke
of Denver these traditional symbols of his exalted rank. When the clerk
of this House shall address to you severally the solemn question: Do
you find Gerald, Duke of Denver, Viscount St. George, guilty or not
guilty of the dreadful crime of murder, every one of you may, with a
confidence unmarred by any shadow of doubt, lay his hand upon his heart
and say, 'Not guilty, upon my honor.'"