THE PEOPLE _V._ JOHN DOE _alias_ GABRIEL CONROY, AND JANE ROE
_alias_ JULIE CONROY. BEFORE BOOMPOINTER, J.
The day of the trial was one of exacting and absorbing interest to One
Horse Gulch. Long before ten o'clock the Court-room, and even the halls
and corridors of the lately rehabilitated Court House, were thronged
with spectators. It is only fair to say that by this time the main
points at issue were forgotten. It was only remembered that some of the
first notabilities of the State had come up from Sacramento to attend
the trial; that one of the most eminent lawyers in San Francisco had
been engaged for the prisoner at a fee variously estimated from fifty to
one hundred thousand dollars, and that the celebrated Colonel Starbottle
of Siskiyou was to assist in the prosecution; that a brisk duel of
words, and it was confidently hoped, a later one of pistols, would grow
out of this forensic encounter; that certain disclosures affecting men
and women of high social standing were to be expected; and, finally,
that in some mysterious way a great political and sectional principle
(Colonel Starbottle was from the South and Mr. Poinsett from the North)
was to be evolved and upheld during the trial--these were the absorbing
fascinations to One Horse Gulch.
At ten o'clock Gabriel, accompanied by his counsel, entered the
Court-room, followed by Colonel Starbottle. Judge Boompointer, entering
at the same moment, bowed distantly to Arthur, and familiarly to Colonel
Starbottle. In his _otium_ off the bench, he had been chaffed by the
District Attorney, and had lost large sums at play with Colonel
Starbottle. Nevertheless he was a trifle uneasy under the calmly
critical eyes of the famous young advocate from San Francisco. Arthur
was too wise to exhibit his fastidiousness before the Court;
nevertheless, Judge Boompointer was dimly conscious that he would on
that occasion have preferred that the Clerk who sat below him had put on
a cleaner shirt, and himself refrained from taking off his cravat and
collar, as was his judicial habit on the Wingdam circuit. There was some
slight prejudice on the part of the panel to this well-dressed young
lawyer, which they were pleased to specify and define more particularly
as his general "airiness." Seeing which, Justice, on the bench, became
more dignified, and gazed severely at the panel and at Arthur.
In the selection of the jury there was some difficulty; it was
confidently supposed that the prisoner's counsel would challenge the
array on the ground of the recent Vigilance excitement, but public
opinion was disappointed when the examination of the defence was
confined to trivial and apparently purposeless inquiry into the nativity
of the several jurors. A majority of those accepted by the defence were
men of Southern birth and education. Colonel Starbottle, who, as a
representative of the peculiar chivalry of the South, had always adopted
this plan himself, in cases where his client was accused of assault and
battery, or even homicide, could not in respect to his favourite
traditions object to it. But when it was found that there were only two
men of Northern extraction on the jury, and that not a few of them had
been his own clients, Colonel Starbottle thought he had penetrated the
theory of the defence.
I regret that Colonel Starbottle's effort, admirably characterised by
the _Banner_ as "one of the most scathing and Junius-like gems of legal
rhetoric ever known to the Californian Bar," has not been handed down to
me _in extenso_. Substantially, however, it appeared that Colonel
Starbottle had never before found himself in "so peculiar, so momentous,
so--er--delicate a position. A position, sir--er--er--gentlemen, fraught
with the deepest social, professional--er--er--he should not hesitate to
say, upon his own personal responsibility, a position of the deepest
political significance! Colonel Starbottle was aware that this statement
might be deprecated--nay, even _assailed_ by some. But he did not
retract that statement. Certainly not in the presence of that jury, in
whose intelligent faces he saw--er--er--er--justice--inflexible
justice!--er--er--mingled and--er--mixed with--with chivalrous instinct,
and suffused with the characteristic--er--er--glow of--er--er--!" (I
regret to add that at this supreme moment, as the Colonel was lightly
waving away with his fat right hand the difficulties of rhetoric, a
sepulchral voice audible behind the jury suggested "Robinson County
whisky" as the origin of the phenomena the Colonel hesitated to
describe. The judge smiled blandly and directed the deputy sheriff to
preserve order. The deputy obeyed the mandate by looking over into the
crowd behind the jury, and saying, in an audible tone, "You'd better dry
up thar, Joe White, or git out o' that!" and the Colonel, undismayed,
proceeded.) "He well understood the confidence placed by the defence in
these gentlemen. He had reason to believe that an attempt would be made
to show that this homicide was committed in accordance with
certain--er--er--principles held by honourable men--that the act was
retributive, and in defence of an invasion of domestic rights and the
sanctity of wedlock. But he should show them its fallacy. He should show
them that only a base pecuniary motive influenced the prisoner. He
should show them--er--er--that the accused had placed himself, firstly,
by his antecedent acts, and, secondly, by the manner of the later act,
beyond the sympathies of honourable men. He should show them a previous
knowledge of certain--er--er--indiscretions on the part of the
prisoner's wife, and a condonation by the prisoner of those
indiscretions, that effectually debarred the prisoner from the
provisions of the code; he should show an inartistic, he must say, even
on his own personal responsibility, a certain ungentlemanliness, in the
manner of the crime that refused to clothe it with the--er--er--generous
mantle of chivalry. The crime of which the prisoner was accused might
have--er--er--been committed by a Chinaman or a nigger. Colonel
Starbottle did not wish to be misunderstood. It was not in the presence
of--er--Beauty--" (the Colonel paused, drew out his handkerchief, and
gracefully waved it in the direction of the dusky Manuela and the
truculent Sal--both ladies acknowledging the courtesy as an
especial and isolated tribute, and exchanging glances of the
bitterest hatred)--"it is not, gentlemen, in the presence of an
all-sufficient and enthralling sex that I would seek to
disparage their influence with man. But I shall prove that this
absorbing--er--er--passion, this--er--er--delicious--er--er--fatal
weakness, that rules the warlike camp, the--er--er--stately palace,
as well as the--er--er--cabin of the base-born churl, never touched
the calculating soul of Gabriel Conroy! Look at him, gentlemen!
Look at him, and say upon your oaths, upon your experience as men
of gallantry, if he is a man to sacrifice himself for a woman. Look
at him, and say truly, as men personally responsible for their
opinions, if he is a man to place himself in a position of peril
through the blandishments of--er--er--Beauty, or sacrifice himself
upon the--er--er--altar of Venus!"
Every eye was turned upon Gabriel. And certainly at that moment he did
not bear any striking resemblance to a sighing Amintor or a passionate
Othello. His puzzled, serious face, which had worn a look of apologetic
sadness, was suffused at this direct reference of the prosecution; and
the long, heavy lower limbs, which he had diffidently tucked away under
his chair to reduce the elevation of his massive knees above the
ordinary level of one of the court-room chairs, retired still further.
Finding himself, during the Colonel's rhetorical pause, still the centre
of local observation, he slowly drew from his pocket a small comb, and
began awkwardly to comb his hair, with an ineffective simulation of
pre-occupation and indifference.
"Yes, sir," continued the Colonel, with that lofty forensic severity so
captivating to the spectator, "you may comb yer hair" (hyar was the
Colonel's pronunciation), "but yer can't comb it so as to make this
intelligent jury believe that it is fresh from the hands
of--er--er--Delilah."
The Colonel then proceeded to draw an exceedingly poetical picture of
the murdered Ramirez--"a native, appealing to the sympathies of every
Southern man, a native of the tropics, impulsive, warm, and peculiarly
susceptible, as we all are, gentlemen, to the weaknesses of the heart."
The Colonel "would not dwell further upon this characteristic of the
deceased. There were within the sound of his voice, visible to the
sympathising eyes of the jury, two beings who had divided his heart's
holiest affections--their presence was more eloquent than words. This
man," continued the Colonel, "a representative of one of our oldest
Spanish families--a family that recalled the days of--er--er--the Cid
and Don John--this man had been the victim at once of the arts of Mrs.
Conroy and the dastardly fears of Gabriel Conroy; of the wiles of the
woman and the stealthy steel of the man."
"Colonel Starbottle would show that personating the character and taking
the name of Grace Conroy, an absent sister of the accused, Mrs. Conroy,
then really Madame Devarges, sought the professional aid of the
impulsive and generous Ramirez to establish her right to a claim then
held by the accused--in fact, wrongfully withheld from his own sister,
Grace Conroy. That Ramirez, believing implicitly in the story of Madame
Devarges with the sympathy of an overflowing nature, gave her that aid
until her marriage with Gabriel exposed the deceit. Colonel Starbottle
would not characterise the motives of such a marriage. It was apparent
to the jury. They were intelligent men, and would detect the unhallowed
combination of two confederates, under the sacrament of a holy
institution, to deceive the trustful Ramirez. It was a nuptial feast at
which--er--er--Mercury presided, and not--er--er--Hymen. Its only issue
was fraud and murder. Having obtained possession of the property in a
common interest, it was necessary to remove the only witness of the
fraud, Ramirez. The wife found a willing instrument in the husband. And
how was the deed committed? Openly and in the presence of witnesses? Did
Gabriel even assume a virtue, and under the pretext of an injured
husband challenge the victim to the field of honour? No! No, gentlemen.
Look at the murderer, and contrast his enormous bulk with
the--er--slight, graceful, youthful figure of the victim, and you will
have an idea of the--er--er--enormity of the crime."
After this exordium came the _testimony--i.e._, facts coloured more or
less unconsciously, according to the honest prejudices of the observer,
his capacity to comprehend the fact he had observed, and his disposition
to give his theory regarding that fact rather than the fact itself. And
when the blind had testified to what they saw, and the halt had stated
where they walked and ran, the prosecution rested with a flush of
triumph.
They had established severally: that the deceased had died from the
effects of a knife wound; that Gabriel had previously quarrelled with
him and was seen on the hill within a few hours of the murder; that he
had absconded immediately after, and that his wife was still a fugitive,
and that there was ample motive for the deed in the circumstances
surrounding the prisoner.
Much of this was shaken on cross-examination. The surgeon who made the
autopsy was unable to say whether the deceased, being consumptive, might
not have died from consumption that very night. The witness who saw
Gabriel pushing the deceased along the road, could not swear positively
whether the deceased were not pulling Gabriel instead, and the evidence
of Mrs. Conroy's imposture was hearsay only. Nevertheless bets were
offered in favour of Starbottle against Poinsett--that being the form in
which the interest of One Horse Gulch crystallised itself.
When the prosecution rested, Mr. Poinsett, as counsel for defence, moved
for the discharge of the prisoner, no evidence having been shown of his
having had any relations with or knowledge of the deceased until the day
of the murder, and none whatever of his complicity with the murderess,
against whom the evidence of the prosecution and the arguments of the
learned prosecuting attorney were chiefly directed.
Motion overruled. A sigh of relief went up from the spectators and the
jury. That any absurd technical objection should estop them from that
fun which as law-abiding citizens they had a right to expect, seemed
oppressive and scandalous; and when Arthur rose to open for the defence,
it was with an instinctive consciousness that his audience were eyeing
him as a man who had endeavoured to withdraw from a race.
Ridiculous as it seemed in reason, it was enough to excite Arthur's
flagging interest and stimulate his combativeness. With ready tact he
fathomed the expectation of the audience, and at once squarely joined
issue with the Colonel.
Mr. Poinsett differed from his learned friend in believing this case was
at all momentous or peculiar. It was a quite common one--he was sorry to
say a _very_ common one--in the somewhat hasty administration of the law
in California. He was willing to admit a peculiarity in his eloquent
brother's occupying the line of attack, when his place was as clearly at
his, Mr. Poinsett's side. He should overlook some irregularities in the
prosecution from this fact, and from the natural confusion of a man
possessing Colonel Starbottle's quick sympathies, who found himself
arrayed against his principles. He should, however, relieve them from
that confusion, by stating that there really was no principle involved
beyond the common one of self-preservation. He was willing to admit the
counsel's ingenious theory that Mrs. Conroy--who was not mentioned in
the indictment, or indeed any other person not specified--had committed
the deed for which his client was charged. But as they were here to try
Gabriel Conroy only, he could not see the relevancy of the testimony to
that fact. He should content himself with the weakness of the
accusation. He should not occupy their time, but should call at once to
the stand the prisoner; the man who, the jury would remember, was now,
against all legal precedent, actually, if not legally, placed again in
peril of his life, in the very building which but a few days before had
seen his danger and his escape.
He should call Gabriel Conroy!
There was a momentary sensation in the court. Gabriel uplifted his huge
frame slowly, and walked quietly toward the witness-box. His face
slightly flushed under the half-critical, half-amused gaze of the
spectators, and those by whom he brushed as he made his way through the
crowd noticed that his breathing was hurried. But when he reached the
box, his face grew more composed, and his troubled eyes presently
concentrated their light fixedly upon Colonel Starbottle. Then the clerk
mumbled the oath, and he took his seat.
"What is your name?" asked Arthur.
"I reckon ye mean my real name?" queried Gabriel, with a touch of his
usual apology.
"Yes, certainly, your real name, sir," replied Arthur, a little
impatiently.
Colonel Starbottle pricked up his ears, and lifting his eyes, met
Gabriel's dull, concentrated fires full in his own.
Gabriel then raised his eyes indifferently to the ceiling. "My real
name--my genooine name--is Johnny Dumbledee, J-o-n-n-y, Johnny,
D-u-m-b-i-l-d-e, Johnny Dumbledee!"
There was a sudden thrill, and then a stony silence. Arthur and Maxwell
rose to their feet at the same moment. "What?" said both those
gentlemen, sharply, in one breath.
"Johnny Dumbledee," repeated Gabriel, slowly and with infinite
deliberation; "Johnny Dumbledee ez my real name. I hev frequent," he
added, turning around in easy confidence to the astonished Judge
Boompointer, "I hev frequent allowed I was Gabriel Conroy--the same not
being the truth. And the woman ez I married--_her_ name was Grace
Conroy, and the heap o' lies ez thet old liar over thar" (he indicated
the gallant Colonel Starbottle with his finger) "hez told passes my
pile! Thet woman, my wife ez was and ez--waz Grace Conroy." (To the
Colonel, gravely:) "You hear me! And the only imposture, please your
Honour and this yer Court, and you gentl'men, was ME!"