WESTMINSTER HALL
A surging, seething crowd! heads upon heads in a dense, compact mass--a
double row of men, women, boys, and girls, held back with difficulty by
the Serjeant-at-Arms and his men, armed with halberds and tipstaves!
A crowd come to gape and grin, some to sympathize--but only a very few
of these. All come to see how the proudest gentleman in England would
bear himself in a felon's dock.
The dull grey light of an early November day came in ghostly streaks
through the huge window of the Hall, throwing into bold relief the
scarlet-clad figures of the twenty-four noble lords who were to be the
Duke's triers, the gorgeous robes of the judges, and the dull black
gowns of the attorneys and the minor dignitaries.
Quick, excited whispers passed from mouth to mouth as now and then a
familiar face detached itself from the crowd of all these awesome
personages and was recognized by the people.
"That's my lord Huntingdon," said an elderly merchant, pointing to a
grey-bearded lord who had just taken his seat. "I mind him well when
first he bought a pair of spurs in my father's shop."
"Aye! and there's Lord Northampton," commented another, "and mightily
thankful he should be not to be standing at the bar himself for high
treason."
"That's Mr. Gilbert Gerard, the Attorney-General," quoth one who knew.
"Sh! sh! sh!" came in excited whispers all around, "here comes the Lord
High Steward himself and all the judges."
The procession awed the populace, for every new-comer--gorgeously
apparelled though he was--wore a grave face and a saddened mien. The
crowd, who had come for a day's pageant, a frolic not unlike the happy
doings at East Molesey Fair, felt suddenly silenced and oppressed. Some
of the women shivered beneath their thin kerchiefs; the devout ones made
a quick sign of the cross, as if prayers were about to begin.
It was all so solemn and so grand, in this dim winter's light, wherein
shadows seemed to hover all around, hiding the remote corners of the
Hall and dwelling mysteriously on that tall scaffold, whereon one by one
these reverend personages took their allotted seats.
The Queen's Serjeant carried the white rod, and escorted my Lord High
Steward to the great chair, covered with a gorgeous cloth, which
dominated the entire hall. To the right and left of him sat the
twenty-four peers with their ermine-decked cloaks over their shoulders.
Below them sat the Lord Chief Justice of England, the Lord Chief Justice
of Common Pleas, and the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and also the
rest of the minor judges. The Clerk of the Crown, in black gown and
yellow hose, had been busy some time conversing with his secondary. Next
to the judges sat several gentlemen of the Queen's household, their
silken doublets of rich though sombre hues adding a crisp note of
contrasting colour to the harmonies in scarlet and dull oak, which
filled in the background of the picture.
Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer, sat close by with six
of the Queen's Privy Councillors, also on their left the Master of
Requests and other persons of note. Immediately facing the bar was the
Queen's Serjeant, the Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General, and the
Attorney-General of the Court of Wards. The Recorder of London had been
given a special seat, also Mr. Thomas Norton, the Queen's printer, who
wrote out the historical account of the trial, which has been preserved
amongst the State papers.
Then my Lord High Steward stood up bareheaded, holding the white rod in
his hand, and the Serjeant-at-Arms stepped forward into the immediate
centre of the Hall facing the crowd, and read out the proclamation as
follows:--
"My Lord's Grace, the Queen's Majesty's Commissioner, High Steward of
England, commandeth every man to keep silence on pain of imprisonment
and to hear the Queen's Commission read."
This was followed by the reading of the Queen's Commission by the Clerk
of the Crown, after which--still standing--he read the indictment in a
loud voice, so that all might hear.
"Whereas Robert d'Esclade, fifth Duke of Wessex, did on the night of the
fourteenth of October of this year of our Lord one thousand five hundred
and fifty-three, unlawfully kill Don Miguel, Marquis de Suarez, grandee
of Spain . . ."
The voice of the Clerk went droning on, the people amazed, horrified,
tried not to lose one single word of this strange document which so
loudly proclaimed the fact that a dastardly crime, unparalleled in its
cowardice and ferocity, had been committed by one who until now had
stood above all Englishmen as a model of honour, loyalty, and truth.
With every fresh charge, skilfully woven together and intertwined with
sundry depositions obtained from my lord Cardinal and his retinue, the
crowd of spectators realized more and more that they were face to face
with a weird and mysterious tragedy, not a pageant, but an appalling
drama, the prologue of which was being enacted before them now.
It seemed, as the Clerk pursued his reading, that he was slowly
unfolding mesh by mesh a hideous web, in the midst of which the presence
of a death-dealing and loathsome spider could as yet only be dimly
guessed.
A close, clinging web from which no man, be he the premier peer of
England or the humblest commoner, could ever hope to escape.
The web of a rough and misguided justice, of a law of the talion,
retributive and blind, distributing with an impartial hand condemnations
and punishments to guilty and innocent alike, to the martyr and to the
felon, to the coward and the deceived.
This was not a decadent, puny century, peopled with neurotics and
feeble-minded weaklings, it was a century of men!--men who were giants
alike in their virtues and their passions, their vices and their
atrocities, narrow in their views, but staunch in their beliefs, savage
in their creeds and prejudices--but MEN for all that.
"The more heinous the offence the less chance shall the prisoner have of
justifying his conduct." That was the dictate of the law.
"For truly," said Sir Robert Catline, Lord Chief Justice of England, in
the course of the trial of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton for high treason,
"justice must not be confused by sundry arguments in the prisoner's
cause, which might lead to his acquittal and the non-punishment of so
grave a fault."
Witnesses were seldom, if ever, examined in the presence of the accused.
Depositions were extorted--often by torture, always by threats--from
persons who happened to be friends or associates of the prisoner.
An acquittal?--perish the thought! Let the citizen look to himself ere
he fell in the clutches of his country's justice; once there he had
little or no chance of proving his innocence.
Lest the guilty escape!
Always that awful possibility! Rough justice demanded punishment--always
punishment--lest the guilty escape!
And the people as they listened knew that they had come to see a man's
last day upon earth.
Proud, rich, fastidious Wessex! this is the end of all things! Pomp and
ceremony, gorgeous robes and costly apparels! these to speed thee on thy
way; but as inevitably as the dull winter's night must follow this grey
November morning, so will pomp and circumstance fade away into the past
and leave thee with but one red-clad figure by thy side--that of the
headsman with the axe.
Justice to-day could make short work of her duties.
Robert d'Esclade, fifth Duke of Wessex, had confessed to his crime, why
should Justice trouble herself to prove that which was already admitted?
She had merely to think out the form and severity of the punishment for
this man of high degree, who had sunk and stooped so low.
For form's sake a few depositions had been taken, for this was an
unusual event--a specially atrocious crime! the murder of a foreign
envoy at the Court of the Queen of England, and at the hand of the
premier peer of the realm!
The Cardinal de Moreno, envoy in chief of His Majesty the King of Spain,
had given the matter a political significance. In the name of his royal
master he had demanded judgment on that most monstrous felony, and the
exercise of the full rigour of the law. The Duke of Wessex had been a
rival suitor for the hand of the Queen of England, and he
had--presumably--wilfully removed a successful diplomatist who
threatened to thwart his projects.
And thus Wessex was arraigned for treason as well as for murder, and the
indictment set forth the depositions of my lord Cardinal and those of
his servant Pasquale, all of which His Grace had declined to peruse. He
knew that these statements were lies, guessed well enough how his
enemies would heap proof upon proof to bolster up his own brief
confession.
His Eminence had made a sworn statement that he heard angry voices
'twixt Don Miguel and His Grace some little time before the Marquis was
found dead. Well, that was true enough! There _had_ been a deadly
quarrel, and though this did not aggravate the case, it helped to
establish the facts, if public opinion was like to sway the judges or if
disbelief in Wessex' guilt was too firmly rooted in the minds of his
peers.
The indictment was a masterpiece, well could the Solicitor-General pride
himself on the perfection of the document.
A dull, oppressive silence had fallen upon this vast concourse of
people. Interest, which was at fever-pitch, had forcibly to be kept in
check, but now, as the Clerk's final words echoed feebly through the
vast hall, a great sigh of eager excitement rose from the entire
multitude.
Everything so far had been but preliminary, the somewhat dull, lengthy
prologue of the coming palpitating drama. But at last the curtain was
about to rise on the first act, and the chief actor was ready to step
upon the stage.
Already from afar loud murmurs and excited cries proclaimed the approach
of the prisoner.
"He hath arrived from the Tower," whispered the 'prentices to one
another.
The distant murmurs grew in volume, then came nearer and nearer. All
necks were craned to see the Duke arrive, and even the repeated calls of
the Serjeant-at-Arms demanding silence were now left unheeded.
Whispers passed from lip to ear. Comments and conjectures flew through
the crowd. Was not this the most interesting moment of this interesting
day?
"How would he carry himself?"
"How would he look?"
"How doth a nobleman look when he becomes a felon?"
"Silence! Here they come!"
The Serjeant-at-Arms once more stood up before the people and loudly
read a proclamation, calling upon the Lieutenant of the Tower of London
to return his precept and bring forth his prisoner.
This was responded to by a call of "Present!" from outside, followed by
a loud tumult. The next moment the great doors of the Hall were thrown
open, six armed men entered and walked straight up the centre aisle
towards the bar.
Behind them appeared the Lieutenant of the Tower of London, with Lord
Rich, and between them was Robert d'Esclade, fifth Duke of Wessex, the
prisoner.
Dressed all in black, he looked distinctly older than the crowd had
remembrance of him. A sigh of excited anticipation went all along the
line, a regular bousculade ensued; the people behind trying to catch a
nearer glimpse of the Duke and pushing those who were in front. The
'prentices, who were squatting in the foremost rank on the ground, were
violently jerked forward, some fell on their faces right up against the
Lieutenant and my lord Rich, seeing which and the general excited
confusion the Duke was observed to smile.
A woman in the crowd murmured--
"The Lord bless his handsome face!"
"Heaven ward Your Grace!" added another.
The women's pity--and that only momentarily. And the awful publicity of
it all! Among the men wagers were offered and taken in his hearing as he
passed, whether sentence of death would be passed on him or not.
"Will they hang him, think you?"
"No, no, 'tis always the axe for noble lords; but they'll have him drawn
and quartered for sure."
"God help Your Grace!" sighed the women.
Indeed, if pride was a deadly sin, how deadly was its punishment now.
The crowd was not hostile, only indifferent, curious, eager to see; and
every remark made by these stolid gapers must have cut the prisoner like
a blow.
They watched him cross the entire length of the hall, commenting on his
appearance, his clothes, his past life, a coarse jest even came to his
ears now and again, a laugh of derision or an exclamation of satisfied
envy.
Fallen Wessex indeed!
He tried with all his might not to show what he felt, and evidently he
succeeded over well, for Mr. Thomas Norton, in his comments on the
trial, states placidly:--
"The prisoner seemeth not to understand the gravity of his position and
careth naught for the heinousness of his crime. Truly this indifference
marketh a godless soul or else the supreme conceit of wealth and high
rank, he having many friends among his peers and being confident of an
acquittal."
Lord Rich alone, who walked by the side of the Duke, and stood close to
him throughout the awful ordeal, has noted in his interesting memoirs
how deeply the accused was moved when he realized that he would have to
stand at the bar on a raised dais, in full view of all the crowd.
"Meseemed that his hand trembled when first he rested it on the bar,"
adds his lordship in his chronicles. "He being passing tall he could be
seen by all and sundry, which was trying to his pride. But anon His
Grace caught my eye, and I doubt not but that he read therein all the
sympathy which I felt for him, for he then threw back his head and
scanned the crowd right fearlessly, and more like a king ready to read a
proclamation than a felon awaiting his trial. Then, as he looked all
around him, his eyes lighted on my lord the Cardinal de Moreno and on a
veiled female figure who sat close to the Spanish envoy. He then became
deathly pale, and I, fearing that he might swoon, caught him by the arm.
But he pressed my hand and thanked me, saying only that the heat of the
room was oppressive."
It is evident that my lord Rich was a hot partisan of the accused. He
and the Lieutenant of the Tower stood close beside the Duke throughout
the trial, the Tower guard forming a semicircle round the bar, and the
Chamberlain of the Tower holding the axe with its edge from the prisoner
and towards Lord Rich.
Mr. Thomas Norton tells us that at this point of the proceedings the
excitement was intense. Lord Chandois himself seemed unable to keep up
the rigid dignity of his office. The peers who were the triers were
eagerly whispering to one another. The Clerk seemed unable to clear his
throat before calling on the accused.
The crowd too felt this acute tension. The people had already noticed
the veiled female figure, clad in sombre kirtle and black paniers, who
had entered the Hall a little while ago, accompanied by His Eminence the
Cardinal, and had since then sat, dull and rigid, beside him, seemingly
taking no notice of the proceedings. A hurried conversation carried on
in whispers between His Eminence and my lord High Steward had been noted
by everybody--yet no one dared to ask a question.
It seemed as if an invisible presence had suddenly made itself felt, a
spirit from the land of shadows, that awesome precursor of death which
is called "Retribution," and that from his ghostly lips there had
fallen--unheard yet felt by every heart--the mighty dictate of an
almighty will: "Thou shalt do no murder!"
Had the spirit really passed? Who can tell? But the soul of every man
and woman there was left quivering. There was not a hand that now did
not slightly tremble, not one lid that failed to move, for the supreme
moment had come for the accomplishment of an irreparable wrong.
The spectators had before them the picture of that solemn Court, the
Lord High Steward with chain and sword of gold, the judges in their red
robes, the peers with their ermine, and here and there quaint patches
of unexpected colour as the wintry sun struck full through the coloured
facets of the huge window beyond and alighted on a black gown or the
leather jerkins of the guard.
They saw the halberds of the men-at-arms faintly gleaming in the wan,
grey light, the Cardinal's purple robes, a brilliant note amidst the
dull mass of browns and blacks; the blue doublet of Sir Henry
Beddingfield, a jarring bit of discord between the sable-hued garb of
the other gentlemen there.
And there, amongst them all, the tall, erect figure, the one quiet,
impassive face in this surging sea of excitement--the prisoner at the
bar!