Читать книгу Moreton Bay - F. W. Mole - Страница 12

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Nigel Lording was stunned by the verdict. He could not believe that such a travesty of justice was possible in a land where jurisprudence was regarded as the copestone of its constitution.

Staring at the naked fact of his sentence, he groaned. He could not strip the terror from it by the convulsive movements of his arms or meet it calmly by looking it full in the face. In his despair the words of the Psalmist came to him, "With righteousness shall He judge the world and the people with equity." But here was neither righteousness nor equity. Stretching heavenward his importunate hands he cried in the bitter anguish of his riven soul. "Christ Jesus, teach me what Day is ere yet I go down into Night."

Staggering, as if dazed by a fearful blow, he was led away to his cell whose doors were swung ajar for him.

But friends were not wanting to petition the Crown for mitigation of his sentence, and when he heard this he did not give up hope. It was the practice of the Recorder of London to report to His Majesty in Council, the cases of the various prisoners in custody, upon whom sentence of death had been passed. The case of Nigel Lording, with others, was reported according to custom, and, in due time, the sentence of death was confirmed. This confirmation was made known to the prisoner by the Recorder who intimated that his execution was directed to take place. Then the condemned man gave up all hope. The petition had failed, and his soul dropped to the nadir of despair. He had looked forward with confidence to the result of the exertions of his friends in his favour, but now, all was over, and his mind once more seethed in the cauldron of his agony. He was told to prepare for death, and the reverend ordinary of the gaol proceeded to pay to him those attentions usually expected at his hands.

A blunder of a most extraordinary nature, however, was soon discovered to have been made. This discovery was described in a newspaper published at the time.

On Thursday morning, Sir Thomas Denman, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, in casting his eyes on a newspaper saw the paragraph representing the fact that Nigel Lording was ordered for execution. His Lordship thought that the statement had been published from false information, and he adverted to the circumstance in the presence of one of the under-sheriffs as of a very mischievous nature. The under-sheriff, in some surprise, observed to his lordship that the paragraph was correct—that the recorder's warrant had been received on Wednesday evening at half past six at Newgate—that the intelligence had been communicated to the unfortunate culprit and that notices had been sent to the Sheriffs and other officials.

"What!" said Sir Thomas Denman, "Lording ordered for execution! Impossible! I was myself one of the Privy Council present when the report was made and I know that no warrant for the execution of Lording was ordered. I had intimated to the Privy Council that I was not altogether satisfied with the evidence at the trial—that such evidence was purely circumstantial—and that though in the minds of the jury there was more than a presumption of guilt, nevertheless no actual proof was submitted that the blow that killed Earl Belriven was delivered by Lording, and that consequently, he should be given the benefit of the doubt. The Privy Council then ordered Lording to be placed in solitary confinement and to be kept to hard labour previous to his being transported for life, to which penalty the judgment to die was commuted."

The under-sheriff reported the extraordinary information to his lordship, who instantly requested that he would forthwith apply at the Secretary of State's Office, when he would be reassured of the fact and receive an order in contradiction of the learned recorder's warrant. It is almost needless to say that the under-sheriff, who was very glad to be the bearer of such good tidings to a poor unhappy fellow creature, very speedily executed his mission. He found that the correction of Sir Thomas Denman was accurate according to the records in which the allotted punishment was regularly entered; and Lord Melbourne, immediately upon being informed of the mistake under which they laboured at Newgate, sent thither an authority to countermand the warrant with the Black Seal signed "Newman Nosworthy."

Lording had just twenty-two hours previously been told in the usual solemn way, to prepare for death; and as he had calculated largely and correctly upon the merciful character of the administration, he received the awful news of the confirmation of his sentence to death as if he had been struck to the earth by lightning. The mistake upon being mentioned to him, it is almost unnecessary to state, gave full relief to his heart.

Mr. Nosworthy, who at the time filled the office of Recorder, was immediately called upon to explain to the Common Hall of the City of London, the circumstances which attended the very remarkable error into which he had fallen. When they had heard from him whatever excuse he had to urge, they came to the following conclusion:—

"Resolved unanimously, that the Common Hall has learned, with feelings of the deepest horror and regret, that the life of Nigel Lording, a convict under sentence of death at Newgate, had well nigh been sacrificed by the act of the Recorder of London in sending down a warrant for his execution, notwithstanding his Majesty in Privy Council, had, in the gracious exercise of his royal prerogative of mercy, been pleased to commute his sentence for an inferior punishment.

"Resolved unanimously, that the mildest and most charitable construction which this Common Hall can put upon this conduct of the Recorder is that it was the result of some mental infirmity incident to his advanced age; but contemplating with alarm the dreadful consequences which, though happily averted in the present instance, may possible ensue from such an infirmity in that important public functionary, this Common Hall feels it an imperative duty to record the solemn expression of its opinion that the Recorder ought forthwith to retire from an office, the virtually important duties of which he is, from whatever cause, incompetent to discharge."

The Recorder, who was present, was received with deep groans, and with every manifestation of hostility. The resolutions of the Common Hall were followed by a resolution of the Court of Aldermen announcing the receipt of a communication from the Recorder that owing to his advanced age, ill-health and debility, consequent upon a late very severe fit of illness, he had felt himself bound, after serving this city for more than 47 years, upwards of 30 as common sergeant and recorder—to resign the office of Recorder.

When the "inferior punishment" was made known to Nigel Lording, he once more looked heavenward with an unspoken prayer of thankfulness. His life was saved and life was dear to him so long as Mary Worthington remained alive. Transportation had then no terrors for him; but had he known what was before him, he might not have regarded it as the "inferior punishment." Almost immediately he was removed in chains to a convict hulk at Portsmouth to await his transportation to New South Wales.

When Mary Worthington, in her cell at Newgate, was apprised of the fact that her lover's death sentence had been commuted, a ray of glory pierced the travail of her darkness and she sighed:

"Thank God! We may meet again in that far off land of living death." But though she instinctively thanked God, still, her dazed brain could not, in the dreadful circumstance in which she was placed, comprehend a God of infinite mercy and justice.

"If there be such a God, what have I to thank Him for?"

And she answered her own doubt. "No, there is neither God, nor mercy, nor justice. Neither is there a heaven, only a deep unfathomable hell into which we, my Nigel and I, have been cast. God of Evangel! Surely, He laughs in His high heaven, and mocks at our impotent prayers."