Читать книгу The Hermit Convict - Rev. William Draper - Страница 8

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Once more we have to record the incidents and results of a great crime. Stewart and Argyle, convicted, and under sentence of expatriation, are awaiting the usual period when they are to embark for a foreign land. We shall have to retrace the course of time which has elapsed between their conviction and their arrival in Moreton Bay in order to complete the history of the circumstances under which one of the principal witnesses on the trial of these two young men became himself surrounded with strong meshes of criminality, which proved the truth of the sacred adage, "be sure your sins will find you out." Twelve months had elapsed since David Argyle had been sentenced to fourteen years transportation, and assize time had come again. The town we will call Blythwick. The judges have entered it in the orthodox manner, the commission has been duly opened, the assize sermon has been preached, and the shades of evening have drawn around the city. Again it is winter—very cold; snow is falling gently, and the weather-wise advance the opinion that "they are in for a regular boomer." In the very elegantly furnished and comfortable chambers of the judge, who is to preside in the Crown Court to-morrow, the weather is of no consequence, so you would think if you saw the learned gentleman in his warm dressing-gown and thick velvet slippers, sitting in a luxurious easy chair before a bright fire.

Standing at the table in the centre of the room, which is covered with papers with the usual red-taped ornamentation, an elderly man is patiently waiting the pleasure of the judge, respecting the papers which he has in his hand, and which he has been reading during the past half hour or so. Most intently has the judge been engaged upon these depositions, for such they are, and the experienced and confidential clerk of Mr. Boodle, or rather of Messrs Boodle and Sons, as the firm was now, know his business too well to disturb the learned judge until he had permission to do so. At length the judge spoke: "I have sent for you, Mr. Green, to ask if anything farther has been elicited. There is nothing in those depositions which can go before a jury."

"Yes, my lord, but perhaps this is not of any moment. It has been ascertained that this man was the principal agent in the conviction of one Stewart, at the 18-Spring assize, at Winchester."

"Indeed! Ah! I recollect the case, it was forgery. I was the judge at nisi prius at the same assize. In reading the depositions, Mr. Green, I was impressed with the more important fact, that he was the principal witness upon a manslaughter case which had a direct bearing upon the interests of the party who is mentioned in the prosecution. Will it not be necessary, think you, to procure the attendance of this Stewart? You can have a writ of habeas. If the man who is to be tried is what I am now afraid he will turn out to be, it is but justice that the iniquity of his career should be fully known. I ought not to interfere, but I have the strongest impression now that there is rank treachery in this case, and ever since I sentenced young Argyle to a terrible doom I have felt dissatisfied with myself. I would indeed, Mr. Green, risk a little trouble to clear up some of the difficulties which surround this prosecution."

"His late employer, my lord," replied Mr. Green, "is in Blythwick now."

"Ah! is it so?" said the judge. "I should like to see him. What does he say? There is not any reference to him, I think, in the depositions."

"No, my lord, none whatever, but since the committal of the prisoner Judd, Mr. Boodle has been to London. There he met with Mr. Hartlop, at the Gray's Inn Hotel. They had been upon the most familiar terms for many years, almost in fact as brothers, and so of course they spent the evening over their wine and a little gossip. Mr. Boodle happened to ask Mr. Hartlop if he knew of a place for a young man, whom he wished to get into a good house of business. The inquiry led to a conversation in which Mr. Hartlop related the circumstances which had resulted in Stewart's conviction, and the subsequent extraordinary absconding of his fellow clerk, who had been the chief instrument in that conviction. Upon this Mr. Boodle also told Mr. Hartlop the particulars of the case, the depositions relating to which, your lordship has been reading."

"Ah! indeed!" said the judge, "and what did he think about it?"

"He was struck at once, my lord," replied Mr. Green, "with the description which Mr. Boodle gave of the prisoner, the name also seemed to him to be curiously ominous, that Judd and Julet were one and the same person."

"How long ago is it since this interview took place, Mr. Green?" inquired the judge.

"Only a week, my lord, and Mr. Hartlop has been induced to come down to Blythwick, and is, I believe, with Mr. Boodle at this moment."

"It is somewhat irregular, Mr. Green," replied the judge, "but the evidence of this gentleman may be very important. It is not for me to suggest to you that which may forward the ends of justice, but in the question of handwriting, identity, and the previous history of the prisoner, the case seems to be very incomplete. I happen to be personally acquainted with Hartlop, and I know Mr. Boodle from report; tell them both, if you please, that I should be glad to be favored with their company this evening."

"I will, my lord," replied Mr. Green. "At what hour would you be prepared to receive them?"

"Oh! any hour, I shall not go out again," replied the judge.

At 8 o'clock the judge, the lawyer, and the merchant, were putting together knowledge, experience, and probabilities, with the legal acumen of the one, the business tact of the other, and the professional experience of the third. The issue of their deliberations was a writ of habeas corpus to bring up the body of James Stewart from Portsmouth; a lengthened folio of manuscript, purporting to be the affidavit of Alex. Hartlop, and the discovery that beyond a doubt Henry Judd, the prisoner, and Henry Julet, Mr. Hartlop's late clerk, were one and the same person.