登陆注册
5386000000244

第244章

took their form and shape accordingly.--What's the matter? What do you want now?"Suddenly rising from his chair, Mr. Bashwood stretched across the table, and tried to take the papers from his son. "I want to look at them," he burst out, eagerly. "I want to see what they say about the captain from Cuba. He was at the bottom of it, Jemmy--I'll swear he was at the bottom of it!""Nobody doubted that who was in the secret of the case at the time," rejoined his son. "But nobody could prove it. Sit down again, dad, and compose yourself. There's nothing here about Captain Manuel but the lawyer's private suspicions of him, for the counsel to act on or not, at the counsel's discretion. From first to last she persisted in screening the captain. At the outset of the business she volunteered two statements to the lawyer--both of which he suspected to be false. In the first place she declared that she was innocent of the crime. He wasn't surprised, of course, so far; his clients were, as a general rule, in the habit of deceiving him in that way. In the second place, while admitting her private correspondence with the Cuban captain, she declared that the letters on both sides related solely to a proposed elopement, to which her husband's barbarous treatment had induced her to consent. The lawyer naturally asked to see the letters. 'He has burned all my letters, and I have burned all his,' was the only answer he got. It was quite possible that Captain Manuel might have burned _her_ letters when he heard there was a coroner's inquest in the house. But it was in her solicitor's experience (as it is in my experience too)that, when a woman is fond of a man, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, risk or no risk, she keeps his letters. Having his suspicions roused in this way, the lawyer privately made some inquiries about the foreign captain, and found that he was as short of money as a foreign captain could be. At the same time, he put some questions to his client about her expectations from her deceased husband. She answered, in high indignation, that a will had been found among her husband's papers, privately executed only a few days before his death, and leaving her no more, out of all his immense fortune, than five thousand pounds.

'Was there an older will, then,' says the lawyer, 'which the new will revoked?' Yes, there was; a will that he had given into her own possession--a will made when they were first married.

'Leaving his widow well provided for?' Leaving her just ten times as much as the second will left her. 'Had she ever mentioned that first will, now revoked, to Captain Manuel?' She saw the trap set for her, and said, 'No, never!' without an instant's hesitation.

That reply confirmed the lawyer's suspicions. He tried to frighten her by declaring that her life might pay the forfeit of her deceiving him in this matter. With the usual obstinacy of women, she remained just as immovable as ever. The captain, on his side, behaved in the most exemplary manner. He confessed to planning the elopement; he declared that he had burned all the lady's letters as they reached him, out of regard for her reputation; he remained in the neighborhood; and he volunteered to attend before the magistrates. Nothing was discovered that could legally connect him with the crime, or that could put him into court on the day of the trial, in any other capacity than the capacity of a witness. I don't believe myself that there's any moral doubt (as they call it) that Manuel knew of the will which left her mistress of fifty thousand pounds; and that he was ready and willing, in virtue of that circumstance, to marry her on Mr. Waldron's death. If anybody tempted her to effect her own release from her husband by making herself a widow, the captain must have been the man. And unless she contrived, guarded and watched as she was, to get the poison for herself, the poison must have come to her in one of the captain's letters.""I don't believe she used it, if it did come to her!" exclaimed Mr. Bashwood. "I believe it was the captain himself who poisoned her husband!"Bashwood the younger, without noticing the interruption, folded up the Instructions for the Defense, which had now served their purpose, put them back in his bag, and produced a printed pamphlet in their place.

"Here is one of the published Reports of the Trial," he said, "which you can read at your leisure, if you like. We needn't waste time now by going into details. I have told you already how cleverly her counsel paved his way for treating the charge of murder as the crowning calamity of the many that had already fallen on an innocent woman. The two legal points relied on for the defense (after this preliminary flourish) were: First, that there was no evidence to connect her with the possession of poison; and, secondly, that the medical witnesses, while positively declaring that her husband had died by poison, differed in their conclusions as to the particular drug that had killed him. Both good points, and both well worked; but the evidence on the other side bore down everything before it. The prisoner was proved to have had no less than three excellent reasons for killing her husband. He had treated her with almost unexampled barbarity; he had left her in a will (unrevoked so far as she knew) mistress of a fortune on his death; and she was, by her own confession, contemplating an elopement with another man.

Having set forth these motives, the prosecution next showed by evidence, which was never once shaken on any single point, that the one person in the house who could by any human possibility have administered the poison was the prisoner at the bar. What could the judge and jury do, with such evidence before them as this? The verdict was Guilty, as a matter of course; and the judge declared that he agreed with it. The female part of the audience was in hysterics; and the male part was not much better.

同类推荐
  • 钱氏私志

    钱氏私志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 言行龟鉴

    言行龟鉴

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 六字神咒王经

    六字神咒王经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 李煜集

    李煜集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 史讳举例

    史讳举例

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 透骨

    透骨

    良宴有不凡的出身,曾经活得太过肆意张狂,南钦的出现是他醉生梦死里唯一的救赎。可是即便同床共枕,即使面对面时嘴唇相距不过两公分,心却始终无法靠近。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 仙门有徒初长成

    仙门有徒初长成

    这年头,乞丐也能翻身把仙做。拾掇拾掇,照样有春天桃花烂漫。魔尊这朵桃花太强大,惹不起。上仙这朵桃花也强大,怎么办?还是近水楼台先得师父要紧。仙门有徒初长成,某日,某女面红耳赤眼带桃花:“师父,我……我想犯上!”--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 听过很多道理 为什么还是过不好这一生

    听过很多道理 为什么还是过不好这一生

    “听过很多道理,依然过不好这一生。”
  • 老学究语

    老学究语

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 世子很皮

    世子很皮

    天呐!我怎么成了那个被湘王召集起来阖家自焚的孩子!??大明初期风云激荡,注定要被活活烧死的湘王世子朱久炎,必须要改变湘王府覆灭的命运,功过成败,一切将会如何改写?
  • 没爱过渣男,当不了女王

    没爱过渣男,当不了女王

    27岁以上的女人分两种,恨嫁的一种,不恨嫁的另一种,香水是第二种。认真的男人最有魅力,那一瞬间,香水很想要嫁给他。爱情的相配程度有两种,物质上和精神上。
  • 国际间谍

    国际间谍

    大雪之夜。哈尔滨这座城市在20世纪初,就是一座流亡者的城市,冒险家的乐园。在这座城市里,你很少看到中国风格的建筑。无论你采取俯拍或者是地面跟进的手段,所看到的有70%甚至到80%,都是洋建筑,再加上在街上行走的,至少有2/3是形形色色的外国人,而且街道两旁所有的商店,各种事务所,甚至街的路牌,都是俄文的。恍惚之间,你会觉得这是一座外国人的城市——这就是上个世纪初哈尔滨的基本形态。当然,它显得还小了一些,简单了一点。但重要的是,它是中东铁路一个重要的站点。
  • 2009中篇小说卷(中国当代文学经典必读)

    2009中篇小说卷(中国当代文学经典必读)

    本书主要收录了2009年中篇小说卷。 当代人不能代替后人命名当代“经典”,当代人所能做的就是对过去“经典”的缅怀和回忆。这种错觉的一个直接后果就是在“经典”问题上的厚古薄今,似乎没有人敢于理直气壮地对当代文学作品进行“经典”的命名,甚至还有人认为当代人连写当代史的权利都没有。
  • 这个师尊不靠谱

    这个师尊不靠谱

    受屈惨死重生,一番挣扎打滚,终于靠着修仙挽救自己尴尬的命运!多年之后,已为半个仙身的女子看着自己多年前捡上山的小乞丐,皱着眉头叨咕:“我怎么捡了这么个麻烦!”“师尊可是嫌弃弟子?”“没有没有~怎么会啦~师尊是爱你的~真的!”麻烦是麻烦,但自己找的徒弟还是要宠着不是?
  • 狐狸爱上仙

    狐狸爱上仙

    她,人生最幸福时,却惨遭背叛。对象还是她最好的姐妹,令她情何以堪。可是老天竟然在她还没来得及大哭一场时,又残忍地夺走了她的双亲~让她变成一个孤女,让她意外掉进湖里从此香消玉殒。再次醒来,她竟成了玉帝的小女儿,天庭的八公主玉莲儿。火烧月老白花花的长寿胡、扒光玉兔兔毛、暴打二郎神的爱犬孝天···惹得天庭众仙哀叫连天、苦不堪言~逼得玉帝不得不将这位天庭的‘宠儿’扔下凡间。他是狐狸族的三王子,被母后扔到凡间找他见鬼的命定新娘。谁会想到,在他每三百年一次的大劫时竟然被这个从天而降的不明物体给砸晕了!此次相遇注定了两人一生的纠缠。