Great Britain -- History -- 18th century -- Fiction; Short stories, English; West Riding of Yorkshire (England) -- Fiction
Dick o’ Dean’s end was, too, in its way, remarkable. Of the blood-money
that had been subscribed in the loom-loft of the “Fullers’ Arms,” only
forty-five pound odd had been actually collected, and the three lucky
wolves had taken fifteen pound apiece. When he heard of the hanging of
Mish, Dick o’ Dean had the effrontery to go to his widow and to demand
the unspent balance of Mish’s fifteen pounds, averring that he had
incurred certain expenses on Mish’s behalf that had included a bribe to
a sergeant to permit of Mish’s escape from the bellpit. The tale was
thin enough, but it seems to have sufficed for Mrs. Mish. By that time,
however, Parker of Ford was very busy in Horwick, straightening up
certain matters with Captain Ritchie; and this exploit of Dick o’ Dean’s
came to his ears. (Dick had already found it an easy matter to get
fifteen pounds out of the distracted Charley.) Proceedings for blackmail
were promptly instituted, and Dick was laid by the heels. Blackmail or
what you like, once they had him they were little likely to let him go
again, and they made short work of him in York. His end was not as
satisfactory as Mish’s, costing more. The youth Charley was suffered to
enjoy such peace as his conscience would allow him; and the parson
shrugged his shoulders, but could do little more, when, in course of
time, Charley and Pim o’ Cuddy became stalwart pillars of the Church.
For a matter of some significance, we have to return again to the
documents. It is obvious that if you are permitted to select such
documents as you require, and to ignore the rest, they may be made very
serviceable things; but you will be prudent to make away entirely with
such as do not tally with the case you have thus conveniently proved. It
was an odd thing that there should have come to light, years afterwards,
a paper that in all decency should have been destroyed, namely, another
deposition of Eastwood Ellah’s. This deposition flatly contradicted the
one which Cope had put with a chuckle into his pocket. Cope may or may
not have seen this paper; of its existence he must have known, from the
circumstances under which it was found; and it is always possible that
orders he may have given for its destruction were disregarded. The
suppression of it made some difference to Northrop and Haigh, but Cope
was not the first, or last, who disregarded what was inconvenient, and,
each in our different way, most of us do it. As Cope himself had said,
the Law’s a queer thing; all’s past now, and they didn’t get Big Monjoy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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