Charles Tyrrell; or, The Bitter Blood. Volumes I and IIJames, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
General
Charles Tyrrell; or, The Bitter Blood. Volumes I and II
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Murder -- Fiction
The counsel who conducted the cause for the crown, was one of those
wise and conscientious men, who suffer no degree of passion to mingle
with the exercise of their functions. We have occasionally, indeed,
persons at the bar, who, when called upon to act the awful part of
public accuser, suffer their own vanity to be implicated in the
success of their cause, and strive, not so much to elicit truth, as to
establish the case they have undertaken. Such, however, was not the
character of the gentleman who appeared against Charles Tyrrell. He
uttered not one word that was calculated to produce prejudice in the
minds of the jury. He stated clearly and distinctly the evidence he
had to produce against the prisoner at the bar. He pointed out in mild
terms, the inferences which were to be drawn from the witnesses, and
he ended by expressing a hope that the prisoner would be able to
produce such evidence, on his own part, as would relieve the minds of
the jury from any doubt as to the fact of his innocence.
He then called several of the servants of Harbury park, whose evidence
tended to show on the present occasion, as it had done at the
coroner's inquest, that a severe quarrel had taken place between
Charles Tyrrell and his father; that the former had gone out with his
gun in his hand, and had been followed by the latter; that the
prisoner had been seen passing through the garden shortly after;
that his father had been found murdered within a few yards of the
garden-gate, by the discharge of a gun, loaded with small shot, into
the back of his head; that the gun of the prisoner with which he had
gone out, had been found discharged within a few yards of the dead
body; and that his clothes had been spotted with blood, and his hands
had also been bloody when he returned home; that he himself had
declared that he had not discharged the gun at any game, and had
refused to account for the time of his absence, or the blood that
appeared upon his clothes.
When the servants had been examined, and it was found that no attempt
was made whatsoever to cross-examine them, or shake their evidence, a
considerable degree of agitation was manifested in the court, and the
impression was decidedly unfavourable to the prisoner. The counsel
then went on to say:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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