The prisoner in the dock, he proceeded to say, was of a class whose
members, happily, in this country, seldom filled that unfortunate
position. He was a gentleman of affluence, more or less known to them
all, and holding a high and influential station. They might reason that
on that account, if any man was free from all temptation to such a crime
as the one under their consideration, that man would be the prisoner
before them. But this was precisely what they must not do. He, the
learned counsel, could assure them that human nature in this respect was
marvellously similar. All his experience--and it had not been
inconsiderable--went to confirm him in that opinion.--And so on.
Then he proceeded to draw a graphic and rather harrowing picture of the
disappearance of the deceased and the terrible blow to the feelings of
his relatives which this re-opening of their grief must prove, going on
to dissect the evidence bit by bit.
"The identity of the prisoner with the stranger known as Robert Durnford
is as clear as daylight," proceeded Mr Benham. "You will notice that
the persons who saw through this disguise were those to whom he was or
had been best known. Andrew Johnston, an old family servant, recognised
him at once. Stephen Devine, formerly a labourer on the Cranston
estate, and since gamekeeper to Colonel Neville--both these men had had
abundant opportunities of being acquainted with the prisoner's
appearance. Their suspicions aroused, they took further occasion to
observe the so-called Durnford, with the result that those suspicions
were fully confirmed. To this they had sworn--again and again. Then
there is James Pollock, a man of the greatest respectability--to him
Roland Dorrien was not so well known as to the other witnesses
mentioned, yet, being a man of keen perceptions, he had recognised him.
Not the first time, indeed--though even then the voice had struck upon
his ears as familiar. But on the second occasion of their being brought
together, meeting with the so-called Durnford on the occasion of Miss
Olive Ingelow's rescue from drowning, he saw through his disguise at a
glance, and in the man he had met coming away from Smugglers' Ladder,
between nine and half-past on the evening of the murder, he recognised
the prisoner, Roland Dorrien. Now here are three persons who distinctly
swear to the identity between these two. Nor is that all. There is
Joseph Grainger, the waiter at `The Silver Fleece,' at the time of
Durnford's stay at that inn. He comes here. He sees the prisoner in
his normal costume and wearing his ordinary aspect, and he does not
recognise him--at first. Indeed, he even goes so far as to emphasise
the statement. But memory will not be cheated. As he stands there, the
striking similarity of the accused to the pseudo-Durnford recalls itself
to his mind, and he is dumbfounded. Gentlemen, you saw him--his air of
utter astonishment, almost of awe, as he looked at the prisoner. You
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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