England -- Fiction; Mystery fiction; Trials (Murder) -- Fiction
The public prosecutor stated the case in all its fullness. The
prisoner, said he, was a medical man practicing in Deanminster. He had
seen Miss Isabella Dallas, and had fallen in love with the lady, and
also--which was more important--with the fortune of the lady.
Evidently he had made up his mind that no obstacle should stand in the
way of his marriage with Miss Dallas. But it so happened that there
was one obstacle--the young lady was in love with Mr. Maurice Alymer,
a young gentleman of position, who held a commission in Her Majesty's
army. Her love was returned, and the young people were engaged.
Interruption by the prisoner's counsel: "But without the consent of
the mother."
The public prosecutor thought that the interruption of his learned
friend was out of place; as the refusal of Mrs. Dallas--"mother,
gentlemen of the jury, to the young lady engaged to the deceased
gentleman, Mr. Maurice Alymer"--had nothing to do with the actual
facts of the case. The prisoner, seeing that while Mr. Alymer lived,
he could never marry Miss Dallas, determined to rid himself of a
rival. The prisoner had been in Barbadoes, and while there he had
learned many things concerning African witchcraft, and had become
possessor of the Voodoo stone, a talisman which the black race held in
peculiar reverence. On his return to England the prisoner had become
acquainted with Mrs. Dallas, with the daughter, whom he designed to
marry, and with a negress called Dido, the servant of the aforesaid
Mrs. Dallas. By means of the Voodoo stone, the prisoner made an
absolute slave of the negress, and could command her services at any
time, even to the extent of crime.
The counsel for the defense objected to the use of the word crime.
Nothing, he submitted, had yet been proved.
Counsel for the prosecution accepted the correction of his learned
friend, and withdrew the obnoxious word crime--if not altogether, at
all events for the time being. He would resume his explanation of the
case. Major Jen, the adopted father of the deceased, possessed a
barbaric curiosity called by civilized people the devil-stick; by
barbarians the wand of sleep. This he had obtained from Ashantee,
where it was used to kill people inimical to the king by the injection
of poison. There was no need to describe the devil-stick, as it was on
the table, and would be shown to the jury. This devil-stick--
With some impatience prisoner's counsel admitted that the devil-stick
had been used to kill the deceased, and requested the prosecutor to
pass on to more important details.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account