Great Porter Square: A Mystery. v. 3Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
General
Great Porter Square: A Mystery. v. 3
Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction
In another part of our paper will be found a full report of the
proceedings at the inquest upon the bodies of the man and woman, which
were found in the back room of No. 119, Great Porter Square. The inquest
was held this morning, and a verdict of accidental death by burning was
returned. As a rule such inquests are dull, miserable affairs, and there
is but little variety in the evidence presented to the coroner and his
panel, but in this special case were elements of unexpected romance
which raised it far above the ordinary level of a simple death by
misadventure.
Last evening a private note was sent to our office, signed by Frederick
Holdfast, requesting as an act of justice, that the Special Reporter who
wrote "The Romance of Real Life" from Mrs. Holdfast's account of her
career and misfortunes, should attend and take whatever notice of the
proceedings he might deem fit and proper. In accordance with the request
our Special Reporter attended, and the present report is written by him
for our paper. The disclosures which were made at the inquest were as
interesting as they were surprising, and our Reporter thanks Mr.
Frederick Holdfast for the opportunity afforded him of being present.
At the inquest our Reporter renewed his acquaintance with Mr. Goldberry,
solicitor, a gentleman whose name will be remembered as having
voluntarily come forward to defend Antony Cowlrick at the Martin Street
Police Court, when, upon the barest suspicion, without a tittle of
direct evidence, that person was accused by the police of the murder of
a man unknown in No. 119, Great Porter Square. Our readers will remember
how stoutly, and under what disadvantages, Mr. Goldberry defended the
man wrongfully accused of the crime; how he protested against the
numerous remands, and lifted up his voice in the cause of justice
against Scotland Yard officialism; and how at length, to the manifest
chagrin of the police, Antony Cowlrick was discharged from custody. The
particulars of the interview which took place in Leicester Square, a few
minutes after Antony Cowlrick's departure from the Police Court, between
our Reporter, Mr. Goldberry, and the accused man, was fully reported
in our columns. In that interview our Reporter lent Antony Cowlrick a
sovereign, which was faithfully repaid. We purpose reprinting in a
pamphlet that report and the "Romance in Real Life," in addition to what
appears in our present issue relating to the case. They are worthy of
a record in a more permanent form than the columns of a newspaper.
"Do you remember," said Mr. Goldberry to our Reporter, referring to
that interview, "that Antony Cowlrick said to me that if at any time he
should need my services, he would call upon or send for me?"
"I do," replied our Reporter, "and I remember, also, that Antony
Cowlrick asked you if you thought God would allow the guilty to escape,
or that He needed the assistance of a lawyer to punish the man who shed
another's blood."
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