Henry Dunbar: A NovelBraddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)
General
Henry Dunbar: A Novel
Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)
Fiction
To the mind of Sir Arden Westhorpe the agitation displayed by Henry
Dunbar in the cathedral was a very strong point; yet, what more
possible than that the Anglo-Indian should have been seized with a
momentary giddiness? He was not a young man; and though his broad
chest, square shoulders, and long, muscular arms betokened strength,
that natural vigour might have been impaired by the effects of a warm
climate.
There were new witnesses upon this day, people who testified to having
been in the neighbourhood of the grove, and in the grove itself, upon
that fatal afternoon and evening.
Other labourers, besides the two Irishmen, had passed beneath the
shadow of the trees in the moonlight. Idle pedestrians had strolled
through the grove in the still twilight; not one of these had seen
Joseph Wilmot, nor had there been heard any cry of anguish, or wild
shrieks of terror.
One man deposed to having met a rough-looking fellow, half-gipsy,
half-hawker, in the grove between seven and eight o'clock.
Arthur Lovell questioned this person as to the appearance and manner of
the man he had met.
But the witness declared that there was nothing peculiar in the man's
manner. He had not seemed confused, or excited, or hurried, or
frightened. He was a coarse-featured, sunburnt ruffianly-looking
fellow; and that was all.
Mr. Balderby was examined, and swore to the splendid position which
Henry Dunbar occupied as chief of the house in St. Gundolph Lane; and
then the examination was adjourned, and the prisoner remanded, although
Arthur Lovell contended that there was no evidence to justify his
detention.
Mr. Dunbar still protested against any offer of bail; he again declared
that he would rather remain in prison than accept his liberty on
sufferance, and go out into the world a suspected man.
"I will never leave Winchester Gaol," he said, "until I leave it with
my character cleared in the eyes of every living creature."
He had been treated with the greatest respect by the prison officials,
and had been provided with comfortable apartments. Arthur Lovell and
Mr. Balderby were admitted to him whenever he chose to receive them.
Meanwhile every voice in Winchester was loud in indignation against
those who had caused the detention of the millionaire.
Here was an English gentleman, a man whose wealth was something
fabulous, newly returned from India, eager to embrace his only child;
and before he had done more than set his foot upon his native soil, he
was seized upon by obstinate and pig-headed officials, and thrown into
a prison.
Arthur Lovell worked nobly in the service of Laura's father. He did not
particularly like the man, though he wished to like him; but he
believed him to be innocent of the dreadful crime imputed to him, and
he was determined to make that innocence clear to the eyes of other
people.
For this purpose he urged on the police upon the track of the strange
man, the rough-looking hawker, who had been seen in the grove on the
day of the murder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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