John Inglesant: A Romance (Volume 1 of 2)Shorthouse, J. H. (Joseph Henry)
History
John Inglesant: A Romance (Volume 1 of 2)
Shorthouse, J. H. (Joseph Henry)
Great Britain -- History -- Charles I, 1625-1649 -- Fiction; Religious fiction
Lord Biron left the room, and Inglesant was taken back to the Tower as
he had come. Mr. Secretary Milton, who had been present as a spectator,
left the Parliament House and proceeded at once to Clerkenwell Green to
the house of General Cromwell, and related to him and to General Ireton,
who was with him, what had occurred.
"They have gained nothing by getting this warrant," he said; "nay, you
have lost rather. You have brought up Lord Biron, who comes forward in
the light of day and with the utmost confidence, and challenges this
paper to be a forgery, and your own lawyers bear him out in it. I have
not the least doubt it is the King’s; but some of the letters, either
purposely or more probably by accident, are not in his usual hand, and
the best judges cannot agree on these matters. Out of Inglesant you
will get nothing. He is a consummate actor, as I have known of old. He
is prepared at every point, and carefully trained by his masters the
Jesuits. I know these men, and have seen them both here and abroad.
Acting on select natures the training is perfect. They will go to death
more indifferently than to a Court ball. You may rack them to the
extremity of anguish, and in the delirium of pain they will say what
they have been trained to say, and not the truth. You may wear him out
with fasting and anxiety until he makes some mistake; he made two
to-day, besides one which was a necessity of the case,—for I do not see
what else he could have said,—that was so slight that no one saw it but
Biron. Weakened by anxiety, doubtless, he could not restrain a movement
of relief when the expert declared the warrant a forgery; Biron saw that
too, for I watched him. Last, which was the greatest mistake of all,
and would show that his training is not entirely perfect, were we not to
make allowance for his broken health, he forgot his part, and suffered
his passion to get the better of him, and to taunt Lord Biron in such a
way that Biron, who I think till then honestly believed the King’s word,
very nearly let out the truth in his astonishment. But what do you gain
by all this? It rather adds to the apparent truth of the man’s story,
and gives life to his evidence. Nothing but his written testimony will
be of any use, and this you will never get."
"He shall be tried for his life at any rate," said Cromwell.
"You have threatened him with that already."
"Threatening is one thing," replied the General; "to stand beneath the
gallows condemned to death another."
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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