Paul Clifford — CompleteLytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
General
Paul Clifford — Complete
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
Brigands and robbers -- Fiction
not to depend upon the vigilance of my learned friend, but to treasure
these my errors in your recollection, and to consider them as so many
arguments in favour of the prisoner. If, gentlemen, I could by any
possibility imagine that your verdict would be favourable to the
prisoner, I can, unaffectedly and from the bottom of my heart,
declare to you that I should rejoice; a case might be lost, but a
fellow-creature would be saved! Callous as we of the legal profession
are believed, we have feelings like you; and I ask any one of you,
gentlemen of the jury, any one who has ever felt the pleasures of social
intercourse, the joy of charity, the heart's reward of benevolence,--I
ask any one of you, whether, if he were placed in the arduous situation
I now hold, all the persuasions of vanity would not vanish at once from
his mind, and whether his defeat as an advocate would not be rendered
dear to him by the common and fleshly sympathies of a man. But,
gentlemen” (Mr. Dyebright's voice at once deepened and faltered), “there
is a duty, a painful duty, we owe to our country; and never, in the long
course of my professional experience, do I remember an instance in which
it was more called forth than in the present. Mercy, gentlemen, is dear,
very dear to us all; but it is the deadliest injury we can inflict on
mankind when it is bought at the expense of justice.”
The learned gentleman then, after a few further prefatory observations,
proceeded to state how, on the night of ------- last, Lord Mauleverer
was stopped and robbed by three men masked, of a sum of money amounting
to above L350, a diamond snuff-box, rings, watch, and a case of most
valuable jewels,--how Lord Mauleverer, in endeavouring to defend
himself, had passed a bullet through the clothes of one of the
robbers,--how it would be proved that the garments of the prisoner,
found in a cave in Oxfordshire, and positively sworn to by a witness he
should produce, exhibited a rent similar to such a one as a bullet would
produce,--how, moreover, it would be positively sworn to by the same
witness, that the prisoner Lovett had come to the cavern with two
accomplices not since taken up, since their rescue by the prisoner, and
boasted of the robbery he had just committed; that in the clothes
and sleeping apartment of the robber the articles stolen from Lord
Mauleverer were found; and that the purse containing the notes for L300,
the only thing the prisoner could probably have obtained time to carry
off with him, on the morning on which the cave was entered by the
policemen, was found on his person on the day on which he had attempted
the rescue of his comrades, and had been apprehended in that attempt.
He stated, moreover, that the dress found in the cavern, and sworn to
by one witness he should produce as belonging to the prisoner, answered
exactly to the description of the clothes worn by the principal robber,
and sworn to by Lord Mauleverer, his servant, and the postilions.
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