Secret Service; or, Recollections of a City DetectiveForrester, Andrew
General
Secret Service; or, Recollections of a City Detective
Forrester, Andrew
Detective and mystery stories, English; Fiction; Short stories
Clara, who from the gallery beheld all that had gone on, and who
devoured every word that had been uttered by the lawyers and the bench
with greedy ears, maintained a wonderful show of self-possession, but
was stirred by the intensest and most anxious thought. She left the
court when this decision had been arrived at in her brother's case; he
being, indeed, quite unconscious up to this moment as to what had taken
place in his absence, and, when it was explained to him, being left
ignorant for the time of its cause.
Next session the prisoner was again brought up for trial. His lordship
attended--but not her ladyship. She was induced to remain at home by the
solicitude of her husband, who apprehended the effect upon her of the
fetid atmosphere of the court. Although he had been up to the day first
appointed for the trial resolutely bent upon securing to the prisoner
the weightiest punishment he could get inflicted, he was now prepared to
recommend the prisoner to mercy.
The evidence, which in the briefs as originally delivered to counsel
disclosed a complete chain of proof, was remodelled. They now contained
a narrative which set forth the difficulties of the theory for the
prosecution, and went far towards explaining away the points against the
accused. The briefs for the defence, which as originally delivered set
forth no possible answer to the charge, now contained a theory which
reconciled the evidence as it stood, or was expected to stand, with a
possibility of the innocence of the accused.
A witness for the prosecution did not answer to his name when called;
and the reader may be informed that this witness had gone beyond the
jurisdiction of any English tribunal. The result was, that the
prosecution broke down, and the culprit was liberated.
The explanation of this miscarriage of justice is simple. Pretty Clara
was the mistress of the noble lord. He had indeed seduced her some years
before, and she had been living since then (unknown to his wife) under
his lordship's protection. She was the sister of the prisoner. She was
innocent of all participation in or knowledge of the robbery. For many
years she had not seen that brother. They were orphans. They had both
been thrown upon the world at a very early age to earn their own bread.
She, when not more than fourteen years of age, had been placed in one
of the West-End millinery houses, and had won a promotion to the counter
of a shop in Oxford Street. He had occupied a situation in a City
warehouse, but had never obtained a promotion by the exercise of any
industry or fidelity on his part.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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