The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 02: In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and CiviliansBierce, Ambrose
History
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 02: In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians
Bierce, Ambrose
Horror tales, American; Paranormal fiction; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction; War stories, American
On his trial the prisoner pleaded guilty--"by advice of his counsel," so
his counsel said. Nevertheless, the judge, in whose mind several unusual
circumstances had created a doubt, insisted on the district attorney
placing Officer No. 13 on the stand, and the deposition of Mrs. Barwell,
who was too ill to attend, was read to the jury. It was very brief: she
knew nothing of the matter except that the likeness of herself was her
property, and had, she thought, been left on the parlor table when she
had retired on the night of the arrest. She had intended it as a present
to her husband, then and still absent in Europe on business for a mining
company.
This witness's manner when making the deposition at her residence was
afterward described by the district attorney as most extraordinary.
Twice she had refused to testify, and once, when the deposition lacked
nothing but her signature, she had caught it from the clerk's hands and
torn it in pieces. She had called her children to the bedside and
embraced them with streaming eyes, then suddenly sending them from the
room, she verified her statement by oath and signature, and fainted--
"slick away," said the district attorney. It was at that time that her
physician, arriving upon the scene, took in the situation at a glance
and grasping the representative of the law by the collar chucked him
into the street and kicked his assistant after him. The insulted majesty
of the law was not vindicated; the victim of the indignity did not even
mention anything of all this in court. He was ambitious to win his case,
and the circumstances of the taking of that deposition were not such as
would give it weight if related; and after all, the man on trial had
committed an offense against the law's majesty only less heinous than
that of the irascible physician.
By suggestion of the judge the jury rendered a verdict of guilty; there
was nothing else to do, and the prisoner was sentenced to the
penitentiary for three years. His counsel, who had objected to nothing
and had made no plea for lenity--had, in fact, hardly said a word--wrung
his client's hand and left the room. It was obvious to the whole bar
that he had been engaged only to prevent the court from appointing
counsel who might possibly insist on making a defense.
John Hardshaw served out his term at San Quentin, and when discharged
was met at the prison gates by his wife, who had returned from "the
States" to receive him. It is thought they went straight to Europe;
anyhow, a general power-of-attorney to a lawyer still living among us--
from whom I have many of the facts of this simple history--was executed
in Paris. This lawyer in a short time sold everything that Hardshaw
owned in California, and for years nothing was heard of the unfortunate
couple; though many to whose ears had come vague and inaccurate
intimations of their strange story, and who had known them, recalled
their personality with tenderness and their misfortunes with compassion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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