The Lost Lady of LoneSouthworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
General
The Lost Lady of Lone
Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
Fiction
Every pair of eyes in the court-room availed themselves of the
opportunity afforded by the elevated position of the witness-stand,
to gaze on the man who had so recently been the subject of such a
terrible accusation; and all admired the calmness, self-possession,
and forbearance of his conduct during the fearful ordeal through which
he had just passed.
He simply testified as to the finding of the dead body, the position of
the corpse, the condition of the room, and so forth. He was not subjected
to a cross-examination, but was courteously notified that he was at
liberty to retire.
He resumed his former seat.
The case for the prosecution was closed.
Mr. Kinlock, junior counsel for the prisoner, arose for the defence. He
made a short address to the jury, in which he spoke of the slight grounds
upon which his unhappy client had been charged with an atrocious crime,
and brought to trial for his life. The law demanded a victim for that
heinous crime, which had shocked the whole community from its centre to
its circumference, and his unfortunate client had been selected as a sin
offering. He reminded the jury how the very esteem and confidence of the
master and the fidelity and obedience of the servant had been most
ingeniously turned into strong circumstantial evidence, to fix the
assassination of the master upon the servant. The deceased, had entirely
trusted the prisoner; had given him a pass-key with which he might enter
his chambers at any hour of the day or night; and hence it was argued
that the prisoner, being the only one who had the entree to the
deceased's apartments, must have been the person who admitted the
murderer to his victim. The prisoner had faithfully obeyed his master's
orders for the day, in declining to enter his rooms before his bell
should ring; and thence it was argued that he only delayed to call his
master because he knew that master lay murdered in his room, and he
wished to give the murderers, with whom he was said to be confederated,
time to make good their escape. He was sure, he said, that a just and
intelligent jury must at once perceive the cruel injustice of such
far-fetched inferences. In addition he would call witnesses who would
testify to the good character of the accused, and prove that the great
esteem and confidence in which he had been held by his late master was
abundantly justified by the excellent character and blameless conduct of
the servant.
Mr. Kinlock then proceeded to call his witnesses.
They were the fellow-servants of the accused. Some of them were the very
same witnesses that had been called by the prosecution, and were now
re-called for the defence. One and all, in turn, testified to the uniform
good behavior of the valet while in the service of Sir Lemuel Levison,
deceased.
The presiding judge, Baron Stairs, summed up the evidence in a very few
words.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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