Cook, John Parsons, -1855; Palmer, William, 1824-1856 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Murder) -- England -- London
The next day, the Monday, he was well the whole day; not well in the
sense of being strong and able to take a walk in the fields, or mount
his horse and gallop about the country, but well in the sense of being
able to get up, after trying to breakfast in bed, to talk of sending for
the barber, and, I believe, actually sending for him; of seeing his
trainer and his jockeys, and discussing his plans for his next
campaign--well to that extent, but not out of his bedroom, taking no
substantial food, not vomiting much that day, though a little I think in
the morning, which is ascribed by the theory of the Crown, or by those
whose case the Crown has been forced by public opinion or by public
excitement to take up, to Palmer’s absence all that day. We do not hear
that Cook took anything solid. We do not hear that he lunched at one
o’clock, and then, as most probably he was in the habit of doing, took
his beefsteak and his leg of mutton, or his chicken, at five or six
o’clock. He had no insuperable dislike to brandy and water; he could, on
occasion, take his glass or two, though Palmer was not there; but he
does not appear to have been in the condition, ill as he was, to have
any gratification in food or drink of any kind; and Palmer was in London
all the time. Then, in the middle of the night, at twelve o’clock, he
was seized with a paroxysm, which Elizabeth Mills describes. We will
take her description. That is the account of Cook’s illness on Monday
night. It might have been a much less serious fit than the one on the
Sunday night. Nothing took place which could justify any man in saying
that he was mad for a minute--nothing of the kind. But let us be fair.
Afterwards, in talking of it, he says, speaking to Elizabeth Mills, “Did
you ever see anybody in such agony as I was last night?” We have the
description of Elizabeth Mills, and his own statement afterwards; “I saw
him again about seven o’clock, and he asked me whether I ever saw
anybody in such agony as he was the previous night.” Not to tie the
young woman down to a word, the fair inference of the whole of that
statement is that for some time during the whole of that paroxysm he was
in pain, and in great pain, but that he never lost his senses. He could
not very well be in such a state as that which he described on the
Sunday night. Now, let us have the statement of Mr. Jones, who is, we
must take it, a perfectly competent man, and whose evidence must be
attended to. Mr. Jones was requested to go there by Palmer, Palmer
having written to him on the Sunday. He was not able to go then, being
himself indisposed, and he could not get there till Tuesday. He went
there on the Tuesday, and got there by three o’clock, and he was for
some time with Cook alone.
[Sidenote: Serjeant Shee]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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