On the day of the trial Rufus discovered that he had made a mistake in treating the matter so lightly. The prosecution had succeeded in working up a case. He was amazed when he discovered that he was charged, not only with a.s.sault but with drunkenness, and that the charge of drunkenness was sworn to by at least two witnesses. The terms of the indictment, by some oversight, had been furnished him too late for him to supply reb.u.t.ting evidence. He had only his simple word of denial, and that stood him in no stead.
Gervase swore that the accused struck him without warning and without provocation; that, in fact, he was given no time to defend himself, that almost before he knew what had happened he was lying on the ground bruised and bleeding. The accused, who was clearly mad with drink, sprang upon him out of the darkness, and felled him with a single blow, and but for the interposition of his gardener, Micah Martin, he had little doubt would have killed him.
Micah corroborated his young master"s evidence. He heard a cry for help, and running out saw the Captain on his back with the prisoner"s knee on his chest. He was not absolutely certain as to the latter point, but that was his impression. Seeing him the prisoner staggered away, and leaned against a gate. He seemed to be just mad drunk, and in his judgment did not quite know what he was doing.
The next witness was Timothy Polgarrow, barman at the "Three Anchors."
He swore that he supplied the prisoner with two whiskies on the evening in question; that he appeared to be excited when he came into the public-house bar, but quite sober. After the second whisky, however, he showed signs of intoxication so that a third whisky which he demanded was refused. It was quite early in the evening when he called, not much after dark. He was able to walk fairly straight when he left the "Three Anchors," but appeared to be terribly angry that he was refused any more drink.
Timothy gave his evidence glibly, and with great precision, and stuck to what he called his facts with limpet-like tenacity.
Rufus startled the court, and horrified the magistrates by asking Tim how much the Captain had paid him for committing perjury.
Rufus denied that he had ever crossed the threshold of the "Three Anchors." He had pa.s.sed it on the evening in question on his way home from Redbourne, but he did not even slacken his pace, much less call.
Tim, however, stuck to his story, and was quite certain that he was not mistaken in his man.
As to the a.s.sault there could be no doubt. The Captain"s face bore evidence of the severity of the attack. Rufus did not deny striking him and knocking him down, but persisted that Gervase was the aggressor.
"But why should he attack you?" the chairman asked.
"He accused me of something which I very much resented."
"What did he accuse you of?"
"I decline to say."
"Why do you decline?"
"Because it would introduce a name that I would not on any account have mixed up in this sordid affair."
"Oh! indeed." And the Bench smiled in an ultra superior way.
"Well, when he accused you of something you very much resented what did you do?"
"I called him a liar."
"Yes?"
"This angered him, and he struck at me."
"And what then?"
"I dodged the blow, and struck back."
"He didn"t dodge the blow, I suppose?"
"It appears not by his appearance."
There was laughter in court at this reply, which was instantly suppressed.
"And what followed then?"
"What usually follows in such a case. Each tried to get at the other. I suppose my arm was the stronger or the longer. At any rate, when he found himself on his back he began to bellow for help."
"So that you wish us to believe that in a stand-up fight between a soldier and a civilian the soldier got the worst of it?"
"It looks as if he got the worst of it, at any rate."
"Does it not occur to you that your story does not hang well together?
Is it likely that a soldier--or an ex-soldier, a man trained to the use of arms--would allow himself to be felled to the ground unless he were taken unawares?"
"Whether it is likely or not I have only stated the simple facts. Why should I attack him unawares, or attack him at all? His existence is a matter of supreme indifference to me. I should not have noticed him had he not charged me with conduct which I repudiate."
"But you refuse to say what it is he charged you with?"
"I do, and for the reasons I have already stated."
At this point the Captain"s solicitor took up the running, and insisted that the case had been proved up to the very hilt. Timothy Polgarrow, a man of unimpeachable character, had sworn upon oath that he had served the accused with whiskies on the evening in question. Generally speaking, it was, no doubt, true, that the accused was a very temperate man. Hence, when he took drink at all, he the more quickly got out of bounds. An inveterate toper would have taken half-a-dozen whiskies, and carried a perfectly steady head. The accused was excited when he entered the "Three Anchors." Perhaps he had business worries. It was hinted that his schemes were hanging fire. Perhaps he had imbibed freely before he left Redbourne. People drank sometimes to drown their care. But the one clear fact was that he left the "Three Anchors" considerably the worse for liquor. Liquor makes some people hilarious, others it makes quarrelsome. The accused evidently belongs to the latter cla.s.s. He was ready to fight anybody. As it happened, Captain Tregony, as he would still call him, though he had resigned his commission, was the first man he met. The Captain was taking a const.i.tutional before dinner. It was a clear, frosty evening with plenty of starlight. The Captain was walking slowly with no thought of evil, when suddenly, out of the night, loomed the accused. The sequel you know. He fell upon the Captain unawares and struck him to the ground, and the chances are, in his drunken fury, would have murdered him, but for the timely a.s.sistance of Micah Martin.
The case was as simple and straightforward as any bench of magistrates could desire. The facts were borne out by independent testimony. There could be no shadow of doubt as to the drunkenness or the a.s.sault. The only matter to be considered was the measure of punishment to be meted out. They all agreed that drunkenness was no excuse for violence, while the offence was aggravated by a man in Rufus Sterne"s position attacking a man of the rank of Captain Tregony.
One or two of the magistrates were for committing him to gaol without the option of a fine. It was a serious matter for a civilian to attack even an ex-soldier. It was a species of _lese majeste_ that ought not to be tolerated for a moment.
Unfortunately for these extremists a similar case had been tried a fortnight previously, and the accused--a man of considerable means--had got off with a fine of ten shillings and costs.
"And," argued the chairman, "we cannot with this case fresh in people"s minds give colour to the fiction that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor."
So in order to prove their absolute impartiality, and to mark at the same time their sense of what was due to an ex-officer of His Majesty"s forces they inflicted a fine of five pounds and costs, or a month"s imprisonment.
Rufus was disposed at first not to pay the money. He was so angry that he almost felt that the seclusion of a prison cell would be a relief.
But better thoughts prevailed. He was absolutely helpless. It was no use kicking or protesting. He could only grin, and abide, and hope that the day would come when justice would find her own.
It was a humiliating day for him. He left the court branded as a drunkard and a brawler. The case for the prosecution had been so clear and circ.u.mstantial that even his best friends were confounded. That he should deny the accusation was natural enough; but there was an unspoken fear in their hearts that worry had driven him to drink, and that alcohol acting upon a highly-strung temperament had thrown him momentarily off his mental and moral balance.
Madeline Grover was almost dumbfounded. Unconsciously she had been idealising Rufus for months past, while their last conversation had further exalted him in her estimation. Here was a man, honest in his doubts, sincere in his beliefs, and faithful to all his ideals. A man who "would not make his judgment blind," and who refused to play the hypocrite whatever the world might say in disparagement of him.
Among all her acquaintances there was no man who had struck her fancy so much. He stood apart from the common ruck. His very antagonism to the religious conventions of his time had something of n.o.bleness in it. If he derided the Church it was because he believed it had departed from the spirit and teachings of its founder. His reverence for what was good and helpful had won her admiration.
And now suddenly it had been discovered to her that her idol had not only feet of clay, but was clay altogether, that he was a worse hypocrite than the hypocrites he derided. That behind all his pretence----
She stopped short at that. He had made no pretence. If he had talked about himself it was in disparagement rather than praise. He claimed no virtues beyond what his fellows possessed. He had always been singularly modest in his estimate of his own abilities.
Yet here were the facts in black and white. The unshaken testimony of unimpeachable witnesses, while poor Gervase"s face bore unmistakable evidence of the fierceness of the onslaught.
Four days after the trial the local paper came out with a verbatim report. Madeline took a copy to her own room, and spent the whole afternoon in studying its _pros_ and _cons_.
The points that fastened themselves upon her memory most tenaciously were first, Rufus"s refusal to give the name of someone about whom they quarrelled, and second, his suggestion that Timothy Polgarrow had been bribed by Gervase to give false evidence.