It was a terrible tumble down, from being a hero to an embryo felon; from being cheered by the populace, to being collared by a policeman!
As we went along towards Dublin on a jaunting-car, I was regaled by interesting narratives of others who had begun life like myself, and took an abrupt leave of it in a manner by no means too decorous. The peculiarity of anecdote which pertains to each profession was strongly marked in these officers of the law; and they appeared to have studied the dark side of human nature with eyes the keenest and most scrutinizing.
I wish I could even now forget the long and dreary hours of the night that ensued, as I lay, with some fifty others, in the jail of the station-house. The company was a.s.suredly not select, nor their manners at all improved by the near approach of punishment. It seemed as if all the disguises of vice were thrown off at once, and that iniquity stood forth in its own true and glaring livery. I do not believe that the heart can ever experience a ruder shock than when an unfledged criminal first hears himself welcomed into the "Masonry" of guilt. To be claimed by such a.s.sociates as a fellow-laborer, to be received as one of the brethren into the guild of vice, is really an awful blow to one"s self-esteem and respect; to feel yourself inoculated with a disease whose fatal marks are to stamp you like this one or that, sends a shuddering terror through the heart, whose cold thrill is never, in a life-long afterwards, thoroughly eradicated.
There should be a quarantine for suspected guilt, as for suspected disease; and the mere doubt of rect.i.tude should not expose any unfortunate creature to the chances of a terrible contagion! I do not affect by this to say that I was guiltless,--not in the least; but my crime should scarcely have cla.s.sified me with the a.s.sociates by whom I was surrounded. Nor was a night in such company the wisest mode of restoring to the path of duty one who might possibly have only slightly deviated from the straight line.
When morning came I was marched off, with a strong phalanx of other misdoers, to the College Street office, where a magistrate presided whose bitterest calumniators could never accuse of any undue leanings towards mercy. By him I had the satisfaction of hearing a great variety of small offences decided with a railroad rapidity, only interrupted now and then by a whining lamentation over the "lenity of the legislature,"
that never awarded one t.i.the of the suitable penalty, and bewailing his own inability to do more for the criminal than send him to prison for two months with hard labor, and harder diet to sweeten it.
At last came my name; and as I heard it shouted aloud, it almost choked me with a nervous fulness in the throat. I felt as though I was the greatest criminal in the universe, and that the whole vast a.s.semblage had no other object or aim there than to see me arraigned for my offence.
I was scarcely ordered to advance before I was desired to stand back again, the prosecutor, Captain De Courcy, not being in court. While a policeman was, therefore, despatched by the magistrate to request that he would have the kindness to appear,--for the captain was an honorable and an aide-de-camp, t.i.tles which the sitting justice knew well how to respect,--other cases were called and disposed of. It was nigh three o"clock when a great bustle in the outer court and a tremendous falling back of the dense crowd, accompanied by an ostentatious display of police zeal, heralded a group of officers, who, with jingling spurs and banging sabretaches, made their way to the bench, and took their seats beside the justice. Many were the courtesies interchanged between the magistrate and the captain: one averring that the delay was not in the slightest degree inconvenient; the other professing the greatest deference for the rules of court; neither bestowing a thought upon him most deeply concerned of all.
A very brief narrative, delivered by the captain with a most military abruptness, detailed my offence; and, although not exaggerated in the slightest degree, the occasional interruptions of the magistrate served very considerably to magnify its guilt,--such as "Dear me! a favorite mare; a pure Arab; a present from your n.o.ble father, Lord Littlemore; infamous treatment; abominable case; abandoned young scoundrel!" and so on; closing with the accustomed peroration of regret that, as hanging was now done away with, he feared that the recorder could only award me a transportation for life!
"Have you anything to say, sirrah?" said he at last, turning towards me; "or would you rather reserve your observations for another time? as I shall certainly commit you for trial at the commission."
"I have only to suggest," said I, with an air of most insolent composure, "that you are probably mistaken in your law. The offence with which I stand charged amounts, at most, to the minor one of breach of trust."
"What! have we got a lawyer in the dock?" said the magistrate, reddening with fear and anger together.
"I have enjoyed some opportunities of legal study, your worship," said I, "and am happy to state that my opinion in the present instance will not discredit the a.s.sertion. The case stands thus: I am employed by the Honorable Captain De Courcy to perform a particular duty, which is of the distinct nature of a trust; that trust, whose importance I do not seek to extenuate in the slightest, I fail in. I will not plead the strong temptation of a race and a great spectacle. I will not allege, as perhaps I might, the example of my companions, then revelling in all the pleasures of the day. I will simply say that no one fact can be adduced to favor the suspicion of a meditated robbery; and that my conduct, so palpably open and public, rejects the least a.s.sumption of the kind, and at the utmost can establish nothing beyond what I am willing to plead guilty to,--a breach of trust."
"Listen to the Attorney-General! By the hokey, it"s himself they "ve in the dock!" said one.
"That"s the chap can give them chapter and va.r.s.e!" cried another.
"Silence there! Keep silence in the court!" said the justice, now really warm with pa.s.sion. "I"d have you to know, sirrah," said he, addressing me, "that your pettifogging shrewdness is anything but favorable to you in the unfortunate position in which you stand. I shall commit you for trial, and would advise you--it is the only piece of advice I "ll trouble you with--to charge some more skilful advocate with your defence, and not intrust it to the knavish flippancy of conceit and chicanery."
"I mean to have counsel, your worship," said I, resolutely; for my blood was up, and I would have argued with the twelve judges. "I mean to have one of the first and most eminent at the bar for my defence. Mr.
Mansergh, of Merrion Square, will not refuse my brief when he sees the fee I can offer him."
A regular roar of laughter filled the court; the impudence of my speech, and my thus introducing the name of one of the very first men at the bar, as likely to concern himself for such a miserable case and object, was too much for any gravity; and when the magistrate turned to comment upon my unparalleled a.s.surance and impertinence to Captain De Courcy, he discovered that the honorable captain had left his place.
Such was the fact! The dashing aide-de-camp was at that moment standing in earnest converse with myself beside the dock.
"May I speak with this boy in another room, your worship?" said he, addressing the court.
"Certainly, Captain De Courcy! Sergeant Biles, show Captain De Courcy into my robing-room."
The honorable captain did not regain his composure immediately on finding himself alone with me; on the contrary, his agitation was such that he made two or three efforts before he could utter the few words with which he first addressed me.
"What did you mean by saying that Mr. Mansergh would defend you? and what was the fee you alluded to?" were the words.
"Just what I said, sir," said I, with the steady a.s.surance a confidence of victory gives. "I thought it was better to have able counsel; and as I know I have the means of recompensing him, the opportunity was lucky."
"You don"t pretend that you could afford to engage one like him, my lad?" said he, affecting, but very poorly, an air of easy composure.
"What could you give him?"
"A note, sir; and although it never issued from the Bank, one not without value!"
The captain became deadly pale; he made one step towards the door, and in a low voice of ill-restrained anger said, "I"ll have you searched, sirrah! If anything belonging to me is found upon you--"
"No fear, sir," said I, composedly; "I have taken precautions against that; the note is safe!"
He threw himself upon a chair, and stared at me steadily for some minutes without a word. There we were, each scanning the other, and inwardly calculating how to win the game we were playing.
"Well," said he, at last; "what are your terms? You see I give in."
"And so best," said I; "it saves time. I ask very little from your honor,--nothing more, in fact, than to have this charge dismissed. I don"t mean to wear rags all my life, and consort with vagabonds, and so I dislike to have it said hereafter that I was ever arraigned or committed for an offence like this. You must tell the justice that it was some blunder or mistake of your orders to me; some accidental circ.u.mstance or other,--I don"t much care what, or how; nor will he, if the explanation comes from _you!_ This done, I "ll place the note in your hand within half an hour, and we need never see much more of each other."
"But who is to secure me that you keep your promise?"
"You must trust to me," said I, carelessly; "I have no bail to give."
"Why not return now, with the policeman, for the note, before I speak to the justice?"
"Then who is to go bail for _you?_" said I, smiling.
"You are a cool fellow, by Jove!" cried he, at the steady impudence which I maintained in the discussion.
"I had need be," replied I, in a voice very different from the feigned hardihood of my a.s.sumed part. "The boy who has neither a home nor a friend in the world has little else to rely on, save the cold recklessness of what may befall him!"
I saw a curl of contempt upon the captain"s lip at the energy of this speech; for now, when, for the first time between us, a single genuine sentiment broke from me, he deemed it "cant."
"Well!" cried he, "as you wish; I"ll speak to the justice, and you shall be free."
He left the room as he spoke, but in a few moments reentered it, saying, "All is right! You are discharged! Now for _your_ share of the bargain."
"Where will your honor be in half an hour?"
"At the Club, Foster Place."
"Then I "ll be there with the note," said I.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 098]
He nodded, and walked out. I watched him as he went; but he neither spoke to a policeman, nor did he turn his head round to see what became of me. There was something in this that actually awed me. It was a trait so unlike anything I had ever seen in others that I at once perceived it was "the gentleman"s" spirit, enabling him to feel confidence even in a poor ragged street wanderer as I was. The lesson was not lost on me. My life has been mainly an imitative one, and I have more than once seen the inestimable value of "trusting."
No sooner was I at large than I speeded to Betty"s, and was back again long before the half-hour expired. I had to wait till near five, however, before he appeared; so sure was he of my keeping my word that he never troubled himself about me. "Ha!" said he, as he saw me, "long here?"
"Yes, sir, about an hour;" and I handed him the note as I spoke.
He thrust it carelessly into his sabretache, and, pulling out a crown piece, chucked it towards me, saying, "Good-bye, friend; if they don"t hang you, you "ll make some noise in the world yet."
"I mean it, sir," said I, with a familiar nod; and so, genteelly touching my cap in salute, I walked away.