"When I am asked to apply a rule of law to a state of facts," he said, "and it appears doubtful whether or no the facts are included in the strict wording of the rule, I think it rational to look behind the words to the meaning, and to ask whether the reason for the rule applies with equal force to the facts now before me. Now, the reason I am able to discover for Sir Matthew Hale"s rule is the danger of condemning anyone on a capital charge when you cannot be quite sure that a capital crime has been committed. It is no use to say to me that the jury believe this, that, or the other. The jury may believe it will be a fine day to-morrow, but that does not justify me in condemning a man to death on the a.s.sumption that it will be a fine day. The question is whether the jury are justified in coming to their verdict by cogent and decisive evidence. In this case I can see nothing of the sort. An eccentric old lady, with a mania for h.o.a.rding jewels, has disappeared in the night, carrying her jewels with her. A hand, identified as hers, because of the rings on it, was found on the beach next day. On those grounds, practically, we are asked to say that she is dead. I can only say that I decline to come to any such conclusion, and furthermore, I am quite satisfied that if Sir Matthew Hale were sitting on this bench to-day he would be in favour of quashing this conviction."
Two other judges at once subscribed this judgment, and finally, when all but the Chief Justice had spoken, it appeared that the court so far was evenly divided, and that Lord Christobel held the fate of the prisoner in his hands.
Possibly his lordship was not ill-pleased at this. He was a past master of dramatic effect, and in his hands the ancient dignity of Lord Chief Justice of England lost nothing of its imposing character.
It may be added that it lost nothing of that higher dignity conferred upon it by the Gascoignes of another age. Lord Christobel had shown on more than one occasion that all ranks, even the highest, were equal in the eye of the law as administered by him. He was the scourge of truckling magistrates, and a thorn in the side of those petty tyrants whom our peculiar system allows to flourish in rural districts in the degraded robes of justice.
He did not long keep the court in suspense. In a gracefully-worded judgment he endorsed the arguments of the prisoner"s counsel, and p.r.o.nounced the conviction of Eleanor Owen to be void in law. The prisoner was to be discharged forthwith.
Hardly did Prescott wait for the closing words of the judgment before rushing out to the telegraph office at the entrance to the Law Courts, and despatching a message to Eleanor, who was still in Abertaff gaol.
He followed this up by thrusting a few things into a bag, cashing a cheque, and hurrying to Paddington, where he caught an express for the county town.
Within four hours he was in Eleanor"s presence. She had waited for him in the prison, and now put on some outdoor things. He led her to the door, where the governor took a courteous leave of them, and they pa.s.sed through the gates.
When she found herself for the first time in the open air, Eleanor"s limbs shook beneath her. She looked wildly round, as if fearing to behold some disagreeable object, and then begged Prescott to take her to a seat.
They had emerged into a wide, dirty street, formed by the prison wall on one side and a row of shabby little houses and shops on the other.
A few boys were playing marbles on the path, and Eleanor never saw the game afterwards without remembering that evening.
The sun was about to set as they took their way by the quietest route to a little public garden in the neighbourhood, where was a gra.s.s plot and some seats. There they stopped, and sat down for a short time to decide on Eleanor"s future steps.
Eleanor"s first words struck heavily in the ears of her companion.
"I almost wish myself back again. Where am I to go now?" And she shivered slightly.
"Oh, Eleanor, don"t say that! To-night you must go to some hotel in the town, but to-morrow we will go up to town together, and I will find you lodgings for a time."
She turned and looked at him sorrowfully, not reproachfully, and shook her head.
"No, no. You forget what I said to you before. I have accepted your friendship, and I need not tell you how grateful I am for it, and for your efforts in obtaining my release. But I am still where I was, as far as the world is concerned. They will go on believing me guilty, and while they do I cannot let you a.s.sociate with me."
"Oh, why not? Surely you know by this time what you are to me? Need I tell you, Eleanor----"
She put up her hand.
"Hush, Charles!"
The word sent a thrill through him. He looked round. Some children were engrossed in a game a hundred yards and more away. The sunlight was fading from gold to crimson across the roofs and chimneys beyond.
The whole scene was still and Sabbath-like. A great peace seemed to speak to him, and bid him take courage and hope for better things. He turned again to Eleanor.
"Thank you," he said, in acknowledgment of her tacit confession. "But oh! if I am satisfied, what need you care for others? Listen: I have some money--more than enough to keep us for some years. We will go to Australia, where they have not heard of us; or, if they have, we will change our names. I can join the bar there, and do as well as here.
Are you not my only happiness? What are other things compared to that?"
Again she looked at him sorrowfully. Again she shook her head. Then she turned and gazed into the green and crimson of the sunset while she spoke.
"You would not speak like that if you knew me. Do you suppose I have not thought of all these things during my weary prison hours? I have done nothing else since I saw you, since I saw you and knew you loved me, Charles. But I must be strong where you are weak. I must decide in this matter without heeding your wishes. I must decide as your mother would, if you asked her. Would she wish you to marry a convicted murderess? I have to speak plainly, because I want you to understand me at once, Charles, and spare me the pain of further talk like this.
I shall go to London by myself, and I shall let you have my address on the strict condition that you are never to come and see me till my character stands clear again. You may write to me sometimes, not often, but if you break the condition and come to me, I shall move somewhere else and hide myself from you altogether. Now let us go and find a hotel for me, different from yours."
She made a movement to rise. Charles looked round once more. The children had finished their game and disappeared. The brilliancy of the sunset was dropping into dusk and gray. They were alone in the twilight, beneath the faded trees.
"Eleanor, one pledge that you will not forsake me!"
She turned. Their eyes met; then their lips. The silent, close embrace lasted but a minute, though to both of them it seemed longer than the whole of their previous life. Then they arose and went forth out of their poor paradise, like Adam and Eve, with the world lying empty and desolate in front of them.
CHAPTER XIII.
UNDER THE GREAT SEAL.
Shortly after Prescott had returned to town, he was surprised to get a letter from Tressamer to this effect:
"I want you to give me Eleanor"s address. I must see her once more, as I have something of importance to say to her."
Without an instant"s hesitation he sat down and wrote an answer, in which he said:
"You have no further claim on my friendship, nor on Miss Owen"s. Fortunately, she is now under my protection, and in a place where you are not likely to find her. Do not expect for one moment that I shall do anything to bring her again within the reach of your dangerous character. Only the memory of our old kindness restrains me from writing in a very much stronger way. I am sorry that I must ask you never to hold communication with me again."
Meanwhile Prescott had been doing his utmost to obtain some further light upon the mystery. But neither his inquiries nor those of the skilled detective whom he sent down at his own expense to investigate had resulted so far in finding the smallest clue to what had happened on the night of the first of June.
He had not seen Eleanor since they parted at Abertaff. He now received a letter from her, in which she fulfilled her promise of letting him know her address. But her letter was so despondent, and showed her to feel her situation so deeply, that Prescott was greatly shocked and grieved.
Two days after he was roused by seeing in the papers this announcement:
"THE PORTHSTONE MURDER: DISCOVERY OF THE LOST JEWELS.--Last night, while dragging for fish along the sh.o.r.e of Newton Bay, some fishermen brought to land in their net a chest which had evidently been in the water some time. On being opened, it was found to be full of valuable gems. The police were at once communicated with, it being supposed that they were those missing since the night of the murder. They sent for Mr. Lewis, but as he was unable to speak to their ident.i.ty, Mr. Williams, of Abertaff, who had supplied deceased with jewellery, was wired for, and he came down by the next train and identified the contents of the chest as the missing jewels. It will be remembered that a part of the body was discovered at or about the same place.
"The importance of the discovery is in negativing the theory that the crime was committed for the sake of robbery. But it cannot be said that the mystery which has enshrouded this murder from first to last is in any degree dispelled by this new incident."
While Prescott was still pondering over this discovery, and its bearing on the position of Eleanor and the facts in the case, he received a second letter from Tressamer.
His first impulse was to return it unopened, but he thought this might be doing an injustice, as the letter might contain some explanation, though hardly any excuse for his strange conduct. He therefore opened it.
The letter was a long one, taking up many sheets of paper. After the opening words, it went on:
"I know not what opinion you have formed of me and of my conduct towards Eleanor Owen. Neither do I write in any hope of excusing myself. I am past that now, and I shall soon be past the reach of your anger and of hers.
"Let me begin at the beginning. You remember our childhood, and you know, none better, the bonds between Eleanor and myself. But you do not know that, as children, we were united by those pledges which children sometimes make in imitation of the serious engagements of later life. Of course, as we grew older that pa.s.sed more or less out of sight, but the memory of it remained--at least, with me.
"I think it was you who first came between us, even at that early age. I used to think she liked you better than me. But why dwell on these things? Let me come on to a later time, the time of her father"s death, when I had pa.s.sed into manhood, and she was pa.s.sing into young womanhood.
"That was my first opportunity of showing her my devotion, and I did so. I paid off her father"s debts, and by the time I had settled everything, and handed over a little sum to her, I had spent some hundreds of pounds of my own.
"Eleanor was grateful. Whether she had any warmer feeling for me at that time, I cannot say. But I thought then that she had, and that she returned my love--not in the degree that I gave it; no, that could not be. Still, the pleasure she took in my company, the trust with which she seemed to lean on me, certainly filled me with the hope of some day winning her.
"I went to work cautiously. I dreaded her being afraid of my pa.s.sion if I let her see its whole force. I never did. I chained it up when I was with her, and played a mild and cheerful part. I had my reward. At last, the Christmas after her father"s death, I ventured to speak. She heard me with no delight, but yet, it seemed, with no great repugnance.
Time soon reconciled her to the idea, and before long, I had the rapture of hearing her consent to be mine.