What was it that the prisoner held in her hand?"
"A dagger--the dagger," added poor Clement Pendleton recklessly; "with which the unknown a.s.sa.s.sin had killed Mrs. Blondelle."
"Stay, stay! we are going a little too fast here. Are you prepared to swear that you know, of your own knowledge, that some person other than the prisoner at the bar "killed Mrs. Blondelle?""
Captain Pendleton was a soldier and no lawyer, yet he saw at once how his faith in Sybil"s innocence had led him to the false step of stating inferences for facts. So he explained:
"I spoke in accordance with my own firm convictions."
"Ah, but I fancy your own conviction will not prevent that of the prisoner," commented the State"s Attorney, with a grim humor.
"And now, Captain Pendleton," he continued, "as you are sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, I must trouble you to answer the questions here put to you, by stating exactly such facts as came under your personal observation only."
And then he resumed the examination of the witness, and drew from him a relation of all the fatal circ.u.mstances that occurred in the library at Black Hall, on the night of the tragedy, among them the guilty appearance of Sybil Berners with the reeking dagger in her crimsoned hand, and the dying declaration of the murdered woman, charging Sybil Berners with her death.
He would have gone on and told Sybil"s own explanation of her appearance, but was stopped there by the State"s Attorney, at whose request the presiding Judge instructed him that such declarations on the part of the accused, could not be received in evidence.
And so he was told to withdraw.
I will not weary my readers with any detailed account of this trial. A slight sketch of the princ.i.p.al points will he sufficient for our purpose.
There were some half dozen more witnesses who had been present at the death of Rosa Blondelle, and who, being duly sworn, corroborated the testimony of Captain Pendleton.
Then the Scotch nurse, Jennie McGruder, was called to the stand.
Her testimony bore very heavily upon the accused.
She told how, on the night of the murder, she had, according to her custom, carefully searched both the bed chamber and the nursery that const.i.tuted Mrs. Blondelle"s apartments; that finding no intruder there, she had securely fastened all the windows and all the doors of the two rooms, with the exception of the door leading to the staircase communicating with Mrs. Berners" apartments, which were immediately above those of Mrs. Blondelle. This door was always left unfastened, as it was thought perfectly safe to leave it so.
She told how, while she was with the child in the nursery that same night, she was startled by hearing piercing screams from the adjoining bedroom; that she had rushed there in time to see the deceased Rosa Blondelle running wildly from the room, followed by the prisoner, Sybil Berners, who had a dagger in her hand.
She also corroborated the testimony of the other witnesses as to the fatal words of the dying woman charging the prisoner with her death.
After this witness came a number of others who testified to the ill-feeling which existed between the prisoner and the deceased.
These witnesses were all in turn severely cross-examined by the counsel for the defence, but, as the State"s Attorney had said, their testimony was so clear and simple that it was impossible to involve them in any self-contradiction.
The State"s Attorney had also been very careful to call the attention of the jury to each condemning point of the fatal evidence against the accused.
And here the examination of witnesses on the part of prosecution closed, and the court adjourned.
Sybil was conducted into the sheriff"s room, where refreshments were provided by that kind-hearted officer for herself and her friends, and where everything possible was done and said to support her under the terrible ordeal of her trial. Being still under bail, as she would be to the end of her trial, she was then permitted to return home with her friends for the night.
One little touching event must be recorded here, as it showed the thoughtful tenderness of her nature. Even in the midst of her anguish of anxiety in regard to the awful issues in the result of this trial, she remembered baby Cro" and his small interests; and she stopped in the village to procure for him that "something good" which she had promised.
But to do the orphan justice, he was gladder to see Sybil than to get what she brought him.
Miss Tabby caught her in her arms, and wept over her.
Raphael did not weep, nor even speak; but he clasped her hands, and looked at her with a silent grief more eloquent that words or tears. It was a period of agony to all concerned; and Sybil was indebted to opium for all the sleep she got that night.
CHAPTER XV.
THE VERDICT.
"Tis not ever The justice and the truth o" th" question carries The due o" th" verdict with it.--SHAKESPEARE.
At an early hour the next morning the court was opened, the Judges resumed their seats, and the accused was conducted back to her place.
Ishmael Worth opened for the defence.
I shall not even attempt to give so much as an epitome of his speech. I should never be able to do justice to the logic, eloquence, pathos, and power of his oratory. I shall only indicate that the points upon which he dwelt most were, the magnanimous nature of his client, which rendered her utterly incapable of committing the atrocious crime with which she stood charged; the fatal fallibility of circ.u.mstantial evidence, which he ill.u.s.trated by direct reference to many recorded cases, well-known to the legal profession, in which parties had been convicted and executed, under the strongest possible circ.u.mstantial evidence, and had afterwards been discovered to have been guiltless; the facility with which a murderer might have concealed himself in that bedroom occupied by the deceased on the night of the murder, have eluded the search of the sleepy nurse, and after committing his crime, being frightened by the screams of his awakened victim, should have escaped through the window and slammed the shutter to, from the outside, when it would fasten itself with its spring bolt; the perfect naturalness of the circ.u.mstance that the accused, on hearing her guest scream, should have flown down those communicating stairs to her a.s.sistance, and should have drawn from her wounded bosom the dagger left there by the flying murderer. This, and much more than can even be touched upon here, he said, and then proceeded to call witnesses for the defence.
These were some of the old friends and neighbors of the accused lady, who warmly bore witness to the generosity and n.o.bility of her nature, which placed her in their estimation so far above the possibility of committing a crime so heinous.
Then came the white servants of her household, who described the situation of Rosa Blondelle"s rooms on the first floor of Black Hall; the easy entrance into them from the grounds below, and the insecure spring fastenings of the windows, which might be opened from without by a thin knife pa.s.sed under the latch and lifted.
All felt how small the amount of material was, out of which even the most learned and eloquent advocate could make a defence for Sybil Berners.
The examination of the witnesses for the defence closed.
Mr. Sheridan then made his last effort for his client, and was followed by Mr. Worth, both of whom exerted their utmost faculties in the hopeless cause of their unhappy client.
But ah! no eloquence of theirs, of any one"s, could do away with the d.a.m.ning evidence against the accused lady.
The State"s attorney, in a final address to the jury, pointed out this fact, and then sat down.
The venerable Judge Joseph Ruthven arose to sum up the evidence and charge the jury. We know that he believed in the innocence of the pure and n.o.ble young lady, whom he had known from her earliest infancy. Such a belief under such circ.u.mstances must have swayed the judgement and affected the action of the justest judge under the sun.
Judge Ruthven palpably leaned to the side of the prisoner. After summing up the evidence for the prosecution rather briefly and coldly, he urged upon the jury the value of a good name in the case of an accused party; the excellent name of the accused lady; the unreliability of circ.u.mstantial evidence; the fallibility even of the testimony of the dying, when such testimony was given in the excitement of terror and the agony of death; of how such testimony, however sincerely given and believed in, had often been utterly disproved by subsequent events; and finally, that if a single doubt, however slight, remained in their minds of the guilt of the prisoner, it was their bounden duty to give her the benefit of that doubt by a full acquittal. And so, praying Divine Providence to direct their counsels, he dismissed them to deliberate on their verdict.
The jury left the room in charge of a sheriff"s officer.
And then the tongues of the spectators were loosened. The charge of the judge had given great offence.
"It amounts to a positive instruction to the jury to acquit the prisoner!" fiercely whispered one malcontent.
"And when the testimony has so clearly convicted her!" added another.
"Nothing but partiality! He and her father were old cronies," put in a third.
"A partial judge ought to be impeached!" growled a fourth.
And so on the disapprobation rumbled through the court-room in thunder, not loud, but deep.