by Ellen Wood
The senior judge proceeded to the criminal court; the other, as on the Monday, took his place in the Nisi Prius. His lordship had his notes in his hand, and was turning to the jury, preparatory to entering on his task, when Mr. Serjeant Wrangle rose.
“My lord — I must crave your lordship’s permission to state a fact, bearing on the case, Carr versus Carr. An unexpected witness has arisen; a most important witness; one who will testify to the abstraction from the register; one who was present when that abstraction was made. Your lordship will allow him to be heard?”
Serjeant Siftem, and Mynn and Mynn, and Squire Carr and his son Valentine, and all who espoused that side, looked contemptuous daggers of incredulity at Serjeant Wrangle. But the judge allowed the witness to be heard, for all that.
He came forward; a remarkably handsome boy, at the stage between youth and manhood. The judge put his silver glasses across his nose and gazed at him: he thought he recognised those beautiful features.
“Swear the witness,” cried some official.
The witness was sworn.
“What is your name?” demanded Serjeant Wrangle.
“Henry Cheveley Arkell.”
“Where do you reside?”
“In Westerbury, near the cathedral.”
“You are a member of the college school and a chorister, are you not?” interposed the judge, whose remembrance had come to him.
“A king’s scholar, my lord, and senior chorister.”
“Were you in St. James’s Church on a certain night of last November?” resumed Serjeant Wrangle.
“Yes. On the twentieth.”
“For how long? And how came you to be there?”
“I went in to practise on the organ, when afternoon school was over, and some one locked me in. I was there until nearly two in the morning.”
“Who locked you in?”
“I did not know then. I afterwards heard that it was one of the senior boys.”
“Tell the jury what you saw.”
Henry Arkell, amidst the confused scene, so unfamiliar to him, wondered which was the jury. Not knowing, he stood as he had done before, looking alternately at the examining counsel and the judge.
“I went to sleep on the singers’ seat in the organ-gallery, and slept until a noise awoke me. I saw two people stealing up the church with a light; they turned into the vestry, and I went softly downstairs and followed them, and stood at the vestry door looking in.”
“Who were those parties?”
“The one was Mr. George Prattleton; the other a stranger, whose name I had heard was Rolls. George Prattleton unlocked the safe and gave Rolls the register, and Rolls sat down and looked through it: he was looking a long while.”
“What next did you see?”
“When George Prattleton had his back turned to the table, I saw Rolls blow out the light. He pretended it had gone out of itself, and asked George Prattleton to fetch the matches from the bench at the entrance door. As soon as George Prattleton had gone for them, a light reappeared in the vestry, and I saw Rolls place what looked to be a piece of thick pasteboard behind one of the leaves, and then draw a knife down it and cut it out. He put the leaf and the board and the knife into his pocket, and blew out the candle again.
“Did George Prattleton see nothing of this?”
“No. He was gone for the matches, and when he came back the vestry was in darkness, as he had left it. ‘Nothing risk, nothing win; I thought I could do him,’ I heard Rolls say to himself.”
“After that?”
“After that, when Mr. George Prattleton came back with the matches, Rolls lighted the candle and continued to look over the register, and George Prattleton grumbled at him for being so long. Presently Rolls shut the book and hurrahed, saying that it was not in, and Mr. Prattleton might put it up again.”
“Did you understand what he meant by ‘it.’ Can you repeat the words he used?”
“I believe I can, or nearly so, for I have thought of them often since. ‘It’s not in the register, Prattleton,’ he said. ‘Hurrah! It will be thousands of pounds in our pockets. When the other side brought forth the lame tale that there was such an entry, we thought it a bag of moonshine.’ I think that was it.”
“What next happened?”
“I saw Rolls hand the book to George Prattleton, and then I went down the church as quietly as I could, and found the key in the door and got out. I hid behind a tombstone, and I saw them both come from the church, and Mr. George Prattleton locked it and put the key in his pocket. I heard them disputing at the door, when they found it open; Rolls accused George Prattleton of unlocking the door when he went to get the matches; and George Prattleton accused Rolls of having neglected to lock it when they entered the church.”
“Meanwhile it was you who had unlocked it, to let yourself out?”
“Yes. And I was in too great a hurry, for fear they should see me, to shut it after me.”
“A very nicely concocted tale!” sneered Serjeant Siftem, after several more questions had been asked of Henry, and he rose to cross examine. “You would like the court and jury to believe you, sir?”
“I hope all will believe, who hear me, for it is the truth,” he answered, with simplicity. And he had his wish; for all did believe him; and Serjeant Siftem’s searching questions, and insinuations that the fancied George Prattleton and Rolls were nothing but ghosts, failed to shake his testimony, or their belief.
The next witness called was Roland Carr Lewis, who had just come into court, marshalled by the second master. A messenger, attended by a javelin man, had been despatched in hot haste to the college schoolroom, demanding the attendance of Roland Lewis. Mr. Roberts, confounded by their appearance, and perplexed by the obscure tale of the messenger, that “two of the college gentlemen, Lewis and another, was found to have had som’at to do with the theft from the register, though not, he b’lieved, in the way of thieving it theirselves,” left his desk and his duties, and accompanied Lewis. The head master had been in court all the morning.
“You are in the college school,” said Serjeant Wrangle, after Lewis was sworn, and had given his name.
“King’s scholar, sir, and third senior,” replied Lewis, who could scarcely speak for fright; which was not lessened when he caught sight of the Dean of Westerbury on the bench, next the judge.
“Did you shut up a companion, Henry Cheveley Arkell, in the church of St. James the Less, one afternoon last November, when he had gone in to practise on the organ?”
Lewis wiped his face, and tried to calm his breathing, and glared fearfully towards the bench, but never spoke.
“You have been sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, sir, and you must do so,” said the judge, staring at his ugly face, through his glasses. “Answer the question.”
“Y — es.”
“What was your motive for doing so?” asked Serjeant Wrangle.
“It was only done in fun. I didn’t mean to hurt him.”
“Pretty fun!” ejaculated one of the jury, who had a timid boy of his own in the college school, and thought how horrible might be the consequences should he get locked up in St. James’s Church.
“How long did you leave him there?”
“I don’t know. I took back the key to the clerk’s, and the next morning, when we went to let him out, he was gone.”
“Who is ‘we?’ Who was with you?” cried Serjeant Wrangle, catching at the word.
“Mr. George Prattleton. He was at the clerk’s in the morning, and I told him about it, and asked him to get the key, for Hunt would not let me have it. So he was coming with me to open the church; but Hunt happened to say that Arkell had just been to his house. He had got out somehow.”
When this witness, after a good deal of badgering, was released, Serjeant Siftem, a bright thought having occurred to him, desired that the Reverend Mr. Wilberforce might get into the witness-box. The Reverend Mr. Wilberforce did so; and the serjeant began, in an insin
uating tone:
“The witness, Henry Cheveley Arkell, is under your tuition in the collegiate school, I assume?”
“He is,” sternly replied Mr. Wilberforce, who had not forgotten Serjeant Siftem’s insult of the previous day.
“Would you believe him on his oath?”
“On his oath, or without it.”
“Oh, you would, would you?” retorted the Serjeant. “Schoolboys are addicted to romancing, though.”
“Henry Arkell is of strict integrity. His word may be implicitly trusted.”
“I can bear testimony to Henry Arkell’s honourable and truthful nature,” spoke up the dean, from his place beside the judge. “His general conduct is exemplary; a pattern to the school.”
“Henry Cheveley Arkell,” roared out the undaunted Serjeant Siftem, drowning the dean’s voice. “I have done with you, Mr. Wilberforce.” So the master left the witness-box, and Henry re-entered it.
“I omitted to put a question to you, Mr. Chorister,” began Serjeant Siftem. “Should you know this fabulous gentleman of your imagination, this Rolls, if you were to see him?”
“Yes,” replied Henry. “I saw him this morning as I came into court.”
That shut up Serjeant Siftem.
“Where did you see him?” inquired the judge.
“In the outer hall, my lord. He was with Mr. Valentine Carr. But I am not sure that his name is Rolls,” added the witness. “When I pointed him out to Mr. Fauntleroy, he was surprised, and said that was Richards, Mynn and Mynn’s clerk.”
The judge whispered a word to somebody with a white wand, who was standing near him, and that person immediately went hunting about the court to find this Rolls or Richards, and bring him before the judge. But Rolls had made himself scarce ere the conclusion of Henry Arkell’s first evidence; and, as it transpired afterwards, decamped from the town. The next witness put into the box was Mr. George Prattleton.
“You are aware, I presume, of the evidence given by Henry Cheveley Arkell,” said Serjeant Wrangle. “Can you deny that part of it which relates to yourself?”
“No, unfortunately I cannot,” replied George Prattleton, who was very down in the mouth — as his looks were described by a friend of his in court. “Rolls is a villain.”
“That is not evidence, sir,” said the judge.
“He is a despicable villain, my lord,” returned the witness, giving way to his injured feelings. “He came to Westerbury, pretending to be a stranger, and calling himself Rolls, and I got acquainted with him; that is, he scraped acquaintance with me, and we were soon intimate. Then he began to make use of me; he asked if I would do him a favour. He wanted to get a private sight of the register in St. James’s Church. So I consented, I am sorry to say, to get him a private sight; but I made the bargain that he should not copy a single word out of it, and of course I meant to be with him and watch him.”
“Did you know that his request had reference to the case of Carr versus Carr?” inquired Serjeant Wrangle.
“No, I’ll swear I did not,” retorted the witness, in an earnest tone, forgetting, probably, that he was already on his oath. “He never told me why he wanted to look. He would go in at night: if he were seen entering the church in the day, it might be fatal to his client’s cause, was the tale he told; and I am ashamed to acknowledge that I took him in at night, and suffered him to look at the register. I have heard to-day that his name is Richards.”
“You knew where the key of the safe was kept?”
“Yes; I was one day in the church with the Reverend Mr. Prattleton, and saw him take it from its place.”
“Did you see Rolls (as we will call him) abstract the leaf?”
“Of course I did not,” indignantly retorted the witness. “I suddenly found the vestry in darkness, and he got me to fetch the matches, which were left on the bench at the entrance door. It must have been done then. Soon after I returned he gave me back the register, saying the entry he wanted was not there, and I locked it up again. When we got to the church door we were astonished to find it open, but — —”
“But did you not suspect it was opened by one who had watched your proceedings,” interrupted the judge.
“No, my lord. Rolls left the town the next morning early; when I went to find him he was gone, and I have never been able to see him since. That’s all I know of the transaction, and I can only publicly repeat my deep regret and shame that I should have been drawn into such a one.”
“Drawn, however, without much scruple, as it appears,” rebuked the judge, with a severe countenance. “Allow me to ask you, sir, when it was you first became acquainted with the fact that a theft had been perpetrated on the register?”
Mr. George Prattleton did not immediately answer. He would have given much not to be obliged to do so: but the court wore an ominous silence, and the judge waited his reply.
“The day after it took place, Arkell, the college boy, came and told me what he had seen, but — —”
“Then, sir, it was your duty to have proclaimed it, and to have had steps taken to arrest your confederate, Rolls,” interrupted the stern judge.
“But, my lord, I did not believe Arkell. I did not indeed,” he added, endeavouring to impart to his tone an air of veracity, and therefore — as is sure to be the case — imparting to it just the contrary. “I could not believe that Rolls, or any one else in a respectable position, such he appeared to occupy, would be guilty of so felonious an action.”
“The less excuse you make upon the point, the better,” observed the judge.
For some few minutes Serjeant Siftem and his party had been conferring in whispers. The serjeant, at this stage, spoke.
“My lord, this revelation has come upon my instructors, Mynn and Mynn, with, the most utter surprise, and — —”
“The man, Rolls, or Richards, is really clerk to Mynn and Mynn, I am informed,” interrupted the judge, in as significant a tone as a presiding judge permits himself to assume.
“He was, my lord; but he will not be in future. They discard him from this hour. In fact, should he not make good his escape from the country, which it is more than likely he is already endeavouring to effect, he will probably at the next assizes find himself placed before your lordship for judgment, should you happen to come this circuit, and preside in the other court. But Mynn and Mynn wish to disclaim, in the most emphatic manner, all cognizance of this man’s crime. They — —”
“There is no charge to be brought against Mynn and Mynn in connexion with it, is there?” again interposed the judge.
“Most certainly not, my lord,” replied the counsel, in a lofty tone, meant to impress the public ear.
“Then, Brother Siftem, it appears to me that you need not take up the time of the court to enter on their defence.”
“I bow to your lordship’s opinion. Mynn and Mynn and their client, Squire Carr, are not less indignant that so rascally a trick should have been perpetrated than the public must be. But this evidence, which has come upon them in so overwhelming a manner, they feel they cannot hope to confute. I am therefore instructed to inform your lordship and the jury, that they withdraw from the suit, and permit a verdict to be entered for the other side.”
“Very good,” replied the judge.
And thus, after certain technicalities had been observed, the proceedings were concluded, and the court began to empty itself of its spectators. For once the Right had prospered. But Westerbury held its breath with awe when it came to reflect that it was the revengeful act of Roland Carr Lewis, that locking up in the church, which had caused his family to be despoiled of the inheritance they had taken to themselves!
The Reverend Mr. Wilberforce laid hold of Henry Arkell, as he was leaving the Guildhall. “Tell me,” said he, but not in an angry tone, “how much more that is incomprehensible are you keeping secret, allowing it to come out to me piecemeal?”
Henry smiled. “I don’t think there is any more, sir.”
“Yes, there is. It is incomp
rehensible why you should not have disclosed at the time all you had been a witness to in the church. Why did you not?”
“I could not speak without compromising George Prattleton, sir; and if I had, he might have been brought to trial for it.”
“Serve him right too,” said Mr. Wilberforce.
Presently Henry met the dean, his daughter, Frederick St. John, and Lady Anne. The dean stopped him.
“What do you call yourself? A lion?”
Henry smiled faintly.
“I think you stand a fair chance of being promoted into one. Do you know what I wished to-day, when you were giving your evidence?”
“No, sir.”
“That you were my own son.”
Henry involuntarily glanced at Georgina, and she glanced at him: her face retained its calmness, but a flush of crimson came over his. No one observed them but Mr. St. John.
“I want you at the deanery to-night,” continued the dean, releasing Henry. “No excuse about lessons now: your fall on Sunday has given you holiday. You will come?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I mean to dinner — seven o’clock. The judges will be there. The one who tried the cause said he should like to meet you. Go and rest yourself until then.”
“Thank you, sir. I will come.”
Georgina’s eyes sparkled, and she nodded to him in triumph a dozen times, as she walked on with the dean.
Following in the wake of the dean’s party came the Rev. Mr. Prattleton. Henry approached him timidly.
“I hope you will forgive me, sir. I could not help giving my evidence.”
“Forgive you!” echoed Mr. Prattleton; “I wish nobody wanted forgiveness worse than you do. You have acted nobly throughout. I have recommended Mr. George to get out of the town for a while; not to remain in it in idleness and trouble my table any longer. He can join his friend Rolls on the continent if he likes: I understand he is most likely off thither.”
The fraud was not brought home to the Carr family. It was indisputably certain that the squire himself had known nothing whatever of it: had never even been aware that the marriage was entered on the register of St. James the Less. Whether his sons Valentine and Benjamin were equally guiltless, was a matter of opinion. Valentine solemnly protested that nothing had ever been told to him; but he did acknowledge that Richards came to him one evening, and said he thought the cause was likely to be imperilled by “certain proceedings” that the other side were taking. He, Valentine Carr, authorized him to do what he could to counteract these proceedings (only intending him to act in a fair manner), and gave him carte blanche in a moderate way for the money that might be required. He acknowledged to no more: and perhaps he had no more to acknowledge: neither did he say how much he had paid to Richards. Benjamin treated the whole matter with contempt. The most indignant of all were Mynn and Mynn. Really respectable practitioners, it was in truth a very disagreeable thing to have been forced upon them; and could they have got at their ex-clerk, they would willingly have transported him.