Phineas Redux

by Anthony Trollope

  CHAPTER LXII.

  LORD FAWN'S EVIDENCE.

  A crowd of witnesses were heard on the second day after Mr.Chaffanbrass had done with Mr. Bouncer, but none of them were of muchinterest to the public. The three doctors were examined as to thestate of the dead man's head when he was picked up, and as to thenature of the instrument with which he had probably been killed; andthe fact of Phineas Finn's life-preserver was proved,--in the middleof which he begged that the Court would save itself some littletrouble, as he was quite ready to acknowledge that he had walkedhome with the short bludgeon, which was then produced, in his pocket."We would acknowledge a great deal if they would let us," said Mr.Chaffanbrass. "We acknowledge the quarrel, we acknowledge the walkhome at night, we acknowledge the bludgeon, and we acknowledge a greycoat." But that happened towards the close of the second day, andthey had not then reached the grey coat. The question of the greycoat was commenced on the third morning,--on the Saturday,--whichday, as was well known, would be opened with the examination ofLord Fawn. The anxiety to hear Lord Fawn undergo his penance wasintense, and had been greatly increased by the conviction thatMr. Chaffanbrass would resent upon him the charge made by theAttorney-General as to tampering with a witness. "I'll tamper withhim by-and-bye," Mr. Chaffanbrass had whispered to Mr. Wickerby, andthe whispered threat had been spread abroad. On the table before Mr.Chaffanbrass, when he took his place in the Court on the Saturday,was laid a heavy grey coat, and on the opposite side of the table,just before the Solicitor-General, was laid another grey coat, ofmuch lighter material. When Lord Fawn saw the two coats as he tookhis seat on the bench his heart failed him.

  He was hardly allowed to seat himself before he was called upon to besworn. Sir Simon Slope, who was to examine him, took it for grantedthat his lordship could give his evidence from his place on thebench, but to this Mr. Chaffanbrass objected. He was very well aware,he said, that such a practice was usual. He did not doubt but that inhis time he had examined some hundreds of witnesses from the bench.In nineteen cases out of twenty there could be no objection to such apractice. But in this case the noble lord would have to give evidencenot only as to what he had seen, but as to what he then saw. It wouldbe expedient that he should see colours as nearly as possible inthe same light as the jury, which he would do if he stood in thewitness-box. And there might arise questions of identity, in speakingof which it would be well that the noble lord should be as near aspossible to the thing or person to be identified. He was afraid thathe must trouble the noble lord to come down from the Elysium ofthe bench. Whereupon Lord Fawn descended, and was sworn in at thewitness-box.

  His treatment from Sir Simon Slope was all that was due from aSolicitor-General to a distinguished peer who was a member ofthe same Government as himself. Sir Simon put his questions soas almost to reassure the witness; and very quickly,--only tooquickly,--obtained from him all the information that was needed onthe side of the prosecution. Lord Fawn, when he had left the club,had seen both Mr. Bonteen and Mr. Finn preparing to follow him, buthe had gone alone, and had never seen Mr. Bonteen since. He walkedvery slowly down into Curzon Street and Bolton Row, and when there,as he was about to cross the road at the top of Clarges Street,--ashe believed, just as he was crossing the street,--he saw a man comeat a very fast pace out of the mews which runs into Bolton Row,opposite to Clarges Street, and from thence hurry very quicklytowards the passage which separates the gardens of Devonshire andLansdowne Houses. It had already been proved that had Phineas Finnretraced his steps after Erle and Fitzgibbon had turned their backsupon him, his shortest and certainly most private way to the spoton which Lord Fawn had seen the man would have been by the mews inquestion. Lord Fawn went on to say that the man wore a grey coat,--asfar as he could judge it was such a coat as Sir Simon now showed him;he could not at all identify the prisoner; he could not say whetherthe man he had seen was as tall as the prisoner; he thought that asfar as he could judge, there was not much difference in the height.He had not thought of Mr. Finn when he saw the man hurrying along,nor had he troubled his mind about the man. That was the end of LordFawn's evidence-in-chief, which he would gladly have prolonged to theclose of the day could he thereby have postponed the coming horrorsof his cross-examination. But there he was,--in the clutches ofthe odious, dirty, little man, hating the little man, despisinghim because he was dirty, and nothing better than an Old Baileybarrister,--and yet fearing him with so intense a fear!

  Mr. Chaffanbrass smiled at his victim, and for a moment was quitesoft with him,--as a cat is soft with a mouse. The reporterscould hardly hear his first question,--"I believe you are anUnder-Secretary of State?" Lord Fawn acknowledged the fact. Now itwas the case that in the palmy days of our hero's former career hehad filled the very office which Lord Fawn now occupied, and thatLord Fawn had at the time filled a similar position in anotherdepartment. These facts Mr. Chaffanbrass extracted from hiswitness,--not without an appearance of unwillingness, which wasproduced, however, altogether by the natural antagonism of thevictim to his persecutor; for Mr. Chaffanbrass, even when asking thesimplest questions, in the simplest words, even when abstaining fromthat sarcasm of tone under which witnesses were wont to feel thatthey were being flayed alive, could so look at a man as to create anantagonism which no witness could conceal. In asking a man his name,and age, and calling, he could produce an impression that the manwas unwilling to tell anything, and that, therefore, the jury wereentitled to regard his evidence with suspicion. "Then," continued Mr.Chaffanbrass, "you must have met him frequently in the intercourse ofyour business?"

  "I suppose I did,--sometimes."

  "Sometimes? You belonged to the same party?"

  "We didn't sit in the same House."

  "I know that, my lord. I know very well what House you sat in. ButI suppose you would condescend to be acquainted with even a commonerwho held the very office which you hold now. You belonged to the sameclub with him."

  "I don't go much to the clubs," said Lord Fawn.

  "But the quarrel of which we have heard so much took place at aclub in your presence?" Lord Fawn assented. "In fact you cannot buthave been intimately and accurately acquainted with the personalappearance of the gentleman who is now on his trial. Is that so?"

  "I never was intimate with him."

  Mr. Chaffanbrass looked up at the jury and shook his head sadly."I am not presuming, Lord Fawn, that you so far derogated as to beintimate with this gentleman,--as to whom, however, I shall be ableto show by and by that he was the chosen friend of the very man underwhose mastership you now serve. I ask whether his appearance is notfamiliar to you?" Lord Fawn at last said that it was. "Do you knowhis height? What should you say was his height?" Lord Fawn altogetherrefused to give an opinion on such a subject, but acknowledged thathe should not be surprised if he were told that Mr. Finn was over sixfeet high. "In fact you consider him a tall man, my lord? There heis, you can look at him. Is he a tall man?" Lord Fawn did look, butwouldn't give an answer. "I'll undertake to say, my lord, that thereisn't a person in the Court at this moment, except yourself, whowouldn't be ready to express an opinion on his oath that Mr. Finn isa tall man. Mr. Chief Constable, just let the prisoner step out fromthe dock for a moment. He won't run away. I must have his lordship'sopinion as to Mr. Finn's height." Poor Phineas, when this was said,clutched hold of the front of the dock, as though determined thatnothing but main force should make him exhibit himself to the Courtin the manner proposed.

  But the need for exhibition passed away. "I know that he is a verytall man," said Lord Fawn.

  "You know that he is a very tall man. We all know it. There can beno doubt about it. He is, as you say, a very tall man,--with whosepersonal appearance you have long been familiar? I ask again, mylord, whether you have not been long familiar with his personalappearance?" After some further agonising delay Lord Fawn at lastacknowledged that it had been so. "Now we shall get on like a houseon fire," said Mr. Chaffanbrass.

  But still the house did not burn very quickly. A string o
f questionswas then asked as to the attitude of the man who had been seen comingout of the mews wearing a grey great coat,--as to his attitude, andas to his general likeness to Phineas Finn. In answer to these LordFawn would only say that he had not observed the man's attitude,and had certainly not thought of the prisoner when he saw the man."My lord," said Mr. Chaffanbrass, very solemnly, "look at your latefriend and colleague, and remember that his life depends probably onthe accuracy of your memory. The man you saw--murdered Mr. Bonteen.With all my experience in such matters,--which is great; and with allmy skill,--which is something, I cannot stand against that fact. Itis for me to show that that man and my client were not one and thesame person, and I must do so by means of your evidence,--by siftingwhat you say to-day, and by comparing it with what you have alreadysaid on other occasions. I understand you now to say that there isnothing in your remembrance of the man you saw, independently of thecolour of the coat, to guide you to an opinion whether that man wasor was not one and the same with the prisoner?"

  In all the crowd then assembled there was no man more thoroughlyunder the influence of conscience as to his conduct than was LordFawn in reference to the evidence which he was called upon to give.Not only would the idea of endangering the life of a human being havebeen horrible to him, but the sanctity of an oath was imperative tohim. He was essentially a truth-speaking man, if only he knew howto speak the truth. He would have sacrificed much to establish theinnocence of Phineas Finn,--not for the love of Phineas, but forthe love of innocence;--but not even to do that would he have lied.But he was a bad witness, and by his slowness, and by a certainunsustained pomposity which was natural to him, had already taughtthe jury to think that he was anxious to convict the prisoner. Twomen in the Court, and two only, thoroughly understood his condition.Mr. Chaffanbrass saw it all, and intended without the slightestscruple to take advantage of it. And the Chief Justice saw it all,and was already resolving how he could set the witness right with thejury.

  "I didn't think of Mr. Finn at the time," said Lord Fawn in answer tothe last question.

  "So I understand. The man didn't strike you as being tall."

  "I don't think that he did."

  "But yet in the evidence you gave before the magistrate in Bow StreetI think you expressed a very strong opinion that the man you sawrunning out of the mews was Mr. Finn?" Lord Fawn was again silent. "Iam asking your lordship a question to which I must request an answer.Here is the Times report of the examination, with which you canrefresh your memory, and you are of course aware that it was mainlyon your evidence as here reported that my client stands there injeopardy of his life."

  "I am not aware of anything of the kind," said the witness.

  "Very well. We will drop that then. But such was your evidence,whether important or not important. Of course your lordship can takewhat time you please for recollection."

  Lord Fawn tried very hard to recollect, but would not look at thenewspaper which had been handed to him. "I cannot remember what wordsI used. It seems to me that I thought it must have been Mr. Finnbecause I had been told that Mr. Finn could have been there byrunning round."

  "Surely, my lord, that would not have sufficed to induce you to givesuch evidence as is there reported?"

  "And the colour of the coat," said Lord Fawn.

  "In fact you went by the colour of the coat, and that only?"

  "Then there had been the quarrel."

  "My lord, is not that begging the question? Mr. Bonteen quarrelledwith Mr. Finn. Mr. Bonteen was murdered by a man,--as we allbelieve,--whom you saw at a certain spot. Therefore you identifiedthe man whom you saw as Mr. Finn. Was that so?"

  "I didn't identify him."

  "At any rate you do not do so now? Putting aside the grey coat thereis nothing to make you now think that that man and Mr. Finn were oneand the same? Come, my lord, on behalf of that man's life, which isin great jeopardy,--is in great jeopardy because of the evidencegiven by you before the magistrate,--do not be ashamed to speak thetruth openly, though it be at variance with what you may have saidbefore with ill-advised haste."

  "My lord, is it proper that I should be treated in this way?" saidthe witness, appealing to the Bench.

  "Mr. Chaffanbrass," said the judge, again looking at the barristerover his spectacles, "I think you are stretching the privilege ofyour position too far."

  "I shall have to stretch it further yet, my lord. His lordship in hisevidence before the magistrate gave on his oath a decided opinionthat the man he saw was Mr. Finn;--and on that evidence Mr. Finn wascommitted for murder. Let him say openly, now, to the jury,--when Mr.Finn is on his trial for his life before the Court, and for all hishopes in life before the country,--whether he thinks as then hethought, and on what grounds he thinks so."

  "I think so because of the quarrel, and because of the grey coat."

  "For no other reasons?"

  "No;--for no other reasons."

  "Your only ground for suggesting identity is the grey coat?"

  "And the quarrel," said Lord Fawn.

  "My lord, in giving evidence as to identity, I fear that you do notunderstand the meaning of the word." Lord Fawn looked up at thejudge, but the judge on this occasion said nothing. "At any rate wehave it from you at present that there was nothing in the appearanceof the man you saw like to that of Mr. Finn except the colour of thecoat."

  "I don't think there was," said Lord Fawn, slowly.

  Then there occurred a scene in the Court which no doubt wasgratifying to the spectators, and may in part have repaid them forthe weariness of the whole proceeding. Mr. Chaffanbrass, while LordFawn was still in the witness-box, requested permission for a certainman to stand forward, and put on the coat which was lying on thetable before him,--this coat being in truth the identical garmentwhich Mr. Meager had brought home with him on the morning of themurder. This man was Mr. Wickerby's clerk, Mr. Scruby, and he put onthe coat,--which seemed to fit him well. Mr. Chaffanbrass then askedpermission to examine Mr. Scruby, explaining that much time might besaved, and declaring that he had but one question to ask him. Aftersome difficulty this permission was given him, and Mr. Scruby wasasked his height. Mr. Scruby was five feet eight inches, and hadbeen accurately measured on the previous day with reference to thequestion. Then the examination of Lord Fawn was resumed, and Mr.Chaffanbrass referred to that very irregular interview to which hehad so improperly enticed the witness in Mr. Wickerby's chambers. Fora long time Sir Gregory Grogram declared that he would not permit anyallusion to what had taken place at a most improper conference,--aconference which he could not stigmatize in sufficiently stronglanguage. But Mr. Chaffanbrass, smiling blandly,--smiling veryblandly for him,--suggested that the impropriety of the conference,let it have been ever so abominable, did not prevent the fact of theconference, and that he was manifestly within his right in alludingto it. "Suppose, my lord, that Lord Fawn had confessed in Mr.Wickerby's chambers that he had murdered Mr. Bonteen himself, andhad since repented of that confession, would Mr. Camperdown and Mr.Wickerby, who were present, and would I, be now debarred from statingthat confession in evidence, because, in deference to some fancifulrules of etiquette, Lord Fawn should not have been there?" Mr.Chaffanbrass at last prevailed, and the evidence was resumed.

  "You saw Mr. Scruby wear that coat in Mr. Wickerby's chambers." LordFawn said that he could not identify the coat. "We'll take care tohave it identified. We shall get a great deal out of that coat yet.You saw that man wear a coat like that."

  "Yes; I did."

  "And you see him now."

  "Yes, I do."

  "Does he remind you of the figure of the man you saw come out of themews?" Lord Fawn paused. "We can't make him move about here as we didin Mr. Wickerby's room; but remembering that as you must do, does helook like the man?"

  "I don't remember what the man looked like."

  "Did you not tell us in Mr. Wickerby's room that Mr. Scruby with thegrey coat on was like the figure of the man?"

  Questions of this nature
were prolonged for near half an hour, duringwhich Sir Gregory made more than one attempt to defend his witnessfrom the weapons of their joint enemies; but Lord Fawn at lastadmitted that he had acknowledged the resemblance, and did, in somefaint ambiguous fashion, acknowledge it in his present evidence.

  "My lord," said Mr. Chaffanbrass as he allowed Lord Fawn to go down,"you have no doubt taken a note of Mr. Scruby's height." Whereuponthe judge nodded his head.