James Smith, or, at least, legally proving that he is alive.
Morally speaking, I have no doubt that the justice before whom
you have been examined is as firmly convinced as we can be that
the quadroon has perjured herself. Morally speaking, he believes
that those threats which your mistress unfortunately used
referred (as she said they did to-day) to her intention of
leaving the Hall early in the morning, with you for her
attendant, and coming to me, if she had been well enough to
travel, to seek effectual legal protection from her husband for
the future. Mr. Nicholson believes that; and I, who know more of
the circumstances than he does, believe also that Mr. James Smith
stole away from Darrock Hall in the night under fear of being
indicted for bigamy. But if I can't find him--if I can't prove
him to be alive--if I can't account for those spots of blood on
the night-gown, the accidental circumstances of the case remain
unexplained--your mistress's rash language, the bad terms on
which she has lived with her husband, and her unlucky disregard
of appearances in keeping up her intercourse with Mr. Meeke, all
tell dead against us--and the justice has no alternative, in a
legal point of view, but to remand you both, as he has now done,
for the production of further evidence.
Pages:
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475