The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 226: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THR MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. indeed say we were all drunk. Lord Herbert was certainly not sober. Mr. Dysart challenged Mr. Sefton to a duel across the table; and Lord Her- bert produced his pistols. Seconds were ap- pointed; and it was agreed that at a given signal the hostile parties should fire. This took place in Lord Herbert’s dining-room. Mr. Dysart and Mr. Sefton received the pistols at the same moment; and Mr. Dysart instantaneously dis- charged his pistol point blank at Mr. Sefton. The signal was not given atall. Mr. Seftan ut- tered « cry—sprang straight up at least a foot from the floor—and then dropped dead. I am bound to apy that Mr. Dysart, when he fired, ex- claimed, ‘ Take that, you young villain /’—or words to the same effect.” The Honourable George Macnamara, not being @ peer, was subjected to some little cross-examina- tion: but his testimony was not shaken in the slightest degree. Lieutenant Apsley, who was also one of the party at Lord Herbert's house, was next sam- moned as a witness: and he not only corroborated Mr. Macnamara’s evidence, but clearly proved that Dysart could noé possibly have fired in the mis- taken belief that the signal was given. For this signal was to consist of the words, “ One—two— three,” deliberately uttered; and at the last word the duellists were to fire: whereas Mr. Dysart had discharged his pistol before even the first word of the signal was spoken. Some other evidence was given; and the case for the prosecution closed. The prisoner’s counse} made as able a speech as the damnatory nature of the evidence and his own fears of offending the “big-wigs” would allow: but he entirely glossed over the startling fact which had come out in Macnamara’s evidence— namely, that Lord Herbert had supplied the pistols. Not that the point would have helped Dysart’s case at all: still it was one which a conscientious barrister, unawed by the frowns of the bench, would not have failed to touch upon. Having concluded his speech, the counsel for the defence called several witnesses to prove that Mr. Dysart was one of the mildest, most forbear- ing, amiable, and good-tempered men in the whole world: and inasmuch as the said witnesses (none of whom had ever seen Dysart before in their lives) had been paid ten pounds a-piece to give him this brilliant character, it must be allowed that they could not well attribute to him fewer virtues considering how handsomely they were remunerated for their trouble. The Attorney-General rose to reply. He began by remarking that never in the whole course of his professional career had it been his good for- tune to listen to evidence so lucidly, clearly, intel- ligibly, and impartially given as.that of Lord Herbert—one of the brightest ornaments of that great and glorious Aristocracy which was the pride, the glory, and the ornament of this free, happy, and enlightened country. It was a pleasure (continued the Attorney-General) to behold a man of Lord Herbert's rank, leaving his sumptuous mansion at the West End, and cheerfully coming down toa public tribunal to farther the ends and aasist the aims of justice. It had been stated in the evidence of Mr. Macnamara that the party of noblemen and gentlemen assembled at Lord Her- bert’s mansion on the melancholy occasion alluded to, had indulged somewhat freely in the use of the grape: but surely a little excess in this manner was not to be wondered at, when it was considered how heavily the legislative duties attached to the noble lord’s proud position as a peer of the realm, must at times press upon his lordship. As the newspapers said next day, “the learned Attorney-General then went carefully over the evidence ;” but so carefully did the learned gentle- man this part of his duty, that he pretty nearly told the jury, at least in terms as plain as he dared venture upon, that they would do well to acquit Mr. Dysart. The learned Recorder, who had been fast asleep during the Attorney-General’s closing speech, now woke up: and, turning to hie notes, he proceeded to sum up the case to the jury. Imitating the example of the prisoner’s counsel and the Attor- ney-General, the learned Judge made not the sligtest allusion to the fact that Lord Herbert had provided his own pistols for the dueists, and had allowed so scandalous a scene to take piace at his own mansion and in his own dining-room: much leas did the learned Recorder think of telling this same Lord Herbert that he ought to have been in- cluded in the indictment, as an accessory to the crime for which the prisoner was then in the pre- sence of thejury. No such thing. But the Judge did also imitate the Attorney-General by travelling out of his way to eulogise Lord Herbert in particu- lar and the Aristocracy in general: and he further took a leaf out of the Attorney-General’s book by hinting that the best thing the jury could do would be to acquit Mr. Dysart. The jury, however, seemed to take quite a differ- ent view of the matter: so that without mach deliberation, and also without leaving the box, they returned a verdict of Wufiul Murder agains Paul Dysart. Every eye was turned upon the prisoner to be- hold how he received the record which heralded the crowning act in the drama—namely, the con- demnation to death. A sudden pallor overspread his features, as if a spasm convulsed him at the moment: but the next instant he was calm, col- lected, and confident as before. It was at first a frightful shock to be found guilty of murder, the bare mention of which terrible word was enough to make the gallows and all the dread paraphernalia of death spring up before his startled imagination : but this feeling was promptly relieved by the re- collection that his wife held a document which could compel the Prince Regent to open the doors of his dungeon and recal] him forth to free- dom. The Recorder put on the black cap, and in the usual stereotyped form of verbiage pronounced the awful sentence of the law——which was that Paul Dysart should be taken back to the place whence he came, and thence to a place of execu- tion, where he should be hung by the neck until he was dead: and the Reoorder concluded by ex- pressing a hope that the Lord would have mercy upon his soul ! Execrable imposture!—vile barbarism | — dia- bolical iniquity! Man merciless in his vengeance, and yet hopes that God will be mer- ciful. But should not Man follow the example of this Almighty Power whom he invokes? COUMIC NOG) SS CO