The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 241: what you’re looking at

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

CRAZY JANE 221 her troubled looks were flung nervously around, to ascertain the impression made by this document. The counsel for the prosecution was astonished, — a feeling in which the judge and jury evidently participated, and the spectators showed by their countenances that their opinions were undergoing a rapid change, turning in Lettice Rodney’s favour and therefore against Mrs. Webber. ‘1 will now read from my instructions,” said the counsel for the defence, “‘ the description which the prisoner has given her legal adviser of the two ill-looking persons whom she alleges to have seen with Mr. Pollard’s housekeeper on the memorable night of the foul tragedy which has led to this judicial inquiry.” The barrister accordingly read the personal descriptions of the Burker and of Bill Scott, and when he had finished, he said, ‘‘ At this stage of the proceedings I will call back the witness whom I just now sent out of court, — I mean the detective officer.”’ This witness was accordingly resummoned, and on again making his appearance, he was desired by the counsel for the defence to describe the persons of Barney the Burker and of Bill Scott, — the two individuals whom he had seen on several occasions enter the alley communicating with the Smedleys’ abode. That description tallied to a nicety with the one given by Lettice Rodney, and ere now read from the barrister’s instructions. But there was still another witness forthcoming for the defence, and this was the landlord of the low public-house, or boozing-ken, at which Barney and Bill Scott had lodged when they were at Liverpool. The public-house itself was in the close vicinage of the late Mr. Pollard’s abode, and the landlord proved that the time when the Burker and his acolyte lodged beneath his roof was precisely that when the murder was committed. He even recollected that they were out late on the particular night itself, and that they took their departure at a very early hour in the morning; but he had not then the faintest idea that they were the authors of the crime, inasmuch as it appeared to be so completely brought home to Lettice Rodney. Scarcely was the landlord’s evidence given, when a person entered the court and handed a paper to the counsel for the defence. It was now six o’clock in the evening, the trial CORRICLOO SS (CO) im