The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 253: what you’re looking at

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

224 THE COURT OF LONDON in his attempt at murder, he had fled to his own room and committed suicide. Neale’s deposition confirmed that of the duke in every detail, and Neale gratuitously added his opin- ion that Sellis was a morose, bad-tempered, discontented person. I will here observe that every other person belong- ing to the ducal household who was examined deposed to the very reverse in respect to Sellis’s character and dis- position, and described him as civil, inoffensive, kind- hearted, and good-tempered. The weapon with which the duke had been attacked was his own regimental sword, which had been left lying about in his room for some days. The walls between his Royal Highness’s chamber and the hall were covered with bloodstains, caused by the duke’s hands when he went to alarm the porter. The medical evidence proved that his Royal Highness’s wounds were most severe, that one of his fingers was nearly severed, and that his head was so much hurt that the arteries of the brain were laid bare. Having listened to the reading of the principal depositions, the jury went to view the corpse of Sellis. The room had been left just as it was when the tragedy was first discovered. The newspapers described the body as ‘ lying on a bed of matted blood, livid and loathsome, with a horrid gash from ear to ear; and over all the features the distortion of pain was visible, apparently struggling with the ghastly composure of death.’ The back of the head lay against the deceased’s watch, and the basin, with the blood-dyed water and the finger-marks, was still there. On returning to the room where the inquest was held, the jury heard the evidence of the surgeons who had examined the corpse. They deposed that the windpipe was cut com- pletely through, and that the wound was six inches in length and an inch and a half in diameter. The unhappy widow of the deceased deposed to the effect that her hus- band was steady, abstemious, and affectionate to herself and children, that he was in no pecuniary embarrassment, and that he had never shown the slightest symptom of mental aberration. The jury returned a verdict of jelo de se. The corpse was put into a hearse at dead of night, and hurried to Scotland Yard, where it was buried in a hole with a stake driven through it. Thus terminated this melancholy affair, so far as the public is acquainted with the particulars, and of course Sellis has been branded as Gomichboo CS (E(0)