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Файл:The Ways of The Hour
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THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
“For my part, I wish all hanging was done away with. I can
see no good that hanging can do a man.”
“You mistake the object, my dear Mrs. Horton, though your
argument is quite as good as many that are openly advanced
on the same side of the question.”
“Just hear me, ‘Squire,” rejoined the woman; for she loved
dearly to get into a discussion on any question that she was
accustomed to hear debated among her guests. “The country
hangs a body to reform a body; and what good can that do
when a body is dead?”
“Very ingeniously put,” returned the counsellor, politely
offering his box to the landlady, who took a few grains; and
then deliberately helping himself to a pinch of snuff “quite as
ingeniously as much of the argument that appears in public.
The objection lies to the premises, and not to the deduction,
which is absolutely logical and just. A hanged body is certainly
an unreformed body; and, as you say, it is quite useless to hang
in order to reform.”
“There!” exclaimed the woman in triumph”I told ‘Squire
Timms that a gentleman who knows as much as you do must
be on our side. Depend on one thing, lawyer Dunscomb, and
you too, gentlemen depend on it, that Mary Monson will never
be hanged.”
This was said with a meaning so peculiar, that it struck
Dunscomb, who watched the woman’s earnest countenance
while she was speaking, with undeviating interest and intensity.
“It is my duty and my wish, Mrs. Horton, to believe as much,
and to make others believe it also, if I can,” he answered, now
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
anxious to prolong a discourse that a moment before he had
found tiresome.
“You can, if you will only try. I believe in dreams and I
dreamt a week ago that Mary Monson would be acquitted. It
would be ag’in all our new notions to hang so nice a lady.”
“Our tastes might take offence at it; and taste is of some influence yet, I am bound to agree with you.” “But you do agree
with me in the uselessness of hanging, when the object is to
reform?”
“Unfortunately for the force of that argument, my dear
landlady, society does not punish for the purposes of reformation that is a very common blunder of superficial philanthropists.”
“Not for the purposes of reformation, ‘Squire! You astonish
me! Why, for what else should it punish?”
“For its own protection. To prevent others from committing murder. Have you no other reason than your dream, my
good Mrs. Horton, for thinking Mary Monson will be acquitted?”
The woman put on a knowing look, and nodded her head
significantly. At the same time, she glanced towards the counsellor’s companions, as much as to say that their presence prevented her being more explicit.
“Ned, do me the favour to go to your wife, and tell her I
shall stop in, and say a kind word as I pass her door; and, Jack,
go and bid Sarah be in Mrs. McBrain’s parlour, ready to give
me my morning’s kiss.”
The Doctor and John complied, leaving Dunscomb alone
with the woman.
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THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
“May I repeat the question, my good landlady? Why do you
think Mary Monson is to be acquitted?” asked Dunscomb, in
one of his softest tones.
Mrs. Horton mused, seemed anxious to speak, but struggling with some power that withheld her. One of her hands
was in a pocket where the jingling of keys and pence made its
presence known. Drawing forth this hand mechanically, Dunscomb saw that it contained several eagles. The woman cast her
eyes on the gold, returned it hastily to her pocket, rubbed her
forehead, and seemed the wary, prudent landlady once more.
“I hope you like your room, ‘Squire,” she cried, in a thoroughly, inn – keeping spirit. “It’s the very best in this house;
though I’m obliged to tell Mrs. McBrain the same story as to
her apartment. But you have the best. You have a troublesome
neighbour between you, I’m afraid; but he’ll not be there many
days, and I do all I can to keep him quiet.”
“Is that man crazy?” asked the counsellor, rising, perceiving that he had no more to expect from the woman just then;
“or is he only drunk? I hear him groan, and then I hear him
swear; though I cannot understand what he says.”
“He’s sent here by his friends; and your wing is the only
place we have to keep him in. When a body is well paid, ‘Squire,
I suppose you know that the fee must not be forgotten? Now,
inn – keepers have fees, as well as you gentlemen of the bar.
How wonderfully Timms is getting along, Mr. Dunscomb!”
“I believe his practice increases; and they tell me he stands
next to Mr. Williams in Duke’s.” “He does, indeed; and a `bright
particular star,’ as the poet says, has he got to be!”
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
“If he be a star at all,” answered the counsellor, curling his
lip, “it must be a very particular one, indeed. I am sorry to leave
you, Mrs. Horton; but the intermission is nearly up.”
Dunscomb gave a little friendly nod, which the landlady
returned; the former went his way with singular coolness of
manner, when it is remembered that on him rested the responsibility of defending a fellow – creature from the gallows.
What rendered this deliberation more remarkable, was the
fact that he had no faith in the virtue of Mrs. Horton’s dream.
414
CHAPTER XXII
“Wilt thou behold me sinking in my woes,
And wilt thou not reach out a friendly arm,
To raise one from amidst this plunge of sorrow?”
Addison.
“Call the names of the jurors, Mr. Clerk,” said the judge.
“Mr. Sheriff, I do not see the prisoner in her place.”
This produced a stir. The jurors were called, and answered
to their names; and shortly after, Mary Monson appeared. The
last was accompanied by the ladies, who might now be said
to belong to her party, though no one but herself and Marie
Moulin came within the bar.
There was profound stillness in the hall, for it was felt that
now the issue of life or death was actually approaching. Mary
Monson gazed, not with disquietude but interest, at the twelve
men who were to decide on her innocence or guilt men of
habits and opinions so different from her own men so obnoxious to prejudices against those whom the accidents of life had
made objects of envy or hatred men too much occupied with
the cares of existence to penetrate the arcana of thought, and
who consequently held their opinions at the mercy of others
men unskilled, because without practice, in the very solemn
and important office now imposed on them by the law men
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
who might indeed be trusted, so long as they would defer to
the court and reason, but who were terrible and dangerous,
when they listened, as is too apt to be the case, to the suggestions of their own impulses, ignorance and prejudice. Yet
these men were Mary Monson’s peers, in the eyes of the law
would have been so viewed and accepted in a case involving
the feelings and practices of social castes, about which they
knew absolutely nothing, or, what is worse than nothing, a
very little through the medium of misrepresentation and mistaken conclusions.
It is the fashion to extol the institution of the jury. Our own
experience, by no means trifling, as foreman, as suitor, and as
a disinterested spectator, does not lead us to coincide in this
opinion. A narrative of the corrupt, misguided, partial, prejudiced, or ignorant conduct that we have ourselves witnessed
in these bodies, would make a legend of its own. The power
that most misleads such men, is one unseen by themselves,
half the time, and is consequently so much the more dangerous. The feelings of neighbourhood, political hostility, or party
animosities, are among the commonest evils that justice has to
encounter, when brought in contact with tribunals thus composed. Then come the feelings engendered by social castes, an
inexhaustible source of evil passions. Mary Monson had been
told of the risks she ran from that source; though she had also
been told, and with great truth, that so much of the spirit of
God still remains in the hearts and minds of men, as to render a majority of those who were to be the arbiters of her fate
conscientious and careful in a capital case. Perhaps, as a rule,
the singularity of his situation, with a man who finds himself,
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THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
for the first time, sitting as a juror in a trial for a human life, is
one of the most available correctives of his native tendencies
to do evil.
“Mr. District Attorney, are you ready to proceed?” inquired
the judge.
This functionary rose, bowed to the court and jury, and
commenced his opening. His manner was unpretending, natural, and solemn. Although high talent and original thought
are very rare in this country, as they are everywhere else, there
is a vast fund of intellect of a secondary order, ever at the command of the public. The District Attorney of Duke’s was a living
witness of this truth. He saw all within his reach clearly, and,
possessing great experience, he did his duty, on this occasion,
in a very creditable manner. No attempt was made to awaken
prejudice of any sort against the accused. She was presented
by the grand inquest, and it was his and their painful duty,
including his honour on the bench, to investigate this matter,
and make a solemn decision, on their oaths. Mary Monson was
entitled to a fair hearing, to all the advantages that the lenity
of the criminal law of a very humane state of society could afford, and “for God’s sake let her be acquitted should the State
fail to establish her guilt!”
Mr. District Attorney then proceeded to give a narrative
of the events as he supposed them to have occurred. He spoke
of the Goodwins as “poor, but honest” people, a sort of illustration that is in much favour, and deservedly so, when true.
“It seems, gentlemen,” the District Attorney continued, “that
the wife had a propensity, or a fancy, to collect gold pieces, no
doubt as a store against the wants of age. This money was kept
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
in a stocking, according to the practice of country ladies, and
was often exhibited to the neighbours. We may have occasion,
gentlemen, to show you that some fifteen or twenty persons, at
different times, have seen and handled this gold. You need not
be told what natural curiosity is, but must all know how closely persons little accustomed to see money of this sort, would
be apt to examine the more rare pieces, in particular. There
happened to be several of these pieces among the gold of Mrs.
Goodwin; and one of them was an Italian or a Dutch coin, of
the value of four dollars, which commonly goes by the name of
the king whose likeness is on the piece. This Dutch or Italian
coin, no matter which, or William, was seen, and handled, and
examined by several persons, as we shall show you.
“Now, gentlemen, the stocking that contained the gold
coins, was kept in a bureau, which bureau was saved from the
fire, with all its contents: but the stocking and the gold were
missing! These facts will be shown to you by proof that puts
them beyond a peradventure. We shall next show to you, gentlemen, that on a public examination of the prisoner at the
bar, the contents of her purse were laid open, and the Dutch
or Italian coin I have mentioned was found, along with more
than a hundred dollars of other pieces, which being in American coin, cannot so readily be identified.
“The prosecution relies, in a great degree, on the proof
that will be offered in connection with this piece of money,
to establish the guilt of the prisoner. We are aware that, when
this piece of money was found on her person, she affirmed it
was hers; that she had been possessed of two such pieces, and
that the one seen in Mrs. Goodwin’s stocking had been a pres-
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THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
ent from herself to that unfortunate woman. “Gentlemen, if
persons accused of crimes could vindicate themselves by their
own naked statements, there would be very few convictions.
Reason tells us that proof must be met by proof. Assertions will
not be received, as against the accused, nor will they be taken
in her favour. Your own good sense will tell you, gentlemen,
that if it be shown that Dorothy Goodwin possessed this particular piece of gold, valued it highly, and was in the practice
of hoarding all the gold she could lay her hands on lawfully;
that the said Dorothy Goodwin’s residence was burned, she
herself murdered by a savage and cruel blow or blows on the
occiput, or head; that Mary Monson, the prisoner at the bar,
knew of the existence of this little stock of gold coins, had seen
it, handled it, and doubtless coveted it; residing in the same
house, with easy access to the bedside of the unhappy couple,
with easy access to the bureau, to the keys which opened that
bureau, for its drawers were found locked, just as Mrs. Goodwin was in the habit of leaving them; but, gentlemen, if all
this be shown to you, and we then trace the aforesaid piece or
coin to the pocket of Mary Monson, we make out a prima facie
case of guilt, as I conceive; a case that will throw on her the
onus of showing that she came in possession of the said piece
of coin lawfully, and by no improper means. Failing of this,
your duty will be plain.
“It is incumbent on the prosecution to make out its case,
either by direct proof, on the oaths of credible witnesses, or by
such circumstances as shall leave no doubt in your minds of
the guilt of the accused. It is also incumbent that we show that
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
the crimes, of which the prisoner is accused, have been committed, and committed by her.
“Gentlemen, we shall offer you this proof. We shall show
you that the skeletons of which I have spoken, and which lie
under that pall, sad remains of a most ruthless scene, are beyond all question the skeletons of Peter and Dorothy Goodwin. This will be shown to you by proof; though all who knew
the parties, can almost see the likeness in these sad relics of
mortality. Peter Goodwin, as will be shown to you, was a very
short, but sturdy man, while Dorothy, his wife, was a woman
of large size. The skeletons meet this description exactly. They
were found on the charred wood of the bedstead the unhappy
couple habitually used, and on the very spot where they had
passed so many previous nights in security and peace. Everything goes to corroborate the identity of the persons whose
remains have been found, and I regret it should be my duty to
add, that everything goes to fasten the guilt of these murders
on the prisoner at the bar.
“Gentlemen, although we rely mainly on the possession of
the Dutch or Italian coin, no matter which, to establish the
case for the state, we shall offer you a great deal of sustaining
and secondary proof. In the first place, the fact that a female,
young, handsome, well, nay, expensively educated, coming
from nobody knows whence, to go nobody knows whither,
should suddenly appear in a place as retired as the house of
Peter Goodwin, why no one can say, are in themselves very
suspicious. Gentlemen, `all is not gold that glitters.’ Many a
man, and many a woman, in places large as New York, are
not what they seem to be. They dress, and laugh, and sing,
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