The Shadow of Tyburn Tree

Colonel Thursby took a gulp of brandy, coughed, and shook his head. ' 'Twould be useless, Roger. I've never doubted your willing­ness to shoulder the blame for what occurred; but to attempt to do so now would be only to sacrifice yourself without saving her.'

'It has always been my belief that 'twas my blow upon his heart that killed him. I cannot stand by and let her—let her pay the awful penalty for my act.'

'Nay. We must endeavour to put a check upon our natural feel­ings and, however hard, try to regard the matter dispassionately.' The Colonel closed his eyes wearily, then went on after a moment: 'None of us know, and no one will ever know now, what actually caused his death. It may have been your blow; it may have been the scent-bottle, that Georgina threw at him. Again, neither injury need neces­sarily have been sufficiently serious to prove fatal. It may be that ex­haustion and rage had so wrought upon his brain that before he was struck by either fist or bottle he was already beyond escaping an apoplexy.'

'I know it,' moaned Roger. 'I know it! But the fact that either or neither of us may be guilty of his death cannot, from what you say, save one of us from being brought to book now. And, if so, I am deter­mined that it shall be myself.'

'Were it possible for you to take her place I would be hard put to it to dissuade you from doing so,' the Colonel sighed. 'God knows, 'twould be a frightful choice of evils; only the fact that I love her better than aught else in the world would force me to countenance it. But you have yet to hear my point. No one but you, I and she are aware that you struck him, or even that you were with her when he died.'

'Count Vorontzoff saw the weal that Sir Humphrey's lash left on my hand. He told Georgina so; and of his conviction that her husband died as the result of a brawl at which I was present.'

'No matter. No one else appears to have noticed the mark, and it has long since disappeared. Vorontzoff has said nothing of it and there is not a shred of evidence against you. On the other hand, alas, it is now proven beyond doubt that Georgina threw the bottle. Had you afterwards run your sword through Humphrey Etheredge's body and left it there as a mark of your identity, 'twould still make no difference to the case that has been established against her. They could anywhere but beside Georgina's bed, which makes it beyond doubt that she must have thrown it.'

'Could it not have been pleaded that she did so in self-defence?'

'We considered such a course,' said the Colonel, 'and I put a hypothetical case to Counsel, but he advised against it. Had Georgina done so in defending herself against anyone but her husband she would have been accounted justified. But this was no case of a woman defending her honour; and in English law a wife is still her husband's chattel. Whether a wife be good or bad he is within his rights to give her a beating at any time he may feel so inclined. Had Humphrey threatened to kill her, that would have been different; but there is not the faintest suggestion that, at any time, he had meditated an attempt upon her life. The legal view is that no husband would be safe were a wife permitted to retaliate for a beating by snatching up some possibly lethal weapon; and that for a wife to kill her husband so, is one of the most heinous forms of murder.'

*****

For another hour they talked round and round the ghastly impasse from which it seemed there was no way to rescue the woman for whom they both felt so deeply. Then Roger said: 'I see only one line as yet untried. From all you tell me no suggestion has so far been put forward that Sir Humphrey Etheredge had gone insane some time before he died. If it could be shown that Georgina believed him mad, and feared that he meant to kill her, she would have been justified in taking any steps she could to save herself.'

'That means she would have to confess to having thrown the bottle and having consistently perjured herself these past three days.'

'I know it. But if we succeed in making our case we can save her from the ultimate penalty. The charge would still be nothing less than manslaughter and perjury, but she would get off with trans­portation for life.'

'Bless you, my boy!' the Colonel started up, clutching at this straw. 'I would go with her, wherever she was sent. Anything would be better than what she faces now—anything!'

'But we need time for this,' Roger hurried on. 'We'll have to rake up all the excesses of Sir Humphrey's past and brief Counsel on entirely new lines. In fact, it virtually means asking for the case to be retried.'

Colonel Thursby sank back with a groan. 'Nay. I fear that after all 'tis useless. The judge would never grant an adjournment at this stage, unless we could produce at least some evidence in support of our new line of defence. Could we but bring a doctor into court to­morrow morning to swear that he had noticed signs of insanity in Humphrey, we should be given time to collect proof that he was really mad. But we cannot. Neither, were we granted the time, could we collect the proof. If drinking like a fish and reckless riding are to be accounted signs of lunacy, then half the squires in England would be chained to the walls of Bedlam.'

'In Sir Humphrey's case 'twas not excessive drinking and hard riding alone,' Roger persisted. 'Towards the end his mind was definitely affected. He had a mania that Georgina was making a fool of him, and when he burst into her room he acted like a madman. I'll swear to that.'

'You cannot, without- revealing your presence there.'

'I'll do so then. I would venture anything on a chance that Georgina's sentence may be transportation rather than a hanging.'

The Colonel wrung his hands. Oh, Roger, my boy, I know you would; and all my instincts urge me to let you make the attempt. But 'tis, now that I must strive to keep a level head for both of us. Do you not see that even if the judge granted an adjournment, at the end of it we'd still have no solid evidence that we could bring to establish Humphrey's madness. Then, when the case reopened, your part in this affair would be uncovered by the prosecution. You would find yourself in the dock beside Georgina. As two lovers accused of doing her husband to death between you, what chance would either of you stand?'

'None, I fear,' agreed Roger miserably.

For a few moments they sat silent, then he burst out: 'Yet, by hook or by crook, an adjournment we must get. Even in a week much could be done. We could find ways and means to throw discredit on the prosecution's witnesses. We could create a belief that Georgina went in terror of her husband, even if we have to bribe fresh witnesses of our own to say so. We could engage new Counsel to present the de­fence from a different angle. But all these things need time—time— time!'

' 'Tis the same thought that has haunted me these past three weeks,' sighed the Colonel. 'Yet, had I had longer, I know not what more I could have done; or even now if these measures you propose would prove effective. They sound so simple, but I fear you would find them far from easy of accomplishment.'

Roger suddenly snapped his fingers. 'I have it! I will go to the Prime Minister. As the King's first representative he must surely have the power to order the adjournment of a trial for a week.'

Colonel Thursby did not seek to dissuade him. His own belief was, that although the Royal prerogative enabled the King to pardon a convicted person, if he wished, not even he had the right to stay the course of British justice once it was set in motion. Yet the Colonel, worn out as he was himself, could still sympathise with Roger's terrible urge to take some form of action, and thought it better that he should set out on a futile errand than remain inactive at the mercy of his heartrending thoughts.

Grabbing his hat and cloak, Roger promised that he would come back as soon as he could, and ran downstairs. As there was no hackney coach in sight, he dashed round to the mews at the back of the house, shouted for his old friend Tomkins, the Colonel's coachman, and told him to harness a pair of horses to a carriage. By half-past six he was back in Downing Street.

His luck was in to the extent that the Prime Minister had just finish­ed dinner and was about to go across to the House, so consented to give him a few minutes before leaving, but there it ended. Pitt was gentle but adamant.

He said that if Roger was dissatisfied with the course that the case had taken, that alone, as a member of the public, gave him no right whatever to intervene. If he had private knowledge of the circum­stances in which Sir Humphrey Etheredge had met his death, then it was his duty to disclose it. As far as he, the Prime Minister was con­cerned, even with the best will in the world, he could not instruct a judge to adjourn a case upon which he was already sitting. The only means by which an adjournment could be secured was by an appli­cation to submit fresh evidence before the judge ordered the jury to find a verdict.

'Fresh evidence!' 'Time!' 'Fresh evidence!' 'Time!'were the words that hammered like the loud ticking of a clock in Roger's over­wrought brain. How, without worsening Georgina's desperate position, by making it public that she had had a lover with her in her bedroom who had helped to bring about her