Part 38 (1/2)
”But how did you manage to save the papers?”
”They lay by my side on my bunda. I seized them, and took them out. They were wrapped in a blue handkerchief.”
”He speaks the truth,” said Mr. Catspaw, smiling; ”or, rather, he tells us what he believes to be the truth. He held something in his hand, when he rushed from the hut more like a beast than like a human creature, I a.s.sure you, my honourable friends. I was not at all sure whether it was not a weapon of defence; I s.n.a.t.c.hed it away, and on examination I identified it as a most harmless handkerchief, which certainly was wrapped round some soft substance. But,” continued he, addressing the prisoner, ”if you fancy you saved the papers, my poor fellow, you are much mistaken, indeed you are! My dear Mr. Skinner, pray fetch the parcel which we took from Viola at the time of his capture.”
Mr. Skinner rose and left the room.
”The papers were in the handkerchief, I'll swear!” said Viola; but his astonishment and rage were unbounded when the judge returned with the parcel, which, on examination, was found to contain a pair of cotton drawers. He knew it was the handkerchief, the same in which he had wrapped the papers, and yet they were not there! How could he prove that they had been stolen?
”I trust my honourable friends are convinced,” said Mr. Catspaw, ”that the wretched man has no intention of imposing upon the court. I believe, indeed nothing can be more probable than that he was possessed of Tengelyi's doc.u.ments; and it is likewise very probable that he intended to save those papers; but, according to his own statement, he was half blind with the fire and smoke, and instead of the papers he took another parcel--some other booty perhaps. Nothing can be more natural----”
”Yes, indeed!” interposed Baron Shoskuty. ”_Nemo omnibus!_--you know!
Awkward mistakes will happen. Perhaps you will be pleased to remember the fire in the house of the receiver of revenues in the ---- county.
The poor man was so bewildered with fear, that all he managed to get out of the house was a pair of old boots. The whole of the government money was burnt. The visiting justices found the money-box empty--empty, I say! All the bank notes were burnt, and nothing was left but a small heap of ashes.”
”Gentlemen!----” said Viola at length; but Mr. Catspaw interrupted him.
”I implore my honourable friends not to resent any thing this wretched creature may say! I am sure he speaks from his conscience; nor is he deserving of chastis.e.m.e.nt. He is a prey to what we lawyers term '_Ignorantia invincibilis_!'”
”Of course! of course!” said Baron Shoskuty. ”It's a legal remedy, you know.”
”Gentlemen!” said the prisoner, ”I am a poor condemned criminal; but the judge and Mr. Catspaw are mighty men. And I am doomed to appear this day before G.o.d's judgment-seat! What motive should I have for not telling you the truth? May I be d.a.m.ned now and for ever,--yes, and may G.o.d punish my children to the tenth generation,--if the papers were not in this very cloth!”
”I told you so!” said Mr. Catspaw, still smiling. ”I knew it. This man is doting,--'_borne_,' to use a French term. He'd say the same if we were to put him on the rack!”
”It is all very natural,” said he to the prisoner. ”You've made a mistake, that's all. Pray be reasonable, and consider, if you had brought Mr. Tengelyi's papers from the hut, what reason could I, or Mr.
Skinner, have for refusing to produce them?”
”Of course!” said Baron Shoskuty. ”What reason could these gentlemen have? How is it possible to suppose such a thing?”
Viola was silent. He stood lost in deep and gloomy thoughts. At last he raised his head, and asked that the attendants might be sent away, adding, ”I am in chains, and there are no less than six of you. You are safe, I a.s.sure you.”
The room was cleared. Viola looked at Mr. Catspaw, and said:--
”What I have to tell you, will astonish you all, except Mr. Catspaw. I never wished to mention it, and I would not now allow the servants to hear it, for my wife and children live at Tissaret, and the Retys may perhaps be induced to pity the poor orphans. But if it is asked what reason the attorney can have for not producing the notary's papers, I will simply say that Mr. Catspaw is most likely to know his own mind and his own reasons, and good reasons they must be, to induce him to bribe somebody to steal the papers,--for, to tell you the truth, it was he who planned the robbery.”
The attorney trembled.
”Really, this man _is_ malicious!” cried he. ”I am curious to know what can induce him to accuse an honest man of such a thing?”
”Don't listen to his nonsense!” said Baron Shoskuty.
But Mr. Volgyeshy insisted on the prisoner's being heard, and Viola told them the history of the robbery, from the evening on which he listened to the attorney's conversation with Lady Rety, to the night in which he seized the Jew in Tengelyi's house, knocked him down, and fled with the papers. The only circ.u.mstances which he did not mention were, the fact of his having been hid in the notary's house when Messrs. Catspaw and Skinner pursued him in Tissaret, and his conversations with the Liptaka and Peti. Mr. Catspaw listened with a smile of mingled fear and contempt; and when Viola ceased speaking, he asked for permission to put a few questions to the prisoner.
”Not, indeed,” said he, ”for the purpose of defending myself or Lady Rety against so ridiculous an accusation, but merely to convince this fellow of the holes, nay, of the large gaps, in his abominable tissue of falsehoods.” And turning to Viola, he asked:--
”Did you inform anybody of the conversation which you pretend to have overheard between me and Lady Rety?”
”No, I did not.”