Trial of John Jasper, lay precentor of Cloisterham Cathedral in the County of Kent, for the murder of Edwin Drood, engineer

by England) Dickens Fellowship (London

Mr. Chesterton: I put it to you that the whole of your story is a romance.

Witness: You put it to me?

Mr. Chesterton: I put it to you, in fairness.

Witness: Will you please consider that I am here on my oath?

Mr. Chesterton (to Judge): Your Lordship knows I am bound to put that.

Witness: I can only answer that every word I have spoken is true.

Mr. Chesterton: Suppose every word you have spoken is true: is there a single word you have spoken that proves that Edwin Drood was murdered?

Witness: I don’t know that you have asked questions to elicit that.

Mr. Chesterton: It is not my business. Is there a word in the whole of the testimony you have given to your own Counsel or to me that proves that Edwin Drood was murdered? Did you, for example, see Edwin Drood murdered?

Witness: No.