“I would suggest that you grant an adjournment for a week,” broke in Mr. Ruggles, “when I will proceed to examine the witnesses at my disposal. I shall then be in a better position to tell you when my witnesses will arrive from the Congo.”
“What have you to say, Sir Richard?” the magistrate asked.
The famous counsel slowly rose and took up his gold-rimmed eye-glasses with which he proceeded to punctuate his remarks.
“In the first place, sir, I say with all deliberation that this is not a bona fide prosecution, and I am surprised that my learned friend should have lent himself to such a barefaced proceeding. It is necessary, sir, that I should trouble you at some length, but probably you are aware that Mr. John Gaunt—I will not call him the prisoner—has been engaged upon a humane task, that of rousing the public to a proper appreciation of the terrible conditions under which the natives of the Congo live. It is natural to believe that this agitation is distinctly unpalatable to the governors of the Free State, and I say that the prosecution has been brought solely with the idea of discrediting Mr. Gaunt, and rendering him incapable of continuing what I will term his noble work. I take the first opportunity of denying the truth of the statement which you have just heard from counsel, and I am of opinion that he has been falsely instructed from motives of malice. It is suggested that my client deliberately shot the man Marillier under the most discreditable circumstances, and now I will tell you what really happened.”
Then Sir Richard proceeded to speak of Gaunt’s sudden appearance at the flogging of the native girl, and the consequences of his interference.
“I suggest that the facts have been deliberately misstated for the purpose I have before mentioned, and I maintain that the prosecution has not the slightest hope of proving what they have put forward. Now I address a larger public when I express a wish that these proceedings shall not be allowed to influence Mr. Gaunt’s work,” he wound up slowly and impressively.
“I am willing to adjourn the case for a week,” the magistrate remarked.
“As to bail, your Worship?” Sir Richard said suavely.
Mr. Ruggles jumped to his feet, and intervened with vigor.
“The charge is that of murder, and I strenuously oppose bail. The prisoner is a man of such great wealth that no amount you could fix would deter him from leaving the country, if he so wished.”