Curtly he answered them that beyond doubt it was, and upon that assurance the jury withdrew, the Court settled down into an expectant silence, and her ladyship dozed again in her chair.
The minutes passed. It was growing late, and Jeffreys was eager to be done with this prejudged affair, that he might dine in peace. His voice broke the stillness of the court, protesting his angry wonder at the need to deliberate in so plain a case. He was threatening to adjourn and let the jury lie by all night if they did not bring in their verdict quickly. When, at the end of a half-hour, they returned, his fierce, impatient glance found them ominously grave.
“My lord,” said Mr. Whistler, the foreman, “we have to beg of your lordship some directions before we can bring our verdict. We have some doubt upon us whether there be sufficient proof that she knew Hicks to have been in the army.”
Well might they doubt it, for there was no proof at all. Yet he never hesitated to answer them.
“There is as full proof as proof can be. But you are judges of the proof. For my part, I thought there was no difficulty in it.”
“My lord,” the foreman insisted, “we are in some doubt about it.”
“I cannot help your doubts,” he said irritably. “Was there not proved a discourse of the battle and of the battle and of the army at supper-time?”
“But, my lord, we are not satisfied that she had notice that Hicks was in the army.”
He glowered upon them in silence for a moment. They deserved to be themselves indicted for their slowness to perceive where lay their duty to their king.
“I cannot tell what would satisfy you,” he said; and sneered. “Did she not inquire of Dunne whether Hicks had been in the army? And when he told her he did not know, she did not say she would refuse if he had been, but ordered him to come by night, by which it is evident she suspected it.”