He smiled. “I think the women do, my lord.”
This was satisfactory. I could not have had more practical support.
He told me further that there was a vast crowd outside in Westminster Yard.
I advised him to make his way at once to a newspaper office, and sell them a description of his interview with me. I warned him, however, that he must exaggerate if he wished to be believed, and I gave him full permission to invent any details of the occurrence which he might think useful.
The Hall was perhaps even more crowded than it had been the day before. This showed a proper increase of interest.
The cross-examinations were masterly, especially when it was considered how simple the evidence of the bare half-dozen witnesses was.
My counsel managed to throw doubt on the fact of my having been the man who bought the poison. This doubt, it is true, counsel for the prosecution soon swept aside, but I could not help admiring the dexterity with which my counsel threw a veil of uncertainty over what, when stated by the prosecution, had seemed facts beyond dispute.
The contention of the prosecution was very simple. It was to nobody’s interest but mine and Mr. Gascoyne’s that Lord Gascoyne should die, and whilst Mr. Gascoyne was in London, the prisoner was constantly in Lord Gascoyne’s company. Further, it was pointed out that I was the only person left alone with the bottle of claret, and that the moment I was so left alone was the only one during which the wine could have been poisoned. I was further proved to have been in possession of arsenic for which I could not account. It had been suggested that the poison might have been in the cup of tea which Lord Gascoyne had drunk, but there was nothing to support this view. It was regrettable that this cup had been removed, and washed before it had been examined. Lord Gascoyne, however, was taken ill almost immediately after he had drunk the tea. This made the insinuation that it was poisoned unlikely, as arsenic had, as far as could be proved, never acted instantaneously. My counsel, in the course of his address, made an earnest appeal that everything alien to the case which had been circulated, he could only say in a most scandalous manner, in certain organs of the press, should be put out of mind. He insinuated that in this respect he felt a greater confidence in their lordships than he would have done in an ordinary jury.
He concluded by the usual passionate appeal for the benefit of any doubt which might linger in their minds.
The Lord High Steward summed up the evidence, and a very brief summing-up it was. Then their lordships retired, and after three hours’ deliberation I was brought back into court.