“Ah!” drawled the old lawyer. “I was misinformed.” With a bow, he took his seat. As he did so, he added, slowly, “I understood she was a material witness—a very material witness. If she is not, of course——?” He looked benignantly at the jury and shut his lips. He was apparently relieved. Leech cleared his throat nervously. He saw he had lost whatever advantage the statement would have given him.
“I did not mean that. I did not mean to say she is not a material witness.”
The old lawyer turned his eyes on him slowly. “A very material witness?”
“Oh, well, yes; I suppose you might say so.”
Mr. Bagby rose again.
“Then I will resume my statement. I am informed that this young lady to whom I have referred is summoned to prove certain statements of our client, respecting his supposed connection with the secret and unlawful order for the suppression of which the law, under which this prosecution is ostensibly made, was framed. I am informed, further, that she is a very material witness—so material, indeed, that but for her testimony it is possible this prosecution, in this particular form, might not have taken place.”
Leech cleared his throat ominously, and Mr. Bagby looked at him benignly.
“I am inclined to credit this report not only from facts within our own knowledge, but also because I understand that these conjectured statements, whatever they were, were made in the course of conversation of a kind peculiarly confidential, under seal of a friendship unusually close and intimate; and I cannot believe that the learned and amiable counsel for the Government would have wished to violate wantonly such a confidence. I can only think he considered that his duty required it. And I am glad to say I have his own statement that such was his view of the case” (he took from his hat a paper and held it in his hand), “in a letter which he personally wrote to the young lady’s father.
“It is under these circumstances that I feel it is due to the Court, and may lead to a different disposition of the case, to say to the Court that the young lady in question is not an eligible witness in this prosecution.” (He here took from his hat another paper.) “She has been united in the bonds of matrimony to my client, and is at present the wife of the accused, Captain Stevenson Allen, and thus is not an eligible witness for or against him.”
He resumed his seat slowly and sedately, amid the dead silence which had fallen on the court-room. The next moment the crowd took in the situation, and the old court-room rang with cheer after cheer. Even the jury were moved to grin, and exchanged pleased glances and words of wonder and satisfaction.