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I certainly could wish it to be tried, miss, he returned, by court-martial; but that is out of the question, as I am well aware. If you will be so good as to favour me with your attention for a couple of minutes, miss, not more, Ill endeavour to explain myself as clearly as I can. He looked at us all three in turn, shook his head a little as if he were adjusting it in the stock and collar of a tight uniform, and after a moments reflection went on. You see, miss, I have been hand-cuffed and taken into custody, and brought here. I am a marked and disgraced man, and here I am. My shooting-gallery is rummaged, high and low, by Bucket; such property as I have tis small is turned this way and that, till it dont know itself; and (as aforesaid) here I am! I dont particular complain of that. Though I am in these present quarters through no immediately preceding fault of mine, I can very well understand that if I hadnt gone into the vagabond way in my youth, this wouldnt have happened. It has happened. Then comes the question, how to meet it He rubbed his swarthy forehead for a moment, with a good-humoured look, and said apologetically, I am such a short-winded talker that I must think a bit. Having thought a bit, he looked up again, and resumed. How to meet it. Now, the unfortunate deceased was himself a lawyer, and had a pretty tight hold of me. I dont wish to rake up his ashes, but he had, what I should call if he was living, a Devil of a tight hold of me. I dont like his trade the better for that. If I had kept clear of his trade, I should have kept outside this place. But thats not what I mean. Now, suppose I had killed him. Suppose I really had discharged into his body any one of those pistols recently fired off, that Bucket has found at my place, and, dear me! might have found there any day since it has been my place. What should I have done as soon as I was hard and fast here? Got a lawyer. He stopped on hearing some one at the locks and bolts, and did not resume until the door had been opened and was shut again. For what purpose opened, I will mention presently. I should have got a lawyer, and he would have said (as I have often read in the newspapers), my client says nothing, my client reserves his defence my client this, that, and tother. Well! tis not the custom of that breed to go straight, according to my opinion, or to think that other men do. Say, I am innocent, and I get a lawyer. He would be as likely to believe me guilty as not; perhaps more. What would he do, whether or not? Act as if I was; shut my mouth up, tell me not to commit myself, keep circumstances back, chop the evidence small, quibble, and get me off perhaps! But, Miss Summerson, do I care for getting off in that way; or would I rather be hanged in my own way if youll excuse my mentioning anything so disagreeable to a lady? He had warmed into his subject now, and was under no further necessity to wait a bit. I would rather be hanged in my own way. And I mean to be! I dont intend to say, looking round upon us, with his powerful arms akimbo and his dark eyebrows raised, that I am more partial to being hanged than another man. What I say is, I must come off clear and full, or not at all. Therefore, when I hear stated against me what is true, I say its true; and when they tell me, whatever you say will be used, I tell them I dont mind that; I mean it to be used. If they cant make me innocent out of the whole truth, they are not likely to do it out of anything less, or anything else. And if they are, its worth nothing to me. Taking a pace or two over the stone floor, he came back to the table, and finished what he had to say. I thank you, miss, and gentlemen both, many times for your attention, and many times more for your interest. Thats the plain state of the matter, as it points itself out to a mere trooper with a blunt broadsword kind of a mind. I have never done well in life, beyond my duty as a soldier; and if the worst comes after all, I shall reap pretty much as I have sown. When I got over the first crash of being seized as a murderer it dont take a rover, who has knocked about so much as myself, so very long to recover from a crash |
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