‘True enough,’ said Stephen. ‘She would never stand up and swear to him in court. But this does not apply to the post-boys or the people of the inn at Sittingbourne. The young woman there took a good look at the man’s face. She could identify him, which would at least be something. You said he had not been long in the water, I believe?’
‘No more he had, sir, not above a dozen tides,’ said Pratt. ‘But -‘ he hesitated, ‘- there ain’t no face.’
‘I see,’ said Stephen. ‘You are sure of your identification, however?’
‘Yes, sir, I am. I went over at once and picked him out among two score without being told,’ said Pratt. ‘You get the knack of these things with practice: but that would not answer for the young woman at the inn, nor it would not stand up in a court of law.’
‘Well,’ said Stephen, ‘I will come and look at your cadaver. Perhaps it has some physical peculiarities that might be useful: I am, after all, a medical man.’
‘Although I am a medical man,’ said Stephen to Lawrence, ‘I have not often seen a more saddening, shocking spectacle than the cellar where the river-dead are kept. In hard times they get as many as twenty a week, and now, with the coroner away. . . I examined the body – the keeper was most civil and obliging – but until we turned it over I found no
particular marks by which a man could be recognized. On the back, however, there were the traces of habitual flagellation, and this I found perfectly convincing.’
‘Certainly,’ said Lawrence. ‘It certainly reinforces our conviction, but I am afraid it would be useless or even damaging as evidence, even if it were admissible. Had we been able to find the living man and had we been able to look into his antecedents then he would have been an invaluable witness, however hostile; but a faceless corpse, identified by no more than hearsay, no, it will not do. No:
I shall have to fall back on other lines of defence. You have great influence with him, Maturin: could not you and Mrs Aubrey persuade him to incriminate the General? Even just a very little?’
‘I could not.’
‘I was afraid you would say that. When I approached the subject at the Marshalsea he did not take it at all well. I am not an exceptionally timid man, I believe, but I felt extremely uneasy when he stood up, about seven foot tall and swelling with anger. And yet, you know, it was quite certainly that grasping old man and his stock-jobbing friends who bought and bought and then industriously spread the rumour of peace; it was they who sold out at the top of the market, not Captain Aubrey; and his dealings were trifling, compared with theirs. Most of their transactions would have been made through outside dealers, who are not under the control of the Stock Exchange committee, and they cannot be traced, but intelligent men in the City tell me they probably moved more than a million of money in the Funds alone. Captain Aubrey’s business, on the other hand, was mostly conducted by regular brokers, and the committee have all the details.’
‘In these matters he is not to be led,’ said Stephen. ‘Then again, he has a very high notion of English justice, and is persuaded that he has but to tell a plain, unvarnished, wholly truthful tale for the jury to acquit him. He has a reverence for judges, as part of the established order almost on a par with the Royal Navy or the Brigade of Guards or even perhaps the Anglican church.’
‘But surely he has had same experience of the law, has he not?’
‘Only of the interminable Chancery cases that you know about, and for him they do not represent the real law at all, but only the technical warfare of pettifogging attorneys. For him the law is something much simpler and more direct – the wise, impartial judge, the jury of decent, fair-minded men, with perhaps a few barristers to speak for the inarticulate and ask questions designed to bring out the truth, probing questions that he will be happy to answer.’
‘Yes, so I had gathered. But he must know that he will not be allowed to speak – his solicitors must have told him the nature of a Guildhall trial?’
‘He says it is all one. As an officer speaks up for a tongue-tied foremast hand, so counsel will speak for
him: but he will be there – the judge and jury can look at him, and if counsel strays off course he can pull him up. He says he has every confidence in the justice of his country.’
‘It would be a friendly act to bring him to a more earthly, mundane view of things. For I must tell you, Maturin, that with no Palmer I really fear for Captain Aubrey.’
‘I have not had much more experience of these matters than Jack Aubrey. Tell me, now, how should I best blackguard the law?’
‘You could not truthfully blackguard the law, which is the best law that any nation was ever blessed with,’ said Lawrence, ‘but you might point out that it is administered by human beings. Some of them, indeed, can scarcely claim so high a rank. You might remind him of the number of Lord Chancellors who have been dismissed for bribery and corruption; you might speak of notoriously political, cruel, and oppressive judges, like Jeffries or Page or I am sorry to say Lord Quinborough; and you might tell him that although the English bar shines in comparison with all others, it has some members who are perfectly unscrupulous, able and unscrupulous: they go for the verdict, and be damned to the means. Pearce, who leads for the prosecution, is just such a man. He gained a great reputation as a Treasury devil and now he has a most enviable practice. A very clever fellow indeed, quick to take advantage of every turn in a case, and when I contemplate my bout with him, Quinborough keeping the ring, why, I feel less sanguine than I could wish.
And if the rumours of one of General Aubrey’s stock-jobbing friends turning King’s evidence are true, I do not feel sanguine at all.’
‘I am concerned to hear it. May I ask what you consider the best line of defence?’
‘If Captain Aubrey cannot be induced to incriminate the General, then I shall be reduced to abusing Pearce,
discrediting his witnesses as much as possible, and playing on the feelings of the jury. I shall of course speak at length about Aubrey’s distinguished record: no doubt he has been wounded?’
‘Myself I have treated – let me see – oh, the dear knows how many sword-thrusts, bullet-wounds, great gashes made by flying splinters, and blows from falling blocks. Once I was within an ace of taking oft his arm.’
‘That will be useful. And I have no doubt that Mrs Aubrey will attend, looking beautiful. But the trouble is, a Guildhall jury is made up of City men, and broadly speaking, money is far more important in the City than sentiment, let alone patriotism; and then again, if I am compelled to call any witnesses – I shall try to avoid it, but witnesses may be forced upon me -then Pearce will have the right of reply, and he will have the last word with the jury.
And whether or no, Lord Quinborough will of course sum up, probably at great and vehement length, and these merchants will retire with the impression of his words rather than mine. I dread the result. Pray do make this clear to Captain Aubrey: he will attend to you, as a friend for whom he has a great respect. And pray let him know that Pearce will rake up anything and everything that may be to his disadvantage, anything that may lower him and through him his friends and connexions, and that the prosecution will have all the resources at the ministry’s command to help in the raking. Aubreys name will be dragged in the mud. And it is most unfortunate that the man charged with him, the only important
alleged conspirator who has not disappeared or whose dealings were not hidden ten deep behind men of straw, Cummings -,
‘One of the General’s guests at Button’s on that unhappy evening?’
‘Yes, the buffoon Cummings: he has a past made up of dubious joint-stock companies, fraudulent bankruptcy and many other things, and of course this will come out, spattering all his associates. Captain Aubrey is in deep water, and his confidence is misplaced.’
‘If the worst comes to the worst, what is likely to happen to him?’
‘A heavy fine for certain: perhaps the pillory, perhaps imprisonment. Perhaps both.’
‘The pillory? Do you tell me so? The pillory for a naval officer?’