Page 336 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

into the Court, saw Maurice Frere staring up at him with
terror in his eyes. ‘I see you, Captain Frere, coward and liar!
Put him in the box, gentlemen, and make him tell his story.
She’ll contradict him, never fear. Oh, and I thought she was
dead all this while!’
The judge had got his answer from the clerk by this time.
‘Miss Vickers had been seriously ill, had fainted just now in
the Court. Her only memories of the convict who had been
with her in the boat were those of terror and disgust. The
sight of him just now had most seriously affected her. The
convict himself was an inveterate liar and schemer, and his
story had been already disproved by Captain Frere.’
The judge, a man inclining by nature to humanity, but
forced by experience to receive all statements of prisoners
with caution, said all he could say, and the tragedy of five
years was disposed of in the following dialogue:-
JUDGE: This is not the place for an accusation against
Captain Frere, nor the place to argue upon your alleged
wrongs. If you have suffered injustice, the authorities will
hear your complaint, and redress it.
RUFUS DAWES I have complained, your Honour. I
wrote letter after letter to the Government, but they were
never sent. Then I heard she was dead, and they sent me
to the Coal Mines after that, and we never hear anything
there.
JUDGE I can’t listen to you. Mr. Mangles, have you any
more questions to ask the witness?
But Mr. Mangles not having any more, someone called,
‘Matthew Gabbett,’ and Rufus Dawes, still endeavouring to