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Page 43
"There was nothing incomplete in that trial.
"Everything was so certain that the assassin did not even
undertake to contradict; not one statement, not one word of the
evidence against him did he deny. It was a plain case of
willful, deliberate and premeditated murder. The judge presiding
at the trial instructed the jury that a man is presumed to intend
that which he does; that whoever kills a human being with malice
aforethought is guilty of murder; that murder which is
perpetrated by any kind of willful, deliberate and premeditated
killing is murder in the first degree. The jury found the
assassin guilty and the judge sentenced him to be hanged."
The Count paused and looked at his companions about him on the
terrace.
"Messieurs," he said, "do you think that conviction was just?"
There was a common assent. Some one said: "It was a cruel murder
if ever there was one." And another: "It was wholly just; the
creature deserved to hang."
The old Count bowed, putting out his hands.
"And so I hoped he would."
"What happened?" said the American.
The Count regarded him with a queer, ironical smile.
"Unlike the great British people, monsieur," he replied, "your
courts have never given the pig, or the pasture on which he
gathers his acorns, a consideration above the human family. The
case was taken to your Court of Appeals of that province."
He stopped and lighted his cigarette deliberately, with a match
scratched slowly on the table.
"Monsieur," he said, "I do not criticize your elevated court. It
is composed of learned men - wise and patriotic, I have no doubt.
They cannot make the laws, monsieur; they cannot coin a
conception of justice for your people. They must enforce the
precise rules of law that the conception of justice in your
country has established.
"Nevertheless, monsieur" - and his thin yellow lips curled - "for
the sake of my depleted revenues I could have wished that the
decision of this court had been other than it was."
"And what did it decide?" asked the American.
"It decided, monsieur," replied the Count, "that my estates in
Salerno must continue to be charged with the gratuity to the
indigent relative.
"That is to say, monsieur, it decided, because the great pagan
did not wait to die in agony, did not wait for the mortal wounds
inflicted by the would-be assassin to kill him, that interesting
person - the man in the green hat - was not guilty of murder in
the first degree and could not be hanged!"
Note - See State versus Angelina; 80 Southeastern Reporter, 141:
"The intervening responsible agent who wrongfully accelerates
death is guilty of the murder, and not the one who inflicted the
first injury, though in itself mortal."
VI. The Wrong Sign
It was an ancient diary in a faded leather cover. The writing
was fine and delicate, and the ink yellow with age. Sir Henry
Marquis turned the pages slowly and with care for the paper was
fragile.
We had dined early at the Ritz and come in later to his great
home in St. James's Square.
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