[Evidence of the “Princess Puffer.”]
Usher: Eliza Lascar, alias “Princess Puffer”! [The witness entered the witness-box, and was duly sworn.]
Mr. Crotch: Are you sworn?
Witness: Yes, deary.
Mr. Crotch: Your name, I believe, is Eliza Lascar?
Witness: Yes, deary. Oh, my lungs is so weak!
Mr. Crotch: My dear lady!
Witness: Oh, my lungs!
Mr. Crotch: You are known as “Princess Puffer”?
Witness: Yes, deary. I got Heavens-hard drunk for sixteen year afore I took to this; but this don’t hurt me, not to speak of.
Mr. Crotch: You keep an opium den in the East End of London, I believe?
Witness: I do; but business is slack.
Mr. Crotch: Do you know the prisoner?
Witness: Know him! Better far than all the Reverend Parsons put together know him.
Mr. Crotch: He is a customer of yours, I believe?
Witness: When he first came to me he was quite new to it, but after a while he could take his pipe with the best of ’em, deary.
Mr. Crotch: I conclude from that he was a heavy opium smoker?
Witness: He was, deary.
Mr. Crotch: Do you remember his being in your place on the night of the twelfth of December?
Witness: He was, deary. I see him coming to, and I says, deary, “Get him another ready when he wakes, and he will remember the market price of opium is very high.”
Mr. Crotch: What was the date he next visited you?
Witness: December 23, my deary dear.
Mr. Crotch: You need not be so affectionate. What happened next day?
Witness: I followed him to his home.
Mr. Crotch: What happened?
Witness: I lost him where the omnibus he got into nigh his journey’s end plies betwixt the station and the place.
Mr. Crotch: Did you meet anybody else?
Witness: I met a dear gentleman named Edwin.
Mr. Crotch: What did you say to him?
Witness: I said to him, “My lungs is weak, my lungs is bad”—and the dear gentleman he put three-and-sixpence in my hand.
Mr. Crotch: And when did you next meet the prisoner?
Witness: Oh, my poor head! In 1861. He comes to me all over like for the want of a smoke. I says, “You have come to the right place. This is the place where the all overs is smoked off.”
Mr. Crotch: Then what happened?
Witness: Then what happened, deary? I follows him to Aldersgate Street, the place where he puts up, and I finds out where he comes from, and I says to my poor self “I missed you the first time, and I swore my oath I will not lose you again, my gentleman from Cloisterham. I’ll go there first, and bide your coming.” And I did. I goes to Cloisterham, and I waits outside the Nun’s House, just where the omnibus goes, and he gets down, and I follows him up a bystreet till he disappears under a archway to the left. I turns round, and he was gone.
Mr. Crotch: Did you see any one?
Witness: A white-haired gentleman who told me that his name was Datchery.
Mr. Crotch: Did you go to the Cathedral next morning?
Witness: I did, deary.
Mr. Crotch: Did you see the prisoner there?
Witness: I see him from behind a pillar.
Mr. Crotch: You recognised him?
Witness: I recognised him, deary.
Mr. Crotch: Did you afterwards meet the white-haired gentleman you have spoken of?
Witness: I did, deary.
Mr. Crotch: Did you tell him you knew the prisoner?
Witness: I told him that I knew him.
Mr. Crotch: Yes?
Witness: I said, “I know him. I know him better than all the Reverend Parsons put together knows him.”
Mr. Crotch: Thank you.
[“Princess Puffer” Cross-examined.]
Mr. Walters: Just one question. When you met Edwin Drood, I think you told him “Ned” was a threatened name?
Witness: Yes, deary.
Mr. Walters: What did you mean by “threatened”?
Witness: It was a bad name.
Mr. Walters: Do you think a man threatened is in danger?
Witness: It sounds like it, deary, don’t it?
Mr. Walters: It does. I want you to agree with me. I think you were in the habit of listening to Mr. Jasper when he had a little opium?
Witness: That is so.
Mr. Walters: Ever hear him say the word “Ned”?
Witness: I can’t recollect. I should think he did.
Mr. Walters: What made you hit upon the name “Ned” as a threatened name?
Witness: He talked about him in a very unkind way.
Mr. Walters: You say the man threatened was in danger. Did you think “Ned” in danger?
Witness: I heard what he said. Shall I tell you?
Mr. Walters: Not what he said. It doesn’t matter. But I want to know that “Ned” was a threatened name.
Witness: That’s right, deary.
Mr. Walters: Were you giving warning to anybody of the name of “Ned”?
Witness: I told him it was a threatened name.
Mr. Walters: Did you know he was called “Ned”?
Witness: I asked him.
Mr. Walters: Did you know who called him “Ned”?
Witness: I don’t know.
Mr. Walters: If I told you that Jasper, and Jasper alone, called him “Ned”?
Witness: I should believe you, deary. I should believe you.
Mr. Walters: And you would therefore also believe that Jasper was threatening him?
Witness: Yes, deary.
Mr. Walters: And that he meant it?
Witness: Yes, deary.
Mr. Walters: So you think there was murder in the mind of John Jasper?
Witness: I think he wanted to do him harm.
Mr. Walters: Do you love John Jasper?
Witness: No, I don’t.
Mr. Walters: I suppose you don’t love any of your customers?
Witness: I don’t care much about ’em.
Mr. Walters: But you don’t turn them away? When they come to you you take their money?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: Do you always follow your customers down to their private residences?
Witness: No.
Mr. Walters: Why this one?
Witness: He had money.
Mr. Walters: What! A poor man in a choir had got money?
Witness: He had money.
Mr. Walters: It was worth all your while to go all the way to Cloisterham after one customer?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: He had such a lot of money?
Witness: Yes; to me he had. I’m only a poor woman.
Mr. Walters: He was richer than all your other customers?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: You think so?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: You don’t know where all this money came from?
Witness: No.
Mr. Walters: You hated him?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: And you wanted his money?
Witness: Yes. He was always a-listening.
Mr. Walters: I thought it was you listening?
Witness: Sometimes I would listen, and once he spoke to me of a hazardous journey, and he said, “I did it a hundred million times; I did it so often, that when it came to be really done, it was not worth the doing, it was done so soon, and when it comes to be real, it was so short that for the first time it seemed to be unreal. No struggle, no sign of danger, no consciousness of peril! I never dreamt that before.” That’s what he said, my deary dear.
Mr. Walters: Well, he said, when it came to be done it was so short it was not worth doing?
Witness: He said it was not real for the first time.
Mr. Walters: He talked about a real thing?
Witness: He says, deary, “When it comes to be real it seems to be unreal for the first time,” my deary dear.
Mr. Walters: He said, “when it comes to be real”?
Witness: “It seems unreal for the first time,” my poppett.
Mr. Walters: But when a man says “a real thing,” he means a real thing?
Mr. Chesterton: My Lord!
Judge: There is some element of paradox involved here. I cannot consent to allow the witness to be attacked merely because a criminal says that that which seemed real before it happened appeared unreal when it happened, because I suppose most of us in this room have committed crimes at some time or other, and that is a possible state of affairs.
Mr. Walters: I will not ask any more questions, my Lord.
Mr. Chesterton(re-examining): When you say that you imagined the prisoner was rich as compared with your other clients—they would be Chinamen and sailors and Lascars?
Witness: They was very poor, deary.
Mr. Chesterton: He was a different class of man?
Witness: He was, my poppett.
Mr. Chesterton: The other question I want to ask you is this: When you told Mr. Drood that “Ned” was a threatened name, what did Mr. Drood say?
Witness: He says, “But threatened men live long.”
Mr. Chesterton: What did you say?
Witness: “Then,” I says to him, “Ned, so threatened is he, whoever he be, while I’m a talking to you, that he should live to all eternity.”
Mr. Chesterton: Thank you. Call Thomas Bazzard.
Usher: Thomas Bazzard!
[That gentleman entered the witness-box and was duly sworn.]
[Evidence of Thomas Bazzard.]
Mr. Chesterton: Your name is Thomas Bazzard?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: What is your profession?
Witness: I am a clerk and investigator to Mr. Grewgious, of Staple Inn.
Mr. Chesterton: Mr. Grewgious is not, as he is wrongfully described I believe, in the indictment, a solicitor?
Witness: No; Mr. Grewgious is a member of the Bar, but is not practising. He is Receiver and Manager of two large estates.
Mr. Chesterton: And what sort of work do you do?
Witness: I believe the work that I am at present engaged in is colloquially known as that of a “noser.” That is to say, I am engaged partly in collecting the rents, andpartly in inquiring what is going on with his tenants—whether they are stealing the game, and improperly dispersing the stock. Largely work of investigation outside the office.
Mr. Chesterton: When did you enter his employment?
Witness: Ten years ago.
Mr. Chesterton: Where were you born?
Witness: I am the son of a Norfolk farmer, I am sorry to say.
Mr. Chesterton: If your employer said, “It would be extremely difficult to replace Mr. Bazzard,” that would refer to your inquiry work?
Witness: I think that would refer to my inquiry work. Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: Mr. Grewgious treats you rather respectfully?
Witness: Mr. Grewgious is extremely kind to me, and as he values my work outside, he allows a great deal of latitude as to my behaviour inside.
Mr. Chesterton: Now, when did you first see Edwin Drood?
Witness: I think I saw him—by the way, I should like to point out that Mr. Grewgious was not the legal adviser to Edwin Drood.
Mr. Chesterton: You might explain that to the Court.
Witness: I noticed in the copy of the Agreement that he was the legal adviser to Edwin Drood. So far as I know, that is not the case. I first saw him some time before Christmas 1860, at the office of Mr. Grewgious.
Mr. Chesterton: Did Mr. Grewgious tell you about Mr. Drood’s coming?
Witness: He did. Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: And what was the general instruction that Mr. Grewgious gave you?
Witness: These instructions: he said he was going to have a private conversation—more or less private conversation—with Mr. Drood, and if I appeared to be very interested in it, it might embarrass Mr. Drood, and that therefore I should not pay any particular attention to it.
Mr. Chesterton: What did you do?
Witness: What happened was this: I think we all had dinner, and then Mr. Grewgious had the private conversation in question. I understood that what happened was that he admonished Mr. Drood as to his proper feelings towards his future bride.
Judge: You did not hear that?
Witness: No; I didn’t hear that. I took the opportunity to have a snooze. Waking up, Mr. Grewgious said to me, “I have handed a ring of diamonds and rubies to Mr. Drood.” Mr. Drood handed a case and said, “You see?” I said, “I follow you both, sir, and I witness the transaction.”
Mr. Chesterton: What was the next occasion you saw him?
Witness: The next occasion I saw Mr. Edwin Drood was Jan. 1st, 1861.
Mr. Chesterton: That was a week after you first met him?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: Where did you meet him?
Witness: At a hotel in Holborn.
Mr. Chesterton: Did you hear what happened to him after that?
Witness: After that, I was informed that he was very seriously ill with rheumatic fever, and was sent abroad to the South of France to get his health back.
Mr. Chesterton: Did Mr. Grewgious ever tell you how he came across Edwin Drood?
Witness: What he told me was this: that on Christmas Eve, 1860, he received very late at night, a letter from Miss Rosa Bud, his ward, to whom he was very much attached, and, if I may be allowed to remark, to whose mother he was very devotedly attached also. This letter was written by Miss Bud immediately following her conversation with Mr. Edwin Drood, which is in the Official Record, I think, and it entreated Mr. Grewgious, in very strong terms, to be with her in Cloisterham on Christmas Day. The letter reached Mr. Grewgious very late in the evening, and owing to the defects of the railway system, some of which, I am glad to learn, have been altered since, it was impossible for Mr. Grewgious to get to Cloisterham except by posting down, which he accordingly did.
Mr. Chesterton: There was no train after eight o’clock?
Witness: At that time no train after eight o’clock—from Victoria.
Mr. Chesterton: He posted down, and what do you understand he did when he arrived at Cloisterham?
Witness: He told me that he drove into Cloisterham somewhere about 5.30. Passing the Postern Gate, he stopped his carriage, and asked it to wait a minute.
Mr. Chesterton: Why?
Witness: He wanted to walk through the gate into the Churchyard, a few yards—some 40 or 50 yards, I think—in order to put some flowers on the grave of Miss Rosa Bud’s mother, as I think it is stated in the official documents, he was very much attached to Miss Bud’s mother.
Mr. Chesterton: When he got there, whom did he find?
Witness: He found Edwin Drood lying prone.
Mr. Chesterton: And what did he do?
Witness: I believe the first thing he did was to pick him up. He then shook him together, begged him to speak to him, and questioned him, and Edwin Drood entreated him to take him out of Cloisterham without any delay.
Mr. Chesterton: I understand, Mr. Bazzard, from your narrative, that Mr. Drood could give practically no coherent account of what had happened?
Witness: None whatever, beyond the fact that somebody had tried to strangle him, as he thought.
Mr. Chesterton: When you saw him, what sort of memory had he of that night?
Witness: Vague and unsatisfactory.
Mr. Chesterton: He could not have sworn that either Neville Landless or Jasper had attacked him?
Witness: He could not swear anything, except that he had been attacked.
Mr. Chesterton: His sympathies leaned, of course, to Jasper rather than to Landless?
Witness: He was very loath indeed to think that his uncle, whom he had cherished with very great respect and esteem, had been concerned in the attempt to murder him.
Mr. Chesterton: If he could have given evidence then, I take it he would have given evidence rather in favour of Jasper than of Landless?
Witness: That depends on the Jury.
Judge: I was going to remark that the question goes a little outside anything the witness is called upon to answer.
Witness: He was more inclined to——
The Foreman: On this point the witness has made a very remarkable statement; that Mr. Grewgious shook Mr. Drood together. May I ask how many pieces Drood was in?
Judge: I think the question should be answered.
Witness: I was not there, my Lord, at the time. I merely repeat what Mr. Grewgious told me.
Judge: You attribute it to a violent metaphor on the part of Mr. Grewgious?
Witness: It is right that I should put the Jury in possession of all matters.
A Juryman(Mr. William Archer): May I ask where Mr. Grewgious is in the meantime? Met with a violent death?
Mr. Chesterton: If the Jury will look at the Official Record——
The Foreman: I am sorry to explain, my Lord, that all our documents have gone, covered with our autographs. (Further copies of the Official Documents were handed to the Jury by the Clerk of Arraigns.)
Mr. Chesterton: If the Jury have the Document, they will see the last paragraph but one explains the matter. (To Witness.) You then saw Mr. Grewgious. What did Mr. Grewgious say?
Witness: What he said was this: that he personally very strongly suspected Jasper, but that Drood’s recollections as to what happened on that evening were so confused and incoherent that any testimony he might have to give would not either clear Landless, or incriminate Jasper. He therefore said this: that if Landless were committed for trial it would be necessary to produce Drood, but failing that, he had better keep his continued existence a secret until matters had died down at Cloisterham, and until Jasper thought he was entirely secure.
Mr. Chesterton: And therefore, what was Mr. Grewgious’s plan?
Witness: His plan was this: that if I went down to Cloisterham prosecuting inquiries there, I should detect Jasper.
Mr. Chesterton: And you did so?
Witness: I did so. Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: When you went down, how did the case present itself to you as a problem?
Witness: I thought from what Mr. Grewgious told me about the case, that there were three cardinal mysteries. One was why Drood, if he had been murderously assaulted, could give no clear account, as to who had assaulted him; the second waswhy, if the prisoner was the author of that murderous assault, he had not effected it; and in the third place, why, having failed to kill Drood, he obviously thought he had killed him.
Mr. Chesterton: Having put those three things to yourself, you went down to Cloisterham and disguised yourself?
Witness: I went to a costumier.
Mr. Chesterton: You did not make up your face?
Witness: No.
Mr. Chesterton: You were not known there?
Witness: As far as I know, no.
Mr. Chesterton: But there might be an offchance, and so you put on a costume?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: You went to the Crozier, and ordered a veal cutlet, a mutton chop, and a pint of sherry?
Witness: Yes—and I drank the sherry!
Mr. Chesterton: And asked the waiter about lodgings?
Witness: I did.
Mr. Chesterton: You asked for something Cathedrally?
Witness: I thought I ought to get something near the Cathedral, so as to be near to Jasper.
Mr. Chesterton: They recommended you to Mr. Tope’s?
Witness: They did.
Mr. Chesterton: And you set out to go there?
Witness: I did.
Mr. Chesterton: What happened?
Witness: I was told I should find the house on the right-hand side. It was so obvious that I went past it. I went on up a lane called Crow Lane, I believe, into the Vineries, and somewhere about there I met the boy named Deputy. I asked him to take me to Tope’s, which he did.
Mr. Chesterton: He took you to within sight, didn’t he?
Witness: Yes; I beg pardon.
Mr. Chesterton: He pointed out a window?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: You said, “That’s Tope’s”?
Witness: Yes; I thought it was.
Mr. Chesterton: He said it was Jasper’s?
Witness: Yes; and I looked at it with some interest.
Mr. Chesterton: You saw Jasper subsequently?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: You called on him to inquire about the Tope’s? You made that opportunity to call?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: You walked about the Cathedral; met Sapsea and Durdles?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: You met Deputy again?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: And there was a conversation, I think, between you and Deputy, in which you said he was to take you to Durdles’s house when you wished?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: After you installed yourself in the Tope’s lodgings, how did you propose to keep a record of your successes?
Witness: I rather amused myself by opening the cupboard door in my room, and chalking it up as is done in taverns which on occasions I have visited in Ceylon—I mean Norfolk.
Mr. Chesterton: You were brought up as a boy in Norfolk?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: And they keep chalk scores there?
Witness: They used to chalk it up by means of long or short lines.
Mr. Chesterton: Generally according to the date of the week?
Witness: The big lines at the end of the week.
Mr. Chesterton: You kept this record in this fashion?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: Will you carry your mind back to one evening, I think in July, when Jasper came home comparatively late, and went under the archway, and passed up the staircase?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: Do you remember an old woman following?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: What passed between you?
Witness: I asked her if she was looking for anybody, and she, in substance, said that she would like to know the name and address of that gentleman. Then we had some further conversation, and she asked me, first of all for money for her lodgings, and then she asked for money for what she described as opium, which I gave her.
Mr. Chesterton: She also mentioned an interview with a young gentleman on the previous Christmas Eve?
Witness: Yes, she told me she had been to Cloisterham before on Christmas Eve, and that she had met a youth named Ned, I think it was, who had also given her money. I took it she had been down on the same business as that night—following the prisoner.
Mr. Chesterton: When you had done that, you went to your score?
Witness: When I had done that, I met Deputy, and he told me that “’Er Royal Highness the Princess Puffer” was staying at the Travellers’ Tuppeny, and that she kept an opium den in the East End of London, and then I had very little doubt that that was the place from which she had followed the prisoner.
Mr. Chesterton: You told her where she could see the prisoner next morning?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: She saw him, and shook her fist at him?
Witness: She used dreadful language which is not even in the Official Records.
Mr. Chesterton: When she came out, did you say to her, “Have you seen him?”?
Witness: I did.
Mr. Chesterton: And did she say that she had seen him, and knew him better than all the Reverend Parsons put together?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: You then went to the cupboard door, and what did you do?
Witness: I made a great score.
Mr. Chesterton: What was its meaning?
Witness: That my interview with, and observations of the opium woman had settled the three main questions as to which I had gone down to Cloisterham to decide.
Mr. Chesterton: Let us take them seriatim. First, how was it Drood——
Witness: From my conversation with her I gathered that Jasper took opium, and having opium, I had no doubt at all that he drugged Drood’s wine, and that Drood was so affected as not to be able to give any clear account as to the event.
Mr. Chesterton: The second question—How was it that, if the prisoner was the author of the assault, he had not achieved his purpose?
Witness: My views as to that also were clear. He had been at the opium den on the night before the Christmas Eve, when she last visited Cloisterham, and I have no doubt at all that he failed because he had an opium seizure—such a seizure as Mr. Grewgious saw him in, and as his nephew Drood saw him in.
Mr. Chesterton: The third question—How came it, that having failed to kill Drood, he obviously thought he had done so?
Witness: That, I thought, was obvious, because he would have completed the murder in an opium trance, such a trance as, later, the “Princess Puffer” described to me, as Jasper having experienced inside the opium den.
Mr. Chesterton: We have already heard from the “Princess Puffer” about its being unreal for the first time. That would fit in with your theory?
Judge: I am afraid the witness must have no theory. As soon as the examination has put its main point, we must go on.
Mr. Chesterton(to witness): Then, did you get any confirmation of that view from Mr. Grewgious?
Witness: Yes, I wrote to Mr. Grewgious, and he told me of the seizure on Boxing Day—I think it was Boxing Day—when he had an interview with Jasper, the prisoner.
Mr. Chesterton: And also did he tell you that Edwin Drood remembered his uncle in a seizure?
Witness: I remember that also.
Mr. Chesterton: Did you gather that Drood had had his wine drugged on a previous occasion?
Witness: I gather that from the Official Records.
Mr. Chesterton: Then, did you claim your promise from Deputy?
Witness: I did.
Mr. Chesterton: We have been told in evidence that a ring was put in the crypt.
Witness: Yes?
Mr. Chesterton: Does that surprise you?
Witness: Not in the least.
Mr. Chesterton: Why?
Witness: Because I put it there.
Mr. Chesterton: What was your object in pursuing that course?
Witness: This was the ring, I may say, that I had seen pass from Mr. Grewgious to Drood, of the existence of which, I may perhaps point out, it is obvious from the study of the Official Records, Jasper knew nothing at all; and acting under instructions from Mr. Grewgious, who had received the ring back from Drood, I obtained with the assistance of my friend Durdles access to the Sapsea vault, and therein I placed the ring. My object in doing that was, that subsequently, when Mr. Grewgious offered a reward for the discovery of the ring, the prisoner could be entrapped into a visit to the vault.
Mr. Chesterton: I take it, Mr. Grewgious would plaster Cloisterham with the description of the ring as believed to be on the person of Edwin Drood?
Witness: That is what he did.
Mr. Chesterton: It would be a large placard?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Chesterton: Rather like this? (Handing to the witness a reproduction of the original cover design for the book.)
Witness: Very like the second illustration from the top on the left-hand side.
Mr. Chesterton: Very well: that was your plan—that Jasper should be caught taking the ring, and thus be convicted of attempted murder?
Witness: Quite.
Mr. Chesterton: Of which you believed him to be guilty?
Witness: Beyond doubt.
Mr. Chesterton: It is not my business to ask you what happened, but I suppose somehow or other he got arrested for actual murder. Is that correct?
Witness: Quite right.
Mr. Chesterton: Thank you.
[Thomas Bazzard Cross-examined.]
Mr. Walters(cross-examining): I think you have said several times that you come from Norfolk?
Witness: I was born in Norfolk.
Mr. Walters: Is that the country where the dumplings come from?
Witness: Some, no doubt.
Mr. Walters: Where you come from also!
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: Curious coincidence! You are a farmer’s son?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: And very ambitious?
Witness: I have not said so.
Mr. Walters: Don’t you want to get on?
Witness: I don’t think that is very ambitious. I think being very ambitious is more than wanting to get on.
Mr. Walters: In order to get on you came to London from Norfolk?
Witness: A good many people have done that before, I am afraid.
Mr. Walters: You wanted to give London the benefit of any genius you had?
Witness: Thank you very much indeed. I wanted to be usefully employed.
Mr. Walters: And you became professionally engaged to Mr. Grewgious?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: And you occupied the responsible and honourable position of “Noser”?
Witness: Quite right. The best position I could get.
Mr. Walters: And he treated you with great respect?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: Remarkable respect from a barrister to his clerk?
Witness: That is due to the fact that he is a man of exceptional graciousness.
Mr. Walters: And you treated him with great respect?
Witness: I worked for him, I think, very hard, and with very great fidelity.
Mr. Walters: I said you treated him with great respect. I did not ask about your fidelity.
Witness: You will forgive my mentioning it, won’t you?
Mr. Walters: Now do you mind replying to the question? You treated him with very great respect?
Witness: I hope so.
Mr. Walters: If you ever gave him a surly answer, would that be respectful?
Witness: I don’t know. It would depend on the degree of surliness.
Mr. Walters: And you took his money as a good and faithful servant?
Witness: I hope so.
Mr. Walters: And were absolutely devoted to his interests?
Witness: I hope so.
Mr. Walters: So that on one occasion you fell asleep while he was talking?
Witness: Yes; but in pursuance to his instructions. He told me that a conversation was going to take place which was no affair of mine, and that he was not particularly anxious for me to overhear it. But he was very anxious that I should witness the transaction at the end of the conversation.
Mr. Walters: Would it not have been more respectful to walk out of the room?
Witness: I think not. It would place him in an extremely awkward position.
Mr. Walters: You preferred to fall asleep and snore?
Witness: May I answer? If I had gone out, Mr. Grewgious would have had to come for me, and to have told Edwin Drood that he required a witness.
Mr. Walters: You preferred to fall asleep and snore in the presence of a client?
Witness: I had forty winks after dinner.
Mr. Walters: You had forty winks, as you call it, while your employer was engaged with an important client?
Witness: In a conversation which I was not supposed to hear.
Mr. Walters: Do you frequently fall asleep?
Witness: No; I have no desire to slumber at present.
Mr. Walters: No; I think we shall wake you up presently. Do you usually sleep when respectable clients enter your office?
Witness: No; I don’t usually receive such instructions.
Mr. Walters: That was the only respectful way of treating your master and client?
Witness: I have had no remonstrance from Mr. Grewgious for it. I am still in his employment. He thought it was worth his while to go on employing me.
Mr. Walters: Mr. Bazzard, the story you have told proves to me that you have rather a strong imagination. Am I right?
Witness: If it proves it to you, my good sir, by all means. I prefer to answer questions.
Mr. Walters: But probably you have also convinced the Jury that you are a gentleman of some imagination?
Witness: It’s not for me to say—only to tender my evidence.
Mr. Walters: I believe you have written a Drama?
Witness: Once, many years ago, when a young man, I did write a Tragedy. A dreadful admission! I hope no other witness whose veracity is challenged——
Mr. Walters: What was the name of that Tragedy?
Witness: It is “The Thorn of Anxiety.”
Mr. Walters: Has it ever come out?
Witness: No.
Mr. Walters: It is, I suppose, a work of great genius?
Witness: I should not like to say.
Mr. Walters: But all plays are!
Witness: Do you think so! If you would like to read it, I should be delighted.
Mr. Walters: I don’t wish you to be modest. Dramatists usually are not. I suppose there are such things as good dramas and bad dramas?
Witness: There are certainly bad dramas.
Mr. Walters: Just to give us your opinion: do you think yours was good or bad?
Witness: I don’t know. I am naturally impressed in its favour, but several people—some people to whom I submitted it—they rather doubt it.
Mr. Walters: They don’t think there is any “Magic” in it?
Witness: No.
Mr. Walters: I don’t want you to think for a moment that all dramatists are bad people. I only mean that you may possibly have written a bad drama.
Witness: There are several dramatists on the Jury, and they can take their impression.
Mr. Walters: You would not give a reason why it has not come out?
Witness: I don’t think it is up to me. If I am asked for a reason, one is I have had very little time to push its merits.
Mr. Walters: I suppose though, that even bad plays are produced sometimes?
Witness: No doubt.
Mr. Walters: It’s not only the bad ones, though, that are accepted?
Witness: No.
Mr. Walters: It must be a bad play that does not get accepted in these days? When a man of genius such as you——
Witness: Please; if you don’t mind.
Judge: It is not in evidence that this man is a genius.
The Foreman: I respectfully submit that it is in evidence that he has written a play.
Judge: Very true.
Mr. Walters: When a man of your ability, of some little ambition, cannot get his play accepted, he sometimes resorts to other means—other than the ordinary means?
Witness: I could not tell you. I have only tried the ordinary.
Mr. Walters: You are a legal gentleman?
Witness: No, sir.
Mr. Walters: You are connected with the law?
Witness: No, sir.
Mr. Walters: Not connected with a lawyer?
Witness: No, sir.
Mr. Walters: Know nothing about the law?
Witness: I wouldn’t say that. I thought all Englishmen were supposed to understand the Statutes under which they live. I am in the office of a barrister who is not acting as a barrister, but as Receiver and Manager of two large estates.
Mr. Walters: And therefore no lawyer.
Witness: It is not for me to say that.
Mr. Walters: Do you think you can give a straightforward answer to any plain question?
Witness: I think I have done so.
Mr. Walters: You have probably heard that unsuccessful authors and dramatists, when they cannot get their plays or books accepted by ordinary means, adopt little devices?
Witness: I don’t think I have.
Mr. Walters: You have never heard of an actress losing her jewels, or an author pretending to commit suicide?
Witness: I have heard of them actually doing it.
Mr. Walters: Ever heard of an author saying he has been to the North Pole, and writing a book? Would it not be absolutely providential if something occurred to you to bring you into notoriety?
Witness: No.
Mr. Walters: It would not relieve your “Thorn of Anxiety”?
Witness: No.
Mr. Walters: In other words, would it not rather be to your advantage to be talked about as a hero.
Witness: I have never seriously considered the proposition.
Mr. Walters: You are rather fond of theatricals, are you not?
Witness: No, sir.
Mr. Walters: Fond of the Drama?
Witness: I am rather too busy to be interested in it. As I have told you, I am too busy——
Mr. Walters: Yes or no?
Witness: You ought to take my answer. I say I have been too engaged in looking after my livelihood to take a lively interest in the British Drama.
Mr. Walters: You do take an interest?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: Does your employer know it?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: He has seen your play?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: It rather interested him?
Witness: I think what interested him was my work for him.
Mr. Walters: He is a keen man, you know.
Witness: I know. I can tell you he is not interested in the Drama.
Mr. Walters: You have a few friends who are interested in the Drama? Do you meet a few fellow Dramatists?
Witness: No, sir.
Mr. Walters: But it is in the Official Records that you do!
Witness: Then, I must be wrong, and I do. I was told to answer “yes or no.” I meet a few people who are interested in the Drama, having attempted plays as I have. I meet them at rather long but happy intervals.
Mr. Walters: I suppose they would like their plays produced?
Witness: I dare say.
Mr. Walters: Once more I ask you—and do please give a straightforward answer—
Witness: With great respect, I very much resent that.
Mr. Walters: Do you think it would be to your advantage to be a little famous?
Judge: I must interpose, because I don’t think I know any human being in the world who would not think it to his advantage to be rather famous. Also I must remind the Court that two speeches have to be made on both sides, and we are all in high hopes of hanging somebody, and it really ought to be abbreviated if possible. I don’t think anyone can say that the answers of the present witness have been such as in any way to expose him to discredit, but if the barrister examining desires to ask a few more questions, by all means let him do so, and then I think we should pass on as quickly as possible.
Witness: I could achieve very great notoriety if I were hanged.
Judge: Yes: live in hopes.
Mr. Walters(continuing his cross-examination): Datchery is rather a famous person at present?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: And I suppose you consider it an honour to be considered Datchery?
Witness: I am proud to have worked down there.
Mr. Walters: You knew a little about the Drood case?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: You knew a little of it from Mr. Grewgious?
Witness: I have stated that it was Mr. Grewgious’s idea that I should go down there and investigate in character.
Mr. Walters: It was not a dramatic inspiration?
Witness: The inspiration was Mr. Grewgious’s.
Mr. Walters: When you fell asleep on that occasion, were you pretending?
Witness: No.
Mr. Walters: You were not preparing for the part of Datchery in advance?
Witness: Datchery never snored, did he?
Mr. Walters: You were not preparing a part?
Witness: I had no idea that Mr. Drood was going to be murdered.
Mr. Walters: You were not pretending, therefore?
Witness: I was not.
Mr. Walters: You are a man of short sentences, according to the Official Record?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: Very abrupt?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: Have you given us only two or three words to-night in your sentences?
Witness: I have been answering under some provocation.
Mr. Walters: Did your Counsel provoke you to your long sentences?
Witness: I trust not.
Mr. Walters: Were you pretending when you gave those short sentences in Mr. Datchery’s character?
Witness: No; but a man in the witness-box is not a good criterion.
Mr. Walters: I suppose you can write?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: I suppose your professional standing teaches you to keep correct records?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: You did not keep the usual records making your investigations in Cloisterham?
Witness: What are the usual records?
Mr. Walters: I put it to you that you did not write anything down?
Witness: I did.
Mr. Walters: Why did you use the chalk marks?
Witness: Merely as a matter for my own amusement.
Mr. Walters: Were they to be used in any way?
Witness: I should say not.
Mr. Walters: You valued your time so much that you wasted it by putting chalk marks on a door!
Witness: The amount of time would not be much.
Mr. Walters: You were not going to take the cupboard door to London as evidence?
Witness: No.
Mr. Walters: It was all a waste of your time?
Witness: Yes; but harmless. Even a rejected dramatist is entitled to have some hobby.
Mr. Walters: You know John Jasper?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: Did you ever see him take opium?
Witness: Never.
Mr. Walters: Do you know how long an opium fit lasts?
Witness: No. I imagine it rather depends on the amount of opium taken, and various other circumstances.
Mr. Walters: Suppose a man was in the habit of having a particular smoke of opium—mixing it in a particular way; do you think it would be over in a few minutes?
Witness: I could not tell you. Nor do I know whether he had those habits.
Mr. Walters: You don’t think it would take a few hours?
Witness: No idea.
Mr. Walters: Would it surprise you to know that after an orgy he would be clear-headed in the morning?
Witness: Nothing would surprise me, I think, from the little I have read of their literature.
Mr. Walters: You know nothing about it?
Witness: As a matter of experience, that is the exhilarating fact.
Mr. Walters: You never saw Jasper taking opium?
Witness: No.
Mr. Walters: And you watched him in Cloisterham?
Witness: In the street. He never took any there.
Mr. Walters: You believe that possibly he made a desperate attack on Edwin Drood?
Witness: Yes, I think so.
Mr. Walters: He would possibly make an attack on someone else?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Walters: Don’t you think, therefore, you were in some danger?
Witness: I don’t think I was.
Mr. Walters: You don’t think you were in danger from a man who might make an attack? Are you a man of very great nerve?
Witness: It’s not for me to say.
Judge: I don’t think you have any right to ask him that. That is a matter of personal knowledge. It might be settled in a fight outside.
Mr. Walters: One or two more questions. Have you a great affection for Edwin Drood?
Witness: I have not.
Mr. Walters: Nor for Neville Landless?
Witness: No.
Mr. Walters: No interest in Miss Helena Landless?
Witness: No.
Mr. Walters: No interest whatever in any of the parties?
Witness: Business interest only.
Mr. Walters: Then, why did you risk your valuable life?
Witness: In the first place, I don’t think I exposed my life, valuable or otherwise, to any great risk. Why I went down there was because Mr. Grewgious asked me to do so, and because he had been a very generous and considerate employer to me, and I also thought that if I had good results he would reward me suitably.
Mr. Walters: Can you give me any explanation, if Drood has disappeared, why he has not communicated with his friends?
Judge: That is surely a point for final discussion in abstract debate?
Mr. Walters: I only ask if he can offer any explanation. (To witness.) Should you expect a man who has disappeared, and finding all his friends in danger, to communicate with his friends?
Witness: On that hypothetical case, I think I should. But that has no reference to the Drood question.
Judge: I think we should confine ourselves as sharply as we can to bringing out the actual facts, and not to abstract argument.
Mr. Walters(to witness): Can you give us any reason why he should not communicate?
Witness: I cannot: but he has communicated with his friends.
Mr. Walters: Are you going to produce any evidence?
Witness: That is in the hands of Counsel.