They Hanged My Saintly Billy (71 page)

smith
.
One
was
for
£13,000.

the attorney-general.
N
ow
the
truth
is
coming
out!
Were
you asked
to
attest
another
proposal
for
a
like
sum
in
The
Universal Assurance
Office?

smith
.
I
might
have
been.

the attorney-general
.
They
were
made
much
about
the
same
time, were
they
not?
You
did
not
wait
for
the
answers
to
the
first application
before
you
made
the
second?

smith
.
I
don't
know
that
any
answers
came
back
at
all.

the attorney-general
.
Will
you
swear
that
you
were
not
present when
Walter
Palmer
executed
the
deed
assigning
the
policy
upon his
life
to
the
prisoner,
William
Palmer?
Now,
be
careful,
Mr Smith,
because,
depend
upon
it,
you
shall
hear
of
this
again
if
you are
not!

smith
.
I
will
not
swear
that
I
was;
I
think
I
was
not.
I
am
not
quite positive.

The
Attorney-General's
questioning
of
Jeremiah
Smith's
relations
with
old
Mrs
Palmer,
and
his
previous
questioning
of George
Myatt,
the
saddler,
as
to
whether
he
ever
slept
in
the
same hotel
bed
as
Dr
Palmer,
were
both
by
way
of
revenge.
Serjeant Shee,
to
throw
discredit
on
Elizabeth
Mills's
testimony,
had
suggested
that
she
was
a
woman
of
loose
morals.
Elizabeth
Mills, however,
answered
with
jaunty
and
mocking
defiance,
whereas Jeremiah
Smith
vacillated—torn
between
the
fear
of
losing
his character
if
he
owned
to
being
the
bedfellow
of
a
rich
woman
over twenty
years
his
senior,
and
fear
of
offending
her
if
he
denied
the imputation
too
indignantl
y.
Very
few
of
his
answers
were
given without
hesitance
and
a
decided
embarrassment,
which
left
its imprint
on
the
jury's
mind.

Serjeant
Shee
tried
to
make
good
the
damage
when
he
reexamined
Smith.

S
erjeant shee
.
How
long
have
you
known
Mrs
Palmer?

smith
.
For
twenty
years.
[In answer to further questions:]
I
should
think she
must
now
be
about
sixty
years
of
age.
"William
Palmer
is
not her
eldest
son.
Joseph,
the
eldest,
resides
at
Liverpool,
and
is
a timber
merchant.
He
must
be
forty-five
or
forty-six
years
of
age. George,
the
next
eldest
son,
resides
at
Rugeley
and
was
frequentl
y at
his
mother's
house.
John,
the
youngest,
a
clergyman
of
the Church
of
England,
lived
there
until
two
years
ago,
except
when he
was
away
at
college.
There
is
also
a
daughter,
who
lives
constantl
y
with
her
mother;
and
three
servants
are
kept.
The
house
is a
large
one,
and
contains
many
spare
bedrooms.
I
slept
in
the room
nearest
the
old
church.

S
erjeant shee
.
Is
there
any
pretence
for
saying
that
you
have
ever been
accused
of
improper
intimacy
with
Mrs
Palmer?

smith
.
I
hope
not.

S
erjeant shee
.
I
repeat:
is
there
any
pretence
for
saying
so
?
smith
.
There
ought
not
to
be.

S
erjeant shee
.
Pray
answer
me
directly!
Is
there
any
truth
in
the suggestion
?

smith
.
People
may
have
made
it,
but
they
had
no
reason
for
doing
so.
S
erjeant shee
.
But
was
there
any
truth
in
such
a
statement
if
made?

smith
.
I
should
say
not.
There
ought
not
to
be
any
pretence
for

anything
of
the
kind.
[Laughter.]

mr baron alderson.
N
o
,
Brother
Shee.
It
was
only
two
or
three

times
a
week
he
slept
there!
[Loud laughter.]

The
Attorney-General
thereupon
made
a
telling
speech
for
the Crown,
the
ablest
in
his
career,
speaking
without
notes
in
a
firm and
resonant
voice
for
eight
hours
or
longer.
He
was
secure
in
the knowledge
that
he
had
the
last
word,
and
need
fear
no
rebuttal— though
why
the
Prosecution
always
should
have
the
last
word
in murder
trials,
we
have
been
unable
to
fathom,
unless
the
theory may
be
that
the
Judge
in
his
summing-up
will
speak
in
the
prisoner's
defence,
pointing
out
any
false
logic
or
distortion
of
facts
contained
in
this
final
oration.
Well
aware,
however,
that
the
Lord Chief
Justice
could
not
be
counted
upon
to
do
anything
of
the kind,
Sergeant
Shee
boldly
contended
that
since
the
Attorney-General
had
raised
the
new
matter
of
Walter
Palmer's
life
insurance,
and
the
proposals
for
it
made
to
various
offices,
the
Defence was
entitled
to
reply.
But
the
Lord
Chief
Justice
ruled:
'We
are
of opinion
that
you
have
no
right
to
reply,'
and
Mr
Baron
Alderson supported
him
in
this.