CHAPTER CXXVII.

THE TRIAL OF SWEENEY TODD CONTINUED.

This ebullition of feeling upon the part of Sweeney Todd was by some of

the spectators looked upon as a vague indication of insanity, while some

of the members of the bench looked very mysterious, and asked themselves

if it were not the first step in the direction of some very clever

defence. But then they were gentlemen who never exactly saw anything as

the world in general agrees to see it.

The judge shook his head as if he rather doubted Sweeney Todd's implicit

promise that he would not again interrupt the proceedings; and among the

whole of the spectators of that most extraordinary trial, the most

intense interest was evidently rather on the increase than the

diminution.

The judge finding that Todd did not again say anything for a few

moments, slightly inclined his head to the Attorney-General, as much as

to say--"Pray get on, now that there seems an opportunity of so doing;"

and that personage, learned in the law, accordingly rose again, and

having adjusted his gown, addressed himself again to the case before

him, with his usual skill.

"My lords, and gentlemen of the jury--

"If this were only some ordinary everyday proceeding, I should not sit

so calmly under the indecorous interruptions of the prisoner at the bar;

but when I feel, in common with all here present, that that person has

so great a stake as his life upon the issue of this investigation, I am

disposed in all charity to allow a latitude of action, that otherwise

would not, and could not, be endured.

"Gentlemen of the jury, I yet hope that these unseemly interruptions are

over, and that I shall be permitted in peace to make those remarks to

you, which it is my duty to make on behalf of the crown, who prosecutes

in this serious case.

"Nothing can be further from my wish than to heighten by any strength of

phraseology or domestic detail the case against the prisoner at the bar.

I shall confine myself to a recital of the bare facts of the case,

feeling that, while I cannot detract from them, they are of such a

character of horror, as to require no adventitious aid from the art of

the orator.

"Gentlemen, it appears that the prisoner at the bar is arraigned for the

wilful murder of Francis Thornhill. From what information we have been

able to collect, the prisoner, Sweeney Todd, is a native of the north of

England. He came to London about eighteen years ago, and was in very

great poverty, when he opened a small barber's shop in Crutched Friars.

He remained in that shop about seventeen months, and then paid one

hundred and twenty-five pounds for the lease of a house in Fleet Street,

for which he was thus only to pay a rental to the Skinners' Company of

seventeen pound ten per annum, he consenting to keep the premises in

ordinary repair.

"The lower part of this house had been a small hosier's; but the

prisoner at the bar altered it into a barber's shop, and he has there

continued to reside until his arrest upon the serious charge which we

are brought here to investigate.

"What were the pursuits of the prisoner during his occupancy of that

house, it is not our province just now to inquire, as all our attention

must be directed to a consideration of the one charge, to answer to

which he stands at the bar of this court; and I shall, therefore,

proceed to detail the evidence upon which the prosecution founds that

charge:--

"It appears that upon the third day of August last, a ship of 400 tons

burthen, called the Star, arrived in the London Docks. On board of that

ship was the captain, and a crew of nine seamen, and two boys. As

passengers, there was a Colonel Jeffery, and a Mr. Thornhill, whose

death is the motive of the present proceedings. There was likewise a

large dog named Hector on board the vessel, which was very much attached

to Mr. Thornhill.

"Now, gentlemen of the jury, it had so happened that Francis Thornhill

had been commissioned, during the progress of a wreck at sea by a young

gentleman named Mark Ingestrie, to take a certain String of Oriental

Pearls, valued at somewhere about sixteen thousand pounds sterling, to a

young lady in London, named Johanna Oakley; and this Francis Thornhill,

fully believing that Mark Ingestrie had perished at sea, was most

anxious to fulfil his request regarding this valuable and important

String of Pearls.

"As early as possible he landed from the ship, taking the String of

Pearls with him, and his faithful dog Hector accompanied him on shore."

At this moment, Hector, who was in court, having for the second time

heard his name mentioned, began to think probably that something was

going on concerning him, and he set up a loud bark of defiance.

The effect of this was greatly to interest some of the auditory, while

it brought a smile to the faces of others. Todd turned deadly pale, and

in a voice of alarm, he cried--

"Keep off the dog--keep off the dog, I say!"

"Bow!--wow!--wow!" barked Hector again.

"That dog," said the judge, "must be immediately removed from the court.

Officers, see to it."

"I beg, my lord," said the Attorney-General, "that you will allow him to

remain, for I assure your lordship that he is a witness in this most

important case."

"A witness?"

"Yes, my lord; I speak advisedly, and as a favour I hope your lordship

will permit him to remain."

"Will anybody keep him quiet?"

"Oh, yes, your worship," cried the ostler. "I'll keep Pison like a mouse

as has fainted clean away."

"Who is that man, and what does he say?" said the judge.

"My lord," said the Attorney-General, "he says he can keep the dog quite

quiet if you will allow him to remain."

"Oh, very well. Pray proceed, Mr. Attorney."

The Attorney-General then resumed.

"With the String of Pearls then, and the dog, which the jury have seen,

Mr. Francis Thornhill went into the City to fulfil the request of Mark

Ingestrie. The address he had was to Mr. Oakley, a spectacle-maker in

the City, with whom Miss Oakley, who was to have the String of Pearls,

resided.

"Gentlemen of the jury, neither Francis Thornhill nor the String of

Pearls ever reach their destination. It appears that on his route,

Thornhill went into the shop of the prisoner at the bar to be shaved,

and no one ever saw him come out again. The dog though was found sitting

at the door of the shop, and when Todd opened his shop-door, the dog

rushed in and brought out his master's hat.

"Gentlemen, the captain of the ship and Colonel Jeffery, both became

very anxious concerning the fate of Mr. Thornhill, and they made every

inquiry. They questioned the prisoner at the bar, who at once admitted

that he had shaved him, but stated that he had left his shop when that

operation was over. The captain of the Star was compelled to go to

Bristol with his ship, but Colonel Jeffery, in conjunction with a

friend, pressed his inquiries about Mr. Thornhill without success. The

matter appeared to be involved in the most profound mystery, and the

only hope of an elucidation of it, consisted in the probability that

such a valuable piece of property as the String of Pearls would be sure

to turn up some day in some one's possession. Gentlemen, it did so turn

up. It appeared that at Hammersmith resided a Mr. John Mundell, who lent

money upon securities, and it will be deposed in evidence, that one

evening the prisoner at the bar, magnificently attired, and in a

handsome coach, went to this Mr. Mundell, and pawned a string of pearls

for some thousands of pounds.

"It is to be regretted that this Mundell cannot be brought before the

jury. He is dead, gentlemen; but a confidential clerk of his, who saw

the prisoner at the bar, will depose to the facts.

"We thus then, gentlemen of the jury, commit the prisoner with the

disappearance of Thornhill, and now we come to the strongest features of

this most remarkable case.

"It appears that for a considerable time past, the church of St.

Dunstan's had become insufferable from a peculiar stench with which the

whole of that sacred edifice appeared to be constantly filled, and it

baffled all the authorities to account for it.

"No one had been entombed in any of the vaults beneath the church for a

considerable time, and in fact, there was no apparent reason for the

frightful miasmatic odour that upon all occasions filled the edifice,

and day by day got worse instead of better. Scientific men, gentlemen of

the jury, were consulted with regard to this stench in the church, and

various very learned theories were broached upon the subject; but no one

thought of making an accurate examination of the vaults beneath the

church, until Sir Richard Blunt, the well-known magistrate, privately

undertook it.

"Gentlemen, Sir Richard Blunt found that almost every vault was full of

the fresh remains of the dead. He found that into old coffins, the

tenants of which had mouldered to dust, there had been thrust fresh

bodies with scarcely any flesh remaining upon them, but yet sufficient

to produce the stench in the church, by the effluvia arising from them,

and finding its way into the pews. In one vault, too, was found the

contents of which were too horrid for description; suffice it that it

contained what butchers, when speaking of slaughtered animals, call the

offal. The stench in St. Dunstan's Church was no longer a mystery.

"Well, gentlemen of the jury, Sir Richard Blunt persevered in his

investigations, and found that there was an underground connection from

exactly beneath the shaving shop of the prisoner at the bar, and the

cellarage of a house in Bell Yard, Temple-bar, which was his property;

and which was in the occupation of a female, named Lovett, who this day

would have stood at the bar by the side of the prisoner, had she not,

despite every vigilance used to prevent such an act, succeeded in

poisoning herself, while in prison in Newgate.

"Gentlemen of the jury, it will be shown in evidence that the way the

larger portion of the flesh of Todd's victims was got rid of was by

converting it into meat and pork pies upon the premises of Mrs. Lovett.

"Beneath Todd's shop was found a diabolical contrivance, by which he

could make any one he pleased fall through the floor upon the chair they

sat on to be shaved, while an empty chair, in all respects similar, took

the place of the one that had been occupied by the unfortunate victim.

If the unhappy man, thus betrayed in a moment of confidence, was not

killed by the fall, he would, at all events, be sufficiently stunned to

become an easy prey to Sweeney Todd, when he chose to go down and

despatch him.

"And now, gentlemen of the jury, and you, my lord, I may be told that

these wholesale murders have nothing to do with the indictment, which

simply charges the prisoner at the bar with the wilful murder of Francis

Thornhill; but I reply that it was impossible to make apparent to the

jury the mode by which Francis Thornhill came by his death, without

going into these painful details. Todd's house was found crammed with

property and clothing sufficient for one hundred and sixty people!"

A thrill of horror pervaded the court at this announcement.

"Yes, gentlemen of the jury; and among that clothing is the sleeve of a

jacket, which will be sworn to as having belonged to Francis Thornhill;

but we have yet more cogent evidence of the fact that Thornhill met his

death at the hands of the prisoner at the bar. His hat, gentlemen, will

be identified by the dog now in court. But, gentlemen, is that enough?

No, the law wisely looks for the body of a murdered man; and I do not

call to mind an instance of a conviction following from murder where

there has not been some satisfactory identification of the remains of

the murdered man. We will produce that proof. Among the skeletons found

contiguous to Todd's premises, was one which will be sworn to as being

that of the deceased, Mr. Thornhill. One bone of that skeleton will be

produced in court, and sworn to by a surgeon who had the care of it,

when once fractured on board ship, and who, from repeated examinations

such a surgeon only could make, knows it well."

This announcement on the part of the Attorney-General, produced an

enormous amount of excitement in court, for many persons had come,

prepossessed with the idea that the non-production of the dead body of

the alleged murdered man would be a serious hitch in the prosecution.

Todd looked up, and in a loud clear voice he cried--

"No! no!"

"Yes," added the Attorney-General. "Yes. Gentlemen of the jury, that is

all I have to say for the prosecution. The facts are as clear as light,

and you will hear from the mouths of creditable witnesses the various

particulars which it has been my duty on behalf of the prosecution to

lay before you this day."