Recollections of a Policeman

by William Russell

  Part V.

  THE TWINS.

  The records of police courts afford but imperfect evidence of thebusiness really effected by the officers attached to them. The machineryof English criminal law is, in practice, so subservient to the capriceof individual prosecutors, that instances are constantly occurring inwhich flagrant violations of natural justice are, from various motives,corrupt and otherwise, withdrawn not only from the cognizance ofjudicial authority, but from the reprobation of public opinion.Compromises are usually effected between the apprehension of theinculpated parties and the public examination before a magistrate. Theobject of prosecution has been perhaps obtained by the preliminary stepof arrest, or a criminal understanding has been arrived at in theinterval; and it is then found utterly hopeless to proceed, howevermanifest may have appeared the guilt of the prisoner. If you adopt theexpedient of compelling the attendance of the accused, it is, in ninecases out of ten, mere time and trouble thrown away. The utterforgetfulness of memory, the loose recollection of facts so vividlyremembered but a few hours before, the delicately-scrupulous hesitationto depose confidently to the clearest verities evinced by the reluctantprosecutor, render a conviction almost impossible; so that, except incases of flagrant and startling crimes, which are of course earnestlyprosecuted by the crown lawyers, offences against "our sovereign ladythe Queen, her crown, and dignity," as criminal indictments run, if noaggrieved subject voluntarily appears to challenge justice in behalf ofhis liege lady, remain unchastised, and not unfrequently unexposed. Fromseveral examples of this prevalent abuse which have come within my ownknowledge, I select the following instance, merely changing the names ofthe parties:--

  My services, the superintendent late one afternoon informed me, wererequired in a perplexed and entangled affair, which would probablyoccupy me for some time, as orders had been given to investigate thematter thoroughly. "There," he added, "is a Mr. Repton, ahighly-respectable country solicitor's card. He is from Lancashire, andis staying at Webb's Hotel, Piccadilly. You are to see him at once. Hewill put you in possession of all the facts--surmises rather, I shouldsay, for the facts, to my apprehension, are scant enough--connected withthe case, and you will then use all possible diligence to ascertainfirst if the alleged crime has been really committed, and if so, ofcourse to bring the criminal or criminals to justice."

  I found Mr. Repton, a stout, bald-headed, gentlemanly person, apparentlyabout sixty years of age, just in the act of going out. "I have apressing engagement for this evening, Mr. Waters," said he, afterglancing at the introductory note I had brought, "and cannot possibly gointo the business with the attention and minuteness it requires till themorning. But I'll tell you what: one of the parties concerned, and theone, too, with whom you will have especially to deal, is, I know, to beat Covent Garden Theatre this evening. It is of course necessary thatyou should be thoroughly acquainted with his person; and if you will gowith me in the cab that is waiting outside, I will step with you intothe theatre, and point him out." I assented; and on entering CoventGarden pit, Mr. Repton, who kept behind me, to avoid observation,directed my attention to a group of persons occupying the front seatsof the third box in the lower tier from the stage, on the right-handside of the house. They were--a gentleman of about thirty years of age;his wife, a very elegant person, a year or two younger; and threechildren, the eldest of whom, a boy, could not have been more than sixor seven years old. This done, Mr. Repton left the theatre, and abouttwo hours afterwards I did the same.

  The next morning I breakfasted with the Lancashire solicitor byappointment. As soon as it was concluded, business was at once enteredupon.

  "You closely observed Sir Charles Malvern yesterday evening, I presume?"said Mr. Repton.

  "I paid great attention to the gentleman you pointed out to me," Ianswered, "if he be Sir Charles Malvern."

  "He is, or at least---- But of that presently. First let me inform youthat Malvern, a few months ago, was a beggard gamester, or nearly so, tospeak with precision. He is now in good bodily health, has a charmingwife, and a family to whom he is much attached, an unencumbered estateof about twelve thousand a year, and has not gambled since he came intopossession of the property. This premised, is there, think you, anythingremarkable in Sir Charles's demeanor?"

  "Singularly so. My impression was, that he was laboring under a terribledepression of spirits, caused, I imagined, by pecuniary difficulties.His manner was restless, abstracted. He paid no attention whatever toanything going on on the stage, except when his wife or one of thechildren especially challenged his attention; and then, a brief answerreturned, he relapsed into the same restless unobservance as before. Heis very nervous too. The box door was suddenly opened once or twice, andI noticed his sudden start each time."

  "You have exactly described him. Well, that perturbed, unquietfeverishness of manner has constantly distinguished him since hisaccession to the Redwood estates, and only since then. It strengthens meand one or two others in possibly an unfounded suspicion, which---- ButI had better, if I wish to render myself intelligible, relate matters indue sequence.

  "Sir Thomas Redwood, whose property in Lancashire is chiefly in theneighborhood of Liverpool, met his death, as did his only son Mr.Archibald Redwood, about six months ago, in a very sudden and shockingmanner. They were out trying a splendid mare for the first time inharness, which Sir Thomas had lately purchased at a very high price. Twogrooms on horseback were in attendance, to render assistance ifrequired, for the animal was a very powerful, high-spirited one. Allwent very well till they arrived in front of Mr. Meredith's place, OakVilla. This gentleman has a passion for firing off a number of brasscannon on the anniversary of such events as he deems worthy of thehonor. This happened, unfortunately, to be one of Mr. Meredith'sgunpowder days; and as Sir Thomas and his son were passing, a stream oflight flashed directly in the eyes of the mare, followed by the roar ofartillery, at no more than about ten paces off. The terrified animalbecame instantly unmanageable, got the bit between her teeth, and dartedoff at the wildest speed. The road is a curved and rugged one; and aftertearing along for about half a mile, the off-wheel of the gig came, atan abrupt turn, full against a milestone. The tremendous shock hurledthe two unfortunate gentlemen upon the road with frightful violence,tore the vehicle almost completely assunder, and so injured the mare,that she died the next day. The alarmed grooms, who had not only beenunable to render assistance, but even to keep up with the terrifiedmare, found Mr. Archibald Redwood quite dead. The spine had been brokenclose to the nape of the neck: his head, in fact, was doubled up, so tospeak, under the body. Sir Thomas still breathed, and was conveyed toRedwood Manor House. Surgical assistance was promptly obtained; but theinternal injuries were so great, that the excellent old gentlemanexpired in a few hours after he had reached his home. I was hastily sentfor; and when I arrived, Sir Thomas was still fully conscious. Heimparted to me matters of great moment, to which he requested I woulddirect, after his decease, my best care and attention. His son, I wasaware, had but just returned from a tour on the continent, where he hadbeen absent for nearly a twelvemonth; but I was not aware, neither washis father till the day before his death, that Mr. Archibald Redwood hadnot only secretly espoused a Miss Ashton--of a reduced family, butbelonging to our best gentry--but had returned home, not solely for thepurpose of soliciting Sir Thomas's forgiveness of his unauthorizedespousals, but that the probable heir of Redwood might be born withinthe walls of the ancient manor house. After the first burst of passionand surprise, Sir Thomas, one of the best-hearted men in the universe,cordially forgave his son's disobedience--partly, and quite rightly,imputing it to his own foolish urgency in pressing a union with one ofthe Lacy family, with which the baronet was very intimate, and whoseestate adjoined his.

  "Well, this lady, now a widow, had been left by her husband at Chester,whilst he came on to seek an explanation with his father. Mr. ArchibaldRedwood was to have set out the next morning in one of Sir Thomas'scarriages to bring home his wife; and the baronet, with
his dyingbreath, bade me assure her of his entire forgiveness, and his earnesthope and trust that through her offspring the race of the Redwoodsmight be continued in a direct line. The family estates, I should tellyou, being strictly entailed on heirs-male, devolved, if no son of Mr.Archibald Redwood should bar his claim, upon Charles Malvern, the son ofa cousin of the late Sir Thomas Redwood. The baronet had always feltpartially towards Malvern, and had assisted him pecuniarily a hundredtimes. Sir Thomas also directed me to draw as quickly as I could a shortwill, bequeathing Mr. Charles Malvern twenty thousand pounds out of thepersonals. I wrote as expeditiously as I could, but by the time thepaper was ready for his signature, Sir Thomas was no longer conscious. Iplaced the pen in his hand, and I fancied he understood the purpose, forhis fingers closed faintly upon it; but the power to guide was utterlygone, and only a slight, scrambling stroke marked the paper as the penslid across it in the direction of the falling arm.

  "Mr. Malvern arrived at the manor-house about an hour after Sir Thomasbreathed his last. It was clearly apparent through all his sorrow,partly real, I have no doubt, as well as partly assumed, that joy, thejoy of riches, splendor, station, was dancing at his heart, and, spiteof all his efforts to subdue or conceal it, sparkling in his eye. Ibriefly, but gently as I could, acquainted him with the true position ofaffairs. The revulsion of feeling which ensued entirely unmanned him;and it was not till an hour afterwards that he recovered hisself-possession sufficiently to converse reasonably and coolly upon hisposition. At last he became apparently reconciled to the suddenoverclouding of his imaginatively-brilliant prospects, and it was agreedthat as he was a relative of the widow, he should at once set off tobreak the sad news to her. Well, a few days after his departure, Ireceived a letter from him, stating that Lady Redwood--I don't think, bythe way, that, as her husband died before succeeding to the baronetcy,she is entitled to that appellation of honor; we, however, call her soout of courtesy--that Lady Redwood, though prematurely confined inconsequence of the intelligence of her husband's untimely death, hadgiven birth to a female child, and that both mother and daughter were aswell as could be expected. This, you will agree, seemed perfectlysatisfactory?"

  "Entirely so."

  "So I thought. Mr. Malvern was now unquestionably, whether Sir CharlesMalvern or not, the proprietor of the Redwood estates, burthened as witha charge, in accordance with the conditions of the entails, of athousand pounds life annuity to the late Mr. Redwood's infant daughter.

  "Sir Charles returned to Redwood manor-house, where his wife and familysoon afterwards arrived. Lady Redwood had been joined, I understood, byher mother, Mrs. Ashton, and would, when able to undertake the journey,return to her maternal home. It was about two months after Sir ThomasRedwood's death that I determined to pay Lady Redwood a visit, in orderto the winding up of the personal estate, which it was desirable toaccomplish as speedily as possible; and then a new and terrible lightflashed upon me."

  "What, in heaven's name!" I exclaimed, for the first time breakingsilence--"what could there be to reveal?"

  "Only," rejoined Mr. Repton, "that, ill, delirious, as Lady Redwoodadmitted herself to have been, it was her intimate, unconquerableconviction _that she had given birth to twins_!"

  "Good God! And you suspect"----

  "We don't know what to suspect. Should the lady's confident belief becorrect, the missing child might have been a boy. You understand?"

  "I do. But is there any tangible evidence to justify this horriblesuspicion?"

  "Yes; the surgeon-apothecary and his wife, a Mr. and Mrs. Williams, whoattended lady Redwood, have suddenly disappeared from Chester, and, fromno explainable motive, having left or abandoned a fair business there."

  "That has certainly an ugly look."

  "True; and a few days ago I received information that Williams has beenseen in Birmingham. He was well dressed, and not apparently in anybusiness."

  "There certainly appears some ground for suspicion. What plan ofoperations do you propose?"

  "That," replied Mr. Repton, "I must leave to your more practisedsagacity. I can only undertake that no means shall be lacking that maybe required."

  "It will be better, perhaps," I suggested, after an interval ofreflection, "that I should proceed to Birmingham at once. You have ofcourse an accurate description of the persons of Williams and his wifeready?"

  "I have; and very accurate pen-and-ink sketches I am told they are.Besides these, I have also here," continued Mr. Repton, taking from hispocket-book a sheet of carefully-folded satin paper, "A full descriptionof the female baby, drawn up by its mother, under the impression thattwins always--I believe they generally do--closely resemble each other."Light hair, blue eyes, dimpled chin"--and so on. The lady--a verycharming person, I assure you, and meek and gentle as a fawn--is chieflyanxious to recover her child. You and I, should our suspicions beconfirmed, have other duties to perform."

  This was pretty nearly all that passed, and the next day I was inBirmingham.

  The search, as I was compelled to be very cautious in my inquiries, wastedious, but finally successful. Mr. and Mrs. Williams I discoveredliving in a pretty house, with neat grounds attached, about two milesout of Birmingham, on the coach road to Wolverhampton. Their assumedname was Burridge, and I ascertained from the servant-girl, who fetchedtheir dinner and supper, beer, and occasionally wine and spirits, from aneighboring tavern, that they had one child, a boy, a few months old, ofwhom neither father nor mother seemed very fond. By dint of muchperseverance, I at length got upon pretty familiar terms with Mr.Burridge, _alias_ Williams. He spent his evenings regularly in a tavern;but with all the pains-taking, indefatigable ingenuity I employed, thechief knowledge I acquired, during three weeks of assiduous endeavor,was, that my friend Burridge intended, immediately after a visit whichhe expected shortly to receive from a rich and influential relative inLondon, to emigrate to America, at all events to go abroad. This was,however, very significant and precious information; and very rarely,indeed, was he, after I had obtained it, out of my sight or observation.At length perseverance obtained its reward. One morning I discerned myfriend, much more sprucely attired than ordinarily, make his way to therailway station, and there question with eager looks every passengerthat alighted from the first-class carriages. At last a gentleman, whomI instantly recognized, spite of his shawl and other wrappings, arrivedby the express train from London. Williams instantly accosted him, a cabwas called, and away they drove. I followed in another, and saw themboth alight at a hotel in New Street. I also alighted, and was mentallydebating how to proceed, when Williams came out of the tavern, andproceeded in the direction of his home. I followed, overtook him, andsoon contrived to ascertain that he and his wife had important businessto transact in Birmingham the next morning, which would render itimpossible he should meet me, as I proposed, till two or three o'clockin the afternoon at the earliest; and the next morning, my esteemedfriend informed me, he would leave the place, probably for ever. An hourafter this interesting conversation, I, accompanied by the chief of theBirmingham police, was closeted with the landlord of the hotel in NewStreet, a highly-respectable person, who promised us every assistance inhis power. Sir Charles Malvern had, we found, engaged a private room forthe transaction of important business with some persons he expected inthe morning, and our plans were soon fully matured and agreed upon.

  I slept little that night, and immediately after breakfast hastened withmy Birmingham colleague to the hotel. The apartment assigned for SirCharles Malvern's use had been a bedroom, and a large wardrobe, with ahigh wing at each end, still remained in it. We tried if it would holdus, and with very little stooping and squeezing, found it would do verywell. The landlord soon gave us the signal to be on the alert, and in wejammed ourselves, locking the wing-doors on the inside. A minute or twoafterwards, Sir Charles, and Mr. and Mrs. Williams entered, and, paper,pens, and ink having been brought, business commenced in right earnest.Their conversation it is needless to detail. It will suffice to observethat it was m
anifest Sir Charles, by a heavy bribe, had induced theaccoucheur and his wife to conceal the birth of the male child, which,as I suspected, was that which Williams and his spouse were bringing upas their own. I must do the fictitious baronet the justice to say thathe had from the first the utmost anxiety that no harm should befall theinfant. Mr. Malvern's nervous dread lest his confederates should bequestioned, had induced their hurried departure from Chester, and it nowappeared that he had become aware of the suspicions entertained by Mr.Repton, and could not rest till the Williams's and the child were safeout of the country. It was now insisted, by the woman more especially,that the agreement for the large annual payment to be made by SirCharles should be fairly written out and signed in plain "black andwhite," to use Mrs. Williams' expression, in order that no futuremisunderstandings might arise. This, Mr. Malvern strongly objected to;but finding the woman would accept of no other terms, he sullenlycomplied, and at the same time reiterated, that if any harm shouldbefall the boy--to whom he intended, he said, to leave a handsomefortune--he would cease, regardless of consequences to himself, to paythe Williams's a single shilling.

  A silence of several minutes followed, broken only by the scratching ofthe pen on the paper. The time to me seemed an age, squeezed, crooked,stifled as I was in that narrow box, and so I afterwards learned it didto my fellow-sufferer. At length Mr. Malvern said, in the same cautiouswhisper in which they had all hitherto spoken, "This will do, I think;"and read what he had written. Mr. and Mrs. Williams signified theirapproval; and as matters were now fully ripe, I gently turned the key,and very softly pushed open the door. The backs of the amiable trio weretowards me, and as my boots were off, and the apartment was thicklycarpeted, I approached unperceived, and to the inexpressible horror andastonishment of the parties concerned, whose heads were bent eagerlyover the important document, a hand, which belonged to neither of them,was thrust silently but swiftly forward, and grasped the preciousinstrument. A fierce exclamation from Mr. Malvern as he started from hisseat, and a convulsive scream from Mrs. Williams as she fell back inhers, followed; and to add to the animation of the tableau, my friend inthe opposite wing emerged at the same moment from his hiding-place.

  Mr. Malvern comprehended at a glance the situation of affairs, and madea furious dash at the paper. I was quicker as well as stronger than he,and he failed in his object. Resistance was of course out of thequestion; and in less than two hours we were speeding on the railtowards London, accompanied by the child, whom we entrusted to Williams'servant-maid.

  Mrs. Repton was still in town, and Mrs. Ashton, Lady Redwood, and herunmarried sister, in their impatience of intelligence, had arrivedseveral days before. I had the pleasure of accompanying Mrs. Repton withthe child and his temporary nurse to Osborne's Hotel in the Adelphi; andI really at first feared for the excited mother's reason, or that shewould do the infant a mischief, so tumultuous, so frenzied, was herrapturous joy at the recovery of her lost treasure. When placed in thecot beside the female infant, the resemblance of the one to the otherwas certainly almost perfect. I never saw before nor since so complete alikeness. This was enough for the mother; but, fortunately, we had muchmore satisfactory evidence, legally viewed, to establish the identity ofthe child in a court of law, should the necessity arise for doing so.

  Here, as far as I am concerned, all positive knowledge of this curiouspiece of family history ends. Of subsequent transactions between theparties I had no personal cognizance. I only know there was a failureof justice, and I can pretty well guess from what motives. The parties Iarrested in Birmingham were kept in strict custody for several days; butno inducement, no threats, could induce the institutors of the inquiryto appear against the detected criminals.

  Mrs. and Miss Ashton, Lady Redwood and her children, left town the nextday but one, for Redwood Manor; and Mr. Repton coolly told the angrysuperintendent that "he had no instructions to prosecute." He, too, wasspeedily off, and the prisoners were necessarily discharged out ofcustody.

  I saw about three weeks afterwards in a morning paper that Mr. Malvern,"whom the birth of a posthumous heir in a direct line had necessarilydeprived of all chance of succession to the Redwood estates, and thebaronetcy, which the newspapers had so absurdly conferred on him, was,with his amiable lady and family, about to leave England for Italy,where they intended to remain some time." The expressed, but uncompletedwill of the deceased baronet, Sir Thomas Redwood, had been, it wasfurther stated, carried into effect, and the legacy intended for Mr.Malvern paid over to him. The Williams's never, to my knowledge,attained to the dignity of a notice in the newspapers; but I believethey pursued their original intention of passing over to America.

  Thus not only "Offence's gilded hand," but some of the best feelings ofour nature, not unfrequently, "shove by Justice," and place a concealinggloss over deeds which, in other circumstances, would have infalliblyconsigned the perpetrators to a prison, or perhaps the hulks. Whether,however, any enactment could effectually grapple with an abuse whichsprings from motives so natural and amiable, is a question which I mustleave to wiser heads than mine to discuss and determine.