A Terrible Temptation: A Story of To-Day
lavished on me. With you I deplore this family feud. It is not of my
seeking; and as for this lawsuit, it is one in which the plaintiff is
really the defendant. Sir Charles has written a defamatory letter,
which has closed every house in this county to his victim. If, as I now
feel sure, you disapprove the libel, pray persuade him to retract it.
The rest our lawyers can settle,
“Yours very respectfully,
“RICHARD BASSETT.”
When Lady Bassett read this, she saw she had an adroit opponent. Yet
she wrote again:
“MR. BASSETT--There are limits to my influence with Sir Charles. I have
no power to make him say one word against his convictions.
“But my lawyer tells me you seek pecuniary compensation for an affront.
I offer you, out of my own means, which are ample, that which you
seek--offer it freely and heartily; and I honestly think you had better
receive it from me than expose yourself to the risks and mortifications
of a public trial.
“I am, yours obediently,
“BELLA BASSETT.”
“LADY BASSETT--You have fallen into a very natural error. It is true I
sue Sir Charles Bassett for money; but that is only because the law
allows me my remedy in no other form. What really brings me into court
is the defense of my injured honor. How do you meet me? You say,
virtually, 'Never mind your character: here is money.' Permit me to
decline it on such terms.
“A public insult cannot be cured in private.
“Strong in my innocence, and my wrongs, I court what you call the risks
of a public trial.
“Whatever the result, _you_ have played the honorable and womanly part
of peacemaker; and it is unfortunate for your husband that your gentle
influence is limited by his vanity, which perseveres in a cruel
slander, instead of retracting it while there is yet time.
“I am, madam, yours obediently,
“RICHARD BASSETT.”
“MR. BASSETT--I retire from a correspondence which appears to be
useless, and might, if prolonged, draw some bitter remark from me, as
it has from you.
“After the trial, which you court and I deprecate, you will perhaps
review my letters with a more friendly eye.
“I am, yours obediently,
“BELLA BASSETT.”
In this fencing-match between a lawyer and a lady each gained an
advantage. The lawyer's letters, as might have been expected, were the
best adapted to be read to a jury; but the lady, subtler in her way,
obtained, at a small sacrifice, what she wanted, and that without
raising the slightest suspicion of her true motive in the
correspondence.
She announced her success to Mr. Oldfield; but, in the midst of it, she
quaked with terror at the thought of what Sir Charles would say to her
for writing to Mr. Bassett at all.
She now, with the changeableness of her sex, hoped and prayed Mr.
Bassett would admit the anonymous letter, and so all her subtlety and
pains prove superfluous.
Quaking secretly, but with a lovely face and serene front, she took her
place at the assizes, before the judge, and got as near him as she
could.
The court was crowded, and many ladies present.
_Bassett v. Bassett_ was called in a loud voice; there was a hum of
excitement, then a silence of expectation, and the plaintiff's counsel
rose to address the jury.
CHAPTER XII.
“MAY it please your Lordship: Gentlemen of the Jury--The plaintiff in
this case is Richard Bassett, Esquire, the direct and lineal
representative of that old and honorable family, whose monuments are to
be seen in several churches in this county, and whose estates are the
largest, I believe, in the county. He would have succeeded, as a matter
of course, to those estates, but for an arrangement made only a year
before he was born, by which, contrary to nature and justice, he was
denuded of those estates, and they passed to the defendant. The
defendant is nowise to blame for that piece of injustice; but he
profits by it, and it might be expected that his good fortune would
soften his heart toward his unfortunate relative. I say that if
uncommon tenderness might be expected to be shown by anybody to this
deserving and unfortunate gentleman, it would be by Sir Charles
Bassett, who enjoys his cousin's ancestral estates, and can so well
appreciate what that cousin has lost by no fault of his own.”
“Hear! hear!”
“Silence in the court!”
_The Judge._--I must request that there may be no manifestation of
feeling.
_Counsel._--I will endeavor to provoke none, my lord. It is a very
simple case, and I shall not occupy you long. Well, gentlemen, Mr.
Bassett is a poor man, by no fault of his; but if he is poor, he is
proud and honorable. He has met the frowns of fortune like a
gentleman--like a man. He has not solicited government for a place. He
has not whined nor lamented. He has dignified unmerited poverty by
prudence and self-denial; and, unable to forget that he is a Bassett,
he has put by a little money every year, and bought a small estate or
two, and had even applied to the Lord-Lieutenant to make him a justice
of the peace, when a most severe and unexpected blow fell upon him.
Among those large proprietors who respected him in spite of his humbler
circumstances was Mr. Hardwicke, one of the county members. Well,
gentlemen, on the 21st of last May Mr. Bassett received a letter from
Mr. Hardwicke inclosing one purporting to be from Sir Charles Bassett--
_The Judge._--Does Sir Charles Bassett admit the letter?
_Defendant's Counsel_ (after a word with Oldfield).--Yes, my lord.
_Plaintiff's Counsel._--A letter admitted to be written by Sir Charles
Bassett. That letter shall be read to you.
The letter was then read.
The counsel resumed: “Conceive, if you can, the effect of this blow,
just as my unhappy and most deserving client was rising a little in the
world. I shall prove that it excluded him from Mr. Hardwicke's house,
and other houses too. He is a man of too much importance to risk
affronts. He has never entered the door of any gentleman in this county
since his powerful relative published this cruel libel. He has drawn
his Spartan cloak around him, and he awaits your verdict to resume that
place among you which is due to him in every way--due to him as the
heir in direct line to the wealth, and, above all, to the honor of the
Bassetts; due to him as Sir Charles Bassett's heir at law; and due to
him on account of the decency and fortitude with which he has borne
adversity, and with which he now repels foul-mouthed slander.”
“Hear! hear!”
“Silence in the court!”
“I have done, gentlemen, for the present. Indeed, eloquence, even if I
possessed it, would be superfluous; the facts speak for
themselves.--Call James Hardwicke, Esq.”
Mr. Hardwicke proved the receipt of the letter from Sir Charles, and
that he had sent it to Mr. Bassett; and that Mr. Bassett had not
entered his house since then, nor had he invited him.
Mr. Bassett was then called, and, being duly trained by Wheeler,
abstained from all heat, and wore an air of dignified dejection. His
counsel examined him, and his replies bore out the opening statement.
Everybody thought him sure of a verdict.
He was then cross-examined. Defendant's counsel pressed him about his
unfair way of shooting. The judge interfered, and said that was
trifling. If there was no substantial defense, why not settle the
matter?
“There is a defense, my lord.”
“Then it is time you disclosed it.”
“Very well, my lord. Mr. Bassett, did you ever write an anonymous
letter?”
“Not that I remember.”
“Oh, that appears to you a trifle. It is not so considered.”
_The Judge._--Be more particular in your question.
“I will, my lord.--Did you ever write an anonymous letter, to make
mischief between Sir Charles and Lady Bassett?”
“Never,” said the witness; but he turned pale.
“Do you mean to say you did not write this letter to Miss Bruce? Look
at the letter, Mr. Bassett, before you reply.”
Bassett cast one swift glance of agony at Wheeler; then braced himself
like iron. He examined the letter attentively, turned it over, lived an
age, and said it was not his writing.
“Do you swear that?”
“Certainly.”
_Defendant's Counsel._--I shall ask your lordship to take down that
reply. If persisted in, my client will indict the witness for perjury.
_Plaintiff's Counsel._--Don't threaten the witness as well as insult
him, please.
_The Judge._--He is an educated man, and knows the duty he owes to God
and the defendant.--Take time, Mr. Bassett, and recollect. Did you
write that letter?”
“No, my lord.”
Counsel waited for the judge to note the reply, then proceeded.
“You have lately corresponded with Lady Bassett, I think?”
“Yes. Her ladyship opened a correspondence with me.”
“It is a lie!” roared Sir Charles Bassett from the door of the grand
jury room.
“Silence in the court!”
_The Judge._--Who made that unseemly remark?
_Sir Charles._--I did, my lord. My wife never corresponded with the
cur.
_The Plaintiff._--It is only one insult more, gentlemen, and as false
as the rest. Permit me, my lord. My own counsel would never have put
the question. I would not, for the world, give Lady Bassett pain; but
Sir Charles and his counsel have extorted the truth from me. Her
ladyship did open a correspondence with me, and a friendly one.
_The Plaintiff's Counsel._--Will your lordship ask whether that was
after the defendant had written the libel?
The question was put, and answered in the affirmative.
Lady Bassett hid her face in her hands. Sir Charles saw the movement,
and groaned aloud.
_The Judge._--I beg the case may not be encumbered with irrelevant
matter.
Counsel replied that the correspondence would be made evidence in the
case. _(To the witness.)_--“You wrote this letter to Lady Bassett?”
“Yes.”
“And every word in it?”
“And every word in it,” faltered Bassett, now ashy pale, for he began
to see the trap.
“Then you wrote this word 'character,' and this word 'injured,' and
this word--”
_The Judge_ (peevishly).--He tells you he wrote every word in those
letters to Lady Bassett.--What more would you have?
_Counsel._--If your lordship will be good enough to examine the
correspondence, and compare those words in it I have underlined with
the same words in the anonymous letter, you will perhaps find I know my
business better than you seem to think. (The counsel who ventured on
this remonstrance was a sergeant.)
“Brother Eitherside,” said the judge, with a charming manner, “you
satisfied me of that, to my cost, long ago, whenever I had you against
me in a case. Please hand me the letters.”
While the judge was making a keen comparison, counsel continued the
cross-examination.
“You are aware that this letter caused a separation between Sir Charles
Bassett and the lady he was engaged to?”
“I know nothing about it.”
“Indeed! Well, were you acquainted with the Miss Somerset mentioned in
this letter?”
“Slightly.”
“You have been at her house?”
“Once or twice.”
“Which? Twice is double as often as once, you know.”
“Twice.”
“No more?”
“Not that I recollect.”
“You wrote to her?”
“I may have.”
“Did you, or did you not?”
“I did.”
“What was the purport of that letter?”
“I can't recollect at this distance of time.”
“On your oath, sir, did you not write urging her to co-operate with you
to keep Sir Charles Bassett from marrying his affianced, Miss Bella
Bruce, to whom that anonymous letter was written with the same object?”
The perspiration now rolled in visible drops down the tortured liar's
face. Yet still, by a gigantic effort, he stood firm, and even planted
a blow.
“I did not write the anonymous letter. But I believe I told Miss
Somerset I loved Miss Bruce, and that _her_ lover was robbing me of
mine, as he had robbed me of everything else.”