An American Story of Real Life CHAPTER 12.
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"I have passed safely another dangerous strait, with rocks and reefs on every side," said Ware to his friend, the next day, as they sat conferring in regard to some future course of action. "With such a pilot as your very excellent self at the helm, I begin to feel as if I shall yet gain the desired haven."
"The devil is good to his own, you know, Harry. We must put our trust in him, and I doubt not but that he will be true to the end."
"So I begin to feel. Still, doubt and uncertainty hang darkly over the future."
"So did it yesterday, in regard to bail. Yet, when the effort was once made, how the difficulty vanished, like smoke!"
"But the Attorney General is not to be beguiled quite so easily as my old man. I'm sadly afraid that nothing can be made out of him that he will go oh his own course, steadily, in spite of all we may do or say."
"That is to be feared. Still, past success is to me a pledge that we shall overcome every difficulty."
With this feeling, our young men saw day after day go by, and week after week, until the thirtieth day of April came, and yet no change had occurred in the aspect of a single dark feature of Ware's prospects. On the first of May opened a term of the Criminal Court, when, in all probability, the case of the State vs. Pandora would be called. It was about nine o'clock in the evening, that Ware, with an anxious and troubled countenance, called at the residence of Mr. Blackstone, and asked an interview, which was accorded to him.
"I have come, Mr. Blackstone," he said, with a good deal of embarrassment in his manner, yet in a tone of earnestness, arising almost to entreaty, "to see if I cannot, in some way, prevail on you to pass me over in your call for witnesses in the case of which I have before spoken to you."
"It is impossible, Mr. Ware. You cannot be set aside," was the firm reply of the Attorney General. "Your evidence is of the first importance."
"But Mr. Handy will prove everything that I can. He saw the whole affair."
"I have before explained to you, Mr. Ware," said the Attorney General, "precisely my view of the importance of your evidence, and also my view in regard to my own position as prosecuting Attorney for the State. Since then, I have seen no reason for changing my opinion, and must, therefore, adhere to my original design of calling you upon the stand."
To this, Ware did not reply for some moments, when he said with bitterness--
"From the moment I appear upon that stand, Mr. Blackstone, I may date the utter ruin of my hopes--for it will throw over my character a shade of suspicion, which no explanations, if, indeed, I shall be allowed the privilege of making any, can remove. The twentieth of this month "is the day fixed for my marriage with Bell Martin, and if this thing transpires before that day, her father will, I am fully persuaded, come forward with a positive prohibition."
"On the twentieth did you say?" asked the Attorney.
"Yes, on the twentieth."
Then there was a long pause, which was at length broken by Mr. Blackstone, who said--
"Come and see me tomorrow evening, Mr. Ware. In the mean time, I will give this matter all the thought I possibly can."
With this assurance, the young man withdrew.
"Here is a matter in which I feel somewhat at a loss how to act," mused the attorney, after he was alone. "If the marriage of this young man is to take place as early as the twentieth, I can easily keep the case back until that affair is all settled to his satisfaction. But will it be right for me to do so? That is the question. May not justice to all parties, and more especially to Miss Martin and her family, require that this trial should be permitted to come on in the natural order of things? If it makes any developments in regard to young Ware that are discreditable to him, it is far better that they should know it before his marriage than afterwards. And, more than that, it is, to my mind, very questionable, indeed, whether I have any right, from private or individual considerations, to interfere, even in the slightest degree, with the regular and orderly progress and succession of public business. Certainly such an act would be of very doubtful character, and I cannot think that I would be right in deviating from my official duties from a regard to any individual's feelings, prospects or interests."
Such were the views which a good deal of reflection had measurably confirmed in the mind of Mr. Blackstone, when Henry Ware called in to see him on the next evening.
"Has any way occurred to you, in which it will be in your power to screen me in the coming trial?" asked the young man, with a look and a tone of concern, as soon as he was seated.
"But one way has occurred. Yet I do not feel at liberty to adopt it," replied Mr. Blackstone.
"Why not?"
"Because it would be a private interference with the orderly course of public business. And that, it seems to me, no Judicial functionary has a right to make."
"To what do you allude?"
"As your marriage is to take place on the twentieth, it would be a very easy matter to let other cases, which come after this one on the docket, precede it, so that you need not make your appearance here until after that date."
"The very thing that I intended suggesting to you this evening. Surely, that can be done without compromising, in any sense, either justice or principle."
"Not as I view the subject."
"How so?"
"I do not know. Mr. Ware, that you will appreciate my views, especially at this time. However, I will give them. As a public officer, I ought not to regard any man's private relations in society, so much as to make them supersede or halt the regular operations of justice. Yours is a case in point. You wish me to put off a certain trial, in which you are to appear as witness, beyond a specified date--in order that the disgrace, or whatever you may call it, which will result from your so appearing, may not have the effect of preventing your marriage with an heiress. Now, it is clear to my mind, that with your private affairs, I have nothing to do. My business is to prosecute offences against the State, according to the legal forms."
"But my dear sir," broke in Ware, "what possible detriment can the State suffer, by the postponement of a prosecution for a few days? Are not postponements affairs of constant occurrence?"
"True. But they are all governed by legal considerations. As for instance, the alleged absence of an important witness, or other inabilities on the part of either the prosecution or defense, to meet the questions at issue. But your case is one that has relation to private matters, and those alone, and cannot be admitted as a reason for postponement."
"I cannot, Mr. Blackstone, agree with the distinction you make."
"I did not suppose that you could, Mr. Ware, for the simple reason that it has reference to a matter which deeply concerns you, personally. As regards myself, I stand on different ground, and can look at the subject in a very different aspect. I view it abstracted from all personal interest, as a matter of simple right."
"Surely you cannot call it right, to blast, without provocation, without any adequate reason for doing so--the prospects of a man who never injured you."
"Mr. Ware," said the attorney, in a firm and decided tone, while he looked him steadily and somewhat sternly in the face, "when I accepted my present office, it was with the solemn determination to be influenced by no man, personally, while engaged in the discharge of its duties. Were you my brother, sir, I would act as I am now doing. And, let me say to you, that the more I reflect upon this matter, the more deep is my conviction that I ought not to deviate from the course I have declared, in this case above all which have ever come under my notice. If you were in improper company, that was, I presume, the result of loose habits and a love for improper associates. In the course of events, this fact has come out, or is about to come out, just as you are preparing to marry a young and innocent maiden. Its exposure, you fear, will cause a dissolution of your engagement. If I understand you right, you are deceiving both the maiden and her parents in regard to your real character, which, if known, would cause them to reject you at once. And shall I, as a lover of justice, as a good citizen, as a father-- protect you in my official capacity? No, sir! I would resign my office before I would betray the sacred trust placed in my hands!"
"You do me injustice," urged the young man. "I am not in association with gamblers, as you infer. In a thoughtless moment, I was induced, by a friend, to go into Pandora's rooms, and while there, consent to play a game or two with my friend and a stranger, which stranger proved to be Pandoras himself. Fifteen minutes only, had elapsed before the quarrel took place. Thus, you see, that an undeserved odium will attach to my name from this one indiscreet act."
"You must take the consequences of your own conduct, Mr. Ware. If your statement can be substantiated to Miss Martin's parents--no difficulty, I presume, will occur."
"You will not, then, stay proceedings in the case?"
"No, sir; not a day!"
"When do you think it will be reached?"
"In two or three days, at the farthest."
With this decisive information, Ware arose, and bowing to Mr. Blackstone, in silence, withdrew.
The next morning brought the two young men together, whose sayings and doings have occupied, thus far, so much of the reader's attention.
"Did you see Blackstone, last evening?" asked Handy, as they met.
Yes, and had my labor, for my pains."
"Wouldn't he put off the trial?"
"No--not a day!"
"Was he positive?"
"Yes. He said that he wouldn't put it off if his own brother stood in my place."
"Of course not! But who believes him? Not I."
"It seems as if the very fates were against me," said Ware, in a gloomy tone.
"Don't despair. I think I've hit the right thing at last."
"How? What is it? Speak out, and let me hear at once." This was said in a quick, excited tone.
"Hear, and judge for yourself. I went last night to see Pandora, against whom, you know, this prosecution is got up. After sounding him pretty thoroughly, I found that, for aconsideration--you know he goes in for that, and, what is more, is as keen now as he was before the axe of justice hung suspended over his head--that, fur a consideration, he would cause his lawyer to have the trial put off on a plea of not being ready, until after the twentieth."
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