E. Phillips Oppenheim

The Man Who Changed His Plea

Warsaw 2018

Contents

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

CHAPTER XI

CHAPTER XII

CHAPTER XIII

CHAPTER XIV

CHAPTER XV

CHAPTER XVI

CHAPTER XVII

CHAPTER XVIII

CHAPTER XIX

CHAPTER XX

CHAPTER XXI

CHAPTER XXII

CHAPTER XXIII

CHAPTER I

The dignified-looking usher, holding his long black rod in one hand and dressed with the formality which his position demanded, after a few seconds of silent waiting leaned towards the Judge. The latter, wearing all the paraphernalia of his almost sacred office, had sunk a little forward in his chair and was watching through half-closed eyes the thickly packed crowd of men and women who had risen to their feet in anticipation of his departure. The echo of the prisoner’s shout which had rung through the court a few seconds before seemed to be still vibrating in the air.

“Your Lordship,” his attendant murmured.

The Judge seemed to wake from a moment’s silent reverie. At the sound of the usher’s voice, however, he was no longer distrait. He rose to his feet in dignified fashion, a fine figure of a man, bowed to the court, and with slow majesty followed his guardian angel down the steps and into his retiring-room. His valet, who was waiting there, and the junior ushers busied themselves in removing the emblems of his high office.

“An unusual case, Robinson,” he remarked to his clerk, who was standing by.

“Very unusual, my lord,” was the respectful answer.

“In my twenty years of office,” continued the Lord Chief Justice, whilst he submitted himself to the ministrations of his attendants, “I have never overcome my repugnance to wearing that ghastly signal of a human being’s approaching doom. Today I was particularly glad to be spared the ordeal of donning that hideous black cap and addressing the prisoner. I ask myself with some curiosity, Robinson,” he added, turning to the clerk, “whether Sir Frederick had any previous intimation that the prisoner was contemplating this action?”

“I have no idea, my lord,” Robinson replied. “It came as a great surprise to the court generally.”

“A changed plea during the course of a trial for murder,” the Judge continued, “is not an unheard-of event, although it is unusual. I remember it twice in my own career. Some previous intimation to the judge, though, should be obligatory. In this case, however, as there seemed to be no element of doubt as to the prisoner’s guilt, it did not make any difference. Otherwise, the official trying the case would naturally have liked a little further time for consideration before pronouncing his decision.”

“If your Lordship will excuse my saying so,” the clerk ventured, “the sentence pronounced by the court was the only one possible under the circumstances. I think perhaps a cup of tea–”

The Judge assented.

“Kindly see that all preparations are made for my departure. I will sign the necessary papers and return home as soon as possible.”

“Sir Frederick Leversen has sent in a message to know if he can have a word with your Lordship,” the chief usher announced. “His son, Mr. Samuel Leversen, is with him, too.”

“I will receive no visitors here this afternoon,” was the terse reply.

In his capacious leather armchair, Lord Malladene, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and without doubt a future Lord Chancellor, sipped his tea and looked thoughtfully into the embers. That he was a little disturbed in his mind became obvious to Robinson, who knew him well. The latter, who was a perfect reflex of his master’s moods, became uneasy.

“Your Lordship will forgive my remark, but bearing in mind your well-known aversion to applying the capital sentence, the ending of today’s trial has been most satisfactory,” he suggested.

Lord Malladene nodded slightly, but the frown remained upon his face.

“In a sense you are right, Robinson,” he admitted, “yet there was one, to me, jarring note. I disliked the prisoner’s sudden cry as he left the dock. He seemed to fling it back as a last hope. It made one wonder what was in his mind when he changed his plea. ‘I lied,’ he called out; ‘I am not guilty!’ That was very foolish of him, Robinson.”

“It was just an impulse, your Lordship,” the clerk replied. “I should forget it.”

The Judge rose to his feet. The frown remained.

“I would forget it if I could,” he said.

*     *

*

It was the height of the Season, and London was very full; the pavements were crowded, but the newspaper-sellers, although they were pushed off the kerb in many places, still held their own and sold their papers. They had sensational news to offer.

FAMOUS MURDER TRIAL: RESULT

was on the sheet they waved backwards and forwards, and men and women on every side, passers-by of every description, who were anxious to know the fate of Richard Lebur, produced their pennies and turned to the stop-press news. It was the first subject of conversation exchanged by men home from their day’s work, meeting at the club, or lingering over the cocktail bar.

“So they found Lebur guilty,” someone observed in the bar of the Sheridan.

“Don’t see how they could do anything else!”

“Read your paper, my dear fellow,” his companion enjoined. “There was no trial after all. He asked permission to change his plea.”

“You mean that he admitted his guilt? Foolish thing to do, it seems to me.”

“Did it to save his neck, I suppose,” the other remarked. “They have to show a little extra consideration to a man who saves his country the expense of a long trial. There could have been but one end to it if they’d fought it out to a finish.”

“And that?”

“He would have been found guilty and hanged.”

*     *

*

“I’m sorry for his wife,” a peeress acknowledged in reply to her host’s opening comment at a fashionable dinner party. “She is little more than a child, but she is making a name for herself as an artist. She is to have a small show of her own soon, I believe, at the Mona Gallery.”

“Can’t think what she married such a fellow for,” her companion muttered.

“I never met either of them,” the lady observed. “The girl is quite striking-looking, I’ve been told.”

“I’ve met her once,” a woman on the other side of the table interposed. “She has just that touch of the unusual that most of these artists affect.”

“She is a very beautiful picture herself,” declared an elderly lady, who was known as an art critic.

“It seems a ghastly pity that she should have married a man of Lebur’s type,” the host pronounced. “He and his father own picture-galleries, I know, and I daresay it was because of the son’s leanings towards art that they came together, but the man’s a rotter.”

“Well, he’s got it in the neck now,” another reflected. “Penal servitude for life! Just think what that means. Never a moment when you can walk about the earth a free man again, look into the shop windows, drop into your club for lunch, and pay a call on your best girl during the afternoon. I’m not sure that the other isn’t better.”

*     *

*

In a large, rather untidy studio, on the second floor of a block of Chelsea flats, a young woman was seated close to a high, bare window opposite an easel, upon which stood the unfinished study of an old man. All the appurtenances of her craft were laid out upon a small oak table within easy reach. She showed no inclination, however, towards work. Occasionally she gazed down to the river, now and then looking up to watch the drifting clouds. She was quite alone, and from her frequent glances into the street below it seemed as though she might be waiting for someone. In time her patience was rewarded, for the bell which rang from a landing entrance to the studio pealed softly. She rose to her feet, walked to the door, and opened it.

“I’m glad that you have come,” she said simply. “Please sit down. I am quite prepared to hear what you have to tell me.”

A small, fragile old gentleman, dressed in sober black and wearing an almost clerical-looking felt hat, sank into an easy-chair. With both hands upon his stick he leaned forward and watched her draw up a stool opposite to him.

“You have not heard?” he asked. “You did not send for a paper?”

“No,” she admitted. “I preferred to hear it from you, here, just like this.”

“Your husband, at the last moment, changed his plea, with permission from the Judge. He changed it to ‘guilty’–and instead of leaving this world, my dear, by a disgraceful death, he was sentenced to penal servitude for life.”

“Penal servitude for life.” She repeated the words almost mechanically. “That means that he will never be free again?”

“Never,” her visitor gasped. “Forgive me if I seem affected,” he added, for there were tears in his eyes, “but after all, you must remember that he was my son. He was an evil man, an unrighteous son, and an unfaithful husband–but he was my son, and when he was young I loved him.”

She held out her hand and took his.

“My dear,” she murmured, “I am so sorry for you. Believe me, I am sorry.”

“It is generous of you,” he confessed quietly. “I was a wicked man to let an innocent girl like you marry a man whom I knew to be evil; but you are so pure, so sweet in yourself, I thought the beauty you would pour into his life might change him. I was wrong. I was wicked ever to take the chance. Leaving all that out of consideration, dear Pamela, what has happened now is for the best. He is out of your way; he is where he can do no harm in the world. I pray God only that he may repent.”

“I am very, very sorry,” she said. “You are a good man, Simon Lebur; you should have had a good son to comfort you in your old age.”

“And you,” he groaned, his cold white fingers responding to the pressure of hers, “should have had a good husband who would have made your life a happy one. I thank God that his mother is dead, that there is no one to sorrow with us. I am on my way now down the short footpath that leads to the end of this world, and I am very glad that it should be so. You are left to suffer, my child, but I have come to beg you to cast this trouble from you and to stamp out the memory of it from your life. They say that I come of a stern race–perhaps I do–but my heart softens for those who deserve it. You deserve happiness and you will find it. You have a great gift and you will make use of it. You will become famous! Soon I shall show your work all by itself in my principal gallery.”

She said nothing, but the light was burning again in her eyes. She glanced towards the canvas.

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