Ladysmith news. [volume] (Ladysmith, Wis.) 1906-1907, 1906-12-29
THE
Bl'aIlgwyIl Mystery

| Onor had surrendered nlmSelT VOlun-
tarily to take his trial on the capital
charge. From that charge he had SO
completely indicated himself that the
Crown had at once and wholly retired
from the intended prosecution. 1t APP
peared that for seven years the pris-
| oner had endured with great fortitude
| and heroism an unmerited stigma
which he might at any moment have
removed if he had laid his suspicious
before the police
Now, the law in regard to this point
was very satisfactorily clear. No man
is bound to communicate a mere sus-
picion to anybody, and if he should
volunteer to do SO it was evident he
would incur very serious responsible
ties. So far, then, Mr.. Brangwyn's
| conduct was not only justified in the
eye Of the law, but had in it some ele-
ments of nobility which could not fail
to extort respect and sympathy. 1t
was not the case that the Crown de-
sired to make allowances for the pris-
oner's conduct at this trying time.
Rather than strive to free himself
from public Odium-an Odium which
must have been intensely painful to a
high-minded and honorable manly
transferring the suspicious to another,
he had been content to endure. The
Crown desired to emphasize the self
abnegation of the prisoner and to do
the fullest justice to his motive.
But then-most unfortunately for
one whose conduct had hitherto been
deserving Of unmixed approval-it
came to pass that the prisoners sus-
picion developed iptoo certainty. He
became possessed Of proof He be-
came possessed of knowledge. In re-
fusing to carry that certainty, that
proof, that knowledge to the authority
appointed he had certainly placed
himself in great peril. After wllfui
murder itself there was no graver
crime than the wilful concealment Of
wilful murder. Of the latter crime the
prisoner openly confessed himself
guilty. He offered no rebutter. He
laid before the authorities at Scotland
Yard the statement that he would
never have revealed the real criminal
if he had not himself been exposed to
the risk of an ignominious and de-
grading death. His excuse was that
the real criminal was one to whom he
had for the larger part of his life been
attached by ties of familiarity, affec-
ton, and esteem.
Now that plea might be an excellent
plea in a romance, in drama, in a
poem; but it was not a plea which
could be for one instant upheld in a
court Of criminal law. The Crown took
action with deep regret, but it had no
option. They we're compelled to ask
for the prisoners committal. 1t was
not the present purpose OF the Grown
to indicate the real author Of the
crime apparently as sordid and as foul
as any to be found in the whole regis
ter of those abhorrent deeds whose
records from time to time startle and
chill the heart Of humanity. They
had every reason to believe that his
almost immediate arrest was assured,
but for the present there were good
and sufficient reasons why his identity
should not be disclosed. 1t was the
duty of the Crown to demand that the
prisoner be committed to take his trial
at the next assize at the Old Bailey.
Then followed some formal evidence |
And next came the advocate Alloy |
sius had appointed to conduct his case.
He opened by saying that the attorney |
general had offered as cogent, as NOV
ing an argument in favor of the pris- |
oner as any he himself could have !
hoped to lay before the court, and he |
advanced it with all that elOquence |
which was peculiarly his own For |
his part he was more than content to |
leave upon his clients character the |
complexion which the skilful hand OF
his learned friend had laid upon it.
He would enter by special instruction.
a purely technical plea of mot guilty"
and would reserve his defense. He ap-
piled that the prisoner be admitted to
bail
Did the police offer any objection to
bail? Thus the sitting magistrate.
No objection whatever. Thus Inspec- |
tor Holt, formally representing the po-
lice. The prisoner would be liberated |
on his own recognizances to appear
and take his trial at the next assize.
And now the Brangwyn mystery |
was ablaze indeed. Conjecture and |
surmise went mad, but through all the |
time of popular excitement Aloysius !
lived clustered and alone. His docu-
ments had been restored to him after
THE formal and public acknowledg- |
ment of his innocence of the act for
which his arrest had been decided on,
and he spent much time in their pc
rusal, until at last he seemed to see
the story evolve itself before him as
if the actors in it were veritably pres
ent and alive, and alike audible and
visible.
The first of the documents was writ
ten in the stiff and grabbed hand OF
age, but it was legible as print. 1t be-