The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-02-11
IN MAR Y'S REIGN
By BARONESS ORcZY r.pyrsshs 1907 hy nmnss orszy an rights reserved

Duke of wessex, did on the night of the 14th of October of this year of our Lord one thousand five hundred and three, unlawfuIly kill Don Miguel, Mar quis de suarez, grandee of Spain. | The voice of the Clerk went dron- ing on; the people amazed. mortified. tried not to lose one single word of this strange document which so loud- ly proclaimed the fact that dastardly crime unparalleled in its cowardice and | ferocity had been committed by, one who until now had stood above all | Englishmen as model of honor, loy- alty and truth.
 With every fresh charge sixilfuliy woven together and intertwined with sundry dispositions obtained from my Lord Cardinal and his retinue. the crowd of spectators realized more and more that they were face to face with a weird and mysterious tragedy, not a pageant. but an appalling drama, | the prologue of which was being en- acted before them now.
 | It seemed--as the Clerk pursued his reading--that he was slowly unfolding. mesh by mesh. a hideous web, in the midst of which the presence of . death dealing and 1oathsome spider could as yet only be dimly guessed.
 A close, ciinging web. from which no man, be he the premier peer of England or the humblest commonsr. could ever hope to escape. The web of a rough and misguided l justice. of law of the taiion, retribu- tive and blind, distributing with an im- partiai hand condemnations and pun ishments to guilty and innocent alike, to the martyr and to the feion, to the coward and the deceived.
 | This was not decadent. puny century, peopled with neurotics and feeble minded weddings; it was century of men! men who were giants alike in their virtues and their passions. their vices and their atrocities. narrow in I their creeds and prejudices. but MEN for all that.
 chance shall the prisoner have of Jus- tifying his conduct! That was the dic- tate of the law.
 For truly" said Sir Robert Catline Lord Chief Justice of England. in the course of the trial of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton for high treason. 'jus- tice must not be confused by sundry arguments in the prisoners cause which might lead to his acquittal and the non-Dunishment of so grave s fault
 Witnesses were seldom if ever ex. amined in the presence of the accused Dispositions were extorted-often by torture. always by threats--from per. sons who happened to be friends ol associates of the prisoner.
 An acquittal perish the thought! Let the citizen look to himself ere he fel into the clutches of his country's jus. tice; once there he had little or nC chance of proving his innocence. | Let the guilty escape!
 I Always that awful possibility! rougl justice demanded punishment! always punishment!-lest the guilty escape
 And the people as they listened knew that they had come to see Q man'I last day upon earth.
 Proud. fastidious Wessex! that is thu end of all thingsl Pomp and cere' mony, gorgeous robes and costly ap' pareIs! these to speed thee on thy way
 but as inevitably as the dull winter'i night must follow this grey November
 morning, so will pomp and circum
 stance fade away into the past ana
 leave thee with but one red clay fig
 ure by thy side---that of the headsmaI
 with the axe
 Justice today could make short worl
 of her duties.
 Robert D'Esclade, fifth Duke of Wes
 sex, had confessed to his crime, wh! should Justice trouble herself to prov,
 that which was alread yadmitted? Sh,
 had merely to think out the form anC