The Art of Cross-Examination Part 15

"_Pigott._ 'No.'

"Pigott now looked like a man, after the sixth round in a prize fight, who had been knocked down in every round. But Russell showed him no mercy. I shall take another extract.

"_Russell._ 'Whatever the charges in "Parnellism and Crime," including the letters, were, did you believe them to be true or not?'

"_Pigott._ 'How can I say that when I say I do not know what the charges were? I say I do not recollect that letter to the archbishop at all, or any of the circ.u.mstances it refers to.'

"_Russell._ 'First of all you knew this: that you procured and paid for a number of letters?'

"_Pigott._ 'Yes.'

"_Russell._ 'Which, if genuine, you have already told me, would gravely implicate the parties from whom these were supposed to come.'

"_Pigott._ 'Yes, gravely implicate.'

"_Russell._ 'You would regard that, I suppose, as a serious charge?'

"_Pigott._ 'Yes.'

"_Russell._ 'Did you believe that charge to be true or false?'

"_Pigott._ 'I believed that charge to be true.'

"_Russell._ 'You believed that to be true?'

"_Pigott._ 'I do.'

"_Russell._ 'Now I will read this pa.s.sage [from Pigott's letter to the archbishop], "I need hardly add that, did I consider the parties really guilty of the things charged against them, I should not dream of suggesting that your Grace should take part in an effort to s.h.i.+eld them; I only wish to impress on your Grace that the evidence is apparently convincing, and would probably be sufficient to secure conviction if submitted to an English jury." What do you say to that, Mr. Pigott?'

"_Pigott_ (bewildered). 'I say nothing, except that I am sure I could not have had the letters in my mind when I said that, because I do not think the letters conveyed a sufficiently serious charge to cause me to write in that way.'

"_Russell._ 'But you know that was the only part of the charge, so far as you have yet told us, that you had anything to do in getting up?'

"_Pigott._ 'Yes, that is what I say; I must have had something else in my mind which I cannot at present recollect--that I must have had other charges.'

"_Russell._ 'What charges?'

"_Pigott._ 'I do not know. That is what I cannot tell you.'

"_Russell._ 'Well, let me remind you that that particular part of the charges--the incriminatory letters--were letters that you yourself knew all about.'

"_Pigott._ 'Yes, of course.'

"_Russell_ (reading from another letter of Pigott's to the archbishop).

'"I was somewhat disappointed in not having a line from your Grace, as I ventured to expect I might have been so far honored. I can a.s.sure your Grace that I have no other motive in writing save to avert, if possible, a great danger to people with whom your Grace is known to be in strong sympathy. At the same time, should your Grace not desire to interfere in the matter, or should you consider that they would refuse me a hearing, I am well content, having acquitted myself of what I conceived to be my duty in the circ.u.mstances. I will not further trouble your Grace save to again beg that you will not allow my name to transpire, seeing that to do so would interfere injuriously with my prospects, without any compensating advantage to any one. I make the request all the more confidently because I have had no part in what is being done to the prejudice of the Parnellite party, though I was enabled to become acquainted with all the details."'

"_Pigott_ (with a look of confusion and alarm). 'Yes.'

"_Russell._ 'What do you say to that?'

"_Pigott._ 'That it appears to me clearly that I had not the letters in my mind.'

"_Russell._ 'Then if it appears to you clearly that you had not the letters in your mind, what had you in your mind?'

"_Pigott._ 'It must have been something far more serious.'

"_Russell._ 'What was it?'

"_Pigott_ (helplessly, great beads of perspiration standing out on his forehead and trickling down his face). 'I cannot tell you. I have no idea.'

"_Russell._ 'It must have been something far more serious than the letters?'

"_Pigott_ (vacantly). 'Far more serious.'

"_Russell_ (briskly). 'Can you give my Lords any clew of the most indirect kind to what it was?'

"_Pigott_ (in despair). 'I cannot.'

"_Russell._ 'Or from whom you heard it?'

"_Pigott._ 'No.'

"_Russell._ 'Or when you heard it?'

"_Pigott._ 'Or when I heard it.'

"_Russell._ 'Or where you heard it?'

"_Pigott._ 'Or where I heard it.'

"_Russell._ 'Have you ever mentioned this fearful matter--whatever it is--to anybody?'

"_Pigott._ 'No.'

"_Russell._ 'Still locked up, hermetically sealed in your own bosom?'

"_Pigott._ 'No, because it has gone away out of my bosom, whatever it was.'

"On receiving this answer Russell smiled, looked at the bench, and sat down. A ripple of derisive laughter broke over the court, and a buzz of many voices followed. The people standing around me looked at each other and said, 'Splendid.' The judges rose, the great crowd melted away, and an Irishman who mingled in the throng expressed, I think, the general sentiment in a single word, 'Smashed.'"

Pigott's cross-examination was finished the following day, and the second day he disappeared entirely, and later sent back from Paris a confession of his guilt, admitting his perjury, and giving the details of how he had forged the alleged Parnell letter by tracing words and phrases from genuine Parnell letters, placed against the window-pane, and admitting that he had sold the forged letter for 605.

After the confession was read, the Commission "found" that it was a forgery, and the _Times_ withdrew the facsimile letter.

A warrant was issued for Pigott's arrest on the charge of perjury, but when he was tracked by the police to a hotel in Madrid, he asked to be given time enough to collect his belongings, and, retiring to his room, blew out his brains.