Recapture

“ This we thought would be a good chance to escape. It was agreed between us that Captains Cady, Hock and Eastmond and Lieut. Masters should jump from the car, which was running only about ten or twelve miles an hour, and I was to go on to Columbia with our baggage, of which we had considerable, so that in case of recapture, they would not lose all of this, to us, valuable property, but would again be in condition to commence housekeeping. Cady and Masters sat in the door with their legs hanging out, and I sat beside the guard, and after dark got into conversation with him. ”

“ We have seen the prisoner, in a state of semi-collapse as a rule, going out through the door of the dock to the room behind it, where, on this last evening of the trial, the prisoner is allowed to wait for the verdict which is to be rendered before her return. We feel the relief that one feels when the fighting is over, mingled with suspense and with pity for the wretched creature who is waiting and is wondering. We realize that we are hungry, and rush off to get a little food. ”

“ This English word presents us with a curious lesson. It is, in fact, only another form of ‘captive,’ though it has come to signify a wretch capable of perpetrating the darkest crimes. The Latin ‘captivus,’ a prisoner, is the source of the modern Italian ‘cattivo,’ which has the general sense of ‘bad;’ and the French ‘chétif,’ which signifies ‘mean,’ ‘pitiful,’ or ‘insignificant,’ is another form of the same word. All these varieties point to the same conclusion, viz. the moral degradation naturally produced in the human mind by captivity. ”

“ And I am telling you that they count because I am going to add that I should tell that lie again to-morrow, were the trial to-morrow and you a prisoner. I should tell it again to save you again. Yes, to save you. ”

“ The thoughts of a captive can no more get beyond his prison-walls than his limbs, unless they are busied in planning an escape; as, on the contrary, what prisoner, after effecting his escape, ever suffered them to return there, or took common precautions to prevent his own? ”

“ The fugitive who once enters the fatal bounds, never dares leave them. Three years is the extent to which a man can drag out existence in this pestilential atmosphere. So here the hardened criminal comes to die, in his desire to escape from death. ”

“ If the inquisitor be considered as a confessor, the accused as a penitent paternally exhorted, lovingly urged to reconciliation, pardon being assured for the truly repentant, what possible need can there be for an advocate?397 The tribunal gave every facility for the escape of the prisoner from all the possible unhappy consequences of his defamation, down one avenue—confession, penance, reinstatement. ”

“ But I would not press the matter upon you too severely; the reparation shall be left to your own discretion; but you must decide upon what it is to be, before the Court break up.
LATITIA.
⁠Decide so soon! Will not to-morrow do, or the day after to-morrow, or the day after that?
BRIGHTLY.
⁠No, neither to-morrow nor any following morrow will do; you must pronounce your own sentence before the Court break up.
LATITIA (going about in a bewildered manner) .
⁠O, dear! what can I do? what can I say? how shall I decide? ”

“ You appear, in a moment of weakness, to have been led away by that stronger intelligence from the paths of rectitude. But you have displayed so clear a sense of the enormity of your conduct, and have, by your complete disclosures of the crime committed by you and your companion, and, by your evidence in Court to-day, shown so complete a repentance for it, that I do not think that it would be politic or just to lay a severe term of imprisonment upon you. ”

“ Imagine placing two sentries to guard a man lying between life and death with an enormous incision in his chest, in order to prevent him escaping should{134} he break his parole! I should only have had to walk four hundred and fifty miles in order to escape—this for one who had not even the strength to feed himself. ”

“ If one drooped In the lovely Court—her dark glance dim, her feet Faint in the dance—the guiltless criminal Passed forth an exile from that Paradise, Lest he should see and suffer at her woe. Bright-eyed intendants watched to execute Sentence on such as spake of the harsh world Without, where aches and plagues were, tears and fears, And wail of mourners, and grim fume of pyres. ”

“ We were permitted to reason the proposition out among ourselves, which we did in an undertone. Young and hot-headed, the idea of a possible exchange of prisoners never entered our heads, but on the other hand the excitement of an attempt at escape held out an inducement to refuse our parole. ”

“ Perceiving escape impossible, rendered desperate by the near approach of their pursuers, the fugitives, still holding fast each other’s hand, rushed to the verge of the cataract and flung themselves headlong into its deadly embrace. ”

“ Every one would be in some way preparing for departure. Some permitted on parole would have to bid farewell to the friends they had made within their bounds, others would have to write to friends made in the market or in conversations surreptitiously carried on through the pales of the stockade fences. ”

“ At any rate, we would leave no 85 plan untried, let it be as thoughtless, or even desperate as it may, to escape from our miserable lot, and as we had an eternal imprisonment hovering over us, we determined either to reach our homes, or find a grave among the mountains or beneath the waves. ”

“ His lordship then, in a solemn and awful manner, passed the following sentence:—
“That the prisoner be taken from the bar to prison, and from thence to the place of execution; there to be hanged, but not until he be dead, to be cut down while yet alive, and then to have his heart and bowels taken out and burnt before his face ”

“ Then did the Prisoners consult between themselves, whether 'twas best to take his counsel or no; and thus they began to discourse:—
Chr. Brother, said Christian, what shall we do? The life that we now live is miserable: for my part I know not whether is best, to live thus, or to die out of hand. My soul chuseth strangling rather than life, and the Grave is more easy for me than this Dungeon. Shall we be ruled by the Giant? ”

“ Think of thy lover under torture, on the rack, burnt at the stake. Hast ever seen a man after he has been broken on the wheel? his limbs torn from their sockets, his chest sunken under the weights—and the stake? ”

“ There is a forged impression of a die upon an instrument, proved to have been in the possession of the prisoner, under circumstances which certainly call for explanation, and also in whose possession a number of dies are found, made too by his own order, and two of which appear to have been used to make an impression, an impression proved to be false and counterfeit upon this instrument. ”

“ The criminal, however, opened his small bag without dismay; and having stocked the scale with two or three trifling merits, he drew from the bottom of the bag a death-bed repentance, and placed it in the scale with a look of success, but to his amazement the accumulated vices on the other side were unmoved. He appealed to the Prophet against the decision of the scales, declaring that his repentance had been authentic, and without premeditation, not like the formal remorse of so many, who while they commit a crime design to evade punishment by a fiction at last. ”

“ I thought that thou wouldst have been my heir at my death; and thou through thy envy and thy insolence didst desire to kill me. But the Lord delivered me from thy cunning.
14 O my son! thou hast been to me like a trap which was set up on the dunghill, and there came a sparrow and found the trap set up. And the sparrow said to the trap, “What doest thou here?” Said the trap, “I am praying here to God.” ”

“ AN average coroner's jury might sit on the skeleton of an anthropoid ape and return a verdict that the deceased came to his death at the hands of parties unknown, with the sublime consciousness of having performed their duty and earned their fees. ”

“ What, thought I, as I lay awake,—what if, instead of this conjugal contretemps, I had been wrongly seized for theft and murder, and unable to prove an alibi? Such cases have been. Such cases have been! Why, they have taken place by scores—are taking place, and will to the end of the chapter. And my imagination vividly portrayed the mental agonies of the innocent convict. Memory ransacked the dusty tomes of history to supply fresh food for meditation, fresh fuel to feed my horror. ”

“ Some unfortunate English prisoners, owing to treachery amongst themselves, had been sabred in the same passage about two years before, in a vain attempt to escape during the night. How valuable would a dark-lanthorn have been at that moment! Every body, except the few that were appointed to force the doors, were preparing for their escape. ”

“ He bade the jury remember the words of him who spake as never man spake,—'Let him that hath never sinned throw the first stone.' They, as masters, might regret excesses to which they themselves might have carried punishment. ”

“ Reducing the facts to their essentials and then trying to reason, the possibilities became a very general preoccupation. The deductive steps may be briefly set down. First, there were the alternative propositions of voluntary or involuntary absence, of hiding or abduction. Second, if the theory of forced absence was to be entertained, there were only two general possibilities—abduction for ransom or kidnapping by some maniac. The ideas of murder, detention for revenge, and the like, come under the latter head. ”

“ Death is a commitment to the prison of the Grave till the Judgement of the Great Day; and then the grand Habeas Corpus will issue to the Earth and to the Sea, to give up their dead: to remove the Bodies, with the cause of their commitment. ”

“ That the Jury feeling themselves convinced have cut short, have brought in their verdict; that the Accused are found guilty, and the Sentence on one and all of them is, Death with confiscation of goods. ”

“ By thy decree was spilt,
Whose head, upon the charger brought,
Appeased revengeful guilt,
His name, amid a deathless page,
Gleams forth with living ray,
While all thy royalty and pride
Are swept like foam away. ”

“ After depositing the dead man in his grave, in which, according to their custom, they throw his best clothes, and whatever else they conceive he may want, they return to the accused who is confined, but in such a manner that he might escape if he please ”

“ The anguish of suspense, at least, is ended, and even if it be to undergo an operation, and to blow one’s own brains out, men will become composed, and sometimes even cheerful, as the coroner’s inquest discovers, when once the way and the end are known. ”

“ When one thus commits theft his right hand must be cut off at the wrist; if he commit theft again, his left hand must be cut off; if he commit it a third time, his right foot must be cut off; and if he commit it yet again, he must be put in prison till he repent.’ Then the prince caused the man to receive the due of his crime. ”

“ The rash hand of the guilty individual who, without warning, hurries a fellow-creature to another world, cuts off from him the opportunity of approaching his Maker in prayer, or of preparing for that judgment which is painful for the best, and overwhelming for those who are not ready. [Here the prisoner became visibly affected.] ”

“ We are to take notice of the goodness of God towards prisoners and captives. Observe, 1. A description of this affliction. Prisoners are said to sit in darkness (v. 10) , in dark dungeons, close prisons, which intimates that they are desolate and disconsolate; they sit in the shadow of death, which intimates not only great distress and trouble, but great danger. Prisoners are many times appointed to die; they sit despairing to get out, but resolving to make the best of it. They are bound in affliction, and many times in iron, as Joseph. ”

“ Should they die during their confinement, whether proved guilty or not of the crime of which they are accused, they are buried without any funeral ceremony, and tried afterwards, if then found guilty, their bones are disinterred, and the execution of their sentence is passed upon their remains. ”

“ The fact that kidnapping persists in spite of these recognized discouragements probably accounts for the proneness of policemen and citizens to interpret into every abduction case some moving force other than mere hope of gain. ”

“ The delay which is apparent in this case might seem injurious, but it will not be so—as it is not in the transactions of the Inquisition; for, after men have slept soundly, they are awakened by a very exemplary punishment. ”

“ The latter, entirely oblivious of the identity of the men and women about him, sat regarding the coroner and the jury while his restless fingers rolled a swagger stick held upright between the palms of his hands. ”

“ I had heard of men being lured into traps. Vividly enough I saw myself a cadaver drifting on the tide, and I liked not the picture. Yet after all it takes tremendous courage to be a coward, so I drew nearer. Strange! the sobbing, so low, so pitiful, had ceased. It was followed by a silence far more sinister. There was a vibrating agony in that silence, a horrible, heart-clutching suspense. ”

“ Those that are found guilty of other criminal Matters, after a little hanging, are cut down and indeed bury’d, yet seldom in a Christian manner, or in the Sepulchre of their Fathers, unless their Fathers like them happen to have their Graves near or under the Gallows. |Difference between Ecclesiastic and Criminal Burial.| Hence the Canonists, says Quenstedt, De Sepult. ”

“ As to trouble being no worse than your present state, you must remember each sentence lengthens the period you have to serve to obtain your ticket-of-leave.'
'Death will grant me that before I am prepared to receive it, I fear, sir!'
'Nevertheless, I hope to see you a T.L. in life. Death can give you conditional pardon, of the conditions of which pardon you hear enough from Mr. Herbert. ”

“ Therefore, since neither the living boy nor his dead body could be found, and since there seemed to be no sustenance for the idea of kidnapping for ransom, the theorists were forced into another position, one full of the ripe color of centuries. ”