Chapter IX: Appendix

During the progress of the trial numberless letters, anonymous and bearing signatures, were received by Ross’s legal advisers. They were of all classes—helpful criticism, incoherent comment, threatening, laudatory, and censorious. One received on the eve of Ross’s execution, with a covering note asking that it should be handed to him, and saying that it would have been sent direct only the writer had doubts whether the prison regulations would allow Ross to get it, bore on its face some suggestion of genuineness. No one, of course, can say definitely, but the letter may perhaps be given as possessing some public interest. The envelope bore the postmark of a small country town, but there was nothing otherwise to indicate whence or from whom it came. With the elision of a sentence or two, rather Zola-esque for publication, it was as follows:—

“Colin C. Ross,
“Melbourne Gaol.

“You have been condemned for a crime which you have
never committed, and are to suffer for another’s fault.
Since your conviction you have, no doubt, wondered what
manner of man the real murderer is who could not only
encompass the girl’s death, but allow you to suffer in
his stead.

“My dear Ross, if it is any satisfaction for you to
know it, believe me that you die but once, but he will
continue to die for the rest of his life. Honoured and
fawned upon by those who know him, the smile upon his
lips but hides the canker eating into his soul. Day and
night his life is a hell without the hope of reprieve.
Gladly would he take your place on Monday next if he had
himself alone to consider. His reason, then, briefly
stated, is this: A devoted and loving mother is ill—a
shock would be fatal. Three loving married sisters,
whose whole life would be wrecked, to say nothing of
brothers who have been accustomed to take him as a
pattern. He cannot sacrifice these. Himself he will
sacrifice when his mother passes away. He will do it
by his own hand. He will board the ferry across the
Styx with a lie on his lips, with the only hope that
religion is a myth and death annihilation.

“It is too painful for him to go into the details of
the crime. It is simply a Jekyll and Hyde existence.
By a freak of nature, he was not made as other men....
This girl was not the first.... With a procuress all
things are possible.... In this case there was no
intention of murder—the victim unexpectedly collapsed.
The hands of the woman, in her frenzy, did the rest.

“May it be some satisfaction to yourself, your
devoted mother, and the members of your family to know
that at least one of the legion of the damned, who is
the cause of your death, is suffering the pangs of
hell. He may not ask your forgiveness or sympathy, but
he asks your understanding.”