Chapter XXXVII

“SOON after the court opened next morning I was considerably surprised to see Zuleka Zenobia come hurriedly into the room and deliver a large yellow envelope to Mr. Rockland.

“‘My mistress requested me to deliver this paper to you immediately after the court met this morning,’ said Zuleka, as she put the envelope in Mr. Rockland’s hand.

“The iron lawyer deliberately commenced reading the contents of the letter. I imagined that his hands began to tremble slightly, and I thought I could see a perceptible deepening of the color on his face.

“‘If the court please,’ said he, ‘I hold in my hand a most extraordinary paper, which has just been handed to me by Mrs. Ragland’s maid. This document makes a most startling disclosure. I do not think the contents of this letter ought to be made public, until an officer shall have been sent to inquire about Mrs. Ragland.’

“‘Perhaps her maid can enlighten you as to the condition of her mistress’s health,’ observed Flipout.

“Mr. Rockland then asked the maid if she had seen her mistress that morning.

“‘No,’ said the maid, ‘I have not seen her since eleven o’clock last night. She rang for me at eleven, and gave me the envelope, and told me to deliver it to Mr. Rockland at ten o’clock this morning.’

“‘Mr. Sheriff,’ said Flipout, ‘send a deputy to Mrs. Ragland’s residence immediately and instruct him to report her condition to the court without delay.’

“At last a short, dumpy little deputy with a ponderous nose and bushy hair came dashing into the room, with a face very pale, and excited manner.

“‘If your Honor please, Mrs. Ragland is dead, sir. She has killed herself. The door was locked on the inside, and we had to break it open before we could get in. We found her lying on the bed cold and stiff!’

“‘With your Honor’s permission,’ said Mr. Rockland, ‘I will now read this letter, which will explain everything.’

“‘Read it,’ said the judge.

“‘MR. ROCKLAND:

‘“DEAR SIR--When you read these lines, the hand that wrote them
will be cold in death, and my soul will have appeared before its
Creator. Perhaps God will have mercy on my sinful soul; for He
alone knows how I was tempted and betrayed; and He, I hope, will
have pity on a poor, unfortunate wretch like me. There was a time
when I was an innocent, artless, confiding girl, the petted child
of doting parents. I was the only daughter of Alexander Totten, who
died when I was thirteen, leaving a small fortune, though ample for
the support of myself and my mother. It is useless to warn other
giddy girls to avoid a fate like mine, because until men change
their natures unsuspecting girls will continue to listen to the
honeyed words of the libertine and the villain. My great fault--the
one that led me to destruction--was a love of display, and a
fondness for theatres, balls and all kinds of frivolous amusements.
Mr. Bowles drove fast horses, and spent money freely--dressed in
style, and took me with him to all the balls and other places of
amusement within reach. It would be folly to undertake to describe
the manner in which I went, step by step, from the temple of honor
to the gulf of infamy. It would merely be a reiteration of the old
story. I did not leap from the high temple of honor to the bottom
of the infamous pit at a single bound, but I went down by slow
degrees, until I was at the very bottom.

“‘I have committed a most cruel, cold-blooded murder. Oh! that I
had died when I was an innocent babe! Oh, God, have mercy on my
sinful soul. My only hope is based on the boundless mercy of Him
who knows how I was tempted. Miss Viola Bramlett is as pure as an
angel, and has suffered innocently for a crime committed by me.
When she and her little brother came to live at our house, Mr.
Bowles began to speak of the large fortune that had been left them
by their father. He told me that if the two children should happen
to die I would be the richest lady in the land. At first he spoke
of the matter cautiously, but in such a manner as to create a hope
in my mind that such a thing might happen. He informed me that my
husband’s habits of dissipation would soon put him out of the way,
and that if the children were to die all the property would be
mine.

“‘This matter formed the topic of his conversation every time we
met, and it was a long time before he developed his murderous
designs. While we lived in New Orleans Mr. Bowles kept a gambling
hell, and often he induced me to entice men into it to be drugged
and robbed. Step by step he led me down--down--down--until all
conscience, all virtue, all honor was gone. I was frightened when
he first began to persuade me to ensnare his unsuspecting victims,
but I soon became familiar with crime, and embraced vice with
pleasure. How truly did Mr. Pope describe things when he said:

“‘“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”

“‘Oh, how accurately those four lines describe the circumstances in
my case! I never loved Mr. Ragland, and would not have married him,
but I thought Mr. Bowles was dead at the time I became his wife. My
love for Bowles had by no means diminished since my marriage with
Mr. Ragland; and we met very often, sometimes in the summer-house,
and frequently I went to his quarters. Miss Tadpoddle was mistaken
when she said she saw Miss Bramlett go to Mr. Bowles’ apartments.
It was I, dressed in Viola’s blue silk, which I had ordered my maid
to steal for me. The paper of strychnine found in the pocket of the
blue silk dress was placed there by me. The understanding between
Bowles and me was that I was to put the children out of the way, so
that my husband would inherit the great fortune; then he (Bowles)
was to dispatch Mr. Ragland, and we were to be married, and reside
in Italy. I stole into the room when I knew Miss Bramlett was in
the kitchen preparing some tea for her little brother, and finding
the child sound asleep, I hurriedly emptied the quinine out of one
of the blue papers, and put the strychnine in it, and replaced it
on the table. That was the fatal dose that killed the boy. I do not
ask or expect forgiveness from the citizens of Memphis, because it
will require a higher power to absolve me. I think I can muster
courage to die, unloved and unmourned by any; but I have not enough
to enable me to live in the face of the tornado of indignation
which I know would confront me in this community.

“‘But for the awful load of guilt that presses like a great
mountain on my soul, I would quit this cruel world without regret.
I suppose that one who has committed so many cruel crimes as I have
would not be considered a proper person to give advice to others.
But the rich man who lifted his voice up in hell was anxious that
his brothers should not come where he was; and I, who am about to
appear before my God with the stain of murder on my soul, would
gladly persuade others to shun a fate like mine. When you hear that
I have inflicted on myself the same kind of murder that I did on
Harry Bramlett, using the same deadly drug, you will doubtless
conclude that I have gone mad; but no--the hand that directs this
pen is as steady as it ever was, and the mind that manufactures
these thoughts is as clear. I would prefer to live and repent of
the awful crimes I have committed, but I know that the law would
cry aloud for my blood.

“‘The letter that was found in Miss Bramlett’s dress pocket was
placed there by me; or, rather, it was left there by mistake when I
returned the dress. It was written by Mr. Bowles, and addressed to
me, instead of Miss Bramlett, as was believed by the detectives.

“‘I shall instruct my maid to deliver this communication into your
hands when court opens in the morning, and I most humbly ask you to
read it to the court and jury, in order that all suspicion of Miss
Bramlett’s guilt may be removed. I am sorry that this is all the
reparation I can make for the great wrongs I have done to that
innocent girl.

“‘With a full knowledge of the fact that I shall soon stand before
my great Creator, I declare the foregoing statement to be true.

VICTORIA RAGLAND.’

“‘Take the jury to a room, Mr. Sheriff, and let them make up their verdict and return it into court as soon as possible.’

“At last the jury came in, with Crookwood leading the van, while he held the papers in his hand.

“‘Have you agreed on a verdict, gentlemen?’

“‘We have, if yer Honor please,’ said Crookwood, as he wiped the water from his eyes with the tail of his coat.

“‘Read the verdict, Mr. Clerk.’

“‘I don’t think I am able to read it, sir,’ said the clerk.

“‘Let me see it,’ said Mr. Quillet.

“‘Read it then!’ said Flipout.

“‘I’ll try, but I do not agree to accomplish the task accurately.’

“‘We thee juree do agree thatt Misstress Victoree Ragglinn didd pizenn thee pour child, annd we woosh we hadd a chans to hangg her, butt wee kant bekase shee iz ded. Wee finde Benn Boals giltee ov merder, and sentns himm to be hungg thee furst Fridee atter he is kotch. Wee cleer Mis Brammlitt, annd the shurref shal paa the kost.’

“That is the identical verdict, each word spelled just as you see it, but here is a correct copy which the clerk was kind enough to transcribe for me, after the orthography had been properly corrected.

“‘We the jury do agree that Mistress Victoria Ragland did poison the poor child, and we wish we had a chance to hang her, but we can’t, because she is dead. We find Ben Bowles guilty of murder, and sentence him to be hung on the first Friday after he is caught. We clear Miss Bramlett, and the sheriff shall pay the cost.’

“It was agreed between the attorney-general and Mr. Rockland that the verdict might be so changed as to comply with the usual legal form; consequently, the record merely shows a verdict in the following words: _‘We the jury find the defendant not guilty.’_