Captain Jervoise can also testify to his identity. I now produce
the confession, voluntarily made by this man, and signed in the
presence of witnesses."
He handed in the confession, which was read aloud by a clerk
standing at the lower end of the table. A murmur of indignation
arose from the council, as he concluded.
"You have acted the part of a base villain," Lord Normanby said to
Nicholson. "Hanging would be too good for such a caitiff. What
induced you to make this confession?"
"I have long repented my conduct," the man said. "I was forced into
acting as I did, by John Dormay, who might have had me hung for
highway robbery. I would long ago have told the truth, had I known
where to find the gentlemen I have injured; and, meeting them by
chance the other day, I resolved upon making a clean breast of it,
and to take what punishment your lordships may think proper;
hoping, however, for your clemency, on account of the fact that I
was driven to act in the way I did."
One of the judges, who had the former depositions before him, asked
him several questions as to the manner in which he had put the
papers into Sir Marmaduke's cabinet.
He replied that he found the key in a vase on the mantel, and after
trying several locks with it, found that it fitted the cabinet.
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