He was no longer certain that he
could rely on help from Jean Jacques, to whom he already owed so much.
That was why he wanted to make Rocque Valescure his debtor. It was not
his way to perjure his soul for nothing. He had done so in Spain--yet
not for nothing either. He had saved his head, which was now doing
useful work for himself and for a needy fellow-creature. No one could
doubt that he had helped a neighbour in great need, and had done it at
some expense to his own nerve and brain. None but an expert could have
lied as he had done in the witness-box. Also he had upheld his lies with
a striking narrative of circumstantiality. He made things fit in "like
mortised blocks" as the Clerk of the Court said to Judge Carcasson, when
they discussed the infamy afterwards with clear conviction that it was
perjury of a shameless kind; for one who would perjure himself to save a
man from jail, would also swear a man into the gallows-rope. But Judge
Carcasson had not been able to charge the jury in that sense, for there
was no effective evidence to rebut the untruthful attestation of the
Spaniard.
Pages:
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65