Asta's Book by Barbara Vine

Author:Barbara Vine [Vine, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781453214954
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media LLC
Published: 2008-05-31T04:00:00+00:00

15

THE TRIAL OF ALFRED ROPER (continued)

A JOURNALIST, ROBERT FITZROY, who attended the trial and was present throughout the whole proceedings, wrote his own account of it afterwards and included a meticulous description of Roper. ‘He was,’ he wrote, ‘a man who appeared far older than his actual years, his hair already sprinkled with grey and receding to show a huge wrinkled brow. Over-tall’—the inescapable conclusion here is that Mr Fitzroy himself was a short man ‘—and thin to the point of emaciation, he walked with a pronounced stoop, his shoulders bowed and his head hanging forward on his breast so that his chin pinned the lapels of his coat against him.

‘He was dressed in black, which seemed to increase the extreme pallor that made him appear a sick man. Dark rings encircled his eyes which themselves burned like coals. Under his high cheekbones were deep hollows of shadow. His mouth was wide but without firmness and his lips trembled so frequently that he needs must be constantly compressing them in a repeated nervous gesture.

‘His voice, as he came to answer the questions put to him by Mr Howard de Filippis, was a surprise, shrill and almost squeaky. From those tragic lips, gazing at that rugged countenance, we expected sonorous tones and elegant vowels but heard the accents of a rustic backwater uttered in an old woman’s squawk.’

It is easy to say now that Roper was his own worst enemy and that his appearance did not help his case. He never once addressed the judge by his title. Nor did he volunteer a particle of information apart from that which was specifically asked of him. It may have been that his life, his wife’s death and the circumstances of his arrest and trial had broken his spirit, but he gave the impression of invincible dullness. This was a man, the public may have decided, with whom no woman could have lived without going mad or else taking up with other men.

His Counsel asked him about his marriage and his manner of living and was answered in monosyllables. When he came to the matter of the hyoscin Roper was rather less taciturn. He was heard to give a heavy sigh.

You obtained hyoscin hydrobromide, did you not?—I bought it. I signed the poisons book.

Did you give hyoscin to your wife?—I mixed it with the sugar she took in her tea.

How much did you give her?—I was careful not to use too much. I mixed ten grains with a pound of sugar.

Will you tell his Lordship the purpose of administering hyoscin to your wife?—She had a disease called nymphomania. Hyoscin suppresses excessive sexual feeling.

Did you at any time intend to bring about your wife’s death?—No, I did not.

When Mr de Filippis took him through the events leading up to his departure from Devon Villa on July 27th, Roper again become monosyllabic. His chin sank upon his breast, he muttered with bowed head, and had to be asked to speak up.

When you returned to the house you did not ask the cab to wait?—No.

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