Sir Walter Scott's the Heart of Midlothian by Walter Scott

Author:Walter Scott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Luath Press Ltd
Published: 2014-05-23T00:00:00+00:00

chapter twenty-two

DUKE VINCENTIO: We have strict statutes, and most biting laws,

The needful bits and curbs for headstrong steeds,

Which, for these fourteen years, we have let sleep,

Like to an o’ergrown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey…

Measure for Measure, I.3

Euphemia Deans,’ said the presiding Judge, in a tone of both dignity and pity, ‘stand up. Listen to the criminal indictment now to be preferred against you.’

Disorientated by the confusion through which her guards had forced a passage, Effie cast a bewildered look at the multitude of faces which seemed to tapestry the walls from ceiling to floor. However, she instinctively obeyed the command, which rang in her ears like the trump of judgment day.

‘Put back your hair, Effie,’ said one of the Macers. Her long fair hair, which unmarried women did not cover and which Effie dared not now confine with a maiden’s riband, hung over her face. She threw back her locks, showing the court an agonised countenance, yet one so lovely as to draw a universal murmur of compassion. This sound of human feeling removed the stupor of fear, but awakened her sense of shame and exposure. Her gaze, which had at first glanced wildly around, was now down; her cheek, at first pale, now overspread with a blush, deepening to crimson.

All were moved by these changes, except one. Deans, motionless in his seat and concealed by the corner of the Bench from seeing or being seen, kept his eyes fixed on the ground, unable to witness the shame of his house.

‘Ichabod!’ said he to himself. ‘Ichabod!’1

The indictment setting out in technical form the crime of which the panel stood accused, was now read and the prisoner was asked if she was Guilty, or Not Guilty.

‘Not guilty of my poor bairn’s death,’ said Euphemia Deans.

The presiding Judge next directed Counsel to plead to the relevancy; that is, to state the arguments in Law and the factual evidence both against and in favour of the accused. After this pleading, it was Court procedure to pronounce a preliminary judgment, before sending the case to the cognisance of the jury.

Counsel for the Crown briefly stated the frequency of the crime of infanticide which had given rise to the Statute under which Euphemia Deans stood indicted. He mentioned the various instances which had reluctantly induced the King’s Advocate to determine whether, by strictly enforcing the Act of Parliament, infanticides might be prevented.

‘I expect,’ he said, ‘to be able to establish by witnesses, as well as by the declaration of the accused herself, that she was in the state described by the Statute.’

According to his information, she had not communicated her pregnancy to any party, nor did she claim in her own Declaration that she had done so. This very secrecy was the first requisite in support of the Indictment. Her Declaration also admitted that she had borne a male child in circumstances which gave reason to believe that it had died by her hands, or at least with her knowledge or consent.

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