At last, about
three o'clock the case was called on, and we went round to the part of
the court which is reserved for the general public, while Ernest was
taken into the prisoner's dock. As soon as he had collected himself
sufficiently he recognised the magistrate as the old gentleman who had
spoken to him in the train on the day he was leaving school, and saw, or
thought he saw, to his great grief, that he too was recognised.
Mr Ottery, for this was our attorney's name, took the line he had
proposed. He called no other witnesses than the rector, Towneley and
myself, and threw himself on the mercy of the magistrate. When he had
concluded, the magistrate spoke as follows: "Ernest Pontifex, yours is
one of the most painful cases that I have ever had to deal with. You
have been singularly favoured in your parentage and education. You have
had before you the example of blameless parents, who doubtless instilled
into you from childhood the enormity of the offence which by your own
confession you have committed. You were sent to one of the best public
schools in England. It is not likely that in the healthy atmosphere of
such a school as Roughborough you can have come across contaminating
influences; you were probably, I may say certainly, impressed at school
with the heinousness of any attempt to depart from the strictest chastity
until such time as you had entered into a state of matrimony.
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