Were Yosef Mealyus really guilty and to be allowed to slip from their
hands, no doubt it might be very difficult to catch him. Facts
did not at present seem to prevail against him; but, as the Major
observed, facts are apt to alter considerably when they are minutely
sifted. His character was half sufficient to condemn him;--and then
with him there was an adequate motive, and what Lord Cantrip regarded
as "a possibility." It was not to be conceived that from mere rage
Phineas Finn would lay a plot for murdering a man in the street. "It
is on the cards, my lord," said the Major, "that he may have chosen
to attack Mr. Bonteen without intending to murder him. The murder may
afterwards have been an accident."
It was impossible after this for even a Prime Minister and two
Cabinet Ministers to go about their work calmly. The men concerned
had been too well known to them to allow their minds to become clear
of the subject. When Major Mackintosh went off to Bow Street with
Erle and Laurence, it was certainly the opinion of the majority of
those who had been present that the blow had been struck by the hand
of Phineas Finn.
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