It is the natural assumption when the police and magistrates and
lawyers, who have been at work upon the matter carefully, have come
to that conclusion, and nothing but private knowledge or personal
affection will stand against such evidence. At Tankerville there was
nothing of either, and our hero's guilt was taken as a certainty.
There was an interest felt in the whole matter which was full of
excitement, and not altogether without delight to the Tankervillians.
Of course the borough, as a borough, would never again hold up its
head. There had never been known such an occurrence in the whole
history of this country as the hanging of a member of the House of
Commons. And this Member of Parliament was to be hung for murdering
another member, which, no doubt, added much to the importance of the
transaction. A large party in the borough declared that it was a
judgment. Tankerville had degraded itself among boroughs by sending
a Roman Catholic to Parliament, and had done so at the very moment
in which the Church of England was being brought into danger.
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