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pen,pencil and poison-第5章

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admired school of Fleet Street leader…writers; and this school

JANUS WEATHERCOCK may be said to have invented。  He also saw that

it was quite easy by continued reiteration to make the public

interested in his own personality; and in his purely journalistic

articles this extraordinary young man tells the world what he had

for dinner; where he gets his clothes; what wines he likes; and in

what state of health he is; just as if he were writing weekly notes

for some popular newspaper of our own time。  This being the least

valuable side of his work; is the one that has had the most obvious

influence。  A publicist; nowadays; is a man who bores the community

with the details of the illegalities of his private life。



Like most artificial people; he had a great love of nature。  'I

hold three things in high estimation;' he says somewhere:  'to sit

lazily on an eminence that commands a rich prospect; to be shadowed

by thick trees while the sun shines around me; and to enjoy

solitude with the consciousness of neighbourhood。  The country

gives them all to me。'  He writes about his wandering over fragrant

furze and heath repeating Collins's 'Ode to Evening;' just to catch

the fine quality of the moment; about smothering his face 'in a

watery bed of cowslips; wet with May dews'; and about the pleasure

of seeing the sweet…breathed kine 'pass slowly homeward through the

twilight;' and hearing 'the distant clank of the sheep…bell。'  One

phrase of his; 'the polyanthus glowed in its cold bed of earth;

like a solitary picture of Giorgione on a dark oaken panel;' is

curiously characteristic of his temperament; and this passage is

rather pretty in its way:…





The short tender grass was covered with marguerites … 'such that

men called DAISIES in our town' … thick as stars on a summer's

night。  The harsh caw of the busy rooks came pleasantly mellowed

from a high dusky grove of elms at some distance off; and at

intervals was heard the voice of a boy scaring away the birds from

the newly…sown seeds。  The blue depths were the colour of the

darkest ultramarine; not a cloud streaked the calm aether; only

round the horizon's edge streamed a light; warm film of misty

vapour; against which the near village with its ancient stone

church showed sharply out with blinding whiteness。  I thought of

Wordsworth's 'Lines written in March。'





However; we must not forget that the cultivated young man who

penned these lines; and who was so susceptible to Wordsworthian

influences; was also; as I said at the beginning of this memoir;

one of the most subtle and secret poisoners of this or any age。

How he first became fascinated by this strange sin he does not tell

us; and the diary in which he carefully noted the results of his

terrible experiments and the methods that he adopted; has

unfortunately been lost to us。  Even in later days; too; he was

always reticent on the matter; and preferred to speak about 'The

Excursion;' and the 'Poems founded on the Affections。'  There is no

doubt; however; that the poison that he used was strychnine。  In

one of the beautiful rings of which he was so proud; and which

served to show off the fine modelling of his delicate ivory hands;

he used to carry crystals of the Indian NUX VOMICA; a poison; one

of his biographers tells us; 'nearly tasteless; difficult of

discovery; and capable of almost infinite dilution。'  His murders;

says De Quincey; were more than were ever made known judicially。

This is no doubt so; and some of them are worthy of mention。  His

first victim was his uncle; Mr。 Thomas Griffiths。  He poisoned him

in 1829 to gain possession of Linden House; a place to which he had

always been very much attached。  In the August of the next year he

poisoned Mrs。 Abercrombie; his wife's mother; and in the following

December he poisoned the lovely Helen Abercrombie; his sister…in…

law。  Why he murdered Mrs。 Abercrombie is not ascertained。  It may

have been for a caprice; or to quicken some hideous sense of power

that was in him; or because she suspected something; or for no

reason。  But the murder of Helen Abercrombie was carried out by

himself and his wife for the sake of a sum of about 18;000 pounds;

for which they had insured her life in various offices。  The

circumstances were as follows。  On the 12th of December; he and his

wife and child came up to London from Linden House; and took

lodgings at No。 12 Conduit Street; Regent Street。  With them were

the two sisters; Helen and Madeleine Abercrombie。  On the evening

of the 14th they all went to the play; and at supper that night

Helen sickened。  The next day she was extremely ill; and Dr。

Locock; of Hanover Square; was called in to attend her。  She lived

till Monday; the 20th; when; after the doctor's morning visit; Mr。

and Mrs。 Wainewright brought her some poisoned jelly; and then went

out for a walk。  When they returned Helen Abercrombie was dead。

She was about twenty years of age; a tall graceful girl with fair

hair。  A very charming red…chalk drawing of her by her brother…in…

law is still in existence; and shows how much his style as an

artist was influenced by Sir Thomas Lawrence; a painter for whose

work he had always entertained a great admiration。  De Quincey says

that Mrs。 Wainewright was not really privy to the murder。  Let us

hope that she was not。  Sin should be solitary; and have no

accomplices。



The insurance companies; suspecting the real facts of the case;

declined to pay the policy on the technical ground of

misrepresentation and want of interest; and; with curious courage;

the poisoner entered an action in the Court of Chancery against the

Imperial; it being agreed that one decision should govern all the

cases。  The trial; however; did not come on for five years; when;

after one disagreement; a verdict was ultimately given in the

companies' favour。  The judge on the occasion was Lord Abinger。

EGOMET BONMOT was represented by Mr。 Erle and Sir William Follet;

and the Attorney…General and Sir Frederick Pollock appeared for the

other side。  The plaintiff; unfortunately; was unable to be present

at either of the trials。  The refusal of the companies to give him

the 18;000 pounds had placed him in a position of most painful

pecuniary embarrassment。  Indeed; a few months after the murder of

Helen Abercrombie; he had been actually arrested for debt in the

streets of London while he was serenading the pretty daughter of

one of his friends。  This difficulty was got over at the time; but

shortly afterwards he thought it better to go abroad till he could

come to some practical arrangement with his creditors。  He

accordingly went to Boulogne on a visit to the father of the young

lady in question; and while he was there induced him to insure his

life with the Pelican Company for 3000 pounds。  As soon as the

necessary formalities had been gone through and the policy

executed; he dropped some crystals of strychnine into his coffee as

they sat together
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