Stringfellow, the attorney for Colonel Le Noir, evidently thought
that in this rash, reckless, spirited witness he had a fine subject
for sarcastic cross-examination! But he reckoned "without his host."
He did not know Cap! He, too, "caught a Tartar." And before the
cross-examination was concluded, Capitola's apt and cutting replies
had overwhelmed him with ridicule and confusion, and done more for
the cause of her friend than all her partisans put together!
Other witnesses were called, to corroborate the testimony of
Capitola, and still others were examined to prove the last expressed
wishes of the late William Day, in regard to the disposal of his
daughter's person during the period of her minority.
There was no effective rebutting evidence, and after some hard
arguing by the attorneys on both sides, the case was closed, and the
judge deferred his decision until the third day thereafter.
The parties then left the court and returned to their several
lodgings.
Old Hurricane gave no one a civil word that day. Wool was an
atrocious villain, an incendiary scoundrel, a cut-throat, and a
black demon. Cap was a beggar, a vagabond and a vixen. Herbert
Greyson was another beggar, besides being a knave, a fop and an
impudent puppy. The inn-keeper was a swindler, the waiters thieves,
the whole world was going to ruin, where it well deserved to go, and
all mankind to the demon--as he hoped and trusted they would!
And all this tornado of passion and invective arose just because he
had unexpectedly met in the court-room the purient face and
beseeching eyes of a woman, married and forsaken, loved and lost,
long ago!
Was it strange that Herbert, who had so resented his treatment of
Marah Rocke, should bear all his fury, injustice and abuse of
himself and others with such compassionate forbearance? But he not
only forbore to resent his own affronts, but so besought Capitola to
have patience with the old man's temper and apologised to the host
by saying that Major Warfield had been very severely tried that day,
and when calmer would be the first to regret the violence of his own
words.
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