The Law and the Lady · Chapter
XX: The End of the Trial explained
The trial concludes with the Lord Advocate's prosecuting speech, the Dean of Faculty's defense, and the judge's charge.
What happens
The trial concludes with the Lord Advocate's prosecuting speech, the Dean of Faculty's defense, and the judge's charge. The jury returns a verdict of 'Not Proven,' leaving a slur on Eustace. Valeria, outraged by the prosecution, vows to clear her husband's name.
Themes in this chapter
Justice and Truth
The trial's verdict leaves Eustace under a cloud; Valeria sees the prosecution as perverting truth and vows to achieve real justice.
Secrets and Deception
The defense argues that the wife kept her arsenic use secret, a deception that led to the husband's peril.
Gender Roles and Agency
Valeria's reaction—tearing pages and vowing action—contrasts with the passive male jury; the defense highlights women's secret cosmetic practices.
Characters to notice
- Valeria
Narrates the trial's end, expresses outrage at the Lord Advocate, and vows to vindicate her husband.
- Eustace Macallan
The prisoner at the bar; described as grief-stricken and silent after the 'Not Proven' verdict.
- Miserrimus Dexter
Testifies as a witness; speaks slightingly of Mrs. Beauly and suggests private reasons for distrusting her.
- Mrs. Macallan
Mentioned as the deceased wife; described as charming but sensitive, with a poet's nature.
- Mrs. Beauly
Referenced in testimony; Miserrimus Dexter speaks of her rudely, implying distrust.
- Lord Advocate
Prosecuting lawyer; delivers a speech Valeria deems infamous, asserting Eustace's guilt and perverting his actions.
Key passages
“I do not scruple to say that I never read anything so infamous as this great lawyer's speech.”
Valeria declares the Lord Advocate's speech to be the most disgraceful she has ever encountered.
Expresses her outrage at the prosecution's tactics.
“The jury, thoroughly bewildered no doubt, took refuge in a compromise. They occupied an hour in considering and debating among themselves in their own room. (A jury of women would not have taken a minute!) Then they returned into court, and gave their timid and trimming Scotch Verdict in these words: 'Not Proven.'”
The confused jury compromised with a 'Not Proven' verdict after an hour, which Valeria criticizes as timid and contrasts with a hypothetical quicker female jury.
Highlights Valeria's disdain for the verdict and her gendered commentary.
“And there they would have remained for all time—but for me.”
Valeria asserts that the case would have been forgotten if not for her intervention.
Foreshadows her determination to clear Eustace's name.