The Trail of the Serpent · Chapter
VI: Two Coroner’s Inquests explained
The chapter describes the public excitement in Slopperton following the murder of Montague Harding, the coroner's inquest that leads to Richard Marwood being charged with the murder, and a second inquest for an unidentified drowned woman.
What happens
The chapter describes the public excitement in Slopperton following the murder of Montague Harding, the coroner's inquest that leads to Richard Marwood being charged with the murder, and a second inquest for an unidentified drowned woman. Richard is arrested and sent to gaol, while Jabez North reads about both inquests in the newspaper.
Themes in this chapter
Crime and Injustice
The murder of Montague Harding and the subsequent inquest that wrongfully charges Richard Marwood, highlighting the flaws in the justice system and public prejudice.
Social Class and Inequality
The contrast between the sensational interest in a murder in a 'respectable rank of life' versus the indifference toward the death of a poor drowned woman, whose body is buried in a parish burying-ground without recognition.
Urban Depravity and Poverty
The drowned woman, a 'wretched outcast' found in the Sloshy, represents the common, overlooked deaths of the poor in Slopperton's industrial slums.
Characters to notice
- Richard Marwood
Arrested and charged with the murder of Montague Harding; described as pale, bewildered, with dishevelled hair and slovenly costume.
- Joseph Peters
The scrub of the detective force of Gardenford; watches Richard throughout the inquest with a mouth very much on one side.
- Jabez North
Borrows the Saturday paper and reads the accounts of the two coroner's inquests with great interest.
- Montague Harding
The murdered Anglo-Indian; his body is examined at the inquest, throat cut and stabbed, cabinet ransacked.
- Mrs. Marwood
Richard's mother; expresses her surprise at his disappearance and reveals his unexpected return; later falls ill from anguish but insists on her son's innocence.
- Mr. Jinks
The detective on the platform at Gardenford station, ready to recognize Richard.
Key passages
“There had not been since the last general election... such excitement in Slopperton as there was on the discovery of the murder of Mr. Montague Harding.”
The murder of Montague Harding caused more public uproar in Slopperton than the recent general election.
Establishes the extraordinary public interest in the crime.
“The verdict of the coroner's jury was, as everyone expected it would be, to the effect that the deceased had been wilfully murdered by Richard Marwood his nephew; and poor Dick was removed immediately to the county gaol.”
The coroner's jury returned a verdict of willful murder against Richard Marwood, who was then taken to the county prison.
Confirms Richard's formal charge and imprisonment.
“One glance at that heap of wet, torn, and shabby garments... one half-shuddering, half-pitying look at the white face, blue lips, and damp loose auburn hair, and a merciful verdict—'Found drowned.'”
A quick, pitying look at the drowned woman's body led the jury to a merciful verdict of 'Found drowned.'
Highlights the perfunctory treatment of the poor woman's death.
“Our friend Jabez North, borrowing the Saturday's paper of his principal in the evening after school-hours, is very much interested in the accounts of these two coroner's inquests.”
Jabez North borrows the Saturday newspaper and reads the reports of both inquests with keen interest.
Foreshadows Jabez's possible involvement or curiosity about the events.
