Mellish was a trainer of athletes, and hence the witnesses to his
character were chiefly persons connected with sport; but they were
not the less worthy of credence on that account.
In fine, the charge would have been hard to believe even if
supported by the strongest evidence. But when there was no
evidence--when the police had failed to produce any of the
accessories of a prize-fight--when there were no ropes nor
posts--no written articles--no stakes nor stakeholders--no seconds
except the unfortunate man Mellish, whose mouth was closed by a law
which, in defiance of the obvious interests of justice, forbade a
prisoner to speak and clear himself--nothing, in fact, but the
fancies of constables who had, under cross-examination, not only
contradicted one another, but shown the most complete ignorance (a
highly creditable ignorance) of the nature and conditions of a
prize-fight; then counsel would venture to say confidently that the
theory of the prosecution, ingenious as it was, and ably as it had
been put forward, was absolutely and utterly untenable.
This, and much more argument of equal value, was delivered with
relish by a comparatively young barrister, whose spirits rose as he
felt the truth change and fade while he rearranged its attendant
circumstances. Cashel listened for some time anxiously. He flushed
and looked moody when his marriage was alluded to; but when the
whole defence was unrolled, he was awestruck, and stared at his
advocate as if he half feared that the earth would gape and swallow
such a reckless perverter of patent facts. Even the judge in the
city; and was eventually invited to represent a Dorsetshire
constituency in Parliament in the Radical interest. He was returned
by a large majority; and, having a loud voice and an easy manner, he
soon acquired some reputation both in and out of the House of
Commons by the popularity of his own views, and the extent of his
wife's information, which he retailed at second hand. He made his
maiden speech in the House unabashed the first night he sat there.
Indeed, he was afraid of nothing except burglars, big dogs, doctors,
dentists, and street-crossings. Whenever any accident occurred
through any of these he preserved the newspaper in which it was
reported, read it to Lydia very seriously, and repeated his favorite
assertion that the only place in which a man was safe was the ring.
As he objected to most field sports on the ground of inhumanity,
she, fearing that he would suffer in health and appearance from want
of systematic exercise, suggested that he should resume the practice
of boxing with gloves. But he was lazy in this matter, and had a
prejudice that boxing did not become a married man. His career as a
pugilist was closed by his marriage.