308 KINGSCLERE 



Cheshire the substance of the letter written by Dr. Taylor 

 to Mr. Gardner on the previous day. Thereupon, on the 

 8th, Palmer writes to a poulterer at Stafford to have some 

 game ready for his messenger. Bate goes to the poulterer, 

 re-directs, and sends the game by a lad, and then finds his 

 way to the inn, where the coroner is smoking, calls him 

 out of the billiard-room, and privately gives him a letter, in 

 which, in reference to the evidence given at the inquest on 

 the previous day, he states when Cook was first taken ill, 

 discounts Fisher's forthcoming evidence, and contrasts 

 what Professor Taylor may say to-morrow with what he 

 has already said. As to the latter point, Palmer's words 

 were, ' Mind you, I know and saw it in black and white 

 what Taylor said to Gardner.' Eventually, while Palmer 

 was in Stafford Gaol, inquests were held on the bodies of 

 his wife and his brother Walter. In the first case, there 

 was no manner of doubt that she had been gradually 

 dosed to death by antimony. In that of the brother, the 

 analysis failed to detect any poison, a fact probably 

 accounted for by the length of time that had elapsed since 

 the death and the action of the lead coffin, if prussic acid 

 was the poison used. In both cases, however, verdicts of 

 wilful murder against Palmer were returned. 



The trial for the murder of Cook, as has been stated, 

 filled a period of twelve days. Lord Campbell's charge 

 occupied the whole of the eleventh, and until the afternoon 

 of the twelfth day. The jury retired at 2.20, and at 3.45 

 returned a verdict of guilty, and Lord Campbell passed 

 sentence of death, to be carried out at Stafford Gaol. The 

 prisoner heard the sentence unmoved. Even at the close of 

 the Lord Chief Justice's summing up, which was felt to be 

 adverse, Palmer retained his confidence, and is said to have 

 thrown over to his counsel a paper, on which he had written, 

 1 I think there will be a verdict of Not Guilty.' Sir Douglas 

 Straight remembers as a boy being present at most of the 

 trial of William Palmer, and recalls ' the florid, portly form 

 of the prisoner, the keen, searching eye with which he 

 watched the witnesses and counsel, the cool, calm way in 

 which he wrote slips for the instruction of his solicitor and 

 counsel, the interest and attention with which he watched 

 Lord Campbell's summing up.' Young as I was, Sir 

 Alexander Cockburn's reply for the prosecution made a 

 deep impression on me, and well might the convict say, ' it 



