As
passengers, there was a Colonel Jeffery, and a Mr. Thornhill, whose
death is the motive of the present proceedings. There was likewise a
large dog named Hector on board the vessel, which was very much attached
to Mr. Thornhill. "Now, gentlemen of the jury, it had so happened that Francis Thornhill
had been commissioned, during the progress of a wreck at sea by a young
gentleman named Mark Ingestrie, to take a certain String of Oriental
Pearls, valued at somewhere about sixteen thousand pounds sterling, to a
young lady in London, named Johanna Oakley; and this Francis Thornhill,
fully believing that Mark Ingestrie had perished at sea, was most
anxious to fulfil his request regarding this valuable and important
String of Pearls. "As early as possible he landed from the ship, taking the String of
Pearls with him, and his faithful dog Hector accompanied him on shore." At this moment, Hector, who was in court, having for the second time
heard his name mentioned, began to think probably that something was
going on concerning him, and he set up a loud bark of defiance. The effect of this was greatly to interest some of the auditory, while
it brought a smile to the faces of others. Todd turned deadly pale, and
in a voice of alarm, he cried--

"Keep off the dog--keep off the dog, I say!" "Bow!--wow!--wow!" barked Hector again. "That dog," said the judge, "must be immediately removed from the court. Officers, see to it." "I beg, my lord," said the Attorney-General, "that you will allow him to
remain, for I assure your lordship that he is a witness in this most
important case." "A witness?" "Yes, my lord; I speak advisedly, and as a favour I hope your lordship
will permit him to remain." "Will anybody keep him quiet?" "Oh, yes, your worship," cried the ostler. "I'll keep Pison like a mouse
as has fainted clean away." "Who is that man, and what does he say?" said the judge. "My lord," said the Attorney-General, "he says he can keep the dog quite
quiet if you will allow him to remain." "Oh, very well. Pray proceed, Mr. Attorney." The Attorney-General then resumed. "With the String of Pearls then, and the dog, which the jury have seen,
Mr. Francis Thornhill went into the City to fulfil the request of Mark
Ingestrie. The address he had was to Mr. Oakley, a spectacle-maker in
the City, with whom Miss Oakley, who was to have the String of Pearls,
resided. "Gentlemen of the jury, neither Francis Thornhill nor the String of
Pearls ever reach their destination. It appears that on his route,
Thornhill went into the shop of the prisoner at the bar to be shaved,
and no one ever saw him come out again. The dog though was found sitting
at the door of the shop, and when Todd opened his shop-door, the dog
rushed in and brought out his master's hat. "Gentlemen, the captain of the ship and Colonel Jeffery, both became
very anxious concerning the fate of Mr. Thornhill, and they made every
inquiry. They questioned the prisoner at the bar, who at once admitted
that he had shaved him, but stated that he had left his shop when that
operation was over. The captain of the Star was compelled to go to
Bristol with his ship, but Colonel Jeffery, in conjunction with a
friend, pressed his inquiries about Mr. Thornhill without success. The
matter appeared to be involved in the most profound mystery, and the
only hope of an elucidation of it, consisted in the probability that
such a valuable piece of property as the String of Pearls would be sure
to turn up some day in some one's possession. Gentlemen, it did so turn
up. It appeared that at Hammersmith resided a Mr. John Mundell, who lent
money upon securities, and it will be deposed in evidence, that one
evening the prisoner at the bar, magnificently attired, and in a
handsome coach, went to this Mr. Mundell, and pawned a string of pearls
for some thousands of pounds. "It is to be regretted that this Mundell cannot be brought before the
jury. He is dead, gentlemen; but a confidential clerk of his, who saw
the prisoner at the bar, will depose to the facts. "We thus then, gentlemen of the jury, commit the prisoner with the
disappearance of Thornhill, and now we come to the strongest features of
this most remarkable case. "It appears that for a considerable time past, the church of St.
Dunstan's had become insufferable from a peculiar stench with which the
whole of that sacred edifice appeared to be constantly filled, and it
baffled all the authorities to account for it. "No one had been entombed in any of the vaults beneath the church for a
considerable time, and in fact, there was no apparent reason for the
frightful miasmatic odour that upon all occasions filled the edifice,
and day by day got worse instead of better. Scientific men, gentlemen of
the jury, were consulted with regard to this stench in the church, and
various very learned theories were broached upon the subject; but no one
thought of making an accurate examination of the vaults beneath the
church, until Sir Richard Blunt, the well-known magistrate, privately
undertook it. "Gentlemen, Sir Richard Blunt found that almost every vault was full of
the fresh remains of the dead. He found that into old coffins, the
tenants of which had mouldered to dust, there had been thrust fresh
bodies with scarcely any flesh remaining upon them, but yet sufficient
to produce the stench in the church, by the effluvia arising from them,
and finding its way into the pews. In one vault, too, was found the
contents of which were too horrid for description; suffice it that it
contained what butchers, when speaking of slaughtered animals, call the
offal. The stench in St. Dunstan's Church was no longer a mystery. "Well, gentlemen of the jury, Sir Richard Blunt persevered in his
investigations, and found that there was an underground connection from
exactly beneath the shaving shop of the prisoner at the bar, and the
cellarage of a house in Bell Yard, Temple-bar, which was his property;
and which was in the occupation of a female, named Lovett, who this day
would have stood at the bar by the side of the prisoner, had she not,
despite every vigilance used to prevent such an act, succeeded in
poisoning herself, while in prison in Newgate. "Gentlemen of the jury, it will be shown in evidence that the way the
larger portion of the flesh of Todd's victims was got rid of was by
converting it into meat and pork pies upon the premises of Mrs. Lovett. "Beneath Todd's shop was found a diabolical contrivance, by which he
could make any one he pleased fall through the floor upon the chair they
sat on to be shaved, while an empty chair, in all respects similar, took
the place of the one that had been occupied by the unfortunate victim. If the unhappy man, thus betrayed in a moment of confidence, was not
killed by the fall, he would, at all events, be sufficiently stunned to
become an easy prey to Sweeney Todd, when he chose to go down and
despatch him.