They Hanged My Saintly Billy (21 page)
'Poor
Walter
Palmer;
died
of
an
apoplexy.
A
fine
funeral
it was,
too.
His
brother
William
didn't
stint
us
of
drink.'
Dr
Waddell,
terribly
shocked,
exclaimed
in
the
hearing
of
the stationmaster
and
porters:
'I'll
let
the
Assurance
Office
know
of this
affair.'
The
Doctor
must
have
suspected
foul
play.
It
was
his
letter
to The
Prince
of
Wales
that
first
prompted
them
to
contest
the claim,
although
Dr
Day
had
obligingly
certified
apoplexy
as
the cause
of
Walter's
death.
Chapter XII
A
GENTLEMAN
OF
PROPERTY
I
NSPECTOR
SIMPSON
continued
to
unfold
the
story. He
described
how
Dr
Palmer
sent
Pratt,
his
London
agent,
the death
certificate
and
other
documents
which
would
enable
him
to claim
the
fourteen
thousand
pounds
insurance
money;
but
also how
Dr
Waddell's
letter,
informing
The
Prince
of
Wales's managers
that
Walter
was
a
brother
of
William
Palmer—whom they
had
recently
paid
a
similar
sum
upon
the
death
of
his
wife— and
that
Walter's
death
might
well
have
been
brought
about
by wilful
negligence,
alarmed
them
into
with
holding
payment.
They referred
Pratt
to
their
solicitors.
Dr
Palmer,
dreadfully
pressed
for
money,
did
not
know
which way
to
turn.
In
May,
he
had
entered
Nettle,
his
Sweetmeat
filly, for
the
Oaks
and
engaged
Charley
Marlow
as
her
jockey.
Mar
low,
as
I
mentioned
just
now,
had
won
a
victory
for
the
all-yellow colours
at
Wolverhampton
on
Morning
Star,
coaxing
a
fine
performance
out
of
that
lazy
beast,
which
had
never
won
a
race before,
nor
was
ever
likely
to
win
one
again.
Palmer
laid
so heavily
on
Nettle
for
the
Oaks
that
she
started
as
a
raging
favour
ite,
at
odds
of
two
to
one.
It
happened
that
on
the
previous
night
an
old
Yorkshire
trainer had
told
Marlow:
'Hoi's
noa
going
to
win
Oaks,
and
whoi? 'Cause
hoi
poison'd
woife!'
Charley
Marlow,
very
angry,
appealed
to
Will
Saunders
the trainer,
who
was
present.
'This
is
a
pretty
serious
slander,
Mr Saunders,'
he
said.
'You
come
from
that
part
of
the
country,
and you
train
for
Dr
Palmer;
what
do
you
know
of
the
matter?'
'It's
none
of
my
business,'
Saunders
replied
sourly,
'if
the
little boys
of
Rugeley
say
that
Billy
Palmer
poisoned
his
wife.
I
don't.'
Whether
or
not
th
e
suspicion
th
us
implanted
in
Marlow's
mind affected
his
horsemanship,
who
can
tell?
At
all
events,
Nettle
was lying
second
and
Marlow
had
not
yet
called
on
her
for
the
final effort,
of
which
he
believed
her
well
capable,
when
suddenly
she
swerved,
fell
over
the
chains
near
the
New
Mile
post,
threw
him heavily,
and
galloped
away
into
the
furze
bushes.
Marlow's
thigh was
broken
and,
while
being
carried
off
the
course,
he
exclaimed between
groans:
'It
served
me
right!
What
business
had
I
to
ride a
damned
poisoner's
horse?'
Condoled
with
by
George
Myatt
on
his
loss
of
the
race,
Dr Palmer
said
no
more
than:
'It
is
rather
a
bore,
though,
isn't
it?' His
losses
must
have
been
very
serious,
since
he
had
stood
to
win no
less
than
ten
thousand
pounds.
The
Prince
of
Wales's
refusal
to
pay
the
insurance
money
came as
a
thunderbolt.
He
considered
himself
cheated
by
Walter,
on whom
he
had
spent
a
considerable
sum—not
only
the
seven hundred
pound
premium,
but
also
sixty
pounds
in
cash,
and
bills owing
to
the
innkeeper
for
nineteen
gallons
of
gin
and
a
quantity of
odicr
liquor
consumed
at
Castle
Terrace.
He
therefore
applied to
Agnes
Palmer,
who
was
staying
with
friends
at
Great
Malvern, for
the
payment
of
certain
debts
which
her
husband
(he
said)
had left
unsettled.
The
following
exchange
of
letters
between
Dr
Palmer
and
his sister-in-law
has
since
been
published:
Rugeley, Sept.
27th, 1855
Dear
Agnes,
I
hope
the
change
of
air
and
scenery
has,
by
this
time,
done
you good,
and
that
you
are
more
quiet
and
reconciled
than,
when
I
communicated
to
you
the
painful,
the
sorrowful,
news
of
dear
Walter's death.
Ah,
poor
fellow,
I
often
think
of
him
and
only
wish
I
could now
do
for
him
what
I
did
while
he
was
alive;
and,
I
assure
you,
I
did a
very
great
deal
for
him—perhaps
a
great
deal
more
than
you
are aware
of.
