Such a view of the law made Sarah Althea the magistrate
at Stockton on the 14th of August, and Justice Swain her obsequious
amanuensis. Such a view of the law would enable any convict who had
just served a term in the penitentiary to treat himself to the luxury
of dragging to jail the judge who sentenced him, and keeping him
there without bail as long as the magistrate acting for him could be
induced to delay the examination.
The arrest of Justice Field was an attempt to kidnap him for a foul
purpose, and if the United States circuit judge had not released him
he would have been the victim of as arbitrary and tyrannical treatment
as is ever meted out in Russia to the most dangerous of nihilists,
to punish him for having narrowly escaped assassination by no act or
effort of his own.
CHAPTER XVIII.
HABEAS CORPUS PROCEEDINGS IN NEAGLE'S CASE.
This narrative would not be complete without a statement of the
proceedings in the United States Circuit Court, and in the United
States Supreme Court on appeal, in the _habeas corpus_ proceedings in
the case of Neagle, the deputy marshal, whose courageous devotion to
his official duties had saved the life of Justice Field at the expense
of that of his would-be assassin. We have already seen that Neagle,
being in the custody of the sheriff of San Joaquin county, upon a
charge of murder in the shooting of Judge Terry, had presented a
petition to the United States Circuit Court for a writ of _habeas
corpus_ to the end that he might thereby be restored to his liberty.
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