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noun
Inquest  n.  
1.
Inquiry; quest; search. (R.) "The laborious and vexatious inquest that the soul must make after science."
2.
(Law)
(a)
Judicial inquiry; official examination, esp. before a jury; as, a coroner's inquest in case of a sudden death.
(b)
A body of men assembled under authority of law to inquire into any matter, civil or criminal, particularly any case of violent or sudden death; a jury, particularly a coroner's jury. The grand jury is sometimes called the grand inquest. See under Grand.
(c)
The finding of the jury upon such inquiry.
Coroner's inquest, an inquest held by a coroner to determine the cause of any violent, sudden, or mysterious death. See Coroner.
Inquest of office, an inquiry made, by authority or direction of proper officer, into matters affecting the rights and interests of the crown or of the state.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Inquest" Quotes from Famous Books



... he heard wild rushing through the sky, the tramping of a thousand hoofs, a roaring of the wind, the joy of that free, torrential passage with the Earth. He turned the handle and entered the cozy room where weeks before they held the inquest on the little empty tenement of flesh, remembering how that other figure had once stood where he now stood—part of the sunrise, part of the sea, ...
— The Centaur • Algernon Blackwood

... It has been comparatively humanized by modern influences, but nothing can change the bent of its genius. With privilege vested interests of all sorts enter into ready fellowship. All those good citizens who have reason to suspect that if a public inquest sat upon them the verdict would not be favourable hasten to edge themselves in as closely as possible towards the privileged circle. The village rector, who does his duty with all the conscientiousness of a ...
— The Contemporary Review, January 1883 - Vol 43, No. 1 • Various

... absolutely refuses to answer, or in an impertinent manner delay or trifle with the court, then he is deemed a mute; but if he speaks not at all, nor gives any sign by which the Court shall be satisfied that he is able to speak, then an inquest of officers, that is of twelve persons who happen to be by, are to enquire whether his standing mute arises from his contempt of the Court, or be really an infirmity under which he labours from the hands of God. If it be found the latter, then the Court, ...
— Lives Of The Most Remarkable Criminals Who have been Condemned and Executed for Murder, the Highway, Housebreaking, Street Robberies, Coining or other offences • Arthur L. Hayward

... comprehend the nature of his physician's language, and after a few minutes pause he must needs enquire about the weather? if a coroner's inquest has been held over the dead men? what was its decision? was there any decision at all? and have they been buried? Satisfied on all these points, he gets up, himself again, complaining only of a little muddled giddiness about the head, and a hip so sore that he ...
— Our World, or, The Slaveholders Daughter • F. Colburn Adams

... later, the train arrived, bringing the coroner, and as quickly as possible the inquest was held. Very few facts were developed beyond those already learned by Houston, excepting the extent of Morgan's losses. These included not only everything which he had possessed, even to his watch and a few pieces of jewelry, but in addition, ...
— The Award of Justice - Told in the Rockies • A. Maynard Barbour

... terrible risk of the surgeon carrying infection from one case to another, that made the coroner of London declare, barely sixty years ago, that he would hold an inquest upon the next case of death after ovariotomy that was reported to him, on account of the fearful pus-mortality that followed this serious operation, which now has a possible death-rate from all causes connected with the operation of only a ...
— Preventable Diseases • Woods Hutchinson

... soil, and although originated and systematized by Norman lawyers, contained elements which would have worked in a very different way in Normandy. Even the vestiges of Carlovingian practice which appear in the inquests of the Norman reigns are modified by English usage. The great inquest of all, the Domesday survey, may owe its principle to a foreign source; the oath of the reporters may be Norman, but the machinery that furnishes the jurors is native; "the king's barons inquire by the oath of the sheriff ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 5 • Various

... into the Charente and making an end then and there; but as he came down the steps from Beaulieu for the last time, he heard the whole town talking of his suicide; he saw the horrid sight of a drowned dead body, and thought of the recognition and the inquest; and, like some other suicides, felt that ...
— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac

... an inquest held on Richard Manford at Market Drayton yesterday, that he was over eighty years of age, and had for the greater part of his life dwelt in a cave near Hawkstone. He was ...
— Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe • Sabine Baring-Gould

... it, do you, Peaches?" Racey inquired genially of Peaches Austin when he found himself neighbours with that slippery gentleman at the inquest. ...
— The Heart of the Range • William Patterson White

... story, had been the case. And now, she supposed, as Marcia had actually been so foolish, so headstrong, as to go herself—without permission either from her mother or her betrothed—to see these two people at the farm, the very day before this horrible thing happened, she might have to appear at the inquest. Most ...
— The Coryston Family • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... "The grand inquest of the United States of America for the Virginia District upon their oath do present that Aaron Burr, late of the city of New York, and State of New York, attorney-at-law, being an inhabitant of and residing within ...
— Lewis Rand • Mary Johnston

... too much: I have but one choice left: It will be best for me to 'scape by death, By self-inflicted death, this dangerous inquest. I save my honor thus; and free myself From an opprobrious end. I hither came To give thee my last warning: and to take My last farewell... Oh, live; and may thy fame Live with thee, unimpeached! All thoughts of pity For me now lay aside; if I'm allowed By my own hand, for ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 1 • Charles Dudley Warner

... of the poison, and could describe to me or to you just how she administrated it in a glass of barley water. Old Harry knew all about it, he knew all about everything, but he favoured Edith and he never budged a word. Clever old chap was Harry, and nothing came out against Edie at the inquest—nor the trial either." "Was ...
— The Best British Short Stories of 1922 • Edward J. O'Brien and John Cournos, editors

... agonizing tone he cried to God to save him; then a huge wave, more mighty than its fellows, engulfed him, and he sank in life to rise no more. A few days after his corpse was found floating upon the water. "Accidentally drowned" was the verdict at the inquest, and he was buried in a nameless grave, with no loved one or friend to drop a tear on his ...
— From Wealth to Poverty • Austin Potter

... speaking thus. But, in truth, as my eyes wandered from one of the group to another, I saw in Hollingsworth all that an artist could desire for the grim portrait of a Puritan magistrate holding inquest of life and death in a case of witchcraft; in Zenobia, the sorceress herself, not aged, wrinkled, and decrepit, but fair enough to tempt Satan with a force reciprocal to his own; and, in Priscilla, the pale victim, whose soul and body had been ...
— The Blithedale Romance • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... The coroner's inquest, at Maryville, was attended by swarms, who hoped to get from the testimony some clew to the whereabouts of the mine. But many did not wait for that. Before the assayer's report had been received there were prospectors hurrying into the Esmeraldas ...
— Louisiana Lou • William West Winter

... constable!" the devil pounces upon the unworthy officer and carries him off to hell.[185] Thirdly, even when at their best and conducted by upright judges and officers, the modes of proof in force in the courts Christian were sometimes utterly inadequate as means for getting at the truth. The inquest, or trial by jury, had never been introduced into these courts, where the archaic system ...
— The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial Aspects • Sedley Lynch Ware

... the Guardian reporter, 'is felt in Bartonbury with Mrs. Morrison, whose character has always been highly respected. But, indeed, the whole family occupied a high position, and the shock to the locality has been great.' On which followed particulars of the frauds and a long report of the inquest. ...
— Fenwick's Career • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... letters to her in the parish—it was remarked at the time. I was thinking if something relating to her address might not be found in the report of the inquest in the Casterbridge Chronicle of the date. Some facts about the inquest were given in ...
— Desperate Remedies • Thomas Hardy

... the bodies. Early interment was necessary; and a few hours after the inquest was concluded, mother and child were ...
— International Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science, Vol. 1, - No. 3, Oct. 1, 1850 • Various

... went right, then, there would be a coroner's inquest to-morrow upon what remained of that gentleman, found suspended to the branch of a tree somewhere within a mile of the Apollinean Institute. The "Weekly Universe" would have a startling paragraph announcing a "SAD EVENT!!!" which had "thrown the town into an intense state of excitement. ...
— Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 39, January, 1861 • Various

... "The inquest says drowning or blows on the head administered by a party or parties unknown," he answered gravely. "John Chalmers, the husband, acts like a heeled snake—violent and sinuous by turns. His lawyer has waived all preliminary proceedings ...
— The Blue Wall - A Story of Strangeness and Struggle • Richard Washburn Child

... value of my services. Whatever his natural parts may be, I cannot recognize in his few and idle years the competence to judge of my long and laborious life. If I can help it, he shall not be on the inquest of my quantum meruit. Poor rich man! he can hardly know anything of public industry in its exertions, or can estimate its compensations when its work is done. I have no doubt of his Grace's readiness ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. V. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... alone, lying on the ground with his face downwards. He was desperately wounded in the thigh, and was taken back to Liverpool as quickly as possible. He lingered until the following Sunday, when he died. Mr. Sparling and Captain Colquitt were, at the coroner's inquest, found guilty of murder, and were tried at Lancaster, on the 4th of April, before Sir Alan Chambre. Sergeant Cockle, Attorney-General for the County Palatine of Lancaster, led for the crown; with him were Messrs. Clark ...
— Recollections of Old Liverpool • A Nonagenarian

... called in, and every effort made to save the unfortunate victim of intemperance; but medical skill was inadequate to arrest the work of many years of excess, and before daylight the wretched man expired in dreadful convulsions. Coroner Boutwell held an inquest on the body, and the verdict rendered was 'Death from mania a potu.' Mr. Carlyle was well known in this city, where for many years he was an ornament to society, and a general favorite in the fashionable and mercantile circle in which he moved. ...
— Vashti - or, Until Death Us Do Part • Augusta J. Evans Wilson

... A coroner's inquest was held on the body, the verdict of which was, "that deceased had died from injuries inflicted by persons unknown;" but public feeling seemed to point to Mr. Bentley, the proprietor of the Eureka Hotel; who, together ...
— The Eureka Stockade • Carboni Raffaello

... of Chamonix, and bearing on his shoulders a very lugubrious burden. It was a sack filled with human remains which he had gathered from the orifice of a crevice in the Glacier des Bossons. He conjectured that these were remains of the victims of the catastrophe of 1820, and a minute inquest, immediately instituted by the local authorities, soon demonstrated the correctness of his supposition. The contents of the sack were spread upon a long table, ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... traders of the coast who may not return immediately to the U States or if they should, might probably spend the next summer in trading with the natives before they would set out on their return. this evening Drewyer went inquest of his traps, and took an Otter. Joseph Fields killed an Elk.- The Indians repeated to us the names of eighteen distinct tribes residing on the S. E. coast who spoke the Killamucks language, and beyound ...
— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al

... wanted to give my testimony at the inquest, do you suppose?" Morgan inquired. "I was here when it happened; ...
— Trail's End • George W. Ogden

... can always get a body in London if you know where to go for it. I fetched it back in a trunk on the top of a four-wheeler, and I had to be assisted upstairs to my room. You see I had to pile up some evidence for the inquest. I went to bed and got my man to mix me a sleeping-draught, and then told him to clear out. He wanted to fetch a doctor, but I swore some and said I couldn't abide leeches. When I was left alone I started in to fake up that corpse. He was my size, and I judged had perished ...
— The Thirty-nine Steps • John Buchan

... course a very important witness, and he told how the man upon whose body the inquest was being held had undoubtedly died of an excessive dose of hydrocyanic acid, of which poison there was, naturally enough, a bottle in the doctor's surgery; but how it had been administered, whether by accident, purposely, or with suicidal intent, it was impossible to say; and apparently ...
— The Bag of Diamonds • George Manville Fenn

... threatened; if liberty of speech and action have been periled; if the dignity and duty of office have been yielded to the unreasonable demands of political agents, and the commands of a misinformed Executive,—the Inquest of public opinion is to sit upon the whole transaction, and it will be held up to the world. Proximus ardet Ucalegon! There are revolutions in the wheel of fortune. There are tides in the affairs ...
— Report of the Proceedings at the Examination of Charles G. Davis, Esq., on the Charge of Aiding and Abetting in the Rescue of a Fugitive Slave • Various

... has not been known to fight without her sanction, and the inference is—'Alas! woe! Fair Amy is doomed to be the fighting captain's bride to the end of the chapter. Adder says she looked handsome. A dinner-party suits her cosmetic complexion better than a ball. The account of the inquest is in the day's papers, and we were tolerably rejoiced we could drive out of London without having to reply ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... used was "knew" or "know." The distinction is obvious; but looking to the other evidence on the point, it is not of much importance. Mr. Alderman Fisher, a friend of Mr. Blandy and one of the jury summoned upon the inquest, came to the Angel and persuaded the fugitive to return. Though the distance was inconsiderable, Mr. Fisher had to convey her in a "close" post-chaise "to preserve her from the resentment of the populace." Welcomed home ...
— Trial of Mary Blandy • William Roughead

... would be an acceptable visitor to the widow; but Mr. Courtland knew better. He hurried away to town without even asking to see her. He only begged of Mr. Ayrton to let him know if he could be of any use in town—there were details—ghastly; but he would take care that there was no inquest. ...
— Phyllis of Philistia • Frank Frankfort Moore

... very silent man: he took some notes after this, but he seemed anxious to make the next train back to town. He set the inquest for the following Saturday, gave Mr. Jamieson, the younger of the two detectives, and the more intelligent looking, a few instructions, and, after gravely shaking hands with me and regretting the unfortunate affair, took his departure, accompanied ...
— The Circular Staircase • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... stride, Her blood-nursed vulture screaming at her side. Her priestly train the tools of torment brings. Racks, wheels and crosses, faggots, stakes and strings; Scaffolds and cages round her altar stand, And, tipt with sulphur, waves her flaming brand. Her imps of inquest round the Fiend advance, Suspectors grave, and spies with eye askance, Pretended heretics who worm the soul, And sly confessors with their secret scroll, Accusers hired, for each conviction paid, Judges ...
— The Columbiad • Joel Barlow

... letters, is Zerbino chained. For before yet the skies illuminated are, The wrongful execution is ordained; And in the place will he be quartered, where The deed was done for which he is arraigned. No other inquest is on this received; It is enough that ...
— Orlando Furioso • Lodovico Ariosto

... contrary; I am perfectly sure the pill had nothing whatever to do with it—the inquest made it quite clear that it was really the liniment. But don't you see, ALINE, what tortures me night and day is the thought that it might unconsciously have been the pill which——Never to be free from that! To have such a thought gnawing ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, March 11, 1893 • Various

... trial was growing up, which, although it was not made use of in these cases /4/ for a good while, must have tended to diminish the estimate set on the witness oath by contrast. This was the beginning of our trial by jury. It was at first an inquest of the neighbors [263] most likely to know about a disputed matter of fact. They spoke from their own knowledge, but they were selected by an officer of the court instead of by the interested party, and were intended to be impartial. /1/ Soon ...
— The Common Law • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

... Tingley, of Campbell County, began the formal inquest in the famous case, on Tuesday Feb. 11. E. G. Lohmeyer, a jeweler; A. J. Mosset, a steamboat agent; W. C. Botts, a coal dealer; John Link, ex-Chief of the Fire Department; Michael Donelan, a shoe-manufacturer, and F. A. Autenheimer, a retired steamboat Captain, ...
— The Mysterious Murder of Pearl Bryan - or: the Headless Horror. • Unknown

... going up there in streams to see where the work was done. The coroner's inquest was held yesterday." He grinned. "'Parties came to their death by ...
— Cavanaugh: Forest Ranger - A Romance of the Mountain West • Hamlin Garland

... and when I asked particulars of those who, on one occasion, brought the tale, the reply was, "Oh, he was murdered I expect; or maybe he died of the canal fever; but they say he had marks of being throttled." No inquest was summoned; and certainly no more sensation was produced by the occurrence than if a sheep had been ...
— Domestic Manners of the Americans • Fanny Trollope

... a post-mortem examination, and an inquest, of course; and Mannering, who felt deep professional interest, asked a friend from Plymouth to conduct the examination. Their report astounded all concerned and crowned the mystery, for not a trace of any physical trouble could be discovered to explain Nurse ...
— The Grey Room • Eden Phillpotts

... Congress or one already established by the State shall be adopted for the occasion, is a matter of legislative discretion.[327] The estimate of just compensation is not required to be made by a jury, but may be entrusted to commissioners appointed by a court or by the executive, or to an inquest consisting of more or fewer men than an ordinary jury.[328] The federal courts may take jurisdiction of an action in ejectment by a citizen against officers of the Government, to recover property of which he has been ...
— The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation • Edward Corwin

... although he certainly did not need money, he seemed glad of an object for a good ramble. He parted with his family in the best of health and spirits, and wrote to them from time to time; but a week ago they heard the news that he had died suddenly at an inn on the Merran. There was, of course, an inquest and an autopsy. Dr. Miles Gordon, the Wentworths' consulting physician, was telegraphed for, and was present at the post-mortem examination. He is absolutely puzzled to account for the death. The medical examination showed Wentworth to be in apparently ...
— A Master of Mysteries • L. T. Meade

... case which so sharply illustrated the liability of goodish practical understanding to miss, to fail in seeing, an object lying right before the eyes; and that is more wonderful in cases where the object is not one of multitude, but exists almost in a state of insulation. At the coroner's inquest on a young woman who died from tight-lacing, acting, it was said, in combination with a very full meal of animal food, to throw the heart out of position, Mr. Wakely pronounced English or British people all distorted in the spine, whereas Continental ...
— The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 (2 vols) • Thomas De Quincey

... at ten by the clock the coroner with his jury held inquest over the body of Asa Levens, and over that body Jed Briggs and Lindy, his wife, told their story under oath to ears that credited the truth of their words because they knew the man of whom those words were spoken. The jury deliberated ...
— Scattergood Baines • Clarence Budington Kelland

... only foul play, and not the cesspool and the curse of Rabshakeh? Go through Bermondsey or Spitalfields, St. Giles's or Lambeth, and see if there is not foul play enough already—to be tried hereafter at a more awful coroner's inquest than thou ...
— Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet • Rev. Charles Kingsley et al

... happened at the Hall: the old house-keeper, Mrs. Quarles, had been found dead in her bed, under circumstances, to say the very least, of a black and suspicious appearance. The county coroner had got a jury of the neighbours impanelled together; who, after sitting patiently on the inquest, and hearing, as well as seeing, the following evidence, could arrive at no verdict more specific than the obvious fact, that the poor old creature had been "found dead." The great question lay between apoplexy and murder; and the evidence ...
— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper

... not pulled down! I wonder who'll be condemned at the Inquest. Shouldn't be surprised if it were the War-Office ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99., November 29, 1890 • Various

... of something solid in his jug, and instead of holding his peace he held a post-mortem examination and essayed to prove by some Darwinian process of reasoning that the opaque thing was more apish than orthodox! Prior to the date of this inquest, however, people had grown so habituated to the soup that they could not give it up if they would. They went on dutifully consuming it—just as everybody still does his beer, the recent poisoning revelations notwithstanding. They ate all they could get of it; it was in truth ...
— The Siege of Kimberley • T. Phelan

... or in prison, or from causes unknown. He receives notice of the death; a jury is summoned; witnesses testify; and the jury renders a verdict in writing, stating the cause and the manner of the death. This inquiry is known as the coroner's inquest. In some States when the office of sheriff is vacant, the ...
— Elements of Civil Government • Alexander L. Peterman

... the newspapers for relief; an inquest probed causes and guilt and prevention; mass—meetings were held; the rich and the powerful forgot position and remembered their common humanity; and the philanthropic societies set to work with money, with doctors and nurses and visitors. The head of one huge association ...
— The Nine-Tenths • James Oppenheim

... to afford an illustration of Christian Science as a thing in being, we reproduce without comment the following report of an inquest, as published in the Tribune, on January ...
— Problems of Immanence - Studies Critical and Constructive • J. Warschauer

... way, did not relieve me from my embarrassing predicament. Something must be done, and that very speedily. I was rapidly wilting under the chilling influence of the water. Ten minutes more would render me a fit subject for a coroner's inquest. I saw but one alternative: to work my course a few hundred yards up the shore, and then creep out the best way I could, and run for my life till I found some friendly nook among the rocks in which I could conceal myself till these fair Finns took ...
— The Land of Thor • J. Ross Browne

... matter of the inquest on Major Selby the relations between Sir John Bell and myself were very strained—in fact, for a while he refused to meet me in consultation. When this happened, without attempting to criticise his action, I always insisted upon retiring from the case, saying ...
— Doctor Therne • H. Rider Haggard

... best fruits of a free and regular Government. Uncorrupted Juries are an effectual guard against the violations of our rights and property. Having an Executive annually elected, and the Legislative elected as often, the one branch of which is the grand inquest of the Commonwealth, and the other branch to be constituted a Court, as there may be occasion, to try and determine upon impeachments, we may be secured against impartiality in the fountain, and corruption in the streams of justice. The Legislative will examine all the machinery ...
— The Original Writings of Samuel Adams, Volume 4 • Samuel Adams

... states: "It has been asserted, in evidence given at the coroner's inquest, in a recent railway accident, that the breaking of the steel tire was occasioned by the intensity of the frost, which is supposed to have rendered the metal, of which this particular tire was composed, brittle. This is the opinion of most persons, ...
— Scientific American, Volume XXIV., No. 12, March 18, 1871 • Various

... asked, is the true spirit of the institution itself? Is it not designed as a method of NATIONAL INQUEST into the conduct of public men? If this be the design of it, who can so properly be the inquisitors for the nation as the representatives of the nation themselves? It is not disputed that the power of originating the inquiry, or, in other words, of preferring ...
— The Federalist Papers • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison

... away from this rural pandemonium with disgust; but what will he say to the records of wretchedness and crime that fill up nearly the remainder of the folio. A Coroner's Inquest upon a fellow creature who "died from neglect, and want of common food to support life"—and another upon a poor girl, whose young and tender wits being "turned to folly,"—died by a draught of laudanum—are still more lamentable items in ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. - Volume XIII, No. 369, Saturday, May 9, 1829. • Various

... to the door, and the man left without another word, and so did the listener. Next morning the body of Mrs. Clymer was found hanging to a beam in the mill. At the inquest the husband owned that he had "had a few words" with her on the previous day, and thought that she must have suddenly become insane. The jury took this view. News of the suicide was printed in some of the city ...
— Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land, Complete • Charles M. Skinner

... and the antique.[4] And we now propose to justify our leaning by a general review of the Pagan authors, in their elder section—that is, the Grecians. These will be enough in all conscience, for one essay; and even for them we meditate a very cursory inquest; not such as would suffice in a grand ceremonial day of battle—a justum proelium, as a Roman would call it—but in a mere perfunctory skirmish, or (if the reader objects to that word as pedantic, though, really, ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey—Vol. 1 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey

... unfortunate and tragic affair—for, Miss Farrow, the unhappy young person killed herself! I was very young at the time, and I was not supposed to know anything about it. But of course I did know. Poor Ted had to give evidence at the inquest. It was dreadful, dreadful! We have never spoken of it all these many years we have lived together. You realize, Miss Farrow, that the young person was not in our class of life?"—the old lady drew ...
— From Out the Vasty Deep • Mrs. Belloc Lowndes

... He read the signature and pondered, pulling his ragged whisker. "So that was the name on the letter you posted?" (No question had been asked about it at the inquest.) ...
— Shining Ferry • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... mind. At that time, and indeed ever since Dawson re-appeared, we were often in the habit of discussing the notorious murder which then engrossed public attention; and as Dawson and Thornton had been witnesses on the inquest, we frequently referred to them respecting it. Dawson always turned pale, and avoided the subject; Thornton, on the contrary, brazened it out with his usual impudence. Dawson's aversion to the mention of the murder now came into my ...
— Pelham, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... odd case, wasn't it? But curiously enough, there's something more that I haven't told you. I happened to know one of the doctors who was consulted as to the cause of death, and some time after the inquest I met him, and asked him about it. "Do you really mean to tell me," I said, "that you were baffled by the case, that you actually don't know what the man died of?" "Pardon me," he replied, "I know perfectly well what caused death. ...
— The House of Souls • Arthur Machen

... that. We cannot judge,' said Mark, shuddering. 'I said I would send some one from here to arrange what was to be done after the inquest.' ...
— Nuttie's Father • Charlotte M. Yonge

... ascertain the circumstances attending this double murder. A coroner's inquest had been held upon the body of the legislator killed in the morning, and the two surgeons, who had both drunk freely at the bar, had quarrelled about the direction which the ball had taken. As they did not agree, they came to words; from words ...
— Monsieur Violet • Frederick Marryat

... other part, instead of being its own seer, let it receive always from another mind its truth, though it were in torrents of light, without periods of solitude, inquest, and self-recovery; and a fatal disservice[28] is done. Genius is always sufficiently the enemy of genius by over-influence.[29] The literature of every nation bear me witness. The English dramatic poets have Shakespearized now ...
— Essays • Ralph Waldo Emerson

... imported, the bench, the counter, and the spot (marked O) where the officer had found the body. In parlors, in banks, in groceries and liquor-shops, in lawyers' rooms and insurance offices, the murder was the chief topic of conversation for a day. Then came the report of the inquest. ...
— Trumps • George William Curtis

... understand why she had been formally notified to attend the coroner's inquest till the drift of the questions began to indicate that this investigation like many another was not an investigation to find out but an investigation to hush up, not a following of the clues ...
— The Freebooters of the Wilderness • Agnes C. Laut

... said the overman with a grim laugh; "there'd be a inquest, if they had pluck enough to come and hunt out what ...
— Son Philip • George Manville Fenn

... excuse to the captain returned to his room early. He had purchased all the newspapers he could find and he wanted to study them quietly. It was with unusual relish that he read the account of an inquest on himself. There was no breath of suspicion that ...
— Jack O' Judgment • Edgar Wallace

... Without paying much heed, I passed on, and presently came to a public-house, not far from the water, and I entered the public-house to get a little beer, and perhaps to tell a dukkerin, for I saw a great many people about the door; and, when I entered, I found there was what they calls an inquest being held upon a body in that house, and the jury had just risen to go and look at the body; and being a woman, and having a curiosity, I thought I would go with them, and so I did; and no sooner did I see the body, than I knew it to be my husband's; it was much swelled and altered, but I knew ...
— The Romany Rye • George Borrow

... was to be an inquest held on the remains before their removal, and Dr. Woodford, both from his own interest in the question, and as family intelligencer, rode to the castle. Sir Philip longed to go, but it was a cold wet day, and he had threatenings of gout, so ...
— A Reputed Changeling • Charlotte M. Yonge

... It was agreed that all danger to Bob was now past, and that the gun-man would do better to accompany Amy back to headquarters. Of course, it would be necessary to work the whole matter out at the coroner's inquest, but in view of the ...
— The Rules of the Game • Stewart Edward White

... called on, however, to use these extensive powers. In three years he had married as many couples, helped to baptize a half-caste baby, held an inquest on a dead sailor, bullied a Samoan army off his front grass, and had settled a disputed inheritance involving five acres of cocoanuts. This, of course, left him with some spare time on his hands, which, on the whole, he managed to get through ...
— Wild Justice: Stories of the South Seas • Lloyd Osbourne

... dangerously loose system, whereby the sanctity of native households may be seriously compromised. I had no idea that the Secret Service Fund was used for this loathsome purpose until my attention was drawn to an inquest on the bodies of two Chinese women who were killed by falling from a house in which one of the informers employed by the Registrar General was pursuing his avocations.... I am taking steps to institute a searching inquiry into the whole subject. The European ...
— Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers • Elizabeth Wheeler Andrew and Katharine Caroline Bushnell

... which came before the public. And I even attempted, more than once, for my own private satisfaction, to employ his methods in their solution, though with indifferent success. There was none, however, which appealed to me like this tragedy of Ronald Adair. As I read the evidence at the inquest, which led up to a verdict of willful murder against some person or persons unknown, I realized more clearly than I had ever done the loss which the community had sustained by the death of Sherlock Holmes. There were points about this strange business which would, I was sure, have ...
— The Return of Sherlock Holmes • Arthur Conan Doyle

... been in such good circumstances that she had rented that house of my uncle. She was a woman of superior education and strong mind, and was the only person I could ever induce to remain in the house. Indeed, since her death, which was sudden, and the coroner's inquest which gave it a notoriety in the neighborhood, I have so despaired of finding any person to take charge of the house, much more a tenant, that I would willingly let it rent free for a year to any one who would pay its ...
— The Boy Scouts Book of Stories • Various

... we haven't told the papers, and it wasn't emphasised at the inquest." The inspector ...
— Malcolm Sage, Detective • Herbert George Jenkins

... great and satisfactory pecuniary profit, then I branched out into the country and was aghast at the result: I had been entirely forgotten, I never had people enough in my houses to sit as a jury of inquest on my lost reputation! I inquired into this curious condition of things and found that the thrifty owners of that prodigiously rich "Alta" newspaper had copyrighted all those poor little twenty-dollar letters, and had threatened with prosecution any journal which ...
— Chapters from My Autobiography • Mark Twain

... his way to the city, and returned to his hotel. The body of poor Radcliff was shortly afterwards found by several laborers, who conveyed it to the city, where an inquest was held over it. A verdict of suicide was rendered by the jury, who, short-sighted souls, comprehended not the mysteries of duelling; and the 'rash act' was attributed by the erudite city newspapers to ...
— City Crimes - or Life in New York and Boston • Greenhorn

... Mary to stay where she was and hurried down-stairs, where Jim's body lay. It had not been moved before the coroner's inquest. The room was dark and several people were gathered around the inquest table. All eyes were turned on me as I entered the room. A portly man detached himself from the group ...
— 32 Caliber • Donald McGibeny

... more from those around. When his mutilated, yellow and hairy body was being washed and put into the coffin, she cried with horror, and wept and sobbed. When the coroner—a special coroner for serious cases—came and was taking her evidence, she noticed in the room, where the inquest was taking place, two peasants in irons, who had been charged as the principal culprits. One of them was an old man with a curly white beard, and a calm and severe countenance. The other was rather young, of a gipsy type, with bright eyes and curly dishevelled hair. She declared ...
— The Forged Coupon and Other Stories • Leo Tolstoy

... long; she had succumbed to asphyxiation caused by the gas from the charcoal. Did it proceed from the construction of the stove, or from a defect in the chimney? The inquest would decide this; as for him, he ...
— Conscience, Complete • Hector Malot

... entrance: on the Friday following he re-enters upon the forbidden premises through a clandestine entrance. The upshot is, that the heavenly police suffer, in the first place, the one sole enemy, who was or could be the object of their vigilance, to pass without inquest or suspicion; thus they inaugurate their task; secondly, by the merest accident (no thanks to their fidelity) they detect him, and with awful adjurations sentence him to perpetual banishment; but, thirdly, on his ...
— The Notebook of an English Opium-Eater • Thomas de Quincey

... Mr. Numboy, the coroner, hearing of Jack's death, held an inquest on the body; and, having empanelled a matter-of-fact jury—men who did not see the advantage of steeple-chasing, either in a political, commercial, agricultural, or national point of view, and who, having surveyed the line, and found nearly every fence dangerous, ...
— Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour • R. S. Surtees

... you have felt nothing of this convicting and convincing power? Then I ask: Have you ever passed through an hour of serious inquest with your own soul? Have you ever tried to know yourself even as you are known? The debate cannot be all on one side. A man only knows that he is ignorant through the need of a knowledge he has not ...
— Men in the Making • Ambrose Shepherd

... constantly changing crowd gathered in front of the house in Welch's Court. An inquest was being held in the room adjoining the kitchen. The court, which ended at the gate of the cottage, was fringed for several yards on each side by rows of squalid, wondering children, who understood it that Coroner Whidden was literally ...
— The Stillwater Tragedy • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... interrupted, calling her back, "I have something I have been trying to ask you for the last hour, but have repeatedly put off. I believe your father's death to have resulted from poisoning. You know the result of the post-mortem inquest. It is necessary to make an analysis of the poison, if there be any, and an absolutely thorough microscopic examination of the wound. I—I regret to pain you—but to do this properly it will be necessary to cut away the wounded portion. Have we your ...
— The Darrow Enigma • Melvin L. Severy

... the kindness of Mr. Tawney, librarian at the India Office, has added to my stock of examples. Thus, Mr. Stokes printed in the Indian Antiquary (ii. p. 190) notes of evidence taken at an inquest on a boy of fourteen, who fell during the fire-walk, was burned, and died on that day. The rite had been forbidden, but was secretly practised in the village of Periyangridi. The fire-pit was 27 feet long ...
— Modern Mythology • Andrew Lang

... by one, the inmates of the house were subjected to the most searching cross-examination, and within six hours after the discovery of the deed, Captain Jourdan was satisfied that the inmates of the mansion were entirely innocent of the crime. The evidence drawn out by the inquest subsequently confirmed the ...
— Lights and Shadows of New York Life - or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City • James D. McCabe

... Pierre gave orders that, with one exception, every woodsman go to his tree-felling, and that the lugger and canoe, with the dead man lying untouched, be towed by skiff and a single pair of oars to the head of the canal for inquest and burial. ...
— Bonaventure - A Prose Pastoral of Acadian Louisiana • George Washington Cable

... exclaimed that he expected as much. Because he had the old Judge curled up out there in the wagon; and when Mrs. Bagley saw him, she would doubtless admit that about all that could comfort the Judge now would be an inquest! ...
— Mark Twain • Archibald Henderson

... that the marriage was positively arranged, she sat with her daughters at a kind of inquest on their dead friendship with Sebastian Dundas, and came to the conclusion that they must know something more definite now about this person calling herself Madame la Marquise de Montfort. As a stranger ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 17, - No. 97, January, 1876 • Various

... trouble," said I. "Come, man, don't give way to this morbid feeling. I don't say but what it does you credit, Brown, to regret the necessity for taking a man's life, even to save your friend's; but, depend upon it, your conduct to-night is justifiable before a far higher inquest than the coroner's. Do you think if I had been in your place I should have hesitated one instant? No! nor have been half as scrupulous afterwards, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 350, December 1844 • Various

... Burial Service over him. Everybody knows now that I've taken that boy under my care, and if any one runs aginst my fists it won't be an accident, but a clear case of self-destruction, and it won't be necessary to hold an inquest." ...
— Rod of the Lone Patrol • H. A. Cody

... matter at the inquest,' said Cytherea, 'was Mr. Manston's evidence that the watch ...
— Desperate Remedies • Thomas Hardy

... mile and a half away? No one had seen her leave the house. No one, apparently, had seen her walking through the town. Nothing was known of her until dawn when they found her body by the lock gate. She had been dead some hours. It was a mysterious affair, upon which no light was thrown at the inquest. No one save myself had observed any sign of depression, and her half-bantering talk with me was trivial enough. No one could adduce a reason for her midnight walk on the tow-path. The obvious question arose. Whom had she gone ...
— The Red Planet • William J. Locke

... coroner," said he to the constable, "and give him this key. If he wants me as a witness in his inquest, he will find me at the Stratford Hotel, ...
— Ted Strong's Motor Car • Edward C. Taylor

... "But all the same, as you will hear before the magistrates, or at the inquest, she was having supper alone with Austen Abbott that ...
— Peter Ruff and the Double Four • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... Burghley, and the tale has since become so interwoven with classic and legendary fiction, as well as with more authentic history, that the phantom of the murdered Amy Robsart is sure to arise at every mention of the Earl's name. Yet a coroner's inquest—as appears from his own secret correspondence with his relative and agent at Cumnor—was immediately and persistently demanded by Dudley. A jury was impaneled—every man of them a stranger to him, and some of them enemies. Antony Forster, Appleyard, and Arthur Robsart, ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... cross-questioning and squabbling. Every witness who was called corroborated Anne de Cornault's statement that there were no dogs at Kerfol: had been none for several months. The master of the house had taken a dislike to dogs, there was no denying it. But, on the other hand, at the inquest, there had been long and bitter discussion as to the nature of the dead man's wounds. One of the surgeons called in had spoken of marks that looked like bites. The suggestion of witchcraft was revived, and the opposing lawyers ...
— The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton, Part 1 (of 10) • Edith Wharton

... Haxard in good round fashion, against his theory of accident. He could prove to the satisfaction of everybody that the man who was last seen with the drowned man—or was supposed to have been seen with him—according to some very sketchy evidence at the inquest, which never amounted to anything—was the man who pushed him off the bridge. He could gradually work up his case, and end the argument with a semi-jocular, semi-serious appeal to Haxard himself, like, 'Why, suppose it was your own case,' and so forth, and ...
— The Story of a Play - A Novel • W. D. Howells

... must suffice to say that case after case of gross neglect and cruelty was brought to light; that while 365 patients had died, only 221 had been reported; that a patient having been killed, his body was hurried away to prevent an inquest; that when the accounts were examined, it was discovered that two sets of books of receipts were kept, one of which was only presented to the governors, and that the difference between the sums contained in the two, amounting to some hundreds a year, found its ...
— Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles • Daniel Hack Tuke

... sinking' was so great, that it has never since been heard of, though some maintain that it is at this moment concealed at Alderman Birch's pastry-premises, Cornhill. Be this as it may, the coroner's inquest brought in a verdict of 'Felo de Bibliopola' against a 'quarto unknown,' and circumstantial evidence being since strong against the 'Curse of Kehama' (of which the above words are an exact description), it will be tried by its peers ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. II - With His Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore

... loving to make much of me; I wish I had his head on my bosom again; I have a good mind to go to London and marry him. Am I mad? Yes; all people who are as miserable as I am are mad. I must go to the window and get some air. Shall I jump out? No; it disfigures one so, and the coroner's inquest lets so ...
— Armadale • Wilkie Collins

... yet— At the Golden Lion the Inquest met— Its foreman, a carver and gilder— And the Jury debated from twelve till three What the Verdict ought to be, And they brought it in as Felo de Se, "Because her ...
— The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood • Thomas Hood

... the inquest for the day after," Goldberger continued. "I'll send my physician down to make a post-mortem right away. If there's any poison in this ...
— The Mystery Of The Boule Cabinet - A Detective Story • Burton Egbert Stevenson

... and good men of Inquest: I, William Maxwell, of Carruchan, who was son of Captain Maxwell of Carruchan, who was son of Alexander Maxwell, of Yark and Terraughty, who was son of the Honourable James Maxwell, of Breckonside, immediate younger brother of John, third Earl of Nithisdale, ...
— Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 - Volume III. • Mrs. Thomson

... out at the inquest, I presume?" said Mr. Carlyle. "We have had the Board of Trade inquiry and the inquest here and no explanation is forthcoming. Everything was in perfect order. It rests between the word of the signalman and the word of ...
— Four Max Carrados Detective Stories • Ernest Bramah

... Some days later his body was found four miles below the fatal Rapids. It bore tokens of the fearful violence of the struggle which he had undergone. His bathing drawers were torn to fragments, and there was a deep wound in his head. An inquest was held, and the jury returned a verdict of ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 401, September 8, 1883 • Various

... visit? It appeared that the police had given him the necessary information, my adventures at Waterloo having rendered their tracing of Carlotta an easy matter. I had been wondering somewhat at the meagre newspaper reports of the inquest. No mention was made, as I had nervously anticipated, of the mysterious lady for whom the deceased had bought a ticket at Alexandretta, and with whom he had come ashore. Very little evidence appeared to have ...
— The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne • William J. Locke

... different times accommodated that steady churchman with a place of concealment, when, from his bold and busy temper, which led him into the most extensive and hazardous machinations on the King's behalf, he had been strictly sought after by the opposite party. Of late, the inquest after him had died entirely away, as he had prudently withdrawn himself from the scene of his intrigues. Since the loss of the battle of Worcester, he had been afloat again, and more active than ever; and had, by friends and correspondents, and especially ...
— Woodstock; or, The Cavalier • Sir Walter Scott

... concern with your loyalty, young man, but I will not admit any language to be uttered in my presence against the ruling powers. The inquest is over. Let every one leave the house except Edward Armitage, to whom ...
— The Children of the New Forest • Captain Marryat

... knowledge won't help to avenge his death, if I can't bring it home to them—and I don't suppose I can. There'll be a coroner's inquest, won't there?" ...
— Run to Earth - A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... to inform you that Mr Spinney's gone—poor old man! There must be a coroner's inquest. Now, it would be as well if you were not to be found, for the verdict will ...
— Newton Forster • Frederick Marryat



Words linked to "Inquest" :   inquiry, enquiry



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