San Andreas independent., 1858-06-12

He was young merchant, and the letter
had been written for the purpose of in
ducing Ambold to reform. Stephen tried
hard to avoid testifying, for he knew, as
did others, that the fire must have been
set with that identical paper; but he was
summoned, and he could not deny his
own chirography.
The case looked dark Many witness
es were willing to testify to the prisoner
good qualities, but no one could swear
that he was not dissipated and degraded.
That house had been to him indeed, re-
gion Internal. Its destruction cried out
for his bodily life; and its existence had
long been eating away his soul. Poor
Charlie. | had before been sure of his
innocence; but now could only shake
my head and pity him.
Finally he was allowed to speak for
himself. He said that he had threatened
to burn that house-that he had said
about all that had been sworn to. And
furthermore he was around the house on
the night of the fire. He was not ten
rods from the house when the fire burst
forth, and he was one of the first to give
the alarm. He had uttered one cry of
fire when he noticed where the flames
must have Originated, and the thought
came to him if he was found there, he
might be suspected of having set the fire;
so he ran away. He also said that three
nights before the conhagration, he had
been robbed in that house. His pockets
had been emptied of everything in them,
and his pocket book containing forty dol
lars in money and some valuable papers,
had been taken. He had gone there on
the night of the fire to try and persuade
them to give him back his money and pa
pers-or at least to get back what he
could. When he got there, he saw a
man GO in whom he did not wish to see,
so he had hung around, waiting for him
to depart. He was around by the back of
the building, and-and that was an hour
before the fire broke out He knew moth
nothing. He clasped his hands, and
with his fearless eyes raised towards
Heaven, he called to God to witness that
he was innocent.
[ have told you that I knew him. l
knew him so well, that from that moment
| knew him to be innocent | knew his
very SOUL knew how free and open it
was-ah, how sinfully so. I knew there
was no falsehood in the story he told us.
"My boy is innocent. My boy is in
nocent +"
| heard the cry, and [ saw an old wo-
man sink back in the arms of a male COM
panion. 1t was his poor mother Her
heart was we'll nigh broken Yet | saw
that all this had but little effect upon the
mass of spectators. The prisoner course
of dissipation, his many threats against
the house, and the very fact of his having
been robbed and abused there were heavy
against him.
The counsel for the prisoner made his
speech which was labored and hard. He
was foolish enough to intimate that if his
client acas around at the back part of the
house more than once, he must have been
intoxicated. In short his plea had better
have been left out The evidence he could
not shake, and he did all he could to sup
pose evidence, some of it most absurd and
ridiculous. [ afterwards learned that
Moulton Warren engaged that lawyer for
the youthful prisoner The government
attorney made his plea. 1t was plain,
straightforward, and very conclusive.
The Judge finally gave his charge. He
was fair and candid. He reviewed the
evidence carefully and pointed out such
as bore heavily upon the case. He told
us if there was a lingering doubt in our
minds, we must give the prisoner the
benefit of it. But | could plainly see
that there was no doubt in his mind.
We-the jury-were conducted to our
room by an officer, and there locked up.
A silence of some minutes ensued. Moul-
ton Warren was the first to speak
"Well," he said, 81 s'pose there's nc
need of our bein' here great while. OF
course we all know that the prisoner. must
have set fire to the house?"
There was something in the manner of
that man as he said this, which excited
my curiosity won't say it was suspi-
cion then-only curiosity He spoke with
a forced effort atcalmness which at once
perceived. The more looked at him
the more | became strongly nervous and
uneasy, wondering why he should be SO
anxious to be rid of the case, and have
Ambold convicted | knew that he had
frequented that evil house, and that he
had done much towards tempting Charley
to dissipation | knew he was in that
house on the night the prisoner was rob-
bed-for Charley had told me so when |
visited him in his cell. | had then asked
the unfortunate youth if he was sure War
ren was his friend. o, he was sure of it.
He should have hunted him up on the
night of the robbery, only they had told
him Warren had gone.
BY and by the foreman proposed that
We should each take up a piece of paper
and write down our opinion, and then
compare notes. | went to my hat, which
[ had placed upon table with a number
of others, and took up sheet of paper.
| had got part of a letter from another
mans hat [ was about to turn back
when the name of the writer arrested my
3 Il Il