Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1860-04-27

wood, stood some time at the door of the
countlng-hous and, on their leaving the
house together, had said, ''Your old one
has heap of money up there; couldn't we
ease him of a little pa proposition which
he, Schonleben rejected with Indignation.
To this hesadded ''that three days ago he had
dreanst that the cash-box had been found and
that he himself had seen it under a heap of
wood in Beutner's house, whereupon, as he
naively remarked, she had felt great Joy,
and requested the magistrates to release him
rom prison to the SCUM d of music
The effect of this deposition was once more
to direct inquiry towards Beutner The
Maunerts stOutly denied their guilt; Schon-
leben denied his: and it was thought that
perhaps Beutner could be brought to confess
That none of them were guilty never seems
to have been suspected. All the indications
against Beutner were carefully collected TO-
gether. The very dream of Schonleben, in
stead of being treated as a dream, natural
enough in the circumstances, and after so
long an imprisonment in a damp dismal cell,
was accepted as a clue. Beutners house
was thoroughly searched; but then, where no
cash-box could be found, none of course was
found. In vain was every plank torn up,
and every corner ransacked; rats, dust, and
rubbish in abundance were there, but no
cash-box, no trace of money.
Beutner was then examined, but denied
ever having said anything about their easing
Sterbenk of some Of his money. On being
confronted with Schonleben, he persisted in
this denial, and solemnly declared, like the
rest, that his innocence must sooner or later
come to light; and on that conviction he
relied with confidence. As if to strengthen
this statement, and as if no sooner was one
clue caught up than the next moment it was
to be broken, the very lay after Beutner's
examination, a smith, in whose service lived
one Of the witnesses called to prove Beutner's
dibl, informed the court that this workman
had confessed to him, the smith, that he had
concealed the truth on his examination; that
in reality Beutner did not 90 home on the
night of the 29th-30th at eleven o'clock, but
at two in the morning, at which hour the
workman accompanied him Why had he
concealed this, and stated what he knew to
be false ? Because he was afraid of the
punishment which would have fallen on him
for having been drinking in the beer-shOp
past the hour permitted by the police
Hereupon all Beutner's witnesses who had
been previously examined on the abb, were
once more examined, and they one and all
confessed that it was two clock, not eleven,
when Beutner and they left the beer-shOp;
they all confessed that it was only fear Of
the police regulations being enforced against
them, which had made them conceal the fact
on their first examination. There was not
unnatural suspicion excited that these wit
nesses had told the truth at first, and that
Beutner had found some means of cOrruptlng
them, so as to induce this retractatiOn; but
they persisted in this second statement, and
were not only unanimous, but spoke out
with the greatest precision and confidence
as to the fact Nobody believed them, and
the strictest inquiry was made into every
conceivable circumstance that could possibly
throw light on their testimony; but the up
shot was that the strongest point against
Beutner-namely, his supposed presence
neal the spot at the assumed period when the
robbery was cOmmitted-was, reluctantly,
but inevitably, allowed to sink into utter
obscurity
The lOcksmith, Holzel, who for
years had been employed by Sterbenk, was
now interrogated. HOlzel had three years
before repaired the cash box in question, and
he deposed that, according to his recollection,
it weighed one hundred and twenty pounds,
was striped with green, painted with white
flowers, and had the lock Ornamented as the
barber KirchmeIer had stated. But HOlzel
added two details which, singularly enough,
seem to have made no impression at the time,
although they afterwards became OF great
importance. He stated that on the 3Oth OF
June-the day the robbery was discovered
Kirchmeer had informed him of the robbery
at Sterbenk's, adding that he had seen a
cash-bOx S0melChere. On being asked tghere,
and in whose house he had seen it, kirch-
meier could g1Ue no satisfactory GRSlCer. Ne
vertheless, ten days afterwards kirchmeer
privately informed him that he had seen the
cash-bOx in Maunert's house on the 30th
June, but since then had not set eyes on it.
HOlzel urged him to communicate this to
Sterbenk, which for the first time he then
did
This was all confirmed by kirchmeier.
" He distinctly remembered every circum-
stance, and remembered moreover that Maui
merit, on his entrance, seemed somewhat con-
fused, had moved rapidly away from the
table, while his wife managed to keep the
barber at the door till the cash-bOx was hid
den. He also distinctly remembered that
the cash-box was such as the one described
a box with plaster cast medalllons he does
not remember to have seen.
Meanwhile the medical report respecting
the capability of Frau Maunert to support
fogging was registered. 1t stated that she
was quite capable of bearing some stripes
and there can be no doubt that this cruelty
and indignity would have been suffered by
her, as it had been already by her husband,
had not nature given an emphatic denial to
the medical evidence, by carrying her off.
On the 2Sth September, after an imprlsOn-
ment of more that three months, death bene-
fcently put an end to her sufferings. She
died in great agony, bodily and mental. The
priest who alone stood beside her during the
last hours, declared that in the whole of his
fifteen years experience he had never known
a sadder case The cell in which she was
imprisoned was underground, shut off from
the light of the sun and the breath of heaven;
as she herself was shut off from the embraces
of her children, and the anxious love OF her
| husband. He also sat alone IN darkness,
with the knowledge OF hIs innocence, ana
| the knowledge that all men believed MN to
| be guilty The priest IN gentle persuasive
accents urged the dying woman to tree her
| soul from its load by confession her con-
| slant reply was, that she had nothing to
| DteSS Sle anu ucI MClC ihlioSChS-
| % Cod will bring our innocence to light /;
YOU will see that one day" And as the
final preparations for her end were being
| made, she said, - God has been with me,
and called to me Fear not am beside
thee go joyfully to Him, for | 60 at once
to heaven" The priest took his leave, and
shortly afterwards all was over for her in
this world.
| As criminal she had died ; as a criminal
| she was buried, In silence and darkness she
was laid in the earth without rites of sepul-
ture At any rate she was free now from all
torture of mind or body
Three victims stilliremained. Nothing had
as yet been pronounced as to their fate They
had everything to fear nothing to hope
By one of those condolences which act pow
erfully on the public mind, ever prone as the
public is to build conjectural romances out
of Insignificant and unrelated facts, on the
very day Of Frau Maunert death the advo-