The mountain Democrat., 1863-02-21

ty evenly balanced, and my uncle told
me that he was rather iSSsl;~,-;a M. tN \
him fnn0ceIt, OGe ne tno0e0s the fdle
would find him guilty, with extenuating
Circumstances. Ny aunt, who had known
Boiteler we'll, from her intimacy with his
wife, had very decided opinion of his
guilt.
The reasons my uncle had sent for me
were, that l might be there to act as an
interpreter at the trial, il one was requir-
ed. aId that l might make inquiries
among The English servants, whose know
ledge Of the FseNEh iaA,g1age was too i'm
perfect to allow them to detail many lit.
tie circumstances perhaps calculated to
throw light on the affair. 1t wanted but
five days to the trial when | arrived, and
it was not till the next morning that my
uncle took me to the office Of the com.
missaire Of police, to request that one of
his agents might be sent with me to
BOiteler's house We found here the
carriage in which the murder was COM
mitted, which had been brought down for
the. jury to inspect. We were told that
the prosecution relied on the effect which
duce to procure . conviction. To show
us the importance OF the evidence which
his acuteness had obtained, the commits
saire sent for q woman, and directed her
to seat herself in the carriage in the posi-
tiOn occupied by Madame Roiteler, He
then seated himself beside her, and one
OF his agents stood beside the carriage
and pointed the pistol at the woman and
it certainly appeared to be impossible that
tho ball could have struck the deceased on
the wounded spot the inference he drew
was, that Boiteler had fired the pistol
which killed her with his left hand, and
then instantly risen behind the coac =
man and shot him, holding the pistol, as
he imagined, perpendicuarly, but in re.
ality with the muzzle slightly inclined, so
as to give the bail direction toward the
front Of the body, a direction which it
was proved the ball had taken bv the
doctors evidence.
Our examination of the servants elic.
tied nothing Of any Importance. They
agreed in saying that their master and
mistress lived on very good tetms, and
that anything like a dispute between
them was very rare.
The day of the trial every place in
Court had been secured by private ar.
rangemcntS beforehand, the audience con-
SiSting chiefly Of ladies'. The prisoner
entered the Court with polite and COM
prehensive bow. Without bravado. and
without any manifestations of anxiety
as to the result, he took his place in the
dock ; his bearing in fact was remarka-
bly, good and prepOSseSSing, and seemed
to impress the jury in his favor. There
was general shudder when one of the
officials of the Court proceeded to spread
out the different articles of dress which
had been stripped from the bodies Of the
dead and | noticed that the prisoner
tui ned ghaStly pale when his wile's dress
was laid out, with the blood stain osten-
tatiously displayed. The case for the
prosecution and the defense was, down to
certain points, substantially what have
already stated; the position of the wound
in madame's body being explained by the
prisoner saying, that the instant. he saw
the pistol pointed towards his body, he
inStinctively threw himself back in the
carriage, and that his wife must at the
same moment have tn own herself for
ward, because, after he had disabled her
murderer, he found her lying with her
head against the forepart Of the carriage
whereas bad ShA he@a. :2:.:; :2-::e.:;7ss raptignt,
she must have fallen backward.
The excitement of the audience had
been raised to the highest point when the
jury retired to consider their verdict.
Instead Of the low hum of conversation
ensuing. which have SO often heard
since in French Courts on similar occa.
sions, the most profound silence was kept
Indeed, nearly everybody must have been
exhausted by the emotions produced in
the course of the trial. The murdered
lady had been personally known 10 all
present; so that when one Of the maid
servants related some touching little cir,
cumStances, showing the sweetness and
amiability Of her character, the proceed
ings Of the Court were for some minutes
brought TO a stop in consequence Of the
violent sobbing of the women.
While the jury were absent from
Court, the prisoners advocate turned to
my uncle, and whispered "My man
will be acquitted" )" and the latter nodded
in apparent acquiescence. With the rest.
lc>sneSs natural to my age, could not
long remain still under circumstances Of
such excitement, and to occupy myself
began to examine the various articles pro.
duced by the prosecution in the course of
the trial, and among them the bullets ex.
tracted from the bodies Of the diseased
While rolling them over in the palm Of
my hand, | observed that each had an in
itial scratched on it, and these initials
were those of the medical witnesses
They were of different sizes; and really
cannot account for the sudden inspiration
which induced me to walk over to the
doctors who were waiting in Court to
hear the verdict, and ask them from
which body each had extracted the ball
which bore his initial. then returned
to the table, and took up the smaller pis
loI and found that the largest ball would
not enter it. spoke to my uncle, who
stepped hastily to the table, and satisfied
himself that what had told him was true.
The public prosecutor had left the Court,
but my. uncle sent one of the uShers to
him with slip of paper. on which he had
written few words. He camc in imme-
diately, and after exchanging a few words,
he again left the Court, and my uncle re-
turned to his seat. The agitation exhib.
tied by the latter, and tho excitement Oh
the former as be left the Court, could not
fail to be observed by the audience, who
evidently perceived that something fresh
had been discovered. The Judge re-
sumed his seat on the bench, and the jury
were recalled to their box, when the fol-
lowing scene' took place:
Judge. "Gentlemen of the Jury, you