The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1868-02-14
General Miscellany.
A HAND AND q RING.
4 Tate Of assassination.
BY coDlnrr rURSER

About six o'clock one autumn even
ing, two men pushed their way through
the furz bushes which bordered a by
road running from Quidhampton to
Harnam. There was not much differ
ence in their outward appearance, yet
one was nothing but a wOOdman. and
the other Was squire Winter, the OWE
er Of Stockton Park and most of the land
near it. They had both been engaged
all day in marking trees which were TO
be cut down to thin the young planta-
tons; and Squire Winter still held in
his hand the heavy, keen-edged knife,
almost as heavy as a Ratchet, which he
had been using for this purpose. The
air had been getting more and more
damp for several hours; and just before
the time ] have mentioned a light rain
began to fall. As he had been walking
all day, and was still nearly mile and
a half from his house, the squire told the
woodman to 90 across to the Pheasant,
an inn about four or five hundred yards
distant, and tell the landlord to saddle
his horse for him, and he would send
a groom back with it the following morn
ING. The squire himself crossed over to
another plantation. on the opposite side
of the road, to see whether that too wan
ted thinning. In q few minutes he
came out, and walked down to the inn,
where he found the landlord waiting for
him, the horse ready saddled, and look
ing with its dropping head and lank
ears as if it We're keenly alive to the
miserable state Of the weather.
The squire looked at the animal, and
said 81 think ] might almost as well
walk as ride that seedy-lOoking animal,
jackson. However, | suppose / can get
something like trot out of him for such
n short distance OF course the land
lord said he could, and Squire Winter
mounted and rode on.
The path he took was narrow, and for
some distance ran through haZei-copse.
The landlord of the Pheasant watched
him till be was hidden by the trees and
underwood, and then went indoors. 1t
was too early for him to have customers
in his house: indeed, it was not very
likely he would have any at all on such
a night; and he sat down by the tap
room fire, and lighted pipe. Before
many minutes he heard the sound OF
horse gallOping up to his door. be got
up, and went out, expecting TO hnd
SOMEBODY there who required refresh
ments. but, TO his establishment, and
somewhat to his alarm, he found his
own horse standing there without n
der. He was disposed TO believe tnat
the squire had got off on reaching his
house. and left the animal standing at
the door for the groom to come and take
it away, and that finding itself free to
go which way it pleased, it had turned
round and started off for its own stable.
Still he thought it just possible that
some accident had happened To the
squire. especially when he had passed
his hand down the horses fore-leg, and
found that one of the shoulders was
bleeding from a cash in it, which might
have been caused by a stake in the
hedge through which it had forced its
wav, though it seemed too clean Tor that'
To make sure, he determined to go 10
the house and inquire; he was certain
if no evil had befallen the squire, thal
he would be invited to share goou sup
per with the servants, and would receive
a more liberal remuneration for the hlre
of his horse. After washing the wound
with cold water till the bleeding had
ceased, he led the animal into the stable
and then put on his hat and walked
down the same path which the squire
had taken. The rain had left off, but
the air was still so dank and heavy,
that though the moon was up, the light
was not sufficient to enable him TO see
far before him; and it was not until he
was within about a dozen yards of it
that he could see that a dark object
which lay before him was the body OF
man. 1t lay with its cheek resting on
the wet ground; and on STOPPING over it,
he saw, what the dress and appearance
had already told him, that if was the
BODY OF Squire Winter.
The squire was dead, for the heart
haa ceased to beat, though the body was
sun warm beneath the clothes. The la
! borers' cottages We're not far off. and
| TO those he ran for help to carry the
body to the house. One of the laborers
he sent for the doctor and with some
others he returned to the spot where the
body was lying, and putting it on hur-
die, they carried it to the house, and laid
it down in the hall, to wait the DOCTORS
arrival, who came in few minutes af-
forwards, and having unfastened the
clothes, discovered that death had been
caused by bullet which had entered
the stomach, and, taking an upward
course, had lodged in some vital organ.
Fortunately, the squire had no wife