Connecticut western news., 1871-09-22
VOL. I.
The lady appeared as witness ,ss,

piece. n'substance, her evidence was sim ply this.A She had looked at her clock when Mr.. Dubourg entered the room, thinking it rather late hour for visitor toscall on her. The clock Regulated by the maker only the, day heforc1 pointed to twenty-five minutes to nine. Practical experiment showed that the time required to walk the distance, at rapid pace, from
 the stile to the lady's house, was just five minutes. Heres then, was the, statement of the farm bailitf (himseN a respectable witness) corroborated by another witness of excellent position and character. o The clock, on being examined next, was found to be right. The evidence of the clock maker proved that he kept the key, and that there had been no necessity to set the clock and wind it up again, since he had performed both those acts on the day pre- ceding Mr. Dubourg's visit. The accuracy of the clock thus Youched for, tho conclu- sion on the evidehce was irresistible. Mir. Duhourgg stood convicted of having beenin the field at the time when, the murderlwa sion, had quarrel with the murdered man not long before, terminating in an as- sault and a threat on his side and, lastly, of having attempted to set up an alibi by a false statement of the question of time
 him to take his trial at the Assizcs, charged with the murder of the builder in Pardon's Piece F "~f . t.' S''."' '''- 'f ", :
 The trial occupied two days
 No now facts of importance were discov- cred in the interval, II The evidence fol- lowed the course which it had taken t'the preliminary examinations-with this diff erence only, that it was more carefully sifted. Mir. Duboafg had the double ad- vantage ofsecuring the services, of the lead- ing baffistef in the circuit, and of moving the irrepressible sympathies of the jury, shocked at his position, and eager for proof of his innocence. By the end of the first day the7evidence had told against him with such irresistible force that his own counsel despaired of the result il When the prison CT took his place in the dock on the second day there was but olic conviction in the minds of the people in court; everybody said, ''The clock will hang him.. -...9
 It wgs nearly two in the afternoon and the proceedings were on the point of being adjourned for half ap hour, when the at torney for the prisoner was seen to hand a paper to the counsel for the defense. is
 ! The counsel rose, showing signs of agita- tion which reused the curiosity of the au- dience. He demanded the immediate hearing of a new witness, whose evidence in the prisoners favor he declared to be too important to be delayed for single moment. After a short colloquy between the judge and the barristers on either side, the Court decided to continue the sitting
 The witness, appearing in the box, proved to be young woman in delicate health. On the evening when the prisoner had paid his visit to the lady she wasin
 that lady's service as housemaid. The day after sine had been permitted (by previous arrangement with her mistress} to take a weeks holiday, and to go on visit to her parents, in the west of Cornwall. While there she had fallen ill., and had not been strong enough since to return to her em- ployment. Having given this preliminary account of herself, the housemaid then mar rated the following extraordinary particu- lars in relationto her mistress's clock. C On the morning of the day when MT. Duboarg had called at the house she had been cleaning the mantel piece. She had rubbed the part of it which was under the clock with her dnster, had accidentally struck the pendulum, and had stopped it. Having once before done this, she had been severely reproved. Fearing that a repeti- tion of the offense, only the day after the clock had been regulated by the maker, might lead perhaps to the withdrawal of her. leave of absence, she had determined Fto put matters right again, if possible, by herself. ..g.B r3l sl9JHs'7 ,i-a.t. .7 f-g E.: I,, After. poking under, the clock in the dark, and failing to set the pendulum going again properly in that way, she next at- tempted to lift the clock, and give it a shake. It was setfin marble case, with a bronze figure on the top, and it was SC heavy that she was obliged to hunt for something which she could use as g. lever. | The thing proved to be not easy to find on the spur of the moment. Having at last laid fer hand on what she wanted, she contrived so to lift the clock a few inches and drop it again on the mantel-piece as to setit5 going, once more. e,s,s f,., ylay s l. hi The next necessity was, of course, to move the hands on. Here again she was met by. an obstacle. There was difficulty in opening the glass case which protected
 the cdial9 After uselessly searching for some instrument to help her, she got from the footman (without ceiling him what she wanted it ,for1 a small chisel With this tshe opened the case-after accidentally scratching the brass frame of it-and set the hands of the clock by guess. She was Hurried at the time, fearing that her mis- ! trcss would discover her. Later in thu, day she found that she had over-estimated l the interval of time that had passed while she was attempting to put the clock right
 She had, in fact, set it exactly q tquartsr 9, I on hou, too .faSt. .,'->.. No safe opportunity of secretly putting the clock right again had occurred until I the, last thing at night. .- She had then
 moved the hands back to the right time
 At the hour of the evening when MT. Du-
 bourg had called on, her mistress she posi-
 lively swore that the clock was quarter
 of an hour too fast, It had pointed, as her
 mistress had declared, to twenty five min
 utes to nine-the right time then being
 as Mir. Dubourg had asserted, twenty min utes past eight. .;J
 t Questioned as to why she had refrained
 from giving this sextraogdinary evidence al
 the inquiry before the magistrate, she de-
 clared that in tue distant Cornish village .I to which she had. gone the next day, an6 Lin which her illness had detained her iron that time, nobody had heard of the inquiry or the trial. She wouldl¬ have beer
 then present. to state the vitally important
 cfrcuhstsn to which she had just sworr I if the prisoners twin brother had not
 f6und her out on the previous day, had no I lquestioned her if she knew any thing abou Ethe clock, and had not (hcaring what sh'
 had to telD insisted on her taking the jour
 ncy with him, to the court tue next morn
 ing. T e-tr..l s,iP .-c.,,,T cg.riaaq. 1 This evidence virtually decided the trial
 There was q great burst of relief in tn
 crowded assembly when,the woman's state
 ment had come to an end. ,Ysb.1 51,sf ~
 She was closely croSs-examined, as
 matter of course. Her character was in quired into; gcorrobofative evidence (rela