Connecticut western news., 1875-04-16

turning around il. his chair and looking full at the jury as he made this emphatic denial of MT. Moulton's testimony.
 Mir. Beecher thenpassed on todescribe his interview at his house with MT. Morllton onE December 31. L This was the "pistol scene." MT. Moulton, ac- cording to the witness, reproached MT. Beecher with having taken an unfair ad- vantage in getting a retraction from Mrs. Hilton, and read letter from her, asking that both her confession to her husband and her letter of retraction should be re- turned to her, in order that she might destroy them. MT. Beecher hesitated to give up the paper, saying that he would be without defense; but Mir. Moulton represented that 1t would conciliate Mir. Hilton, and promised to be MT. Beecher's friend. He assured Mir. Beecher that there would be no further trouble if the letter was given up. On these repre- sentations MT. Beecher gave up the letter to MT. Moulton. Mir. Beecher ex- plained that the room was warm, and after the conversation had lasted half an hour or more MT. Moulton took off his overcoat, and as he did so Mr.. Beecher noticed the hilt of pistol in the pocket. MT. Moulton took it out and laid it on the brrean, where it remained during the rest of the interview
 MT. Beecher's testimony now reached its most important point in the descrip- tion of the interview between himself and Moulton on January 1st, when the
 'letter of contfition"' had its origin. The attention of the auditors was almost breathless. MT. Beecher seemed to for get that he was witness. His form was drawn up erect, his voice often trembled, his gestures were sweeping and forceful, and several times he was compelled to break off to control tha emotion betrayed by the agitation of his whole frame, as we'll as by the convulsive working of his face and the moisture in his eyes. Some of his hearers were very much af- fected, and MT. Shearman wept freely. MT. Beecher described the grief which had overwhelmed him at that time as coming from three sources, his sorrow at having spoken evil of MT. Hilton, who had done him a noble service and been his friend, his ramorse at having be- ieved the scandalous stories against, his friend, and his self-reproach when MT. Moulton assured him that they were false; and, lastly, his modification and sorrow on coming to the conclusion, to which Mir. Moulton's declarations urged him, that through his want of foresight and prudence he had won the affection of Mrs. Hilton and come between her and her husband. His agitation over these thoughts, he explained, was the greater because his former conversations with Mr. Moulton had been diplomatic, but at this interview he had for the first time given vent to his pent up feelings. And his self accusations were especially bitter when MT. .Moulton declared to him :, s't MT. Beecher, Elizabeth loves your little finger more than all of MT. Triton. He broke forth in self-re- breaches and expressions of sorrow
 MT. Moulton at this stage suggested that il, MT. Hilton could only hear him talking in that strain there would be peace once more between them. MT. Moulton at length asked permission to make 8 memorandum of what MT. Beecher said, so as to read it to Mir. Hilton. Mir. Beecher said he was in too much of 0 whifl to write. It was nearly five o'clock, and in the dim light of the winter twi- light Mir. Moulton wrote some sentences on separate slips of paper. The supper bell rang at five, and the interview had to come to an end. MT. Moulton asked MT. Beecher to sign what he had writ ten. MT. Beecher refused, saying that it was not his letter. MT. Moulton then asked him to put his name to it as to let Mir. Hilton know that it really came from him. And then, without reading or Knowing what was on the paper, he wrote as near the bottom of the sheet and as far as possible from the other writinG: "I have trusted this to Frank Moultonain confidence, i" and signed his name to this separate note. This con cluded Mir. Beecher's account of the manner in which the letter of contrition was written. sa H@ e s