The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1879-08-08
Again did the prisoner maintain his in

Again did the prisoner maintain his in-
nocence, and again did he assert that at
the time sworn 10 as the time the shot
was fred-two o'clock--he was miles
away from the covers. He said he GER
tainly went out that night with the in
tention of poaching in the Home Wood,
but hearing chance word as he called in
at the cider shop, he thought, if it did
come to tussle, that four might be too
many for him, and he therefore de-
cided to 90 farther afield and in an oppo-
site direction, and he made for the New
| Wood, five miles away from there, a
wood of Major Murry's; and he then
repeated that which he had said before :
That in coming down the hill for short
cut TO the cover he caught his foot in the
gorse as he got near the road, he fell
down into it, his gun going off in the fall
and his head getting cut open and that
as he lay there in the ditch, balf-stunned
and bleeding, the clock over the water
struck two.
His lordship, In commenting on the
facts that persisting in such statement
would not avail him unless it were cor
roborated, said
| "Have You really no means to prove
1t? Did nothing occur as you went or
returned, by which the jury might infer
that what you say is true no one Won
met or spoke to?"
''No, nothing" said Perks; "no one
whatever, my lord"
"Nor when you lay there in tho ditch,
as you say, halfstunhcd and bleeding ?''
well, yes, my lord" was the reply;
there was man passed then certainly"
TO who IN do you refer2 Did You
know him?"
81 did not; l don't know who he W as,
my. lord; but it was a man on horseback
and he had baby with him."
"a man on horseback and baby with
him! What at two o'clock on Novcm-
ber morning-cold, damp and foggy |
do you seriously assert that?r
"Yes, my lord, do; for / heard il
cry"
"You didYu
81 did, my lord and heard him speak
to it."
"And pray what did you hear him
say p asked his lordship, who seemed to
doubt the story told him, as did all
there.
"lie said, my lord, Poor little wretch!
But 1t is chance, if we can do it,
"And then," said Perks, "hc put his
horse into gallop, and was Off"
"What was the man like?" said the
Judge after pause, in which incredulity
was marked on every face in court.
"Could You see enough of him to make
that out, ehr
"Partly, my lord, partly" was the
prompt reply; "for the rest of the hill
dips down; and as | lay there in the
ditch, he showed against the sky; and
they were pair of 'em-a short, thick
man, short, thick horse"
But the statement was too wild to be
credited; and all there felt that for anv
use it would be to him it might as well
have been loft unsaid. In summing up,
however, the Judge briefly alluded to
this extraordinary statement" by the
prisoner, of the man and the baby, but
without repeating the words heard, or
the assertion; tho clock struck; and he
said that ii would be for the Jury them
selves to decide whether or not such an
assertion, unsupported by the slightest
evidence, was worthy of credence.
1t was at this particular point in his
lordship's address that DR.. Brown came
into court, and startled all there by his
exclamation:
What that man said is true, my lord;
that child l carried. am Brown, the
doctor, Brown of Bcaconsfeld.
AS hush ensued in court at the cry
OF "Silence !" the greatest interest pre-
vailed, and all eyes were turned to the
witness box.
"Now, sir" said his lordshlp, after the
formallties were over, 1--WE will hear the
statement that you have to make.
"Good, my lord" was the response:
"Shall reply seriatim to the questions
asked me, or, to save the time of your
lordship and that of the jury, shall first
state what l have got to say, and then
answer whatever questions may be sug-
gested to the evidence offer.
"We will hear" said the Judge, "your
own statement first. This man is charg-
ed with murder, and he tells us, he pleads
an abb that as he lay in ditch on
Furze Hill, on the night in question,
disabled by fall, man on horseback
passed him, and he had baby with him
for he, the prisoner, heard the baby cry
Now you say you were that man, and
that you carried child. Will you give
us the date of it"
sit was toward the end of Novem-
ber, my lord; the last week in it. The
day, know was Tuesday, the last Tues
day in the month"
What date was that?" asked his lord
ship, turned TO the counsel for the de-
fence.
But before he could reply, his oppo-
nent, the counsel for the prosecution.
said;
"The twenty-fourth, my lord a date
that differs from the prisoners state
ment."
"Well you tell us, DOCTOR" resumed
the judge, not heeding the remark,
"what time it was when you rode up
the hill---can you remember?"
yes, my lord, l can. Ii was two
O'Clock, for / heard the clock strike as
galloped up it-St. Michael's clock, that
Is Just across the water. 1t was damp
ana chilly morning-oOld and foagy."
"Do you mean Tuesday night-or,
rather, Wednesday morning?"
mo, my iordi Monday night-twO
on Tuesday morniDg. 1t was during
tho night of Monday-Monday the
twenty-third."
"And how We're you mounted?'
"On a thick, stout cob" said the doc
tor. "My night-horse."
go on, SIR" said his lordship, as
tho counsel looked at each other.
~ had been 10 a case, my lord, and
was coming from it,"
"fes, yes, just So" his lordship inter-
rupted. "But about this child. Tell
us, will you, how ii was that on this
cold, damp, foggy morning, in that
dreariest of months, yon were out in
the open country, galloping home with
a babyr'
"Not home, not home, my lord; but
off for the forest"
"Why,"
"To prevent murder"
Explain YOURSELF" said the judge,
as a buzz went round the courl, and tho
people looked at each other.
can attempt had been made, my
lord, ON the life of that child, which /
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