Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1880-04-01

idence during later years. and - stIii
IN France, where it occur
red, as the Despensrd affair.
Monsieur Despenard was : retired
speculafor on the BouFse. He was re-
ported 10 be very wealthy, and occu-
pied charming suburban villa % the
banks ofthe Seine. His family c0nsiss
ted cf himself. bis wife and two chill
dren, q boy and girl. aged respective
" Eve and seven years.
One night, about nine o'clock, IN the
Of 1864, the servants were
startled By the report Of pistol. ac-
by the sound Of breaking
glass ringing thropgh The house. After
! few moments ofhesitation lestit should
be Burglars, they rushed in body 20
The library. from which the sound had
seemed TO proceed, and found their mas
ter fallen face downward upon the floor,
with the blood fowing profusely from q
wound in the temple.
A hasty and horrifed examination
showed he was dead, the bullet having
his brain, while the shatter-
ed glass Of one Of the large windows
also proved that the assassin, whoever
il might have been, had stood on the
veranda outside and taken aim at the
victim through the glass.
Fully ten minutes must have elapsed
before the slow wits OF the servants had
arrived at this conclusion, and then they
began TO wonder that Madame Despe.
nard had not also been aroused by the
noise. Could il be possible: they asked
themselves, that she also bad fallen
q victim! And with this fear in then
minds, they proceeded to her boudor
and knocked on the door.
No answer being returned, they
opened the door, which was unlocked,
and entered the room, only to End it
empty; and they were looking at each
other still more surprised than before,
when one Of them, more self-possessed
than the rest, suggested that the police
should be sent for.
Word was accordingly sent to The
nearest station, and within half an hour
four gendermes, accompanied by two
detectives in plain clothes, arrived upon
the scene.
Still, Madame Despenard had not ap-
pearpd, and vague suspicious of her
were gathering in the officers minds.
when the street door opened, and the
lady entered.
Her face had terrified look, while
the lace shawl she wore about her
shoulders was torn almost in TIVE, and
upon the particulars of the tragedy that
had taken place during her sbsen ce be-
ing told her, she tainted away.
CARVED to her bed-chamber, and res
toratives applied. she only recovered
consciousness to pass from one hysteri-
cal Ct into another, until the physician
who had been summoned, began to fear
she would have an attack of brain fe-
yer.
Meanwhile, the officers had charge
Of the house, and the detectives, pur-
suing their investigations, found link af-
ter link of chain of evidence to encom-
pass the perpetrator of the crime.
Long before daylight the detectives
had left the house. and, returning 70 the
station, had their report before the chief,
who at once granted a warrant TO arrest
Madame Despenard for the murder Of
her husband.
The lady had by this time become
cslmer. and she received the news in a
silence which might either have been
the sullen submission of conscious guilt
or the apathy of utter despair.
The course Of French justice is pro-
verbally dark and secret, and, though
the public was excited to the highest
pitch. no inkling TO appease their curl
osity was revealed until the whole evil
dence was cut and dried ready for her
public trial.
Then . case was presented against
her, overwhelming in its evidence OF
guilt, and perfect even to the minutest
detail.
From the preliminary evidence of the
servants, IL was proved that on the pre-
ceding day Monsieur Despeaard and
his wife had had violent quarrel. The
lady's own maid especially testified to
It's bitterness, and that she had overheard
the prisoner accuse her husband Of de-
ceiving her by q false marriage, and
that he had another wife still living.
This the murdered man had denied
though not vehemently. saying she was
dead.
This testimony supplied the required
cause for the quarrel; while the circum-
stantiaa evidence that pointed to her as
the assassin could hardly be more con-
yincing.
First, there was her unexplained ab-
sence from the house at the time the
murder was done. and her strange agi-
taiion on returning. Her own story,
that having q headache, she had wan
dered along the banks OF the river,
where she had been attacked by an ev-
identity insane woman, who tore her
shawl and dIsarranged her dress, was
at once set down as . weak invention.
Besides, the hesitating air with which
it was told still further went 10 confirm
the conviction of prevaricaiion.
The weapon with which the deed was
done was found lying in the garden but
fen yards away from the spot where
the deadly shot had been fred. Itwas
. small, elegantly mounted pocket re-
volver, which every member Of the
household identified as having been civ.
en- the prisoner by her husband lev
months before.
Caught in the catch on The shuttle,
uiside .he window was found q shred