The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1880-06-17
THE WRONGED WIFE.

dencc during later years, and is still re-
membercd in France, where it occurred,
as the Dcspcnard affair.
Monsieur Despcnard was a retired
Spectator on the Bourse. He was reput-
ed to be very wealthy, and occupied a
charming suburban villa on the banks of
the Seine. His family consisted of him.
self, his wife and two children, boy and
a girl, aged respectively five and seven
years.
One night about nine o'clock, in the
summer OF 1864, the servants were star
tied by the report Of pistol, accompan-
led by a SQUAD of breaking glass ringing
through the house. After a few moments
of hesitation, lest it should be burglars,
they rushed in body to the library, from
which the sound had seemed to proceed,
and found their master fallen face down
ward upon the floor, with the blood pour
ing profusely from wound in the tenn
pie.
A hasty and Mortified examination
showed that he was dead, the bullet hav-
ing penetrated his brain, while the shat
tered glass of one Q! the large windows
also proved that the assassin, whoever it
might have beea, had stood on the YER
anda outside and taken ann at the victim
through the glass.
Fully ten minutes must have elapsed be.
fore the slow wits of the servants arrived at
this conclusion, and they then began to
wonder that Madame Despenard had not
also been aroused by the noise. Could it
be possible, they asked themselves, that
she also had fallen u victim? And with
this fear in their minds, they proceeded
to her boudolr md knocked on the door.
No answer being returned, they opened
the door, which was unlocked, and en-
tered the room, only to find 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 near
est, and within half an hour four gen.
d'armes, accompanied by two detectives
in plain clothes, arrived upon the scene.
Still Madame Dcspcnard had not ap-
pcared, and vague suspicious of her were
gathering in the officers minds, when
the street door opened, and the lady en-
tered.
Her face had terrified look, while
the lace shawl she wore about her shout
dcrs was torn almost in two, and upon
the particulars Of the tragedy that had
taken place during her absence beng
told her, she tainted away.
Carried to her bedchamber, and resto1-
atives applied, she only recovered con-
sclousness to pass from one hystcrical fit
to another, until the physician who had
been SUNNI oned began to fear she would
have an attack of brain-fever.
Meanwhile, the officers had charge of
the house, and the detectives, pursuing
their Investigations, found link after link
Of a chain of evidence to encompass the
perpetrator of the crime.
Long before daylight the detectives
had lett the house, and returning to the
station, laid their report before the chief,
who at once granted a warrant to arrest
Madam Despenard for the murder of her
husband.
The lady had Ivy this time become
calmer, and she received the news in q
silence which might have been the sullen
submission of conscious guilt or the
apathy of utter despair.
The course of French justice is proverbi-
ally dark and secret, and, though the
public was excited to the highest pitch,
no inkling to appease their curiosity was
cut and dried ready for her public tr,al.
Then the::casc was presented against her,
overwhelming IN its evidence Of her guilt,
and perfect even to the minutest detail.
From the preliminary evidence of the
servants, it was proved that on the pre-
ceeding day, Monsieur Despenard and
his wife had had a violent quarrel. The
lady's own maid especially testified to
its bitterness, and that she had overheard
the prisoner accuse her husband of de-
ceiving her by false marriage, and that
he had another wife still living. This
the murdered man had denied, though
not very vehcmently, saying that she was
dead.
This testimony supplied the required
cause for the quarrel, while the circum-
stantial evidence that pointed to her as
the assassin could hardly be more con-
| vincing.
First, there was her unexplained alb
sence from the house at the time'th muir
der was done, and her strange agitation
on returning. Her own story that, hav-
ing a headache, she had wandered along
the banks of the rlver, where she had
; been attacked by an evidently insane wo-
man, who tore her shawl, and disarranged
her dress, was at once set down as a weak
invention. Besides, the hesitating al,
with which it was told still farthe,
went to confirm the conviction Of pre-.
varication.
The weapon with which the deed was
done was found lying in the garden but
q few yards away from the spot where the
deadly shot had deem fired. It was 8
small, elcgantly-mounted pocket revolver
which every member Of the household
identified as having been giving the pris:
oner BY her husband q few months, before