Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1880-06-18

jabber
1t turns de milk OBJ human kindness mighty
nigh to clabber!
| "Bric-d- Byac"
I THE WRONGED WIFE.
| This story, to which have given the
above title. is among tho most singular
inst ances of mistaken circumstant1al evi-
dence during later years, and is still re-
mcmbered in France, where it occurred,
as the Despenard affair.
Monsieur Despenard 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 SQUAD of breaking glass ringing
through the house. After tew 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 protusely 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 of the large windows
also proved that the assassin, whoever it
might have been, had stood on the YER
anda outside and taken aim 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 v1ctim2 And with
this fear in their minds, they proceeded
to her boudoir and 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 Despenard had not ap.
peared, and vague suspicious of her were
gathering in the officers minds, when
the street door opened, and the lady en-
tered
Her face had a terrified look, while
the lace shawl sue wore about her shout
ders was torn almost in two, and upon
the particulars Of tbs tragedy that had
taken place during her absence beng
told her, she tainted away.
Carried to her bedchamber, and restor-
atives applied, she only recovered con-
seriousness to pass from one hysterical TT
to another, until the physician who had
been summoned 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 chain of evidence to encompass the
perpetrator of the crime.
Long before daylight the detectives
had left the house, and returning to the
station, laid their report before the chief,
who at once granted warrant to arrest
Madam Despenard for the murder of her
husband.
The lady had by this time become
calmer, and she Received the news in a
silence which might have been the sullen
| OF nf !,
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 trial.
Then the'case 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 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 vehemently, 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. the MUIR
der was done, and her strange agitation
on returning. Her own story that, hav-
ing headache, she had wandered along
the banks of the river, 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 weak
invention. Besides, the hesitating air
with which it was told still further
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 fred. It was a
small elegantly mounted pocket revolver,
which every member of the household
identified as having been giving the pris-
oner by her husband few months before.
Caught in the catch on tho shutter out
side the window was found shred of q
lace shawl, which exactly matched the
pattern and fitted the rent in the one
Madame Despenard had worn when she
returned to the house.
! In the soft mould of the garden were
found footprints, undoubtly, those of the
Il nrisOner She had an elegant hI1t neon.