The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1880-02-24
A Shrewd Detective.

stantial evidence during later years, and
Is still remembered in France, where II
occurred, as the Despenard affair.
Monsieur Despenard was retired
speculator on the Bourse. He was re-
puted to be very wealthy, and occupied
charming suburban villa on the banks
of the Seine. His family consisted of
himself, his wife and two children, a boy
and girl, aged respectively five and
seven years.
One night about nine o'clock, in the
summer of 1854, the servants were
startled by the report of pistol, accom-
panied by the sound of breaking glass
ringing through the house. After few
moments of hesitation lest 1t should be
burglars, they rushed in a body to the
library, from which the sound had SEEM
ed to proceed, and found their master
fallen face downward upon the floor,
with the blood flowing profusely from
wound in the temple.
A hasty and Mortified examination
showed he was dead, the bullet having
penetrated his brain, while the shattered
glass of one of the large windows also
proved that the assassin, whoever it
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 it be possible, they asked
themselves, that she also had fallen a
victim And with this fear In their
minds, they proceeded to her boudolr
and knocked on the door.
No answer being returned, they open
ed the door, which was unlocked, and
entered the room only to find it empty
and they were looking at each other still
more surprised than before, when one
of them, more selfpossessed 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 gendarmes, accompanied by two
detectives in plain clothes, arrived upon
the scene.
Still, Madame Despenard had not APP
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 she wore about her shoulders
was torn almost in two, and upon the
particulars of the tragedy that had taken
place during her absence being told her,
she tainted away.
Carried to her bed chamber, and re-
storatives applied, she only recovered
consciousness to pass from one hysterical
fit into 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
Madame 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 either have been
the sullen submission of conscious guilt
or the apathy of utter despair.
The course of French justice is proven
bially dark and secret, and, though the
public was excited to the highest pitch,
no inkling to appease their curiosity was
revealed until the whole evidence was
cut and dried ready for her public trial.
Then 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-
ceding day Monsieur Despenard and his
wife had had violent quarrel. The
lady's own maid testified to its bitter
ness, and that she had overheard the
prisoner accuse her husband of deceiv-
ing her by a 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-
stantisl evidence that pointed to her as