Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-12-07

spoken, with that very peculiar shrill Tor
harsh) and unequal voice, about whose
nationality no two persons could be found
to agree, and In whose utterance no sylla-
bification could be detected"
AT these words vague and half formed
conception of the meaning of Dupin fit
ted over my mind | seemed to be upon
the verge of comprehension, without
power to comprehend-as men, at times,
find themselves upon the brink of remem-
brance without being able in the end to
remember My friend went on with his
discourse.
You will see," he said, that have
shifted the question from the mode of
egress to that of ingress. 1t was my de.
sign to convey the idea that both were
effected in the same manner, at the same
point Let us now revert to the interior
of the room Let us survey the appear
ances here. The drawers of the bureau
it is said, had been rifed, although many
articles Of apparel still remained within
them. The conclusion here is absurd It
Is mere guess--a very silly one-and no
more. How are we to know that the ar
ticles found in the drawers were not all
these drawers had originally contained2
Nine. L'Espanaye and her daughter lived
an exceedingly retired life, saw no COM
pany, seldom went out, had little use for
numerous changes of habiliment. Those
found were at least of as good quality as
any likely to be possessed by Theses ladies'.
If thief had taken any, why did he not
take the best2 Why did he not take all?
In a word, why did he abandon 1000
francs In gold to cucumber himself with a
bundle of linen? The gold was aban-
doned. Nearly the whole sum mentioned
by Monsieur Mignaud, the banker was
discovered in bags upon the floor wish
you, therefore, to discard from your
thoughts the laundering idea of motive en-
gendered in the brains of the police by
that portion of the evidence which speaks
of money delivered at the door of the
house. Condolences ten times as re-
markable as this (the delivery of the
money and murder committed within
three days upon the party receiving it)
happen to all of us every hour of our
lives without attracting even momentary
notice. Condolences in general are great
stumbling blocks in the way of that class
of thinkers who have been educated to
know nothing of the theory of probabili-
ties-that theory to which the most
glorious objects of human research are
indebted for the most glorious of illustra-
gold been gone, the fact Of its delivery
three days before would have formed
something more than coincidence It
would have been corroborative of this
idea Of motive. But, under the real cir
cumstances of the case if we are to sup
pose gold the motive of this outrage, we
must also imagine the perpetrator so va
clllatlng an idiot as to have abandoned
his gold and his motive together.
keeping now steadily in mind the
points to which have drawn your atten-
tion-that peculiar voice, that unusual
agility and that startling absence of mo-
tive In murder so singularly atrocious
as thls-let us glance at the butchery
Itself. Here Is woman strangled to
death by manual strength and thrust up
q chimney, head downward. Ordinary as
sassins employ no such modes Of murder
as this. Least of all do they thus dispose
of the murdered. In the manner of thrust
ing the corpse up the chimney, you will
admit that there was something excess
lively outre-something altogether irrec-
oncilable with our common notions of
human action, even when we suppose the
actors the most depraved of men. Think,
too, how great must have been that
strength which could have thrust the
body up such an aperture SO forcibly that
the united vigor of several persons was
found barely sufficient to drag it down.
Turn, now, to other indications of the
employment of vigor most marvellous.
On the hearth were thick tresses-very
thick tresses-of gray human hair. These
had been torn out by the roots. You are
aware Of the great force necessary In
tearing thus from the head even twenty
or thirty hairs together. You saw the
locks in question as well as myself. Their
roots Ia hideous slightly were clotted with
fragments of the flesh of the scalp-sure
token of the prodigious power which had
been exerted in uprooting perhaps half a
million of hairs at time. The throat
OF the old lady was not merely cut, but
the head absolutely severed from the
body; the instrument was q mere razor
lwish you also to look at the brutal feroc.
ity Of these deeds. Of the bruises upon the
body of Nine. L'Espanaye do not speak.
NJ. Dumas and his worthy coadiutor, NJ.
Etienne, have pronounced that they were
inflicted by some obtuse instrument; and
so far these gentlemen are very correct
The obtuse instrument was clearly the
stone pavement in the yard, upon which
the victim had fallen from the window
which looked in upon the bed. This idea,
however simple 1t may seem, escaped the
police for the same reason that the
breadth of the shutters escaped them
because, by the affair of the nails, their
perceptions had been Theoretically sealed
against the possibility of the windows
having ever been open at all.
IF now, in addition to all these things.
you have properly reflected upon the odd
disorder of che chamber, we have gone so
far as to combine the ideas of an agility
astounding, strength superhuman, a
ferocity brutal. butchery without
motive, grotesquerie in horror abso-
lutely alien from humanity, and a voice
foreign in tone to the ears OF men of many
nations, and devoid of all distinct or in.
telligible qualification. What result then
has ensuedY What impression have made
upon your fancy?'
| felt creeping of the flesh as Dupin
asked me the question.
"a madman,' | said, "has done this
deed-some raving maniac escaped from a
neighboring maison de sante."
In some respects" he replied, your
idea is not irrelevant. But the voices of
madmen, even in their widest paroxysms,
are never foun nd IN tol Il tbo+ ,oo.,,l;o-