The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-10-26
BY
David Christie
Murray


such a messenger I had sent such a mes
sage certainly. Did know that 1t was in
my interlocutor's power TO send for me day
by day for a month and to keep me waiting
his good pleasure? i answered TRY II"
for 1 was as angry as he was by this time,
and as I, at least. conceived with better
cause. Did know that he could there and
then commit me? 1 answered TRY it,"
and know 1t was vulgar and to be re-
proved. but told that official to go to the
devil. He answered with change OF tune:
Monsieur, nest pas polls vers moi' Mon
sieur is not civil to me) 1 reminded him
that he had not begun by being polite to-
wards me. I urged that my time was val
liable to me, and that 1T was being wasted
without reason. / would give my evidence
at once, and otherwise not at all. Author
ity consented to examine me. For one in
slant had startled him into courtesy. but
he grew official again, and he snapped at
me when he asked my name, snarled when
he asked my age. and barked when he
asked my profession. And then l was
tempted of Satan, and fell. for I answered
Special correspondent of the London
Times" NJ. lie Juge," and he became in
stantly as sweet oil on a MILESTONE and L
told him what he asked, and We parted
with many bows on either side. And L
thought as I went away that an English
magistrate would no more have dreamed
OF enduring my conduct that he would
have dreamed of provoking it. And I have
thought so ever since.
This narrative-which is literally true and
unadorned-would not be complete If 1 did
not add that the burglar was known, that
he stayed in Nice three days and disposed
Of his spoil. whilst one gendarme was con-
stantly on guard at the villa and another
was constantly travelling to and fro with
documents and inquiries, and that finally,
after triumphant procession round the
wine shops of Ventimiglia, the criminal
melted out of ken. But then the people
concerned In his arrest were all foreigners.
Had they been French they might have
found justice less laggard.
But II you want TO see NJ. le Magistrat
at his very best you must see him when
| he Is engaged in the preliminary investiga-
| ton OF a murder case. 1t is assumed from
the earliest instant that the person charged
| is guilty. 1t is everybody's business to
| brighten him, to entrap him, to confuse
| him and to turn his confusion to confession.
| and this is the magistrates business most
of all. That tremendous and least judicial
of all criminal proceedings descended to
| US from the middle ages, which is called
| the reconstructive, Is an affair to be wit
| messed once. and once only. 1 saw it at
| a hamlet near Givet, just over the French
! frontier, about twenty miles from the viii
| lage of Rochefort, where I spent four or
| five of the busiest of my working years.
4 ~ Co
| trate, who officiated merely as an onlooker,
| and 1t was taken in hand by one of the
| superior officials of the ACCOMPLISHMENT The
| murder with which the inquiry was con-
| cerned had been committed in a place half
barn. half cowshed, and thither the incul-
| pated man was brought. The place had
been dressed and arranged in readiness
| for him, as If it were a theater, but he
was not allowed to see everything at once.
| A cord had been drawn from wall to wall,
| and tattered old tarpaulin or rickcloth
was hung upon it, dividing the rough apart
| ment into two. The supposed murderer
| the merest clod of a peasant-was told that
| he had done such and such things on the
| day of the crime. He had been here-he
had been there; he had spoken to this man
he had spoken to that man. To all this
he said, ''Mais, oui, m'sieu," in a dull and
stupid way. Then the inquiry grew a little
hotter. He had come down such a lane,
and across such field on his way to this
| place. But no, no, no. He had never been
| there In his life. But silence then. He
| had come there between such an hour
| and such another hour in the afternoon.
With what purpose? With no purpose.
| He had never been there before. Ah them
| with no purpose? Did he expect that to
he believed? Come. Why did he deliberate
| ly leave the road on which he was travel
ing? He had not left the road He had
gone straight home. God was his
witness. Dare he call on God? There
was the road by which he came This was
| the doorway by which he entered. There
there on the framework of the grindstone
| at the barn door-there lay the bill-hook
with which he struck the fatal blow. And
| there on the hither side of the old rick
| cloth the weapon lay where he had cast it
wet with his victims blood. Dare he take
| up that weapon? All, he shrank then! He
| feared TO touch it? The God to whom he
wickedly appealed knew when last he had
| held it in his hand, and to what use he
had put it. No, no, no. He had never seen
/
All then why was he pale? Why did he
| tremble? Did he Observation-Disclosures he
could defy the scrutiny of justice?
Then came the grand coup. The rope fell,
and there beyond 1T lay the dead body of
| an old man, on a heap of hay. Behold your
victim. assassin. Now, dare you resist
| Now, dare you deny? Why this anguish? 1t
is remorse Why this terror? Already you
| are at the toilette. Already you see the
| knife ready to fall. Confess then.
Every word of this and more to the same
effect was pressed home with a dramatic
/ fury, and the wretch trembled like a man in
an ague. and wept piteously and could bare
| ly stand. And the accusing eye held him,
and the accusing forefinger flashed before
his face and the accusing voice went on.
And the accused could only cry, No. no,
no, to IL all. and say that God was his
| temoin. After a weary while they gave
him up as obdurate. and marched him away