The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-11-24
A MURDER MYSTERY.
Andrew Lang or the Killing OF the
Countess GOerIitZ.
From The London Morning Post.

Stauff was arrested for trying to pol
sou him. But to the Sherlock
Holmeses Of Germany the Counts
case probably looked blacker than
ever. What more probable than thai
the Count was guilty, that Stauff
knew damaging evidence against him,
and that the Count had induced the
cook to put poison in the pot, and
then say that she saw Stauff intro
duce the baneful drug? The Count
being an aristocrat and Stauff "a man
of the people" (as Homer says in his
disdainful way), the people must GER
tainly have argued on these lines.
1t had come out as slowly as every
thing else in these distant days, that
the Jewels of the Countess had been
stolen from her bureau. The Count
said that, in his grief, he had never
thought of noticing this circumstance.
Perhaps a son Of the people might
have taken the jewels, but the Count
was no less likely to have done so
as a blind, for who could suspect an
a-istocrat of a petty theft? Thus
Stauff and the Count were almost
equal favorites for the verdict OF
guilty, the intelligent public laying a
shade of odds on the Count.
Not for years were the inquiries
made that should have been made in
June, 1S47. 1t then came out that
the cook was also the Countess
%''suivante," or femme de chambre'
she doubled the parts. On the
fatal day the Countess had gone into
the kitchen at 2 p. m. and told the
cook and femme de chambre" that
she might take a holiday till 9 p. m.
At $50 the Counts valet had seen
the Countess in the laundry hanging
out the clothes" for the mangle.
From $50 to AIS and from 4.30 to
$50 the Countess and Stauf were
alone in the house. At $50 the
Countess did not answer the Counts
knock. She was probably murdered
between 4.30 and $50. She was
burned while the Count was out, and
Stauff was in between 7.30 and s.
Stauff was, at last, examined, and &C
counted. for his time through the
whole day. From 8 to $50 he was
in a restaurant, but here he was not
corroborated. The Count might have
done the crime at $50, when he said
that he could not get into the ante
room, returned at s when Stauf went
out, lighted the fires and gone out
again, and returned a little before 9
o'clock, when Stauff appears to have
been in the house, though perhaps he
returned a little later.
The truth came out when Stauff's
brother was found selling jewels and
a lump of molten gold. The jewels
had belonged to the Countess. In
March-April, 1S49, Stauff vas tried
at last and found guilty on all the
counts. He made a confession, trying
to prove that his guilt was unpre-
meditated. The Countess had found
him stealing her jewels, and to pre-
vent her from calling out he had ac-
cidentally strangled her. When the
Count went out at 7.30, Stauff had
done all the burnings. These we're
"attenuating circumstances" and in
1872 he received a pardon on condi-
tion that he settled in America, where
he is not known to have become one
of the most remarkable men Of the
country. Had he not made the ex-
pertinent with the poison the Counts
memory might still be under a cloud,
for certainly nobody eve did more to
make himself appear guilty than that
very stupid gentleman.