Page:010 Once a week Volume X Dec 1863 to Jun 64.pdf/292

 ONCE A WEEK. [March 5, 1864. mortem ex-

on slight pressure, giving

forth a distinct smell of chloroform. Thus, it h.ir

Mr. Thorold had having killed

means of chloroform, the next

which he placed beneath her window, and by means of which she descended into the park,

ace of the policeman, who had an opportunity of scanning his features under circum-

he then concealing it among the shrubs till she was ready to return. When this had occurred several times he no longer waited for an invitation from her, but came as often as he dared, sometimes seeing her and sometimes not. Late on the evening preceding the murder he went down to the house with the determination of seeing Miss Thorold, if possible, who had only returned from Scarborough a few days previously, from a visit to some relatives, and who, he thought, had tried to avoid him since her return. He waited till he saw her enter her bedroom, and for a few minutes afterwards, to give time for any servant who might have entered with her to withdraw he then informed her of his presence by the usual signal. Instantly the light was extinguished and a moment afterwards she

wlu-n the image is imprinted on the uirinory in the most durable manner, that is to

thoroughly awakened to the contemplation of an object which is alone rible to the eye, from the surrounding

being concealed by darkness. Not only that, but he declared, that if he had not

•lis face, he could have sworn to his identity by the sound of his voice. This seemed to prove his presence in the vicinity of

the Grange at a very early hour on the morn er the commission of the crime. More a proved that no stranger had been

opened the window, and entreated him to go away for a time, but to leave the ladder under the Bell Fir (a tree to which that name was given on account of its shape), and not to come back unless he saw a light in her room. He took up the ladder and carried it to the tree, where he thrust it beneath the branches, and was walking away, when, just as he turned round the fir, he almost ran against a gentleman whose face he could see quite plainly in the moonlight, the place where they met being just outside the shadow cast by the house. Thinking from his appearance that he must be a visitor staying in the house, and knowing that he himself had no business there, he hastened away; "but if," he said, "I had not seen that person again for a dozen years, I should have remembered him: it was the prisoner who stands there." Heather retired some distance, and sat down under the shadow of a tree, where he waited three or four hours, watching for the light. At last he saw a light

in a room which he would have thought was hers, but that it had one more window in it. The light disappeared after a minute or two, but almost directly it shone in Miss Thorold's room. He distinctly saw a shadow, which he believed to be that of a man, on the blind, which he supposed to be that of Mr. Thorold, and part of the shadow of a second

which he supposed was that of his daughter, which came behind the first, when the light was turned round and the shadows disap-

by

•

as

whom

by

it

had

other mys-

which greatly intensified trial, and this was the Miss Thorold, no trace of covered, though the most and search had been made in it was thought possible in-

too,

,

in

felt

uii its

the

'

formation got concerning her. The evidence to prove Durand to be the There was the murderer strong. i

.

hen the attention

is

I

urn on the previous evening and, from the smallness of that place, not even a dog could have traversed it without exciting remark. The evidence of the man and woman who met him at dusk the preceding evening he Grange, and answered his questions Ding the family who occupied it, and unhesitatingly that he was the

individual, identifying him, like the poby his features and his voice, was

ut,

the

i

t

chain

proof of as

of identification, all

against

supplied

him at by one

liffs son. This witevidence under the influthe effect of '.ions, •

re

were held had shadow of what he had

having been in the Miss Thorold SUOh as rearing young

that,

hood

ices for

tier

ninu

i

—an intimacy

whirl,

had

ntil

it

I;

Feeling sure that this could not be

which Miss Thorold had promised him, he hesitated to approach the house,

but he o body, it might cause

dismissed from his situation as bailiff, and be the ruin of his family. He