Poor Miss Finch

ury of t

e. Both alike, we were obliged to

inds in this place. How did Dubourg come to be tried for his life? And what was

is to be found in the story whic

of him throughout these pages - by his assumed name. In the first place, it was the maiden name of his mother, and he had a right to take it if he pleased. In the second place, the date of our domestic drama at D

murdered in a field near a certain town in the West o

tive of his, employed as farm-bailiff by a gentleman in the neighborhood, happened to be passing a stile which led from the field in

ersons running from the farther side of Pardon's Piece towards a boy who was standing at the back of a cattle-shed, in a remote part of the enclosure, screaming with terror. At the boy's feet lay, face downwards, the dead body of a man, with his head horribly beaten in. His watch was under him, hanging out o

st eight, was taken as offering good circumstantial evidence tha

t his watch, he owned that he had not done so. Certain previous circumstances which he mentioned as having impressed themselves on his memory, enabled him to feel sure of the truth of his assertion, without having consu

en observed in or near

not been found. Was anyone known (robbery having plainly not been the motive of the crime) to have entertained a grudge against the murdered ma

g - well known in, and out of the town, as a young gentleman of independent

and that the time by it was exactly a quarter past eight. Five minutes later - that is to say ten minutes before the murder had been committed, on the evidence of the dead man's watch - he

tisfy justice also, it was necessary to call the lady as a witness. In the meantime, anoth

been induced (by a friend) to employ the man on some work. Further

man by the collar of his coat, and had turned him out of the house - that he had called the man an infernal scoundrel (being in a passion at the time), and had threatened to "thrash him within an inch of his life" (or words to that effect) if he ever presumed t

ortunate circumstances for Mr. Dubourg - nothing more. He had his "alibi"

appeared

the stile to the lady's house, was just five minutes. Here then was the statement of the farm-bailiff (himself a respectable witness) corroborated by another witness of excellent position and character. The clock, on being examined next, was found to be right. The evidence of the clock-maker proved that he kept the key, and that there had been no necessity to set the clock and wind it up again, since he had performed both those acts on the day preceding Mr. Dubourg's visit. The accuracy of the clock thus vouched fo

occupied

securing the services of the leading barrister on the circuit, and of moving the irrepressible sympathies of the jury, shocked at his position and eager for proof of his innocence. By the end of the first day, the evidence had told against him wi

point of being adjourned for half an hour, when the attorney for t

g of a new witness; whose evidence in the prisoner's favor he declared to be too important to be delayed for a single mom

er, she had been permitted (by previous arrangement with her mistress) to take a week's holiday, and to go on a visit to her parents, in the west of Cornwall. While there, she had fallen ill, and had not

had accidentally struck the pendulum, and had stopped it. Having once before done this, she had been severely reproved. Fearing that a repetition of the offense, only the day aft

rble case, with a bronze figure on the top; and it was so heavy that she was obliged to hunt for something which she could use as a lever. The thing proved to be not easy to find on the

m the footman (without telling him what she wanted it for) a small chisel. With this, she opened the case - after accidentally scratching the brass frame of it - and set the hands of the clock by guess. She was flurried at the time; fearin

time. At the hour of the evening when Mr. Dubourg had called on her mistress, she positively swore that the clock was a quarter of an hour too fast. It ha

ad detained her from that time, nobody had heard of the inquiry or the trial. She would not have been then present to state the vitally important circumstances to which she had just sworn, if the prisoner's twin-brother h

was a great burst of relief in the crowded assemb

oo much to say that his life had been saved by his brother. His brother alone had persisted, from first to last, in obstinately disbelieving the clock - for no better reason than that the clock was the witness which asserted the prisoner's guilt! He had worried everybody with incessant inquiries - he had discovered the absence of t

here was nothing interesting or remarkable in the circumstances. Chance which had put innocence in peril, had offered impunity to guilt. An infamous woman; a jealous quar