LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 873, 12 April 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A STRANGE WITNESS.

{Concluded.')

1 Here !' said a tall blue coated gentleman blandly, stepping into the witness box, to which a young barrister had led him. The surprise in court was intense and universal. It was a coup de theatre on a real stage. ' The stranger ! The mad stranger !' ex claimed Baron Rosen von Lilienfed involuntarily. ' My witness 1 Gracious, merciful Lon in heaven, my witness !' cried the prisoner. with an hysterical sob ; then, throwing him sejf on his knees, with his hands folded in

thankful prayer, he ejaculated, in accents which all in court felt came from the depths of his heart, ' In Thee have I put my trust, O Lord ! To Thee have I called in my sore tribulation ; and, behold, Thou hast mercifully heard me 1 Praised be Thy holy name !'

This made a deep impression upon all, except upon the new witness in the box, who took no heed of it, nor showed any sign of irritation at being called mad in open court. Since his appearance on the scene his eyes had hung on the attorney general's lips. Now they were intently fixed upon the president's face, of which they seemed to be taking possession and stock at the same time.

The president had risen to request the attorney-general to suspend his address, as a highly important witness in the case had unexpectedly turned up. He (the president) had just this moment been informed of this by Councillor Gockel (the elder of the two barristers who had brought the witness to court).

' Your name, witness?' asked the presi dent.

' Martin Hessler, Sir President. A native of Elberfeld, in Ehineland-Westphalia, passing through here on my way to Hamburg. Here,' handing a folded paper to the usher, ' is my legitimation.' The paper was found to be a passport, in perfect order, with several leaves attached to it covered with a wilderness of visas, showing the bearer to be a frequent and extensive traveller.

' Your station, profession, or business ?' ' I have a moderate independence, Sir President, and follow no profession or business.'

' Are you aware of the subject of these proceedings ?' ' Yes, Sir President. Having accidentally gone to dine in the Schwarzen Mohren, I gathered the subject and nature of these proceedings from the conversation of the gentlemen at table.' ' Have you any evidence to give in this case ?' ' Yes, Sir President.'

' Are you ready to give such evidence, and to affirm the truth of it upon your solemn oath V

' I am, Sir President.' ' Look at the accused. Do you know him ? When and where have you seen him before ?'

The witness looked at the prisoner, who had meanwhile partly recovered his composure. He then fixed the president again with his magnetic eye, and replied, • I recognise the accused, Bir President. In April last I passed through here on my way to Italy. As my train would not start till late in the evening, I took a walk along the road to Meiningen. I went into a roadside inn for refreshment. I saw the accused there, seated at a small table along with a companion. Both men were dressed alike. The accused's companion was a few iuches taller. His face looked haggard and yellow. They were having their dinner. They sat side by side. They clearly were having a confidential chat together. 1 am a physiognomist. There was a marked contrast between the two faces, which attracted my attention. The ac cused's looked open, ingenuous, and candid —the same as it does now. save that it was quite free then from the cloud of acute mental suffering which is clearly discernible ou it now. The other man's face looked weak and wicked, to express it briefly, (here was not a trace of moral restraint in it I mentally summed it up as that of a man who would under but slight temptation give way to evil passions, not stopping short even of the most heinous crime to work his wicked will, if once he could screw up his rather defective courage to the stickingpoint; for his eyes showed to me malignity contending with cowardice. It was this marked contrast between the two faces which caused me to give my undivided attention to their talk and their doings. ' "Shall we have to walk far," the other asked the accused, " to get to the wood ?" ' " Only a few miles," was the reply. ' " Do you think you will find the footpath you talk of ?" ' "Yes, of course. It branches off the road to Gerstorff on the left, some hundred strides or so from Lilienfeld Manor House, which we have to pass." ' '' And is it such a lonely wood as you

say ?" ' "Quite lonely—that part of it, at least, through which the path runs. Except on Sundays there is hardly ever a soul to be met there."

' " Suppose a man were to hang himself thereabout: how soon do you think they'd find the body ?" ' "What queer questions you ask !" replied the accused, laughing. " Why, it might be months, if he did it a few yards away from the path. But that cannot mat ter to us. I, for one, am not a-goiug to jump from a tree with a rope tied one end round a high branch, the other round my neck. And Ido not think, Joseph, you are a likely sort of chap to do such a foolish thing." « "Very true," returned the other; "it was only an idle question to pass the time. We had better be moving, though; it is getting on for evening. I say, Conrad, you just let me pay the bill here—will you ? " '"Why?" said the accused, with some signs of surprise. ' " Simply that I may not always look the beggar. You know I have all the money you gave me in my pocket. And," he added, with a light laugh, "as you will give me the balance of the travelling cash in yours, it will not cost me a cent after all."

'"All right, Joseph, have your will; pay away if it makes you happy." 'lt all comes back to me; it comes all back to my memory.* The prisoner, starting up from his bench, burst out, upon the uncontrollable impulse of the moment, ' Yes, Sir President, so it was. He asked me to let him pay, and I let him. I had clean forgotten all about it I remember it all now. This gentleman has given our conversation almost word for word. Sir President—'

Here the accused, who had been running on impetuously, was stopped, and severely reproved for his unseemly interruption of the proceedings. He humbly apologised to the court, and sat down on his bench. The president asked the witness to wait a moment before proceeding with his evidence. He then bent over his notes, in search of <omething apparently. Without raising his head, he asked the witness, ' Were you seated quite close to the two travellers?'

The president looked up agaiD, awaiting she reply, which did not come, however. In fact, the witness took no notice of the query.

' Why do you not answer my question, sir ?' said the president, somewhat sternly. ' Have you asked me a question, Sir President ?' queried the witness in return, to the intense amazement of all in court, including the president, who exclaimed, somewhat impatiently, and with a trifle of anger,

' Have I asked you a question ? You know I have. I spoke loud enough, lam sure.'

A smile flitted over Hessler's intelligent face.

' I humbly beg your pardon, Sir President. May I venture t"> pray you to repeat your question ?' The president looked at the witness for a moment almost as intently as the latter was looking at him. Then he repeated the question sternly and emplatically, altering it, however, to,

_' Where were you seated, witness, when this conversation took place V ' I sat in one corner of the room, Sir President ; they at the corner opposite.' ' Then you were not quite close to them V

'By no means. It was a large room. There were some eighteen or twenty feet between us.'

' And yet you profess to repeat every word they were saying to one another V ' Yes, Sir President ; not word for word, of course, but the general purport of their talk. I have a retentive memory.' The president again looked long and steadily at the witness, who remained perfectly unconcerned, however.

' Go on with your statement, witness,' said the president at last.

' The queer question put to the accused by his companion —clearly, to my mind at least, with a view to ascertain whether the wood, whither they were taking their way, was very lonely—and the strange request about the settlement of the bill, made me suspect the intentions of the taller of tho two travellers. The accused looked so absolutely unsuspecting, that I made up my mind to warn him somehow, or rather to caution the other to take care what he was doing, which seemed to me the safer course of the two. So I left the inn precipitately, and walked briskly onward to the direction which I knew the two were going to take. I soon c ame to a kind of garden-house or pavilion by the roadside. A gentleman was leaning out of the window. I asked him —'

'Stop!' said the president. Look at that gentleman,' pointing to the Baron Lilienfeld. ' I >o you know him V The witness look steadily at the baron for a minute or so. Then he turned again to the president, and said.

' I perfectly recollect that gentleman. It was he who was leaning out of the window of the pavilion on the road. I asked him the road to GerstorfF. He directed me. I walked until I came to the footpath on the left alluded to by the accused to his com panion. I hid among the trees. Some ten minutes or a quarter of an hour after, the two came up. I followed them cautiously itloEg tbe path, watching them closely all the time. They stopped, and sat down on the trunk of a fallen tree. The sat in line, the one at the one end, the other at the end opposite, both right in face of me, as I was watching them from behind my hiding-place among tbe trees. I understood the companion of the accused to ask the latter to hand over, there and then, the money which he had promised him, and to make it five thousand dollars instead of live hundred. His face looked wicked and threatening. He said, to the best of my recollection, " Conrad, you know you ought to share with me You could no more have made the money by yourself than I could. I have had bad luck, aud dropped my share. I do not want you to go halves with me again ; I want only one-third—rive thousand dollars, leaving you ten thousand. I mean to turn over a new leaf, and become steady. But for this I must have the live thousand dollars, So you had better hand them over." To which the accused replied, " I have been a good companion and friend to you, Joseph, and I mean to be so still. I tell you what I'll do : I will give you two thousand dollars down when we reach Fichtenhain," or Fichtenstein —it was some such name, Sir President, which the accused mentioned, I am not positive which—"and if you turn over a new leaf and prove that you are a steady man, I will give you the other three thousand. There 1 "

' I keenly watched the face of the man addressed as Joseph. I thought I saw the evil intention fade from his eyes and features. This, then, was the proper moment for me to give my caution. I stepped suddenly forth to confront him. I impressively warned him to beware, as there had been a witness to the conversation which he had just had with his companion. I then left the two to make my way back to the railway station as fast as I could, as I did not want to miss my train. Still, when again passing the same pavilion on the road, I stopped to speak to the gentleman at the window. I wished to communicate to him my suspicions, and the course I had thought fit to pursue. I wanted to ask him to send his servants int >the wood, to make assurance doubly sure. But he gave me no chance to speak to him. He withdrew himself to the remotest and darkest corner of the room, and obstinately kept there, despite of my earnest entreaty to come back to the window that I might have speech with him. So I was compelled to leave him. I was just in time for the evening train. I have been in Italy ever since ; and it is only to-day that I quite accidentally learned the sad sequel of the affair. This is my evidence, Sir President.'

The witness had throughout spoken with the most perfect self possession ; every word had been uttered by him without hesitation, in a calm clear voice. His evidence had. obviously made a profound impression upon all in court, including the judges, the jury, and—the attorney-general If this man was speaking the truth there was end of the case ; for, strange to say perhaps, in Germany counsel for the prose cution does not hold it to be incumbent upon him to do his best, or rather his worst, to send an accused man to the scaffold, when there may be a fair presumption of his innocence.

A loud buzz of conversation went through the hall for several minutes, whilst the president was consulting with the other members of the court.

The witness paid no attention whatever to this buzz of conversation ; his eyes were fixed steadily in the direction of the president.

The latter at last turned again to the witness to ask a few questions.

' Witness Hessler,' he said, ' you heard nothing more after you had left the two in the wood ?' ' No, Sir President, nothing whatever. I ' 'Stop,' said the president, interrupting him. ' Listen to me attentively. Did you not hear a shot fired ?' 'No, Sir President. Was there a shot fired ?' ' Why, sir, you must have heard it fired. The witness Lilienfeld heard it quite distinctly ; and you, who profess to have such acute hearing that you can distinctly catch whispered conversations at twenty feet distance, —you mean to tell the court that you did not hear the shot fired ?' ' No, Sir President, indeed I did not hear the shot fired ; and for a most sufficient reason—l am absolutely deaf, Sir President!' This cool statement was too much for the court, the jury, the bar, and the public. 'Did you ever hear such impudence?' every one asked his neighbour. ' Yet you hear every word I am saying to you ? What do you mean, witness ? I must caution you that s'ou will have to swear to the truth of your deposition.' ' I have spoken the pure truth, Sir President,' said the witness solemnly, ' and I am ready to take my oath on it. Allow me to explain. I repeat to you that lam absolutely deaf, unfortunately for me. I could not hear the discharge of a park of artillery. Here,' hauling to the usher another folded paper. 'is a medical certificate of exemption from military service, on account of incurable total deafness. It is signed, as you will see, Sir President, by the surgeon-general of the staff of the Prussian army, and by three chief staff surgeons. The fact is, Sir President, that I had a very severe attack of brain-fever at the age of nineteen. When I recovered, mj r hearing was totally gone. All the doctors whom I consulted gave it as their opinion that I should never recover the lost sense. Tbey have turned out to be right. I felt this to be a fearful affliction, I was so very young ; still I saw a ray of hope. My studies, desul tory though they had been, had taught me the great beneficent law of compensation and substitution which pervades all creation. As the blind strive to find in the of touch a second sense of sight, so I resolved to hear, as it were, through my eyes. lor hours and hours together I used to stand before the looking-glass talking at my rellected image, in Germau, French, and Italian - for I had passed several years in France and Italy. 1 also engaged people to talk to me in either of the three languages, and closely watched the changing expression of i heir eyes and features, and the motions of their lips. Some rive years passed unremittingly in this earger and arduous pursuit after a substituted sense of hearing by sight, more than fully realised my most sanguine hopes. Ever since then this acquired substituted sense has gone on improving, and I may truthfully say now that I hear indeed through the sense of sight.'

Whilst the witness B easier was delivering this statement in the simplest manner, as if he were discussing <he details of an everyday occurrence, and in truthful accents calculated to carry conviction to most minds, tho deepest silence reigned in the hall of justice. The same silence continued to be kept even after the witness had done speaking, all eyes turning in eager expectation to the court.

The President was observed to address some words to his Karned brother on his right, who was seen to reply to his chief's remarks. Both were looking curiously at the witness. The words were whispered in a low scarcely audible key, so that not a sound could possibly travel beyond the judges' bench. The witness, with the same smile flitting over his features which had been remarked, several times before, addressed the president.

'May I venture, Sir President, to ask your kind permission to make another brief statement to the court V

Permission being granted, the witness proceeded with his habitual calm, ' I have just now seen you say to the gentlemen on your right, " It is not" altogether impossible what he asserts. It is not even quite improbable ; but it sounds so strange tha; it requires a good deal of somewhat credulous faith to let it pass current." The gentloman on your right replied, " I should be sorry to believe it without better proof than we have had as yet The man looks honest enough, and speaks with singular apparent truthfulness ; but then he may, after all, be a rogue and cheat, and his evidence not worth a pin." You, Sir President, returned, " What object could he have in view ?" to which the other gentleman replied, "Why, they may have been companions together in California; they may have planned the murder between them, and the accomplice come forward now to get his partner acquitted, that they may share the plunder together; or'"—here the ■witness hesitated an instant, then proceeded rather diffidently —' I do not know whether to go on, but still I think it better to do so, that you may gain the most entire conviction of the truth of my statement—" or it may be one of old Wolff's knavish dodges." '

A general titter ran through the court. Councillor Wolff looked daggers at the judge, who had thus disrespectfully taken his name in vain, and who, as well as the president, showed signs of the utmost amazement and of some vexation at the indiscreet revelation. ' I must fully admit the perfect correctness of your report of our whispered con versation, Mr Hessler,' the president said at last courteously, 'and I will add that 1 feel much inclined to joiniD the apparent general belief in the truth of your evidence. But why did you not inform the court at once of your—infirmity ?' ' I was not asked, Sir President; and my experience in life has taught me the wisdom of always keeping strictly within the record, as you gentlemen of the law have it. This caused another laugh in court. The attorney-general then rose, and, addressing the court, begged, in a few simple words, to absolutely withdraw the accusation against Conrad Tuchmann, and on the parts of the crown to sanction bis immediate release from custody.

General applause, which was not sup pressed by order of the court, followed this announcement. Conrad Tuchmann had fainted clean away. His parents, who had, with indescribable a xiety, been 'waiting for the verdict' outside the court, were peedily fetched in by the widow Lehmaun, to have their 'boy' handed over to them as if 'new-born into'the world,' and—we may as well drop the curtain !