The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 197: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

190 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. SE, a OS “Should I be believed,” exclaimed Adelaide, | was aroused by one of the maids, who entered to with much emotion, “if I were to assert the con- | see if I required anything.” trary? No—it would be against nature! consider it a sacrifice; and the world must tiny; and when I once became the wife of an hon- ourable man, I resolved to fulfil my duties faithfully. Nay—I can scarcely say that I resolved; because that would be to imply that I had deliberated upon the subject—and to deliberate would have been to waver. What I mean is, that when I once en- tered the marriage-state, I accepted all its holiest obligations; and the prosecuting counsel has done me the justice tq admit that I never have been aecused of violating them.” This speech, brief though it were, was very effective, and produced a reaction of opinion on behalf of the accused. Perhaps too, her exquisite beauty, which was set off at the moment by the re-ap of the flushing roses upon her cheeks, helped to create that renewed sympathy: at least it was so with the male portion of the auditory. “ Now, Adelaide Horton,” said the President,— for in France the prisoner under such circum- stances would be addressed by her maiden name, — “answer me this question: how long. is it since you saw the Count de St. Gerard ?” * Some weells previously to my marriage with the Baron de Charlemont,” replied the accused, ‘I beheld the Count de St. Gerard for the last time.” Here the counsel engaged for Adelaide’s defence, rose and addressing the tribunal isting of threo judges, said, “ Gentlemen, anticipating that such a question would be put, we have taken pains to procure evidence to the effect that the Count de St. Gerard has not set foot in Paris—nor has he indeed been within fifty leagues of the capital—for upwards of two years past. Here is an affidavit to that effect, made by the Count de St. Gerard, and attested before the proper authorities at Stras- bourg.” The paper being duly handed in, the interroga- tory was resumed,—the President now asking the Baroness whether she had purchased poison at the chemist’s house—whether she had ever herself in mean apparel her station— —whether she had ever seen the .chemist’s son previous to the occasion on which he presented himself at her mansion in company with the un- dertaker ?—to all which questions Adelaide replied firmly in the negative. | “YT have now,” said the President, “but one more question to ask—and it is an important one. The indictment that at nine o’clock in the evening of the 20th of August, 1842, you visited the chemist’s house under certain circumstances, If this be the case, you must have been away from your own home for at least an hour. The question I have to ask is this—What were you doing with yourself on that particular evening from nine to ten o'clock? and can you prove how you passed that interval P’”’ “I dined with my deceased husband and m aunt,” responded Adelaide, “at seven o'clock. At eight we retired to the drawing-room. Soon after- wards I was seized with a violent headache, and retired to my own chamber, where I lay down and fell into a deep sleep. At about half-past ten I I did have | me as a victim. But I accepted my des- | query was deemed unsatisfactory by the audience, <q The President had no farther question to put; and it was evident that the response to this last —the tide of ion once more setting in strongly against the Baronese de Charlemont. As to what the judges and the jury thought of the matter, it was impossible to glean from their grave and unc countenances. The trial was sus- | pended for half-an-hour, during which interval the | prisoner was transferred to a private apartment in the Palace of Justice; and when the were resumed, the examination of the witnesses for the prosecution commenced. The chemist’s son was the first thus called upon ; and he recited the facts already known to the reader: but when crose-cxamined, he admitted that during the six weeks which had elapsed since the Baroness was taken into custody, he had on three or four oocasions said to his father, “ Good heavens! what if after all I should be mistaken as to the identity of this lady with the woman who purchased the poison? I should be the means of sending an innocent being to the scaffold !” Never- theless, when re-examined by the Royal Procurator, he affirmed his belief that the prisoner in the dock was really and truly the same who had purchased the poison; and he attributed his occasional waver- ings to a certain nervous excitement which all these extrac: proceedings had produced. His father wag the second witness examined: but all that he had to depose, was the circumstance of making an inquiry at the address given by the femalo who purchased the poison, and finding that address to be a false one. The third witnese called for the prosecution, was the principal lady’s-maid of the Baroness de Chariemont. She deposed that on the evening already particularized as to date, she perfectly well recollected the prisoner ascending to her own chamber a little before nine o'clock, and complain- ing to the witness, who was in that chamber at the time, of a very severe headache. The Baroness said ahe should lie down and endeavour to sleep: whereupon the witness withdrew. Some little time afterwards—it might have been perhaps an hour—witness again ascended to the chamber- door, and knocked, thinking that possibly her mistress might require something. No answer was returned: she tried the handle of the door— - but found that it was locked inside; and therefore concluding that her ladyship was aleeping, she retired. Adjoining that chamber was the Baron's dressing-room, which communicated with ancther chamber, known as the Baron's private apart- ment ; and this had likewise « door opening into & passage, whence a private staircase led down into a small garden; and from this garden there was a back entrance into the Rue de Grenelle, which is behind the Rue de Tournon, running parallel with it. The witness did not however endeavour to penetrate into her mistress’s chamber by passing through that already described as the Baron’s private apartment: she could not there- fore say whether the door of this private apart- ment was also locked. At about half-past ten or a quarter to eleven on the night im question, she ascended again to her mistress’s chamber she knocked—and in a few moments the doos Ogee w= Gare <eaEmewm ~ (COL (C DOO CS (COL