Snatching up the candle from
the table, I held it low, and looked. The dark, slowly moving object was a
stream of blood!
That horrid sight roused me. I opened the door. The Englishman lay on his
bed--alone in the room. He was stabbed in two places--in the throat and in
the heart. The weapon was left in the second wound. It was a knife of
English manufacture, with a handle of buckhorn as good as new.
I instantly gave the alarm. Witnesses can speak to what followed. It is
monstrous to suppose that I am guilty of the murder. I admit that I am
capable of committing follies: but I shrink from the bare idea of a crime.
Besides, I had no motive for killing the man. The woman murdered him in my
absence. The woman escaped by the west entrance while I was talking to my
mistress. I have no more to say. I swear to you what I have here written
is a true statement of all that happened on the morning of the first of
March.
Accept, sir, the assurance of my sentiments of profound gratitude and
respect.
JOSEPH RIGOBERT.
LAST LINES.--ADDED BY PERCY FAIRBANK
Tried for the murder of Francis Raven, Joseph Rigobert was found Not
Guilty; the papers of the assassinated man presented ample evidence of the
deadly animosity felt toward him by his wife.
The investigations pursued on the morning when the crime was committed
showed that the murderess, after leaving the stable, had taken the
footpath which led to the river.
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