The prosecution must show that the
mysterious individual who entered the house at three o'clock in the
morning is not the guilty party. To be sure, the clock indicated
eleven o'clock. But what of that? I contend, that proves nothing.
The assassin could turn the hands of the clock to any hour he
pleased, and thus deceive us in regard to the exact hour of the
crime."
Victor Danegre was acquitted.
He left the prison on Friday about dusk in the evening, weak and
depressed by his six months' imprisonment. The inquisition, the
solitude, the trial, the deliberations of the jury, combined to
fill him with a nervous fear. At night, he had been afflicted with
terrible nightmares and haunted by weird visions of the scaffold.
He was a mental and physical wreck.
Under the assumed name of Anatole Dufour, he rented a small room on
the heights of Montmartre, and lived by doing odd jobs wherever he
could find them. He led a pitiful existence. Three times, he
obtained regular employment, only to be recognized and then
discharged. Sometimes, he had an idea that men were following him--
detectives, no doubt, who were seeking to trap and denounce him.
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