“In outlining the evidence which will be presented in support of this indictment, I earnestly desire that you will give me your dispassionate and undivided attention; and I call God to witness, that disclaiming personal animosity and undue zeal for vengeance, I am sorrowfully indicating as an officer of the law, a path of inquiry, that must lead you to that goal where, before the altar of Truth, Justice swings her divine scales, and bids Nemesis unsheathe her sword.

“On the afternoon of October the twenty-sixth, about three o’clock, a stranger arrived in X—­and inquired of the station agent what road would carry her to ‘Elm Bluff’, the home of General Darrington; assuring him she would return in time to take the north-bound train at 7.15, as urgent business necessitated her return.  Demanding an interview with Gen’l Darrington, she was admitted, incognito, and proclaimed herself his granddaughter, sent hither by a sick mother, to procure a certain sum of money required for specified purposes.  That the interview was stormy, was characterized by fierce invective on her part, and by bitter denunciation and recrimination on his, is too well established to admit of question; and they parted implacable foes, as is attested by the fact that he drove her from his room through a rear and unfrequented door, opening into a flower garden, whence she wandered over the grounds until she found the gate.  The vital import of this interview lies in the great stress Gen’l Darrington placed upon the statement he iterated and reiterated; that he had disinherited his daughter, and drawn up a will bequeathing his entire estate to his step-son Prince.

“Miss Brentano did not leave X—­at 7.15, though she had ample time to do so, after quitting ‘Elm Bluff’.  She loitered about the station house until nearly half-past eight, then disappeared.  At 10 P.M. she was seen and identified by a person who had met her at ‘Elm Bluff’, crouching behind a tree near the road that led to that ill-fated house, and when questioned regarding her presence there, gave unsatisfactory answers.  At half-past two o’clock she was next seen hastening toward the station office, along the line of the railroad, from the direction of the water tank, which is situated nearly a mile north of town.  Meanwhile an unusually severe storm had been followed by a drenching rain, and the stranger’s garments were wet, when, after a confused and contradictory account of her movements, she boarded the 3.05 train bound north.

“During that night, certainly after ten o’clock, Gen’l Darrington was murdered.  His vault was forced open, money was stolen, and most significant of all, the will was abstracted.  Criminal jurisprudence holds that the absence of motive renders nugatory much weighty testimony.  In this melancholy cause, could a more powerful motive be imagined than that which goaded the prisoner to dip her fair hands in her grandfather’s blood, in order to possess and destroy that will, which stood as an everlasting barrier between her and the estate she coveted?