mistaken Identity

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 207, 3 September 1886, Page 4

mistaken Identity

Remarkable Cases in Which Deception Was Practised.

About 300 years ago, in Prance, Martin Guerre, a .young lad, was married to his sweetheart Bertrande. After twelve years of mutual happiness Martin disappeared and nothing was heard of him for eight years. He was last seen with a bag and stick on the road, and he apparently returned in the same manner. He looked just as before, except stouter and sunburnt, and with a heavy beard. All the village recognifed him and so did bis wife, who received him tenderly and without reproaches. To her, as to them, he showed a spontaneous memory of every detail of the past, and, the morning after his arrival, said to her : " Please bring me my white breeches trimmed with white silk ; you will rind theiri at the bottom of the large beech chest, under the linen." For three yeare they lived as man and wife, and a child was born to them. No suspicion crossed Beitrande's mind nor the minds of neighbours ; yet this man waß not her husband, not Martin Guerre. A soldier who had known the real husband in the wars denounced the false one as a cheat at sight. Yet, when interrogated in court, the impostor, whose name was Arnauld Dv Tilh, answered in detail every question as to Martin's early life, marriage, departure, motives. He even described tho women's dresses at the wedding and gave all the names, including the priest who had officiated. Every detail of Martin and Bertrahde's past history was given in open court without hesitation or contradicion. In two long investigations, more than forty witnesses swore that the accused was Martin Guerre, and among them hi 9 four sister's and two brotherE-iu-law. Witnesses swore to certain peculiarities and marks on the real Guerre, which were all found on his duplicate. Forty-five other witnesses swore that the prisoner was not Guerre.but Arnauld Dv Tilh, whom they knew well, So equal was the balance that the judges, not being able to decide either way, were about to give the accused the benefit Of the doubt, when who should walk through the village to his home and thence into the court-room but the real Martin Guerre himself. The impostor, undaunted, swore that the man hehad personated was an impostor. Stranger still, ho was clearer in his memory of the patt than the dazed newcomer seemed. But strong likenesses between persons win n soparated become loss striking when they stand side by side. The four sisters retracted at once, and flingingthemselvesintoMartin's arms criod : "This is our dear brother." The wife also confessed that the had been imposed upon, with shame and tears. Tho only French roport of the trial says : "Two eggs do not resemble each other more than did thesetwomen," One by one tho witnesses retracted. The fraud was put to death, making a confession thni some friends of Guerre had accosted him by (hat name, which had suggested the deception, and that bis knowledge had been acquired from Guerre himself, whom he had known as a comrade in the rrmy. This ancient trial recalls one in the early days of San Francisco, in ISSI, when thoro was a temporary committ c of vigilance to aid the slow regular p lice in detecting the crimes committed by the "Sydney Ducks," a term often unfairly used of respectable settlers from

Australia aa well as of the ox-convicta from that colony. About 6 o'clock one spring eveniDg Charles Jansen, proprietor of » wholesale dry goods establiehment on Mont. gomery-streot, was seated alone in his counting-room, his clerks having gone to supper. Two strangers Entered, one of whom felled him with a bar of iron, while the other rifled the safe of many thousands of dollars in coin and gold dust. The clerks found Mr Jansen senseless and bleeding on tho floor.' Next day he was able to describe his assailants, and the supposed criminals were ur.-ested as they stepped aboard, the Sacramento boat. The description of ono of them agreed exactly with' James Stuart, the leader of a gang of thieves and murderers who had killed the Sheriff of Yuba county, and were the terror of the State. The police were satisfied that they had now captured Jim Stuart and Joe Wildred, his companion, and that thoy were the porpetrators of the double crime. It was feared that Jansen would_ die, and the two men were taken to his bedside, where he at once and unhesitatingly identified the smaller man supposed to beStuart, as the man who had struck him with the iron bar. About the other he had little doubt, but cou.d not swear so positively. The men wore tried at once, giving their names Ix 3 Thomas Berduo and Josoph Wildred. They pleaded in vain that they were " chums' from a mining camp, just arrived in San Franscisco, and knew nothing of the deeds attributed to them. It was with great difficulty and by the intervention of soldiers that they were saved from lynch . ing. Many witnesses swore that Berdue wa3 Stuart. They were sentenced to be hanged on the following Friday. But meanwhile a vigilance committee party scouting the sand hille between San Francisco and the Mission Dolores c.me upon a man half hidden, full length in the sand. He waa the real Stuart, confessed that crime and others, and waa hanged on Friday instead of the innocent Bordue. Tbe latter wits put beside his body when he was cut down, and a reporter, who was present, wrote : " Berdue atood in the' presence of his dead lival, standing by the table on which Stuart waa lying, and gazed upon the fixed features. It was like a man looking at his own corpse. I never before or Eince saw such a resemblance. Stuart was, perhaps, a trifle stouter, but, having seen either one, 1 think I should have unhesitatingly, at any time. thereafter been willing to swear to the other aa that one. It scarcely seema possible that the men could have so perfectly resembled each other."