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cautioned. He said, °° You might tell me something about it-where
did they find him? Did they find the whole of the body ? " I ask you,
if, with the knowledge this prisoner had, that they had been sounding
about that Medical College, and should look no more for the body,
what prompted that inquiry - "Did they find the whole of the body ? "
Mr. Foreman or either one of you Gentlemen, I ask you to put
yourselves in the condition in which Dr. Webster was that night,
being an innocent man. A fipstaff has put his hand upon your
shoulder, and you are taken into custody; and the body, he says, of
a murdered man is no longer to be searched for, because they have
been searching enough, and you are arrested as his murderer. Now,
what would prompt you to put such a question as that. not knowing
that the body was cut up-« Did they find the whole of the body?"
There out-spoke the guilty conscience, showing a knowledge that the
body of Dr. Parkman was not an entirety, but separated into fragments.
°° I then asked him, if anybody had access to his private rooms but him-
self." °,Nobody, but the porter, who makes the fires!" Next a pause !
Then he says, '1 That villain ! I am a ruined man! " He then put
his hand into his pocket, and took something-and then he had those
violent spasms, and the other symptoms that followed throu!h that
night; and, in the presence of Mr. Cummings, the turnkey, while
tossing upon his bed, unconsciously comes out from him that confes-
sion, 1' I expected this! "
Now trace him down to the Medical College. He has had no in-
formation that the body had been found. Mr. Clapp told him simply
that they should search no more. When he had reached the College,
and when they were searching the private room, where they can
find nothing, then he is calm. But when they got down to the lab-
oratory, and it was discovered that the remains were found in the
privy-vault, then came that spasm again. And, if you believe what
the witnesses testify to, the sweat streamed out upon him, though he
was complaining of cold - that his pantaloons were saturated, and his
coat moistened with perspiration !
I ask you, if this man, who has gone calmly through, innocent or
guilty, more than any man I ever knew- whether you can believe
that that was the mere prostration of an innocent man, or whether it
was the guilty conscience that drew the sweat of that mortal agony
out of him ? When he found that there was nothing discovered but
these remains in the vault, upon which were no marks of identity, and
which he did not see nearer than nine feet, he says, °° Why did they
not ask Littlefield ? " °° They took me down there, and asked no
questions." And he comes here with no declarations, of that fearful
night, which had been extorted from him by inquiries. All that
comes here is the voluntary, unconscious confession of mute nature
in the man.
Now, I have but one other fact to comment upon, and I will relieve
your patience. On Saturday, he remains in this condition. Mr.
Andrews states to you that he went in there in the rrlorning, and then
he made that cruel accusation against Littlefield, although he said -
not as the Counsel put it to you, but in his own language,- That
is no more Dr. Parkman's body than it is my, body ; but how in the
name of Heaven it came there, I do not know." This is leis defence;
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