Some Peculiar Judgments. attention was attracted to the creature's strange conduct and the body of Montdidier was discovered. It was noticed that when ever the dog saw Macaire it strove to fly at him. This aroused suspicion, and the king, hearing of the matter, resolved to investigate. Macaire and the dog were brought before him. Immediately the creature saw Macaire it again strove furiously to get at him. Ma caire protested that he was innocent of the murder, but this did not satisfy the king, who ordered that Macaire and the dog should meet in single combat, the man to be furnished with a stout stick, and hisfourfooted opponent to have an open barrel to which it could retreat in case it was hard pressed. The oddly-matched combatants entered the arena. The dog acted with extreme caution, keeping just out of reach of the staff until it saw its opportunity. Then it gave a furious bound and caught Macaire by the throat and bore him to the ground. The wretched man, fearing that he would be torn to pieces, cried for mercy and con fessed his crime, whereupon the attendants rushed in and dragged the d»g away. Ma caire was handed over to the law, sentenced, and executed. In these modern times picturesque judg ments are hard to be found. I recall one or two little stories however. A man on trial in Illinois for horse-stealing put in a plea of matrimonial insanity. " Matrimonial insan ity," exclaimed the judge; " that is a novel defense; however, let us hear the evidence." A witness deposed that during the ten years he had known the prisoner, the latter had married half a dozen times, and was living with wife number six at the time of his arrest. " They were all a sorry lot," he continued, " and they kept the poor man constantly in hot water by their peevish, scolding, quarrelsome dispositions." After this account of the prisoner's matri
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monial tribulations had been confirmed by other witnesses, his lawyer made an eloquent appeal to the court, concluding with the plea that his client could not be held a responsible agent after being galled by such Xantippes for ten years. This skillful " touch of nature "was sufficient for the judge, and he charged the jury thus : " This court has had a certain amount of matrimonial ex perience with one female, and such experi ence has not been altogether of a satisfactory character. But here is a man who has been so blind, imbecile and idiotic as to marry in ten years six horrible scolds and shrews. For so doing I class him as a natural fool; and even if he possessed any intelligence, the dwelling with these women must have destroyed it. The plea of the counsel for the defense is sound in law and equity, and I charge you to bring in a verdict of acquit tal." The jury did as they were bid. A tax-collector at Naples absconded with a large sum of money. He was caught, brought back, and put on trial. His coun sel admitted the charge, but put in the plea that as the collector was one of the people, and the money was the people's money, it would be monstrous to convict him of steal ing what was his own. It is well nigh in credible, but the story runs that on this plea the thief was acquitted. Some years ago Miss Roxalana Hoonan brought Mr. Earle before the Brooklyn court for breach of promise. She admitted that the gentleman had never promised marriage by his hand or tongue, but he had kissed her in company. Judge Neilson told the jury that no interchange of words was necessary, " the gleam of the eye and the conjunction of the lips being overtures when frequent and protracted," and thus directed they made the defendant pay fifteen thou sand dollars for heedlessly indulging in eyegleams and lip-conjunctions.
