he county at large with incredulous
disappointment. Death at the hands of a person unknown.

No evidence was produced in the court room which threw any clear light
upon the commission of the deed, its motive, or its perpetrator. There
were ample accounts of the capture of the horse, the finding of the
body, its position, and the nature of the wound,--medical opinion in
addition that death had been instantaneous, and probably received before
the breaking of the storm. If there had been any telltale track or mark
in the soil of the river road, the continued and beating rain had made
the way impossible to read. Witnesses from Malplaquet told of Ludwell
Cary's setting forth that morning, and Forrest, the blacksmith, vouched
for his passing the forge, alone. Men from the mill at the ford swore
to his pausing to answer their questions as to the trial of Aaron Burr,
and to his riding on--by the main road. Here arose the confusion. They
were certain that Mr. Cary had taken the main road. They thought so
then, and they did not see yet how they were mistaken. They told the
next man who came riding by that he had taken that road--the main road.
It was not the next man,--boatmen and others had passed going up
country,--but when Mr. Rand came up, they told him that Mr. Cary was on
the road before him--the main road. Yes, sir, it was Mr. Rand and his
negro boy, and he could speak for it that Mr. Cary was supposed to be
riding to Greenwood by the usual road--the main road. The river road was
after all very little shorter, and everybody knew that it was mortal
bad.

Lewis Rand was called. He testified that he had left Richmond upon the
third, having with him a negro boy known as Young Isham. The night of
the sixth he had slept at the Cross Roads Tavern and gone on the next
morning, passing Malplaquet about nine. His horse loosening a shoe, he
stopped at Forrest's forge, and there learned from the smith that there
was considerable travel, and that Mr. Cary of Greenwood had passed some
time before. "You remember, Forrest? I asked you if Mr. Cary had
mentioned which road he would take at the ford, and you answered that he
had not, but that you supposed the main road the other had been very bad
all summer. Again, at the mill below the ford where I paused to ask for
water, the miller, remarking on the travel home from Richmond, informed
me that Mr. Cary had passed not long before. I asked him which road Mr.
Cary had taken, the main road or