Every thing possible was done to induce the
latter to confess what had become of the child; but to all questions he
opposed an obstinate silence. The negro boy did not recognize him. At
last he declared that he knew nothing of the stolen child, and that he
had only written the letter in the hope of extorting money from the
father. Hardly, however, had this been written down, when he turned to
Clarke, with an infernal grin upon his countenance, and said, "You have
persecuted and hunted me like a wild beast, but I will make you yet more
wretched than you are able to make me." He then proceeded to inform him
of a certain place where he would find his child's clothes.

Clarke immediately set out with a constable to the indicated spot, found
the clothes, as he had been told he would do, and returned to Natchez.
The accused was again put at the bar, and said, after frequently
contradicting himself, that the child was still alive, but that, if they
kept him longer in prison, it would inevitably die of hunger. Nothing
could persuade him to say where the boy was, or to give one syllable of
further explanation.

Meantime the quarter-sessions commenced, and the prisoner was brought up
for trial. An immense concourse of persons had assembled to witness the
proceedings in this remarkable case. Every thing was done to induce the
accused to confess, but all in vain. Promises of free pardon, and even
of reward, were made to him, if he told where the child was; but the man
maintained an obstinate silence. He at last again changed his story,
retracted his previous declaration as to his knowledge of where the boy
was, said he had found the clothes, which he had recognised by the
descriptions that had been every where advertised, and that it was that
which had put it into his head to write to the father, in hopes of
making his profit by so doing. In the absence of witnesses, although
there was strong suspicion, there could be no proof of his having
committed the crime in question. In America, circumstantial evidence is
always received with extreme caution and reluctance; and even the fact
of the child's clothes having been found in the place the prisoner had
pointed out, was insufficient to induce the jury to find the latter
guilty of the capital charge brought against him. Many of the lawyers,
indeed, were of opinion, that the man's last story was true, that he had
found the clothes, and, being a desperate character and in needy
circums