CHAPTER XXX.
_The Trial._--_An unexpected Witness._--_A convincing Story._--_An able, but fruitless Defense._--_A verdict of Guilty._--_The triumph of Justice._ The trial of William Bucholz for the murder of Henry Schulte began in the old Court House at Bridgeport on the ninth day of September, and a ripple of excitement pervaded the city.

The interest attaching to this case had extended beyond the locality in which it had occurred, and the reporter's table was crowded with representatives of the various metropolitan journals who designed giving publicity to the proceedings of the trial.
The judges, solemn and dignified, were upon the bench.

The lawyers, bustling among their books and papers, were actively engaged in preparing for the scenes that were to follow, while the State's attorney, quiet and calm, but with a confident look of determination upon his face, awaited the production of the prisoner and the formal opening of the case.
Bucholz had engaged the services of three lawyers--General Smith, who had acquired considerable fame as an attorney; Mr.Bollman, who had been connected with the case from its inception, and Mr.Alfred E.
Austin, a young member of the bar, who resided at Norwalk.
The sheriff entered with his prisoner, and placed him in the dock, to plead to the indictment that was to be read to him, and upon which he was to be placed upon trial for his life.
He entered with the same careless, jaunty air which had marked his first appearance at South Norwalk, and except for a certain nervousness in his manner and a restless wandering of the eager glance which he cast around him, no one would have imagined that he stood upon the eve of a trying ordeal that was to result either in sending him to the gallows or in striking from his wrists the shackles that encircled them, and sending him out into the world a free man.
He was dressed with scrupulous neatness, and had evidently taken great care in preparing himself for the trial.

He wore a new suit of clothes, of neat pattern and of modern style, and his linen was of spotless whiteness and carefully arranged.

As he entered and took his seat a suppressed murmur of surprise, not unmixed with sympathy, pervaded the court-room.
The hall was crowded, and a large number of ladies, attracted, perhaps, by that element of curiosity which is inherent in the sex, and perhaps by that quality of sympathy for which they are remarkable, were present, and Bucholz at once became the focus of all eyes and the subject of universal comment and conversation.
From the nature of the charge against him many had expected to see some ferocious-looking ruffian, whose countenance would portray the evidence of his crime, and whose appearance would indicate the certainty of his guilt.