The occupants of the smashed vehicle survived the "wreck of matter;" whether with a whole skin or not, does not appear, as the personal knowledge of the driver, as stated on the trial, was summed up in the words, "I left 'em there!"
In consequence of the proceedings which have been described, the coach arrived at Barre an hour and a quarter behind the time.
It having been thought advisable to prosecute these men for obstructing the mail, a suit was brought against them in the U. S. District Court of Massachusetts.
The evidence on the part of Government went to show that they must have known the character of the coach: that it carried the mail, for the words "U. S. Mail" were conspicuously painted on the coach; and the sign "Post-Office" was up at the place in Holden where the mail was taken out, and where they saw the coach stop. Also the men were known by sight to some of the passengers; and one of them had been a stage-coach proprietor, and the other had driven a coach. Indeed, one of the passengers, while they were at Holden, addressed Baker, whom he knew, by name, and told him "he should think that he had been in the stage business long enough to know better."
The passengers were unanimous in considering the case as clearly one of wilful detention.
The testimony for the defence was rather lame. The post master at Rutland testified that the mail from Worcester was due at 7 P. M., though he had known it three-quarters of an hour later. He thought it arrived, on the evening in question, at 5 minutes past 7; but could not say certainly that the 8th of January was the night when the mail arrived at that time, though he had no doubt of it, nor had he looked at his register since that night. In short, his evidence amounted to a rough guess, which could make no impression on the Gibraltar of opposing testimony furnished by a coach full of passengers, as well as other witnesses.
Another witness for the defence testified that Stark's horse was "smooth-shod," with the view of establishing the extreme improbability of the alleged performances, as the road was icy, and rapid motion therefore hazardous to an animal thus shod. But, as the quadruped in question was shown actually to have done the thing, this ingenious theory was set aside, although a slur was thus cast upon Mr. Stark's character as a prudent driver.
But the crowning shame of Stark's delinquency consisted in the fact that he was constable and tax-collector of the town of Hubbardston. History is not without instances of monarchs and others high in authority, who have descended to the indulgence of freaks inconsistent with the dignity of their station; and Shakspeare has immortalized the frolics of Prince Henry. But neither historian nor poet has hitherto been able to record of a constable and tax-gatherer that he amused himself with maliciously driving a smooth-shod horse, so as to obstruct the progress of the United States Mail.
This man, set to be "a terror to evil-doers" should have been a terror to himself; indeed we may conceive of him as smitten with compunction, and arresting himself—Stark the constable tapping himself on the shoulder. At least he should have arrested his own progress, before he fell from his high estate, and degenerated from a constable into an unlucky buffoon.
The questions for the jury were, First, Did these men obstruct the United States Mail? And, secondly, Did they do so knowingly and wilfully? If they did so obstruct the mail, then as a man is presumed in law to intend what is the natural and necessary consequence of his acts, in the absence of controlling testimony otherwise, the inference would inevitably follow, that their conduct in this affair was the result of "malice aforethought."