he
bullet was directed; its elevated position and the angle of incidence
showed this. But as neither of these bullets had struck the deceased,
for there was no mark of any kind to prove it, there was another
bullet to be accounted for, and as the prisoner said that the pistol
went off by accident, two or three matters had to be considered. Where
was the spot where the accident occurred? and was aim actually taken?

The bullet had entered the hinder part of the neck, had taken a
downward direction, and lodged in the spine. It did not, therefore, go
off while he was explaining the pistol to her, otherwise it would have
struck her at any other place than where it did.

Moreover, she had run in a state of intense fright the moment she was
wounded--had commenced to run before, in fact, having escaped from the
clutches of her murderer, for the skirt of her dress was torn from the
gathers. It was proved that the prisoner had bought the pistol on the
Saturday night, that he was unused to firearms, for he had to ask
the man who sold it to explain the mode of using it. He was heard
practising with it on Sunday, and when the accident occurred it was
proved that the interval between the first and second shots exactly
accounted for the space which intervened between the respective spots
where the firing must have taken place.

Much was made of the fact that the poor girl had said she thought it
was an accident, but I had to call the learned counsel's attention
to the statement at the end of her examination, which was this: "I
thought at first it was an accident, for I could not believe he could
be so cruel, but after the _second shot_ I believed he meant to kill
me."

A somewhat novel incident occurred during the examination for the
prosecution.

A wire stand had been dressed with the girl's clothes to show where
the lower part of the dress had been torn from the gathers. It was
placed on the table, and no doubt exactly resembled the girl herself.
The prisoner was so much affected that he shuddered, and had to be
supported.

He was condemned to death.

In the House of Commons and out of it sympathy was, of course,
aroused, not for the unhappy girl who had been sent suddenly to her
account, but for the lustful brute who had murdered her. A question
was asked of the Secretary of State for the Home Department as to the
prisoner being insane, and whether there was not abundant evidence of
insanity at the trial.

The counsel