nt woman. The two legal
points relied on for the defense (after this preliminary flourish) were:
First, that there was no evidence to connect her with the possession
of poison; and, secondly, that the medical witnesses, while positively
declaring that her husband had died by poison, differed in their
conclusions as to the particular drug that had killed him. Both good
points, and both well worked; but the evidence on the other side bore
down everything before it. The prisoner was proved to have had no less
than three excellent reasons for killing her husband. He had treated her
with almost unexampled barbarity; he had left her in a will (unrevoked
so far as she knew) mistress of a fortune on his death; and she was, by
her own confession, contemplating an elopement with another man. Having
set forth these motives, the prosecution next showed by evidence, which
was never once shaken on any single point, that the one person in the
house who could by any human possibility have administered the poison
was the prisoner at the bar. What could the judge and jury do, with such
evidence before them as this? The verdict was Guilty, as a matter of
course; and the judge declared that he agreed with it. The female part
of the audience was in hysterics; and the male part was not much better.
The judge sobbed, and the bar shuddered. She was sentenced to death in
such a scene as had never been previously witnessed in an English court
of justice. And she is alive and hearty at the present moment; free
to do any mischief she pleases, and to poison, at her own entire
convenience, any man, woman, or child that happens to stand in her way.
A most interesting woman! Keep on good terms with her, my dear sir,
whatever you do, for the Law has said to her in the plainest possible
English, 'My charming friend, I have no terrors for _you_!'"

"How was she pardoned?" asked Mr. Bashwood, breathlessly. "They told me
at the time, but I have forgotten. Was it the Home Secretary? If it was,
I respect the Home Secretary! I say the Home Secretary was deserving of
his place."

"Quite right, old gentleman!" rejoined Bashwood the younger. "The Home
Secretary was the obedient humble servant of an enlightened Free Press,
and he _was_ deserving of his place. Is it possible you don't know how
she cheated the gallows? If you don't, I must tell you. On the evening
of the trial, two or three of the young buccaneers of literature
went down to two or three newspaper