s no meaning in language.

"With regard to the prisoner's alleged handwriting on the packets and
papers found under the woman's bed and elsewhere, I must point out to
you that here is one on which is written, 'Take in a little water; it
is quite harmless. Will come over in a day or two.'

"This was written on a buff paper, which Dr. Stevenson said must have
contained 35 grains of strychnine, sufficient to kill thirty-five
persons, and the direction written was, 'One dose; take as told.'

"These inscriptions were sworn to by experts as being in the
prisoner's handwriting."

Here I pointed out the alleged resemblances in the characters of the
letters, so that the jury might judge if the prisoner wrote them.

"If the prisoner wrote the words 'take as told,' you must ask
yourselves the meaning of it.

"Also, you will ask whether it was not a little strange that the death
occurred on that very Friday night when he said he would go over and
see her. Again, the word 'harmless' is of the gravest character,
seeing that within the folds of that paper were 35 grains of a deadly
powder, which even for rat-powder would be mixed with something else.

"Again, as to motive, upon which so much stress has been laid by the
defendant's counsel. If the prisoner had no motive, who else had? Is
there a human being on earth who had ill-will towards her, or anything
to gain by her death? The learned counsel carefully avoided suggesting
any one; nor could he suggest that any one in the neighbourhood wrote
the same handwriting as the prisoner. I will dismiss the theory that
some one had imitated the prisoner's writing in order to do him an
injury, and ask if you can see any reason for any one else giving the
woman the powder.

"There is one fact beyond all dispute: in December the prisoner bought
a shilling's worth of strychnine. He said he bought it for rats, but
no one on the farm had been called to prove it. What has been done
with the rest of the powder?

"Where was he on that Friday? His counsel said he could not prove an
_alibi_. But if he was at Spaldwick after saying he was going to St.
Neots to see this poor woman, he _could_ have proved it.

"The prisoner's counsel said that the accused did not speak of the
woman's murder after the inquest, and said it was not necessary; he
did not understand the 'familiar jargon' of the Law Courts.

"The familiar jargon of the Law Courts, gentlemen, is not quite the
phrase to use with refe