The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-01-08

been an alteration, that the prisoner
seized q small paper-knife with stee
blade, and that he remembered nothing
more.
The counsel for the defense said be
was instructed to ask him one question
Could not the wound have been inflicted
by accident?
Witness said that he could not say.
There were no other Questions asked,
and he left the box. Well, he had been
stabbed; he had been obliged to go into
court aud to state that fact. What good
would it do to 80 into other matters:
People must not be stabbed even by
girls who have been deserted. Person
ally, he was horribly vexed about the
whole business. not to speak of the pain
caused by the wound. But what could
he do? He was very sorry for the girl,
but it would not help him If all the story
Of his ENHANCEMENT was proclaimed in
| open court. Observe that when young
gentleman like Mr.. Harry Stoke behaves
in this kind Of way it is always an en-
tanglement into which he has fallen,
and, among his female relatives, the
other party entangled is always the most
crafty, the most subtle, the most design
ing, the most foreseeing, the most far
reaching she-devil that ever walked
about with intent to entrap and destroy
the sons Of women.
| The next witness was the house
keeper at the chambers, who deposed
that, being engaged in the adjoining
room, she heard voices in dispute; that
| one of them was woman's voice; that
she heard scuf1e Of feet and heavy
| fall, followed by woman's shrek;
| that she ran into the room and saw Mr..
Stoke lying on the floor in a pool Of
blood, and the prisoner standing over
him. the dagger dripping with blood in
her hand, and that all she said was,
II have killed him! I have killed him!"
Another witness was the medical man
who had examined the wound. He said
that he was called In about half-past
seven that evening and found man
bleeding from a wound, Of which he
proceeded to give a minute description,
which caused the conduct of the assas-
sin to seem very deliberate. and even
scientific. Had the weapon passed an
inch more to the right or to the left, or
to the north or south, it must have gone
through the heart, or severed the peri
| cadiac artery, or pierced the vascular
integument, or penetrated the femoral
| tissues, in which case death would have
supervened. He said, however, that
there was nothing to prevent the wound
having been accidentally caused by q
scuf1e and fall.
The counsel for the defense dwelt
strongly on this possibility. The
wounded man, he, said, had no recollec-
ton of any such scuf1e; On the other
hand, he had no recollection Of the
events at all after the girl had taken up
the knife. He called on the jury to
give the prisoner the benefit OF the
doubt.
The counsel for the Crown ridiculed
this theory. Here was girl, probably
with q grievance, real or fancied-it
was not for him to plead that grievance,
and his learned brother had not thought
proper to advance it. She waited for
the wounded man on o Sunday after
noon when nobody was about--probably
she reckoned on being able to walk of
unseen-and she attempted to murder
him. Nothing could be more clear; she
had made no defense; she refused to
take advantage Of the power to give
evidence on her own behalf; she had
aothing to say; her counsel would plead
nothing but possible-and5 very i'm
proba able-accident. .>'t. r
w ii that the counsel sat down, and
the Judge summed up. He, too, had
nothing to say in favor of the prisoner.
It is difficult for person to speak who
refuses to speak, or to let others speak,
for herself. y 5.t
The jary, without leaving the box,
found the prisoner guilty Of stabbing.
During the trial. there was another
sitting in the body of the court beside
the solicitor for the prisoner. Another
girl, evidently friend OF the prisoner,
for she was in deep distress, and sat
with her handkerchief to her eyes near
ly all the time. But the prisoner
showed no sign OF any emotion. When
the man whom she had stabbed went
into the box she looked up curiously:
after that she remained perfectly still;
her head was bent, her hands were
crossed, her eyes were raised; she re-
ceived her sentence, and she walked out
of the dock afterwards with the same
apparent eallousness. 1t was the other
girl in the body of the court who, when
the Judge concluded, shrieked aloud,
and fell fainting on the floor
Mr.. Harry Stoke walked quickly
away. This was the end of that roman
tic episode into which he had crammed
all the passion of which his heart was
capable, and all the reachery and VIII
lainy OF which mankind at large is capa-
bic. Probably in his boyhood he had
read of great monsters-men whose
place is low down in those fearful rings
OF flame and boiling pitch and devilish
tortures-of whose sufferings and pun
ishments one reads with equanimity
Well, he himself had become even al
great villain. That mans heart mus
be as hard as the neither millstone, who
could thus send to felon's prison the
girl whom he had loved and betrayed,
to whom he had promised so much and
lied so foully. But he went away
bravely, with quite color in his cheek;
handsome young man, as some OF the
women in the court whispered to each
other, and no doubt abominably treated
by the wicked, impudent, designing,
murderous wretch who had now re-
ceived her reward, which richly she de-
served.
The counsel for The defense Wake
across Fleet street to his chambers in
the Temple, accompanied by friend,
briefess but without envy.
Il was thinkingi jack said, but
stopped. 49,.
so was l." said Jack.
II was thinking" he began again.
That it is q beastly shame to lock
UP such pretty girl for seven years.