THE STORY OF A TICKET-OF LEAVE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1234, 23 October 1885, Page 3

THE STORY OF A TICKET-OF LEAVE.

A recent oihle m-ssage brought a little item of news which revives the memory of one of the most remarkable crimes reo irde I in the history of English triads Tire item ran to the effect that Constance Kent, con victad over 25 years ago of the R>a !e murder, had received a ticket of-leave. Toe woman thus briefly mentioned was at the time of the commission of the crime a young girl of 15 or thereabouts, and the victim washer three-year oil hif brother Arthur Kent. The event acquired unusual prominence owing to tiro r-Litiouahio all the pirties immediately concerned bore tp the Queen. William Kent, the father of Constance and of the murdered chil l, was a gentle man of private fortune, living at a place called Roade. He was said to b an I the statement was never contradicted, an illegitimate son of the Duke of Kent, fourth son of George 111, and father of Q leen Victoria, and his private fortune was sup p >aed to have come from this Royal sou reo Mr Kent was a geutlemm of quiet and cultivated taste, enj >ying a life of lettered ease. His first wife, m the of Constance, having died when she w.rs atiout 10 or 11 years of age, he emp oyed a laly of education as governess aud superintendent of his family. This lady he married, and by her had a son, young Arthur. All seemed happy in the Kent family, though the eldest daughter Constance, was o;c,isi mally sut jeet to fits of moodiness, for which she assigns 1 no reason.

Early one Sunday morning in summer the nursegirl, whose name is not recalled, alarmed the sleeping household witn her outcries. She had awakened to tin I her young charge, little Arthur, who slept i-i a cot by her bedside, lying dea l, his throat cut from ear to ear. The horrcr-stricken parents at ones sent for assistance. The police and the coroner were promptly on the spot, and investigations commenced. It was then noticed that, though there were traces of blood on the blanket on which the child lay, there was no such saturation such aa wou'd have been the case had tho murder been committed while ho lay sleeping. Further investigation revealed the fact that the child had been taken to a water-closet in the house, and that there the butchery had been performed. A carving knife, sharpened almost to a razoredge was also foun I, with traces of blo.nl upon it. Of course all these circumstances tended to fasten suspicion on the unfortunate nurse girl, for who else could have carried the child to the scene of the murder without causing him to make some outcry. At the time of the alarm being given it was shown that everyone else in the house was sleeping peacefully, including Constance, against whom suspicion was not once directed. An attempt was also ma’e to fasten suspicion on Mr Kent, the unhappy father ; and the whole of England took sides, one in favour of this, the other in favour of that theory. Finally the testimony clear’y exonerated Kent, so there was nothing left but the conclusion tha' the servant was the guilty party. It is true that no motive could be shown for ihe deed ; was of a moat amiable diapou t ; on, and a great fa'Ourite with ail the children, but there were the fac’s. The conclusion was irresistible, and die poor girl was arrested aud thrown into prison to await her trial.

Meantime the Kent hous'hold was broken up, the poor bereave! parent! trying to seek relief from sorrow in travel. (Jnustance was sent to a sort of conventual school at Brighton, on the South Coast. This school was an attachment to a huh rituilistic Episcopal Church, the rector of which had established ihe conf-ssional as a part ot his ooui-ch di citrine. The line cim for the trial of the imprisoned nu segiri. Controversy w ixe 1 wanner and higher as the day set onne nearer. Wh >n it arrived the oarers were full of c ures pondence on the subject, an 1 all sorts of theories were broached to account fir the deed without the intervention of- the ac ousad. Various arrests were made, but always without result. Filially the girl was tried an 1 convicted. But the pub ic was not sat.i-.fied, and the Home Secretary was persuaded to grant a respite pending farther investigations.

The case seemed hopeless, however, until one morning Constance Kent, accompaniel by one of the sisters of a convent school, called on the rector of the chu ch above spoken of, and the two aske 1 a private audience, Constance had come to confess ; she had evidently already told he- story to the sister. She then, calmly and lucidly, as the clergyman afterwards said, to!d the whole sto-y of the crime. She had deeply resented her father’s second marriage.though she had given no outward sign of her resentment. Her anger was still more heightened when her young half-brothe • was bom. She had strenuously concea ! e I this feeling. But her jealous Into gew in intensity as he grew from infancy into laughing childhood. Gradually hate matured into design, and she deteim uu I to des'roy the little fellow Providing he-self with the sharpened knife, shortly after dawn she had slipped into the nursery bedroom. Stooping over the cit she awoke the child with a kiss, and wrapping him in his blanket, carried him with her to the elosst. Here the knife was used in such a way that the flowing blood went down the pipe. When life wasexiinot and the blood had ceased to flow, she gently returned to the nuisery, replaced the little corpse in its cot, wiped and restored the knife to its place in the kitchen, and then 1 went to bed and bo sleep.

I One oan imagine'the horror and excitement this awful confession created. Thou* sands refused to believe it, saying the girl was demented, and pointing to - a supposed hereditary taint of insanity, which had c 'me to her from her grand father. Georgol 11, os an argument. She was, however, tried, and not only maintained the truth of her oon fessinn, hut pointed out corroborating circumstances which had escaped the notice of the police. Of course she was cobviote 1, and the other poor girl* pardoned for the crime she had never com nitte I. Tuan C instance was sentence! to death, but interest was made in favor of a commu* , ation. Her you’h and heaty f leade 1 strongly for her ; so did a certain feeling that, while confession was clearly proyen not to have resulted from inherited insanity,’ the deed itself might have. Her sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life, an 1 good behaviour br night the tick.'t-of-leave mei-ti-nel in yesterday’s paper. A niece in blood, though not by marriage, of the Queen, she has spent all the best yeare of her life in a convict prison. Put such a s*ory in a novel, and what critic would not scout it as too absurd tor anything !—St. Louis Globe-Democrat.