TRIAL OF LEFROY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 913, 4 February 1882, Page 3

TRIAL OF LEFROY.

The London Da’ly Telegraph thus describes the closing scene of the above trial : The Judge’s summing up had concluded and the jury, rising, had received permission to retire, while we, who filled the Court at Maidstone, prepared to wait until the fate of Lefroy was decided. For three hours the Lord Chief Justice, in his most silvery tonet, had been summing up the case presented for prosecution and for the prisoner. There had been no sign of revengeful feelings, no indication of a desire to prejudice the jury, but on it had gone, that teirible address, bringing fact after fact of the most damning nature into bold relief, and telling a story of crime so hideous that there could be but one conclusion as how it must end, wl en without peroration of any soifc, and with the mildest injunction to the jury to do their duty, the charge wf s brought to a close. His Lordship gave no token of going, and, on the central/, sat quietly regarding the ceiling of the Court, while exactly opposite him, in another chair, vacantly gazmg at the woodwork of the gallery, sat the accused. The people in the Court passed the time as best they could. To say that they showed acute sympathy with the prisoner who stood in such jeopardy would be to misrepresent them altogether. They munched sandwiches, cuatted, laughed, turned over newspapers, gaped at the prisoner, and were wondering what they should do if. cs'ied upon to tai/y long, whcii to the astonishment of everyone, a bustle at the door behind the jury-box showed that the twelve men with, whom lay the dread decision were coming buck, “ They must he agreed,’ was the whisper which ran through the Couiv as the voice of the Usher was heard calhng for silence, and the Clerk of the Court stood up to call out the names. Thenj as all eyes were turned upon the prisoner, still sealed as of yore, the ClerK was once more heard to demand the verdict, “ How say you—Guilty, or nob guilty.” The foreman rose, his face crimson with emotion, and while, one or two of h’s colleagues showed signs of almost breaking down under the excitement of the moment, replied “Guilty.” Up rose Lefroy at a touch from the gaolers who now gathered round him, and placing his hands behind him advanced to the rails The judge had assumed the black cap ;.the silence of death prevailed ; the prisoner was about to bear his doom, and yet there he stood apparently altogether at ease, pallid perhaps, but for all that pallid and self-possessed, while the Lord Chief Justice began the sentence. There was a moment when he grasped the rails in front of him, and swayed as though he were about to fall; but that wr only for a second—he was quickly himself again, and folding his arms] turned his gaze once more from the Judge, when the sentence being finished, he took hold of the rails with one hand, while with the other outstretched in the direction of the jury, he said in a film tone of voice, with a theatrical air, “ Some day you will learn when too late that you have murdered me I” Another instant he had disappeared from the floor to the cells below, surrounded and jealously guarded by turnkeys, and so passed away to that place where he was executed and buried.