A Woman's Part in a Revolution by Natalie Harris Hammond
page 70 of 192 (36%)
page 70 of 192 (36%)
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My husband reached Pretoria Sunday evening, April 26. The information that we had received en route, regarding the pleas of guilty entered by the imprisoned Reformers, was confirmed by his associates: the other three leaders, Messrs. Rhodes, Farrar, and Phillips, had entered a plea of guilty under count one of the indictment for high treason, the fifty-nine Reformers entering a like plea of guilty under the count of lese-majesté. As conjectured by us when we heard of this action of the Reformers, the prisoners had received certain assurances before making such pleas: _First_.--That they should not be tried under the comparatively obsolete Roman Dutch Law, which punished the crime of treason with death; but they would be tried and punished under, and in accordance with, the code laws of the Transvaal Republic, which imposed penalties of fine and imprisonment for the crime charged in the indictment. _Second_.--The leaders were further assured that this action on their part would measurably mitigate the sentences of the other fifty-nine Reformers. On Monday, the 27th, the Court reconvened in the market hall, the _imported_ Judge Gregorowsky occupying the bench. Mr. Hammond took his place with the three leaders, attended by his physician, Dr. Scholtz, who remained at his side during the entire trial. |
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