Frome. [Rising and bowing to the judge] If it please your lordship and gentlemen of the jury.  I am not going to dispute the fact that the prisoner altered this cheque, but I am going to put before you evidence as to the condition of his mind, and to submit that you would not be justified in finding that he was responsible for his actions at the time.  I am going to show you, in fact, that he did this in a moment of aberration, amounting to temporary insanity, caused by the violent distress under which he was labouring.  Gentlemen, the prisoner is only twenty-three years old.  I shall call before you a woman from whom you will learn the events that led up to this act.  You will hear from her own lips the tragic circumstances of her life, the still more tragic infatuation with which she has inspired the prisoner.  This woman, gentlemen, has been leading a miserable existence with a husband who habitually ill-uses her, from whom she actually goes in terror of her life.  I am not, of course, saying that it’s either right or desirable for a young man to fall in love with a married woman, or that it’s his business to rescue her from an ogre-like husband.  I’m not saying anything of the sort.  But we all know the power of the passion of love; and I would ask you to remember, gentlemen, in listening to her evidence, that, married to a drunken and violent husband, she has no power to get rid of him; for, as you know, another offence besides violence is necessary to enable a woman to obtain a divorce; and of this offence it does not appear that her husband is guilty.

Judge.  Is this relevant, Mr. Frome?

Frome.  My lord, I submit, extremely—­I shall be able to show your lordship that directly.

Judge.  Very well.

Frome.  In these circumstances, what alternatives were left to her?  She could either go on living with this drunkard, in terror of her life; or she could apply to the Court for a separation order.  Well, gentlemen, my experience of such cases assures me that this would have given her very insufficient protection from the violence of such a man; and even if effectual would very likely have reduced her either to the workhouse or the streets—­for it’s not easy, as she is now finding, for an unskilled woman without means of livelihood to support herself and her children without resorting either to the Poor Law or—­to speak quite plainly—­to the sale of her body.

Judge.  You are ranging rather far, Mr. Frome.

Frome.  I shall fire point-blank in a minute, my lord.

Judge.  Let us hope so.