AN EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL,

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 77, 26 June 1852, Page 9

AN EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL,

Which occupied several days, has taken place in the Court of Queen's Bench, Westminster, for the prosecution of three persons formerly holding commissions in the army, two brothers, named Holder and M'Geachy Alleyne, and their

intimate friend T. D. B. D'Arcy, for conspiring together to defraud one Robert Blair Kennedy, and obtaining from him, by false pretences, the sum of £7,300. The following is a sketch of the whole transaction, as drawn out in a leading article of the Daily News. In the year 1843, a young gentleman of eighteen, named Kennedy, left Sandhurst College to join, in Canada, the 89th regiment, to which he had been gazetted ensign. It happened that in the ship which took him out a Lieutenant Holder Alleyne, of the 2nd Light Infantry, and brother of a schoolfellow, was also a passenger. Young men— young soldiers especially—strike up confidential friendships without much formality; and Kennedy, it would seem, suddenly made a bosom friend of Holder, unfolding without reserve his hopes and expectations. Among these was a fortune, in no very distant perspective ; he did not exactly know how much, but something respectable. Arrived at Montreal,- Kennedy found his schoolfellow, M'Geachy Alleyne, a lieutenant in his own regiment. By great good fortune, Holder Alleyne was ordered on detachment to within a few hundred yards of Montreal; he was elected an honorary member of the 89th mess, and the brothers, Kennedy, and Lieutenant D'Arcy, formed themselves into a partie carree of "jolly companions." Mr. Kennedy's professional income was £96 per annum; and, as he drew another humtred a year from his family, he did not see why he should not cut as great a clash as his friends. He set up a pony chaise, a sleigh and three horses. As he was almost of age he had necessarily acquired enough economical experience to be able to do this upon a fraction less than a couple of hundreds a-years. Then being, at that advanced time of life, excessively clever at all manner of games at chance, he gave the gambling-house a visit, and lost £1,200 to a Mr. Stuart, at roulette (which he paid by a postdated bill), and a bet of £500 to Holder Alleyne. Of course he knew all about horse-flesh, and went to the races—" twice." Thus accomplished, Mr. Kennedy returned to England ; by and bye his three friends, the Alleynes and D'Arcy came back also ; and, as he had come into the bulk of his fortune, they clung to him very warmly. The hobby of the whole party was horses. Kennedy had a racer, avd Holder Alleyne had " picked up" a little English mare from an English dealer, a wonderful trotter, could do her eighteen miles within the hour. Incredible! Mr Kennedy knew better, he would back his Castignette against Alleyne's " Pigeon" for 300/. Done. The cash was posted ; but on the eve of the race, Castignette (who was kept in D'Arcy's stable) was found with one of her pasterns cut to the bone. She, of course, could not " come to post" at the appointed time, and Kennedy forfeited his stake. Still he would not believe in all that was said about "Pigeon," Holder Alleyne's wonderful trotter. And after dinner one day, he, in the presence of a third brother of the Alleyne's and D'Arcy, made one of the most extraordinary bets ever perhaps booked. We shall quote it literatim from his own evidence:—

" The bet that was made was 100?. that the mare could not trot twelve miles within the hour, 2001. that she could not trot thirteen miles, 400/. that she could not trot fourteen miles in the hour, 800?. that she could not trot fifteen miles in the hour, 1,600?, that she could not trot sixteen miles, 3,200?. that she could not trot seventeen miles, 500?. that she could not trot fourteen miles, and 500?. that she could not trot fifteen miles, all within the hour. The total amount of the bets was 7,300?. The match was to come off on or before the Ist of January, 1847. Holder Alleyne was to name the time and place, to give me one week's notice, and he might withdraw upon the payment of 500?. No forfeit was named that I could pay. I must either win the bet or pay."

Seven thousand three hundred pounds, that a mare which the backer had " picked up " by chance from a dealer could trot seventeen miles in an hour! New Year's Day approached, and Kennedy became a little nervous. D'Acry hud become his adjutant professionally, and privately his bosom friend and adviser:—

" On the 12th day on December (continued Kennedy, in his evidence) I received a letter from Holder Alleyne, to say that he hoped I should have the money ready by that day, as I was sure to lose the match. He said he should be ready to trot the match on the Ist of January. It was to take place on Salisbury Plain. I saw M'Geachy Alleyne and D'Arcy previous to receiving that letter. The tormer said he was certain I should lose the matchy because he had been in a gig with his brother..only a day or two previous ou the road between Chel-

tenham and Tewkesbury, drawn by the mare, Pigeon, and that she had trotted eighteen miles within the hour, and done it with ease He recommended me by all means to compromise the bet, and that he and his brother, Joseph Alleyne, would use all their influence to induce their brother to graut me good terms, and that he had no doubt he would do so if I wrote to him. D'Arcy advised me also to compromise it."

These friendly persuasions were so effectual that Kennedy eventually gave a draft on his army agent to Holder Alleyne for 7,300/., on condition that he should become half owner of the mare, and participator in two matches of I,OOOZ. each. Thus far the plot of this sporting drama is not very complicated, the characters being simply a victim and two or three sharpers. But the villany does not appear till the last act. Mr. Kennedy naturally found his way rapidly to that resting place of all "fast" young gentlemen, the Queen's bench. He was obliged to sell out of the army ; and after his relations had rescued him from debt and disgrace, they got him a cadetship, and he hid his shame in India. If he had not become a better, he soon became a wiser man ; for he learnt, in reference to his Pigeon adventures, four very important facts— firstly, that the wonderful mare was no Kmere chance purchase, but was no other than "Fanny Jenks," celebrated all over Canada for |her swiftnesS, and brought over here and renamed "Pigeon" by Holder Alleyne for fraudulent purposes; secondly, that when her owner wrote the bragging letter, and suborned D'Arcy and his brothers M'Geachy and Joseph, to cajole Kennedy into a compromise, the mare was (or her master thought she was) dead lame, and could not possibly have won; thirdly, that D'Arcy had received 1,000/. for his clever persuasions to the compromise; and fourthly, that the two matches in which Kennedy was to participate were merely pretended ones, concocted by Holder Alleyne to complete the fraud with another retired British officer, named Covle, now imprisoned in Newgate for the crime of forgery. Thus enlightened, Kennedy indicts his quondam dear friends for conspiracy, and the Middlesex House of Correction was appointed by Lord Campbell as the new quarters of Messrs, Alleyne and D'Arcy. The jury returned a verdict against the defendants on each of the charges of the indictment. His lordship expressed his entire concurrence, and pronounced thesentence of the court to be that Holder Alleyne should be imprisoned in the House of Correction, in the county of Middlesex, for the space of two years; D'Arcy to be imprisoned in the same place for one year; and M'Geachy Alleyne to be there imprisoned for six calandar months; but, anticipating an unfavourable verdict, they had left England previously.