had some time previously lent it to a shepherd, w h o never returned it. O n being further interrogated she sulked, and asked, " If they thought she was going to say anything to condemn herself." T o one of the search party she observed with some sarcasm, " H a , that's a way indeed to search for a man, as if ye think ye can make one out of rags and bones!" T h e woman's manner yvas peculiar, one m o m e n t cool and collected, the next violently agitated, and then breaking intofitsof levity. A thorough examination of the hut resulted in some extremely suspicious revelations; i.e., there were marks of blood on the bedstead, out of yvhich pieces of wood had been recently cut, the ticking was damp, and appeared as if it had been lately washed, and some bones were scraped out of a heap of ashes near the door. Mrs. Keane and Moroney yvere arrested on a charge of murder, and on the 30th August the prisoners were brought before M r . Charles Payne, J.P, and a Bench of District Magistrates at Melbourne. It yvas proved against the male prisoner that he was apparently on very intimate terms with the w o m a n , at whose hut he had been frequently seen both before and since the husband's disappearance. H e admitted having been at Keane's hut on the nth, when Keane wished him to prepare a deed of separation betyveen him and his wife. Both prisoners protested their innocence. They were committed for trial, the m a n being allowed bail in his personal recognizance of £ 1 0 0 , and two sureties of £ 5 0 each, which he obtained and was discharged. But the w o m a n was remanded to gaol, and whilst there betrayed some symptoms of insanity. She was kept in prison until the 19th December, when the Crown Prosecutor, considering he had not sufficient evidence to go further, consented to her release upon a personal bail bond of £ 5 0 . N o further steps were ever taken to bring Keane's murderers to justice. Mrs. Keane seemed as if a haunted yvoman. She could not bear the sight of Chief-Constable Brodie, to w h o m she yvould point tremblingly, and audibly mutter in flattering accents, " O h ! there's the devil," and run away. She once said her husband had been stabbed, but never could be got to speak again about him. In this way she remained, leading a life 'of miserable unrest until March, 1851, when afinestrapping young Scotchman, a new arrival, named Percival, actually fell in love with her ; in a week after they became m a n and wife, and so she passed out of public view, and nothing after was heard of her. If there be any truth in the time-honoured adage that " Marriages are m a d e in Heaven," one would be induced to regard the second nuptials of Mrs. Keane as an exception to the rule.
Page:ChroniclesofEarlyMelbournevol.1.pdf/433
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THE CHRONICLES OF EARLY MELBOURNE.
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