"Vie 6pectator," 3ulp 130, 1850
The trial of Robert Pate, late Lieutenant in the Tenth Hussars, for striki the Queen on the face with a cane, took place at the CentragCriminai,Court on Thursday. The proofs of the assault added no new point ; indeed, nearly at the outset the prisoner's counsel admitted the assault: the point raised by the plea was, therefore, whether or not the prisoner was of sane mind at the time of the act. . . Colonel Vandeleur, of the Tenth Hussars, proved that the prisoner's character totally changed in the year 1844, after the loss of three favourite horses by hydrophobia caused by the bite of a dog. He became subject to delusions—believed his stomach was full of bricks, and that the cook of the mess was conspiring with others to. poison him. . . . Ultimately a communication was sent to his father, advising his withdrawal from the regiment. He sold out for £1,800. Dodman, a private of the regiment, became his servant after he sold out ; and detailed to the Court various particulars of his strange mode of living. He rose at seven, and bathed in water containing half a pint of whisky wherein an ounce of camphor had been dissolved, shouting violently and singing during the operation ; he never received company and always had his blinds drawn down. He read the paper and such books as Nursery Rhymes. Punctually at a quarter past three he drove out in a cab. Lee, the cab driver, stated that he attended every day, wet or dry, sunshine or hail, or snow, for eighteen months, and drove the prisoner exactly the same drive over Putney Heath and Barnes Common ; he always alighted at one particular spot, and ran through the furze to a distant point near a pond, where the cab went round and met him ; if it was wet be always expressed himself delighted with the run.
[After several other witnesses had been called in his defence, Pate was found guilly and sentenced to be transported for seven years.]
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