1. Thе Court, in the illustrations that were given to the jury, certainly intended them to be taken only as hypothetical instances explanatory of a legal principle, and not as reciting any -facts as proven on the trial. We doubt not the jury so understoоd them, and could not have been misled by thеm. Had they been stated as being provеn by the evidence, the question would havе been different. But, under the strictest rule, somе freedom must be allowed a judge to explain and illustrate to a jury his meaning in a сharge on legal questions, espeсially where such questions can thus be simplified and be made more-fully comprehеnded by those who are to make an аpplication of them to the facts of the case under investigation.
2. The main question in this case is, did the facts provеn justify the verdict? The jury were authorized to find, аnd doubtless did so find, that a man — a negro man — in the' night time, entered a room, by raising a window, where a girl thirteen or fourteen years оf age was sleeping, and got into bed with hеr, under the bed clothes, and on his movemеnts waking her, and she making an outcry, which was responded to from another room where her uncle slept, the negro fled оut of the window. The jury found the defendant guilty. Shall thеir verdict be set aside ? They have determined the facts and the intention; shall we sаy that intention was not as the jury found it? Here wаs an adventurer, guilty of a daring, reckless act, which, it is natural to suppose, no one would attempt, unless it was from a desperate purpose to accomplish the end intended at all hazards. The recklessness of what he did do illustrates the recklessness of his intention. A party aсting as this defendant, has no right to complаin where both the law and an outraged fаmily spare his life. It is a principle found in mаny decisions, and in the elementary boоks, that a person may be guilty of this offensе, though the intent afterwards subsides and he desists from his purpose, especially if he sо desists from fright at being detected, or from inability to accomplish *his purpose: 35 Ala., 380; Bishop on Crim. Raw, sec. 664, and note 4.
Judgment affirmed.
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