text:  * * * * * Hewitt (or O'Hanlon) was tried at the ensuing Tipperary Assizes and notwithstanding the extreme severity of the law at that period there were so many palliating circumstances pleaded in his favour at the trial--particularly a popular and we believe a not altogether unfounded eulogium (since grown into an apothegm in that country ) that "He robbed the rich to give to the poor " and so many persons of distinction who had known him at one time as a performer on the Dublin stage came forward to interest themselves in his behalf--that he escaped with transportation for life