Francis was tried and found guilty of high treason. There were circumstances which led to the belief that the pistol he had used was not loaded at all, and that he only wanted to make himself notorious. The queen interfered in his behalf, and had the death-sentence changed to transportation for life. Francis was greatly relieved when he found that he was not to be hung; but the leniency shown to him had a bad effect, for the very day after it was made public another attempt was made-on the queen's life by a hunchbacked boy named Bean. Her majesty was driving to the chapel of St. James's Palace when Bean pointed his pistol, but it missed fire, and a youth named Dassett tore it out of his hand, and collared him, calling at the same time to the crowd to secure the assassin. He was promptly arrested, and the pistol was found to be loaded with powder, paper closely rammed down, and some scraps of a clay pipe. Bean had left his father's house a week before, and had written that he would never see him again, because he intended committing a desperate, though not a dishonest deed, and signed himself, "your unhappy, but disobedient son." Now, the fact of the fellow's having deliberately set about a crime for which Francis was then lying under sentence of death in prison, proved that something was wanting in the laws for the punishment of such miscreants. {353}Sir Robert Peel lost no time in introducing a bill in parliament, which, it was thought, would put a stop to such attempts. It made the offender subject to transportation for seven years, or imprisonment, with or without hard labor, for a term not exceeding three years--"the culprit to be publicly or privately whipped as often and in such manner and form as the court shall direct, not exceeding thrice." This bill became a law, and under it Bean was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment.