No direct connexion has been established between that crime and Tilak.

But, like the murderer of Mr.
Jackson at Nasik last winter, the murderer of Rand and Ayerst--the same young Brahman who had recited the _Shlok_, which I have quoted above, at the great Shivaji celebration--declared that it was the doctrines expounded in Tilak's newspapers that had driven him to the deed.

The murderer who had merely given effect to the teachings of Tilak was sentenced to death, but Tilak himself, who was prosecuted for a seditious article published a few days before the murder, received only a short term of imprisonment, and was released before the completion of his term under certain pledges of good behaviour which he broke as soon as it suited him to break them.
Thus ended the first campaign of Indian unrest, which, in its details, has served as an incitement and a model to all those who have conducted subsequent operations in the same field.
The Poona murders sent a thrill of horror throughout India and caused a momentary sensation even in England.

But though Government was not wholly blind to the warning, it could not decide what ought to be done, and beyond tinkering at one or two sections of the Criminal Code bearing on Press offences, it did nothing until history had repeated itself on a much larger scale.

Tilak was generously released from prison before the expiration of his sentence, and his release was construed in the Deccan as a fresh triumph.