His Other Wife: A Novel — page 326: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

318 FATHER LOUIS’ STORY. and a closely written MS. The MS. he read slowly and carefully aloud to me. After which he said: ‘<«This is substantially and circumstantially all that I know concerning the horrid outrage perpetrated ‘by the man herein named, Mathew Croft, upon the woman herein named, Rachel Croft. Every word of this deposi- tion has been written by my own hand, and to the truth of every word contained in this writing I swear, here on my knees before Almighty God, and I call you, the priest of the church, to witness my oath.’ ‘Thus speaking, he had gone down before me upon his knees, and, with his right hand and his majestic face upraised toward heaven, he said: ‘*«*«May God, my Creator and Judge, deal with me according to the truth or the falsity of what I have set down on this paper, to be hereafter used for the protection of the innocent and the punishment of the guilty. And this I swear to, knowing that the moment is near at hand when I shall be called to my own account of deeds done in the body.’ ‘‘After this solemn oath he returned to his seat, and, placing both the book and the MS. in my hands, said: ‘«*To you I confide these until such time as Rachel Croft, or her child, who is called, for the reasons herein given, Faith Hilary, shall demand them of you to be pro- duced as evidence against the man Mathew Croft, at whose hands she will one day demand restitution of her property for the sake of her child, and upon whose cEomicbooks.co =|