The Soldier's Wife — page 180: what you’re looking at

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

THE SOLDIER’S WIFE, A few days afterwards the Judges on the Midiand Circuit arrived at Middleton, and the Assizes were opened. It was a singular coin- eidence that the regiment to which Captain Red- burn belonged should have been ordered to the very town where the trial was to take place, and at the very time it was to come on; but such was the fact—and he was therefore on the. snot at this juncture. His father had already instructed an attorney to take measures for the detence; but there was little defence to make at all, beyond a bare denial of the charge for which the action was brought. The affair created a very great sensation, not merely in the town of Middleton, and the neighbouring villages of Oakleigh, but throughout the entire district, where the Redburn family were so well known. The case came on the first day of the Assizes. Sir Archibald Redburn arrived from the Manor eariy in the morning to assure him- self that the attorney was doing the utmost which lay in his power for the defence, by re- taining able counsel: but neither the father nor the son thought fit to be present in the court. Nor was Davis himself there ; he remained at a public-house hard by, whiling away the time drinking brandy-and-water, and reading the oc- casional notes that Fleecewell sent him out by his clerk to make him aware how the case was progressing. The counsel for the plaintiff commenced by observing, ina lachrymose tone and with lugu- brious look, that this was one of those instances where the feelings of a fond, attentive and adoring husband has been outraged in a manner for which no pecuniary recompense could atone, but which nevertheless in an exemplary point of view demanded the heaviest damages, These damages were laid at two thousand pounds. The learned counsel went on to state that his client, Peter Davis, was a man who for a long series of years had held the responsible situation of land-steward or bailiff to Sir Archibald Red- burn, a wealthy baronet whose name was well known in that part of the country. Mr. Davis bad conducted himself in a manner to win the confidence of his employer, as well as the es- teem of all his neighbours and friends. His moral character was unimpeachable; and in short he was a man endowed with a kindly dis- position. a generous heart, and with the most honourable principles. Having been for some years a widower—during which period his daughter had married much below herself, and in a way calculated to afflict the heart of this Kindest and best of fathers—he at length felt himself so lonely, so disconsolate, and so forlorn sn the solitude of his own home, that he had resolved to take unto himself another helpmate, who might be the partner of such little proper- ty as by his honest thrift he had accumulated, as well as a comfort to him while descending into the vale of life. Animated with this in- tention, Mr. Davis addressed himself to a young lady possessed of considerable persona) attrac- tions, and who was the daughter of Dr. Coly- ci ith, an eminent medical practitioner who had long heen scttled at the picturesque little vil- lage of Oakleigh. Miss Catherine Colycinth- - for that was the maiden name of the !ady now eary for him (the learned counsel) to og ( Gomi 159 alluded to—was not only beautiful bat aise highly accomplished; and indeed she might be considered to move :n a sphere above that t which Mr. Davis himself properly »elonged. The learned counsel explained that if he dwelt thus emphatically upon the charms and attrac tions, personal as well as mental, of the lady im question—and upon the high standing and regs: pectability of her family—it was for the purpose of proving how greata treasure his client, Peter Davis, had lost—seduced away, as she was, trom his bosom by the vile machinations, the insidiougr artifices, and the detestable pertidy of the de fendaut, Captain Redburn. This being a point in the learned counsel’s speech where he meant to make a partivular im- pression upon the jury, he paused and took a huge pinch of snuff, as if to compose the feelings that had been excited by the sense of those deep wrongs which his client had sustained and which the worthy barrister appeared to appre- ciate so fully. ‘Well, gentlemen of the jury,” he continued to observe, ‘“‘under the most pleasing and fa- vourable auspices did Peter Davis conduct Ca- thrine Colycinth to the altar. There certainly was some disparity in their years; but the posi- tion in Which my chent was enabled to place his wife, was an eligible one for her,—inasmucr as she had no fortune of he: own, and he was a man of some little substance. I believe, gentlemen, I may safely declare that the young lady found in my chent a kind, endearing, and affectionate husband. Being beautiful as well as young, it was natural that the bride should be fond ot embellishing her charms by means of the advantages of apparel; and to prove to you that Mr. Davis was anxious and willing to contribute to her happiness to the utmost of his power, he gave his wife free permission to ob- tain whatsoever articles of raiment, jewelry, and so forth, she chose to order from the trades- men of Middleton. Indeed, the fond and ador- ing husband took delight in paying the bills as they were sent in. I will read to you, gentle- men, a few of these bills; and you may judge from their, amounts that Mr. Davis was not the man to deny his wife anything in reason upon which her mind was set.” The learned counsel, having read the bills, proceeded to observe that two years and a half thus passed away in uninterrupted bliss, alike for the husband and wife; but at the end of this period the snake found his way into the grass growing around that cottage which had hitherto been a little paradise upon earth. 9r, to drop the metaphor and to speak in plainer terms, Captain Redburn came into the neigh- bourhood. This gentleman, continued the learn- ed connsel, was a Captain in the army —a _ per- son of most agreeable manners and fascinating appearance—embellished with all masculine graces—but who unfortunately used these ad- vantages for the infamous betrayal of female virtue. Captain Redburn was the son of Sir Archibald Redburn, who had been already mentioned, and whose name (added the counsel) must be well known to every juryman sitting ia that box. It was perhaps therefore unneces- inf thig G TOOKS CO)