The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-21 00:00:00

Extraordinary Infatuation of a Devonshire

Heiress.

The following appears in the Western Morning
_News of Saturday :—" Gossip has been busy for
some weeks past with an instance of infatuation on
the part of a young lady, which bears out the old
saying that truth is stranger than fiction. The names
of the parties in question are known to us, but the
object of withholding them will be obvious, although
*the correctness of the incidents narrated is guaran-
teed. Miss Nemo, as we shall call her, is the daugh-
ter of a clergyman and a doctor of divinity, not long
dead, and who resided at his rectory in the county
of Devon. Nemo is about 25 years of age, good look-
ing, and accomplished, and it caused no small trou-
ble to the family some time previous to her father's
death to find that she had formed a clandestine ac-
quaintance with a stonemason to whom was en-
trusted the repair of her father's church. On this
discovery Nemo was sent to Exeter to reside with
e. brother, that there might be broken the tie she
had formed. Only a short time afterwards she
eloped with her " lover of lo w degree" to H—, where
she remeined with his friends until the marriage
preliminaries could be arranged. On the morning
fixed for the wedding, the bridegroom not being
orthcoming at the appointed time, the lady went in
search of him, when, to her astonishment, he in-
formed her that he was in no particular hurry, and
should not marry yet. On finding herself thus de-
ceived, the unfortunate girl ran away, and waded
into a sheet of water waist high in her wedding
dress, from which predicament, however, she was
luckily extricated by two labouring men, taken back
to where she had been staying, and eventually
home. A few days afterwards the stonemason lover
called at her residence, but was refused an interview
by her brother. He then went to another of Nemo's
relatives, a lady of wealth and position, with whom
he endeavoured to turn his heartlessness to pecu-
niary profits, offering to marry somebody else. if
a hundred pounds were given him, adding
the interesting information that three other
ladies were already in ,love with him.
This extortionate demand was refused ; but the
mercenary man was offered a handsome present if
he became the husband of either of the three candi-
dates he had mentioned. This, it seems,i9 id
Cduipdnito;
suit " his book," and fortunately h
effected that which nothing else could do—deter-
mined Nemo to throw offaltogether, the result being
t;l9.t he is now a presiding and unmarried genius in
a common public-house. A short time after this oc-
currence the father of Nemo died, leaving her a very
respectable income ; but in order to prevent her
from forming a connection with anybody beneath
her, the receipt of this income was made to be con-
tingent on her remaining single, to revert to her
only if she become a widow. Her brother having
aucceeded her father in his ecclesiastical office, Nemo
resided alone at lodgings in Exeter up to the middle
of last summer. Oae morning, however, she was
seized with a fit of infatuation, which surpassed
even that which we have already narrated. While
sitting at her open window she saw on the opposite
side a man begging from door to door. She rang
the bell for her servant and ordered the man to be
fetcsed. He was introduced into her room, served
with refreshments, during, or after which, Nemo
requested to hear his history. The beggar informed
her that he was connected with a very high family
in Ireland, from whom he ran away when he was
14 years of age, and had not returned since. He
travelled in foreign parts,and eventually enlisted in
a foreign army, where he struck his superior officer
and was sentenced to be shot. That punishment,
however, was subsequently mitigated to bard
labour for life in the mines. He underwent some
years of his punishment, which was the cause of
deformity on his right side, oue shoulder becoming
considerably lower than the other. After some
years he succeeded in escaping from the miner, re-
turned to England, enlisted as a soldier, but having
deserted from his regiment, he was taking up,
punished, and turned out, branded with the letter
1) on the shoulder, which mark he showed our
heroine. Since that he had been compelled to earn
his livelihood as a beggar. This pathetic recital
seems to have moved the susceptible heart of
Nemo, for she forthwith interested herself for
him with various contributors to the Strangers'
Friendly Society, and rigged him out with linen and
outer garments, brushes, combs, and other articles
necessary fcr the proper performance of his toilette.
This done, she visited him at a notoriously common
lorlging heuse in a back lane, but being disgusted
with that habitation, she obtained lodgings for him
at en eating-house, where, when he was duly in-
stalled, she visited him, exchange visits being made
by the gentleman at the lady's lodgings. Not con-
tent with these marks of favour, she purchased for
him a handsome ring, receiving one made of his hair
in return, the latter, as well as the former, being of
course paid fcr by Nemo. Thus matters continued
up to a short time ago, when, on being remonstrated
with on the impropriety of such a connection, she
absented herself suddenly without leaving the
slightest notion of her whereabouts being enter-
tained, until her return, when it transpired that
she had gone off with the man to Devonport, and
l',(11 married at a dissenting place of worship, the
Interssting office of bridesmaid having been per-
form
ea by an old woman, a sextoness at one of the
zesetes churches, whom Nemo had Wien with her.
llonev
by this time was eetting short, and the pair
retureesto Exeter the lady visiting her friends and
inforreise th '
rm of the high respectability of her
husband:: connections, aud eventually so softening
their anger that they agreed to give her money and
fihteshbearnodtitinfoter Ireland, to which country she said her
.take her. He was consequently
admitted to several
no end of dresseeinterviews with the family, and
sro provided for Nemo be-
fitting h l
bier entrance •
ate .4 -
siiiiicient money was polite Irish society."
given her to enable them
to pay a visit to her relatives in
London, while their
boxes in which was her
e on of the family plate,
w 1."
ere f°-L'rcled to l tvert.ool to await the pair
when they reaelied that
kindly en route for Ireland.
They were received krreny by
their
London friends
often during a ,
whom they visited'Neel
newly-made husband took it into 41 when the
hie head one
evening to go down into the kitchet.
of a friend's
house to smoke a pipe, and not rehlriiinr.b in what
his wife considered reasonable time, age
search of him, but searched in vain.when
iZenhisto in
misgiving, Nemo proceeded to their lodging, me
she found her boxes broken open, and that every
article of value they contained had disappeas,4.
Without delay she sought aid, and starched the
metropolis for days—her Efforts being eventually
crowned by finding her husband in a low pot-house,
every penny he had taken from her having been
squandered. Nemo induced her degraded spouse to
go with her to the railway station, when, on making
the names of her relatives known, she obtained a
pass for both to Exeter, but on their arrival there
they were entirely discarded by their former friends.
Having by some means obtained a little money, the
couple proceeded to Plymouth, and only a few days
since were located in anything huts first class house
in one of the Three Towns. An offer was sent the
lady by her friends to receive her again if she would
leave the man who had treated her so badly ; but
this Nemo, with womanly heart and head, peremp-
torily declined. She will shortly become a mother,
and she has expressed her determination to oeg, or
even •
It
occasion no
the husband of her rash choice.
on
no surprise to the reader to learn
that it has been
found by a letter from Ireland,
couched in
ajlie
bsculiar diction, that the man's high
connections
are a myth. So ends for the pre-
sent this remarkable
_ uand painful episode in the lifeof en accompli'lted
svueshire heiress.

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