The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-27 00:00:00

A MATRIMONIAL ESCAPADE.

(From the North British Daily Mail.)
'We have a story to relate, so pregnant, however,
with romance, mingled with credulity and impos-
ture, that our readers will be apt to doubt the facts,
but we regret to say that, to the great mortifica-
tion and grief of a very worthy family, occupying
a humble but respectable position in Greenock,
they are but too true. .We give them as follows :
A respectable widow keeps an eating-house in
Shaw-street, near Open-shore, Greenock. Her
eldest daughter, L—, is a handsome, engaging
young woman, of 21 years of age, and assists her in
her small business. The family reside in premises
immediately over the shop.
About seven o'clock on the night of Sunday the
21st November last, the screw steamer United
Kingdom arrived at the Tail of the Bank from
Quebec and Montreal. Two hours thereafter a
tall, wiry man, of about 40 years of age, with bushy
whiskers, and wearing a rough fatigue-looking
dress, with a cap on his head, was seen wending
his way along the streets near to the harbour. He
was one of the passengers by the United Kingdom,
and had contrived to get ashore by an early boat.
Accosting a policeman, he inquired where he .could
obtain refreshment, and the officer introduced him
to the house of the widow. He said he was the
captain of tho United Kingdom, talked largely
about his position and responsibility, asked to be
served with some fowl, and insisted on the officer
and a boatman belonging to the port joining in his
repast, in return for their trouble. The widow had
no fowl, but provided some roast beef, after par-
taking of which the officer and boatman went
away, leaving the soi-disant captain still in the
house. He waxed loquacious, and soon ingratiated
himself into the good graces of the widow, and
paid some attention to L., the daughter. Leaving
shortly afterwards, having paid his small bill, he
said he would return in the morning; and he did
return, had a fire lit in one of the rooms upstqirs,
where he wrote a number of letters, and then left
to go to Glasgow, to attend, as he said, to his vessel,
which, in the meantime, had proceeded up the
river.

On the evening of the same day he returned to
the widow's, but he was not then made such a wel-
come guest. L.'s brother, a shrewd young trades-
man, two years her junior, had noticed what he
conceived to be an undue attention to L. on the part
of the strange captain. He did not believe half the
stories told by the vaunting skipper, and failed not
to indicate this, which gave the latter mortal of-
fence. Indeed, on one occasion they had come to
fisticuffs. The captain quitted the house for an-
other of the same description, the back door of
which opened into the same staircase. There he
became a welcome guest, as likely to become a good
customer. Into this house he contrived to induce
L. to come and take tea with him, and ultimately
prevailed on her to accompany him to Glasgow on
the following day (Tuesday), L. stipulating that her
younger sister, aad a female neighbour who had an
errand there, should accompany them.
Tuesday arrived, finding the party prepared to
start by the early forenoon train, but it appeared as
if the captain, who was bustling about between both
houses, wished to get off with L. alone, and leave
the sister and the female neighbour behind. At first
he was likely to be disappointed in his wish, but as
accident would have it, the bonnet of the sister dis-
appeared, and while its owner was engaged looking
for it, the captain and L. contrived to disappear by
the back stair, and went off to Glasgow by the 12.30
train.

At Glasgow the lovers proceeded to the Crow
hotel, where the captain bustled about among the
waiters with all the air of a man of importance,
ordered a fire in their room, and dinner for two.
Dinner being discussed, ho left the house with L.,
promising to return in a short time, which he did
with a cab. Both entered, and drove off with great
rapidity. L.'s statement is that she wondered where
she was going, and that on questioning her com-
panion he replied he did not know, but still he im-
patiently enjoined the driver to go ahead. We sus-
pect, however, that L. must hare been under some
impression, vague though it may have been, that
she was on the road to a clergyman to get married
to her strange companion of only some few hours'
acquaintance.
After a rapid but short drive, the cab stopped at
a large louse, which stood back from the line of
street, inside of railings. Here she ventured to ask
the coachman who lived hero, and he answered, a
clergyman. She says that, hearing the captain talk
of the chaplain of the steamer, she thought all was
right, and that they were going to visit some of the
captain's friends. They entered the house, and, in
a large apartment, found a tall old reverend gen-
tleman standing at a fire, a young man sitting at a
table, and a servant girl. The old man conversed
with them for a few minutes about the ordinance of
marriage, its relatams,obligations, and responsibili-
ties; in the course of which, she says, the captain
grasped her two hands in his. She adds that no
documents were either asked for or produced ; but
she at length became aware that some ceremonial
was gone through. The ceremony, whatever it was,
only occupied a few minutes, at the expiry of which
the parties returned to the cab and drove back to
their hotel.

After remaining at the hotel for a short time they
walked on foot to the railway station in Bridge-
street, and returned to Greenock by the traiu about
six o'clock. When they entered the mother's house
she demanded some explanation of their sudden dis-
appearance in the morning, but could get none till
the, captain retired into the neighbouring house—.
his lodgings. L. then told her mother of the day's
adventure, at which the latter was perfectly shocked.
Guided by the:colitis:l of her elders and sonic friends,
she enjoined L. at her peril not to go near the
captain till they had ascertained his true character
(for they now began to suspect him), and the nature
of the rash and mysterious contract to which L. had
that day teen a party. The captain kept dangling
between the two houses, wondering why his bri▪ de's
mother was not prepared to ucleome the newly-
wedded pair with a supper party, and began to evi▪
nce
a gradually deepening impatience at the absence of
his bride. He, too, became suspicious, and na-
rowly watched every movement of L., and would
scarcely permit her to be out of his sight. He grew
violent at what he conceived to be bad treatment,
and L., for the first time, began to discover that he
was a man of vio'ent temperament, and became
afraid of him. At length a ruse had to be adopted
to get away from him ; the mother told hint that
L. was wanted to assist in preparing tea for the
wedding, party, and he allowed 114 t 9 leAvc 13/4iti