The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-11 00:00:00

CURIOUS CASE.

DORCHESTER.—A person was summoned to prove
b
e settlement of his wife, who is a pauper lunatic in
our County Asylum. On being sworn he solemnly
declared that the' woman in question was not his "law-
ful" wife, although she had been reputed, to be so;
which asseveration greatly astounded a Rev. Magis-
trate, who said he had seen the certificate of the mar-
riage, in France, made out and signed by the cure,
and upon which certificate, obtained from, the man.
who 'now denied the woman to be his wife; an adju-
dication had been made. The witness still_ persisted
in his former avowal, and called God to witness that
he had never been married to the woman, either in a
Roman Catholic Church in France, or in any place of
worship there or elsewhere. He admittted that
she had lived with him, as his reputed wife, and
that he had had three children by her, the eldest of
whom is now 27 years of age, and said he would have
continued to take care of her, had not her conduct
become such, from aberration of mind, that he could
not live with her. Being asked several questions
by the magistrates, he said the paper purporting
to be a certificate, was not a real certificate, but was
in fact, a forgery, made out by one of the sergeants of
his regiment, who could write good French, and
given to him, because publicans, when soldiers were
billetted, would not take in their wins except they
showed the certificate of their marriage : the sergeant,
he said, made out half-a-dozen such certitteates at the
same time; for men who had foreign women with them
who followed them as wives, but who had never been
married. The old pensioner then gave a history of the af-
fair. He said he had fought for his king and country, for
many years, having been twice wounded, once in the
leg, at Waterloo, and once in the peninsular war, in
the nose, by the spear of a Polish soldier (the loss of
his nasal organ proved that he had been wounded in
that prominent part) ; after the battle of Waterloo he
met with this girl at Limbourg, and she appeared to
be very fond of him, there being no love lost between
them, as he was somewhat fond of her; she followed
him until his regiment was about to leave for Eng-
land, and he would have made her his wife but for ,
the Colonel, who refused to grant leave, nektwithstand- I
ing great importunity, the gallant officer observing
that he would not consent to the taking over of fo-
reign wives, as there were women enough in England.
He told his fair one this, with a heavy heart, not daring
to get married against the orders of his Colonel, as he,
being then a sergeant, should have been reduced to
the ranks, and probably otherwise punished. She
wanted to follow him to England, whether married
or not, but he pointed out to her that she could not
be taken on board the transport ship, and therefore,
however reluctantly, he must leave her. But no dif-
ficulty is too great for woman's love to encounter;
she had some little acquaintance with the Commis--
sary's wife,' and hired herself as a servant, in which
capacity she was taken across in another vessel, so
th;tt, after he had arrived with his regiment at Dover,
she soon found him out, and, to his astonishment, his
French lady-love was by his side again. Well, after
such devotion, the soldier had not tie heart to
slight her, and she continued to follow his fortune,
and had lived with him, as his better half, till the
calamity which had fallen upon her happened. This,
he assured the Bench was the real state of the case—
he had not before denied her_ to be his wife, because
he had not been called upon to do so ; but being now
required to speak the truth, upon his oath, he should
say what was utterly false if he said she was his wife,
which he again most solemnly declared was not the
case. The Bench then proceeded to take his evidence
as to his own settlement, with the view of further in-
quiry.—Dorset Paper.
IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, June 10.
SUGAR DUTIES.
The order of the day Was then read.
On the motion that the Speaker do leave the Chair,