The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-08-08 00:00:00

I A ROMANCE IN REAL (IRISH) LIFE

1 JUDGE BALL has

v. Mountgarret." It is not merely that fact
fiction out of the field. The triumph of truth

no man need

In his own fireside in search of illustrations. The
)le feature in this case is its half-tragic, lialf-
aracter. It reminds one of Garrick in the dilemma
.teynolds has immortalised. Not one, but every
in its turn is called into play. You laugh and
'udignant and amused, by turns. You would
wised to have heard that the circumstances
occurred in a lunatic asylum, but it is incredible that
the tragedy or farce which we are about to relate should
have been acted by men and women whose sanity never
seems to have been called in question. Great, however,
`he power of love, wonderful are the complexities and
es which we owe to the little tyrant who fasci-
nates and kills unhappy mortals. And this is the only

weep, are i
not be sur

mischi

y. Love

-enge, perha'

or one

ted the t

tibia itaroevihich has

use to the Bu

By way of explanation,
nay state that the action is brought by Colonel Butler
Tainst Lord Mountgarret, for the recovery of certain

CUitU.33 allti that Lae question turns on the legitimacy of
the plaintiff. The facts, as stated by the Attorney-General,
are as follow :—The hero of the story is Henry Butler,
third son of the late Earl of Kilkenny, and father to
Colonel Butler. Like Don Juan, this gentleman seems to
have passed his life in achieving conquests over women.
He came, he saw, he won. His first success was with the
wife of a gentleman who lived in an adjtining county.
He eloped with this lady, left the country, and was out-
lawed. After some time, the victim lost her charms, and

;ft her to die in misery

Freed from this
aver sea fd land—far away,
East or West—but 'everywhere leaving
rnself in broken hearts and outraged rights
-"RO9 'henry Butb'- fr lat B--.

-er as _ound a. ..,righton
a charming widow," Mrs. Colebrook, fits-
ueyond compare, and possessed of a jointure of
about £1,600 a yerr, which, however, was charged With
''"ulation that she should lose all if she =tried
Henry Butler met the widow—in other Words,
won her heart. The jointure was a difficulty In the
way, but love 'is the great muster, and poor Mrs. Colebrook
fell. In 1809 a child was born in Cadogan-plate, in this
metropolis, whither the *My had been removed, and
where she saw no one but her paramour and au old ser-
vant of the family, called Sarah Stride. This child died,
and the year afterwards another was born. 1t was then
resolvedlio go to Edinburgh, apparently for 'the purpose
of being privately married. The marriage was wanted to
legitimize qd, P-

There, t
cinating

_ uue , and privacy was necessary, in order
to secule the jointure. The visit was tin unlucky one.
Another Irishman, a Mr. Tauffe, appears on the scene,
also fascinating, also himself subdued -by the charms of
Mrs. Colebrook. At first sight he fell love with her,
and -zucceeded in supplanting Butler. `On one occasion
the_putative husbund was absent frctu Edinburgh, and
Mr:. Colebrook had given orders that when he returned
_ _ _

he-should be reftsed -admission. The new love
dominant. Butler's suspicions, however, had been aroused,

i return suddenly. He 'is refused admission,
ak ;,--.nto his own house, and finds Mr. Taaffe

locked up in his mistress's Wm/I:. At this crisis in the
story Butlerinsists upon being married there and then.
Taaffe very Trudently got out of -the way, and the mar-
riage cermeny was performed Yin the presence of their
servants. Ent this is not ail. •Islor a short time after The

marriagetbe happy pair sees; ;to have lived together as
man and *,:fe. But presently Baer is obliged to be absent;
again, and his wife (if we nitrat really call her so) forth-.
with srmamons Mr. Taaffe. ;The two fled from Stotlan`d,
and took-refuge at Whitby, were married shortly afterldi
Prestm,,and lived together ;until 111 r. Taaffe discovered,
what itmeems to have been
.previouslyl ignorant cif; that
the woman he had married was the wife, accordinglo the
Scotch law, of Henry Butler. The cause, thereforerfall
probably be decided by the -eiidence of Sarah Stride; toe
only ,ote of the witnesses to the marriage now alive,,and