Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1868-12-18


HER SEARCH.
One of those eases in which woman's
constancy under the most trying circum-
stances Is exhibited, came to light in this
city on Friday. The story certainly has
the imprint of the romantic more than
the reality, and borders closely upon the
imaginative, yet the manner in which the
facts are told by the two interested par
ties, clears the mind of all doubt, and
seems to stamp it with truth. The cir
cumstances, as related to us, are substan-
tally as follows:
In the beginning of 1S40, Henry Lef-
fingwell was well to do mechanic, liv-
ing near the suburbs of London, Eng
land. In the month Of March of that
year, larceny was committed near his
residence, and circumstances pointed to
him as the perpetrator. He was arrested,
examined before one of the stipendiary
magistrates, and fully committed for tri-
al. A month after, he was convicted
and sentenced to hard labor in the penal
colony of Australia, for period of ten
years, and in less than a weeks time
thereafter he was on his way to the far
off land. His devoted wife, who all the
time believed in her husbands innocence,
at once made preparations to follow and
remain near him during his confinement,
SO that she might be the first, when his
ticket of leave came, to cheer him with
good counsel, and comfort him with wife,
ly love- The ship containing the convict
arrived safe, and her cargo of living hui
man beings was at once transferred to the
government work houses.
Not so, however, the ship upon which
Mrs. Lefingwell embarked. When about
half way upon her journey the vessel
encountered fearful storm, and after
buffeting the waves for two days, found
cred and went down, the crew and Mrs.
Lefingwell barely escaped upon raft
hastily constructed when it was found
the ship could not be saved. After an
exposure of several days they were pick
ed up by the American ship North Wind,
bound from New York to China, where
Mre. Lefingwell was at length landed,
only to find herself farther than ever
from her destination, and with no imme-
diate prospect of reaching it. After sew
eral months of patient watching and
waiting, she was enabled through the
kind offices of the American Consul, then
residing at Yeddo, to procure passage to
Cuba, whence the prospect of reaching
Australia would be much improved.
Passing over a space of a year and a
half, in which Mrs. Leffingwell passed
through many scenes calculated to try
firmer resolutions than hers, but through
which she clung to her resolve with true
English obstinacy, she finally found her
self on the shores of Australia, but as
much at loss concerning the exact To-
cality of her husbands whereabouts, as
she would be of "a needle which she would
be hunting in hay NOV. She perse-
vered, however, but four long years pass
ed away before she was enabled to obtain
the slightest trace Of her husband, from
the fact that when once landed from the
ship, each convict receives a number, by
which he is only known to his keepers.
Mrs. Leffingwell knew not her husbands
number and when she made inquiries for
him she was always baffied with the ques-
tion, His number, ma'am?" At the
end of the time spoken Of, during which
her means had become exhausted, and
she had been compelled to resort to men,
tai labor she one day picked up a Sidney
paper in which was an account of her
! husbands release, the real criminal OF
the larceny having been found, and ex-
ported. The account gave her husbands
number and the facts which convicted
him, in so precise a manner that she
COulu HO louSel uoupI as W WIZ Was
meant. Her course was marked out al
once. Going to the prison authorities Of
Sidney, she at length learned that " tick
ct of leave man No. 1885," her husbands
number, had left the Island for the Uni
ted States of America, two weeks afte
his release The next thing for her t.
do was to follow him. Scraping togeth
er her scanty means, she found she pos
sessed hardly enough to pay her passage
She seized upon the first opportunity pre-
sented, and in June, 1S47, she found her
self once more upon the ocean, bound fo
!, the land of the free, with her mission
: still unaccomplished.
In due time she arrived in New Yorl
city, where she remained until the civi
war broke out, not having in the mean
: time heard one word of her husband
though she had made every exertion t
find his whereabouts. When the wa
broke out and at the first call for nurse
in the hospitals she responded, and unit
7 peace was declared there were none NOR