Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-12-24
A SINGULAR ROMANCE.
A Remarkable Love story = Truth
Stranger than Fiction.

Stranger than Fiction.
Two persons lately sailed from New York
for Europe whose history IS so strange that,
but for proof not to be gainsaid, it might
even be thought incredible. No Wild ro-
nance devised by the most cunning weaver
of sensational plot can surpass this history
for triumph over time, space, and the ordi-
nary rules of probability. Again promising
that the story is well authenticated, we pro
coed to tell it.
Nearly twenty years back there lived in
Rio Janeiro an English merchant, whose
life seemed entirely devoted to the pursuits
of fortune. He had come to Brazil poor,
acquired a competency. This done, after
many vicissitudes, he went home for q visit.
While at home he met beautiful orphan
girl. She was lovely in mind as in person,
and the compassion wrought by her foriorn
situation in life soon ripened in our mer-
chants breast to a warmer feeling. In
brief, as the story writers say, the pair were
married, and returned together to Brazil.
Two children were born to them, and life
glided OH for a space like summers hOll-
day. Worldly prosperity, too, still attend
ed the merchant, who frem time to time re-
peated bis visits to England. On one of
these occasions strange rumorS came 10 his
ears prejudicial to his wife. They were
little needed at first, but like the poison Of
Iago, soon "burned like the mines OF sui
phur" BY degrees suspicion became jeal-
GUS fury. and the wife was directly charged
with infdelity. The lady being proud and
sensitive to fault, Indignantly denied the
charge, challenged her accuser TO produce
evidence, and withdrew as much as posi-
Bile from his society. The tender affection
of former days now gave place to indiffer-
ence and almost aversion. No guilt could
be fixed on the wife, but some efforts made
by the husband for reconciliation were
coldly received. In time their mutual rela-
lions became unbearable to both of them.
A separation was agreed upon, an annuity
was settled on the wife, and the day of
welded love that had opened so brightly
ended in darkness and sorrow.
Heartsick and weary of old associations,
the merchant wound up his affairs in Brazil,
and came to North America. Wandering
vaguely about in the West, he fell in with
party of Red river traders, and subsequently
did good deal of business in and about st.
Paul. In that town he made many friends,
while avoiding close intimacies, and was
notable for his grave taeiturnity and the
strict honor Of all his dealings. He refused
invariably to miDgle in any social pleasures
whatever, and impressed all who came in
contact with him as a man who labored
under ineradicable suffering. Thus years
rolled on, and the wife had married again
the terms Of separation under Brazilian
laws allowing that step. She, however
forfeited her annuity by it, which proved
in the end serious misfortune.
Her second husband was poor, although an
educated gentleman, fell into bad health,
and died a year or two after the marriage.
This left the wife and her two children in
destitute circumstances and she scarcely
knew where to turn. She then, like her
first husband, became an Uneasy wandeTer
up and down the earth. Led by some mys-
FERROUS influences, she. too, came to the
United States, and in the fall of 1863 she,
too, was in St. Paul. 1t is a surprising
statement to make, but there is no doubt Of
the fact, that the couple met once more,
that the old feeling revived, that the lady
cOnclusively established her innocence in
the mind of her husband, and they have
lived in the utmost felicity ever since.
Rocbefoucauld says that a love 're-
chdufep is of no value, but here
is a direct case to the contrary,
defying all likelihood and exploding cynical
epigrams. With an ample fortune, and, We
may hope, both wiser for their painful ex-
perience, tie twice-wedded pair have once
more sailed across the sea TO settle down
for the remainder of life, in their old home.
1t would puzzle the incest calculator Of
chances to determine the precise ratio of
probability that so singular an event as this
should occur. When we remember the
very small proportion of like separations
that are followed by re union at all, the fact
that the reunion in this case was effected in
another country, and ten thousand miles
away from the place of parting, and
that a second marriage on the part of the
woman interviewed with fresh impedimeIrs
and complicatiOns-this story must certainly
be pronounced one of the most striking and
extraordinary ever on record.