Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-06-12
VERMONT BtATTLEBORO, FRIDAY JUNE IG2 1s9

wed honestly, though secretly, the
young merchants widow at Havenpool
she being therefore his lawful wife,
and she only. That to avoid all scandal
and hubbub he had purposed to let
things remain as they were till fair OPP
portunity should arise of making the
true case known with least pain to all
parties concerned, but that, having been
thus suspected and attacked by his own
brother-in- law, his zest for such schemes
and for all things had died out in him,
and he only wished to commend his soul
to God.
That night, while the owls were
hooting from the forest that encircled
the sleeping townlet, and the South
Avon was gurgling through the wooden
piles Of the bridge, Sir John died there
in the arms of his wife. She concealed
nothing of the cause of her husbands
death save the subject of the quarrel,
which she felt it would be premature
to announce just then, and until proof
of her status should be forthcoming.
But before a month had passed, it hap
pened, to her indispensable sorrow, that
the child of this clandestine union fell
sick and died. From that hour all in
terest in the name and fame of the
Horseleighs forsook the younger of the
twain who called themselves wives of
Sir John, and being careless about her
own fame she took no steps to assert
her claims, her legal position having in
deed grown hateful to her in her horror
at the tragedy. And Sir William Byrt,
the curate who had married her to her
husband being an old man and feeble,
was not disinclined to leave the embers
unstirred of such fiery matter as this,
and to assist her in letting established
things stand. Therefore, Edith retired
with the nurse, her only companion and
friend, to her native town, where she
lived in absolute obscurity till her death
at no great age. Her brother was never
seen again in England.
A strangely corroborative sequel Of
the story remains to be told. Shortly
after the death of Sir John Horseleigh
q soldier of fortune returned from the
continent called on Dame Horseleigh
the fictitious, living in widowed state
at Clyfton Horseleigh, and after sin
gularly brief courtship married her.
The tradition at Havenpool and else
where has ever been that this man was
already her husband, Decimus Strong,
who remarked her for appearance sake
| only.
The illegitimate son of this lady by
Sir John succeeded to the estates and
honors and his son after him, there be-
ing nobody alert to investigate their
| pretensions. Little difference would it
have made to the present generation,
however, had there been such a one, for
the family in all its branches, lawful
and unlawful, has been extinct these
many score years, the last representa-
tive but one being killed at the siege of
| Sherton castle while attacking in the
service of the parliament, and the other
being outlawed later in the same cen
fury for debt of elO, and dying in the
county Jail. The mansion house and its
appurtenances were, as l have previous
ly stated, destroyed, excepting one
small wing which now forms part of a
farmhouse, and is visible as you pass
along the railway from Casterbridge to
| Ivel The outline of the old bowling
green is also distinctly to be seen.
This, then, is the reason why the
only lawful marriage of Sir John, as
recorded in the obscure register at Ha-
venpool, does not appear in the pedigree
of the house of Horseleigh.