The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-10-26
REMEM BERED IN HIS WILL
A ROMANTIC CHAPTER FROM
THE AUTHORS EARLY LIFE.
LOVED MR., WADDELL'S GRANDMOTHER
But She Loved Another--The Famous Author
Remembered Mrs. Waddeli in ! Will
Stood as Her Godfather Dur
ing Civil War,
washington Post.)

The many friends of Hon. Alfred
Moore Waddell in Washington, where
he served twelve successive years as
member of Congress, will be interested
in the romantic history of his third
wife, to whom he was recently married.
The present Mrs. Waddell was Miss
Gabrielle de Goblin de Rosset. She is
the goddaughter of Sir Edward Bulwer-
Lytton, and was remembered in his viii
to the amount of 81 1000 and the copy
right to one of his best dramas. The
career of the lady reads like a chapter
from a novel. Before the war Sir Ed
ward Bulwer Lytton was British Minis
ter to the United States. He had known
the Scotch family of Aucrum, who had
settled in Charleston, s. G. The tourist
of to-day can see the ruins of Aucrum
Castle, Marlborough. BY invitation Sir
Edward Bulwer Lytton visited the Au-
crums in Charleston while he was sta
toned in Washington as Minister, be-
came very much attached to them, and
spent several weeks there. He is SAID
to have become enamored of one Of the
young ladies of the family, and to have
written in her honor the words Of the
pretty old ballad, beginning:
When stars are in the quiet skies,
Then most / pine for thee;
Bend on me then thy tender eyes
As stars look on the sea.
The lady wrote the music and the re-
Election of the stars in the water of the
famous old battery of Charleston, togeth-
err with the beauty of Miss Aucrum, and
the fascination of the moonlight nignts
in that soft Southern climate, inspired
the poet and peer to write the song,
whose music is sung everywhere by
those who have never heard the story
of it's authorship. Miss Aucrum married
another man, and Sir Edward was sent
as Minister to Constantinople. The
civil war came on years afterward, and
the present Mrs. Waddell, who is the
grand daughter of the lady Bulwer adj
mired, was a baby while that conflict
was at its height Her father, Louis
de Rosset, was one of the trusted agents
of the Southern Confederacy. He had
run the blockade, and had reached Mas
sau, where he was overtaken by the
dreaded yellow fever. His young wife
heard of it, and declared she would
take her baby, run the blockade, and
go and nurse him. In spite of protests
from her family and his, she left the
port of Wilmington, n. c., where they
were then living, and steamed out Of
that harbor one night in a rakish-looking
blockade runner. The vessel was seen
by the Federal feet fired upon, and
forced to return in a leaking condition
to Fort Fisher. The baby was tossed
on shore into blanket, held at the four
ends by sailors, and the party was driven
back into Wilmington over twenty miles
OF low-lying sandy road. The intrepid
mother started again in a swifter vessel,
commanded by Capt. Read, now con-
nected with the Clydes of New York
under the cover of a storm. She was
about to reach the high seas when
Federal man-of-war sighted her, and
fred into her. Mrs. de Rosset stood
on the bridge with the Captain while
the short skirmish lasted, doing her
share by keeping cool, and giving the
crew the benefit of her good eyesight
and undaunted courage The blockader
escaped on account OF it's superior speed,
and landed the mother and infant at
Nassau safely. Mr.. de Rosset recovered
from the yellow fever, and at once took
his family to England
Lord Lytton was then the lion Of the
hour. He heard Of Mrs. de Rosset's
adventure, and recognized in her the
daughter of his old friend in Charles
ton. He called, introduced them to the
most exclusive circle in Great Britain
and invited them to Knebworth Castle,
his most beautiful seat. He stood as
godfather to little Gabrielle, taught her
to repeat his poetry, and remembered
her in his will as mentioned above. The
de Rossets took a house in Kensington,
and lived there until peace was restored.
The mother died, and the little girl was
brought back to her kindred in Whining
ton to face, with a courage not unwor-
thy of her mother, the changed condi-
ton of things.