The Washington times., 1904-12-18

There remained the problem of the
burial Once more he called to his aid
Mrs. Wise and Mrs. Herbert Both
these estimable women were members
Of ST. Paurs Episcopal Church Bishop
Clagett. the first American bishop OF
the Episcopal Church. Glanced to be in
Alexandria. To the bishop the two
women went. told him they knew the
secret of the womans life and DEATH
and that she was worthy of Christian
burial. This Notwithstanding the in
scription on the stone which clearly i'm
plies that the woman had sinned. The
good bishop took them at their word,
and himself Officiated. As he died sud
denly a few weeks later In Prince George
county, Nd. this is thought TO be the
last funeral at which he acted. The
hour of the funeral becoming known, a
great conc0uTse followed tie body 10
ST. Paul's graveyard. where il was in
TERED under q large cedar. The man
remained only long enough to give di-
rectioas about the monument, and 10 in
dicate the inscription 70 be placed there
on. and then he disappeared. leaving his
unsolved mystery behind him.
Mrs. Wise and Mrs. Herbert remained
faithful to their trust The man had
chosen his cOnfidantes wisely. or else
the oath he required was terrible In its
binding effect. Both lived TO q ripe old
age, and died without revealing the
secret intrusted to their care. Mr.. J.
W. Herndon, clerk IN the House folding
room. and secretary Of the Society for
the Restoration Of Historic Alexandria.
remembers hearing his mother beg Mrs.
Wise for q hint of the secret. arguing
that there was no longer any reason
that II should be kept but 10 Mrs.
Herndon, as to all other inquirers. Mrs.
Wise replied that her lips we're sealed
and that there was no inducement on
earth sufficient 10 cause a divuigence
OF the secret. All that these faithful
nurses ever told was that the woman
was beautiful; nor would they deny
that she was OF uncommonly high birth
Who She Might Have Been.
With so little known conjecture has
been rife as TO who the beautiful
stranger might have been. Several dis
trict legends have grown up about her.
You VIII find many in Alexandria who
will tell you the woman was the beau
tifuI and gifted Theodosia Burr Alston.
daughter OF Aaron Burr and wife of the
governor of North Carolina. 1t viii be
remembered that, forty years after
TheodosiA Burr had been given up as
lost at sea, In a storm OF Cape Hat /
teras. two men. about TO be executed in
NorIolk. Va, confessed that they had
been-members OF "A gang OF shore pirates |
wholly means Of a false light, had |
lured the Inflated Patriot" on the
rocks. and had then forced all on board, |
including Mrs. Aston, 10 walk the |
plank. A year or so later a dying sailor, |
In New Orleans. confessed 10 compile |
ity in the same crime. Those who hole |
that the stranger who died in Alexan-
dria was TheodOsia Burr argue that no
pirate would have been at the same |
time so brutal and so imperviops TO fe-
male charms rs TO have caused the |
death OF Theodosia Aston; would il not
have been more probable that the wo- |
man would be saved as a prize, and
when dying from shame and grief, |
brought ashore with as much secrecy as |
possible? This would account, they |
maintain. for the insistence ca secrecy |
after death.
Unfortunately for the romance. facts !
and dates discredit this theory. II was
on December 20, 1872. that Mrs, Aston |
left Norfolk to join her father in New
York. The storm which enabled the
SURF pirates To lure the Patriot on the |
rocks OF Nag's Head occurred on Janu- |
ary I. 1913 Even II she escaped the |
fate OF all others on board, IA woman of |
Mrs AIston's refinement would not have |
lived through the horror OF more than |
three Years I'm such captivity. More !
over. this gang was composed of the |
lowest elements Of humanity the man |
who brought the dying stranger to Alex |
andria was, To all outward appearance. /
a gentleman Again. the inscription on /
the stone rnanifests complete familiarity |
with the age of the. dead woman, which |
is set down as twenty three; If she had /
lived TO that time, Theodosia Burr /
would have been ten years older |
Through the mute cloquence of the |
stone, the man claims TO have been the /
dead woman's husband; Governor Ais |
ton of North Carolina could not have |
entered Alexandria unknown,
Was it Emmet's Sweetheart?
Others. with more reason. think the |
stranger was Sarah Curran, the broken |
hearted fiuncee of Robert Emmet, the /
martyred Irish patriot. II was 10 her !
that Thomas Moore. friend both 10 her !
and TO Emmett addressed those beauu- |
ful lines beginning
She is FAR from the land where her young /
hero sleeps
There is reason to beiiefe that the |
man VINO came 10 Alexandria was an |
officer Ia the English army. II is known /
that Sarah Curran, though still pining /
for her Robert, was, two years after
his execution, forced 10 marry Major /
Sturgeon. Of the British army stan /
corps, and that soon after The couple /
left England Might Il not be she. griev-
ing for her lover who died In the arms /
Of a husband she did not love. and who. /
TO protect her from the comments of 1
the carlcus, withheld her namey
Again the dates-always prosaic-step |
in To controvert this hypothesis. The |
girl died in 1916. at the age OF twenty |
three. Robert Emmet was executed