Page:English laws for women in the nineteenth century.djvu/67

55 for the sake of my children and my reputation;" and that I had. said, "I never would live with him again." Our reconciliation was broken off; my children were sent back to Scotland; and the next notice taken of my existence, by the husband who had wooed my return,—who had begged me to meet him in an empty house, assuring me nothing could be effected "without mutual confidence;"—who had signed himself, in familiar and caressing letters, jesting upon my fears and doubts as to trusting myself alone at that meeting;—and who had, in the first instance, desired his servant the day after my departure, to open the door of my home "with the chain across;"—the next step, I say, taken by the husband whose real story was so little known to the public, was to impose on that public by an advertisement respecting his legal liability for me, commencing,—

"Whereas on 30th March, 1836, my wife, Caroline Elizabeth Sarah, left me, her family, and home, and hath from thenceforth continued to live separate and apart from me," &c.

Angry, and full of scorn, I consulted my solicitor whether I was compelled to bear this fresh outrage. I showed him the letters Mr N. had written, just before this pretence of being a forsaken husband:—"Have I no remedy?"—"No remedy in . The can do nothing for you: your case is one of singular, of incredible hardship; but there is no possible way in which the  could assist you." My brother did all that could be done—he desired his solicitors to publish a letter stating that "the whole of the statements contained in Mr Norton's advertisement were false"—an imputation which remains on it to this day. After the insult of the advertisement, there was a pause of some weeks; and then Mr Norton wrote to say he wished an arbitration in our affairs; the arbitrator he named was Sir John Bayley; and as the history of the reference is given later, I do not here enter into it; further than to say, that Mr Norton, after solemnly pledging himself in writing, to