Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/283

Rh plaintiff, caused the plaintiff by means of his said power and art great suffering of body and mind and severe spinal pains and neuralgia and a temporary suspension of mind, and still continues to cause the plaintiff the same. And the plaintiff has reason to fear and does fear that he will continue in the future to cause the same. And the plaintiff says that said injuries are great and of an irreparable nature and that she is wholly unable to escape from the control and influence he so exercises upon her and from the aforesaid effects of said control and influence.

As Mrs. Eddy's attorney flatly refused to argue the case in court, she arranged that one of her students, Edward J. Arens, should do so. At the opening of the Supreme Judicial Court in Salem May 14, 1878, Mrs. Eddy and Mr. Arens appeared under power of attorney for Miss Brown, attended by some twenty witnesses, "a cloud of witnesses," as the Boston Globe put it in an account of the hearing. When they were assembled at the railway station in Lynn to take the train for Salem, one of the witnesses went to Mrs. Eddy and protested that he knew nothing whatever about the case and would not know what to say were he called upon to testify. "You will be told what to say," replied Mrs. Eddy reassuringly.

Having arrived at the Salem Court House, Mrs. Eddy and her loyal band awaited in the jury-room the entrance of the chief justice. As soon as Judge Horace Gray had taken his seat, Mr. Arens arose and presented his petition for a hearing on the bill of complaint. He then made an exposition of the case to the Judge, who ordered that an order of notice be served upon Mr. Spofford, and appointed Friday, May 17th, for a hearing of the case. Mr. Arens at once took the train for Newburyport to search for Mr. Spofford, as Mrs. Eddy feared that he might escape into another State.

Meanwhile the Massachusetts press was making the most of