Page:The Overland Monthly Volume 5 Issue 3.djvu/55



It was be lieved to be a fraud. The best people of Bennington County had long believed the Boorns to be guilty. An upright Judge had made solemn charge that evidence of the crime had been conclusive against the prisoners. An intelligent jury had found them guilty. The General Court of the State, sitting to review appeals, had sanctioned the finding. There did not exist a doubt, and therefore no benefit of a doubt had been given by counsel or jury, Chief- Justice or Supreme Court.

Mr. Chadwick's letter was, nevertheless, taken to the cell. The Rev. Lemuel Haynes, who was present, says: "The news was so overwhelming that, to use his own language, 'nature could scarcely sustain the shock;' but, as there was some doubt as to the truth of the report, it tended to prevent immediate dissolution. But he was very faint, and had to be recovered by dashes of cold water."

Soon intelligence came from a Mr. Whelpley, of New York, formerly of Manchester, that he had himself been to New Jersey, and seen Russell Colvin alive. Doubts begantodisappear. Mr. Whelpley's word was undoubted. He had known Colvin from boyhood. No man was less likely to be the victim of an imposition. Members of the jury, however, hesitated to accept any thing short of Russell Colvin's presence, and Judge Chace pointed to Stephen Boorn's confession.

The next day another letter was received, in which Mr. Whelpley wrote, "T have Russell Colvin with me." This was accompanied by a sworn statement from John Rempton, who also was a native of Manchester, saying, "I personally know Russell Colvin, and he is now before me." The New York newspapers told and retold the story. Affidavits were filed by Mr. Polhamus. These were fortified by affidavits of neighbors.

was excited in Manchester.

All would not do in Manchester. Pride of opinion is stubborn. Doubt dies hard. Even bets were taken at considerable odds that the coming man was not the Simon-Pure Russell Colvin.

However, Colvin or Colvin's double, the lion was on his way. He passed through Poughkeepsie, where the streets were thronged tosee him. The wonder grew as he advanced. His story was told at every fireside. At Hudson a cannon was fired from the wharf; in Albany was erected a high platform, whence he could be seen by the people; and all over Troy, as he entered the town, bands of music were playing and flags flaunting from housetops and steeples. Some men become famous from being murdered. Russell Colvin became famous because he was not.

Toward evening of December 22, 1819, the snow covering the ground, the cold severest of the season, a double sleigh, before which a pair of horses were driven furiously, passed down the street of Manchester. The occupants were Whelpley and Rempton, Polhamus and Taber Chadwick, and, not the least object of interest, bewildered Russell Colvin. "Itishe! It1s Russell Colvin!" shouted the crowd, when the frightened man had been conducted from the sleigh to the piazza of the tavern. There was no doubt of it. He knew the minister, recognized and embraced his children, called his old neighbors by name, and started by himself for the jail. His wife he would not suffer to approach him. Perhaps he had been told that she had not waited for his coming with the fidelityof Penelope. But in every other way in which identity could be established, the poor, demented creature, who had been brought back from New Jersey, proved himself to be Russell Colvin.

Mr. Haynes describes the meeting at the jail: 'The prison door was unbolted and the news proclaimed to Stephen that Colvin had come. He was intro