" They
were excessively irate against me and very much angered, especially
that their race after me to Hancock had been fruitless. I had fallen
into the worst possible hands.
They took me to Northampton and brought me before a Justice, on a
charge of bigamy: The sheriff who arrested me, and the relatives who
accompanied him were willing to swear my life away, if they could,
and the justice was ready enough to bind me over to take my trial in
court, which was not to be in session for full six months to come.
Those long, weary six months I passed in the county jail. Then came
my trial. I had good counsel. There was not a particle of proof that
I was guilty of bigamy; no attempt was made on the part of the
prosecution to produce my first wife, from whom I had separated, or,
indeed, to show that there was such a woman in existence. But,
evidence or no evidence, with all Worthington against me, conviction
was inevitable. The jury found me guilty. The judge promptly
sentenced me to three years' imprisonment in the State Prison, at
Charlestown, with hard labor, the first day to be passed in solitary
confinement.
This severe sentence fairly stunned me. I was taken back to jail,
and the following day I was conveyed to Charlestown with heavy irons
on my ankles and handcuffed. No murderer would have been more
heavily ironed. We started early in the morning, and by noon I was
duly delivered to the warden at Charlestown prison. I was taken into
the office, measured, asked my name, age, and other particulars, and
then if I had a trade.
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