He wrote to me again that he had sent word about
his situation to his mother-my first and worst wife-and she and his
sister were already with him.
Of course it was impossible for me to go there, if there were no
other reasons, I was too immediately interested in this affair to be
present, and I had no idea of undergoing a trial and a certain
conviction for myself. But I sent down a New York lawyer with one
hundred dollars, directing him to employ council there, and to
advise and assist as much as he could. Meanwhile, I remained in New
York, anxious, it is true, yet almost certain that it would be
impossible, under the circumstances, to convict Henry of the
kidnapping for which he was indicted. He had not even assisted in
the affair, and was sure his counsel would be able to so convince
the court and jury.
And reviewing the whole matter, now in my cooler moments, this
scheme of trying to carry away Sarah's son, seemed to be as foolish,
useless, and mad, as any one of my marrying adventures. Till I
picked him out from among his schoolmates, I had never seen the
child at all. When I started from Port Jervis to go down, as I
supposed, into Pennsylvania, I had no more idea of kidnapping the
boy than I had of robbing a sheep-fold. It was only when the
landlord at Water Gap told me that Sarah had remarried, and was
wedded to a worthless, drunken husband, that I conceived the plan of
removing the boy from such associations. I was going to bring him up
in a respectable manner.
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