Alas! I did not succeed even in bringing
him away.
CHAPTER XIII.
ANOTHER WIDOW.
WAITING FOR THE VERDICT-MY SON SENT TO STATE PRISON-WHAT SARAH WOULD
HAVE DONE-INTERVIEW WITH MY FIRST WIFE-HELP FOR HENRY-THE BIDDEFORD
WIDOW-HER EFFORT TO MARRY ME-OUR VISIT TO BOSTON-A WARNING-A
GENEROUS GIFT-HENRY PARDONED-CLOSE OF THE SCHEIMER ACCOUNT-VISIT TO
ONTARIO COUNTY-MY RICH COUSINS-WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN-MY BIRTH-PLACE
REVISITED.
I waited with nervous impatience for the close of the trial in New
Jersey, when I hoped to welcome my son Henry to New York. It was so
plain a case, as it seemed to me, and must appear, I thought, to
everybody, that I hardly doubted his instant acquittal. But very
shortly the New York lawyer whom I had sent to Belvidere, came back
and brought terrible news. Henry had been tried, and notwithstanding
the fairest showing in his favor, he was convicted and sentenced to
eighteen months imprisonment at Trenton.
As it appeared, it was I really, and not Henry, who was on trial.
The circumstances of the desperate struggle, and my knocking down
one of the men with the butt of my whip, were conspicuous in the
case. Even the little boy was put on the stand, and was made to
testify against his older half-brother. Henry himself was astounded
at the result of the trial, and was firmly convinced that instead of
"proving his innocence" to Jersey jurymen, he had better have let
his innocence go by default. We never even got back again the three
hundred dollars which had been put into the hands of the man who
went bail for Henry when he was bound over for trial.
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