State Trials, Political and Social Volume II Part 28

COWPER--What answer did she make?

JOSEPH TAYLOR--She said, they would serve her time.

COWPER--As to this piece of evidence, if your lords.h.i.+p pleases, I desire it may be particularly taken notice of; it was her head-dress that she said would serve her time.

Pray, Mr. Taylor, was you at Mr. Barefoot's when I came there on Monday morning?

JOSEPH TAYLOR--Yes; I went up stairs with you into your chamber.

COWPER--Pray, what did I say to Mr. Barefoot?

JOSEPH TAYLOR--You asked him if they had received a letter from your brother, and he said, No, not that he knew of, but he would call his wife, and he did call his wife, and asked her if she had received a letter, and she said, No; then said you, I will take up this lodging for mine; and accordingly you went up stairs, and I went with you, and staid there about four times as long as I have been here.

COWPER--Are you very sure that I said, I would take up my lodgings there?

JOSEPH TAYLOR--Yes, I am very sure of it.

HATSELL, BARON--What time of the day was it?

JOSEPH TAYLOR--It was the fore part of the day; while I was there, my lord, Mrs. Sarah Stout's maid came to invite Mr.

Cowper to her house to dinner.

COWPER--Did you know anything of my sending to the coffee-house?

JOSEPH TAYLOR--You sent to the coffee-house for your things.

HATSELL, BARON--Did Mr. Cowper use to lie at Mrs. Barefoot's?

JOSEPH TAYLOR--His brother did, but I do not know whether this gentleman did, but at that time he took up that place for his lodging; and said, it was all one, my brother must pay for it, and therefore I will take it up for myself.

COWPER--Call Mrs. Barefoot and her maid.

[But they not presently appearing,]

COWPER--My lord, in the meantime I will go on to the other part of my evidence, in opening of which I shall be very short.

My lord, my wife lodging at Hertford, occasioned me frequently to come down. Mrs. Stout became acquainted with her; When business was over in the long vacation, I resided pretty much at Hertford, and Mr. Marshall came down to pay me a visit, and this introduced his knowledge of Mrs. Stout. When she was first acquainted with him she received him with a great deal of civility and kindness, which induced him to make his addresses to her, as he did, by way of courts.h.i.+p. It happened one evening that she and one Mrs. Crook, Mr. Marshall and myself, were walking together, and Mr. Marshall and Mrs. Crook going some little way before us, she took this opportunity to speak to me in such terms, I must confess, as surprized me. Says she, Mr.

Cowper, I did not think you had been so dull. I was inquisitive to know in what my dulness did consist. Why, says she, do you imagine I intend to marry Mr. Marshall? I said I thought she did, and that if she did not, she was much to blame in what she had done: No, says she, I thought it might serve to divert the censure of the world, and favour our acquaintance. My lord, I have some original letters under her own hand which will make this fully manifest; I will produce the letters after I have called Mr. Marshall. Mr. Marshall.

MR. MARSHALL--If your lords.h.i.+p pleases, it was in the long vacation I came down to spend a little of my leisure time at Hertford; the reason of my going thither was, because Mr.

Cowper was there at that time. The first night when I came down I found Mrs. Sarah Stout visiting at Mr. Cowper's lodgings and there I first came acquainted with her; and she afterwards gave me frequent opportunities of improving that acquaintance; and by the manner of my reception by her, I had no reason to suspect the use it seems I was designed for. When I came to town, my lord, I was generally told of my courting Mrs. Stout, which I confess was not then in my head; but it being represented to me as a thing easy to be got over, and believing the report of the world as to her fortune, I did afterwards make my application to her; but upon very little trial of that sort, I received a very fair denial, and there ended my suit; Mr. Cowper having been so friendly to me, as to give me notice of some things, that convinced me I ought to be thankful I had no more to do with her.

HATSELL, BARON--When did she cast you off?

MR. MARSHALL--I cannot be positive as to the time, my lord, but it was in answer to the only serious letter I ever writ to her; as I remember, I was not over importunate in this affair, for I never was a very violent lover.

HATSELL, BARON--Well, but tell the time as near as you can.

MR. MARSHALL--I believe it was a second or third time I came down to Hertford, which is about a year and a half since; and, during the whole of my acquaintance with her, I never till then found her averse to any proposal of mine; but she then telling me her resolution was not to comply with what I desired, I took her at her word, having, partly by my own observation, but more by Mr. Cowper's friends.h.i.+p, been pretty well able to guess at her meaning.

COWPER--Because what you say may stand confirmed beyond contradiction, I desire you to say whether you have any letters from her to yourself?

MR. MARSHALL--Yes, I have a letter in my hand which she sent me, upon occasion of some songs I sent her when I came to town, which she had before desired of me; and this is a letter in answer to mine; it is her hand-writing, and directed to me.

HATSELL, BARON--How do you know it is her hand-writing?

MR. MARSHALL--I have seen her write, and seen and received several letters from her.

COWPER--Pray shew it Mr. Beale.

MR. BEALE--I believe it to be her hand; I have seen her write, and have a receipt of hers.

CLERK OF ARRAIGNS--It is directed to Mr. Thomas Marshall at Lyons-inn, and dated Sept. 26, 1697.

'_Sept. 26, 1697._ 'SIR,

'Yours came very safe; but I wish you had explained your meaning a little more about the accident you speak of; for have been puzzling my brains ever since; and without I shall set myself to conjuring, I cannot imagine what it should be, for I know of nothing that happened after you went away, nor no discourse about you, only when we were together, the company would sometimes drink your health, or wish you had been there, or the like; so that I fancy it must be something Mr. has invented for diversion; though I must confess we have a sort of people here, that are inspired with the gift of foreknowledge, who will tell one as much for nothing as any astrologer will have a good piece of money for. But to leave jesting, I cannot tell when I shall come to London, unless it be for the night and away, about some business with my brother, that I must be obliged to attend his motions; but when I do, I shall remember my promise, although I do not suppose you are any more in earnest than myself in this matter. I give you thanks for your songs and your good wishes, and rest,

Your loving Duck.'

COWPER--Have you any more letters?

MR. MARSHALL--Yes, I have another letter here, but before it is read, I think it will be proper to give the court an account of the occasion of its being writ. I waited on Mrs. Stout one evening at her lodgings in Houndsditch, and at our parting she appointed to meet me the next day; and to excuse her not coming according to that appointment, she sent me this letter.

CLERK OF ARRAIGNS--It is directed to Mr. Thomas Marshall; it is without date.

'MR. MARSHALL,

I met unexpected with one that came from H----d last night, who detained me so long with relating the most notorious inventions and lyes that are now extant amongst those people, that I could not possible come till it was late; and this day was appointed for business, that I am uncertain when it will be finished; so that I believe I cannot see you whilst I am in town.

I have no more at present, but that I am

Your obliged Friend.'

COWPER--Now, my lord, if your lords.h.i.+p please, I proceed to shew you, that I went not so much voluntarily as pressed by her to come to this house, and for that I will produce one letter from her to myself; and, my lord, I must a little inform you of the nature of this letter. It is on the outside directed to Mrs. Jane Ellen, to be left for her at Mr. Hargrave's coffee-house. For her to direct for me at a coffee-house, might make the servants wonder and the post-man might suspect, and for that reason she directed it in that manner. There was Mr.

Marshall by whom I received it, and I can prove the hand by Mr.

Beale.

MR. MARSHALL--My lord, I verily believe I was by, and that Mr.

Cowper shewed me this letter immediately on receipt of it, as he had done several others from the same hand.

CLERK OF ARRAIGNS--This is directed for Mrs. Jane Ellen. It is dated March the 5th, without any year.

_'March the 5th._

SIR,

I am glad you have not quite forgot that there is such a person as I in being; but I am willing to shut my eyes, and not see anything that looks like unkindness in you, and rather content myself with what excuses you are pleased to make, than be inquisitive into what I must not know. I should very readily comply with your proposition of changing the season, if it were in my power to do it, but you know that lies altogether in your own breast; I am sure the winter has been too unpleasant for me to desire the continuance of it; and I wish you were to endure the sharpness of it but for one hour, as I have done for many long nights and days; and then I believe it would move that rocky heart of yours, that can be so thoughtless of me as you are; But if it were designed for that end, to make the summer the more delightful, I wish it may have the effect so far, as to continue it to be so too, that the weather may never overcast again; the which if I could be a.s.sured of, it would recompense me for all that I have ever suffered, and make me as easy a creature as I was the first moment I received breath. When you come to H----d pray let your steed guide you, and do not do as you did the last time; and be sure order your affairs to be here as soon as you can, which cannot be sooner than you will be heartily welcome to