which one man can make to another for running away with his daughter,
is to be exemplary in his conduct towards her."
In pecuniary affairs not less prudent than his brother, Lord Stowell in
matters of sentiment was capable of indiscretion. In the long list of
legal loves there are not many episodes more truly ridiculous than the
story of the older Scott's second marriage. On April 10, 1813, the
decorous Sir William Scott, and Louisa Catharine, widow of John,
Marquis of Sligo, and daughter of Admiral Lord Howe, were united in the
bonds of holy wedlock, to the infinite amusement of the world of
fashion, and to the speedy humiliation of the bridegroom. So incensed
was Lord Eldon at his brother's folly, that he refused to appear at the
wedding; and certainly the Chancellor's displeasure was not without
reason, for the notorious absurdity of the affair brought ridicule on
the whole of the Scott family connexion. The happy couple met for the
first time in the Old Bailey, when Sir William Scott and Lord
Ellenborough presided at the trial of the marchioness's son, the young
Marquis of Sligo, who had incurred the anger of the law by luring into
his yacht, in Mediterranean waters, two of the king's seamen. Throughout
the hearing of that _cause celebre_, the marchioness sat in the fetid
court of the Old Bailey, in the hope that her presence might rouse
amongst the jury or in the bench feelings favorable to her son. This
hope was disappointed. The verdict having been given against the young
peer, he was ordered to pay a fine of L5000, and undergo four months'
incarceration in Newgate, and--worse than fine and imprisonment--was
compelled to listen to a parental address from Sir William Scott on the
duties and responsibilities of men of high station. Either under the
influence of sincere admiration for the judge, or impelled by desire for
vengeance on the man who had presumed to lecture her son in a court of
justice, the marchioness wrote a few hasty words of thanks to Sir
William Scott for his salutary exhortation to her boy. She even went so
far as to say that she wished the erring marquis could always have so
wise a counsellor at his side. This communication was made upon a slip
of paper, which the writer sent to the judge by an usher of the court.
Sir William read the note as he sat on the bench, and having looked
towards the fair scribe, he received from her a glance and smile that
were fruitful of much misery to him. Within four months the courteous
Sir William Scott was tied fast to a beautiful, shrill, voluble
termagant, who exercised marvellous ingenuity in rendering him wretched
and contemptible. Reared in a stately school of old-world politeness,
the unhappy man was a model of decorum and urbanity. He took reasonable
pride in the perfection of his tone and manner; and the
marchioness--whose malice did not lack cleverness--was never more happy
than when she was gravely expostulating with him, in the presence of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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