Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison: Fifteen Years in SolitudeBidwell, Austin
General
Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison: Fifteen Years in Solitude
Bidwell, Austin
Bank fraud -- England; Bank of England; Bidwell, Austin; Criminals -- Biography
I told my friends I should go to the City of Mexico for a year or two,
and then meet them somewhere in America where we would unite our wealth
to inaugurate some scheme that would benefit thousands in our own
generation and millions in the generations to come. We would hedge
ourselves about with kindly deeds, so live as to win the respect of all,
and when under the sod live in the eyes and mouths of men.
Too soon the whistle sounded, and we had to say good-bye, which we did
in an enthusiasm that told how deeply we felt. We were walking in the
Primrose Way, its flowers and songs were sweet, and we thought their
perfume and melody eternal.
I again arrived in Paris at daylight, but early as it was, my
sweetheart, escorted by my servant, was waiting my arrival. It was our
wedding morning. During our drive to the hotel, radiant with joy, she
told me the separation had been a cruel one, and she was so happy to
know we should never be separated again!
At 4 o'clock that afternoon we were married at the American Embassy.
I had told every one I was going to leave the next day for Havre, to
embark for New York. Our baggage was all packed and placed in a van,
which I accompanied to the Havre station, and had stored there. Sunday I
purchased one ticket to Bayonne, one for Madrid and one to Burgos, each
from different agencies. On Sunday morning I took a van to the Havre
station, and transferring our baggage to the road into Spain, checked
all of it to Madrid.
My purpose was to sail by the Lopez & Co. steamer El Rey Felipe from
Cadiz to Mexico, which was advertised to sail ten days later.
We were married very quietly on Friday, and our friends, wisely
recognizing the fact that young married people like to be alone, the
next day said good-bye and returned to Normandy. We spent a quiet and
happy Saturday and Sunday, and on Sunday night we left--my wife, servant
and self--for Cadiz, via Madrid. My wife, like all English people, knew
little of geography, and had such hazy notions of America that she
thought it quite the thing to go to such an outlandish and far off
quarter of the globe as America via a Spanish port. Columbus, she knew,
had gone that way, and why should not we?
We had an all-night ride to Bayonne in one of those antiquated
compartments used in railway carriages all over Europe, but the ride was
not tedious, nor was the night long. This little earth had no happier
couple, and, talking of the happy years that lay before us, the night
rushed by like a fairy dream.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account