Cora and The Doctor; or, Revelations of A Physician's WifeLeslie, Madeline
General
Cora and The Doctor; or, Revelations of A Physician's Wife
Leslie, Madeline
Physicians -- Fiction
Groups of men stand in the streets discussing the latest intelligence of
the affair, while Lucy and her husband from being among the most quiet
citizens of the place have been suddenly transformed into the lions of
the day. Their every word and look is eagerly repeated from one to
another. One benefit has already resulted from all this. Public
attention and sympathy have been turned to the family of widow Fuller,
and she has help flowing in from all quarters. In return, she has only
to repeat some two or three dozen times a day the sad confession of her
husband's crime. "I had it from the lips of the widow," is enough to
draw a crowd of listeners eager for something to fan their already
over-excited imaginations.
Even the Doctor is not without his share of attention, from being the
one to whom the confession was originally made, and from being a
particular friend of the Mansfields.
_Monday, September 9th._
The excitement in town is constantly on the increase. Poor Lucy is
almost as much a prisoner as her brother. She was riding out with her
children a day or two since, when some one shouted, "there goes Mrs.
Mansfield, sister to the prisoner," and a whole posse of boys ran
shouting after the carriage. Such notoriety is by no means pleasing to
her, and she is determined to avoid it in future. Mr. Willard, the
District Attorney, who will manage the case for Allen, in behalf of the
government, has grown very fast in public esteem for a few years, and is
considered an uncommonly shrewd lawyer and an excellent advocate. Report
says that Joseph has secured the services of an able and far famed
lawyer from the city, and means to spare no expense to procure his
acquittal at the coming trial, which does not take place until the
fore-part of November. Mr. Willard, being on the spot, has every
advantage of circumstantial testimony. He has already obtained a warrant
to search the premises, and in company with a man appointed keeper by
the sheriff, who served a writ attaching the whole for damages in behalf
of Allen, went from room to room, examining every private drawer, desk,
shelf, or crevice where such a document could be secreted. But it was
all in vain; yet a more thorough search will be made to-morrow.
Joseph is in a shocking condition, caused by the involuntary and sudden
cessation of his excess in drinking. His eyes seem ready to start from
their sockets; and he is so violent in his demands for brandy, and so
furious because he cannot obtain it that the jailor has been obliged to
put him in irons. Mr. Colby is in a dreadful state of nervous
excitement, and walks from morning till night back and forth in the
small cell where he is confined. Upon one or two occasions, when Mr.
Willard, in company with a sheriff, visited him, he would not deign a
reply to any question they put to him.
_Tuesday, September 10th._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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