‘Promise, villain! promise!’ roared the man with a pistol. ‘Promise, or I finish you on the spot.’ ‘Help, I say,’ cried the undermost man, frothing with rage and pale with terror—‘Release me from this madman.’ ‘Madman!’ cried he with the pistol. ‘Is it mad that I am when I claim that you shall marry the woman whom you have stolen away from home and happiness. Gentlemen, you see here a villain—a banker of this city—who bloated with pride, and presuming on his wealth, seduced my wife and brought her to this city. I procured a divorce in such a manner that my ruined wife can marry again. I followed her and her paramour to this city, and here I find him rioting in a house of ill fame, while the woman that he has blasted—my late wife—pines in solitude at home, where she is scarcely allowed the necessaries of life. Now, you villain, see if these gentlemen will aid you.’ ‘No,’ said Monteagle. ‘We cannot interfere here; but pray don’t shoot the villain in cold blood.’ ‘His life is safe, if he promises to marry the woman,’ cried the wronged husband; ‘Otherwise he dies! Promise!’ and he thrust the muzzle of the pistol against the seducer’s forehead. ‘Murder—help!’ cried the man, struggling desperately to regain his feet. ‘Promise, rascal, promise to marry the woman, and I release you.’ Perhaps with the hope of making his escape if he consented, the banker at length said, ‘Let me up, and I will marry the—’ ‘Call no names for she is your wife.’ cried the other, suffering the banker to regain his feet, but no sooner was he up than he made a rush for the door—the outraged husband levelled a pistol at his head, and in order to save his life, Monteagle and Blodget seized the seducer, and in spite of his struggles, held him fast. The divorced husband then begged our two friends to lead the banker forward. Being concerned for his life, and thinking their presence necessary to his safety, Monteagle and Blodget led the man down the street, the husband leading the way, pistol in hand. In an obscure street, they entered a low-roofed building, where they found the unfaithful wife attended by a clergyman. The banker started, as this vision met his gaze, and he would fain have retreated; but he was held by his two conductors as in a vice. ‘Here,’ said the injured husband to the seducer—‘here is the woman whom you are to marry. I have procured a divorce from her, and left her free. You took her from me—from a good home—you have had her as long as it suited your convenience, but have now almost entirely cast her off in a strange land.—You shall marry her.’ The clergyman and all the others present said that it was no more than justice. Finding there was no other way, the banker yielded and married the woman whom he had seduced. After witnessing the ceremony, and receiving the hearty thanks of the late husband, Blodget and Monteagle withdrew. ‘What do you think of this scene?’ said Blodget to Monteagle, as soon as they were alone together in the street.