temperament does not leave it so.
She promptly turned it into a debt, and the more she loved the debtor,
the more oppressively and inexorably did she extort the uttermost penny
from him. About this time she was introduced to an eminent medical
specialist in mental diseases, who, by some inexplicable means, was
induced to give a certificate of her insanity. Then her cousins took her
before a justice, and swore that she was an indigent lunatic, upon which
showing the court issued an order of committal to an asylum. A few days
before her contemplated abduction, the lawyer induced her to board at
the Astor House, and on the morning of February 26, 1868, he being
engaged in the Federal court, while she was leisurely sauntering along
Broadway looking for him, as was her wont, she was suddenly seized by
three hired ruffians, hustled into a carriage, gagged and driven rapidly
up-town to Central Park, when the bandage was removed from her mouth.
For four mortal hours she was driven about the park in the company of
her brutal captors, and afterward placed on board the afternoon train
for Albany at the old Hudson River depot. "All along the road," as she
subsequently told the writer, "I implored the conductor to furnish me
with paper and pencil so that I might telegraph to New York, but it was
only when we reached the end of the journey that he did so. I gave him
money to pay for the dispatch, but he probably never sent it. When I
reached Utica I was placed in a pretty bad ward, and when the physician,
Dr. Kellogg, saw me he went and reported to Dr. Gray, the director of
the place. When he came up he said I must not be treated so, and I was
at once removed to the well ward; I remained there two weeks, when I was
discharged." Yes, she was discharged, and was received with crocodile
congratulations by the lawyer and one of her lawyer cousins, and
triumphantly, as it were, transported back to New York.

She was now placed in elegant apartments in the Hoffman House, and her
lawyer lover resumed his visits as formerly. During the summer she went
to the country at his expense, and when, in September, 1868, she
returned to the city, he finally ceased to visit her. She was frantic
with disappointment, and her insane infatuation led her into all manner
of indelicate demonstrations. She dogged him in the streets; she
followed him into court and interrupted him in his pleadings. Sometimes
she sat on the stoop of his elegant mansion all night.