e again that he
had sent word about his situation to his mother--my first and worst
wife--and she and his sister were already with him.

Of course it was impossible for me to go there, if there were no other
reasons, I was too immediately interested in this affair to be present,
and I had no idea of undergoing a trial and a certain conviction for
myself. But I sent down a New York lawyer with one hundred dollars,
directing him to employ council there, and to advise and assist as much
as he could. Meanwhile, I remained in New York, anxious, it is true, yet
almost certain that it would be impossible, under the circumstances, to
convict Henry of the kidnapping for which he was indicted. He had not
even assisted in the affair, and was sure his counsel would be able to
so convince the court and jury.

And reviewing the whole matter, now in my cooler moments, this scheme of
trying to carry away Sarah's son, seemed to be as foolish, useless, and
mad, as any one of my marrying adventures. Till I picked him out from
among his schoolmates, I had never seen the child at all. When I started
from Port Jervis to go down, as I supposed, into Pennsylvania, I had no
more idea of kidnapping the boy than I had of robbing a sheep-fold.
It was only when the landlord at Water Gap told me that Sarah had
remarried, and was wedded to a worthless, drunken husband, that I
conceived the plan of removing the boy from such associations. I was
going to bring him up in a respectable manner. Alas! I did not succeed
even in bringing him away.

CHAPTER XIII. ANOTHER WIDOW.

WAITING FOR THE VERDICT--MY SON SENT TO STATE PRISON--WHAT SARAH WOULD
HAVE DONE--INTERVIEW WITH MY FIRST WIFE--HELP FOR HENRY--THE BIDDEFORD
WIDOW--HER EFFORT TO MARRY ME--OUR VISIT TO BOSTON--A WARNING--A
GENEROUS GIFT--HENRY PARDONED--CLOSE OF THE SCHEIMER ACCOUNT--VISIT TO
ONTARIO COUNTY--MY RICH COUSINS--WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN--MY BIRTH--PLACE
REVISITED.

I waited with nervous impatience for the close of the trial in New
Jersey, when I hoped to welcome my son Henry to New York. It was
so plain a case, as it seemed to me, and must appear, I thought, to
everybody, that I hardly doubted his instant acquittal. But very shortly
the New York lawyer whom I had sent to Belvidere, came back and brought
terrible news. Henry had been tried, and notwithstanding the fairest
showing in his favor, he was convicted and sentenced to eighteen months
imprisonment at Trenton.

As it ap