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206 Glimpses of Our Ancestors. |
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having been first driven, with moral barbarity (!), through the uncovered corpse."
To find a local parallel to this Lewes tragedy of the 17th century, we must pass on to our own town of Brighton in the 19th century, where, on the 23rd of May, 1866, a Dr. Warder arrived from Scotland, and took lodgings for himself and wife in Bedford-square. He had only been married ten months; he was in the prime of life—45 or 46 years of age—and yet the lady was his third wife. He had married her five months after the death of his second wife, a Scotch lady—a widow— who had only survived her union with Dr. Warder eight months. Her life had been insured by her husband. This second marriage took place in 1865. The death of the first wife had occurred two years before, in 1863, and followed quickly after a temporary separation ; so that with Dr. Warder marriage and death had followed in quick succession.
And now again he had a sick wife. It was partly on that account that she came to Brighton, where she had a brother, like Dr. Warder, in the medical profession, but who had never met his brother-in-law until he came to Brighton. The marriage, indeed, of his sister with Dr. Warder had been a great surprise to him and all the members of her family. But she had been a friend of the second wife, and this, doubtless, facilitated the union; and she possessed a small fortune of some £500. The symptoms of Mrs. Warder's illness set in more strongly after her arrival in Brighton, and were of a nature to baffle all the skill of her brother; of a skilful Brighton physician called in—Dr. Taaffe; and of her own husband. The care and affection bestowed by this latter on the suffering lady were worthy of all praise; he rarely left her bedside, and he performed all the duties of a nurse. Still, the ailment baffled both skill and care; the patient grew weaker and weaker, and was sinking rapidly without any apparent cause.
This did not escape the notice of the Brighton physician; it was abnormal, and at last it aroused a dreadful suspicion in |
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