got to Thornford early in the morning.
James and William Bowditch were holding
me at the door of Mr. Paul's house in
Thornford, when Mrs. Paul came out at
another door, and, without speaking, she
took me by the hand into a room. Mrs.
Paul is a daughter of Mrs. Bowditch. The
room appeared to be a kitchen. I was then
taken up-stairs to a bedroom. I saw Mr.
Paul a few minutes after I entered the
house. He was walking up and down the
room, and said in an exulting manner, ' I
suppose all the bells in the parish will be
ringing by-and-bye.' Mrs. Paul asked James
Bowditch if he had not had a tiresome
journey, and he said, pointing to me, ' Yes;
I could not keep her in the gig. She was
one minute laughing, and the other crying.
I thought I should not have been able to
keep her in the gig. I never saw anything
like it.' I was then taken to a person standing
by the window—a Mr. Gould. Mrs.
Paul took me to him, and the others followed.
He was a tall man, with a large
paper in his hand, which he appeared to be
reading very earnestly. He asked me what
age I was, and I said sixteen. He then
asked me whether I had the consent of my
friends or parents, and I said, No. He
then looked over the paper very rapidly,
and said, ' Nonsense! this marriage can
never be legal.' James Bowditch then gave
me a very severe look. The man who said
the marriage would not be lawful then
said, ' Never mind, you can be married just
the same,' and looked at the paper, and
smiled. I began to cry, and put my head
on Mrs. Paul's shoulder. I was sick and
giddy, and doubted that I was going to
fall, and therefore put my head on Mrs.
Paul's shoulder. Mrs. Paul carried me up-stairs,
and I remained up-stairs all the time
I was there, except at some intervals, when
Mrs. Paul desired me to come to dinner
where Mr. Templer was, and also when
Susannah Bowditch desired me to come
down, when I was shivering with cold, and
warm myself. Except upon these occasions, I
was up-stairs the whole of the day. I heard
from Susannah Bowditch that Mr. Templer,
a nephew of Mr. Paul and a clergyman,
was coming to dinner. I sat down at the
dinner-table. Mr. Templer helped me to
some beef. I put a bit in my mouth, but
could not take any more, for I felt I was
going to cry. I left the room just after
Mr. Templer helped me, and before the
cloth was removed. Afterwards, Susannah
Bowditch asked me to come down, for her
brother was not in the room; but directly
after I went into the kitchen he came in.
There were pens and ink and paper, and
when Susannah Bowditch went out, I
began a letter; then James Bowditch
came in, and snatched the paper from me,
and said, no one could blame him if he
treated me ever so unkindly, as I provoked
him to do so. He also said, ' You saying
you were only sixteen to-day to that gentleman,
and saying you had not the consent
of your parents, when you know you have,
and when you know you are twenty-one,
and have the consent of your friends and
parents.' He also called me names. I then
went up-stairs, and locked my door. I
remained there the greatest part of the
time till the next day, when Mr. Leigh
came from Mr. Tuckett's, and took me
away."

Mr. Tuckett and the people of Taunton
were naturally furious at the alleged conspiracy.
A young lady of great expectations
to be allured and finally all but forced
into a marriage with a mere labourer; a
lady, too, so gentle, timid, and young, to be
drugged, and forced to sign away her fortune
by such a gang. Was this Somersetshire?
Was this the boasted nineteenth
century?

James Bowditch, his mother, Mrs. Mulraine,
and seven other accomplices, were
tried at Dorchester, before Mr. Justice
Park and a special jury, on the 25th of
July, 1818. The indictment was for abduction,
conspiracy, assault, and false imprisonment.
Mr. Serjeant Pell and Mr. Williams
appeared for the prosecution. Miss
Glenn, modest, shrinking, frightened, and
eminently decorous, repeated the statement
we have already given. She denied that
she had ever promised to meet James Bowditch
in the French Weir-fields after her
return home. She had, the week before she
was forced by threats to leave her uncle's
house, been pursued by a man and a woman
in those fields, but had escaped them.

Mr. Tuckett gave his evidence in a violent
and decided manner, corroborating his
niece's statement. She had returned ill
from Holway; but had seemed to recover
directly he proposed the Chelsea school.
The week he returned he had come upon
James Bowditch talking to his servant,
Mary Whitby, at the turnpike-gate. He
had heard that Bowditch was a lover of
the girl's, and that he had been seen about
the house, and he had warned the girl on
the subject. Bowditch turned scarlet when
he saw him, and abruptly shuffled off.
About four o'clock on the morning of the