THE CHINA MAIL, SEPTEMBER 15, 1939
TO-DAY'S STRANGE STORY OF REAL PEOPLE.
WHO WAS ALEXANDRIA'S FEMALE STRANGER'?
on
By VINCENT TOWNE
was neatly trimmed. During these Whose Mortal Sufferings Terminated pilgrimages of devotion he was ferried the 4th day of October, 1916, directly from Washington and back, Aged 23 years and 8 months-This without stopping again at the Alexan- stone is erected by her disconsolate dria tavern or speaking to any one husband in whose arms she breathed met upon the streets. out her last sigh, and who, under Ged, did his utmost to soothe the cold, dull ear of death:
|
But at the end of these 12 years he must have died, for his visits suddenly became neglected. The columns of its For over a century this epitaph in strange monument toppled, and so St. Paul's churchyard, Alexandria, Va., | remained until one Spring morning, has presented a Sphinx riddlé to which | when distinguished-looking old no answer has ever been given. Nor gentleman and two elderly women, does there appear to be any likelihood | handsomely gowned, mysteriously ap- that a solution will ever be found. peared in the churchyard to order the Our account of the mysterious and stone repaired and the grave replant- dramatic happenings to which this un-ed. Under pressure of questions from known woman's death came as a the sexton, these unknown visitors re- tragic denouement must commence luctantly admitted that they were re- upon the 25th day of July, in the year latives of the dead woman, and that 1816, when the brig Four Sons, bound her husband had been a British officer; from Halifax to the Weat Indies but when questioned more closely, diverted her course long enough to they hurriedly left the cemetery. enter the Potomac and anchor off the Nor would the two Virginin ladies Virginia port aforementioned. She re-who nursed the velled woman at The mained just long enough to lower a Bunch of Grapes, where they them- boat and send ashore a man and his selves were, guests, ever say a word as ill wife. When the small boat pulled to what, they saw or learned in the
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Nor Would The Two Virginia Ladies Ever. Tell What They Saw
sickroom, save that their patient was very beautiful and was of uncommonly | high birth. Both lived to ripe old age, and went to their graves with their Ups
up at the wharf it was seen that the invalld had on a thick veil, which, in spite of the heat of that midsummer day, she continued to wear while be- ing carried through the streets to The Bunch of Grapes, the largest tavern | stranger's" secret. in the city.
still sealed upon the "female
who had come to this end, was one theory, according to which the al- leged husband was a pirate, who had captured that distinguished lady.
That it was the lost Theodosia Burr After engaging the best room that Alston, daughter of Aaron Burr and the hostelry afforded, the anxious hus-wife of the governor of South Carolina, band hurriedly sent for a physician, who was, however, before being ad- | mitted to the sick-room, called aside and pledged upon his honour not to re- veal what he might see or learn con- cerning his patient. The physician's lips were sealed until his death, and the only information concerning his patient which could ever be obtained from him was that he had never seen her face.
She was veiled during each of his visits, for ten weeks. The husband was the only nurse at the bedside, day and night, through all of the enervat- ing heat of August. But as Autumn approached, he become exhausted from loss of sleep, and two Virginia ladies, guests at the hotel, were permitted to administer to the sufferer, but only after they had taken solemn oath that they would never reveal what they might learn about the mysterious in-- valid.
When the stranger was seen to be dying, at midnight, Thursday, Oct. 3, the husband requested that only he should be left in the
room, so the physician and two volunteer nurses withdrew.
A chill east wind rattled the sashes, a fine cutting rain pattered against the window panes, and the two ladies, with the landlord's wife, shuddered as they waited outside the deathroom door Finally, at dawn, the husband, with haggard face und swollen eyes, stepped out into the hall and announced that all was over.
Then, lest some one should see the hidden face in death, the husband's own hands prepared the cold body for burial. He personally sealed the coffin lid. After attending the burial in St. Paul's churchyard, and ordering the monument with its puzzling inscrip- tion, he disappeared.
For a dozen successive years he re- turned on the anniversary of his be loved one's death to put fresh flowers upon her grave and see that its grass
Another story was that the "fe- male stranger" was no other
than Sarah Curran, the heart-broken fiancee of the Irish revolutionist Ro- bert Emmet, and that the "disconsolate husband" was Major Sturgeon of the
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