eft
outstanding, it may cause serious injury to a person against
whom it is void or voidable, may, upon his application, be so
adjudged, and ordered to be delivered up or cancelled" (Sec.
3412).

CHAPTER II.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE.

Mr. Sharon defended in the state court, and prosecuted in the federal
court with equal energy. In the former he made an affidavit that the
pretended marriage contract was a forgery and applied to the court for
the right to inspect it, and to have photographic copies of it made.
Sarah Althea resisted the judge's order to produce the document in
question, until he informed her that, if she did not obey, the paper
would not be admitted as evidence on the trial of the action.

On the second day of the trial in the state court Miss Hill reinforced
her cause by the employment of Judge David S. Terry as associate
counsel. He brought to the case a large experience in the use of
deadly weapons, and gave the proceedings something of the character
of the ancient "wager of battle." Numerous auxiliaries and
supernumeraries in the shape of lesser lawyers, fighters, and suborned
witnesses were employed in the proceedings, as from time to time
occasion required. The woman testified in her own behalf that upon
a visit to Mr. Sharon's office he had offered to pay her $1,000 per
month if she would become his mistress; that she declined his offer in
a business-like manner, without anger, and entered upon a conversation
about getting married; she swore at a subsequent interview she drafted
a marriage contract at Sharon's dictation. This document, to which she
testified as having been thus drawn up, is as follows:

"In the city and county of San Francisco, State of California,
on the 25th day of August, A.D., 1880, I, Sarah Althea Hill,
of the city and county of San Francisco, State of California,
aged twenty-seven years, do here, in the presence of almighty
God, take Senator William Sharon, of the State of Nevada, to
be my lawful and wedded husband, and do here acknowledge and
declare myself to be the wife of Senator William Sharon, of
the State of Nevada.

SARAH ALTHEA HILL.

AUGUST 25, 1880, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL."

* * * * *

"I agree not to make known the contents of this paper or its
existence for two years unless Mr. Sharon, himself, sees fit
to make it known.