nd
of her own free will. "Perfectly so," said the woman. Whereupon the
attorney set out again for London, and the Colonel resumed his journey
with Lady Cathcart to Ireland, where, on his arrival at his own house
at Tempo, in Fermanagh, his wife was imprisoned for many years."
During this period the Colonel was visited by the neighbouring gentry,
"and it was his regular custom at dinner to send his compliments to
Lady Cathcart, informing her that the company had the honour to drink
her ladyship's health, and begging to know whether there was anything
at table that she would like to eat? But the answer was always the
same, "Lady Cathcart's compliments, and she has everything she wants."
Fortunately for Lady Cathcart, Colonel Maguire died in the year 1764,
when her ladyship was released, after having been locked up for twenty
years, possessing, at the time of her deliverance, scarcely clothes to
her back. She lost no time in hastening back to England, and found her
house at Tewing in possession of a Mr. Joseph Steele, against whom she
brought an act of ejectment, and, attending the assize in person,
gained her case. Although she had been so cruelly treated by Colonel
Maguire, his conduct does not seem to have injured her health, for she
did not die till the year 1789, when she was in her ninety-eighth
year. And, when eighty years of age, it is recorded that she took part
in the gaieties of the Welwyn Assembly, and danced with the spirit of
a girl. It may be added that although she survived Colonel Maguire
twenty years, she was not tempted, after his treatment, to carry out
the resolution which she had inscribed as a poesy on her wedding ring.

If I survive
I will have five.[47]

Another disappearance and supposed imprisonment which created
considerable sensation in the last century was that of Elizabeth
Canning. On New Year's Day, 1753, she visited an uncle and aunt who
lived at Saltpetre Bank, near Well Close Square, who saw her part of the
way home as far as Houndsditch. But as no tidings were afterwards heard
of her, she was advertised for, rumours having gone abroad, that she had
been heard to shriek out of a hackney coach in Bishopsgate-street.
Prayers, too, were offered up for her in churches and meeting-houses,
but all inquiries were in vain, and it was not until the 29th of the
month that the missing girl returned in a wretched condition, ill,
half-starved, and half-clad. Her story was that after leaving