"I will probably go out in the morning, and spend a "confounded ten-dollar piece, which le Cpte. gave her, 2464 "for money loaned some time ago.” I must say that they cannot have been taken from any letter of mine. I never wrote it, nor any thing like it. The last extract given in Mr. Forrest's affidavit is not a true copy of any letter or letters of mine. I never could have written all the matter therein recited. Some of it I did write, but the parts which were written by me could not have been all written in the same letter, or at the same time. The allusions to "privacy” 2465 and “talk,” were written by me, in reference to my marriage, which was very private, and was for a time concealed. I knew no Mr. K.; but I did know Mrs. Kirkland. The allusions to persons and to visits refer to very respectable persons, and to the visits connected with the announcement that my marriage had taken place some time previously, and had not been made public. The cards alluded to were my visiting cards, "Mrs. Frank Voorhees." If there is any letter of mine about "the Chelseaites" being "rampant," I believe these words were written by Mr. Voorhees. He had for the moment a little 2466 dispute with some of his friends there, about his keeping secret of our marriage, but which was afterwards fully reconciled. He was quite in the habit of writing in my letters, and interlining his observations with mine. I have been for seven years back subject at times to a weakness of the intercostal muscles, occasioned by overexertion in singing, aggravated in the first instance by a severe cold. I have been uniformly, from the first, treated for this affection by Dr. Gray. Any considerable exertion in singing is apt to produce it. It was to this I alluded in the remarks about the 2467 lower muscles, and which were probably written by me. I might have so written at any time within the last seven years. Whilst Mrs. Forrest was in Europe, she wrote me to send her a daguerreotype likeness of myself. I had one which she had paid for, and which was considered her property. I replied to her that Mr. Frank Voorhees, who was then absent in the South, had it with him, and when he returned to New York, I would get it and send it to her. I never knew that any gentleman had a daguerreotype likeness of Mrs. Forrest, or which had been taken from her husband's house; nor 2468 did I ever allude to any such transaction in any letter or otherwise. Mrs. Forrest never made parties for the purpose of bringing or endeavoring to bring me into society, or to change any feeling existing towards me. The insinuation of Mr. Forrest in his said affidavit, that I am living apart from my husband, is wholly unfounded. We are as much united as any married couple can be, when the business of the husband obliges him to be temporarily absent from his residence. Although I lived in Mr. Forrest's house for seven years, I always treated him with the greatest possible distance and re2469 spect. I seldom addressed him, unless when spoken to ; I never introduced any subject of conversation he was supposed to dislike; I never entered the library, where he commonly sat, unless expressly invited. Whilst he was at home, and I was living in his house, weeks would sometimes elapse, with scarcely a word passing between us, and sometimes days would pass, without my even seeing him. Previously to Mr. Forrest's departure for Europe, in 1844, I was quite satisfied with this state of things; he being greatly my senior, and, as I conceived, my mental 2470 superior; and he being in the habit of speaking of me to my friends with much respect and apparent affection. After Mr. Forrest's return from Europe, and especially after the arrival of Mr. Macready in this country, he seemed to dislike meeting even his most esteemed friends; seldom received those who visited him, and in every way showed and acknowledged himself to be in a most irritable and unhappy state of mind. Nevertheless, he always recognized me and my husband, when we met, and exchanged greetings with us as usual; and we constantly accompanied Mrs. Forrest to the theatre, when Mr. Forrest acted. Mr. Forrest never forbid me to en- 2471 ter his house, nor expressed any wish that I should not do so, to my knowledge; nor do I believe that he ever had any wish or intention of the sort, prior to the autumn of 1849. Mrs. Forrest was almost constantly occupied in attendance on Mr. Forrest, when he was at home; and I was equally occupied in my profession as a teacher of music, and with the care of a young baby. Hence we naturally met if possible in the evening, and to a considerable extent availed ourselves of the opportunity, of meeting afforded by Mr. Forrest's short absences, at 2472 which times only, Mrs. Forrest had any leisure. About the 20th of January, 1849, Mrs. Forrest informed me that Mr. Forrest had expressed his determination to put her away from him; and that the alleged cause was her having insulted him by a flat contradiction. I never heard of any other cause being alleged previously to December 24th, 1849, nor did I ever state before that date to any one that the separation between Mr. Forrest and his wife arose from her opposition to his course in his controversy with Mr. Macready; or that there was any connection in any way whatever between such controversy with Mr. Macready and said separation. Excluding from the remark intimate personal friends 2473 of Mr. Edwin Forrest, whom he brought to his home and introduced to his family whilst I was a member of it and against whom I do not mean to say a word-my associates and associations have been and are perfectly respectable; and I am quite confident that Mr. Forrest cannot produce a credible witness who will depose to the contrary, or prove that Mr. Forrest himself ever impeached my conduct in that respect until the present year (1850), before which time, that is, in December, 1849, le had charged his wife with impurity, and set on foot measures for obtaining a 2474 divorce. The gross charges against me contained in Mr. Forrest's affidavit have been published in the newspapers. I am warranted in believing that this was done by his agency. The publication has preceded their reading in court. I am sure his counsel would not do it; it must therefore have been himself; and in the act I witness that impatient eagerness to crush the feeble when standing in his way, for which Mr. Forrest is distinguished. I am without a protector in this country, and, for the support of myself and child, am in a large degree de2475 pendent upon employment in my profession. That employment I cannot retain if the pure and respectable persons who afford it to me shall see reason to deem me unworthy. I cannot know, though I may hope, that the rude language employed by Mr. Forrest will defeat his object, and alone discredit his assertions. Under these circumstances, I consider it due to my absent husband, to my boy, and to our kind friends, to repel Mr. Forrest's charges, and to show his motives for making them. I am no relative, and hope soon to be no connection of Mr. Forrest; and, therefore, the delicacy which becomes a woman, and my sense of justice, aloue impose restraints upon my defence. Fear of him can have no influence, for I know he will do his utmost to wound 2476 and injure me. According to the best of my knowledge, information and belief, the causes of Mr. Forrest's ill-will to me, and of his attack upon me, are hereinafter truly stated. In the fall of 1848, when he first actually manifested ill-will to me, he was engaged in a violent contest with Mr. Macready. His ungovernable self-will led him to draw into the vortex he was creating all whom he could reach; and in the progress of that feud, every one within the sphere of his observation whom he suspected of withholding a full approval of his measures became at once the object and, as far as his power went, the victim of a malice that knows not how to spare. His efforts to this end involved our city in a scene of havoc unheard of in its previous history, and sent sorrow and 2477 desolation to many homes besides his own. I believe that my sister did not go with him in all things connected with that ill-starred controversy, thought the affection and the condition of a wife led her to go perhaps further than she can now fully justify. Mr. Forrest perceived that her sense of propriety revolted at some of his acts. In this, his exacting and imperious temper saw a failure of fidelity not to be endured. Knowing that, beside himself, she had none but her sister to love and confide in, he determined to exclude her from all intercourse with that sister, hoping there- 2478 by to reduce her to complete subjection. I presume my sister did not see his object, or fathom its depth; at all events, she resisted, and the consequence was a separation. After this event, Mr. Forrest soon became a wanderer, without home, family, or occupation, and tasted that weariness of his condition, which my sister, and I more than she, had fondly hoped would cause his return. Had she, when put away by him, sat down in sack-cloth and ashes, and made the tale of her intolerable grief and regret a town talk, it is possible that Mr. Forrest's vanity would have been propitiated, and his restoration to his family effected; but her course was different. She made a home for herself and me; we three sisters with my little child made a cheerful and 2479 happy family circle; our mutual presence afforded protection against scandal; our mutual kindness sweetened toil, and afforded a degree of compensation for all priva |