ROSSA’S ASSAILANT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1205, 3 April 1885, Page 3

ROSSA’S ASSAILANT.

Mrs Dudley, who shot at O’Donova Rossa in New York, appears to have had her mental balance shaken by the loss of a beloved child, the second of two which she 1 had borne by a clergyman who betrayed ! her into error by a sham marriage, he i being himself already a Benedict. A cor respondent of the Standard telegraphs from York: “Yesatt Dudley's maiden name was Lucy Dale. She was received at the vicarage of Overtou-with-Shipton, about six miles from York, when she was a child of four years, and li 'ed at Shipton till the vicar, the Rev. James Henry Pickering, resigned the living s une twelve years ago and accepted a cure at Pulborough, Sussex. . The child was well treated, .and Mrs Pickering presided over her s-udies. She was a bonny girl with golden hair, and a favorite with the villagers, among whom she distributed her photographs before leaving. It is remembered that she had a fancy for calling herself by various names. The secret of her birth was never told by tho I vicar’s family, bat there was a notion that someone had defrauded her of a fortune to which she would have been entitled when she came of age. Mr Pickering is now in ill health, and resides in Devon.” A repre sentative of the Central News has obs tained the following statement from a lady who has known “Miss Dudley" since she was five years of age, and who assisted in bringing hemp:—“ Her father was an officer in the army who had an estate in Peikshire, but squandered it, and is now in Australia engaged in a menial capacity on a sheep farm. Her mother was a lady exceedingly well connected, who died shortly after Miss Dudley’s birth. Lucy has a half-sister older than herself, but their mother was never married. When Mis? Dudley’s mother was dying she begged the wife of a clergyman to care for the youngest child, and this lady and her husband have done everything in the way of education, etc , to carry out their trust. When 1 first knew hi' - as a li'tle girl Miss Dudley’s name was Lucy Da e. but for ■ obvious reasons this was neither the name of her father nor mother. When she obtained her engagement at the Prince’s Theatre, Manchester, she took the name of Lucilla Dorigne, and subsequently, when her child was born, that of Lucilla Dudly. 1 should scarcely say Lucy was mad, but she was a girl of somewhat morbid tendencies, with agreat love of notoriety and a slight want of mental balance. She used to invent the most impossible stories, and the reason of her friends not coming forward after she made the first attempt to destroy herself was because they thought their interference would encourage her in her love of romance, and that the best thing that could happen to her was to allow her to be adequately punished for her freak. She was assisted to America by her friends, including her guardian and General Brownrigg, who had taken a great interest in her while confined in Millbank Prison, and left this country with a number of other young women of similar reputation.”