CAEEER OF AN IMPOSTER.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 669, 3 May 1870, Page 2

CAEEER OF AN IMPOSTER.

The Sydney " Town and Country Journal," of 2nd April, is responsible' for the following rather sensational and highlyinteresting narrative :— "Almost every settler in the saccharine districts of the Northern rivers — f rom the Manning.to the Brisbane— has had some acquaintance with the gay, insinuating, and affable gentleman, who calls himself the Baron de Grammont, and claims to be the representative of one of the oldest and most patrician families in France, the warlike and immortal deeds of whose ancestors have been chronicled by Froissart, and recounted by every historian and many novelists, down to Alexandra Damas and Victor Hugo. The baron, in early life, sought the torrid clime of Bourbon wherein to ventilate his chivalry and to gain a practical acquaintance with the mysteries of sugar-boiling, which, having accomplished, he was'wafted by favoring breezes to the new world of Australia. At the Hastings, the Macleay, and the Clarence he soon became famous— none so daring or so skilful in the heated atmosphere of the boiling-house— so profound in chemical knowledge, or so ready in mechanical contrivances for extracting the saccharine juice. Yet amidst his numerous engagements upon the sugar plantations, and a constant request for his services by the - enterprising colonists that have chosen that all but royal road to fortune, ' the Baron ' not unfrequently managed to make a flying trip to Sydney, for the purpose of disposing of a little 'sugar,' in the shape of a cheque or two, the proceeds of his persevering exertions. He was, too, in the belief of his fair friends, another young Lochinvar, not only 'dauntless in war,' but ' faithful in love.' At Port Macquarie and the Hastings he had caused aching hearts to susceptible fair ones, to whom he had oft related the glories of the great ancestral race from which he sprung, and he led more than one fair creature to entertain aspirations to the proud title of Baronness de Grammont, and a high place among the noblesse of the French Empire— perhaps, to sigh for the reascendancy of the Bourbon star, and to long for the downfall of the dynasty of the Corsican usurper. In saccharine regions, however, the enraptured fair ones sighed in vain. 'The Baron,' like many a baron before him, 'loved, and rowed away,' and th« knowing ones said, as they shrugged their shoulders, she would be a clever lady that became Baroness de Grammont. The Baron's last arrival at Sydney took place some time before Christmas. At his lodgings on this occasion he became acquainted with a very attractive widow, with whom he very soon appeared to be fascinated, and upon whom he straightway commenced to lavish his attentions, taking care to make her fully acquainted with his claims to the proudest of titles and the noblest descent. An understanding was soon come to between the parties, and it was believed that the baroness had been found at last. The wedding was to take place at an early day, with all the ceremonies becoming the union of pcr 1 sonages in exalted life ; and, until that - happy day arrived, Sans Sonei, Botany, Manly Beach, and Parramatta, were resorted to by the enraptured pair as trysting places in which they could indulge in, all the tenderness of affianced lovers, .and anticipate the glories of shining amid a galaxy of the restored nobleese of the Bonrbon Court when Napoleon m. shall have met his proper fate upon the guillotine. The widow, amongst other acquaintances, had a charming friend, a maiden lady,— possessed of ' sugar,' of course — to whom the Baron wbs intrqr duced. His lordship at once, with W& ingenuousness and ingenuity in matters" of the heart for which he hod always been so celebrated, hst upon a plan for a double marriage. Forthwith a particular friend of his, bearing the not uncommon name of Brown, was escorted to the widow's lodging, and presented to her fascinatingfriend. Brown was 'an immensely ricK coffee-planter from Ceylon,' looking for a wife. Brown saw, and, . seeing, r loved at first sight; he did more — he conqnered —he was enabled to exclaim, ' veni, yidi, vici,' and, in accordance with the Baron's enthusiastic proposition, both unions were appointed to take place the same day at St. Andrew's Cathedral and at St. Mary's, spas to make them doubly secure. The happy day was fixed, and wedding rings were purchased. These essential preliminaries being settled a further round of gay excursions was enjoyed, and nothing could be happier than the lives of the blissful quartette. However, the wedding day arrived, and Brown unfortunately was 'slightly indisposed;' so. being under the doctor's hands it waa ' thought advisable to postpone the double" event until he got better, as much of the eclat would be taken away from the wealthy coffee-planter's marriage, if, it were not simultaneous with that of ' me ' Baron. In his lordship's case also, his friends said, the services of the two metropolitan bishops were to be availed of, and , ihey could at the same fame , marry the wealthy Indian planter and hia expectant bride. But strange to say, when things had been thus arranged,; both * the Baron and the wealthy coffee-planter without bidding their engaged ones adieu; ~g left the city for a few days for the restor-J. ation of the latter's health, contenting themselves with sending to the respective ladies a message *o il at effect. Now the ' affecting part of the story commences. A Mrs M., another widow, attractive in person — fat, fair, and forty — wealthy to boot — and well known to the- Sydney public from the tragical fate which haS! befallen two of her husbands— had sometime previously ingratiated herself into the good books of the anticipated future Baroness, and through her had also become acquainted with the Baron. It had been observed that his lordship had always been deeply interested in the. • details which the new widow somewhft ostentatiously related of the extent of her worldly possessions, and particularly with regard to the ' sugar ' she had in hand. It was remarkable that this lady myste * riously disappeared last week, at the same time as the Baron, and Brown, the wealthy planter, went on theirhealth-seeking expedition. Circumstances quickly arose which caused the affianced brides to scrutinise the movements of their aristcoratic ; adorers, and to their horror they ascertained that instead of goiug to the country they had surrepitiously and perfidiously taken passages in the American barque Rover of the Sea 3, which had cleared a fear days previously for San Francisco-r---and what made it more provoking still,' the rich widow was with them, and it was

a proposition that almost amounted to a dead certainty, raised by the disappointed fair ones with many a hysterical laugh, that this creature had paid the passages and outfits, not only of the baron to whom, it is said, she is to be married instantly on the ship's arrival at San Francisco, but also of the wealthy planter — the fascinating Brown. Through the boisterous weather the Rover of the Seas, with these rovers on board, was prevented from going to sea for some days, and one of the deserted and indignant ladies sought a judge's warrant to detain her false lover, on the ground of certain pecuniary advances she had made him in her too confiding moments. It was found, however, that this could not be had in time : so a boat was procured, aud last Tuesday, though a gale was blowing of terrific fury, and the rain poured in torrents, the ladies, at the peril of their lives, boarded the ship as she lay at anchor in Watson's Bay. The scene on the quar-ter-deck may be better conceived than described. The delinquents could not escape this final judgment, although the Boron tried to ascend to the masthead, and Brown, the wealthy planter, 'planted' himself in the cook's galley. The captain, a very gallant Yankee, produced them both for final judgment. It is needless to Bay that these recreant knights cowered beneath the bitter reproaches that met them. The Baron is described as having trembled c like a leaf.' But nothing could induce him to make restitution, and the ladies had to return to town, after haying exhausted their powers of vituperation : and the tale is now told, so that others of their sex, over sensitive in nature, may not put too much confidence in French barons or wealthy Ceylon coffee planters in future."