ROMANTIC ABDUCTION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 376, 23 April 1908, Page 3

ROMANTIC ABDUCTION.

New York, March i

A thrilling romance of love and religion which has deeply stirred the people of Ohio ended yesterday in the triumph of love, when Judge Leslie united in matrimony Sister Geneva, a beautiful nun, and Mr Raymond Dye, a young man belonging to a good family of Missouri. Several years ago Miss Lizzie M. Welsh, a wealthy girl of Chicago, whose hand her sturdy lover from Missouri sought in vain, in an excess of spiritual fervour, entered St. Bernhard’s Convent and in due course assumed the veil. Her lover, undaunted, sought every means to dissuade her from taking the irrevocable step. When he heard that she had become a nun, he obtained entrance to the convent, disguised as a workman, and succeeded, after many failures, in again urging his suit. Tired of a life of renunciation, the beautiful nun at length listened to his passionate protestations and agreed to fly with him, but Mr Dye was discovered by the Mother Superior and ejected. Three nights ago the determined lover returned to the convent at midnight while a blinding snowstorm was raging, and signalled to his sweetheart, who crept barefoot downstairs and escaped by means of an open window. Suddenly a cry of ‘‘halt” was heard, and a moment later the couple were engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle with the inmates of the convent, who came rushing out into the snow-covered fields. The girl in the darkness made good her escape, but Mr Dye was overwhelmed and carried a prisoner to the convent, where he was kept in durance until the authorities found the nun at the Kiel Hotel. She yielded to their stern commands and accompanied them back to the convent. Mr Dye was then released. He immediately obtained a writ of habeas corpus, and with the assistance of a police officer, rescued his sweetheart. The convent authorities say that Sister Geneva had not definitely taken the veil at the time of her flight.