A CHEQUERED CAREER.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1344, 23 May 1885, Page 1

A CHEQUERED CAREER.

The end of a sorrowful life, that of Lady Fortesque, is announced in an American contemporary. Lady Ellen was the wife of Sir William Fortesque, who, 30 years ago, was a popular club man in London. In the summer of 1848, Sir William, on account of some peccadillo that he was guilty of in London, was obliged to Beek the seclusion of the country for a time. In the course of his wanderings he came to the towa of Hull, and fell in with the family of Captain Murray, a retired officer of the Royal Navy. The captain's daughter Ellen was then 19 years old, and very beautiful. The baronet succeeded in gaining her hand. The course of true love ran smoothly for a time, but soon Sir William's old associations proved too strong for him, and the gaming table saw him oftener than his wife. Money, lands, houses, and even his good name, went one by one, and in 1862 he died in a small town in Western Virginia. This left his wife alone and without friends. Her immediate relatives in England were dead, and Bhe was obliged to depend entirely upon her own resources. To add to her misfortunes, a daughter had been born a short time before her husband's death. For some time she eked out a scanty existence by giviDg music lessons. By close economy she saved up a few hundred dollars, and came to Chicago were she had resolved to become a doctor. In due time she was graduated from Rush Medical College, and commenced the practice of her profession, hampered by the many difficulties which always beset a woman. In 1873 her daughter died, and the poor womao's mind was badly affected for some time by the losb of this, the only tie which bound her to her former state. She continued to Struggle along, sometimes in great poverty, sometimes in poor health, but always trying to keep up her courage. She died suddenly of apoplexy, and nothing was known of the event until at least twenty-four hours after it had occurred. The Coroner held an inquest, and she was about to be consigned to a pauper's grave, when a letter was found sewed up in the lining of her dress, which gave directions for finding a sum of money to defray her funeral, expenses. Papers were found, from which was gleaned the history of her life, as given above. Among her effects were some silver plate, with the Fortesque arms engraved upon it, and several handsome rings, which the woman, in all her poverty, was too proud to pawn.