But there they were, and this was the story of their lives:—­

The man, after the separation, lived for some time single, then formed a companionship, and, as he afterwards heard that his wife had got married to some one else, thought he would follow her example.

Now, if a Judge punished immorality, here was something to punish; but the law leaves that to the ecclesiastical or some other jurisdiction.  The Judge has but to deal with the breach of the law, and to punish in accordance with the requirements of the injury to society—­not even to the injury of the individual.

I made inquiries of the police and others, as the prisoners had pleaded guilty, and found that all the parties—­the four persons—­had been living respectable and hard-working lives.  There was no fault whatever to be found with their conduct.  They were respected by all who knew them.

I then asked how it was found out at last that these people, living quietly and happily, had been previously married.

“O my lord,” said a policeman, “there was a hinquest on a babby, which was the female prisoner’s babby and what had died.  Then it come out afore Mr. Coroner, my lord, and he ordered the woman into custody, and then the man was took.”

I thought they had had punishment enough for their offence, and gave them no imprisonment, but ordered them to be released on their own recognizances, and to come up for judgment if called upon.

Now came my sentence.  The clergyman of the parish in which this terrible crime had been discovered evidently felt that he had been living in the utmost danger for years.  Here these people came to his church, and for aught he knew prayed for forgiveness under the very roof where he himself worshipped.

He said I had done a fine thing to encourage sin and immorality, and what could come of humanity if Judges would not punish?

He denounced me, I afterwards learned, in his pulpit in the severest terms, although I did not hear that he used the same vituperative language towards the poor creatures I had so far absolved.  Luckily I was not attending the reverend gentleman’s ministration, but he seemed to think the greatest crime I had committed was disallowing the costs of the prosecution.  That was a direct incentive to bigamy, although in what respect I never learned.

It sometimes suggested to my mind this question,—­

What would this minister of the gospel have said to the Divine Master when the woman caught “in the very act” was before Him, and He said, in words never to be forgotten till men and women are no more, “Neither do I condemn thee”?

I thought those who loved a prosecution of this kind—­whoever it may have been—­ought to pay for the luxury, and so I condemned them in the costs.

CHAPTER XL.

DR. LAMSON[A]—­A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY—­A WILL CASE.