1872, he married a certain Caroline Julie Liegeois.  In the act of marriage, Tin-tun-ling described himself as a baron, which we know that he was not, for in his country he did not rejoice in buttons and other insignia of Chinese nobility.  As Caroline Julie Ling (nee Liegeois) denounced her lord for bigamy in 1873, and succeeded, as has been seen, in proving that he was husband of Quzia-Tom-Alacer, it may seem likely that she found out the spurious honours of the pretended title.  But whatever may be thought of the deceitful conduct of Ling, there is little doubt apparently that Caroline is really his.  He stated in court that by Chinese law a husband who has not heard of his wife for three years may consider that his marriage has legally ceased to be binding.  Madame Mendes proved from the volume Ta-Tsilg-Leu-Lee, the penal code of China, that Ling’s law was correct.  It also came out in court that Quzia-Tom-Alacer had large feet.  The jury, on hearing this evidence, very naturally acquitted Tin-tun-ling, whom Madame Mendes embraced, it is said, with the natural fervour of a preserver of innocence.  Whether Tin-tun-ling is now a bachelor, or whether he is irrevocably bound to Caroline Julie, is a question that seems to have occurred to no one.

The most mysterious point in this dark business is the question, How did Tin-tun-ling, who always spoke of his first marriage with terror, happen to involve himself in the difficulties of a second?  Something more than the common weakness of human nature must have been at work here.  Madame Mendes says, like a traitor to her sex, that Tin espoused Caroline Julie from feelings of compassion.  He yielded, according to Madame Mendes, “to the entreaties of this woman.”  The story of M. Gustave Lafargue confirms this ungallant tale.  According to M. Lafargue, Tin’s bride was a governess, and an English governess, or at least one who taught English.  She proposed to marry Tin, who first resisted, and then hesitated.  In a matter of this kind, the man who hesitates is lost.  The English governess flattered Tin’s literary as well as his personal vanity.  She proposed to translate the novels which Tin composes in his native tongue, and which he might expect to prove as popular in France as some other fictions of his fatherland have done in times past.  So they were married.  Tim, though on pleasure bent, had a frugal mind, and after a wedding-breakfast, which lasted all day, he went to a theatre to ask for two free passes.  When he came back his bride was gone.  He sought her with all the ardour of the bridegroom in the ballad of “The Mistletoe Bough,” and with more success.  Madame Ling was reading a novel at home.  Mr. Carlyle has quoted Tobias Smollett as to the undesirability of giving the historical muse that latitude which is not uncommon in France, and we prefer to leave the tale of Ling’s where Mr. Carlyle left that of Brynhild’s wedding. {37}

SIEUR DE MONTAIGNE.