Lady Molly - The EndTHE END
IOne or two people knew that at one time Lady Molly Robertson-Kirk had been engaged
to Captain Hubert de Mazareen, who was now convict No. 97, undergoing a life sentence for
the murder of Mr. Steadman, a solicitor of Carlisle, in the Elkhorn Woods in April, 1904. Few,
on the other hand, knew of the secret marriage solemnized on that never-to-be-forgotten
afternoon, when all of us present in the church, with the exception of the bridegroom himself,
were fully aware that proofs of guilt--deadly and irrefutable--were even then being heaped up
against the man to whom Lady Molly was plighting her troth, for better or for worse, with her
mental eyes wide open, her unerring intuition keen to the fact that nothing but a miracle could
save the man she loved from an ignoble condemnation, perhaps from the gallows.
The husband of my dear lady, the man whom she loved with all the strength of her romantic
and passionate nature, was duly tried and convicted of murder. Condemned to be hanged,
he was reprieved, and his sentence commuted to penal servitude for life.
The question of Hubert’s grandfather Sir Jeremiah's estate became a complicated one, for his
last will and testament, leaving everything to his son, Hubert’s uncle, Philip Baddock, was
never signed, and the former one, dated 1902, bequeathed everything he possessed
unconditionally to his beloved grandson Hubert.
After much legal argument, which it is useless to recapitulate here, it was agreed between the
parties, and ratified in court, that the deceased gentleman's vast wealth should be disposed of
as if he had died intestate. One-half of it, therefore, went to Captain Hubert de Mazareen,
grandson, and the other half to Philip Baddock, the son. The latter bought Appledore Castle
and resided there, whilst his nephew became No. 97 in Dartmoor Prison.
Captain Hubert had served two years of his sentence when he made that daring and
successful escape which caused so much sensation at the time. He managed to reach
Appledore, where he was discovered by Mr. Philip Baddock, who gave him food and shelter
and got everything ready for the safe conveyance of his unfortunate nephew to Liverpool and
thence to a port of safety in South America.
You remember how he was thwarted in this laudable attempt by Lady Molly herself, who
communicated with the police and gave up convict No. 97 into the hands of the authorities
once more.
Of course, public outcry was loud against my dear lady's action. Sense of duty was all very
well, so people argued, but no one could forget that at one time Captain Hubert de Mazareen
and Lady Molly Robertson-Kirk had actually been engaged to be married, and it seemed