[PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS OF WITNESSES FOR THE DEFENSE, COLLECTEDAT THE OFFICE OF THE SOLICITOR.]
No. 1.--Miss Bertha Laroche, of Nettlegrove Hall, testifies and says:--
I.
TOWARD the middle of June, in the year 1817, I went to take the waters at Maplesworth, in Derbyshire, accompanied by my nearest relative--my aunt.
I am an only child; and I was twenty-one years old at my last birthday. On coming of age I inherited a house and lands in Derbyshire, together with a fortune in money of one hundred thousand pounds. The only education which I have received has been obtained within the last two or three years of my life; and I have thus far seen nothing of Society, in England or in any other civilized part of the world. I can be a competent witness, it seems, in spite of these disadvantages. Anyhow, I mean to tell the truth.
My father was a French colonist in the island of Saint Domingo.
He died while I was very young; leaving to my mother and to me just enough to live on, in the remote part of the island in which our little property was situated. My mother was an Englishwoman.