After her death the
people spoke louder, and her conduct became a subject of public
discussion. A little later on, the physician, who had attended the
late Sir John, heard the rumour, and came down from the place near
London to which he latterly had retired, with the express purpose of
calling upon Sir William Hervy, now staying in Casterbridge.
He stated that, at the request of a relative of Sir John's, who
wished to be assured on the matter by reason of its suddenness, he
had, with the assistance of a surgeon, made a private examination of
Sir John's body immediately after his decease, and found that it had
resulted from purely natural causes. Nobody at this time had
breathed a suspicion of foul play, and therefore nothing was said
which might afterwards have established her innocence.
It being thus placed beyond doubt that this beautiful and noble lady
had been done to death by a vile scandal that was wholly unfounded,
her husband was stung with a dreadful remorse at the share he had
taken in her misfortunes, and left the country anew, this time never
to return alive. He survived her but a few years, and his body was
brought home and buried beside his wife's under the tomb which is
still visible in the parish church. Until lately there was a good
portrait of her, in weeds for her first husband, with a cross in her
hand, at the ancestral seat of her family, where she was much
pitied, as she deserved to be.
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