Autograph Letter Signed ('C. Bellew') from Lady Caroline Bellew of Stockleigh House, with note describing the assault on her in Paris by Lord William Paget and Cassidy.

12mo, 1p. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. She is happy that her correspondent is enjoying himself, and looks forward to seeing him the following day, 'to take a friendly dinner'. An initialed pencil note in a contemporary hand at the head of the page reads 'The celebrated Lady who prosecuted Lord Wm Paget - Cassidy - others for getting into her Bed room at night in Paris to endeavour to carry her off & marry her for her large fortune to Cassidy | [signed] ' The incident - a great scandal of the age - was alluded to in 1844 in the Annual Register and other papers. There is also a reference in Donald Thomas's 'Charge! Hurrah! Hurrah! A Life of Cardigan of Balaclava': 'The paper ['The Age'] retaliated [in a trial of 1843] by revealing Lord William [Paget] as a beater of women and as the man who had stood in a bedroom doorway in Paris, and coolly watched a bill-broker, Cassidy, beat up Caroline Bellew.'