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But I did not feel much like trusting either to his humanity or judgment in providing me another home. Indeed, I did not think it safe to follow him, knowing that the laws of Massachusetts as well as those of Illinois then gave him the absolute custody of my person.

He went to South Deerfield, Massachusetts, and sought shelter for himself and his children in the family of his sister, Mrs. Severance, his co-conspirator. Here he found willing ears to credit his tale of abuses he had suffered in this interference with his right to do as he pleased with his lawful wife -- and in representing the trial as a "mock trial," an illegal interference with his rights as head of his own household, and a "mob triumph," -- in short, he was an innocent victim of a persecution against his legally constituted rights as a husband, to protect his wife in the way his own feelings of bigotry and intolerance should dictate!

This was the region of his nativity and former pastorate, which he had left about eleven years previously, with an unblemished external character, and sharing, to an uncommon degree, the entire confidence of the public as a Christian man and a minister. Nothing had occurred, to their knowledge, to disturb this confidence in his present integrity as an honest reporter, and the entire community credited his testimony as perfectly reliable, in his entire misrepresentations of the facts in the case, and the character of the trial.

His view was the only view the community were allowed to hear, so far as it was in his power to prevent it. The press also lent him its aid, as his organ of communication.

He met his old associates in the ministry, and by his artfully arranged web of lies, and his cunning sophistries, he deluded them also into a belief of his views, so that they, unanimously, gave him their certificate of confidence and fraternal sympathy!

This certificate served as a passport to the confidence of Sunderland people in Mr. Packard as a man and a minister, and procured for him a call to become their minister in holy things. He was accordingly hired, as stated supply, and paid fifteen dollars a Sabbath for one year and a half, and was boarded by my father in his family, part of the time, free of charge.

The condition in which Mr. Packard left me I will now give in the language of another, by inserting here a quotation from one of the many Chicago papers which published an account of this trial with editorial remarks accompanying it. The following is a part of one of these Editorial Articles, which appeared under the caption:

"A Heartless Clergyman." Chicago, March 6, 1864.

"We recently gave an extended account of the melancholy case of Mrs. Packard, of Manteno, Ill., and showed how she was persecuted by her husband, Rev. Theophilus Packard, a bigoted Presbyterian minister of Manteno.

Mrs. Packard became liberal in her views, and as her husband was unable to answer her arguments, he thought he could silence her tongue, by calling her insane, and having her incarcerated in the Insane Asylum at Jacksonville, Illinois.

He finally succeeded in finding one or two orthodox physicians, as bigoted as himself, ready to aid him in his nefarious work, and she was confined in the asylum, under the charge (?) of Mr. McFarland, who kept her there three years.

She at last succeeded in having a jury trial, and was pronounced sane.

Previous, however, to the termination of the trial, this persecutor of his wife mortgaged his property, took away his children from the mother, and left her penniless and homeless, without a cent to buy food, or a place where to lay her head! And yet he pretended to believe that she was insane!

Is this the way to treat an insane wife?

Abandon her, turn her out upon the world without a morsel of bread, and no home?

Her husband calls her insane. Before the case is decided by the jury, he starts for parts unknown.

Was there ever such a case of heartlessness?

If Mr. Packard believed his wife to be hopelessly insane, why did he abandon her? Is this the way to treat a companion afflicted with insanity?

If he believed his own story, he should, like a devoted husband, have watched over her with tenderness, his heart full of love should have gone out towards the poor, afflicted woman, and he should have bent over her and soothed her, and spent the last penny he had, for her recovery!

But instead of this, he gathers in his funds, "packs up his duds," and leaves his poor insane wife, as he calls her, in the court-room, without food or shelter. He abandons her, leaving her homeless, penniless and childless!"

CHAPTER IV.
Return to my Home -- Married woman a Slave!

After my acquittal from the court at Kankakee, I, of course, turned my attention and thoughts towards my dear children, whom I had left five days previous in my own dear home in Manteno.

But alas! Upon arriving at the spot I once called my home, I found there was no home left for me! Mr. Packard had left the court-room on the previous Saturday evening, spent the night in removing my furniture to the house of his brother-in-law, Deacon Dole, then rented the place to Mr. Wood, who had taken possession; and taking my wardrobe, money, notes, and children, had fled, Sabbath morning, to parts unknown.