At three o’clock A. M., I heard three knocks at my door, and I quickly went to open it. “Who was there? Abraham Lincoln, with a face beaming with joy!”
I could hardly believe my eyes. But I was not mistaken. It was my noble-hearted friend, the most honest lawyer of Illinois!—one of the noblest men Heaven has ever given to earth! It was Abraham Lincoln, who had been given me as my Saviour! On seeing me bathed with tears, he exclaimed, “Cheer up, Mr. Chiniquy, I have the perjured priests in my hands. Their diabolical plot is all known, and if they do not fly away before the dawn of day, they will surely be lynched. Bless the Lord, you are saved!”
The sudden passage of extreme desolation to an extreme joy came near killing me. I felt as suffocated, and unable to utter a single word. I took his hand, pressed it to my lips, and bathed it with tears of joy. I said: “May God forever bless you, dear Mr. Lincoln. But please tell me how you can bring me such glorious news!”
Here is the simple but marvellous story, as told me by that great and good man, whom God had made the messenger of his mercies towards me:
“As soon as LeBelle had given his perjured testimony against you yesterday,” said Mr. Lincoln, “one of the agents of the Chicago press telegraphed to some of the principal papers of Chicago: ‘It is probable that Mr. Chiniquy will be condemned; for the testimony of the Rev. Mr. LeBelle seems to leave no doubt that he is guilty.’ And the little Irish boys, to sell their papers, filled the streets with the cries: ‘Chiniquy will be hung! Chiniquy will be hung!’ The Roman Catholics were so glad to hear that, that ten thousand extra copies have been sold. Among those who bought those papers was a friend of yours, called Terrien, who went to his wife and told her that you were to be condemned, and when the woman heard that, she said, ‘It is too bad, for I know Mr. Chiniquy is not guilty.’
“‘How do you know that?’ said her husband. She answered: ‘I was there when the priest LeBelle made the plot, and promised to give his sister two-eighties of good land if she would swear a false oath—and accuse him of a crime which that woman said he had not even thought of with her.’
“‘If it be so,’ said Terrien, ‘we cannot allow Mr. Chiniquy to be condemned. Come with me to Urbana.’
“But that woman being quite unwell, said to her husband, ‘You know well I cannot go; but Miss Philomene Moffat was with me then. She knows every particular of that wicked plot as well as I do. She is well; go and take her to Urbana. There is no doubt that her testimony will prevent the condemnation of Mr. Chiniquy.’
“Narcisse Terrien started immediately: and when you were praying God to come to your help, He was sending your deliverer at the full speed of the railroad cars. Miss Moffat has just given me the details of that diabolical plot. I have advised her not to show herself before the Court is opened. I will, then, send for her, and when she will have given, under oath, before the Court, the details she has just given me, I pity Spink with his perjured priests. As I told you, I would not be surprised if they were lynched: for there is a terrible excitement in town among many people who from the beginning, suspect that the priests have perjured themselves to destroy you.
“Now your suit is gained, and to-morrow, you will have the greatest triumph a man ever got over his confounded foes. But you are in need of a rest as well as myself. Good-bye.”