His
quarrel with the Earl of Devonshire, which led to the imposition upon
that nobleman of the exorbitant fine of, L30,000, is well known. But
he was always involved in disputes and law-suits, and not unfrequently
he was a prisoner for debt. He filed affidavits in Chancery, denying
his sister's marriage, with the view of justifying his refusal to pay
her portion to her husband; but the only thing which in any way bears
on the anecdote of the vault, is the fact that one of the Colonel's
conceits was a plan for embalming dead bodies. The horrible suspicion
alluded to by Lady Fanshawe is unsupported by any other statement, and
it may be hoped that she was as misinformed on the subject as she was
about the time of Mrs. Porter's decease. Part of Colonel Colepeper's
papers relate to the particulars of a secret marriage, which he says,
in a petition to the Court of Chancery, had taken place between him
and the daughter and heiress of Alexander Davies, of Ebury, the widow
of Sir Thomas Grosvenor; the unusual engagement into which they
entered on the wedding-night; the pretended capture of the lady by the
Algerines; his correspondence with the French Government to procure
her release; the various attempts to violate her person by one
Fordwich; her refusal after her return to England to acknowledge the
Colonel as her husband, and his efforts to effect that recognition.
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