Mr. Rochester continued, hardily and recklessly: “Bigamy is an ugly word!⁠—I meant, however, to be a bigamist; but fate has outmanoeuvred me, or Providence has checked me⁠—perhaps the last. I am little better than a devil at this moment; and, as my pastor there would tell me, deserve no doubt the sternest judgments of God, even to the quenchless fire and deathless worm. Gentlemen, my plan is broken up:⁠—what this lawyer and his client say is true: I have been married, and the woman to whom I was married lives! You say you never heard of a Mrs.