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with keen anxiety, not merely by the Dowager Lady Tichborne, but by the whole group of relatives with whom Roger had been so intimate in his boyish days. It will be remembered that Sir Henry Tichborne, who died in 1821, left four sons and a daughter. Of the sons, the three elder, Henry Joseph, Edward, and James, all in turn succeeded to the title, and all. had children; Robert, the youngest, died without issue; and the daughter married a gentleman named Nangle, and became the mother of two sons and a daughter. Sir Henry Joseph had no son, but six daughters, of whom the three elder became respectively Lady Dormer, Lady Arundel of Wardour, and Mrs. Washington Hibbert. The three younger were Catherine, the wife of Colonel William Greenwood; Lucy, the wife of Mr. Towneley; and Emily, the wife of Matthew James Higgins, the well-known `Jacob Omnium' of the Times and the Pall Mall Gazette. Next to Lady Doughty and her daughter, Mrs. Greenwood was perhaps the one of his female relatives with whom Roger was on the most affectionate terms; her husband and his brother, Colonel George Greenwood, famous as an authority on horseman- ship, had been among the kindest friends of his boyhood, and it was to her he addressed his last letter before leaving England. Lady Doughty was still alive, so was her daughter; and the latter's husband, Mr. Radcliffe, had been acquainted with Roger through acting with him in private theatricals at Sir Clifford Constable's, while Miss Nangle had been Mrs. Radcliffe's friend and confidante in their girlish days, and a constant visitor both at Upton and Tichborne when Roger was there, The only two of old Mr. Seymour's daughters then surviving were Mrs. Bouverie and Lady Rawlinson, both of whom had known Roger well in his Stonyhurst time and subsequently; and his two sons, Henry Danby Seymour and Alfred Seymour, were both alive, and both members of the House of Commons. Though by blood they were Roger's half-uncles, the relationship was by tacit consent never alluded to, but they associated together on the footing of cousins, addressing each other by their Christian names, and enjoy- ing an intimacy which, until Roger's departure to America, had never been interrupted by a quarrel or a harsh word. Out of this wide family circle not one shared what they all considered the Dowager's delusions on the subject of her eldest son; and when, in the course of 1866, it became known that she was in correspondence with some one in Australia, the stir among her relatives became proportion- ately great. The proof of Roger's survival would work a revolution in the family affairs. The trustees under his will would be placed in an awkward position, and possibly be found to have incurred unauthorised liabilities. The widow of Sir Alfred would lose her jointure, forfeit her title, and see her infant son deprived of his heritage; and there were other interests, including those of the re- mainder-men to the estates, between whom and possession there stood, if Roger were dead, only the precarious life of a child of a few months old. The reappearance of the lost man opened up a vista of consequences, the end of which it was impossible to foresee; and the group of uncles and aunts and cousins must have been more than mortal if they had not experienced some resentment at the idea of a young man causing so much trouble and confusion without the shadow of a provocation, and treat- ing with such heartless want of consideration those who had shown him long and uniform kindness. But the ties of blood and old affection were strong, and there does not appear to have been a single member of the families of Tichborne and Seymour who was not prepared to welcome back their kinsman if it should prove to be really he. Lady Tichborne had kept her own counsel; in her letters to the claimant and his advisers she urged the necessity of his coming straight to her without mixing with his father's relatives, towards whom she cherished all her former prejudices; and to the Seymours she was scarcely more explicit, insisting that it was her son, but declining to give any details, and refusing to show the letters she had received from Australia. News, however, trickled out; Cater, the returned baker, had told his story, the colonial papers contained highly coloured paragraphs, and Bogle had written to Lady Doughty. The general attitude of the family was one of complete uncertainty; many of the facts reported were of a character to breed incredulity; but in October Lady Doughty wrote to a gentleman called Baigent, who for many reasons was interested in the Tichborne history, that if what the Dowager and Bogle said was true, there could be no doubt that it was really Roger, `but that the circumstances altogether made it a painful event in the family.' Early in December it was known that the claimant might be expected in England at any moment; the ports were watched, and Mr. Baigent kept a careful eye on the post- office at Alresford. It was not long before his vigilance was rewarded. The principal inn at Alresford is The Swan, a comfort- able old hostelry close to the church, and there, on the evening of Saturday the 28th of December, arrived a stranger of great natural bulk, swollen to abnormal dimensions by a multiplicity of wraps. He ordered a private sitting-room, and seemed anxious to avoid publicity. His baggage was marked R. C. T., and he gave the name of Taylor. His desire for privacy did not prevent him from sending down a civil message to the landlord to join him over a glass of wine and a cigar, and the invitation was accepted in good part. Mine host of The Swan was a certain Mr. Rous, who had been for many years a clerk to Mr. Hopkins the solicitor, who will be remembered as acting for Mr. James Tichborne in the resettlement of the estates consequent upon Roger's coming of age in 1850. Rous had abandoned the desk and ruler, but he could not have divested himself entirely of the mass of information acquired in the office of a family lawyer. The conversa- tion naturally turned upon the neighbourhood; and as the stranger seemed particularly interested in everything per- taining to Tichborne, Rous undertook to drive him over there, and the next morning being Sunday, they started off' together. The house was let to Colonel Lushington, but Rous was in the habit of getting his milk and eggs from the farm, and while so employed the visitor had a good walk round the exterior of the mansion, and indulged in a little talk with some of the villagers. What passed between him and Rous is not quite clear, but either that evening or the next day he cast off his incognito and stood revealed as Sir Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne. He impressed on his host the necessity for secrecy, and his desire that his identity should not be disclosed; but the tale spread through the town, coupled with the news that Bogle, once so familiar a personage, had been telegraphed for. Amongst the first to hear the news was Mr. Hopkins, who was now retired from practice, and living in comfortable style in a house not far from The Swan; his first act was to send for the aforesaid Mr. Baigent, who was a drawing- master at Winchester; the latter came promptly over, and the pair went in search of the baronet. As they were standing in the pathway at the back of the inn leading to the station, a man answering unmistakably to the description of the stranger passed by them. He gave no sign of recognition, and he was too muffled up for them to examine his features or form any opinion about him. Later in the afternoon Bogle arrived; and the next morning, New Year's Day 1867, the worshippers at the chapel attached to Tichborne House were gratified with the sight of the.old negro, whose woolly locks were turned snow- white with age, but who in other respects seemed unchanged. Amongst the congregation was Mrs. Greenwood, who had driven over from her home at Brookwood; and after service she stopped to talk with Bogle, whom she remembered well, and at his request obtained leave for him to go over the house which had for so many years been his home. She had heard rumours that Sir Roger was in England; and learning that he was in Alresford, she sent a message for him by Bogle to come over and see her that afternoon. Bogle returned to The Swan, but the visit there was destined to be abruptly curtailed. Mr. Frederick Bowker, the solicitor for Sir Alfred's widow, had heard of the doings at Alresford, and had come down from Winchester in the interests of his client. Going to the inn, he obtained, after much difficulty, an interview with the claimant, whom he found studying a catalogue which had been prepared for a projected sale of pictures and other effects at Tichborne, a relic of the recent spendthrift regime. The interview was not an agreeable one. Mr. Bowker declined to recognise any right on the part of the claimant, and left the room with the firm conviction that he was an impostor. The next morning 'Mr. Taylor' retreated to London,without any attempt to visit Mrs. Greenwood, and thence to Gravesend, whither his wife and family had been already transferred. More than a week had elapsed since his arrival in England; and the Dowager, who was in Paris, and had been daily expecting him since November, wrote to urge him to come and join her, assuring him that his bill at Gravesend would be paid, and that she would have great pleasure in seeing his wife and children. Want of funds need not have prevented him; a five-pound note would have set him down at his mother's hotel in Paris; and the journey to his birthplace should have presented few difficulties to Roger Tichborne, who spoke French like a native, and was as much at home in Paris as in London. Still he paused; and on the evening of his return from Alresford, as he was waiting at the International Hotel, London Bridge, for a train to take him to Gravesend, he made the casual acquaintance in the billiard-room of Mr. Leete, an agent for the eminent firm of Allsopps. To this gentleman he revealed who he was, and that he was on the point of going over to Paris to be identified by his mother. Mr. Leete at once suggested the advisability of employing a solicitor in so delicate a matter; and as the claimant could not recall the name of one, he suggested his own, Mr. John Holmes of the Poultry. To him, accordingly, the claimant repaired next morning and laid his case before him, and matters were at once put in train; but they were destined to a speedy interruption. Vincent Gosford, the old and intimate friend of Roger Tichborne, had some years prior to this date taken up his residence in Wales, and times had gone hardly with him. He had invested his savings in a big farm and in agricul- tural experiments, which had turned out unfortunately; his methods of bookkeeping had been loose and irregular; the rents received from the Tichborne estates had been placed to his private account, and he had been allowed to over- draw. When the crash came under Sir Alfred's reckless extravagance, the trustees were compelled to call upon Gosford to refund, which he was in no position to do, and he was now virtually on the brink of ruin. We can imagine the joy with which he must have heard the rumours of Roger's return, which would substitute as his creditor one attached to him by every tie in the place of trustees bound to enforce the law to the uttermost farthing. Not merely old friendship and the memory of past days, but the most obvious motives of self-interest, urged him to do every- thing in his power to procure the restoration of Roger Tichborne to his proper position. At the first news of the visit to Alresford he hurried up to London and saw Bogle, who told him that his name had frequently been mentioned by Sir Roger in the course of their conversations on the voyage. From him he found out the claimant's address, and was starting off to Gravesend, when, unluckily, he turned into the office of Mr. Cullington, a member of the firm who had acted for Roger when he made his will in 1852, and Cullington suggested that he should accompany him, together with Mr. Plowden, a distant connection of the family, who had himself known Roger. They arrived at Gravesend; the claimant was away, but they waited, and towards evening they saw the arrival in a cab of a huge personage much muffled up, with a curious peaked cap tied under his chin. Their method of procedure was, to say the least, unfortunate; they shouted to him and tried to intercept him on the stair, but he rushed past into his bedroom, where he locked himself in, and remained deaf to all entreaties to come out. At last their cards were sent in by a waiter, and a hastily scrawled note was returned to Gosford `Pardon me, gentlemen, but i did not wish any one to know where i was staying with my family, And was much anoyed to see you all here.' The trio were satisfied that they were dealing with an impostor, and departed, after behaving in a way that did little credit to their discretion. If the claimant was desirous of finding ground for saying that from the first he had been ill used by those who professed to be interested on behalf of the Tichborne family, their conduct had afforded him a plausible excuse. No one saw this better than Mrs. Gosford, who wrote to her husband to say he had not given her any reason for believing Sir Roger to be an im- postor, and that the writing in the note was decidedly like his, `the signature perfect'; she begged her husband to obtain a private interview, and not to decide till he had done so. Gosford accordingly applied for one; the request met the wishes of Mr. Holmes, who realised what a tower of strength his adhesion would be, and a meeting took place at Gravesend on the 9th of January. There was no witness but Mr. Holmes, and Gosford afterwards described the claimant as standing up very nervous and scared, and twisting his cap in his hands. There was nothing in his appearance to convince Gosford of his identity, and the conversation on old days was even less satisfactory. He could give no reason for not going to see the Seymours. `Mamma's relations you mean,' he interjected, to the astonishment of Gosford, who had never heard Roger refer to Lady Tichborne except as his mother. He knew little about Upton or the incidents connected with that place; he could not remember the names of Roger's favourite dogs, Spring and Pie Crust, or an accident which had befallen him when out riding with Gosford; he had never heard of Slaughter, who was Roger's solicitor, but said he remembered Cullington, who had not joined the firm till after Roger sailed for South America; and when asked who made his will -- which, by the way, he and Holmes had just inspected at Doctors' Commons -- he replied, ` Hopkins, of course.' The claimant was leaving Gravesend that night; and as Gosford and Holmes were also going up to London, it was agreed they should travel together, and the conversation was continued in the train. A casual remark led it towards Roger's life in the army, on which the claimant displayed absolute ignorance. Gosford could obtain satisfaction on no single point, and was much struck by the claimant's diction and vocabulary; `language such as one would hear among workmen, using such expressions as " I heerd" and so on; the mode of expression was altogether that of a person of very low station. He telegraphed to his wife `Saw Sir Roger for an hour with his solicitor. Never saw the man before to the best of my belief. He cannot answer a single question of former times.' That same evening the claimant wrote to Lady Tichborne :- ` DEAR AND BELOVED MAMMA,-. . . I have been down to tichborne. And had a look at the dear old place once more. And it made my heart bleed to look at the dis- truction there has been made there, but has my poor Brother is dead we will not mension that subject again let the past be past and no more about it. I have seen Mr. Gosford. he seems very much change to what he use to be. he came down in the train from Gravesend last night. I had a long talk with him, and he seemes to deny every thing i put him in mind of. He says he do not remember me coming down in the coach from London with him to tichborne. I had a hour conversation with him about different things Mamma that nobody in the. world could have told him but me. I even told him under what circumstances Moore came left me. You must remember Mamma i wrote to him from allmost every place. A Cullington and a lot more would insist on seeing me at Gravesend when they came, and because I did not wish to see them until i had seen you they where very angry . . . .-I remain, your ever affectionate `Son, R. C. TICHBORNE.'
The next morning the claimant started for Paris,
taking
with him Mr. Holmes and his other friend of a week's standing, Mr. Leete; while in contrast to this precaution, Lady Tichborne chose this moment to discard her own adviser, Mr. James Bowker. From the first commence- ment of her Australian correspondence she had consulted him, and such gleams of prudence as she had displayed were due to his influence and sagacity. To him alone had she submitted the Australian letters and the Sydney photo- graph of the claimant, and he had pointed out the im- probabilities and inconsistencies of the story; he had expressed his opinion that the whole affair was an attempt to extort money, and had done everything possible to restrain his client from committing herself irretrievably by any recognition of the claimant before she had seen him. Since the news of the latter's arrival in England he had left no stone unturned to obtain an interview with him, and on the 8th of January had gone over to Paris at Lady Tichborne's request to report. progress. His report was not favourable ; and while he was actually in the room with her, a letter arrived from the claimant to say that he was on the point of starting, accompanied by his solicitor; whereupon Lady Tichborne informed Mr. Bowker that she had no further occasion for his services. She was too near the fulfilment of her cherished hopes to bear the presence of any one who would be likely to exercise an independent judgment. It is hardly too much to say that she had resolved coûte que coûte to recognise the claimant as her son. Her last letter to Gibbes shows that her mind, not without delays and misgivings, was made up, and in the inter- vening months her determination had strengthened. Her brothers had found it hopeless to argue, and a conversation with her sister, Lady Rawlinson, in the preceding December, shows the frame of mind in which she entered upon the interview which I am about to describe. Lady Rawlinson, after listening to a summary of what the claimant had written, asked Lady Tichborne if she did not think it odd that he made no mention of the old friends whom he knew before leaving England. ` No,' was the reply, ` a young man makes fresh acquaintances.' ` Well,' continued Lady Rawlinson, ` but what would you do if the door opens and somebody whom you cannot recognise as your son walks into the room ? ' `I cannot help that; I know he is my son.' The claimant and his friends reached Paris on the night of the 10th of January, and repaired at once to the Hotel de Lille et d'Albion. Lady Tichborne was prepared for their arrival, and the first thing next morning despatched Coyne, her Irish servant, to bring her son to her without delay. He went to the hotel, but only succeeded in seeing Holmes and Leete, who informed him that they all said in England that Sir Roger was not the man, and that they had had a hard job to get him away, as he was watched by detectives. Holmes went into the claimant's bedroom, and came back with the answer that he was seasick and not well, and with that message Coyne returned to Lady Tichborne. She at once sent him back with orders to see the claimant himself. This time he saw him ; but the latter, after expressing his joy at being home, and thanking Coyne for his trouble, told him to tell his `mamma' that he was unable to go to see her. Coyne again departed, and quickly returned with instructions to bring Holmes and Leete to the Place de la Madeleine, whither they accompanied him, locking the claimant up in his room for security. As the result of this interview Lady Tichborne herself appeared at the hotel, and was ushered in, followed by Holmes, Leete, and Coyne. It was a murky afternoon, the blinds were half down, the claimant was lying huddled on the bed with his clothes on, and his face turned to the wall. The mother bent over him and kissed him, saying, ' He looks like his father, and his ears are like his uncle's. ' The claimant uttered never a word, and she told Coyne to take some of his clothes off, as he was nearly stifled. Coyne managed to turn over the unresisting mass, and Holmes said to him, ' You witness that; you see how she has identified him.' History and fiction contain no stranger story of the meeting of mother and son after an absence of seventeen years. Whether due to emotion or not, the bodily condition of the claimant was such as to cause serious alarm to Lady Tichborne ; and she sent for Sir Joseph Olliffe, the physician to the British Embassy, and for another medical man, and in their presence renewed her declaration that the claimant was her firstborn son. His indisposition, however, was not of long duration, and he spent the next seven days in constant association with Lady Tichborne, dining and taking his other meals with her. During the short acquaintance which Mr. Holmes had had with his client, he could scarcely have become acquainted with more than the outlines of the case, and the result of the conversations with Gosford was not reassuring. The journey to Paris must have seemed a forlorn hope; and had the Dowager disclaimed all know- ledge of the stout colonial, it may be questioned whether Mr. Holmes, however disappointed, would have been taken by surprise. But the identification once effected, the matter must have appeared beyond the bounds of doubt. The mother had recognised her son; father and brother were dead, and who else would dare to suggest that a mother could be mistaken as to her child ? A few formal letters to the trustees, a friendly suit in Chancery, and the affair would be over, and Sir Roger in possession of his estates and rent-roll. Mr. Holmes, on the 17th of January, wrote a letter to the Times announcing the fact of the recognition by Lady Tichborne, and stating that he was prepared at once to take the necessary steps to enforce it. He returned to England on the 19th, accompanied by his client. Lady Tichborne declared her intention of following them and taking up her abode with her son, and in the meanwhile transferred to him, until he should obtain possession of his estates, the £1000 a year out of her jointure which she had hitherto allowed to her daughter-in-law. Before the departure, however, something had taken place which must have rather marred the satisfaction pro- duced by the visit, and have given warning that all before them was not plain sailing. There were still living in Paris a good number of persons who had known Roger Tichborne, but to one only did the Dowager apply. The subject of her choice was unexceptionable. M. Chatillon had been one of Roger's tutors; he had given him such little instruction as the ill-ordered household allowed of; he had accompanied the family year after year on their summer excursions; and Roger had up to the last main- tained the kindliest relations with him, and had déjeuner in his house the day before he started for South America. To him appeared suddenly one morning Lady Tichborne in the full flush of triumph, and carried him off to see his old pupil. In spite of his caution to her not to mention his name, she ushered him into the room with the intro- ductory words, `Sir Roger, M. Chatillon.' On the impulse of the moment he exclaimed in French, `My dear Roger, I am very happy to see you after your long absence !' but a glance at the claimant was enough to alter his tone. He stepped back, and said, ` No, my Lady, this is not your son.'-`You do not embrace Roger!' cried the Dowager. `No, my Lady, it is not he.' The claimant had remained silent, and the mother explained that he did not speak French any longer, and that the conversa- tion must be conducted through the interpreter whom she had provided. They sat down, the claimant holding a silk handkerchief to his face, and a series of questions were put to him, on none of which could he give satisfaction to the tutor and friend of Roger Tichborne. As his recollec- tion was being fruitlessly directed to holiday trips in Normandy and Brittany, Lady Tichborne interposed -- ` Chatillon, you must not ask him any more. He has seen so many things that he no longer remembers any- thing.' Chatillon took his departure, on the understand- ing that they were to meet again; but though he called at the hotel, he was told that the claimant was ill, and he had no opportunity of a further interview. On the claimant's return to England a house was taken for him at Essex Lodge, Croydon, where he was in the immediate neighbourhood of his solicitor. A room was set apart for Bogle ; and, as we shall shortly see, a whole colony of supporters were at one time or another accom- modated under the hospitable roof. Mr. Holmes prepared to set in motion the machinery of the Court of Chancery. The registers at Doctors' Commons had already been searched for the probate of Roger Tichborne's will, and a copy taken; and the next visit was to Lloyd's, where the books were examined for details of the Bella and of the Osprey, which the claimant declared was the ship that had rescued himself and the survivors of the Bella's crew. |
