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SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 CHARLES KINGSTON 
 
 tl 
 
 Author of 
 Famous Morganatic Marriages," "Royal Romances and Tragedies, 
 
 etc. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 E. P. 3 X & COMPANY 
 
.U<o 
 
 PRINTED IN fiKKA'I BRITAIN 
 
 
 FIRST Pl-RLISHED IN I922 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. THE FICKLE LOVER 
 
 II. THE MORDAUNT CASE 
 
 III. THE COLIN-CAMPBELL DIVORCE SUIT 
 
 IV. PAUPER OR PEER ? 
 
 V. A FAMOUS AMERICAN ACTOR AND HIS 
 ENGLISH WIFE . 
 
 VI. A REAL MELODRAMA 
 
 VII. SIR CHARLES DILKE 
 
 VIII. A BOGUS WEDDING 
 
 IX. THE NEWMAN HALL TRIAL 
 
 X. LORD AND LADY ELGIN . 
 
 XI. LORD AND LADY CLONCURRY . 
 
 XII. LORD WILLIAM LENNOX AND HIS WIFE 
 
 XIII. THE TALBOT CONSPIRACY 
 
 XIV. A SENSATIONAL ELOPEMENT . 
 
 XV. THE GARDNER PUZZLE . 
 
 XVI. THE INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 9 
 24 
 
 45 
 60 
 
 73 
 
 98 
 
 112 
 127 
 141 
 
 156 
 170 
 184 
 199 
 213 
 227 
 240 
 
SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE FICKLE LOVER 
 
 In 1846 the twelfth Viscount Mountgarret died, 
 and was succeeded in the title and estates by 
 Henry Edmund, the only son of his younger 
 brother, the Hon. Henry Butler. For eight years 
 the new peer was left undisturbed in his posses- 
 sions, but he must have been aware that it was 
 rumoured that he had no right to the viscounty 
 and the property and that the common gossip 
 of the county was to the effect that he was ille- 
 gitimate. 
 
 However, as long as his relatives accepted him 
 as the head of the family he did not mind, but in 
 1854 the gathering storm burst. His cousin, 
 Pierce Somerset Butler, eldest son of Colonel the 
 Hon. Pierce Butler — the latter being the fourth 
 brother of the twelfth viscount — claimed the 
 peerage and the property, alleging that Henry 
 Edmund was the offspring of a bigamous marriage 
 and that according to the law of the land he was not 
 legitimate. 
 
 9 
 
io SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 Thus began the most remarkable and sensational 
 trial in the history of the peerage. It put thous- 
 ands of pounds into the pockets of the lawyers, 
 ruined for a generation a noble family, and exposed 
 to the public gaze the eccentricities of an un- 
 scrupulous adventurer, who was the hero and 
 villain, in turns, of love affairs in Ireland, Scotland, 
 and England. 
 
 The cause of all the trouble was the Hon. Henry 
 Butler, third son of the eleventh, and brother of the 
 twelfth, Lord Mountgarret. Endowed by nature 
 with a magnificent physique, a fine presence, and 
 a handsome countenance, he combined with these 
 advantages a personality which made him irre- 
 sistible with the fair sex. 
 
 He was, however, far from being effeminate, and 
 his ability as a horseman was only equalled by his 
 skill with the pistol and the sword, and he displayed 
 an alacrity to use either of these weapons which 
 made his critics careful not to speak disrespectfully 
 of him in his presence. 
 
 In fact, Henry was a typical devil-may-care 
 Irishman, and if it had not been for the lawsuits 
 which arose out of his behaviour it would be easier 
 to imagine that he was a creation of Charles Lever 
 and not a real person. Henry was involved in 
 several love affairs before he startled his friends 
 and infuriated his father by eloping with the pretty 
 young wife of a neighbour. 
 
 Mrs. Barrington had fallen under the sway of the 
 handsome and fascinating friend of her husband, 
 and for his sake she sacrified everything in order 
 
THE FICKLE LOVER n 
 
 to share his fortunes in England. But her lover 
 quickly grew tired of her. 
 
 He had not sufficient money to meet his own 
 expenses, and he grudged spending any on her, 
 and when he had exhausted his patrimony of forty 
 thousand pounds he promptly deserted her, and 
 left her to die in misery and squalor two years later. 
 
 It was a characteristic beginning to a life of many 
 vicissitudes. Henry Butler seems to have believed 
 that the world was made for his pleasure and that 
 no laws were binding on him. He was not dis- 
 turbed when his father refused to read his letters 
 and his relatives cut him. 
 
 Henry had complete faith in himself to overcome 
 all his difficulties, and there was always the — in 
 his opinion — certainty of making a rich marriage 
 when it was time for him to settle down. Some 
 months after he had parted from Mrs. Barrington 
 he found it necessary to leave London for Brighton. 
 
 He was not fond of the seaside, but the per- 
 sistency of a couple of money-lenders compelled 
 him to vanish from the gaming-clubs, and in due 
 course he arrived at a hotel, penniless but ani- 
 mated by an optimism born of confidence in 
 himself as a card-player. Brighton, however, 
 did not provide any pigeons to be plucked, and 
 he was reduced to idleness. 
 
 But this apparent misfortune changed his luck, 
 for one evening when he was wishing he was else- 
 where, two ladies entered the hotel, one of whom 
 was known to him. She promptly introduced 
 her companion, and thus the whole course of his 
 
12 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 life was altered by this meeting with Mrs. Cole- 
 brook. , 
 
 At the time they met Henry Butler was in 
 the thirties, and there were no outward signs of 
 the life of dissipation he was leading, and Mrs. 
 Amanda Colebrook was charmed by his manner 
 and enchanted by his unique personality. 
 
 He did not know anything about her except 
 her name, but he was flatteringly attentive from 
 the first, and when the following morning they 
 met again on the front, she cordially accepted 
 his offer to escort her back to the hotel. 
 
 There was a reason now, however, for polite- 
 ness. In the interval between the first and 
 second meeting he had learned a greal deal about 
 Amanda Colebrook, and he was aware that the 
 stylishly-dressed woman with the dainty figure 
 and lovely complexion was the widow of a Scots- 
 man, Colonel Colebrook, an extensive landowner, 
 who had left her fifteen thousand a year and 
 control over another thousand per annum, to be 
 spent on her two young daughters. 
 
 Thus Mrs. Colebrook was a rich woman, for 
 in the early part of the nineteenth century an 
 income of two thousand five hundred pounds 
 was equal to six times that amount now, and 
 Henry Butler, impecunious and hunted by his 
 creditors, resolved to cultivate the widow and 
 marry her. 
 
 He realised how fortunate he would be if he 
 married both beauty and money, and when Mrs. 
 Colebrook showed that she liked him and did not 
 
THE FICKLE LOVER 13 
 
 resent his rather bold courtship of her, he felt 
 that he had victory in sight. 
 
 At the first favourable opportunity he pro- 
 posed to her at the hotel. It was less than a 
 fortnight since his introduction to her, but they 
 seemed to have known each other for ages, and 
 he was confident of what her answer would be. 
 To his amazement, however, she murmured that 
 marriage was out of the question. He pressed 
 her for an explanation, and then she revealed the 
 awkward fact that if she married again she would 
 lose her interest in her first husband's estate. 
 
 Butler was staggered by the collapse of his 
 scheme, but the widow, who had a very accom- 
 modating disposition, smiled at his stupefaction. 
 She had a solution of the problem and she in- 
 timated that she would become his mistress 
 rather than part from him or her fortune. There 
 and then they agreed to live together as man and 
 wife, and, to further their ends, Mrs. Colebrook 
 took her maid, Sarah Stride, into her confidence. 
 
 The irregular partnership involved constant 
 changes of lodgings, and when the first child was 
 born the widow very nearly followed the infant 
 to the grave. She effected a marvellous recovery, 
 however, and when a year later she told Butler 
 that she was expecting another child they had a 
 long and serious discussion. 
 
 Butler's position was now worse than ever, 
 and he was being haunted by a fear that he would, 
 after all, lose the widow and her money. He had 
 discovered that she was a flirt and easily in- 
 
14 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 fluenced, and it worried him to know that at any 
 moment she pleased she might throw him over 
 and marry someone else. 
 
 It was not unlikely that a rich man would fall 
 in love with her, and, if that happened, Mrs. 
 Colebrook would not mind losing her fortune. 
 It was this latter consideration which caused 
 the Irishman to propose to Amanda that they 
 should solve the problem by journeying to Scotland 
 and getting married there secretly. 
 
 Scotland was the best place in the world for a 
 secret ceremony, for they need only accept each 
 other as husband and wife in the presence of their 
 faithful and devoted Sarah Stride and the brief 
 ceremony would constitute a legal marriage. 
 
 Mrs. Colebrook agreed to his suggestion, and 
 it was arranged that she was to return to 
 Edinburgh, where she had a house in North- 
 umberland Street, and resume her career as a 
 hostess. Later on Butler was to arrive, and at 
 a suitable time and place the marriage was to be 
 celebrated. 
 
 The widow and her two daughters were wel- 
 comed by their old friends in the Scottish capital, 
 and she began to entertain on a large scale, and 
 almost every night her house was packed with 
 guests. 
 
 After her more or less shady association with 
 Henry Butler in England and her forced avoidance 
 of her respectable acquaintances, her popularity 
 in Edinburgh came as a tonic, and she felt in- 
 clined to regret her friendship with Lord Mount- 
 
THE FICKLE LOVER 15 
 
 garret's son, a friendship, moreover, which had 
 deprived her of the society of her equals. 
 
 Very soon, however, she had another and a 
 stronger reason for wishing to forget Butler, and, 
 strangely enough, the reason was another Irish- 
 man, though of a different stamp. John Taaffe 
 was the exact opposite of Henry Butler so far as 
 character and means were concerned. 
 
 Fond of literature and science, he had come 
 to Edinburgh to make the acquaintance of several 
 of its most distinguished men, and it was at a 
 reception given by a famous judge that he was 
 presented to Mrs. Colebrook, who, having recently 
 seen Butler, was agreeably surprised to find an 
 Irishman whose manner was quiet and respectful, 
 and who was not given to intoxication. 
 
 It was another point in favour of Taaffe that 
 he was rich. She had postponed her marriage 
 with Butler on account of the fact that she had 
 had a miscarriage, and, although she had promised 
 him to become his wife as soon as it was safe 
 to do so without risking the loss of her income, 
 she was quite ready to fall in love with someone 
 else. 
 
 She was attracted by Taaffe, and to her pleased 
 astonishment he was so impressed by her that he 
 waited for no encouragement, and declared his 
 passion for her immediately. 
 
 Here was a predicament for the pretty widow ! 
 She had lost her infatuation for Henry Butler, 
 and she was in love with Taaffe, and she knew 
 that if Butler discovered the real state of affairs 
 
16 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 he would probably challenge the younger man to 
 a duel and kill him. 
 
 It was this latter reason which determined her 
 to keep her second lover hidden from her first, 
 and it looked as though she would have an easy 
 task, for Butler had friends in the garrison, and 
 he failed to visit her house for weeks at a time, 
 preferring to spend his nights with his boon com- 
 panions, drinking and gambling. 
 
 Meanwhile, Taaffe was a daily visitor at Mrs. 
 Colebrook's, and when he proposed she refused 
 him, but added that if he liked she would be his 
 mistress. Her offer was accepted, and the partner- 
 ship had scarcely begun when Butler, who had 
 probably had an inkling of the existence of a 
 rival, called at Mrs. Colebrook's at midnight. 
 
 He was intoxicated and in one of his most 
 pugnacious moods, and when the butler refused 
 him admission he made a ferocious attack on 
 the door which roused the street. To prevent a 
 scandal Mrs. Colebrook ordered her servants to 
 allow him to enter, and a moment or so later he 
 was rushing up the stairs screaming threats of 
 vengeance. 
 
 When he arrived on the second landing he found 
 the widow in her nightdress, standing with her 
 back against the door of her bedroom. " What 
 is it you want ? " she demanded, concealing her 
 terror under a countenance of simulated anger. 
 " The fulfilment of your promise to marry me," 
 he answered, or, at least, counsel for the claimant 
 to the title alleged that that was what he said. 
 
THE FICKLE LOVER 17 
 
 What exactly ensued^ formed the crux of the 
 great trial. The Attorney-General for Ireland, 
 who appeared on behalf of Pierce Somerset Butler, 
 was positive that there and then three servants — 
 one of whom was Sarah Stride — were sent for 
 and made to listen while Henry Butler and Amanda 
 Colebrook in their hearing declared themselves 
 husband and wife. 
 
 Counsel for the twelfth Viscount Mountgarret, 
 the son of Henry Butler, was equally positive that 
 no such scene took place, but the only means 
 we have of forming an independent judgment is 
 a study of the sequel to that noisy visit of the 
 nobleman's son to the house in Northumberland 
 Street, Edinburgh, at midnight. 
 
 One thing is certain, Amanda somehow suc- 
 ceeded in pacifying Butler and persuading him to 
 leave quietly, for he did not demand admission 
 to the locked bedroom, and for this, no doubt, 
 the widow was grateful, seeing that it contained 
 the trembling John Taaffe. 
 
 Mrs. Colebrook and the Hon. Henry Butler 
 came together again for a few weeks, and Taaffe 
 was banished by the lady, but she soon regretted 
 her decision, for scenes with Butler were frequent. 
 It is probable that he ill-treated and threatened 
 her, for she wrote to Taaffe and implored him to 
 save her from the bully. He arranged to meet 
 her, and it was settled between them that she was 
 to disguise herself and go to Berwick, where the 
 young Irishman was to join her. She fully ex- 
 pected to be pursued by Henry, but he made no 
 
 B 
 
18 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 attempt to detain her, and her elaborate disguise 
 and the melodramatic dash on board the fishing- 
 smack at Berwick, which carried them to Whitby 
 in Yorkshire, were all quite unnecessary. 
 
 The Hon. Henry Butler had, as a matter of fact, 
 grown tired of the widow, and he was already on 
 his travels again with the object of finding a girl 
 with a fortune and making her his wife. That 
 Butler still retained his power to fascinate was 
 shown when he arrived at Harrogate, then, as 
 now, a fashionable resort. 
 
 As the son of a peer he attracted attention, 
 and his personality did the rest, but he would 
 never have become known to Anne Harrison, 
 daughter of a Yorkshire landowner, if a Kilkenny 
 clergyman had not happened to be in the town 
 at the same time. 
 
 He was a friend of the Harrisons, and he pre- 
 sented his noble friend to them, and Butler 
 promptly laid siege to the heart and hand of the 
 heiress. Again he had an easy victory, for Anne 
 fell in love with him and joyfully accepted him 
 when he proposed. 
 
 Her parents approved of the match, for if the 
 Irishman had no money it was more than likely 
 that he would succeed to the viscounty, and 
 Anne was socially ambitious. In the circum- 
 stances her lover's suggestion of an early marriage 
 was approved of, and less than a month after 
 parting from Mrs. Colebrook, the Hon. Henry 
 Butler was married to Anne Harrison at Harrogate. 
 
 He made no attempt at concealment, and the 
 
THE FICKLE LOVER 19 
 
 news was printed in the papers, and that was a 
 strong point in favour of his son by Anne when 
 he defended the action brought by his cousin. 
 With his marriage Henry Butler ceased to be 
 notorious. He seems to have become reformed 
 and to have settled down with his wife and child- 
 ren, but he never visited Ireland again, and his 
 relations were not invited to his English home. 
 
 Meanwhile, Amanda Colebrook was enduring 
 a variety of experiences which had disastrous 
 results for her. When she and John Taaffe 
 arrived in England the young Irishman wrote to 
 his father requesting permission to marry her, 
 but the elder Taaffe replied with a threat to cut 
 John off with a shilling unless he parted from the 
 Scottish siren. 
 
 But this John would not do. Mrs. Colebrook 
 lived in daily terror of being claimed by Butler, 
 and she implored Taaffe not to desert her. He 
 was unwilling to lose the large estate to which he 
 was heir, and yet he did not wish to act ungen- 
 erously by the woman, and for a time they 
 travelled about together until they arrived at 
 Preston. 
 
 It was here that John Taaffe decided to risk 
 the consequences and marry her, and at his request 
 a local Roman Catholic priest celebrated the 
 ceremony, which was really illegal, because, as 
 the law stood, no marriage could take place 
 between a Protestant and a Roman Catholic, 
 to which religion the Irishman belonged. 
 
 However, he regarded the ceremony as binding, 
 
20 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 and for a few months they lived happily together. 
 Then Mrs. Colebrook began to exhibit signs of 
 insanity, and he took her to Edinburgh to consult 
 a specialist there. Fortunately the doctor was 
 able to assure him that the malady was only tem- 
 porary, and that his wife would be all right soon, 
 but something occurred in Edinburgh which 
 terminated Taaffe's relations with her. 
 
 Having plenty of time on his hands, John 
 Taaffe spent some of it examining his wife's 
 writing-desk in her drawing-room, and one night 
 he found a letter from Henry Butler which plainly 
 stated the details of the alleged marriage outside 
 her bedroom door some months previously. The 
 shock to Taaffe's feelings was profound, and with- 
 out a word to Mrs. Colebrook he walked out of the 
 house and never saw her again. 
 
 Shortly afterwards he exiled himself to Italy, 
 where he died in 1862, but the reason for his 
 conduct had to be made known to his father, 
 who promptly disinherited him and left the 
 family estate to John's younger brother. 
 
 For four years Mrs. Colebrook lived by herself, 
 and she did not trouble either Butler or Taaffe. 
 Her means were unequal to the demands she 
 made on them, however, and she was soon in 
 difficulties. 
 
 When her finances were at their worst, news 
 of her misconduct with the two Irishmen came to 
 the knowledge of the Lord President of the Court, 
 and he held an enquiry, with the result that he 
 deprived the widow of the guardianship of her 
 
THE FICKLE LOVER 21 
 
 two children, thus taking from under her control 
 a thousand pounds a year. 
 
 Her creditors thereupon seized the rest of her 
 property, and the widow was left with scarcely 
 sufficient to provide the necessaries of life. In 
 her despair and distress she brought a suit in the 
 Scottish courts, asking that John Taaffe might 
 be ordered to support her on the ground that she 
 was his wife. 
 
 In support of her claim she induced Sarah 
 Stride, her devoted maid, to swear an affidavit to 
 the effect that she had witnessed a marriage 
 between Amanda Colebrook and John Taaffe 
 on a date previous to the scene on the landing 
 with the Hon. Henry Butler. 
 
 The case duly came on trial — John's father 
 having accepted service on behalf of his son, 
 and entering an appearance for him — and the 
 decision of their lordships was that Mrs. Cole- 
 brook was not the wife of Taaffe. Defeated in 
 one direction, she now turned in another, and 
 employed a shady solicitor to try and extract 
 some money from Butler. 
 
 She intimated her willingness to accept one 
 thousand four hundred pounds in settlement of 
 all her claims on Lord Mountgarret's son, but he 
 refused to admit liability, and the contest between 
 them ended after an exchange of letters, and the 
 rest was silence until many years later the whole 
 subject was revived in an Irish court. 
 
 It might be supposed that, with such clear and 
 unmistakable evidence at the disposal of those 
 
22 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 who maintained that the son of the Hon. Henry 
 Butler by Anne Harrison was not legitimate, there 
 would be scarcely any defence, but Mr. Butt, Q.C., 
 who represented the defending viscount, delivered 
 a particularly brilliant and striking speech on his 
 behalf. 
 
 He said that even if Mrs. Colebrook and 
 Butler had been married on the landing of 
 the house in Northumberland Street, Edinburgh, 
 as described, the ceremony was not legal and 
 binding and that the lady had never intended 
 it should be. 
 
 The widow had been a party to it only because 
 she was terrified of the Irishman, and the Scottish 
 law on the subject of marriage laid it down as an 
 axiom that both parties must consent of their 
 own free will and must not be coerced into sub- 
 scribing to a declaration of willingness to marry 
 and acceptance of marriage. 
 
 Mr. Butt was not troubled by Sarah Stride's 
 admission that she had committed perjury when 
 she had sworn an affidavit describing an earlier 
 marriage between her mistress and John Taaffe. 
 At the trial of the case, Sarah, the only survivor 
 of the midnight ceremony in the Northumberland 
 Street house, stated that she had made the affi- 
 davit at the suggestion of Mrs. Colebrook, and 
 that it was a tissue of falsehoods. 
 
 He declared that for more than forty years 
 Henry Edmund had been regarded as his father's 
 legitimate son, and he demanded a verdict from 
 the jury in his favour. The jury, however, 
 
THE FICKLE LOVER 23 
 
 found against Lord Mountgarret, therefore brand- 
 estates to Pierce Somerset, his cousin. 
 
 But the defendant promptly appealed, and 
 the second jury returned a verdict for him, find- 
 ing that there had been no legal marriage between 
 his father and Mrs. Amanda Colebrook. 
 
 From this decision there was another appeal, 
 but the result of the second trial was confirmed 
 by the court, and Anne Harrison's son kept his 
 viscount's coronet and the estates. At his death 
 in 1900 he was succeeded by his son, who died in 
 1912. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE MORDAUNT CASE 
 
 When Sir Charles Mordaunt, Bart., M.P., of 
 Walton Hall, Warwickshire, married Harriet, 
 daughter of Sir Thomas Moncrieffe, Bart., at 
 the Episcopal Church, Perth, on December 6, 1866, 
 two of the most ancient families in Great Britain 
 were united. The bridegroom could trace his 
 descent from one of William the Conqueror's 
 companions in arms, and the bride's lineage was 
 equally historic. She was a very pretty girl in 
 her twentieth year, and her social standing was 
 such that she numbered amongst her friends 
 the Prince and Princess of Wales (afterwards 
 King Edward and Queen Alexandra) and other 
 near relations of Queen Victoria. 
 
 For nearly two years Sir Charles and Lady 
 Mordaunt lived happily together. They had hosts 
 of friends, possessed ample means and were popular 
 in political and social circles. The baronet became 
 acquainted with the Prince of Wales and was 
 invited to functions attended by his royal highness, 
 who was then the leader of a fashionable coterie 
 of young men who were " seeing life " where life 
 was most alluringly seen. 
 
 The prince soon got into the habit of dropping 
 
 24 
 
THE MORDAUNT CASE 25 
 
 in at the Mordaunts' house in Chesham Place 
 where he would never allow himself to be treated 
 with any ceremony. The young wife, an acknow- 
 ledged beauty, was accustomed to the homage 
 of men, and it was her popularity with the male 
 sex that was responsible for the first tiff with 
 Sir Charles. He took himself seriously, for he 
 had political ambitions and he could not forget 
 that his family had been ultra-respectable for 
 eight hundred years, and he was annoyed that 
 his wife should monopolise the attentions of their 
 exalted friends, who made no secret of the fact 
 that it was on her account that they cultivated 
 his acquaintance. 
 
 " I don't approve of your friendship with the 
 prince," he said on one occasion when Lady 
 Mordaunt was reading a letter from his royal 
 highness. 
 
 For answer she tossed it across the table to 
 him, and the baronet had the satisfaction of read- 
 ing a dozen lines which might have been published 
 in every paper in the kingdom, for in it the prince 
 merely enquired after her health, mentioned a 
 number of guests he was entertaining for the 
 shooting in Scotland, and wound up by expressing 
 a wish to see her and Sir Charles on his return to 
 town. 
 
 This was his first display of jealousy, but it 
 was not the last, and from time to time he objected 
 to half a dozen men of their acquaintance. One 
 was a famous racing baronet, another an heir to 
 an earldom, two were earls, and the remaining 
 
26 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 two were elderly noblemen whom she had known 
 ever since she had been able to talk. Lady 
 Mordaunt, however, never took her husband 
 seriously, and his outbursts did not last long. He 
 was genuinely devoted to her and proud of her 
 popularity, and in 1868 when he decided to go 
 for a yachting cruise to Norway he was sincerely 
 grieved because she preferred to remain at home. 
 It was, as events proved, a most unfortunate 
 decision, for when Lady Mordaunt needed her 
 husband's care and attention most he was away 
 from her side and she was too young to take entire 
 charge of her own life. She was expecting an heir 
 and, restless and depressed, she wandered from 
 one place to another, behaving oddly everywhere 
 and arousing the suspicions of her servants and 
 friends as to her sanity. 
 
 However, she survived the separation without 
 creating any public scandal, and she and Sir 
 Charles were living together at the house in Ches- 
 ham Place when on Sunday, February 28, 1869, 
 she gave birth to a daughter. If he was dis- 
 appointed because the child was not a boy the 
 baronet did not show it, and he was tenderness 
 itself to her. His kindness appeared to affect 
 her profoundly, and the child was only a few days 
 old when Lady Mordaunt clutched her husband 
 by the hand as he was turning away from her 
 bedside. 
 
 " Charlie," she whispered hoarsely, " I have 
 deceived you — the child is not yours. It is Lord 
 Cole's." 
 
THE MORDAUNT CASE 27 
 
 For a moment he was startled, but a glance at 
 the pallid cheeks and the eyes that seemed to be 
 on fire convinced him that she was talking at 
 random. 
 
 " There, there, dear," he said in a soothing 
 voice, " you must not upset yourself. You'll be 
 all right soon." 
 
 In repeating this conversation in court Sir 
 Charles swore that at the time of the first con- 
 fession he paid no attention to it whatever. It 
 had struck him as being too wildfy improbable 
 to be credited, and he would have banished it 
 from his memory had not Lad}' Mordaunt 
 persisted in repeating it. 
 
 She did not content herself with admitting 
 misconduct with the viscount, but she declared 
 in the most positive terms that there were other 
 men with whom she had been guilty ; in fact, 
 she seemed determined to brand herself as the 
 vilest of women. And she was only twenty-tV o. 
 
 Now, the very wholesale nature of the second 
 and subsequent confessions carried with them 
 their own refutation, yet the matter was too 
 serious for the baronet to ignore. He was placed 
 in a very delicate position, for amongst the men 
 named by her was the Prince of Wales. But it 
 is only fair to mention here that there was not a 
 word of truth in the accusation against the prince 
 — who was the victim of the delusions of a mad 
 woman — and reviewing the notorious Mordaunt 
 affair after nearly fifty years one can only marvel 
 that Sir Charles did suceed after several trials 
 
28 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 in obtaining a divorce against one of the men 
 implicated by his wife. But when the girl- wife 
 persisted in proclaiming her guilt, her husband 
 felt that he must in justice to himself obtain 
 his freedom, and, accordingly, he started divorce 
 proceedings at the earliest opportunity. 
 
 The sensation that resulted cannot be described. 
 It pulverised society and hypnotised the public. 
 The plaintiff in his petition named " Lord Cole, 
 Sir Frederick Johnstone, and others " as co- 
 respondents, and everybody understood that 
 " others " included the Prince of Wales. 
 
 Poor Queen Victoria — whose rigid moral code 
 did not permit her to receive even the injured party 
 to a divorce suit — was horrified when she was in- 
 formed that her eldest son had written love- 
 letters to Harriet Mordaunt and that they would 
 be read in open court. 
 
 The old lady, with that readiness to believe 
 the worst which distinguishes the plaster-saint 
 school of respectability, was certain that the 
 divine right of kings was about to receive its 
 death-blow, and she dwelt in stricter seclusion 
 than ever. For several months the prince suf- 
 fered unjustly, but his final triumph was all the 
 more complete because of the delay. 
 
 Before the Divorce Court was troubled, how- 
 ever, a great deal happened. Sir Thomas Mon- 
 crieffe, shocked and amazed by his daughter's 
 astounding confession, rushed to her assistance, 
 and, when she did not deny her guilt, he came to 
 the conclusion that she was insane. He brought 
 
THE MORDAUNT CASE 29 
 
 several famous doctors to examine her, and they 
 all agreed that she was not responsible for her 
 actions. One of these, the celebrated Sir James 
 Simpson, of Edinburgh, declared positively that 
 she was out of her mind. 
 
 Armed with these testimonies Sir Thomas 
 appealed to a judge to rule that Lady Mordaunt 
 could not be sued because she was of unsound 
 mind, and his lordship stayed the proceedings 
 which Sir Charles had started, appointed Mon- 
 crieffe guardian of his daughter pending litigation, 
 and ordered the question of her sanity to be 
 investigated by a special jury. 
 
 Counsel for the Warwickshire baronet main- 
 tained that her ladyship was feigning madness 
 to save herself from public disgrace, but the judge 
 decided in favour of Sir Thomas, and thus the 
 second trial was not to settle her guilt or inno- 
 cence, but to determine whether she was sane or 
 insane. 
 
 The interest in the trial was phenomenal, and 
 for weeks previous to February 16th, 1870, when 
 it began, there was the keenest competition to 
 secure a seat in court. 
 
 There were, naturally, many representatives of 
 Mayfair present when the case commenced before 
 Lord Penzance and a special jury, for it had been 
 persistently rumoured for weeks that it was going 
 to be the most sensational trial of the century. 
 Busybodies, who claimed to be in the confidence 
 of members of the royal family had imparted as 
 " a great secret " to their dearest friends the 
 
30 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 information that the Prince of Wales had been 
 subpoenaed and that he was to be sharply cross- 
 examined by Mr. Sergeant Ballatine, who had 
 been briefed with Dr. Spinks, Q.C., and Mr. 
 Inderwick, on behalf of Sir Charles Mordaunt. 
 
 Mr. Deane, Q.C., led for Sir Thomas Moncrieffe, 
 Lady Mordaunt's legal guardian — and Sir John 
 Karslake and Mr. Jeune — the latter a future 
 president of the Divorce Court — watched the 
 proceedings on behalf of Sir Frederick Johnstone, 
 one of the co-respondents who had never ceased 
 to protest that he was innocent. 
 
 On behalf of the unfortunate wife Mr. Deane 
 opened the proceedings, and in the course of his 
 speech he referred to the eccentricities in her 
 conduct the year preceding the birth of her child. 
 It was an amazing catalogue of acts clearly due 
 to a chaotic brain. 
 
 One of the least objectionable was a penchant 
 for putting her head out of her carriage window 
 and screaming for minutes without a pause. 
 Occasionally she had exhibited that dislike for 
 wearing clothes which stamps the lunatic, and 
 her behaviour indoors would have disgraced a 
 beast of the field. And yet when in her right 
 senses Harriet Mordaunt was one of the most 
 refined of women. 
 
 Sir James Simpson gave an account of his 
 interview with her ladyship and was emphatic 
 that she was insane, but as Ballantine had been 
 instructed to fight the case to the bitter end he 
 did his utmost to create another impression in 
 
THE MORDAUNT CASE 31 
 
 the minds of the jury. Sir Charles, who had been 
 advised by eminent counsel that if his wife was 
 adjudged a lunatic he would not be able to divorce 
 her, was very anxious to secure a verdict certifying 
 her to be sane, and, accordingly, Ballantine 
 exerted himself and made as fine a speech as 
 anyone could have done in the circumstances. 
 
 The learned sergeant had, of course, doctors on 
 his side, too, and he put them in the box and 
 discussed with them in the form of question and 
 answer various subjects connected with the case. 
 These gentlemen were of opinion her ladyship 
 was not mad, but neither in number nor reputa- 
 tion did they rival the array of experts called by 
 Mr. Deane, Q.C., a fact evident to Ballantine 
 himself. 
 
 Great was the surprise of the public when 
 Ballantine suddenly threw up the sponge. 
 
 " In view of the evidence we have heard," he 
 said calmly, " we cannot any longer deny that 
 Lady Mordaunt is insane." 
 
 The sensation was terrific. Mr. Deane jumped 
 to his feet to protest. He had not half finished 
 yet, he cried, and there were one or two important 
 matters he wished to speak on. Then counsel for 
 Sir Frederick Johnstone wanted to ventilate 
 his client's grievance, but he was suppressed. 
 
 Lord Penzance, the essence of austerity and 
 decorum, poured oil on the troubled waters. He 
 intimated that he wished the case to proceed, 
 and his decision puzzled those who were not aware 
 that Ballantine's capitulation had upset an arrange- 
 
32 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 ment which had been come to behind the scenes 
 to enable the Prince of Wales to prove his inno- 
 cence now instead of years hence. He had not 
 been subpoenaed by either side because his evi- 
 dence could not affect the issue before the jury, 
 but, as it seemed likely that the divorce suit 
 would never be tried at all, this was regarded as 
 the only opportunity his royal highness would have 
 of disproving publicly the accusation against him. 
 
 With the appearance of the heir to the throne 
 the case reached its highest pinnacle of interest ; 
 the excitement was almost unbearable when Lord 
 Penzance formally notified the prince that he 
 could ignore any question the answer to which 
 might in his opinion tend to inculpate him as a 
 possible defendant to divorce proceedings. 
 
 The examination of the Prince of Wales may be 
 given in full because of its historic interest. Princes 
 had been co-respondents before his royal highness 
 entered the witness-box, but never previously 
 had the heir to a throne been placed in a position 
 which compelled him to deny on oath that he had 
 been guilty of adultery. His personal intervention 
 in the case had been discussed by his relatives 
 and by some of the leading statesmen and counsel 
 of the day. Their advice as to his attitude towards 
 the divorce suit may be summed up in two words, 
 " dignified silence," but the prince, then in his 
 twenty-ninth year, insisted on the fullest publicity. 
 When he was sworn he was calm and self-possessed, 
 and he spoke throughout in a steady, even voice 
 that bore the impress of truth. 
 
THE MORDAUNT CASE 33 
 
 When Dr. Deane rose to examine him the 
 prince bowed, and the official report proceeds 
 as follows : — 
 
 Dr. Deane : "I believe your royal highness 
 has been for some years acquainted with the 
 Moncrieffe family ? " 
 
 " I have." 
 
 " Were you acquainted with Lady Mordaunt 
 before her marriage ? " 
 
 " I was." 
 
 " On Lady Mordaunt 's marriage did you write 
 to her, and make her some wedding presents ? ' 
 
 " I did." 
 
 " Previous to Lady Mordaunt 's marriage has 
 she visited at Marlborough House when Her 
 Royal Highness the Princess of Wales was 
 there ? " 
 
 " She has." 
 
 " We are told that Lady Mordaunt was married 
 at the end of 1866 ; in the year 1868 did you see 
 much of her ? " 
 
 " I did." 
 
 " And in the year 1868 ? " 
 
 " I did occasionally." 
 
 " Were you acquainted with Sir Charles 
 Mordaunt ? " 
 
 " I was." 
 
 " Have you frequently met Sir Charles Mor- 
 daunt ? " 
 
 " I have." 
 
 " With Lady Mordaunt ? " 
 
 " With Lady Mordaunt." 
 
 c 
 
34 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 " Your royal highness knows a place called 
 Hurlingham ? " 
 
 " I do." 
 
 " Have you been in the habit of meeting Sir 
 Charles Mordaunt there ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " On one occasion, in 1868, was there a pigeon- 
 shooting match between the two counties of 
 Norfolk and Warwick ? " 
 
 " There was." 
 
 " Your royal highness and Sir Charles Mor- 
 daunt were the respective captains of the two 
 counties, I believe ? " 
 
 " Yes ; I think it was in June." 
 
 " Was Lady Mordaunt there ? " 
 
 " She was." 
 
 " Did Lady Mordaunt score for you ? ' 
 
 " She scored for both sides." 
 
 " In the course of that pigeon-shooting match 
 did you speak to Lady Mordaunt at a time when 
 Sir Charles Mordaunt was by ? " 
 
 " I believe so." 
 
 " In the course of this case we have heard that 
 your royal highness uses hansom cabs occasion- 
 ally. I do not know that it is material, but is it 
 so? " 
 
 " It is so." 
 
 " I will only ask you one more question. Has 
 there ever been any improper familiarity or 
 criminal act between yourself and Lady Mor- 
 daunt ? " 
 
 " There has not." 
 
THE MORDAUNT CASE 35 
 
 Some applause greeted this statement, and 
 then Sergeant Ballantine rose. 
 
 " I have no question to ask your royal highness," 
 he said, quietly, and the prince departed amid 
 another demonstration of applause. 
 
 It has often been stated that the letters of the 
 Prince of Wales to Lady Mordaunt were not read 
 in court, but this is incorrect. The public had got 
 the impression that the letters were of a scan- 
 dalous nature, and, when on the fourth day of the 
 trial they were " put in " but not read, certain 
 members of the royal family became very anxious 
 that they should be published, knowing that if 
 they were suppressed malicious gossip would be 
 busy with his royal highness's character for years 
 to come. Accordingly arrangements were made 
 which enabled a provincial daily to print them. 
 It was an act which in other circumstances would 
 have led to proceedings for contempt of court, 
 but Lord Penzance was content to describe it as 
 grossly improper and only to hint at punishment, 
 for his lordship must have been aware that pub- 
 lication had been inspired in a quarter which 
 forbade further investigation. However, towards 
 the close of the fifth day's hearing the letters were 
 read and it is not too much to say that they helped 
 more than anything else to exonerate the prince. 
 
 " Sandringham, King's Lynn, 
 
 " January 13th, 1867. 
 " My Dear Lady Mordaunt, 
 
 " I am quite shocked never to have answered 
 your kind letter, written some time ago, and for the 
 
36 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 very pretty muffetees, which are very useful this cold 
 weather. I had no idea where you had been staying 
 since your marriage, but Francis Knollys told me that 
 you are in Warwickshire. I suppose you will be up 
 in London for the opening of Parliament, when I hope 
 I may perhaps have the pleasure of seeing you and of 
 making the acquaintance of Sir Charles. I was in 
 London for only two nights, and returned here Saturday. 
 The rails were so slippery that we thought we should 
 never arrive here. There has been a heavy fall of snow 
 here, and we are able to use our sledges, which is capital 
 fun. 
 
 " Believe me, yours ever sincerely, 
 
 " Albert Edward." 
 
 " Monday. 
 " My Dear Lady Mordaunt, 
 
 " I am sure you will be glad to hear that the 
 Princess was safely delivered of a little girl this morning 
 and that both are doing very well. I hope you will come 
 to the Oswald and St. James's Hall this week. There 
 would, I am sure, be no harm your remaining till Satur- 
 day in town. I shall like to see you again. 
 
 " Ever yours most sincerely, 
 
 " Albert Edward." 
 
 " Marlborough House, 
 
 " May 7th, 1867. 
 " My Dear Lady Mordaunt, 
 
 " Many thanks for your letter, and I am very 
 sorry that I should have given you so much trouble 
 looking for the lady's umbrella for me at Paris. I am 
 very glad to hear that you enjoyed your stay there. I 
 shall be going there on Friday next, and as the Princess 
 is so much better, shall hope to remain a week there. 
 If there is any commission I can do for you there it 
 will give me the greatest pleasure to carry it out. I 
 regret very much not to have been able to call upon you 
 
THE MORDAUNT CASE 37 
 
 since your return, but hope to do so when I come back 
 from Paris, and have an opportunity of making the 
 acquaintance of your husband. 
 
 " Believe me, yours very sincerely, 
 
 " Albert Edward." 
 
 " Marlborough House, 
 
 " October 13th. 
 " My Dear Lady Mordaunt, 
 
 " Many thanks for your kind letter, which I 
 received just before we left Dunrobin, and I have been 
 so busy here that I have been unable to answer it before. 
 I am glad to hear that you are flourishing at Walton, 
 and hope your husband has had good sport with the 
 partridges. We had a charming stay at Dunrobin — 
 from the 19th of September to the 7th of this month. 
 Our party consisted of the Sandwiches, Grosvenors 
 (only for a few days), Sumners, Bakers, F. Marshall, 
 Albert, Ronald Gower, Sir H. Pelty, Oliver, who did 
 not look so bad in a kilt as you heard ; Lascelles, Falkner, 
 and Sam Buckley, who looked first-rate in his kilt. I 
 was also three or four days in the Reay Forest with the 
 Grosvenors. I shot four stags. My total was twenty- 
 one. P. John thanks you very much for your photo ; 
 and I received two very good ones, accompanied by a 
 charming epistle, from your sister. We are all delighted 
 with Hamilton's marriage, and I think you are rather 
 hard on the young lady, as, although not exactly pretty, 
 she is very nice looking, has charming manners, and is 
 very popular with every one. From his letter he seems 
 to be very much in love — a rare occurrence now-a-days. 
 I will see what I can do in getting a presentation for 
 the son of Mrs. Bradshaw for the Royal Asylum of 
 London, St. Ann's Society. Francis will tell you result. 
 London is very empty, but I have plenty to do, so time 
 does not go slowly, and I go down shooting to Windsor 
 and Richmond occasionally. On the 26th I shall shoot 
 with General Hall at Newmarket, the following week 
 at Knowlsley, and then at Windsor and Sandringham 
 before we go abroad. This will be probably on the 
 
38 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 18th or 19th of next month. You told me when I last 
 saw you that you were probably going to Paris in Novem- 
 ber, but I suppose you have given it up. I saw in the 
 papers that you were in London on Saturday. I wish 
 you had let me know, as I would have made a point of 
 calling. There are some good plays going on, and we 
 are going the rounds of them. My brother is here, 
 but at the end of the month he starts for Plymouth on 
 his long cruise for nearly two years. Now I shall say 
 good-bye, and hoping that probably we may have a 
 chance of seeing you before we leave, 
 
 " I remain, yours most sincerely, 
 
 " Albert Edward." 
 
 " White's, 
 
 " November 1st. 
 " My Dear Lady Mordaunt, 
 
 " Many thanks for your letter, which I received 
 this morning. I cannot tell you at this moment the 
 exact height of the ponies in question, but I think they 
 are just under fourteen hands, but as soon as 1 know 
 for certain I shall not fail to let you know. I would be 
 only too happy if they would suit you, and have the 
 pleasure of seeing them in your hands. It is quite an 
 age since I have seen or heard anything of you, but I 
 trust you had a pleasant trip abroad, and I suppose 
 you have been in Scotland since. Lord Dudley has 
 kindly asked me to shoot with him at Buckenham on 
 the 9th of next month, and I hope I may, perhaps, have 
 the pleasure of seeing you there. 
 
 " Believe me, yours ever sincerely, 
 
 " Albert Edward." 
 
 " Sandringham, King's Lynn, 
 
 November 30th. 
 " My Dear Lady Mordaunt, 
 
 " I was very glad to hear from Colonel Kings- 
 cote the other day that you had bought my two ponies. 
 I also trust that they will suit you, and that you will 
 drive them for many a year. I have never driven them 
 
THE MORDAUNT CASE 39 
 
 myself, so I don't know whether they are easy to drive 
 or not. I hope you have had some hunting, although 
 the ground is so hard that in some parts of the country 
 it is quite stopped. We had our first shooting party 
 last week, and got 809 head one day, and twenty-nine 
 woodcocks. Next week the great Oliver is coming. 
 He and Blandford had thought of going to Algiers, 
 but they have now given it up, and I don't know to 
 what foreign clime they are going to betake themselves. 
 I saw Lady Dudley at Onwallis, and I thought her look- 
 ing very well. I am sorry to hear that you won't be at 
 Buckenham when I go there, as it is such an age since 
 I have seen you. If there is anything else (besides 
 horses) that I can do for you, please let me know, and 
 " I remain, yours ever sincerely, 
 
 " Albert Edward." 
 
 " Sandringham, King's Lynn, 
 
 " December 5th. 
 " My Dear Lady Mordaunt, 
 
 " Many thanks for your letter, which I received 
 this evening, and am very glad to hear that you like 
 the ponies, but I hope they will be well driven before 
 you attempt to drive them, as I know they are fresh. 
 They belonged originally to the Princess Mary, who 
 drove them for some years, and when she married, not 
 wanting them just then, I bought them from her. I 
 am not surprised that you have had no hunting lately, 
 as the frost has made the ground as hard as iron. We 
 hope, however, to be able to hunt to-morrow, as a thaw 
 has set in. We killed over a thousand head on Tuesday, 
 and killed forty woodcocks to-day. Oliver has been in 
 great force and as bumptious as ever. Blandford is 
 also here, so you can imagine what a row goes on. 
 On Monday next I go to Buckenham, and I am indeed 
 very sorry that we shall not meet there. I am very 
 sorry to hear that you have been seedy, but hope that 
 you are now all right again. 
 
 " Ever yours very sincerely, 
 
 " Albert Edward." 
 
40 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 " Thursday. 
 " My Dear Lady Mordaunt, 
 
 " I am sorry to find by the letter that I re- 
 ceived from you this morning that you are unwell, and 
 that I shall not be able to pay you a visit to-day, to 
 which I had been looking forward with so much pleasure. 
 To-morrow and Saturday I shall be hunting in Notting- 
 hamshire, but if you are still in town, may I come to 
 see you about five on Sunday afternoon ? And hoping 
 you will soon be yourself again, 
 
 " Believe me, yours ever sincerely, 
 
 " Albert Edward." 
 
 " Sunday. 
 " My Dear Lady Mordaunt, 
 
 " I cannot tell you how distressed I am to 
 hear from your letter that you have got the measles, 
 and that I shall in consequence not have the pleasure 
 of seeing you. I have had the measles myself a long 
 time ago, and I know what a tiresome complaint it is. 
 I trust you will take great care of yourself, and have a 
 good doctor with you. Above all, I should not read 
 at all, as it is very bad for the eyes, and I suppose you 
 will be forced to lay up for a time. The weather is very 
 favourable for your illness ; and wishing you a very 
 speedy recovery, 
 
 " Believe me, yours most sinerely, 
 
 " Albert Edward." 
 
 " Sunday. 
 " My Dear Lady Mordaunt, 
 
 " Many thanks for your kind letter. I am 
 so glad to hear that you have made so good a recovery, 
 and to be able soon to go to Hastings, which is sure to 
 do you a great deal of good. I hope that perhaps on 
 your return to London I may have the pleasure of seeing 
 
 y0U " 
 
 " Believe me, yours very sincerely, 
 
 "Albert Edward." 
 
THE MORDAUNT CASE 41 
 
 " Sandringham, King's Lynn, 
 
 " November 16th. 
 " My Dear Lady Mordaunt, 
 
 " I must apologise for not having answered 
 your last kind letter, but accept my best thanks for it 
 now. Since the 10th I have been here at Sir William 
 Knollys' house, as I am building a totally new one. I 
 am here en garcon, and we have had very good shooting 
 The Duke of Cambridge, Lord Suffield, Lord Alfred 
 Paget, Lord de Grey, Sir Frederick Johnstone, Chaplin, 
 General Hall, Captain (Sam) Buckley, Major Grey, and 
 myself composed the party ; and the great Francis 
 arrived on Saturday, but he is by no means a disting- 
 uished shot. Sir Frederick Johnstone tells me he is 
 going to stay with you to-morrow for the Warwick races, 
 so he can give you the best account of us. This after- 
 noon, after shooting, I return to London, and to-morrow 
 night the Princess, our three eldest children, and myself, 
 start for Paris, where we shall remain a week, and then 
 go straight to Copenhagen, where we spend Christmas, 
 and the beginning of January we start on a longer trip. 
 We shall go to Venice, and then by sea to Alexandria, 
 and up the Nile as far as we can get ; and later to Con- 
 stantinople, Athens, and home by Italy, and I don't 
 expect we shall be back again before April. I fear, 
 therefore, I shall not see you for a long time, but trust 
 to find you, perhaps, in London on our return. If you 
 should have time, it will be very kind to write me some- 
 times. Letters to Marlborough House, to be forwarded, 
 will always reach me. I hope you will remain strong 
 and well, and wishing you a very pleasant winter. 
 
 " I remain, yours most sincerely, 
 
 " Albert Edward." 
 
 Those who are apt to dwell fondly on the social 
 glories of the sixties might test their memories by 
 annotating these letters. They give us an intimate 
 glimpse into the life of a man who graduated in 
 
42 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 the world rather than in courts and who before 
 his death attained an influence world-wide and 
 stupendous and unaffected by the reluctance of the 
 democracy to credit with brains a king. 
 
 Queen Victoria must have felt better when she 
 read them in her morning paper, for along with 
 the prince's denial of his guilt they were sufficient 
 to convince every reasonable person that he had 
 been the victim of an insane woman's ravings 
 and the malice of the gossips. 
 
 The judge in his summing-up confined himself 
 strictly to the legal issue, and did not trouble to 
 deal with the evidence relating to misconduct. 
 He went over the statements made by the various 
 experts and the nurses and others who had lived 
 with Lady Mordaunt, and he concluded an im- 
 partial survey with a strict injunction to the jury 
 to be careful and not to arrive at a hasty decision. 
 
 It was well meant, but the jury must have even 
 before Ballantine's surrender decided the matter, 
 and they were only five minutes out of court. 
 Their verdict was that Lady Mordaunt was insane 
 and had been insane for some time. 
 
 The signal victory scored by Sir Thomas Mon- 
 crieffe was not accepted as final and conclusive 
 by Sir Charles Mordaunt, who immediately ap- 
 pealed, and the third trial came on the following 
 April, when the three judges, Chief Baron Kelly, 
 Lord Penzance, and Mr. Justice Keatinge, 
 reserved their decision until June 2nd. 
 
 Then it was announced that their lordships 
 differed, Kelly forming the minority, as he alone 
 
THE MORDAUNT CASE 43 
 
 was in favour of the appellant. This was a second 
 blow for the baronet, and he changed his tactics. 
 He now admitted his wife's insanity, but he 
 entered an action claiming that her mental state 
 did not protect her from being sued for divorce 
 or disqualify him from obtaining it. 
 
 Four years after his failure to prove Lady 
 Mordaunt's sanity his claim to divorce facilities 
 was heard by a court consisting of five judges. 
 The law was very uncertain on the point, and the 
 case was regarded as a very important one, and if 
 the public interest had lessened it was only because 
 all they heard now had been rendered familiar 
 by litigation extending over five years. 
 
 Hitherto Sir Charles Mordaunt had experienced 
 only defeat, but now his perseverance was to be 
 rewarded, although it was only the narrowest of 
 majorities that decided in his favour, for three of 
 the judges held that insanity is no bar to divorce ; 
 two that it is, and thus the baronet was at last 
 successful. The victory had been obtained at the 
 expenditure of many thousands of pounds, but 
 he was wealthy and could afford the outlay. 
 
 A fresh petition for divorce was presented, and 
 this time only one co-respondent was named — 
 Lord Cole. No suspicion now attached to the 
 Prince of Wales, Sir Frederick Johnstone, or 
 any of the other men who had been mentioned in 
 connection with the proceedings, and in March 
 1875, the case was tried. Dr. Spinks, Q.C., and 
 Mr. Inderwick appeared for the plaintiff, and Sir 
 Henry James (later on Lord James of Hereford) 
 
44 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 represented Lord Cole. Any expectation of a 
 fight was dissipated when it was realised that 
 Lady Mordaunt had not retained counsel, and the 
 proceedings were brief. Formal evidence was 
 led, witnesses examined, and speeches made, and a 
 verdict given for Sir Charles. Six months later 
 the decree nisi was made absolute, and the unhappy 
 woman passed out of his life. 
 
 The litigation was the most protracted and 
 expensive in the history of the divorce court. 
 From April 29th, 1869, when the Judge-Ordinary 
 pronounced Lady Mordaunt insane, to March 
 nth, 1875, the case had been kept before the 
 public by means of five trials, and if Sir Charles 
 had not been a rich man he would never have been 
 able to rid himself of a wife whom three tribunals 
 had pronounced to be mad. 
 
 The baronet married again, and had an heir, 
 and until his death in 1897 he lived in an obscurity 
 which must have been very welcome to him after 
 the publicity he had endured by reason of his 
 matrimonial troubles. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE COLIN-CAMPBELL DIVORCE SUIT 
 
 It is remarkable that a marriage which in less 
 than a couple of years ended in complete and 
 tragic failure should have owed its origin to a 
 romance which seemed to guarantee its success, 
 for it contained all the ingredients which go to 
 form the love story dear to the heart of the senti- 
 mentalist. 
 
 There was, to begin with, the unexpected 
 meeting, resulting in love at first sight ; the 
 secret proposal, followed by disclosure and parental 
 opposition ; the efforts to separate the lovers 
 because the man's father wished him to marry a 
 girl with money, and finally, the marriage in 
 defiance of family disapproval. 
 
 And the opening scene of the comedy, which 
 developed into a tragedy, was played at Inveraray, 
 in Argyllshire, where many of the best-known 
 persons in society had assembled for the shooting. 
 Amongst them was Lord Colin Campbell, son of 
 the Duke of Argyll, the famous statesman, and 
 when he set out from his father's shooting-box 
 at Inveraray on that morning in September, 
 1880, he had yet to learn of the existence of the 
 young lady who was to have such an influence 
 on his life. 
 
 45 
 
46 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 He had recently left Cambridge, and, as yet, 
 he had to decide on a career for himself, but he 
 knew that his father wished him to make an ad- 
 vantageous match, for the duke had to maintain a 
 position of semi-state, and, as he had a large 
 and expensive family, there was no superfluity 
 of ready-money. Lord Colin, however, was in 
 no hurry to take a wife, and he certainly was not 
 thinking of matrimony when a friend asked him if 
 he would care to be presented to Miss Gertrude 
 Blood, whose people occupied a shooting-box 
 near the duke's. 
 
 " I'll be delighted," he said, with conventional 
 politeness, but the moment he saw the young lady 
 he succumbed to her rare beauty and personal 
 charm ; her voice intoxicated him, and he treasured 
 every word she uttered, and for the rest of the 
 day he was tortured by a fear that he might 
 never get the chance to woo her. He reminded 
 himself that he was just a bare acquaintance, and 
 in all probability they would not meet again. 
 
 Then it was obvious that such a lovely girl 
 must already have plenty of admirers, and, no 
 doubt, amongst them was a special favourite. 
 All these things haunted him and made him miser- 
 able, until taking his courage in both hands he 
 sought her out, and proposed exactly two days 
 after his introduction to her. 
 
 Miss Blood, completely surprised, could only 
 refer him to her parents, who, not unnaturally, 
 were delighted with their daughter's conquest. 
 The Duke of Agryll was then one of the greatest 
 
THE COLIN-CAMPBELL DIVORCE 47 
 
 men in the empire, and he dominated society 
 and politics both in Scotland and England. Lord 
 Colin might be a younger son, but he could give 
 Gertrude rank and position, and as she had brains 
 and beauty, they were well matched. 
 
 So the Bloods gave their consent, and wished 
 the young couple all happiness, but the duke 
 withheld his and opposed the engagement with 
 all the weight of his influence. He did not con- 
 sider Miss Blood good enough for his son, and he 
 never recognised her family, and he consistently 
 ignored their existence. 
 
 A year later, however, the marriage took place, 
 and Lord and Lady Colin Campbell started house- 
 keeping in London, but two years afterwards her 
 ladyship obtained a judicial separation, and from 
 that time onwards society was seldom unprovided 
 with a fresh pretext for discussing their matri- 
 monial affairs. Eventually in the November of 
 1885 matters were brought to a head by husband 
 and wife cross-petitioning for divorce. 
 
 This was no ordinary case, quite apart from 
 the social standing of the parties to it. The con- 
 centrated venom and bitterness displayed by each 
 side was proof of that. Envy, hatred, and all 
 uncharitableness characterised the principals and 
 their partisans, and society was divided into two 
 camps as a consequence. 
 
 A curious incident marked the issuing of the 
 writs. One afternoon the late Sir George Lewis, 
 Lady Colin's solicitor, heard by accident that 
 Lord Colin had instructed his lawyer to sue his 
 
48 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 wife for divorce. Immediately the wily Lewis 
 drew up the necessary papers, and handing them 
 to a confidential clerk, bundled him into a cab 
 with orders to file them at the Law Courts and 
 obtain a summons against Lord Colin claiming 
 divorce. 
 
 The object of this piece of strategy was to 
 create the impression that it was her ladyship 
 who had first thought of having her marriage 
 dissolved, and also to enable her counsel to have 
 the first and last word in court. As Lewis always 
 retained Sir Charles Russell for his big cases the 
 manoeuvre was of vast consequence to his client, 
 and it undoubtedly saved her from disaster in 
 the long run. 
 
 The surprise of Lord Colin's lawyer when the 
 next morning he learned at the Divorce Court 
 that he had been forestalled, bordered on stupe- 
 faction, but, of course, he was helpless, and he 
 could only rely on counsel to overcome the dis- 
 advantage and to try and create sympathy for 
 his lordship by exposing the trick. 
 
 Lady Colin Campbell's charge against her hus- 
 band was that he had committed adultery with 
 Amelia Watson, one of his servants. On the 
 other hand Lord Colin accused her of misconduct 
 with the Duke of Marlborough, Sir Eyre Shaw — 
 the famous chief of the London Fire Brigade — 
 General Sir William Butler, and Mr. Thomas 
 Bird, a well-known surgeon. Counsel engaged 
 were equally eminent. 
 
 The leaders — all Q.C.'s — were Sir Charles 
 
COLIN-CAMPBELL DIVORCE SUIT 49 
 
 Russell, Mr. Inderwick, Mr. Finlay, Sir Richard 
 Webster, Sir Edward Clarke, Mr. Gully, and 
 Mr. Murphy. Two of these attained the position 
 of Lord Chief Justice ; another rose to be Lord 
 High Chancellor, and Gully was Speaker of the 
 House of Commons for several years before he 
 was created Viscount Selby. The only survivors 
 of all those named, principals and counsel, are 
 the Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Clarke, K.C., and 
 Viscount Finlay. 
 
 Russell's opening speech on behalf of Lady 
 Colin was a masterpiece of mingled fact, suggestion, 
 invective, and cunning. He related how Miss 
 Blood had become acquainted with Lord Colin 
 and how the young man had fallen in love with 
 her. Sir Charles declared that her parents were 
 not altogether enamoured of the suggested match ; 
 that they wanted something better for their 
 brilliant daughter, and that they were not the 
 schemers which the other side alleged. 
 
 According to counsel Miss Blood did not accept 
 Lord Colin at once. His health was not good 
 and he had been ordered to take a sea-voyage, 
 and while he was abroad it was to be understood 
 that the girl was not pledged to him. 
 
 However, Lord Colin was so very much in love 
 that he returned to England at the earliest oppor- 
 tunity, sought the young lady out and again 
 asked her to marry him, and the marriage duly 
 took place. 
 
 It was not long, however, before her ladyship 
 decided that she had made a mistake. To begin 
 
 D 
 
50 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 with, she believed that her husband's bad health 
 was affecting her, and then she was such a bril- 
 liant success in London society that it was seldom 
 she could be with him, and, of course, he grumbled. 
 She went everywhere, even to houses where Lord 
 Colin was unknown, but she explained that it was 
 generally in a professional capacity — she had a 
 splendid singing voice — and that her object was 
 to earn money. Besides singing, she contributed 
 regularly to the weekly and monthly reviews, 
 and thus in one way and another Lady Colin 
 achieved a position for herself quite distinct from 
 that of being a duke's daughter-in-law. 
 
 The trouble over the health question was in- 
 tensified by Lord Colin 's suspicions that his wife 
 was too familiar with certain of her friends. He 
 did not care for the Bohemian ways she affected, 
 and thus with one thing and another the way was 
 paved to the judicial separation. 
 
 Sir Charles said that his client would have left 
 it at that, but when she received positive informa- 
 tion about Lord Colin 's relations with Amelia 
 Watson she had no alternative but to bring her 
 action for divorce. 
 
 The chief witness for the plaintiff was Lady 
 Miles, of Leigh Court, Bristol, who had been a 
 friend of both parties, but had lately identified 
 herself exclusively with Lady Colin. 
 
 She was a very clever woman of great animation, 
 and when she had described the acts of familiarity 
 she alleged she had seen between Lord Colin 
 and Amelia Watson, she withstood a shrewd and 
 
COLIN-CAMPBELL DIVORCE SUIT 51 
 
 persistent cross-examination by Mr. Finlay (now, 
 of course, Viscount and ex-Lord Chancellor). 
 She would not admit for a moment that she could 
 be mistaken, and again and again she scored with 
 a witty remark, counsel accepting everything 
 complacently, to the surprise of those who were 
 unaware that he had a surprise in store for the 
 opposition which would smash their case to 
 smithereens. 
 
 Once or twice he succeeded in making Lady 
 Miles contradict herself, but on the whole the 
 witness was not a failure, and when she left the 
 box the crowded court must have believed that 
 Sir Charles Russell had established his case. He 
 had relied exclusively on her ladyship to prove 
 Lord Colin's act of adultery and her positive 
 statements could not be gainsaid by mere 
 contradiction. 
 
 That great Scotsman, Viscount Finlay, took 
 part in innumerable sensational trials when he 
 was at the Bar, but it is doubtful if he ever handled 
 a difficult and delicate task with the skill that 
 made his conduct of Lord Colin's action so memor- 
 able, although it is only lair to record that, all 
 things considered, Sir Charles Russell's triumph 
 was the outstanding feature of this most remark- 
 able of divorce suits. 
 
 Finlay, however, was seen at his best. He and 
 Frank Lockwood had opposing them the very 
 cream of the English Bar, and yet when he rose 
 to make his opening speech it took him less than 
 an hour to demolish the superstructure of sus- 
 
52 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 picion and innuendo raised against his client. 
 The rest of his time he devoted to an attempt to 
 prove Lady Colin's misconduct with the duke, 
 the general, the fire brigade chief, and the specialist. 
 
 The crowded court was just in the humour for a 
 sensation when Finlay began his address. Lady 
 Miles's evidence of what had taken place between 
 Lord Colin and Amelia Watson had been so matter 
 of fact that everybody wondered how counsel 
 would tackle it. He did not leave them long in 
 doubt. 
 
 " Whatever opinion you may have formed 
 with regard to the story of Amelia Watson," he 
 said, " we must all recollect that it is seldom that 
 a case is brought into court founded on such miser- 
 ably weak evidence as there is in this case — the 
 unsupported evidence of Lad}' Miles. The charge 
 is absolutely and wholly untrue. It will be sworn 
 to be false by Amelia Watson herself, and by Lord 
 Colin. 
 
 " Feeling certain that this was an infamous 
 conspiracy concocted by two women, Lady Miles 
 and Lady Colin, to injure Lord Colin, we took 
 the unusual course of asking Amelia Watson to 
 submit to a medical examination. She consented, 
 and she was examined this morning by two medical 
 men of eminence, and they will tell you that 
 Amelia Watson, without the possibility of a doubt, 
 is a virgin." 
 
 The sensation this statement created was pro- 
 found, and when the two specialists confirmed it 
 on oath it was realised that the bottom had been 
 
COLIN-CAMPBELL DIVORCE SUIT 53 
 
 knocked out of Lady Colin's case, that the offen- 
 sive had passed to the other side, and that the 
 trial now resolved itself into a battle for her 
 reputation. 
 
 Having disposed of the accusation against his 
 client, Mr. Finlay proceeded to give his version of 
 Lady Colin's relations with the Duke of Marl- 
 borough and the other co-respondents, and the 
 many millions who did not mix in society had 
 revealed to them the daily doings of that small 
 minority which is called Society. 
 
 At that time the duke was in very bad odour 
 owing to his notorious escapade with a certain 
 countess with whom he had eloped to Paris, and 
 Lord Colin was justified in disapproving of his 
 wife receiving the nobleman at her house. The 
 fact that they were on very familiar terms, al- 
 though Lord Colin and the duke were not friends, 
 had aggravated his suspicions, and now his counsel 
 stated that he would prove that Lady Colin had 
 gone for the week-end with his grace to Purfleet. 
 
 There were many surprises and sensations in 
 this most amazing of divorce dramas, and not 
 the least were certain incidents arising out of the 
 connection of the Duke of Marlborough with it. 
 Mr. Finlay put in the box the head waiter at the 
 hotel at Purfleet, where he alleged that the duke 
 and Lady Colin had stayed, and he also called 
 two young men — both sons of earls — who swore 
 that they had seen the lady and her ducal friend 
 get into the train at Purfleet on the Monday. 
 
 Now that was evidence that was undoubtedly 
 
54 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 very strong, and yet it was subsequently shown 
 beyond cavil that Lady Colin had never been to 
 Purfleet or anywhere else with the duke. 
 
 His grace had sworn in an affidavit that he 
 had been to Purfleet for the week-end referred 
 to, but he had added that he had been quite alone 
 on that occasion. When, however, he stood in 
 the witness-box, he admitted that he had sworn 
 falsely, for he now said that he had been accom- 
 panied by a lady, a Mrs. Perry, who was not 
 unknown in Pimlico. 
 
 There is no doubt that this contributed as 
 much as anything else to the result of the case. 
 It was a damaging blow to Lord Colin, because 
 it gave one the impression that, just as the case 
 against him had been created out of prejudice 
 and malice, so he had allowed his hatred for 
 Lady Colin to influence him to bring an equally 
 false charge against her. 
 
 The Duke of Marlborough cut a very poor 
 figure in the box, for Mr. Finlay in cross-examina- 
 tion brought out all the details of his elopement 
 with the wife of his bosom friend, the earl, but 
 that could not incriminate Lady Colin, and if his 
 grace did himself no good he was of inestimable 
 service to the girl-wife of whose many talents 
 he was a great admirer. 
 
 The charges of misconduct in which the names 
 of Sir William Butler, the then Captain Shaw, and 
 Mr. Bird, the surgeon, were included, were not so 
 easily disposed of except in regard to the latter. 
 The evidence against Mr. Bird was ridiculously 
 
COLIN-CAMPBELL DIVORCE SUIT 55 
 
 weak, and Sir Charles Russell declared that he 
 would never have been thought of in connection 
 with the matrimonial shipwreck of the Campbells 
 if he had not offended his lordship by suing him 
 for his fees. Sir Edward Clarke, most chivalrous of 
 advocates, experienced little difficulty in clearing 
 his client's good name. 
 
 But with the captain and the general it 
 was different, mainly because Sir William Butler 
 avoided service of a subpoena, and, therefore, 
 could not be cited as a witness. Dismissed 
 servants, discontented acquaintances, suspicious 
 relatives and purveyors of tittle-tattle and pur- 
 chasers of their " wares " followed one another 
 into the witness-box, and did all they could to 
 blacken the character of the young wife. 
 
 Mr. Finlay and Mr. Lockwood pressed home 
 every advantage, while the opposition, repre- 
 sented by Sir Charles Russell and other famous 
 barristers counter-attacked and exercised all those 
 ingenious arts of which they were masters to 
 discredit the testimony of the array of witnesses 
 which Lord Colin had marshalled against the 
 girl he had once loved passionately. 
 
 We were told of meetings at unusual hours 
 between Lady Colin and the captain or the 
 general. It was alleged that they had easily 
 persuaded her ladyship to sacrifice her virtue 
 and that their friendship was merely an excuse 
 for indulging in vice. Many were the contra- 
 dictions elicited by cross-examination, and counsel 
 feigned horror, indignation, amusement, and sar- 
 
56 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 casm in quick succession, and " scenes " were 
 innumerable. 
 
 But it all only amounted to this — that there was 
 some ground for suspicion, and that it rested 
 with the jury to say whether a lady of rank could 
 be very familiar with men to whom her husband 
 objected without forgetting her marriage vows. 
 
 Sir Charles Russell contended that it was all 
 Lord Colin's fault for worrying Lady Colin until 
 she became his wife ; Mr. Finlay maintained that 
 his client's youth and inexperience had been taken 
 advantage of in order that Gertrude Blood might 
 become " My Lady," and Mrs. Blood the mother- 
 in-law of a lord who had for sister-in-law the 
 Queen's dauglue" ! There was no talk of love 
 now, and the romantic scenes which had taken 
 place at Inveraray were forgotten, or only sneered 
 at if referred to at all. 
 
 What amazed everybody was the animus 
 bordering on ferocity which each of the parties 
 to the marriage had exhibited towards each other 
 since the proceedings for the judicial separation. 
 Lord Colin had had his wife watched by detectives, 
 and once hearing that she had suddenly gone 
 abroad he had become obsessed by the notion that 
 she was travelling with the Duke of Marlborough. 
 
 Now the French law permitted an aggrieved 
 husband to have his erring wife arrested if she 
 could be found in the company of her paramour, 
 and his lordship determined to take advantage of 
 it and teach Lady Colin a lesson. He, therefore, 
 proceeded to Paris with his solicitor, and applied 
 
COLIN-CAMPBELL DIVORCE SUIT 57 
 
 for a warrant for her arrest, and had the warrant 
 been executed Lady Colin would have been flung 
 into a filthy prison and herded with the scum ot 
 humanity. 
 
 The Paris police ascertained, however, that 
 Lord Colin was mistaken, and nothing happened, 
 but the incident was typical of his attitude to- 
 wards her. As for Lady Colin, she was equally 
 bitter, her pride having been outraged by the 
 contemptuous rejection of her advances by her 
 father-in-law, the Duke of Argyll. 
 
 It cannot be said that the latter behaved with 
 any generosity towards his daughter-in-law, al- 
 though it has to be remembered that he never 
 approved of his son's marriage and had early 
 prophesied that it would- end in "disaster. 
 
 The duke, who could be very amiable to those 
 mortals who were willing to admit his superiority 
 to them, adopted a harsh manner towards Lady 
 Colin, and his brief appearance in the witness- 
 box was arranged so that he might publicly pro- 
 claim his sympathy for his son. 
 
 Sir Charles Russell, in his concluding speech, 
 discredited the notion that his client and her 
 family had been crazy to bring about her marriage. 
 He derided Lord Colin 's pretensions to be a some- 
 body, and pointed out that he was merely a 
 younger son with very little money. 
 
 " True, he was a Campbell of Argyllshire," said 
 Russell, in one of his few humorous interludes, 
 " and my learned friend, Mr. Finlay, who is a 
 Scotsman, appears to think with another Camp- 
 
58 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 bell, who exclaimed on the marriage of one of the 
 family with a southerner, ' Eh, mon, the Queen 
 must be a proud leddy this day ! ' " Sir Charles 
 was, of course, referring to the marriage of the 
 Duke of Argyll's son, the Marquis of Lome, with 
 H.R.H. Princess Louise. 
 
 Mr. Justice Butt summed up at great length, 
 and at a quarter to seven the jury retired, and, 
 during their absence of an hour and three-quar- 
 ters, the packed court was almost too excited 
 to chatter. All the counsel remained to hear 
 the verdict with the exception of Russell, and the 
 Campbells kept their places, whilst Lady Colin — 
 to whom the decision meant everything — and also 
 her relatives, did not depart. 
 
 When the jury filed in at last it was only to 
 announce that they could not agree, but in the 
 course of a colloquy with his lordship they revealed 
 the fact that they had come to a decision about 
 Lord Colin. Everybody took this to mean that 
 they had rejected the charge against him and that 
 they were divided only on the question of Lady 
 Colin 's guilt. 
 
 They were persuaded to attempt to attain 
 unanimity again, and a second time they returned 
 to report failure, but at last, at thirteen minutes 
 past ten they reappeared and in the absence of the 
 judge the registrar put the following questions 
 each of which was followed with breathless interest 
 by the audience. 
 
 " Do you find that Lord Colin Campbell com- 
 mitted adultery with Amelia Watson ? " 
 
COLIN-CAMPBELL DIVORCE SUIT 59 
 
 The Foreman : "No." 
 
 " Did Lady Colin Campbell commit adultery 
 with the Duke of Marlborough ? " 
 
 The Foreman : " No." 
 
 " Did Lady Colin Campbell commit adultery 
 with Captain Shaw ? " 
 
 The Foreman : " No." 
 
 " Did Lady Colin Campbell commit adultery 
 with General Butler ? " 
 
 The Foreman : " No." 
 
 " Did Lady Colin Campbell commit adultery 
 with Mr. Thomas Bird ? 
 
 The Foreman : " No." 
 
 In an instant Lady Colin was surrounded by her 
 friends, and her exit from the court was in the 
 nature of a triumphal procession. Her honour 
 had been saved, and she was content. But the 
 result was that after an expenditure of many 
 thousands of pounds, and the washing of much 
 dirty linen in public, she and her husband were 
 left in the same position. And husband and wife 
 they remained in name only until death removed 
 them. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 PAUPER OR PEER ? 
 
 When on the 22nd of March, 1869, the fourth 
 Earl of Wicklow died, it was generally understood 
 that his nephew, Charles Francis, was his suc- 
 cessor in the title and estates. The father of 
 Charles, the Hon. and Rev. Francis Howard, had 
 married twice. By his first wife he had had three 
 sons — all of whom were dead by 1869 — and by the 
 second he had two more sons, the elder of whom — 
 Charles Francis — claimed the earldom, as none 
 of his step-brothers had left any children. 
 
 To everybody's surprise, however, the widow 
 of the clergyman's eldest son suddenly produced 
 a boy of five who, she declared, was her own and 
 her husband's, and, therefore, fifth Earl of Wick- 
 low. As the child had never been heard of before 
 by his alleged father's relatives, Charles disputed 
 his claim, and eventually the matter was referred 
 to the supreme tribunal of the land, the House 
 of Lords, and a very sensational trial was the 
 result. 
 
 The infant claimant, who bore the same name 
 as his reputed father, William George Howard, 
 eldest son of the Hon. and Rev. Francis Howard, 
 
 60 
 
PAUPER OR PEER? 61 
 
 was, of course, merely a nominal figure in the 
 contest, which lay between the woman who called 
 herself his mother on the one side and a host of 
 the Howards on the other. 
 
 Having brains, resource, and courage, allied 
 to a determination to achieve whatever she set 
 her heart on, she boldly championed the child 
 whom she wished to make an earl, and who, accord- 
 ing to her enemies, was not only not a Howard 
 but a pauper who had been born in the infirmary 
 of the Liverpool workhouse to an unmarried 
 domestic servant. 
 
 The House of Lords, therefore, had to decide 
 whether the boy was a peer or a pauper. A little 
 more than seven years before the great case came 
 on for trial, William George Howard, nephew and 
 heir of the Earl of Wicklow, found himself hiding 
 from his creditors in mean lodgings in a squalid 
 London street. A course of dissipation had 
 alienated him from his family, and the wildest 
 extravagances had reduced him to the level of 
 accepting charity from impecunious lodginghouse- 
 keepers. 
 
 It was about this time that he became ac- 
 quainted with Ellen Richardson. She had enough 
 brains for half a dozen Howards, and sufficient 
 beauty to win the admiration of the sot. He 
 married her without troubling to invite his rela- 
 tives to the wedding, conscious that, as she was 
 the daughter of a coachman, they would disapprove 
 of his choice. 
 
 It is certain, however, that Ellen gained nothing 
 
62 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 by the marriage, for his premature death deprived 
 her of the consolation prize of a peeress's coronet, 
 and during the few years they lived together 
 she was harassed by his creditors and disgusted 
 by his habits. 
 
 According to her counsel, Sir John Coleridge 
 (afterwards Lord Chief Justice of England) her 
 husband was in Ireland when she gave birth to 
 the boy at 27, Burton Street, Eaton Square, 
 and in support of her statement she produced 
 three witnesses — her landlady, Mrs. Bloor ; the 
 latter's sister, Rosa Day ; and her own sister, 
 Jane. 
 
 All gave very emphatic and circumstantial 
 accounts of the sudden arrival of the infant, and 
 they were not shaken in cross-examination. Yet 
 the whole affair was shrouded in mystery, because 
 there were several queer incidents in connection 
 with it which Mrs. Howard could not explain 
 away. 
 
 First of all, no doctor had attended her, for 
 instead of sending for her regular medical man, 
 whose house was quite near, she asked that a 
 Dr. Wilkins, elderly and feeble, who lived a long 
 way off, might be called in when her confinement 
 was due. When Mr. Bloor did go in search of 
 the doctor, and failed to bring him to the house in 
 Burton Street, he was met at the door by Mrs. 
 Bloor, who joyfully exclaimed that the baby had 
 come, and that all was well, their lodger having 
 had a marvellous delivery. 
 
 A few days later Dr. Wilkins — so it was said by 
 
PAUPER OR PEER? 63 
 
 Mrs. Howard's witnesses — put in an appearance 
 and prescribed for the infant, who was suffering 
 from some trilling ailment, but, as the doctor was 
 in his grave by the time the claim was examined 
 by the House of Lord this could not be con- 
 firmed. 
 
 For the claimant, William George, it was stated 
 that for three months after the birth Mrs. Howard 
 and her baby lived at 27, Burton Street, and 
 that almost daily the witnesses, whose names 
 have been cited already, saw the child and com- 
 mented on its remarkable resemblance to its 
 father. But it was admitted that no one else was 
 allowed to enter the room where the child was, 
 and that his existence had been kept a profound 
 secret from the Howard family. 
 
 Not the slightest hint was given even to the Earl 
 of Wicklow, although the nobleman was rapidly 
 failing, and it might have been supposed that 
 he would have been interested in the news that 
 he had a great-nephew to succeed him. Charles 
 Francis, the young man who was looked upon as 
 the next earl, had not been told either, and a huge 
 surprise seems to have been very carefully pre- 
 pared for the Howards when the earl passed 
 away. 
 
 That was, in brief, the story related by the 
 Solicitor-General, Sir John Coleridge, when he 
 asked their lordships to declare that William 
 George Howard, aged five, was fifth Earl of 
 Wicklow. 
 
 The House would have granted his request — 
 
64 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 as the Lord Chancellor later on said in the course 
 of his judgment — had there not been an accum- 
 mulation of apparently trivial incidents which 
 combined to cast doubts on the evidence of the 
 widow and her three lady friends, although Sir 
 Roundell Palmer, who subsequently became Lord 
 Chancellor and Earl of Selvourne, did not succeed 
 in making them contradict themselves. 
 
 The legal advisers of Charles Francis Arnold 
 had left no stone unturned in their efforts to 
 secure disproof of Mrs. Howard's statements, 
 and when his case was opened by Sir Roundell, 
 that famous counsel began by declaring that the 
 witnesses for the infant claimant had perjured 
 themselves, and that he would prove that Mrs. 
 Howard had never had a child at all. 
 
 It is remarkable how often a mere fluke will 
 upset a gigantic conspiracy, or chance defeat an 
 elaborate plot. Mrs. Howard and her friends had, 
 apparently, taken everything into consideration 
 when they had planned to secure an earldom 
 for little William Howard. 
 
 The widow had selected witnesses of good 
 character, and the manner in which they withstood 
 Sir Roundell Palmer indicated that they had well 
 rehearsed their evidence. Yet it was the widow 
 who let them down. 
 
 Her story was that she had given birth to the 
 child on May 16th, 1864, and considerable detail 
 was adduced to account for the unexpected 
 arrival of the infant, but Sir Roundell was able 
 to hand to their lordships a letter written by Mrs. 
 
PAUPER OR PEER? 65 
 
 Howard four days previous to the alleged birth, 
 in which she applied for the situation of governess 
 to a family in Devonshire. 
 
 In the letter she described herself as single, 
 and, as counsel pointed out, no woman expecting 
 a child any time within the next two or three weeks 
 would seek employment under her maiden name, 
 and boldly call herself unmarried-. It was in- 
 credible, because her condition would be obvious. 
 
 That fatal letter had been the result of an 
 impulse born of despondency. Mrs. Howard, 
 early in May, 1864, had seen her husband in Dublin, 
 and had heard from him that his financial position 
 was hopeless, and that there was no chance of his 
 raising any money. He had bluntly disclosed 
 the brutal truth, which was that she must provide 
 for herself in future. 
 
 Returning to London, the distracted woman 
 had one morning at breakfast picked up the 
 " Times," and, catching sight of an advertisement 
 for a governess, had there and then applied for 
 it. It is fairly certain that she had no intention 
 of taking the post had her letter been favourabty 
 considered. 
 
 It is astonishing, however, that her application 
 should have been preserved for nearly seven years, 
 and that the next time she saw it the Lord Chan- 
 cellor should be holding it in his hand. 
 
 The letter was supported by the evidence of a 
 dressmaker who had measured Mrs. Howard for 
 a costume that same important month of May. 
 She now testified that there had been nothing 
 
 E 
 
66 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 about the lady's figure to indicate that she was 
 expecting a child, and, indeed, it was obvious 
 enough that no woman would waste money by 
 being fitted for a dress when in that condition. 
 
 Furthermore, a domestic servant in the employ- 
 ment of the Bloors said that although she had 
 been in the house at the time of the alleged birth, 
 she had never heard of the child's existence. Then 
 a Dr. Baker spoke of having professionally attended 
 Mrs. Howard not long after her alleged confine- 
 ment, and he proved that she could never have 
 been enceinte. A medical colleague gave similar 
 evidence. 
 
 At this point the trial was postponed, everybody 
 present having had sufficient sensations for that 
 particular day, but the greatest surprises were 
 still in store. 
 
 When the court assembled again, Mrs. Howard's 
 counsel placed in the witness-box two persons, 
 who swore that at the time Dr. Baker and his 
 friend had stated they had examined the widow, 
 she had been in Longley, in Staffordshire, and 
 that they must have mistaken another lady for 
 her. 
 
 This appeared to be a score in her favour, 
 but the case for Mrs. Howard was demolished 
 when on March, 1870, Sir Roundell Palmer 
 informed their lordships that he was in a position 
 to prove the identity of " William George Howard." 
 To the amazement of both their lordships and the 
 audience, he declared he was the son of a Mary 
 Best, a Liverpool domestic servant, who had been 
 
PAUPER OR PEER? 67 
 
 forced to seek the shelter of the workhouse in- 
 firmary in the northern seaport to give birth to 
 her child. Sir Roundell said that he had the girl 
 herself there to support his statement, and that 
 her evidence would be endorsed by the head-nurse 
 and two of the assistant nurses at the infirmary 
 when Mary Best had been an inmate. 
 
 Before the nurses were called, Sir John Coleridge 
 asked their lordships to adjourn to enable him 
 to prepare evidence to rebut this unexpected 
 move by his opponents. " We wish to examine 
 Mrs. Howard now," said the Lord Chancellor, 
 and Sir John obediently sent for her, but it was 
 discovered that she had left the House of Lords 
 secretly and that she had not returned to her 
 lodgings. 
 
 For the time being she had vanished, and their 
 lordships had to adjourn for a week. During the 
 interval public excitement was intense, and it 
 was rumoured that the widow, frightened by the 
 Liverpool story, had gone abroad ; but when the 
 court reassembled, she was in her usual place, 
 and on hearing her name she stepped forward. 
 
 " I decline to speak until the Liverpool wit- 
 nesses have been heard," she said, in a determined 
 voice, when an official attempted to administer 
 the oath. " You will do as we order you," said 
 the Lord Chancellor severely. " Swear the witness 
 at once." But Mrs. Howard was not to be cajoled 
 or frightened. 
 
 Sir John Coleridge endeavoured to coax her 
 mto obeying their lordships' command, and failed. 
 
68 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 She held her ground, and even a threat of im- 
 prisonment failed to move her. Finally, the 
 Lord Chancellor had to commit her to prison 
 for contempt of court, and when she had been led 
 away the three Liverpool nurses were examined, 
 and they bore out Sir Roundell's statement. 
 
 Amid intense excitement the three nurses were 
 examined, and their united evidence was to the 
 effect that in the early part of 1864 two ladies 
 had called at the infirmary with the object of 
 adopting a baby. One of them — since identified 
 by the nurses as Mrs. Howard — made a careful 
 examination of all the children in the lying-in 
 ward before deciding to adopt Mary Best's child. 
 
 The friendless little servant was not anxious 
 to part with her baby, but she had been pressed 
 to do so by the kindly head-nurse, who had pointed 
 out to her the difference it would make to the 
 child's career if he were taken in charge by a rich 
 and influential lady. 
 
 She told Mary that she had nothing to offer 
 the baby except penury and humiliation, and that 
 she would be doing the baby a serious injury if 
 she rejected the lady's generous offer. Thus the 
 young mother was talked over, and the pauper 
 infant was taken away by the veiled woman, and 
 Mary was left to sob her heart out because she 
 missed her child. 
 
 The nurses were positive that Mrs. Howard 
 was the woman who had adopted the infant, and 
 Mary Best herself swore to the same effect. Sir 
 John Coleridge was forensicalfy indignant about 
 
PAUPER OR PEER? 69 
 
 all this. In his opinion it was a trumped-up affair, 
 and he said that, given a little time, he would 
 expose the conspiracy. 
 
 He did not dispute the nurses' statement that 
 Mary Best had had a child, or that the child had 
 been adopted, but he was certain that the veiled 
 lady had not been Mrs. Howard. The day's 
 proceedings ended when a telegram arrived for 
 counsel. 
 
 It was from Boulogne, and it announced that the 
 lady who had taken away the servant's child from 
 the Liverpool infirmary had been found, and 
 that she had consented to cross to England and 
 reveal herself in order that Mrs. Howard's case 
 might not be prejudiced. 
 
 Another adjournment, was, therefore, made, 
 and the legal advisers of the widow had several 
 days in which to bring their important Boulogne 
 witness to London. When the House of Lords 
 met again, however, the Solicitor-General had to 
 confess that the Boulogne lady had failed him 
 and that he must do without her assistance. 
 
 He was not, however, despondent, and he looked 
 pleased with himself and very confident when he 
 rose to cross-examine Mary Best, the girl who 
 was said to be the mother of the boy for whom an 
 earldom was claimed. 
 
 Mary and the nurses had stated that the 
 former's infant had been carried off by Mrs. 
 Howard, leaving the servant-girl childless, but 
 when Sir John Coleridge asked Mary if she had 
 left the infirmary with a baby, and she answered 
 
7o SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 that she had, it seemed as if Sir Roundell Palmer's 
 eleventh-hour revelation was going to avail him 
 nothing, although the girl swore that it was not 
 her own baby she had conveyed from the in- 
 firmary. 
 
 " I wanted to have a baby to nurse, and I 
 took another girl's," she said, in a voice that 
 trembled. " But you supported that child out 
 of your scanty earnings," said the Solicitor- 
 General, in an incredulous tone, " and when it 
 died you paid the expenses. Did you do all that 
 for a stranger's child ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," she replied promptly. " I missed 
 my own baby so much that I had to have one 
 to prevent me feeling lonely." 
 
 Sir John's contention was that the girl was 
 lying, and that she had been persuaded by the 
 other side to join in a conspiracy to prevent Mrs. 
 Howard's son obtaining his rights, but Mary's 
 explanation was confirmed when it was estab- 
 lished beyond a doubt that her own child had been 
 fair, with blue eyes, while the one she had adopted 
 had been of a different complexion altogether. 
 
 Further, to complicate the position, the nurses 
 who had identified Mrs. Howard declined to 
 corroborate Mary Best's remarkable story, adding 
 that it would have been impossible for her to 
 have become possessed of another patient's baby 
 without their knowledge. 
 
 After lengthy speeches on both sides, the Lord 
 Chancellor announced the decision of the court 
 in a judgment which imputed perjury to several 
 
PAUPER OR PEER? 71 
 
 of the witnesses for Mrs. Howard. His Lordship 
 mentioned that he and his colleagues had come 
 to a decision without taking the Liverpool evidence 
 into consideration, as it had not been in all respects 
 satisfactory, and they had been puzzled;! by | the 
 numerous contradictions. 
 
 But there was sufficient data in the previous 
 testimony, he said, to enable them to declare 
 that William George Howard had not made out 
 his claim, and that the Earldom of Wicklow, 
 accordingly, belonged to Charles Francis, who 
 was declared the holder of the title. 
 
 It was expected that prosecutions for perjury 
 would follow upon the very deliberate pronounce- 
 ment of the Lord Chancellor, but nothing was done, 
 because it was the opinion of the Crown that the 
 person responsible for the attempt to obtain a 
 peerage for Mary Best's child, a Mr. Baudenave, 
 was not within reach of the court. 
 
 Baudenave had, in fact, disappeared before the 
 trial, obviously to avoid being called, but his 
 name was mentioned many times, and he was 
 regarded as the evil genius of the woman who had 
 so imprudently put forward the claim. 
 
 Nothing more was heard of the child, and shortly 
 after the failure of her plans, Mrs. Howard married 
 again. 
 
 To the end of her life the woman who had claimed 
 a peerage for the infant she had bought maintained 
 a complete silence about her tussle with the 
 House of Lords. 
 
 That the child was an innocent impostor there 
 
72 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 can be no doubt, and the alacrity with which Mrs. 
 Howard sank into obscurity was, doubtless, in- 
 spired by a feeling of thankfulness that the authori- 
 ties had not followed up the Lord Chancellor's 
 decision by prosecuting her for perjury. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 A FAMOUS AMERICAN ACTOR AND HIS ENGLISH 
 
 WIFE 
 
 On the night of March 2nd, 1846, when Macready 
 was acting in " Hamlet " at the Theatre Royal, 
 Edinburgh, he was, in the second scene of the 
 third act, vigorously hissed by a gentleman in one 
 of the boxes, who was afterwards identified as 
 Edwin Forrest, the American tragedian. 
 
 The incident caused a scene of considerable 
 excitement, the English actor bowing " derisively 
 and contemptuously " — to quote from his own 
 description of the affair — and the American re- 
 taliating by more conspicuous indications of 
 hostility. The audience sided with their favourite, 
 but, as Macready was wisely dissuaded from 
 delivering a speech, the play finished quietly and 
 there was no further demonstration. 
 
 But there was to be more than one sequel to 
 this declaration of war between two of the most 
 popular actors of their generation. Edwin 
 Forrest, whose third visit to Great Britain it was, 
 had been exasperated by the comparative failure 
 of his tour. He was proud and arrogant and 
 prone to jealous outbursts, and in his disappoint- 
 ment and rage he blamed Macready, who, he 
 
 73 
 
74 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 averred, was the cause of all his troubles. The 
 American believed that he was the greatest actor 
 in the world, and he watched and waited for an 
 opportunity to humiliate his rival in public. The 
 chance came at Edinburgh where, affecting to 
 disapprove of Macready 's " business " just before 
 the " play " scene, he attempted to hiss him off the 
 stage. 
 
 It was rather ungrateful of Forrest when we 
 recollect that on the occasion of his first and 
 second visits Macready had proved himself one 
 of his best friends. The Englishman had been a 
 prominent figure at the banquet given by the 
 Garrick Club in honour of the American and he 
 had introduced him to persons of influence and 
 importance and had, in fact, exerted himself to 
 ensure the comfort and success of Forrest. 
 
 However, the failure of the latter's third tour 
 soured him and turned him against his former 
 friend, and when in 1848, Macready went to 
 America the admirers of Forrest brought about 
 disturbances in New York, Philadelphia and in 
 Boston, and a riot at the first-named city re- 
 sulted in twenty-two people being killed and 
 thirty injured. Macready thereupon abandoned 
 his tour and returned home. 
 
 The alleged rivalry between the actors was the 
 subject of considerable correspondence in the 
 American Press. Forrest did not distinguish him- 
 self by his vituperative vignettes of Macready, 
 to whom he referred in one of his " cards " to a 
 New York paper as " a drivelling dodderer," and 
 
A FAMOUS AMERICAN ACTOR 75 
 
 it was this undignified conduct of his which was 
 said to be the cause of the first really serious 
 disagreement with his wife. 
 
 She had stood by him in his first contest with 
 the Englishman and had loyally supported him 
 when the presence of Macready in New York 
 brought their respective personalities into the 
 limelight of criticism, but she apparently dis- 
 approved of her husband demeaning himself by 
 writing ill-natured comments on his rivals, and, 
 as the subject was fully investigated during the 
 celebrated divorce suit of Forrest v. Forrest, the 
 trial revealed much that was secret concerning 
 the sensational quarrel which had begun in an 
 Edinburgh theatre. 
 
 When in England in 1837 Forrest, who was then 
 thirty-one, married Catherine, daughter of John 
 Sinclair, a tenor who was in the front rank of his 
 profession and of whom an account may be found 
 in the " Dictionary of National Biography." 
 
 The lady was only nineteen, very beautiful 
 and accomplished, and for about twelve years 
 the marriage was a success. Then husband and 
 wife suddenly separated, and Forrest subsequently 
 attempted to obtain a divorce by a special Act 
 of the Pennsylvania Legislature, was defeated, 
 and eventually the action for divorce was brought 
 by his wife in New York and, after a hearing that 
 extended into the thirty-third day, the jury 
 pronounced their verdict. 
 
 It was a remarkable trial, for there was nothing- 
 moderate in the charges and counter charges 
 
76 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 brought by the contestants. In Mr. Charles 
 O'Conor Mrs. Forrest had a brilliant member 
 of the American bar to fight for her. He had a 
 very arduous time, for several of the witnesses 
 were practically put on trial, their characters 
 and life-stories being examined minutely and 
 made the subject of protests and objections by 
 opposing counsel which very often were speeches. 
 This determination to discredit the other side 
 was the chief reason for the proceedings lasting 
 from December 16th, 185 1, to January 26th, 1852, 
 and Chief Justice Oakley, who presided, had good 
 cause for more than once expressing his weariness. 
 
 But to the general public the case proved fas- 
 cinating and the court was always packed, while 
 even on the coldest days there was a crowd to 
 watch the principals make their exits and en- 
 trances, for many well-known men and women 
 were dragged into the matrimonial dispute, and 
 the eminence of the defendant and the social fame 
 of his wife made it certain that there would be 
 many " revelations " of stage and society life. 
 
 It was Mrs. Forrest's belief that her husband 
 had grown tired of her and that to rid himself of 
 the responsibility of providing for her he had con- 
 cocted charges of infidelity against her. He 
 denied this and said that she had been unfaithful 
 to him, and he protested that he had loved her 
 until he had discovered a letter to her from a 
 fellow-actor, George Jamieson, which had con- 
 vinced him that she had committed adultery 
 and was his enemy instead of his friend. 
 
A FAMOUS AMERICAN ACTOR yy 
 
 As usual there were two versions as to how 
 the domestic trouble began. The Macready- 
 Forrest dispute was said to have started it, Mrs. 
 Forrest earning her husband's dislike by advising 
 him not to take any further part in it ; but this 
 may have been an attempt by the defendant to 
 prejudice the plaintiff by cunningly suggesting 
 that she had declined to forget her English 
 nationality and had because of it acted detri- 
 mentally to the interests of her American husband 
 simply because he was an American. But the 
 jury, with a chivalry characteristic of their country, 
 decided the case purely on its merits and insisted 
 on keeping to the facts. 
 
 Chief Justice Oakley truly said of it in his 
 summing-up, "It is a most extraordinary case. 
 There are two persons living together up to a 
 certain period, in an apparent state of affection 
 and harmony, which is suddenly interrupted 
 by their charging each other with acts of in- 
 fidelity. 
 
 " If their mutual allegations against each other 
 are to be taken as proved, it appears that both 
 of these persons, anterior to the separation, lived 
 in a most abandoned manner — Mr. Forrest fre- 
 quents houses of a certain description, travelling 
 about the country with a woman, apparently not 
 even taking the pains to conceal their intercourse ; 
 while Mrs. Forrest lived in a state of adulterous 
 intercourse with several persons. And while all 
 this was going on it appears they were writing 
 each other letters in the most affectionate manner." 
 
78 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 One of the numerous letters read in court may 
 be reproduced as it shows the intellectual calibre 
 of the wife of the famous tragedian. It covers 
 many subjects, from the apostle of Free Love 
 to a criticism of a famous preacher : 
 
 " Chicago, 
 " My Dear Sir, " June nth. 
 
 " It has been a question with me for some 
 days whether I should reply to the letter I received 
 from you in Pittsburg, or leave the matter you therein 
 write about for future discussion ; but as a chance for 
 that seems somewhat remote, I will for a few moments 
 tax your well-known patience. 
 
 " In referring to my letter from New Orleans, you 
 speak as though I had written you a treatise on the rights 
 of women, and the doctrines of Fourier ; if I err not 
 greatly, I neither mentioned one nor other of these topics, 
 for indeed I had half determined never to discuss them 
 with you again. I remember telling you in my letter 
 that I had greatly enjoyed the society I had met in 
 New Orleans, especially that of some intellectual persons. 
 When I inquired of you in my letter from Pittsburg 
 what you thought of Fourier's system now, of course I 
 could only refer to such portion of it as has been in- 
 fluential in bringing about the great change in France, 
 such as refers to the organization of labour, etc., etc., 
 and which all those whose minds keep pace with the 
 progress of the age, regard as the only means for amelior- 
 ating the condition not only of the probatory but of the 
 great mass of mankind suffering from the pressure of 
 the past. Had any one else written as you do, I should 
 be apt to suspect that he had received his ideas of 
 Fourier from some such source as the ' New York 
 Herald,' whose editor, lacking capacity to comprehend 
 a system so vast and profound, as well as so ennobling 
 to humanity, has selected only what he conceives to be 
 the most vulnerable portion of the doctrines of associa- 
 tion, and indulges in a wholesale denunciation of the 
 
A FAMOUS AMERICAN ACTOR 79 
 
 immoralities which his prurient mind alone can discover. 
 I do not for a moment think that the most enthusiastic 
 follower of Fourier expects the people of the present age 
 to throw off all the ties of society and social life, and 
 attempt to carry out in all respects the views of this 
 great man ; there are few, very few persons, who have 
 thought out these matters sufficiently to be prepared 
 for such a change, and it is the mission of those few to 
 prepare the way for the coming generations of the earth. 
 The disciples of Fourier do not desire the subversion of 
 all social order ; this is one of the many slanders which 
 attach to them as well as to all other reformers, and 
 which it is not worth while to refute. All improve- 
 ments social or political, must be accomplished by 
 degrees. Our minds must be educated up to the appre- 
 ciation of the doctrines of a man who we must admit 
 was, like many of the greatest benefactors of the human 
 race, in advance of his age, and by education only can 
 we hope to bring his views successfully into practice ; 
 for to attempt to bring the present generation at once 
 into association, with all the bigotry, selfishness, and 
 deeply rooted prejudices which many people hug so 
 closely, would be as absurd as to take the poor Indian 
 from his wilderness, and expect him to be happy in 
 civilisation ; and yet you will not, I am sure, tell me 
 that the life of the savage is the best. It is impossible, 
 my dear friend, that the wonderful change which has 
 taken place in men's minds, within the last ten years, 
 can have escaped the notice of so acute an observer 
 as you are, and if 3/ou have read the works which the 
 great men of Europe have given us within that time, 
 you have found they all tend to illustrate the great 
 principle of progress, and to show at the same time, 
 that for man to obtain the high position for which he 
 is by nature fitted, woman must keep pace with him. 
 ' Man cannot be free, if woman be a slave,' so writes a 
 mighty mind. You say, ' the rights of woman, whether 
 as maid or wife, and all these notions I utterly abhor.' 
 I do not quite understand what you here mean by the 
 rights of woman. You cannot mean that she has none. 
 
8o SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 The poorest and most abject thing of earth has some 
 rights ; but if you mean the right to outrage the laws 
 of nature, by running out of her own sphere, and seeking 
 to place herself in a position for which she is unfitted, 
 then I perfectly agree with you, and think a woman 
 has no more business in the halls of legislature than a 
 man has in those portions of his house devoted to 
 domestic affairs. At the same time, woman has as high 
 a mission to perform in this world as man has ; and he 
 never can hold his place in the ranks of progression 
 and improvement who seeks to degrade woman to a 
 mere domestic animal. Nature intended her for his 
 companion, and him for hers, and without the respect 
 which places her socially and intellectually on the same 
 platform, his love for her personally is an insult. 
 
 " Again you say : ' A man loves her as much for her 
 very dependence on him as for her beauty or loveliness.' 
 (Intellect snugly put out of the question). This remark 
 from you astonished me so much that I submitted the 
 question at once to Forrest, who instantly agreed with 
 me, that for once our good friend was decidedly wrong. 
 (Pardon the heresy ; I only say for once). What ! 
 do you value the love of a woman who only clings to you 
 because she cannot do without your support ? Why 
 this is what in nursery days we used to call ' cupboard 
 love,' and value accordingly. Depend upon it, as a 
 general rule, there would be fewer family jars, if each 
 were pecuniarily independent of the other. With 
 regard to mutual confidence, I perfectly agree with 
 you that it should exist ; but for this there must be 
 mutual sympathy ; the relative position of man and 
 wife must be that of companions — not mastery on one 
 side and dependence on the other. Again you say, 
 ' A wife if she blame her husband for seeking after new 
 fancies, should examine her own heart and see if she 
 find not, in some measure, justification for him.' Truly, 
 my dear friend, I think so too ; (when we do agree, our 
 unanimity is wonderful !) and if, after that self-examina- 
 tion, she finds the fault is hers, she should amend it ; 
 but if she finds, on reflection, that her whole course 
 
A FAMOUS AMERICAN ACTOR 81 
 
 has been one of devotion and affection for him, she 
 must even let matters take their course ; and rest 
 assured, if he be a man of appreciative mind, his affection 
 for her will return. This is rather a degrading position ; 
 but a true woman has pride in self-sacrifice. In any case, 
 I do not think a woman should blame a man for indulging 
 his fancies. I think we discussed this once before, and 
 that I then said as I do now, that he is to blame when 
 these fancies are degrading, or for an unworthy object ; 
 the last words I mean not to apply morally, but in- 
 tellectually. A sensible woman who loves her husband 
 in the true spirit of love, without selfishness, desires 
 to see him happy, and rejoices in his elevation. She 
 would grieve that he should give the world cause to 
 talk, or in any way risk the loss of that respect due 
 to both himself and her ; but she would infinitely rather 
 that he should indulge ' new fancies ' (I quote you) 
 than lead an unhappy life of self-denial and unrest, 
 feeling each day the weight of his chains become more 
 irksome, making him, in fact a living lie. This is what 
 society demands of us ; in our present state we cannot 
 openly brave its laws, but it is a despotism which cannot 
 exist for ever ; and, in the meantime, those whose minds 
 soar above common prejudice, can, if such be united, 
 do much to make their present state endurable. It is 
 a fearful thing to think of the numbers who, after a 
 brief acquaintance, during which they can form no 
 estimate of each other's characters, swear solemnly to 
 love each other while they ' on this earth do dwell.' 
 Men and women boldly make this vow as though they 
 could, by the magic of these few words enchain for ever 
 every feeling and passion of their natures. It's absurd. 
 No man can do so ; and society, as though it had made 
 a compact with the devil to make a man commit more 
 sins than his nature would otherwise prompt, says, 
 ' Now you are fairly in the trap, seek to get out, and we 
 cast you off for ever — you and your helpless children.' 
 Man never was made to endure even such a yoke as un- 
 wise governments have sought to lay on him ; how 
 much more galling, then, must be that which seeks to 
 
82 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 bind the noblest feelings and affections of his nature, 
 and make him, 
 
 ' So, with one chained friend, perhaps a jealous foe, 
 The dreariest and the longest journey go.' 
 That there is any necessity to ensure, by any means, a 
 woman's happiness, is a proposition you do not seem 
 to have entertained while writing your letter of May 
 24th, but, perhaps, we are supposed to be happy under 
 all circumstances. I shall scarcely dare to hope you 
 will pardon me for taking up so much of your time as 
 it will need to read this ; but you will please remember 
 that I have bestowed an equal time in writing to you, 
 and I will add that there is no other one of my friends 
 on whom I would, at this time, expend so much. Pray 
 let me have a line from you first, to say I am forgiven 
 for the trespass, not that I would ask you to answer 
 this, for I have no desire to write again on these subjects, 
 but just to let one know how the world is jogging on 
 with you. Your reply will reach me at Detroit, if it 
 be there before the 4th of July, and afterwards at 
 Buffalo. 
 
 " Forrest commenced here on Thursday last, and 
 has had very good houses. I suppose he will play till 
 the 23rd. We received the ' Evening Post.' Grand 
 merci, mon ami. Of course I hope you will receive this 
 letter merely as a sort of discussion among friends who 
 desire to know each other's opinions. I read it to 
 Forrest and he agrees perfectly with all I have said. 
 We shall be very glad to get home ; indeed, I may say 
 I am as much tired as he is. Since we left New Orleans, 
 I cannot say I have enjoyed anything except a few 
 hours with Magoon, and hearing him preach. I hope 
 you heard him in New York. I trust averages are 
 ' looking up,' and that you are once more in a cheerful 
 mood. None wish you more success than your friend. 
 
 "C. N. F." 
 
 The actor, George Jamieson, has already been 
 referred to, and it was an unsigned letter from 
 
A FAMOUS AMERICAN ACTOR 83 
 
 him to Mrs. Forrest that was the foundation of 
 Forrest's charges of misconduct against his wife. 
 The lady swore that she had never encouraged 
 him to be familiar with her and that she could 
 not prevent him writing to her. Jamieson cer- 
 tainly did her the worst of services when he 
 rhapsodically apostrophised as " Consuelo," the 
 fancy name being taken from the well-known 
 novel by George Sand. 
 
 This communication was found by the actor 
 when he was looking for some letters which he 
 had supposed were from her sister but of which 
 he had become suspicious because he had observed 
 that she was very nervous about them and con- 
 stantly carried them on her person wherever 
 she went. A fierce legal battle was waged over 
 the admission of the " Consuelo " epistle, and 
 it would not have been read in court had it not 
 been incorporated in one of the numerous affi- 
 davits, the reading of which contributed so much 
 to the lengthening of the proceedings. It was 
 a remarkable production, and it is not surprising 
 that Forrest, although he was obviously ver}' 
 anxious to find a reason for divorcing his wife, 
 considered it highly suspicious. 
 
 Until the discovery of the letter the differences 
 in the Forrest household had been many but 
 not very serious. Mrs. Forrest was fond of enter- 
 taining and she loved society. She knew every- 
 body worth knowing in New York, and dis- 
 tinguished Englishmen visiting the United States 
 generally contrived to secure an introduction to 
 
84 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 the daughter of John Sinclair, the famous 
 tenor. 
 
 Ever since her marriage she had been an in- 
 defatigable hostess, but Forrest, as soon as he 
 lost interest in her, detached himself from her 
 parties, and in his solitude readily imagined that 
 amongst the literary men, the stage folk, and 
 the idlers of both sexes who belonged to his wife's 
 set there was at least one man with whom she was 
 in love. The thought may have been born of the 
 wish, but with the capture of the " Consuelo " 
 letter he believed that he had the means of success 
 in his possession. 
 
 " And now, my dearest Consuelo," Jamieson 
 wrote to Mrs. Forrest, " our brief dream is over, 
 and such a dream. Have we not known real 
 bliss ? Have we not realised what poets love to 
 set up as an ideal state, giving full license to their 
 imagination, scarce believing in its reality ? Have 
 we not experienced the truth that ecstasy is 
 not a fiction ? And what an additional delight 
 to think that I have made some hours happy to 
 you. Yes, our little dream of great account is 
 over ; reality stares us in the face. 
 
 " Can reality take from us when she separates 
 and exiles us from each other ? Can she divide 
 our souls, our spirits ? Can slander's tongue or 
 rumour's trumpet summon us to a parley with 
 ourselves, where to doubt each other we should 
 hold a counsel ? No ! No ! A doubt of thee can 
 no more find a harbour in my brain than the ope n 
 rose should cease to be the hum-bird's harbour 
 
A FAMOUS AMERICAN ACTOR 85 
 
 As my heart and soul are in your possession, 
 examine them and you will find no text from 
 which to discourse doubt of me ... Be happy, 
 dearest ; write to me and tell me you are happy. 
 Think of the time when we shall meet again. 
 Believe that I shall do my utmost to be worthy of 
 your love ; and now, God bless you a thousand 
 times, my own, my heart's altar." 
 
 This is merely an extract from the letter which 
 was the sensation of the divorce suit, but its 
 recipient apparently took no serious notice of it. 
 She was probably pleased to be the object of so 
 much admiration, even if it was a trifle theatrical 
 and incoherent, but George Jamieson was not one 
 of her most intimate friends, and when Forrest 
 first decided to impugn her honour he named 
 nine men in all with whom, he alleged, she had 
 committed misconduct. Amongst them were 
 N. P. Willis and Richard Willis, and Captain 
 Calcraft, an Englishman who in cross-examination 
 refused to answer several questions because they 
 might incriminate him. 
 
 The others were friends of the plaintiff's and 
 they had excited her husband's jealousy by 
 attending parties at his house when he had been 
 absent. At the trial the number was reduced 
 to six, and with the wife charging her husband 
 with adultery with an actress of the name of 
 Josephine Winter and with having frequented 
 houses of ill-fame for years the lawyers had plenty 
 to do, and there was no chance of quarter being 
 given by either side. 
 
86 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 The explanation offered by Jamieson that he 
 was intoxicated when he wrote the " Consuelo " 
 letter to Mrs. Forrest and the lady's denial that 
 she had ever encouraged him to regard her as 
 more than an ordinary friend formed the defence 
 to the charge concerning the actor, and counsel 
 for Forrest, aware that it was the weakest part 
 of their case, concentrated their efforts on trying 
 to prove that Mrs. Forrest had conducted an 
 immoral intrigue with N. P. Willis and his brother, 
 Richard, with the other suspects as aiders and 
 abettors if not principals themselves. 
 
 In the course of the action all sorts and con- 
 ditions of witnesses were brought forward. We 
 had the humorous variet}' (conscious and other- 
 wise), the very serious, the nervous, the independ- 
 ent and the assertive. Two women gave with a 
 wealth of detail very damaging evidence against 
 Mrs. Forrest, in whose service they had been. 
 These were Christiana Underwood, an elderly 
 Scotswoman who cut a poor figure in cross- 
 examination ; and Anna Flowers, a girl whose 
 character was torn to shreds when Mr. O'Conor 
 had asked her " a few questions." 
 
 They swore that when employed by Mrs. Forrest 
 she had conducted herself with the Willis brothers 
 in such a manner as left no doubt in their minds 
 that she was an adulteress, and Christiana Under- 
 wood described with considerable eloquence a 
 certain all-night party at the Forrests' house 
 which had shocked her sense of propriety. At 
 six in the morning, she said, she had met Mrs. 
 
A FAMOUS AMERICAN ACTOR 87 
 
 Forrest in the hall, " flushed and untidy," and 
 her mistress had explained that they had been 
 amusing themselves and that they were now 
 going to have breakfast at the house of N. P. 
 Willis. Underwood and Flowers also testified 
 that they had seen her kiss Willis and his brother, 
 and they retailed gossip about " locked doors," 
 and incidents such as N. P. Willis calling before 
 midday and on hearing that Edwin Forrest was 
 at home immediately departing in a panic. 
 
 Anna Flowers' evidence might have carried 
 weight if she could have withstood with any success 
 an enquiry into her own career, but her life, young 
 as she was, was full of vicissitudes, and in addition 
 to the numerous discrepancies and contradictions 
 in her statements in the witness-box it was proved 
 that she w T as an abandoned character. Despite 
 the money she received for attending the trial, 
 Anna must have regretted the prominence it 
 gave her. 
 
 But when all was said and done the evidence 
 against Mrs. Forrest amounted to nothing more 
 than this, that she was fond of male society and 
 that she was unconventional. All the trivial 
 happenings raked up by the defendant's attorneys 
 did not amount to proof of misconduct, and it 
 was known that Forrest himself must have known 
 of these parties because they could not have been 
 kept secret. He did not complain about them, 
 and when he separated from her it was not on 
 account of them. 
 
 He had simply grown tired of her, and the day 
 
88 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 he parted from her he had had no intention of 
 trying to break the marriage tie although he was 
 then aware of the letter written by George 
 Jamieson. But when the public had begun to 
 discuss the separation and when many suggested 
 reasons for it were in circulation the actor, know- 
 ing that he was popularly supposed to be in the 
 wrong, sought for a divorce in Pennsylvania and 
 only when baulked forced his wife to sue him. 
 For reasons of his own Forrest had not desired 
 the case to be tried in New York, and when it was 
 it was soon realised that he had had a selfish 
 reason for his reluctance to face a jury. 
 
 He might have made a more dangerous an- 
 tagonist if he had not been so reckless in his 
 charges, but once the evidence was heard it was 
 felt that no case had been made out for him by 
 his counsel. There was no direct proof that Mrs. 
 Forrest had committed adultery, and the tittle- 
 tattle of discredited and discontented servants 
 and the small talk of avowed partisans of the 
 man whose position in the world of the theatre 
 was so powerful, amounted to nothing. It was 
 different, however, when the wife's allegations 
 were submitted to the jury. 
 
 The first charge against Forrest, adultery with 
 Josephine Clifton, who died some years before the 
 trial, was proved by a former manager of his 
 company and others. The actress had been a 
 favourite of Forrest's and he had given her parts 
 to play quite beyond her capacity, but his own 
 popularity with the public had been sufficient 
 
A FAMOUS AMERICAN ACTOR 89 
 
 to negative this handicap to the box-office. When 
 her death occurred he had been profoundly af- 
 fected, and his dislike of his wife dated from that 
 event. He got into the habit of confiding in 
 friends that " Mrs. Forrest had never been the 
 same to him since the Macready affair " and, 
 hinting that she preferred the society of the 
 Willis brothers and certain English visitors to 
 his own, posed as a neglected, unhappy husband, 
 and withdrew into solitude. But he was not 
 without his female companions to console him, 
 although he had to frequent houses of ill-fame 
 to find them. 
 
 A procession of witnesses occupied the box in 
 turn to speak to having seen the actor in certain 
 establishments presided over by dealers in vice. 
 Their evidence was contested and they were 
 sharply cross-examined and occasionally bullied, 
 but Edwin Forrest was too well known a per- 
 sonage to be mistaken when seen, and the wit- 
 nesses were unshaken. Incidents which he him- 
 self had forgotten were raked up, and misdeeds 
 committed many years previously were exposed. 
 The combined effect was disastrous, and Mr. 
 O'Conor's closing speech for his client made victory 
 certain. 
 
 Counsel was brilliant in the extreme and his 
 epitome and review of the evidence were masterly. 
 He related how Forrest had borrowed a copy of 
 George Sand's " Consuelo " immediately the 
 Jamieson letter had come into his hands in order 
 that he might learn what sort of a person the 
 
go SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 heroine of the novel was. He had hoped to find 
 that she was " all that she ought not to be," but, 
 discovering that she was virtuous and chaste, 
 he had realised that the fact would weaken the 
 effect of the amorous epistle. 
 
 The actor had been compelled to try and 
 strengthen his cause by bringing in other men 
 besides Jamieson, but he had overdone it, for if 
 there was no case against the brothers Willis 
 there could be none against the gentleman referred 
 to by Mr. O'Conor as " poor old Professor Hack- 
 ley," who had, indeed, been so scared by the 
 mention of his name in connection with a divorce 
 petition that he had scuttled out of New York 
 like a frightened rabbit. 
 
 The Macready controversy had had nothing 
 whatever to do with the estrangement between 
 husband and wife, counsel declared. 
 
 Mrs. Forrest had never been deficient in loyalty 
 to the man she had married, and Mr. O'Conor 
 reminded the jury that he had read to them letters 
 on the famous squabble in which Mrs. Forrest 
 had satirically criticised Macready and had com- 
 mended Forrest's treatment of him. She might 
 have objected when he became coarse and savage 
 in his attacks on the Englishman, but she had 
 done nothing to give him the impression that 
 she was opposed to him. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren, leading counsel for Mr. Forrest, 
 replied very briefly, and then Chief Justice Oakley 
 summed up. It was an impartial and concise 
 summary, and without expressing an opinion 
 
A FAMOUS AMERICAN ACTOR 91 
 
 either way he dealt with the charges of adultery 
 with six men which had been brought against 
 Mrs. Forrest and the allegations of misconduct 
 by her husband. The judge clearly intended to 
 leave to the jury all the responsibility of coming 
 to a decision, although he warned them not 
 to regard evidence of unconventional doings of 
 which they might not approve as proof of adultery 
 by a woman who was not of their way of thinking. 
 
 When the chief justice concluded it was nearly 
 five o'clock on a Saturday, and the thirty-second 
 day of the trial, and the jury did not arrive at a 
 verdict before half past nine. By that time it 
 was too late for it to be recorded in open court, 
 and accordingly their written decision was sealed 
 up until the following Monday morning. The 
 scene on the thirty-third day of the trial was 
 thus described in a contemporary report : 
 
 January 26th. — The excitement this morning 
 was intense. Thousands and thousands of the 
 anxious public thronged the Park and rendered 
 the approach to the focus of attraction, by the 
 ordinary thoroughfare, impracticable. The coun- 
 sel, the jury, the parties to the suit, and the 
 reporters were obliged to effect an entrance through 
 the adjoining court, and pass into the judge's 
 chamber, which joins the room that has been the 
 scene of action in this trial. 
 
 At ten o'clock the Chief Justice took his seat 
 upon the Bench, and the anxiety depicted on 
 every countenance for the breaking of the sealed 
 verdict was intense. 
 
92 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 Mrs. Forrest was in court, as was also Mr. 
 Forrest, at an early hour. The fortitude which 
 never left Mrs. Forrest during the protracted 
 investigation seemed now to have almost deserted 
 her, and she was faint with anxiety. She was 
 almost subdued in strength — restless, watchful, 
 and uneasy. 
 
 Mr. Forrest looked anxious, but he looked like 
 a man resolved to meet the worst that could befall 
 him. These few minutes seemed, as it were, an 
 hour to all, and, indeed, the plaintiff and defen- 
 dant both bore strong evidence of the sleepless 
 hours they must have passed since Saturday 
 evening. 
 
 The counsel on both sides, too, participated 
 to the fullest extent in the anxiety of their res- 
 pective clients. Even Mr. O 'Conor's stoicism 
 deserted him, and his usually calm spirit now 
 became perturbed. 
 
 The Clerk of the Court called over the names 
 of the jury, and all answered. He then said, 
 " Gentlemen, have you agreed ? " 
 
 Foreman : " We have." The foreman here 
 handed the sealed verdict to the court. Breath- 
 less silence reigned throughout the room while 
 the Chief Justice was perusing the verdict. 
 
 The Chief Justice returned it to the Clerk 
 and desired him to read it aloud. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren : "If the Court please, before 
 the verdict is recorded, we wish to have the jury 
 polled." 
 
 The Chief Justice : " The usual way is to read 
 
A FAMOUS AMERICAN ACTOR 93 
 
 the verdict first, and to poll the jury before it is 
 recorded." 
 
 Clerk : " Gentlemen, hearken to your verdict 
 
 as it stands recorded." 
 
 Mr. Van Buren : " No, not recorded, as it is read." 
 
 The Clerk then read the following : 
 
 " The jury will answer specially to the following 
 
 questions : 
 
 " First : ' Has or has not the defendant, Edwm 
 Forrest, since his marriage with the plaintiff, 
 Catharine N. Forrest, committed adultery as 
 in the complaint in this action charged ? ' 
 " ' He has.' 
 
 " Second : ' Were or were not the said plaintiff 
 and said defendant inhabitants of this State at 
 the time of the commission of said adultery by 
 the said defendant ? ' 
 " ' They were.' 
 
 " Third : ' Was or was not such adultery by the 
 said defendant committed within this State ? ' 
 " ' It was.' 
 
 " Fourth : ' Was or was not the said defendant 
 a resident of the State of New York, at the time 
 of the commencement of this action ? ' 
 " ' He was/ 
 
 " Fifth : ' Has or has not the plaintiff com- 
 mitted adultery as alleged against her in the 
 answer in this action ? ' 
 " ' She has not.' 
 
 " Sixth : ' Was or was not the plaintiff a resi- 
 dent and inhabitant of this State at the time of 
 the commencement of this action ? ' 
 
94 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 " ' She was.' 
 
 " Seventh : ' Was or was not the plaintiff 
 an actual inhabitant of this State at the time 
 of the commission of such adultery by the de- 
 fendant within this State, and also at the time 
 of the commencement of this action ? ' 
 She was.' 
 " Eighth : ' What annual amount of alimony 
 ought to be allowed the plaintiff ? ' 
 " ' Three thousand dollars.' 
 " The jury say that the}^ find for the plaintiff 
 on the whole issue in the pleadings, and that 
 in answer they find in the affirmative on the 
 first, second, third, fourth, sixth and seventh 
 questions of fact specified in the order of December 
 24th, 1850, and in the negative on the fifth question 
 of fact specified in the said order. 
 
 " And they find that alimony be allowed the 
 plaintiff to the amount of three thousand dollars 
 per year. 
 " (Signed) 
 Stephen W. Meech, Pelatiah P. Page, 
 William Earle, Thomas B. Harris, 
 
 Horace Beals, Meigs D. Benjamin, 
 
 Theodore de Witt, J. N. Ernenpertsch, 
 Daniel G. Edsall, C. S. Schlessenger, 
 Calvin H. Merry, John Caswell." 
 The audience applauded as the responses were 
 given to the fifth and eighth questions. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren : " We desire, if the court 
 please, as I have already stated, that each juror 
 should — " 
 
A FAMOUS AMERICAN ACTOR 95 
 
 The Chief Justice : " You wish to have the 
 juiy polled. Gentlemen, as each juror is asked 
 if that is his verdict, he will answer in the affirma- 
 tive or negative." 
 
 The Clerk then interrogated each juror thus : 
 " Is this your verdict as it will be recorded ? " 
 To which Messrs. Meech, Earle, Beals, De Witt, 
 Edsall, and Merry answered audibly in the affirma- 
 tive. When Mr. Page was asked, he stood up 
 and appeared unable to respond. He then sat 
 down, leaving the whole court in doubt as to his 
 reply. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren : "I don't hear the gentleman's 
 response." 
 
 Mr. Page (aloud) : " It is." 
 
 All the jurors answered in the affirmative. 
 
 The Chief Justice : " Gentlemen, the next 
 thing in order is to pay the jury a shilling each." 
 (Laughter). 
 
 Mr. Van Buren : "If the court please, we 
 desire to make an application for time for pre- 
 paration in respect to the questions which have 
 arisen in this case, either by application for a new 
 trial, or by bill of exceptions." 
 
 The Chief Justice : " The proper course is to 
 apply to the Judge in Chambers." 
 
 Mr. O'Conor : " In respect to the time to be 
 allowed for such measure as your Honor suggests, 
 it must be in the nature of an application. Of 
 course, on this subject, every facility will be 
 accorded. The course which I propose, however, 
 requires a movement in the Special Term, and it 
 
96 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 is necessary to ask the Judge in Special Term to 
 assign any day to come before your Honor, in 
 respect to the completeness of judgment. It is 
 a matter to be disposed of by your Honor." 
 
 The Chief Justice : "As respects application 
 for time, that follows as a matter of course ; and 
 as respects the formula to be observed, let the 
 matter be adjourned over till to-morrow morning 
 at ten o'clock, when the question can be gone 
 into in detail, and at which time Mr. Van Buren 
 may make any application." 
 
 Mr. Van Buren : "I can then make both 
 applications — an application for time, and also 
 for stay of proceedings." 
 
 The Chief Justice : " The application for time 
 is granted as a matter of course." 
 
 Mr. Van Buren : " We are to understand that 
 the motions are to be made without any further 
 notice to the other side. We would not be at 
 liberty to make it here without consent of the 
 court, and this was the reason why I inquired 
 of the court whether an affidavit can be made here 
 to-morrow morning." 
 
 The Chief Justice : " Let the verdict be recorded, 
 and the court adjourned till to-morrow morning 
 at ten o'clock." 
 
 Mr. O'Conor : "I believe that the simple form 
 of asking the jury had they agreed to their verdict, 
 has not been technically gone through." 
 
 The verdict was then formally recorded. 
 
 Mr. Forrest, accompanied by some friends, 
 immediately left the court. As he descended to the 
 
A FAMOUS AMERICAN ACTOR 97 
 
 Park, he was saluted with vociferous cheers from 
 the assembled multitude, who continued to shout 
 and cheer him on half-way up Broadway. 
 
 Mrs. Forrest, after having been congratulated 
 by her friends on the result, left the court escorted 
 by Mr. O'Conor, through the back egress, into 
 Chambers Street, where also a large concourse of 
 people had congregated. Deafening cheers saluted 
 her, likewise, and the crowd continued to wave 
 their hats and to shout until the lady and escort 
 gained the Irving House, where she at present 
 resides. 
 
 Edwin Forrest died on December 12th, 1872, 
 and when his will was opened it was found to con- 
 tain a most elaborate scheme for the endowment 
 of a home for aged members of the theatrical 
 profession. He left his not inconsiderable fortune 
 to the project, but the widow's legal claims re- 
 duced the amount available for the philanthropic 
 enterprise, and although the home was established 
 and was named after the actor, the greater portion 
 of the endowment money came from the pockets 
 of certain persons who wished to perpetuate 
 Forrest's fame in a practical manner. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 A REAL MELODRAMA 
 
 The great will suit, Bainbrigge v. Bainbrigge, 
 instituted by direction of the Court of Chancery 
 to determine the rightful ownership of certain 
 historic estates in Derbyshire, Warwickshire, and 
 Staffordshire, occupied five days at the Summer 
 Assizes at Stafford in 1850, and was the medium 
 by which the general public became acquainted 
 with the extraordinary life-story of a member 
 of a distinguished county family who had never 
 recovered from the shock produced by an unhappy 
 love affair. 
 
 Few persons outside those immediately con- 
 cerned were interested in the result of the action, 
 and it was the revelations made by the Solicitor- 
 General, Sir Alexander Cockburn, that drew crowds 
 to the court. 
 
 The public did not care who gained the property ; 
 it was the eccentricities of Thomas Bainbrigge, 
 the testator, that monopolised their attention, 
 for the combination of the romantic and the sordid, 
 vice and virtue, and the Jekyll and Hyde existence 
 of the county magnate and magistrate proved fact 
 to be stranger than fiction. 
 
 According to the Solicitor-General, Thomas 
 
 98 
 
A REAL MELODRAMA 99 
 
 Bainbrigge was a young man possessed of great 
 intellectual accomplishments, refined tastes, and 
 polished manners. He was a welcome guest at 
 the houses of the greatest social and political 
 leaders in London and the country ; the former 
 being desirous of providing him with a wife and 
 the latter anxious to gain his support and influence 
 at the polls. 
 
 He was envied by all, for he appeared to have 
 everything in his favour, and no surprise was 
 expressed when he became engaged to the niece 
 of an earl whose beauty had inspired more than 
 one artist. Mr. Bainbrigge, senior, approved of 
 his son's choice, and the date of the wedding 
 was fixed, and the lawyers on both sides met to 
 consider the important question of settlement. 
 
 Here, however, a hitch occurred, for Mr. Bain- 
 brigge took umbrage at the suggestions proffered 
 by the young lady's parents regarding the amount 
 of money they should contribute, and in his rage 
 the old man peremptorily forbade the marriage 
 taking place. 
 
 The blow was a severe one to Thomas, but it 
 proved fatal to the girl, for within a few weeks 
 she died, and, although the doctors ascribed it 
 to natural causes, Thomas Bainbrigge believed 
 that it was due to a broken heart, and he swore 
 that he would never go into society again, never 
 marry, and live henceforth as a hermit. 
 
 Quarrels between father and son became frequent, 
 but when the former died it was found that he 
 had not carried out his threat to disinherit Thomas, 
 
ioo SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 who succeeded to the complete control of the 
 property. 
 
 He was now a very rich man, with three palatial 
 residences, and choosing Woodseat, near the 
 Sherwood Forest, as his headquarters, he installed 
 a handsome woman of thirty as his housekeeper, 
 and began a course of conduct which startled and 
 scandalised the whole county. He dressed like a 
 tramp, mixed with his grooms, allowed pigeons 
 to build their nests amongst the costly books 
 in his splendid library, and, with a farm labourer, 
 wearing a smock, as his coachman, drove about 
 in a carriage in which fowls were roosting. When 
 a horse offended him he solemnly tried it, and, 
 having found it guilty, ordered it to be transported 
 for life. On appeal — he was always the judge — 
 he announced that he was graciously pleased to 
 reduce the sentence to seven years' solitary con- 
 finement, and the unfortunate animal duly served 
 its term, spending the years in darkness, sustained 
 by food craftily apportioned to sustain life. 
 
 Yet on those rare occasions when Bainbrigge 
 accepted an invitation to dine at a neighbouring 
 mansion, he appeared correctly clothed in evening 
 dress, and looked the spruce, polished man of 
 the world to his finger-tips. Then his fellow- 
 guests listened with relish to his clever remarks, 
 which were always in good taste, and, naturally, 
 could not credit the rumours which branded him 
 as a half-crazy bully. 
 
 When Bainbrigge took his place amongst his 
 colleagues on the magisterial bench, his conduct 
 
A REAL MELODRAMA 101 
 
 was equally blameless, but there is no doubt that 
 he had two characters and changed them at will. 
 
 Before his reputation had spread, however, 
 something very important had occurred at Wood- 
 seat, and that was the birth of a daughter to the 
 housekeeper, of which Bainbrigge acknowledged 
 the paternity. 
 
 At first he was inclined to send the infant to 
 London to be adopted there and forgotten, but 
 the baby quickly gained his love, and although 
 he had to banish the mother for misconduct he 
 retained her little girl, lavished all his affection on 
 her, and told all his acquaintances that she was 
 his heiress. He engaged the best nurses and 
 governesses for ner, and, when she was old enough, 
 sent her to the best boarding school ; and, al- 
 together, Betty — as he called her — had every 
 advantage money could procure for her. When 
 she was thirteen he made a will leaving her every- 
 thing he possessed, ordered that, if she married, 
 her husband should assume the name of Bain- 
 brigge, and if she had any children the estates were 
 to descend to them. Should there be no issue of 
 her marriage the property was bequeathed, after 
 her death, to his brother's sons. 
 
 When Betty came back from her finishing school 
 she was a very pretty and accomplished young 
 lady, and her personality was sufficient to counter- 
 act the prejudice created by her illegitimacy. 
 She was received as Thomas Bainbrigge's daughter, 
 but there were not many families which kept up 
 an acquaintance with Bainbrigge, whose conduct, 
 
102 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 as time passed, was getting more eccentric and 
 even outrageous. 
 
 The trial of the horse, already described, was 
 as yet some years off, but his drunken habits 
 and violent conduct were gradually isolating him. 
 Now, the owner of Woodseat did not worry about 
 that, but it was unfair to expect a young and 
 innocent girl, who had spent her most impres- 
 sionable years in a luxurious boarding-school, to 
 feel at home amid dirt and squalor and surrounded 
 by servants who tried to imitate their master's 
 vices and only succeeded in being beastly. 
 
 Betty sought for friends amongst girls of her 
 own age, but they repulsed her because their 
 mothers had had reason to refuse to acknowledge 
 her father, and eventually, the girl was driven to 
 consorting with kitchenmaids and grooms. Bain- 
 brigge generally laughed knowingly whenever he 
 saw her chatting in the stableyard with his men- 
 servants, and he made many sly references to 
 possible intrigues with them. 
 
 More than once he jocularly advised her to 
 wait until he was dead before she married a stable- 
 hand, and it was not surprising that in a mansion 
 where everything was topsy-turvy the coachman 
 should take advantage of his experience and 
 Betty's ignorance to lead her into a course of 
 conduct which compelled her to confess to her 
 father one night that she was expecting a baby. 
 
 Bainbrigge was furious with her, and imme- 
 diately threatened to murder the scoundrel who 
 had betrayed her. The coachman, however, had 
 
A REAL MELODRAMA 103 
 
 anticipated danger, for when his employer sought 
 him he was informed by a groom that he had 
 removed himself to an unknown destination. 
 
 " As soon as your baby is born you shall leave 
 the house," he screamed at the terrified girl. 
 " You have been ungrateful for all I have done 
 for \ r ou." In reality Bainbrigge was to blame 
 for the catastrophe, but there was no one to remind 
 him of his responsibility. 
 
 To mark his displeasure, he drew up another 
 will, in which he left Betty two hundred a year 
 for life and bestowed the rest of his huge income 
 on his brothers and sisters and their children. 
 " There, that's the last will I shall ever sign," 
 he said to his lawyer, Mr. Blair. " Never again 
 shall I trust man or woman, young or old." 
 
 He was still angry with Betty when her baby 
 was born, and he declined in coarse terms to see 
 her or the infant. But when the day came he 
 had appointed for her eviction he realised how 
 lonely the place would be without her, and he 
 withdrew his ban, and even paid for a nurse to 
 take care of the child. 
 
 It sounds like a novelette romance, but it was 
 proved in court that within a few minutes of 
 seeing the baby-girl for the first time he became 
 passionately attached to her and swore that 
 Marianne — as she was christened — should be his 
 heiress instead of her mother. 
 
 Marianne was a very beautiful child, chubby 
 and blue-eyed, and with an angelic expression. 
 Bainbrigge, becoming fearful lest the mother 
 
104 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 should take her away, would not allow her to leave 
 the grounds surrounding the mansion, and made 
 an order that she should be brought to him at 
 certain hours of the day to satisfy himself that 
 she was on the premises. 
 
 He need not have worried, for Betty had no 
 intention of disqualifying the infant for an in- 
 heritance worth many thousands a year. Besides 
 that, she was thinking of getting married. Wood- 
 seat had become distasteful to her ; the sneers 
 of the servants, the " cut direct " she now so 
 often received from the ladies of the county, and, 
 above all, her father's strange conduct being 
 responsible for her desire to leave the place. 
 
 There were several men who would have been 
 willing to overlook her more notorious lapse, but, 
 by a strange fatality, it was with the son of her 
 father's bitterest enemy that she fell in love. 
 Farmer Arnold and Thomas Bainbrigge had been 
 engaged for years in a dispute respecting the 
 Squire of Woodseat's right to shoot over the land 
 rented by Arnold, and once at least they had 
 had a bout of fisticuffs. 
 
 It was only necessary to mention the farmer's 
 name with any degree of politeness to send Bain- 
 brigge into paroxysms of rage, and, had Arnold 
 ever been found dead in suspicious circumstances, 
 the police would have arrested Bainbrigge at once 
 on suspicion. 
 
 Betty was well aware of her father's animosity 
 against his neighbour and tenant when young 
 Arnold began to court her when she sought refuge 
 
A REAL MELODRAMA 105 
 
 from the disgraceful scenes at Woodseat by going 
 for long walks in the fields. He was a handsome 
 lad, with a persuasive tongue, and he worked on 
 her feelings so successfully that when a servant 
 reported to his employer that he had seen Betty 
 and young Arnold embracing, the squire's almost 
 maniacal fit of passion did not frighten her into 
 denying that she meant to marry the son of his 
 enemy. 
 
 Bainbrigge did not meet her confession with 
 mere threats. The position was too serious for that. 
 "You shall go away in care of two trusted servants," 
 he thundered at her — she was only eighteen. " If 
 I had the power to remove the Arnolds I would 
 do so. As I have not, I shall remove you." 
 
 Betty said nothing, and apparently was afraid 
 to resist his authority. She knew that he was a 
 violent man, and that it would be dangerous to 
 rouse the evil passions of one who was almost a 
 lunatic, but she communicated with her lover 
 at least once a day, and she was able to give him 
 the address of the house to which she was con- 
 veyed by her father's orders. 
 
 After a few days in her place of exile she escaped, 
 and met young Arnold at the cross-roads, and 
 with him she journeyed to the nearest town, 
 where they were married. " Never mention her 
 name to me again," shouted Bainbrigge, when the 
 news of the elopement was brought to him. "I'd 
 have forgiven her marrying the coachman, but 
 now that she's the wife of my enemy she's dead 
 to me from this moment." 
 
106 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 Of course, he made a fresh will — it was his 
 custom whenever offended — and on this occasion 
 he did not mention his daughter's name in it, but 
 his grand-daughter, Marianne, was given every- 
 thing. If the latter never had children, all was 
 to go to his brothers and sisters, and that shrewd 
 solicitor, Blair, was named a trustee to see that 
 its provisions were carried out. 
 
 There is little doubt that his daughter, now 
 Mrs. Arnold, hoped that he would forgive her, 
 but his hatred of her grew as his love for Marianne 
 increased. Whenever a letter was received from 
 either Mr. or Mrs. Arnold it was burnt unopened, 
 and two servants who incautiously referred to 
 his daughter were dismissed. Gloom now settled 
 down on Woodseat, and Bainbrigge's eccen- 
 tricities became so pronounced that it seemed he 
 must soon be placed in an asylum. 
 
 Three years after Betty's elopement with young 
 Arnold, the master of Woodseat removed with 
 his grand-daughter and servants to Green Lane, 
 Derby. He was quite mad now, though he had 
 his lucid intervals, and his passion for horse- 
 racing helped to banish occasionally from his mind 
 memories of his daughter's escapade, and then 
 he could behave like a sane man and confound 
 those who had spread rumours of his madness. 
 
 He competed at the Derby races, and was 
 thrown from his horse and sustained severe 
 injuries. It was commonly believed that he 
 was dying, and immediately the " wolves " 
 gathered to try and despoil him, Hearing of his 
 
A REAL MELODRAMA 107 
 
 accident and of the arrival of his brother and 
 two nephews, Mrs. Arnold hastened to Green Lane 
 and entreated the butler to allow her to see her 
 father. 
 
 " You are not to be admitted," said the servant 
 insolently. He could not forget the intrigue 
 between her and the coachman and, in the cir- 
 cumstances, had no respect lor her. Again and 
 again she laid siege to the front door, but there 
 was always someone to bar her entry, and when- 
 ever she threatened to claim her daughter she 
 was invited to do her worst. 
 
 " Tell her if she wants n^ forgiveness she has 
 it already," said Thomas Bainbrigge, " but that 
 she shall never have a penny of my money." 
 However, when he was convalescent, he added a 
 codicil to his will giving Mrs. Arnold fifty pounds 
 a year for life, a legacy which was regarded by his 
 daughter as an insult. 
 
 Three more years of life were left to Thomas 
 Bainbrigge, and he spent them in riotous living. 
 Marianne, the grand-daughter whom he professed 
 to love, was given into the charge of the servants 
 and generally kept in a state of ignorance and dirt. 
 
 The unfortunate child was taught to use foul 
 language and to acquire some of the arts of the 
 pickpocket, and it was her grandfather's hobby 
 to send for her after dinner so that she might re- 
 peat what she had learnt that day. 
 
 " She's a chip of the old block ! " he cried, 
 ecstatically, when Marianne, aged eight, reviled 
 the servants in his hearing. One morning he 
 
108 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 suddenly decided that the female domestics were 
 idle and worthless, and there and then he 
 marshalled them and ordered them to leave at 
 once. 
 
 A girl who remonstrated at the shortness of 
 the notice was seized by the throat and dragged 
 choking from the house, and if the tactful Mr. 
 Blair had not paid her a monetary compensation 
 she would have had her master indicted at the 
 assizes. 
 
 A male staff was engaged, but it did not give 
 satisfaction, and Bainbrigge was ever at war. 
 On one occasion he had a fight with a tipsy groom, 
 in which he was defeated, and for a fortnight 
 he remained locked in his bedroom, the butler 
 being admitted once a day with food and drink. 
 
 The wealthy landowner was now existing mainly 
 on brandy, while Marianne was growing up in a 
 regular school of vice. But with all his madness, 
 love of strong drink and weakness for the sordid 
 and the squalid, Thomas Bainbrigge could behave 
 like a gentleman whenever he liked. 
 
 His fellow-magistrates saw nothing odd in his 
 behaviour, and they met him when he was sup- 
 posed to be mad, but they never came in contact 
 with him in his own home, and it was proved that 
 when there he was a different being. His conduct 
 towards his grand-daughter was in itself proof 
 positive that he was not sane, for he loved her 
 and yet was making her ruin a certainty. 
 
 Reference has been made to the will of 1815 
 by which the estates were left to Marianne and 
 
A REAL MELODRAMA 109 
 
 her issue, and, failing them, to the eldest son of 
 his second brother. This will was still in existence 
 when, in 1818, Bainbrigge indulged in a drinking- 
 bout which brought him to his death-bed. His 
 case was hopeless from the first, and when Mrs. 
 Arnold was informed of it she went to him. 
 
 There was now no one to deny her admission, 
 because her father was incapable of giving orders, 
 and she had the advantage of having a friend 
 and champion in the person of Blair, the solicitor, 
 who had his own reasons for wishing to see her in 
 possession of the property. 
 
 Blair was secretly an embezzler, and owed the 
 Bainbrigge estate a considerable sum, and he 
 knew that if the property ever came to Thomas 
 Parker Bainbrigge, the testator's nephew, and, 
 after Marianne and her issue, the heir, he would be 
 called to account. 
 
 It was now resolved by the conspirators that 
 Thomas Bainbrigge should make a fresh will and 
 that Mrs. Arnold should figure prominently in it, 
 and, as a preliminary, arrangements were entered 
 into to prevent any of Bainbrigge's brothers or 
 nephews visiting him. No clergyman was sent 
 for to minister to the dying man, who, when Blair 
 hinted that another will ought to be drawn up, 
 nodded feebly and expressed his willingnes to 
 sign it. 
 
 Accordingly, Blair wrote out a will leaving the 
 estates to Mrs. Arnold and her children, should 
 Marianne die without leaving an heir. To main- 
 tain Mrs. Arnold, a sum of one hundred pounds 
 
no SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 a year was to be paid her during the life of her 
 husband, and after his death the allowance was 
 to be three hundred. None of Bainbrigge's 
 brothers or sisters was mentioned, and the omission 
 of their names from the will of 1818 had a powerful 
 effect on the jury in 1850. 
 
 Evidence was given at the trial that when 
 Thomas Bainbrigge could not raise his hand or 
 hold the pen, Blair put it between the dying man's 
 fingers, and, holding his hand, controlled it as 
 it moved along the paper. Thus, it was Blair 
 who really signed the will, though Thomas Bain- 
 brigge's name appeared at the bottom of it. 
 
 Two days later, after this curious scene, he 
 died, and Blair and his fellow-trustee took charge 
 of the estates on behalf of the heiress, Marianne, 
 who was only eleven. The child was removed to 
 a school, and an attempt made to educate her, 
 but heredity and her previous environment proved 
 too much for her, and at sixteen she eloped with 
 a man whose origin was as obscure as his means 
 were infinitesimal. 
 
 She had two children by him, and the succession 
 to the property seemed barred from the Arnolds, 
 but by 1845 both the children were dead, and 
 Marianne herself was in her grave. During her 
 lifetime the Bainbrigges had not interfered, for 
 nothing could have deprived Marianne or her 
 children of the estates, which both wills had given 
 to her. 
 
 When all were dead, however, a new situation 
 arose, for the Bainbrigges believed that the will 
 
A REAL MELODRAMA ill 
 
 of 1818, leaving the property to the Arnold's 
 children in the event of Marianne's predeceasing 
 them without any heirs, had been procured by 
 fraud when the testator had been insane and too 
 near death to be capable of understanding what 
 he was doing. 
 
 Accordingly, they appealed to the court, and 
 the action was ordered. Sir Alexander Cockburn 
 led on behalf of Thomas Parker Bainbrigge and 
 endeavoured to show that the will of 1818 ought 
 not to be allowed to stand. 
 
 Many witnesses appeared on both sides, and 
 Blair himself was examined, and admitted that 
 he had, fourteen years earlier, become a bankrupt 
 and that he owed a hundred thousand pounds, 
 some of which was trust money. He, of course, 
 spoke for the Arnolds, and he denied that he had 
 helped Thomas Bainbrigge to sign the will. 
 
 Lord Campbell, in summing up, rather in- 
 clined to the side of the defendant, but the jury 
 returned a verdict for Thomas Parker Bainbrigge, 
 who thereupon became the owner of the estates. 
 
 The defendants, however, obtained an order for 
 a new trial, and it looked as though the property 
 would be frittered away in a series of costly law- 
 suits when the opposing parties were induced to 
 meet, and, as a consequence, they agreed to com- 
 promise and to share the estate amongst them- 
 selves instead of letting the lawyers have it. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 SIR CHARLES DILKE 
 
 The dinner given in honour of Sir Charles Dilke 
 by the Reform Club in 1885 was, although those 
 present did not know it, the culmination of a great 
 political career. Few men had achieved so much 
 in so short a time, and to have inspired enthusi- 
 astic admiration in the high priests of Aristro- 
 cratic Liberalism was a remarkable feat. The 
 guest of the evening had reason to be proud of his 
 public record. As a youthful member of Parlia- 
 ment he had earned a flattering notice from Lord 
 Beaconsfield. " He is a future Prime Mimister 
 of the Liberal Party," said the famous Conser- 
 vative statesman, and later when Randolph 
 Churchill elbowed his way into the limelight the 
 witty Disraelite summed him up in the expressive 
 phrase, " Only Dilke and water." He would have 
 been a Cabinet Minister at an earlier age than 
 thirty-nine if he had not flirted for a time with 
 Republicanism, and when he did become President 
 of the Local Government Board he proved that 
 he was as clever a constructive statesman as he 
 had been a destructive critic. Added to his 
 intellectual gifts were a compelling personality 
 and charming manners, and, if obviously conscious 
 
 112 
 
SIR CHARLES DILKE 113 
 
 of his talents, he never obtruded his knowledge ; 
 in fact, Dilke was a born statesman and diplomat, 
 and just the man to lead and hold together a 
 party composed of the many factions termed 
 Liberal and Radical. 
 
 On his way home from the dinner at the Reform 
 Club he had cause to feel certain that he would be 
 Gladstone's successor in the Premiership, but 
 when he read the letter from an intimate friend 
 which awaited him he must have realised that, 
 politically speaking, he was a ruined man. The 
 note was brief, and it requested Dilke to call early 
 the next morning to discuss " grave business." 
 Did the baronet understand fully what those two 
 words meant ? I think he did, and that in the 
 very hour of his triumph he became the prey of 
 despair. 
 
 For the " grave business " was a confession 
 made by the wife of Mr. Donald Crawford, M.P., 
 that she had committed adultery with Sir Charles 
 Dilke. The latter instantly got into touch with 
 his friends, chief among them being Mr. Joseph 
 Chamberlain, Sir Henry James, Q.C., and Sir 
 Charles Russell, Q.C., and they did their best to 
 prevent a public scandal, but Mrs. Crawford could 
 not be persuaded to withdraw her amazing state- 
 ment, and the injured husband presented a 
 petition for divorce. It could not have happened 
 at a worse time for Dilke. 
 
 The fight between the two great political parties 
 was at its height ; within the space of a few months 
 three ministries were formed ; the leaders on both 
 
 H 
 
ii4 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 sides were severely tested, and the rewards for 
 success were dazzling. Dilke, whose seat for 
 Chelsea was impregnable, had been marked down 
 for high office if Gladstone won, but as fate willed 
 it, the Liberals came into power shortly before the 
 hearing of the divorce suit, and the Prime Min- 
 ister could only write to Sir Charles and express 
 his regret that in the circumstances he could not 
 include him in his Cabinet. By this time the 
 co-respondent's only hope was an unimpeachable 
 and unassailable triumph in the Law Courts, 
 and on February 12th, 1886, he appeared with his 
 counsel, Sir Charles Russell (Attorney-General), 
 Sir Henry James (who had just refused the Lord 
 Chancellorship because he disapproved of Mr. 
 Gladstone's Irish policy), and Mr. Searle. 
 
 It was because of their friendship with the 
 baronet that they championed him, for James 
 was not the man to act as junior to Russell or 
 anyone else at the Bar, and the Attorney-General 
 was almost overwhelmed with work. However, 
 both were anxious to rehabilitate their colleague, 
 and with Joseph Chamberlain in court to confer 
 with them, they were very sanguine. 
 
 In a multitude of counsel, however, there is 
 little wisdom, and there can be no doubt that 
 Dilke suffered from too much advice. Russell 
 and James, after a conference with Chamberlain, 
 decided not to put him in the witness-box, because 
 Mrs. Crawford's confession not having been made 
 in his presence and not being corroborated, there 
 was no legal need for Dilke to be sworn and exam- 
 
SIR CHARLES DILKE 115 
 
 ined. They assured him that the case against him 
 must be dismissed with costs, and that he could 
 never be cited again as co-respondent. 
 
 The judge who presided was Mr. Justice Butt, 
 and counsel for the petitioner, Mr. Donald Craw- 
 ford, were Mr. Inderwick, Q.C., and Mr. R. S. 
 Wright. Lockwood was present to represent Mrs. 
 Crawford, but the action was an undefended one 
 so far as she was concerned. 
 
 Of course, only a small minority of the dense 
 crowd which had beseiged the court got the op- 
 portunity to hear Inderwick's speech ; and they 
 were astounded by the evidence of Mr. Crawford 
 and others and amazed when Russell announced 
 the policy of his client, for to ordinary men it 
 looked as though the co-respondent was taking 
 advantage of a legal technicality to shirk the 
 issue. 
 
 However, before this state was reached Craw- 
 ford had told the story of his married life, and a 
 very remarkable story it was. He had married 
 Miss Virginia Smith, the daughter of an M.P., 
 on July 27th, 1881. The lady had been only 
 eighteen years of age — less than half his own — 
 but the match had been regarded as a good one 
 for her, for Crawford was rich, and, if not exactly 
 a prominent parliamentarian, he often came into 
 contact with the leaders of his party by virtue 
 of the minor appointment he held, that of secre- 
 tary to the Lord Advocate for Scotland. 
 
 Some months subsequent to the ceremony 
 his wife had startled him by saying, " Donald, if 
 
n6 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 ever I was unfaithful to you would you forgive 
 me ? I do not think you would." He had then 
 replied that he would not, but he had treated the 
 remark lightly, although he recalled it when in 
 the same month he received an anonymous letter 
 at the Home Office — where he carried out his 
 official duties — containing the words, " Beware 
 of the member for Chelsea." 
 
 It was a cryptic but very suggestive message, 
 and he showed it to Mrs. Crawford that evening 
 when he was dressing for dinner. The member for 
 Chelsea was, of course, Sir Charles Dilke, whose 
 brother had married a sister of Mrs. Crawford, 
 and the middle-aged husband laughed in unison 
 with his young wife when she contemptuously 
 disposed of it, and ended by throwing the letter 
 into the fire. 
 
 He was not a suspicious man, and he knew 
 that the tongue of slander was very busy, especi- 
 ally with young wives fond of pleasure who had 
 married elderly men, and, tenacious as he was of 
 his honour, he would not believe anything against 
 the girl who, whatever her real feelings for him 
 may have been, he loved. 
 
 For nearly three years the Crawfords continued 
 to live on good terms, and the Liberal Party being 
 in power they took part in many of the social 
 functions promoted by political hostesses. Oddly 
 enough Sir Charles Dilke and Donald Crawford 
 became closely associated, both being engaged 
 in preparing a Bill for the redistribution of seats, 
 and they were often together at the Local Govern- 
 
SIR CHARLES DILKE 117 
 
 ment Board, and occasionally they met at the 
 Reform Club. Thus they were on familiar terms, 
 when in 1885 Crawford was the recipient of a 
 second anonymous letter. This message was ex- 
 plicit and to the point : " The first person who 
 ruined your wife was Sir Charles Dilke." 
 
 In the witness-box the petitioner stated that 
 he discussed the letter with his wife, and that 
 they agreed to keep the matter secret. The 
 M.P. was perplexed and disturbed, but he was 
 most anxious to protect Mrs. Crawford, and he 
 was unwilling to cause scandal. A day or two 
 later, however, he came face to face with Dilke 
 in the House of Commons, and, he informed the 
 court, the baronet instantly went livid with terror. 
 
 The incident had some effect on him, and after- 
 wards when he came across Dilke at the Reform 
 Club the latter's manner was so constrained and 
 nervous as to be highly significant. But even 
 now he hesitated, and it was not until he returned 
 home on the night of July 17th and found a third 
 anonymous letter that he resolved to investigate 
 the charge. 
 
 The last communication in disguised hand- 
 writing was emphatic and even melodramatic, 
 but if highly coloured its meaning could not be 
 mistaken. It read : — 
 
 " Fool, looking for the cuckoo when he has 
 flown, having defiled your nest. You have been 
 foully deceived, but dare not touch the real 
 traitor." 
 
 Crawford read and re-read it in the hall before 
 
n8 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 going upstairs to the room where his young wife 
 was in bed. 
 
 " I must know one way or the other," he said 
 sternly. " Is it true ? " 
 
 She rose and stood at the foot of the bed. 
 
 "It is perfectly true," she answered frankly. 
 " I was sure I would have to tell you some time 
 or other, and it is right that you should know it 
 now. The real man who did me the injury is 
 Charles Dilke." 
 
 Once she started to confess there was no stopping 
 her, and the astounded husband heard that within 
 a short time of his marriage Sir Charles Dilke 
 had made love to his wife, had persuaded her to 
 meet him at a house in Warren Street, Tottenham 
 Court Road, and that practically throughout 
 the whole of their married life up to 1884 Mrs. 
 Crawford and the baronet had been on the most 
 intimate terms. 
 
 Her statement was too circumstantial to be 
 disregarded, and it bore the stamp of truth on the 
 face of it. Her description of her midnight visits 
 to Dilke's house and the subterfuges they had 
 adopted to hoodwink his servants were astonish- 
 ing. She also said that she had been completely 
 under the influence of Dilke, and that if he had 
 ordered her to perform the most ridiculous and 
 insane acts she would have obeyed him promptly 
 and willingly. 
 
 Mrs. Crawford was not a witness, and could not 
 be examined or cross-examined, but the fact that 
 she had confessed was fully proved. No one, 
 
SIR CHARLES DILKE 119 
 
 however, was called to show that she and Dilke had 
 been seen together in the neighbourhood of the 
 house in Warren Street, for the petitioner simply 
 relied on the confession to obtain a decree of 
 divorce in his favour. It was, therefore, Russell's 
 right to demand that his client should be dis- 
 missed from the suit with costs against the 
 petitioner, and Mr. Justice Butt delivered judg- 
 ment accordingly. Mrs. Crawford was divorced, 
 and the co-respondent was acquitted because there 
 had been no evidence against him beyond what 
 :he lady had said in her statement of guilt. 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain immediately scribbled a 
 triumphal note announcing the verdict, and dis- 
 patched it by special messenger to Mr. Gladstone 
 at Downing Street, but he was premature, for 
 iie had failed to appreciate at once the exact 
 position the verdict left his friend in. The public 
 were not hoodwinked by a legal quibble, and they 
 could not see how it cleared Dilke. The judg- 
 ment bluntly expressed was to the effect that 
 whereas Mrs. Crawford had committed adultery 
 with Sir Charles Dilke the latter had not com- 
 mitted adultery with her, which, as Euclid would 
 say, is absurd. 
 
 The immediate consequences of his apparent 
 triumph was to leave Dilke in a much worse 
 position. He explained afterwards that he had 
 placed himself entirely in the hands of his counsel 
 and Mr. Chamberlain and that he had followed 
 their directions, but his friends had given him bad 
 advice, for by keeping him out of the witness-box 
 
120 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 they had created the impression that he admitted 
 his guilt. 
 
 Now Sir Charles Russell, Sir Henry James and 
 Mr. Chamberlain were clever men of the world, 
 and it is difficult to believe that they would have 
 tendered such advice had they known Dilke 
 to be innocent. Many persons were of opinion 
 at the time that they were aware of their friend's 
 guilt and that they thought that by taking 
 advantage of a legal loophole they would secure 
 an acquittal for Dilke, and he would be able to 
 resume his political career, fortified by the fact 
 that the case against him had been dismissed 
 with costs. They forgot, however, that the public 
 might not endorse the judge's decision. 
 
 As soon as the real position was understood 
 Dilke became frantic in his efforts to secure a new 
 trial. This was, however, impossible. There was 
 no appeal against the decision of the jury in the 
 divorce court, and it looked as though the baronet 
 must forthwith retire altogether from public life 
 when his faithful friends by an arbitrary and un- 
 justificable use of their political power arranged 
 for the Queen's Proctor to intervene and seek 
 an annulment of the decree of divorce on the spec- 
 ious plea that it had been obtained by the sup- 
 pression of " material facts." 
 
 Russell, as Attorney-General, was able to stage- 
 manage the back-stair manoeuvres that led up 
 to the second trial, but he was powerless now to 
 put Dilke back in the position of co-respondent, 
 and he could promise him only that he would be 
 
SIR CHARLES DILKE 121 
 
 called as a witness. He could do nothing more, 
 and thus Dilke, not being a party to the proceed- 
 ings, could not be represented by counsel. It 
 was a serious weakness, because hostile witnesses 
 could not be cross-examined nor any speeches 
 made on his behalf, and Charles Russell, second 
 to none at the English Bar, might have brought 
 off a forlorn chance. 
 
 It speaks volumes for the loyalty of Dilke's 
 friends that Sir Charles Russell and Sir Henry 
 James should have attended the trial although 
 they could be only spectators. They could say 
 or do nothing, and all their craity attempts to 
 intervene were quashed by Sir James Hannen. 
 
 The evidence was fuller than at the first trial, 
 and, with Matthews to cross-examine the witnesses 
 for the Proctor, the interest was heightened. Sir 
 Walter Phillimore had to try to prove that 
 Mrs. Crawford had not committed adultery with 
 anyone, and his witnesses included private 
 secretaries of Sir Charles Dilke, relations, ser- 
 vants and friends of the baronet, and Dilke 
 himself. 
 
 The medley combined to swear that the baronet 
 could not have been with Mrs. Crawford at the 
 times named by her, and they endeavoured to 
 convince the jury that the confession was an 
 elaborate lie. Dilke categorically denied every- 
 thing with one exception. 
 
 " Did you tell Mrs. Crawford that you loved her 
 because she reminded j^ou of her mother ? " 
 asked Matthews, cross-examining. 
 
122 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 " I decline to answer that question," said the 
 witness, with feeling. 
 
 But, after all, the crux of the case was the 
 evidence of Mrs. Crawford. In the witness-box 
 she repeated her confession, and cross-examination 
 did not weaken it. She was asked to describe 
 the room in the Warren Street house in which she 
 alleged she had been in the habit of meeting Dilke, 
 and she offered to make a sketch of it from memory. 
 She did so, and the result was to confirm her 
 contention. 
 
 "Is it true that you committed adultery with 
 Sir Charles Dilke ? " said the leading counsel 
 for her husband. 
 
 " It is true," she replied in a low tone. 
 
 A little later she pathetically referred to her 
 husband. 
 
 " I never loved him," she said with emotion. 
 " I only married him because I was miserable at 
 home, and all my family wanted me to marry him. 
 He is very much my senior." 
 
 It was another instance of the marriage of 
 convenience failing when tested by time, but, 
 in fairness to the memory of Donald Crawford, 
 it must be stated that his motives were of the 
 purest. In the course of the litigation which his 
 wife's conduct gave rise to many names were 
 tarnished, but not that of the petitioner, and 
 Mr. Matthews was right when he declared that 
 no one had dared to make the slightest aspersion 
 against the character of his client, whose honour 
 was unquestioned. 
 
SIR CHARLES DILKE 123 
 
 For six days the trial proceeded, but it is easy 
 to sum it up briefly. Mrs. Crawford had sworn 
 that she used to see Dilke at a house in Warren 
 Street, and when, to test this statement, she 
 had been taken to the thoroughfare and requested 
 to identify the building, she had pointed out one, 
 and, although Dilke reiterated his denial of guilt, 
 and was positive that he had never seen Mrs. 
 Crawford anywhere except in society, it was, 
 as the president of the court remarked, signifi- 
 cant that the house she named was kept by a 
 woman who had been for years in the service of 
 the baronet. It would have been ridiculous to 
 suggest that it was a coincidence. 
 
 Then, in her confession, she had referred to a 
 certain Fanny Stock as having been present 
 when she and Sir Charles were together. Fanny 
 ought to have been produced by Dilke in his own 
 interests, but the girl vanished soon after the start 
 of the divorce preliminaries, and was never seen 
 in court. To further strengthen Mrs. Crawford's 
 narrative three independent witnesses who lived 
 in Warren Street, and who must have been un- 
 biassed, swore that they had seen Sir Charles 
 entering the house opposite, and that on each 
 occasion he had been followed by a closely-veiled 
 lady. Their testimony was in direct conflict to 
 Dilke's oath that he had never visited the place 
 more than once a year when he had called as a 
 matter of courtesy to see his old pensioned servant. 
 
 Evidence of interested friends and political 
 partisans was practically useless against such 
 
124 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 testimony, and Phillimore and Bargrave Deane 
 could not make out any sort of case for the Queen's 
 Proctor. When the trial began the friends of 
 Dilke may have been hopeful, but as it proceeded 
 they must have realised that every day lessened 
 the chances of victory ; and the cynical under- 
 stood why Russell had kept his client out of the 
 box at the hearing of the divorce suit. 
 
 Mr. Matthews' speech for Mr. Crawford was a 
 pugnacious, penetrating, and incisive oration 
 which irritated Sir Charles Russell, but Sir James 
 Hannen quickly reminded the Irishman that he 
 must not interfere as he was only a spectator. 
 Dilke interjected a loud " No ! " when counsel 
 declared that his (Dilke's) first act on hearing 
 of Mrs. Crawford's confession had been an attempt 
 to bribe her into a retraction of it, but Matthews 
 blandly protested and resumed. When Phillimore 
 had done his best to meet his arguments the 
 President summed up very fully. It was not 
 in favour of the Queen's Proctor, and when the 
 jury were asked for their verdict they took a 
 quarter of an hour to settle a question which had 
 been debated upon for six days. 
 
 " We find it (the decree of divorce) was not 
 procured contrary to the justice of the case," 
 said the foreman. 
 
 In a leading article " The Times " summarised 
 the verdict aptly : " The jury in Crawford v. 
 Crawford has found," it said, " that Mrs. Crawford 
 has spoken the truth and that Sir Charles Dilke 
 has not." 
 
SIR CHARLES DILKE 125 
 
 The discomfited politician was not willing even 
 now to abandon the struggle to vindicate him- 
 self, and, although the change of government 
 had sent his friends into opposition, he endeav- 
 oured to secure the sympathetic co-operation of 
 the new Law Officers — Sir Richard Webster and 
 Sir Edward Clarke. Various queer proposals were 
 considered by him and his friends, and the most 
 ridiculous of them all was submitted to the 
 Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General for 
 their opinion. 
 
 They were asked to charge Dilke with having 
 perjured himself during the hearing of the case, 
 Crawford v. Crawford, the Queen's Proctor 
 intervening. 
 
 The Law Officers, however, declined to institute 
 a prosecution which they knew would be intended 
 to fail. The}^ had no right to spend the public 
 money to enable Sir Charles Dilke to wriggle out 
 of the consequences of his own folly, and with 
 their decision the last effort to save him collapsed 
 and the baronet departed into obscurity for a 
 term of years. 
 
 He returned to public life later and as a private 
 member had some influence, but his great talents 
 were wasted and, when he died in 191 1 at the age 
 of sixty-eight, the majority of newspaper readers 
 were rather surprised to be told that he had once 
 been a force in the world of politics and that in 
 the days of his power he had influenced the fate 
 of nations. Those who maintain that great events 
 are merely the results of an aggregation of the 
 
126 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 trivialities from which they spring will prefer 
 to think that the most important effect of the 
 Dilke debacle was the fact that it convinced 
 Queen Victoria that even a Divorce Court may 
 justify its existence. She read all the details with 
 avidity and rejoiced when the verdict went against 
 the man who had distinguished himself by leading 
 a campaign against parliamentary grants to cousins 
 and other meagre relatives of his Sovereign. 
 Victoria, the Goody-Goody, refused to receive 
 divorced persons, innocent or guilty, to the end of 
 her reign, but she liked to recall the service the 
 Divorce Court rendered her when it banished Sir 
 Charles Dilke from public life. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A BOGUS WEDDING 
 
 The Marquis of Blandford (subsequently sixth 
 Duke of Marlborough) had been married nineteen 
 years to Lady Jane Stewart, daughter of the 
 eighth Earl of Galloway, when " The Satirist," 
 a lively weekly journal of the period, startled 
 society in 1838 by printing a statement to the 
 effect that he was a bigamist, that his real wife 
 was a Miss Susan Adelaide Law, whom he had 
 wed secretly in 1817, and that, consequently, 
 his children by Lady Jane were illegitimate. 
 
 It was a comprehensive indictment, and the 
 sensation it created spread far beyond those circles 
 in which his lordship moved, for the marquis was 
 a member of Parliament, and by an assiduous 
 cultivation of outward appearances was endeav- 
 ouring to atone for a somewhat reckless youth. 
 
 The sudden exposure of the most disgraceful 
 episode in his life prostrated him, and he shrank 
 from giving it further publicity by yielding to the 
 advice of his solicitor and suing " The Satirist " 
 for libel. 
 
 But Lady Blandford would not permit the 
 imputation on herself and her children to pass 
 uncontradicted and disproved, and she compelled 
 
 127 
 
128 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 her husband to apply to the court of the Queen's 
 Bench for a rule for a criminal information against 
 the publisher of the offending paper. The appli- 
 cation was granted, and, notice having been served 
 on the defendant, counsel appeared for him to 
 argue on his behalf. 
 
 It was then that the remarkable story of Lord 
 Blandford's carefully-planned betrayal of a young 
 girl was fully revealed. Susan Law was only 
 seventeen when she became acquainted with the 
 marquis in the vicinity of her parents' house in 
 Seymour Place. He was seven years her senior, 
 good-looking and a bit of a fop, and their meeting 
 was not the accident she thought it was, for, 
 struck by her fresh young beauty and vivacious 
 expression, he had conceived a strong passion 
 for her while yet they were strangers. 
 
 However, he brought himself to her notice by 
 pretending to mistake her for a lady of his ac- 
 quaintance, and during the brief conversation 
 that followed he took care to let her know that he 
 was the heir to the dukedom of Marlborough. 
 That gave a romantic aspect to the encounter in 
 the eyes of the impressionable girl, and shortly 
 afterwards Lord Blandford was a regular visitor 
 at her home, where he was flattered and petted 
 by the Laws, who foresaw the possibility of their 
 daughter making a splendid match. 
 
 There was no mistaking the fact that the youth- 
 ful nobleman was in love with Susan, but they 
 were quite wrong in their estimate of his intentions, 
 for he was looking for a mistress and not a wife, 
 
A BOGUS WEDDING 129 
 
 and he was determined that Susan Law should be 
 the former. When, however, he hinted that 
 marriage was impossible because of the prejudices 
 of his family, the girl expressed her regret and, 
 pointedly, advised him to seek a bride else- 
 where. 
 
 When he suggested that, as they were deeply 
 attached to each other, their best course of action 
 would be to set up house-keeping together, wait 
 patiently until his father died, and then get married, 
 her horrified rejection of it convinced him that 
 he must resort to trickery to attain his object. 
 
 According to Miss Law's affidavit, Lord Bland- 
 ford, after his attempts to persuade her to become 
 his mistress had failed, formally proposed to her, 
 and when she accepted him there was a sort of 
 family conference at the Laws' house at which 
 the marquis put forward several reasons why 
 the ceremony should be a secret one. 
 
 Eventually he carried his point, and it was 
 settled that the marriage should be performed 
 in her own house. Lord Blandford's chief argu- 
 ment in favour of secrecy was his father's oppo- 
 sition to such a match, but he promised that his 
 clergyman-brother should officiate, and Mr. and 
 Mrs. Law and Susan were delighted at this, because 
 the presence of the bridegroom's near relative 
 would be evidence that all the members of her 
 lover's family did not disapprove of her. 
 
 The date was fixed, and close on midnight 
 on the appointed day Lord Blandford arrived 
 with a man whom he introduced as the " Rev. 
 
130 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 Lord William Charles Spencer-Churchill." The 
 latter was dressed in clerical attire, and his ner- 
 vousness was ascribed to his knowledge that he 
 was acting against the wishes of his father, the 
 duke. However, the ceremony was soon over, 
 and the bride and bridegroom were congratulated, 
 and a few days afterwards, as " Captain and Mrs. 
 Lawson," they took up their residence in a house 
 in Manchester Street. Except for two or three 
 intimate friends, no one knew of his relations 
 with Susan Law, and it was only when cir- 
 cumstances compelled him that he took several 
 of his relatives and friends into his confidence. 
 
 One morning " Mrs. Lawson " was driving 
 through St. James's Street when she saw an 
 officer in uniform on his way to the palace. 
 Attracted by his tall figure and gaudy attire, 
 she scrutinized his face, and to her amazement 
 immediately recognised the " clergyman " who 
 had married her to the Marquis of Blandford. 
 
 Young as she was, she must there and then 
 have guessed that she had been tricked, and when 
 she rose to meet Lord Blandford on his return 
 to Manchester Street that night the blazing in- 
 dignation in her eyes must have revealed to him 
 that his deceit had been discovered. 
 
 The scene that ensued ended in Susan going 
 off into hysterics, and her distress was so terrible 
 to witness that he promised to make amends 
 and do all he could to atone for the past. She 
 wished to return to her mother at once, but he 
 persuaded her to remain while he consulted with 
 
A BOGUS WEDDING 131 
 
 his uncle, Colonel Stewart, and his cousin, Lord 
 G allies. 
 
 It was a daring act to bring the latter into the 
 affair, because he was the brother of Lady Jane 
 Stewart, a young lady who had been chosen 
 already by the marquis's parents as the most 
 suitable bride for him. However, the cousins 
 were bosom friends, and Lord Blandford knew 
 that he could rely on him. 
 
 What they advised him to do is not known, 
 but the marquis subsequently conciliated Susan 
 by explaining the marriage law of Scotland, 
 which he proposed to take advantage of, and 
 promising her that he would accompany her to 
 Edinburgh and present her to his friends, the 
 Marquis of Breadalbane, Sir William Elliott, and 
 Sir Tyrrwhitt Jones, as his wife, for by thus 
 acknowledging her not only would she become 
 his legal wife but their four months' old daughter 
 would be legitimised. 
 
 The girl was naturally anxious to regularise 
 her position, and when Lord Garlies and Colonel 
 Stewart came to the house to be introduced to 
 her, and volunteered to escort her as far as Bor- 
 oughbridge, she believed that the man who had 
 tricked her into a bogus marriage really meant to 
 do her justice. His uncle and cousin were pleasant 
 travelling-companions and they made the journey 
 seem short. 
 
 Nevertheless, she was glad to see the marquis 
 at Boroughbridge and to have his company as 
 far as Carlisle. From the latter city she jour- 
 
132 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 neyed alone to Edinburgh, where, on her arrival, 
 she was met by Sir William Elliott, who had 
 engaged suitable lodgings for her. 
 
 The complicated travelling arrangements were 
 meant to enshroud in secrecy the movements of 
 the marquis until he could publicly acknowledge 
 Susan Law as his wife in Scotland, and he did not 
 join her at Edinburgh for some weeks. When he 
 did, it was as Captain Lawson, and, according 
 to his version of the " romance," the transference 
 of their establishment to the Scottish city had 
 nothing whatever to do with marriage. 
 
 He swore that Susan had agreed to live with 
 him in Scotland as " Mrs. Lawson " and that he 
 never called her his wife in the presence of wit- 
 nesses. He was confirmed by the Marquis of 
 Breadalbane and Sir William Elliott, and, no 
 doubt, they did not commit perjury, for when 
 Susan was on her way to Scotland the man who 
 had betrayed her was discussing seriously the 
 possibilities of his marriage to Lady Jane Stewart, 
 his cousin. 
 
 She was a very beautiful girl, who had become 
 doubly attractive in his eyes from the moment 
 he had grown tired of the English woman. It was 
 not likely, therefore, that he would strengthen 
 the bond between himself and Susan. That was 
 why Lord Garlies had assisted him to get her 
 out of London, for the Duke and Duchess of 
 Marlborough and the Earl of Galloway, Lady 
 Jane's father, were in the metropolis with the 
 sole object of arranging the match. 
 
A BOGUS WEDDING 133 
 
 When he could get away from the parental 
 roof, Lord Blandford hastened to join Susan, 
 and for several months they lived together in 
 Edinburgh and enjoyed the society of many of 
 the nobility, although their wives would not 
 associate with " Mrs. Lawson." Occasionally 
 Lord Blandford had to go south on family matters, 
 but he never gave her an inkling of what they 
 were, and he did his best to prevent her discovering 
 their nature. 
 
 His father was now urging a public engagement 
 between him and Lady Jane. The marquis's 
 reasons for delay were growing feebler and more 
 illogical with the paesage of time, and it became 
 obvious that he could not maintain his double 
 role for much longer. 
 
 To add to his worries Susan suddenly decided 
 that she preferred London to Edinburgh, and 
 she would not change her mind. They accord- 
 ingly returned to England, and took up their 
 quarters in a hotel in one of the most obscure 
 streets in the West end. 
 
 " We had better rent a furnished house," 
 the marquis said after a fortnight at the hotel, 
 which was too public for him. " Very well," 
 Susan answered, " I will look for one to-morrow." 
 But she never went in search of a suitable residence, 
 for that evening she heard that the marquis was 
 engaged to Lady Jane Stewart, and that the 
 marriage would take place a couple of months 
 later. 
 
 Taxed with his treacherous conduct, Lord 
 
134 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 Blandford could offer no defence, and as he had 
 pledged his word to his cousin, he could not 
 attempt to placate Susan with promises. He 
 had to admit that he intended to marry Lady Jane, 
 and he could only offer Susan monetary com- 
 pensation. The girl did not desire a scandal, 
 and she eventually consented to accept an allow- 
 ance of four hundred pounds a year, which the 
 Duchess of Marlborough was to guarantee. 
 
 All the details of his scandalous behaviour had 
 now to be made known to his parents, and they 
 heard for the first time of the bogus marriage 
 and the impersonation by a brother officer of their 
 son of a clergyman of the Church of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 There were many recriminations on both sides. 
 Lord Blandford's relations declared that Susan's 
 father and mother could not have been deceived 
 by the ceremony, even if she had been, and the 
 Laws retorted that the nobleman was a cad and 
 deserved to be horse- whipped. The duchess suc- 
 ceeded in calming the storm. Her offer to be 
 responsible for the payment of the allowance 
 quieted the opposition, and at the appointed time 
 Lord Blandford became the husband of Lady 
 Jane Stewart. 
 
 Twenty-one years later she was Her Grace the 
 Duchess of Marlborough, and if rank and riches 
 count for anything, ought to have been happy. 
 But the marriage was not apparently a success, 
 for her husband actually made overtures to the 
 wronged and deserted Susan Law, coolly pro- 
 
A BOGUS WEDDING 135 
 
 posing that they should resume their former 
 partnership as Captain and Mrs. Lawson. 
 
 He withdrew the offer on second thoughts, 
 possibly because he foresaw that if an attempt 
 were made to establish the legality of the secret 
 marriage, the fact that he had deserted Lady Jane 
 for Susan would be used by his enemies to prove 
 that he had committed bigamy. 
 
 There was also another advantage to be derived 
 from outward respectability. He had political 
 ambitions, and he had been chosen by his father 
 to represent Woodstock in Parliament, that bor- 
 ough being the property of the Duke of Marl- 
 borough, body and soul. He, therefore, did not 
 see Susan, who was living in London with her 
 daughter, and who had become reconciled to her 
 position. 
 
 However, certain persons now knew all about 
 her previous relations with the Marquis of Bland- 
 ford, and a few of them were under the impression 
 that she was legally his wife, and that the marquis's 
 father was paying her an enormous allowance as 
 hush-money. 
 
 This was quite untrue, but to the credulous it 
 appeared that there was proof of it. The sub- 
 ject being freely discussed, it reached the ears of 
 a disgruntled retainer of the ducal family, who 
 retailed it to a gentleman who had an interest 
 in " The Satirist." He promptly published it, 
 and " the fat was in the fire." 
 
 Miss Law was all the more willing now to assist 
 the defendant in the libel action, because the 
 
136 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 Duchess of Marlborough had recently cut her 
 annual allowance in half, and her affidavit was a 
 damning exposure of the young aristocrat, who 
 in less than two years was to succeed to the duke- 
 dom. She declared that she had been known as 
 Captain Lawson's wife in Edinburgh and that as 
 this name had been merely an alias of the Marquis 
 of Blandford she claimed that it had legalised her 
 position in Scotland at any rate. 
 
 The court, however, required proof that she 
 had been introduced to some reputable persons 
 as the nobleman's wife, and she could not produce 
 anyone willing to give such evidence. On the 
 other hand, the Marquis of Breadalbane and Sir 
 William Elliott swore positively that they had 
 never heard of Susan Law, except as the mistress 
 of their friend, the Marquis of Blandford. 
 
 The immediate consequence of the action against 
 " The Satirist " was to make his lordship ex- 
 ceedingly unpopular, and the judges who tried 
 the case displayed unmistakable contempt for 
 him. It was evident that he had taken advantage 
 of a schoolgirl's trustfulness and innocence to 
 ruin her, and that he had not scrupled to desert 
 her when it pleased his fancy. 
 
 The journey to Scotland and the officious 
 interference of Lord Garlies and Colonel Stewart 
 had been another plot to victimise and delude 
 her, and every chivalrous person sympathised 
 with the girl who had been at one time engaged 
 in a single-handed contest against three men of 
 high social position, and fully experienced in the 
 
A BOGUS WEDDING 137 
 
 ways of the world. But there was Lady Blandford 
 to be considered, and the court could not, without 
 absolute proof, brand her children as illegitimate. 
 
 Had it not been for his family, the application 
 of Sir William Follett, the marquis's counsel, 
 would have been refused, and her ladyship and 
 her children would have been innocent sufferers. 
 
 The presiding judge, Lord Denman, delivered 
 judgment after a protracted conference with his 
 brethren on the bench, and his decision may be 
 quoted, as it incidentally reveals the estimation 
 in which the plaintiff was held. 
 
 " This is an application of a serious and in- 
 teresting nature," said Lord Chief Justice Denman, 
 " both as regards the parties affected by it and 
 as it relates to the principles on which we ought 
 to administer justice with respect to criminal 
 informations. 
 
 " I have not the least difficulty in saying that 
 if Lord Blandford alone had applied for this rule 
 I would never, for one, have consented to make it 
 absolute ; for, upon his own statement, a strong 
 imputation is conveyed on his own conduct 
 towards a respectable young lady. 
 
 " Her statements are, certainly, of a nature to 
 create suspicion ; but that some contrivances 
 were resorted to I have no doubt whatever, and 
 I do not think we should be justified in pronounc- 
 ing them to be perjured. 
 
 " But Lord Blandford is not the only person to 
 be considered. His wife and family complain of 
 a libel which attacks them in their dearest in- 
 
138 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 terests and most tender feelings, and distinctly 
 puts forward a series of imputations, with respect 
 to which I agree with the learned counsel who 
 have supported the rule, that there is nothing 
 in the affidavits on either side to show that such 
 imputations are well founded. 
 
 " The Marquis of Blandford himself swears that 
 there was no marriage either in England or Scot- 
 land, and I do not find anything which, in fact, 
 impeaches that statement. 
 
 " Considering, therefore, the interests of the 
 individuals I have mentioned, and the importance 
 of warning those who are disposed to traffic 
 with character in this way that they cannot be 
 allowed to do so with impunity, I think we are 
 justified in saying — notwithstanding the mis- 
 conduct of Lord Blandford — that Lady Bland- 
 ford, the Earl of Sunderland, and the rest of the 
 issue of this marriage, are entitled to have this 
 rule made absolute." 
 
 Despite a varied and extensive experience of 
 matrimony, genuine and bogus, the sixth Duke 
 of Marlborough was never a success in the role 
 of husband. He had three duchesses before his 
 death in 1857, and his marriage to the third of 
 these caused considerable surprise, for when the 
 engagement was announced in 1851 it was well- 
 known that he was paralysed in his lower limbs 
 and that his days were numbered. 
 
 But Miss Jane Stewart, a cousin of his first wife, 
 was a lady who was ready to become a duchess on 
 any terms, and who would have accepted his grace 
 
A BOGUS WEDDING 139 
 
 had he been a lunatic, though her parents were 
 mainly responsible for the match, her mother 
 having practically forced the duke to propose to 
 a girl in no way fitted to be a nurse. 
 
 If ever there was a marriage of convenience, 
 this was one, and the plotting and planning of 
 the Stewarts became so patent at Blenheim that 
 the staff were wont to make wagers as to the result. 
 The young lady was constantly brought by her 
 mother on a visit, and the " dear duke " was 
 pestered with her presence and could not get 
 away from her because he was helpless. 
 
 Finally, he gave in, and asked Jane to marry 
 him. She coyly consented, and the wedding- 
 bells were again rung in honour of the nobleman 
 with one foot in the grave. 
 
 Within a few months husband and wife were 
 leading " a cat and dog life," her grace having 
 speedily found the companionship of a half-dead 
 religious maniac, whose past would not bear 
 investigation, very trying and exasperating. 
 
 She accused him of " carrying on " with his 
 middle-aged nurse, and before the second anniver- 
 sary of her marriage she suddenly left Blenheim 
 Palace with her baby and declared she would never 
 return again to the man she had married. 
 
 The duke dispatched agents to Brighton, where 
 she had taken up residence, who forcibly recovered 
 the child and restored it to its father. 
 
 The duchess thereupon sought legal aid to 
 regain possession of the baby, and thus for a 
 second time in his life the duke figured prominently 
 
140 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 in an unsavoury case. The Galloway family, 
 which had sided with him against Susan Law, now 
 opposed him, and the litigation was protracted 
 and created scandal. 
 
 The deserted husband in his efforts to rehabili- 
 tate himself after the aspersions of counsel for 
 her grace, who had expressed the opinion that he 
 was not a fit guardian for a child, had his counsel's 
 speech on his behalf printed as a pamphlet and 
 circulated by the thousand. For a huge fee Sir 
 Richard Bethell (afterwards Lord Chancellor 
 Westbury) had depicted his client as a sort of 
 human angel and, of course, there were no 
 references in his speech to the bogus marriage. 
 
 Susan Law, now a middle-aged woman and a 
 grandmother, must have derived a certain amount 
 of satisfaction from the trial, which terminated 
 in the rival parties, on the suggestion of the Vice- 
 Chancellor, coming to an agreement, the duke 
 promising to surrender the infant. 
 
 Four years later the duke died, and was interred 
 amid great pomp and ceremony. The successor 
 to the title and estates proved himself a better 
 man than his father, and, as one of the most suc- 
 cessful viceroys Ireland ever had, he has his place 
 in history. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE NEWMAN HALL TRIAL 
 
 Amongst great Nonconformist preachers, Christo- 
 pher Newman Hall holds an assured place. He 
 had not the dramatic intensity of Dr. Parker, or 
 the magnetic influence of Spurgeon, but he was 
 more cultured than either, and in his efforts to 
 reach the multitude he was never vulgar. A 
 lover of learning for its own sake, he was an en- 
 thusiast in the cause of education, and Gladstone 
 and other statesmen were eager to avail them- 
 selves of his advice and assistance. 
 
 His was a long life — he was born in 1816 and 
 he died in 1902 — and for over fifty years he was 
 an active minister of the gospel, preaching thou- 
 sands of sermons, lecturing in two continents, and 
 doing considerable literary work which included 
 seven hymns now in common use. 
 
 It was a remarkable record, especially when we 
 remember that for nearly a quarter of a century 
 his domestic affairs were in a chaotic condition, 
 and he suffered acutely from the conduct of the 
 woman, who, in the words of Hannen, had never 
 been intended for the position of wife of a minister. 
 
 Hall, fearful of a scandal, strove manfully to 
 keep his troubles a family secret, and it was 
 
 141 
 
142 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 when he realised that he was merely deceiving 
 and injuring himself that he took the steps which 
 led to one of the most sensational and protracted 
 of divorce suits. 
 
 The first inkling the world had that all was 
 not well between husband and wife, was an ad- 
 vertisement in " The Times " to the following 
 effect : " Whereas during the absence of the 
 Rev. C. Newman Hall on his travels in the East, 
 false and malicious libels respecting Mrs. Hall 
 have been circulated, a reward of £100 will be 
 paid for information which may lead to the 
 detection of the authors." 
 
 It set the town talking early in 1873, and it 
 had the undesired effect of giving greater publicity 
 to a broadsheet censuring the conduct of the 
 minister's wife, which had been distributed in 
 the neighbourhood of her home. When Newman 
 Hall returned to England he was furious with 
 the author of the advertisement, who proved to be 
 Mrs. Gordon, Ins mother-in-law, but it was im- 
 possible to remedy the mischief it had done, and 
 the angry husband immediately filed a petition 
 for divorce, as there appeared to be no reason 
 now for remaining impassive. 
 
 He quickly withdrew it, however, when his 
 chapel colleagues pointed out the disastrous in- 
 fluence his divorce would have on his appeal for 
 sixty thousand pounds to build the new temple 
 in Westminster Bridge Road, and it was not 
 until three years subsequent to the opening of 
 Christ Church, that he presented a second petition, 
 
THE NEWMAN HALL TRIAL 143 
 
 which was duly investigated by Sir James (after- 
 wards Lord) Hannen and a special jury. 
 
 By that time the success of his tabernacle which 
 had been opened on July 4th, 1876, the anniver- 
 sary of the American Declaration of Independence, 
 was firmly established, and Hall was strongly 
 entrenched in popular favour. He had been one 
 of the few eminent Englishmen who had sym- 
 pathised with the Northern States in the American 
 Civil War, a sympathy which was rewarded by a 
 donation of £7,000 from the United States, to 
 pay for the Lincoln Tower and the spire of Christ 
 Church, in which can be seen the Stars and Stripes 
 deftly wrought into the stone, while the British 
 Lion and the American Eagle mark the angles 
 of the tower. 
 
 America and Great Britain were deeply in- 
 terested in the legal proceedings, and the sen- 
 sation created by the charge Newman Hall brought 
 against his wife was doubled when it became 
 known that she had retorted by accusing him of 
 adultery ; but this was merely the venomous 
 spite of an infuriated and baffled woman, and 
 half-way through the hearing her counsel, unable 
 to advance even the smallest evidence in support 
 of it, withdrew it, and the net result was to en- 
 hance the reputation of the reluctant and unhappy 
 petitioner. 
 
 Counsel for the husband were Sir Henry James, 
 Q.C., Mr. Inderwick, and Dr. Tristram. Mrs. 
 Newman Hall had Mr. Willis, Q.C., and Mr. Bay- 
 ford, and on behalf of the co-respondent, Frank 
 
144 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 Richardson, Mr. Kemp appeared. All three of 
 the parties cited entered the witness-box and 
 explained and denied as circumstances rendered 
 necessary, and their evidence, taken with the 
 speeches of counsel, formed a complete matrimon- 
 ial history of the popular divine and his frivolous 
 and unconventional wife. 
 
 When in the year 1846 Christopher Newman 
 Hall married Charlotte, daughter of Dr. Gordon, 
 of Hull, he was in charge of Albion Chapel in that 
 town, and had gained a considerable reputation. 
 The lady, only eighteen and, therefore, twelve 
 years his junior, was beautiful, capricious, and 
 highly intellectual. 
 
 Sir Henry James described her as a spoilt darling 
 of doting parents who had, even when she was a 
 child, permitted her to have her own way in 
 everything, but although she married an indulgent 
 man, his circumstances and position entailed 
 certain duties and responsibilities which he ex- 
 pected his wife to share, and her refusal to do so 
 laid the foundation of the troubles which made the 
 marriage an utter failure. 
 
 For eight years Mr. and Mrs. Newman Hall 
 remained in Hull, and then he was called to the 
 pastorate of the Surrey Chapel, in Blackfriars. 
 Before this, however, there had been several 
 quarrels, due mainly to Mrs. Newman Hall's 
 dislike of her husband's profession. 
 
 She complained that her position was dull and 
 uninteresting. She wished for gaiety and frivolity ; 
 he asked her to help him with his work and lighten 
 
THE NEWMAN HALL TRIAL 145 
 
 the burdens which are amongst the penalties of 
 fame. She refused entirely, and it was as much as 
 he could do to induce her to attend his chapel 
 occasionally. The young wife would not wax 
 enthusiastic about mothers' meetings and district 
 visiting, and her discontent became chronic. He 
 endured in patience, subordinating his own wishes 
 to hers whenever possible, for he was determined 
 at any price to secure peace and to prevent the 
 public learning of the collapse of his hopes. 
 
 But with his transference to London bad became 
 worse, and in a few days the position was too 
 critical to submit of further concealment. 
 
 Mrs. Newman Hall, highly-strung and, so she 
 averred, super-sensitive, took to smoking to soothe 
 her nerves. The popular preacher was horrified, 
 but was powerless. Smoking is universal amongst 
 women nowadays, but in the late fifties it was 
 taboo. 
 
 The outraged husband found a little comfort 
 in the fact that she indulged in the practice behind 
 closed doors. That was something to be thankful 
 for, but it was forgotten when she announced 
 that she wished to hunt. It was a very worldly 
 occupation for the wife of an eminent congrega- 
 tionalist minister, and he said so, emphasising his 
 disapproval by reminding her that their religion 
 was essentially democratic, and that his followers 
 would not approve of his wife indulging in a hobby 
 popularly supposed to be one of the privileges 
 of the idle rich. 
 
 She answered his argument by going to Tring 
 
 K 
 
146 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 and buying a horse, and soon after she had begun 
 to hunt regularly she introduced to her husband 
 a good-looking young man, Frank Richardson, 
 the son of the landlord of the hotel at Tring where 
 she stayed when hunting, and bespoke his patron- 
 age for the youth on the plea that he was about to 
 start a livery-stable and deserved encouragement. 
 
 Richardson's manner was respectful, and, as 
 he had been born the year Mrs. Newman Hall 
 was married, no suspicion entered the pastor's 
 head that there could be any affection between his 
 wife and the youth. The latter was so obviously 
 her inferior in every way, that to think of them as 
 social equals struck him as ridiculous. He was, 
 therefore, kind to Richardson, and when his wife 
 requested permission to give him shelter in their 
 house because he was in danger of arrest from 
 debt, hospitality was extended to Richardson 
 for three weeks. 
 
 His compliance with his wife's wishes was in- 
 spired by the memory of the many exhausting 
 and alarming scenes which had followed on re- 
 fusals to humour her. In 1863 Mrs. Newman 
 Hall had grown to dislike her husband so much 
 that she refused to occupy the same room with 
 him, and they had since had separate bedrooms. 
 
 The servants did not fail to talk of this and 
 other matters, and while the minister was bliss- 
 fully unconscious of the publicity thus given to 
 his private affairs, the neighbourhood discussed 
 little else. Husband and wife were living as 
 brother and sister — to use his own description — 
 
THE NEWMAN HALL TRIAL 147 
 
 when Frank Richardson came into their lives, 
 and, failing to withdraw when he saw for himself 
 the real position, he brought things to a head. 
 
 From the day of his arrival as a temporary 
 lodger his hostess monopolised his company. 
 She sat for hours with the livery-stable keeper 
 in a room with the door locked, and they smoked 
 together all day long when they were not out 
 walking. When Richardson resumed work at his 
 stables, the preacher's wife was his best customer, 
 and when she changed into her riding habit and 
 back again into her ordinary attire, she did so in 
 a room over the stables next to Richardson's 
 bedroom. 
 
 There were remonstrances from the nervous 
 husband, both verbal and in writing, but Mrs. 
 Newman Hall was his match at either. They 
 were both fond of writing long letters. Once 
 the minister urged her to be discreet and told her 
 so in an epistle extending to eighteen pages. She 
 retorted with one running to twenty-eight. 
 
 " Don't read any more letters," pleaded a jury- 
 man on the fifth day of the trial. " They are so 
 long ! " 
 
 " Twenty-six pages ! " wearily exclaimed 
 the President of the Divorce Court on an- 
 other occasion. " That seems to be the 
 average length of the letters of these very volu- 
 minous correspondents." 
 
 Counsel for the petitioner described a bitter 
 quarrel just before morning service which ended 
 in Mrs. Newman Hall rushing to her room and 
 
148 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 remaining there for the rest of the day. When 
 the pastor returned from the delivery of a very 
 successful sermon, he found a notice affixed to the 
 door informing him that it would be wiser for 
 them not to meet again that day. The incident 
 was typical of the curious relations between them, 
 which were aggravated by her strange friendship 
 with Richardson. 
 
 There was, however, no definite charge by 
 Newman Hall of misconduct up to the time of 
 their separation by mutual consent. This occur- 
 red in 1870, when she agreed to live apart from 
 him in return for an allowance of £200 a year, 
 which added to her small means, enabled her to 
 set up on her own account. 
 
 It was, as Sir Henry James explained, some 
 time after the separation that his client had good 
 reason to suspect that his wife had committed 
 misconduct with Frank Richardson. Reports 
 reached him of visits to Brighton and other places 
 where, by arrangement, she was meeting the man 
 who was young enough to be her son. 
 
 A lodging-house keeper at Brighton described 
 at the trial how she had been compelled to request 
 Mrs. Newman Hall and the livery-stable keeper 
 not to make a noise at two in the morning. She 
 swore that when she knocked on the door it 
 had been locked, and that when Richardson 
 opened it, she saw the lady reclining in an arm- 
 chair smoking, while the atmosphere of the apart- 
 ment suggested that they had been puffing away 
 for several hours. 
 
THE NEWMAN HALL TRIAL 149 
 
 Another witness told of incidents at a hotel 
 which, if true, convicted the minister's wife of 
 adultery, but the accuracy of these statements 
 was vigorously denied by the respondent and 
 co-respondent, Mrs. Newman Hall being very 
 emphatic in her denials. 
 
 A very convincing case was made out by Sir 
 Henry James and his witnesses, of whom the 
 Rev. Christopher Newman Hall was, of course, 
 the chief, his account of his married life exciting 
 general pity. He revealed much that had been 
 kept hidden, and he described with simple elo- 
 quence his efforts to prevent the failure of his 
 marriage interfering with his success in the pulpit. 
 
 He related that, when he had been invited to 
 America by the Nonconformist churches there, 
 a hearty welcome had been extended to his wife, 
 who had declined it contemptuously, preferring 
 the society of the uneducated groom to that of her 
 husband and the personages he would meet on 
 the other side of the Atlantic. But she had become 
 so infatuated with Richardson that although she 
 was a middle-aged woman she was content to risk 
 her happiness and her reputation for the sake of 
 a man who, according to his own counsel, was 
 not a gentleman and was not animated by the 
 feelings of one. 
 
 The petitioner swore that the separation had 
 been forced on him and that he would not have 
 sought for a divorce if he had not been convinced 
 that it was a duty he owed to himself and his 
 church. He said that he had always given in to 
 
150 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 his wife and had provided her with luxuries 
 he could not afford. 
 
 She had known all about him before their 
 marriage, for he had told her and her parents that 
 he had begun to earn his living as a compositor 
 in the office of his father, who had been the pro- 
 prietor of a Maidstone journal, and was a self- 
 made man. He had made no claim to aristocracy ; 
 he was of the people, and wished to remain with 
 the people as one of them all his life. 
 
 When Mr. Willis rose to cross-examine he 
 looked very solemn and the crowded court fully 
 expected that he was going to pulverise the witness, 
 but all he did was to extract from him an admission 
 that as soon as he was freed from Mrs. Newman 
 Hall he intended to marry again. 
 
 " You have told a certain young lady this ? ' 
 asked Willis, in his heaviest and most portentous 
 manner. 
 
 " I have," answered the minister, calmly, and 
 counsel mentioned something derisive about an 
 old man being in love, for Newman Hall was then 
 sixty-three, but the remark had no point and fell 
 flat. There were a few more questions hinting at 
 harshness towards his wife, but the witness dis- 
 posed of them satisfactorily, and counsel devoted 
 himself to various hints and insinuations that 
 really meant nothing. Willis was character- 
 istically aggressive when declaring his client's 
 interests. 
 
 Mrs. Newman Hall may have confessed to 
 having been in the habit of kissing the co-res- 
 
THE NEWMAN HALL TRIAL 151 
 
 pondent every time they had met from 1864 on- 
 wards ; she may have admitted that she loved 
 him ; Willis declaimed about her purity and her 
 disinterestedness, and all but presented her with 
 a pair of wings and a halo. 
 
 With the appearance of the respondent in the 
 witness-box the excitement increased. Mrs. 
 Newman Hall was now fifty-one, and traces of 
 her former beauty were meagre, but she looked 
 what she was — a woman with a mind of her own, 
 determined, obstinate, wilful, and intelligent. She 
 replied to the questions of her own counsel with 
 vehemence, and generally managed to take the 
 whole court into her confidence whenever she 
 delivered an opinion. Now and then she ex- 
 hibited a pronounced dislike of her husband, 
 who had been cruel to her, and who had never 
 understood her peculiar temperament. She could 
 see nothing wrong in her friendship for Frank 
 Richardson, which had been purely platonic. 
 
 When Sir 'Henry James began to cross-examine 
 her the reporters were provided with numerous 
 openings for the use of " laughter " in brackets. 
 The moment she saw James rise her expression 
 hardened and her body stiffened, and she prepai d 
 to give counsel as good as he gave her. 
 
 They fenced cleverly for half an hour before the 
 court adjourned, and the next morning the du.l 
 was resumed. 
 
 " May I inquire ? " said Sir Henry, when she 
 interrupted him. 
 
 " Wait a moment — I haven't removed my veil," 
 
152 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 she cried irritably. Loud laughter greeted this 
 rebuff, and the President sat up and took notice. 
 Within five minutes he had to reprove her. 
 
 " You mustn't cross-examine Sir Henry," he 
 said gently, and the witness shrugged her shoulders 
 to indicate her contempt for the slowness of the 
 famous barrister, who put another question to 
 her with stolid politeness. 
 
 Mrs. Newman Hall let him repeat it, and 
 then she jerked her head in the direction of 
 Mr. Willis. 
 
 " Shall I answer that ? " she said coolly. 
 
 " Please do," her counsel advised her. 
 
 James pressed her on the subject of kissing. 
 He wished to be informed how often she had kissed 
 Frank Richardson. 
 
 " I don't know," she replied tartly. " It's so 
 long ago. You forget that you are referring to 
 the year 1869 now." 
 
 " But surely you can remember if you kissed 
 him ? " persisted Sir Henry. 
 
 She surveyed him with a pitying smile. 
 
 " Do you remember whom you kissed ten years 
 ago ? " she asked, and this time the loud laughter 
 was justified. Sir Henry James was a solid 
 rather than a brilliant lawyer, and he carried his 
 reputation in his face. Those who can recall him 
 as he was when a leader of the Bar will find it 
 hard to associate him with any sort of flirtation 
 however mild. 
 
 When Mrs. Newman Hall demanded an account 
 of his kissing exploits the only person in court 
 
THE NEWMAN HALL TRIAL 153 
 
 who did not smile was James, who waited patiently 
 for the hilarity to cease before resuming. 
 
 In the most unequivocal terms the volatile wit- 
 ness declared that she loved Frank Richardson, 
 but that she had never committed adultery with 
 him. She informed judge and jury that she had 
 kissed him, alleging that she had had a precedent 
 for it in her own husband who had been in the 
 habit of kissing various female members of his 
 congregation. 
 
 This was not true, but Mrs. Newman Hall did 
 not mind that. Three times she burst into tears 
 when Sir Henry James was bearing heavily on 
 her, and her examination was interrupted to per- 
 mit her to leave the court and recover. But she 
 was never at a loss for an answer, and she kept 
 everybody on the qui vive whilst she declaimed 
 against her enemies. 
 
 If Willis had not been there to implore her to 
 obey the judge's ruling her stay in the witness- 
 box would have ended with her committal for 
 contempt of court. It is possible that she was 
 vain of her cleverness and considered that she 
 had scored over counsel and damaged her hus- 
 band's character, but in reality she injured her 
 own cause and unintentionally proved a real 
 help to the petitioner. 
 
 Of the witnesses who tried to disprove the 
 charge of adultery against Mrs. Newman Hall 
 the principal were her mother and Frank Richard- 
 son. The former repeated her daughter's accu- 
 sations of ill-usage at the hands of her husband, 
 
154 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 and when shown a letter of hers in which she 
 stated that Charlotte was in the wrong, she said 
 that it had been written at Newman Hall's dicta- 
 tion and in fear of divorce proceedings which she 
 had been anxious to prevent. 
 
 Mrs. Gordon, the author of the remarkable 
 advertisement in " The Times," had not been 
 on good terms with her son-in-law since he had 
 upbraided her for her folly in proclaiming his 
 misery to all and sundry, and she strenuously 
 opposed him at the trial. 
 
 The co-respondent was asked what he thought 
 of Mrs. Newman Hall's statement that she loved 
 him. 
 
 " I have every affection for her as a friend," 
 he replied, and would not be more explicit. 
 
 He swore that there had been no misconduct 
 between him and the lady, and he characterised 
 the evidence of the other side as untrue. He said 
 that he had never gone to a hotel with her or 
 occupied a room with her anywhere, and he had 
 plausible, if unconvincing, explanations of the 
 smoking parties in which they had been the only 
 participants. 
 
 James, Willis, and Kemp did their best on 
 behalf of their clients before Sir James Hannen 
 summed up in a speech which was an elaborate 
 review of the evidence. 
 
 It was not favourable to the respondent and 
 co-respondent, and yet it was not the effort of a 
 partisan. He dealt with facts from a common- 
 sense point of view, and the effect was dramatic, 
 
THE NEWMAN HALL TRIAL 155 
 
 for when he had concluded the jury consulted 
 for a moment and then, without having left the 
 box, returned a verdict for the petitioner and 
 dismissed the charge against him, which had 
 been withdrawn by Willis. 
 
 Six months later the decree nisi was made 
 absolute, and a few weeks afterwards the Rev. 
 Christopher Newman Hall married again. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 LORD AND LADY ELGIN 
 
 The seventh Earl of Elign, who died in 1841, is 
 chiefly remembered because of his association 
 with the Elgin Marbles, that famous collection 
 of Grecian statuary and relics now in the British 
 Museum, but his lordship was a distinguished 
 diplomatist in his day, representing Great Britain 
 at Berlin and Constantinople, and performing 
 many useful services on behalf of his country. 
 
 In a lifetime crowded with achievements he 
 had one great misfortune, for throughout the 
 years 1806, 1807, and 1808 he was involved in 
 litigation arising out of his wife's misconduct, 
 and to a person of his proud and sensitive nature 
 the publicity and notoriety were sheer torture. 
 
 The great Napoleon was indirectly the cause 
 of all the trouble when he detained the earl on 
 the outbreak of hostilities in 1803. Lord Elgin, 
 ambassador to Turkey, was travelling to London 
 from the Sublime Porte, when, in passing through 
 France, he was held a prisoner by order of Buona- 
 parte, and it was not until 1806 that he saw 
 England again. 
 
 His detention was illegal, but not too irksome, 
 for he was permitted to occupy a private house 
 
 156 
 
LORD AND LADY ELGIN 157 
 
 in Paris, and Lady Elgin was allowed to join him. 
 Despite obvious difficulties, they entertained their 
 less fortunate fellow-subjects, and, common mis- 
 fortune eradicating all social barriers, the earl 
 and countess made the acquaintance of persons 
 they would never have come into contact with had 
 not the current of their lives been disturbed by 
 war. 
 
 Amongst them was a gentleman of the name 
 of Ferguson, who had means and a personality, 
 and whose incurable optimism made him a wel- 
 come guest at a time when there seemed to be 
 only one possible termination to hostilities — 
 the complete triumph of Napoleon. 
 
 Ferguson and other detenus were often at the 
 Elgins' house, and if he could not claim a previous 
 acquaintance with her ladyship — who was a 
 daughter of William Hamilton Nisbet, of Dirleton 
 and Bellhaven, Haddingtonshire — he could boast 
 of having known her father and of having many 
 friends in common with her. He could speak to 
 her of her native place, of Scottish mansions he 
 had been in the habit of visiting, and he had 
 stories to tell of Edinburgh and Glasgow society 
 which were fascinating to her because of her exile. 
 
 It is not surprising, therefore, that they should 
 have become close friends. Ferguson was one 
 of those men who appear to know something 
 of everything, and he was a complete contrast to 
 Lord Elgin, whose diplomatic experience had 
 made him cautious in expressing an opinion, 
 and a better listener than talker. But the chief 
 
158 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 topic of conversation amongst the British in Paris 
 was, naturally, the prospects of freedom. 
 
 Occasionally they were excited by the news 
 that the French government had agreed to ex- 
 change them en bloc for a similar number of French 
 prisoners of war, but nothing came of it. How- 
 ever, their hopes were kept alive by the departure 
 at intervals of those of their compatriots who 
 had been fortunate enough to secure an exchange, 
 and Lord and Lady Elgin strove hard to obtain 
 permission to make the journey to England to- 
 gether. Napoleon, however, was too well aware 
 of the earl's importance to part with him except 
 in very special circumstances, and the British 
 had yet to capture a Frenchman whose rank and 
 value to the consul would force him to liberate 
 Lord Elgin. Accordingly, the lower rank of the 
 detained the better his chance of freedom, and it 
 followed that Ferguson stood to gain his long- 
 before his noble friend. 
 
 The very intimate and particular friendship 
 which had sprung up between him and Lady Elgin 
 could not render liberty less attractive, and when 
 his chance came he took it and hastened home. 
 
 Garrow, who eventually became a judge, hinted 
 in his speech for the plaintiff at the action 
 for criminal conversation that Ferguson and the 
 countess had already committed adultery when 
 the former left Paris, and that he had travelled 
 to England with greater zest because her ladyship 
 — who, of course, was not a prisoner of war — had 
 promised to follow him, for, with the husband 
 
LORD AND LADY ELGIN 159 
 
 detained in Paris, they would be safe from ob- 
 servation in Great Britain. That was denied, 
 but there can be no doubt that Ferguson took 
 full advantage of the earl's helplessness. Later 
 on he was to play an even more treacherous part, 
 for, once he was home again, her ladyship had 
 only one possible excuse for leaving Paris to be 
 near him, and that was to try and secure Lord 
 Elgin's release also. 
 
 It was with the keenest regret that the earl 
 consented to her journeying to London, but she 
 promised to interview the prime minister and 
 others, and not to rest until she had persuaded 
 the cabinet that they must at any cost get her 
 husband home again. 
 
 " I expect Mr. Ferguson will help you," said 
 the unsuspecting earl the morning of her departure. 
 
 " I am sure he will," assented Lady Elgin 
 without a tremor or any sign of nervousness. " If 
 possible, I will see him on my arrival." 
 
 Once she was in London a regular comedy of 
 deceit began. Ferguson, auxious to pose as the 
 grateful friend, wrote to Lord Elgin describing 
 his efforts on his behalf. Lady Elgin also com- 
 posed lengthy letters detailing visits to influential 
 personages, most of whom she had yet to see. 
 It frequently happened that the nobleman re- 
 ceived communications from his wife and her 
 lover the same day, and, as both told of hours 
 spent in the ante-rooms of the great, the earl 
 felt that he was not being forgotten. 
 
 The conspirators, meanwhile, met in various 
 
160 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 remote places, and passed as husband and wife. 
 When in London they remembered that the 
 countess was very well known in society, and that 
 they must be discreet. No one imagined that 
 the handsome Scotsman with the fascinating 
 manners was in love with her ladyship. He talked 
 so often of Lord Elgin's kindness to him in Paris 
 that it seemed only right that he should assist 
 Lady Elgin in the business of securing her husband's 
 release. 
 
 For a considerable time, however, Napoleon 
 would not consent to part with the Earl of Elgin. 
 He wished to keep all his important British 
 captives in case he lost one or more of his in- 
 dispensable generals, or he may have hoped to 
 find them useful hostages when peace terms came 
 to be discussed. 
 
 His lordship chafed under the delay, but he did 
 not ask his wife to rejoin him, feeling that it 
 would be selfish of him to expect her to share his 
 privations. As always happens in a great war, 
 London had the advantage of all the continental 
 cities, and Buonaparte's victories did not lessen 
 the number of balls and parties, which continued 
 almost without cessation while the fate of empires 
 was being settled on the battlefields of Europe. 
 
 But just when it seemed certain that Lord Elgin 
 would have to wait for the termination of the 
 conflict before he could leave Paris, Napoleon 
 intimated that he would exchange him for General 
 Boyer. The news took the lovers by surprise, 
 and disconcerted them, but nothing was to be 
 
LORD AND LADY ELGIN 161 
 
 gained by candour, and they disguised their 
 feelings. 
 
 Lady Elgin wrote in a joyful strain to con- 
 gratulate her husband and express her relief, 
 and Ferguson penned his good wishes, and 
 hinted that if he had not pestered the British 
 government the negotiations would not have 
 succeeded. Yet he must have known that the 
 return of the earl would be merely a preliminary 
 to divorce proceedings, for he and Lady Elgin did 
 not mean to be separated for ever, and he had 
 by now heard from her own lips that she had 
 resolved never to live with her husband again. 
 
 It was necessary that they should arrange a 
 method of corresponding with each other which 
 would not become known to the earl. Her lady- 
 ship had in her service an old nurse who had been 
 with her and her mother for many years, and she 
 now persuaded her to despatch and receive her 
 own and Ferguson's love-letters. The latter also 
 employed a female servant and letters were en- 
 closed in envelopes addressed in an illiterate 
 hand to one of her lover's employees. When he 
 wrote he followed a similar procedure, and thus 
 the secret correspondence was conducted via 
 the servants' hall. 
 
 On his return to England the earl duly reported 
 at Downing Street, and had to remain in town 
 several days as a consequence ; but, once he had 
 finished with his official duties, he went with 
 Lady Elgin to visit her father at Dirleton. Here 
 he had an unpleasant surprise, his wife bluntly 
 
 L 
 
162 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 informing him that she had decided that they 
 must occupy separate bedrooms in future. Her 
 only reason was that her husband had become 
 repugnant to her since she had fallen in love 
 with Ferguson, but the earl did not know that. 
 It was impossible, however, for her to hide 
 her real feelings from him for long. Trivial in- 
 cidents occurred which, taken together, indicated 
 that she ceased to care for him. Until his de- 
 tention in Paris she had been the most loving of 
 wives, and her temper had been angelic. Now 
 she was snappish and irritable, and she seemed 
 to take a delight in contradicting him. Lord 
 Elgin, who was amiable and courteous, tried to 
 believe that it was a passing phase, and that, 
 when she had had time to forget their misfortunes, 
 she would be her old self again. But the position 
 became worse instead of better. 
 
 Lady Elgin was exasperated with him because 
 his presence prevented her seeing Ferguson. He 
 was in her way, and the sight of him annoyed her. 
 Nevertheless, she was anxious to keep her in- 
 fidelity a secret from him, and she rejected her 
 lover's suggestion that they should elope. He 
 was willing to many her after the divorce, but 
 the countess shrank from exposure and the infamy 
 which would attach to her name if it became known 
 that she had treacherously plotted to lengthen 
 the period of her husband's detention in Paris 
 so that she might enjoy the company of his 
 treacherous friend. 
 
 It was with reluctance that Ferguson renewed 
 
LORD AND LADY ELGIN 163 
 
 his acquaintance with Lord Elgin, and he only 
 did so when Lady Elgin wrote informing him 
 that her husband was commenting on his refusal 
 of their invitations. When he did dine with the 
 earl and countess he was nervous and awkward, 
 and his host once rallied him on his depression. 
 
 " You must be in love, Ferguson," he said in 
 the hearing of half a dozen other guests, who 
 had reason to smile when they recalled the remark 
 when the divorce proceedings were reported. 
 
 " Perhaps you're right," Ferguson replied, 
 momentarily regaining his old flippant manner. 
 " But one never knows." 
 
 " I hope the lady will prove kind to you," 
 said the peer good-humouredly, and the subject 
 of conversation was deftly changed by Lady 
 Elgin, who had been on tenterhooks during the 
 brief colloquy between her husband and her lover. 
 
 Owing to the whole-hearted loyalty of their 
 respective servants the correspondence between 
 Ferguson and Lady Elgin continued without 
 interruption for some months. Every precaution 
 was taken to avoid discovery, and the lovers per- 
 sonally attended the addressing of the envelopes 
 by their confidantes. But one of them was bound 
 to grow careless, and the man proved to be the 
 culprit. 
 
 Lady Elgin was residingwith her husband at 
 his Scottish seat near Dunfermline and Ferguson 
 was in London on a visit to a wealthy relative 
 when the mistake happened. He had with him 
 the elderly woman, who was in his confidence 
 
164 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 respecting the intrigue he was carrying on, and 
 she had served him so faithfully that he felt he 
 could trust her implicitly. 
 
 But he forgot that she was almost illiterate 
 and that her memory was a poor one, and one 
 evening, when pressed for time, he gave her a 
 letter for Lady Elgin, and, without waiting to see 
 her place it in another envelope and inscribe it 
 to her ladyship's maid, he told her to send it in the 
 usual way, and then hurried out to keep an ap- 
 pointment with a member of the House of Commons 
 who was entertaining some friends to dinner. 
 
 The servant was tired and distracted when she 
 was given the commission by her employer, and 
 she was thinking of something else when she set 
 about her task. The result was that she addressed 
 the envelope to " Me Laidi Elgin " in large and 
 coarse letters, and, placing it with some others, 
 forgot all about it. 
 
 She failed to remember that she had never 
 before written Lady Elgin's name on the cover, 
 and that hitherto it was in the name of " Miss 
 Janet Ross " that his love-letters had been re- 
 ceived at the Elgin mansion, but she had other 
 matters to worry her, and when her employer 
 returned in the early hours of the morning she 
 was fast asleep in her room, and the next time 
 they met the letter was not mentioned. But her 
 mistake was to lead to exposure for the lovers. 
 
 The arrival of the post was, of course, an event 
 at the residence of the Earl of Elgin, and the 
 custom was for the butler to receive the mail and, 
 
LORD AND LADY ELGIN 165 
 
 having sorted out those for the family, hand 
 them to his lordship and personally distribute 
 communications for the staff in the servants' hall. 
 
 Lady Elgin had never attempted to intercept 
 the letters, secure in the knowledge that her hus- 
 band would never see those addressed to Janet, 
 which would pass from the butler to her servant, 
 who would convey them to her secretly. Con- 
 sequently that afternoon when a post-bag was 
 delivered containing the oddly addressed com- 
 munication from Ferguson, it was included in the 
 batch handed over to his lordship, who, in the 
 solitude of his library glanced through them at his 
 leisure. 
 
 He smiled when he saw that " Me Laidi Elgin." 
 It was a novel form of address, and he wondered 
 who the writer was. That it could not be anyone 
 personally acquainted with his wife he was certain, 
 and, believing that it was a begging letter, he 
 opened it. Less than a minute afterwards he 
 was reading four pages of passionate protestations 
 of love for his wife in the well-remembered hand 
 of Ferguson. 
 
 Now he realised why his wife had behaved so 
 coolly to him since his return from France. Now 
 he understood why she insisted on separate beds. 
 The letter made it as clear as daylight. He had 
 been betrayed by his friend, and the wife who 
 had once loved him had deliberately acted in 
 concert with his treacherous acquaintance. 
 
 The time had come for him to act, and he did 
 so in a way that terrified the guilty woman. He 
 
166 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 did not talk of forgiveness or waste a minute 
 demanding an explanation. He had proofs of 
 her guilt in his hand when he entered her room 
 and asked her for the other letters she had re- 
 ceived from her lover. Lady Elgin went white 
 and feebly denied misconduct. 
 
 The incensed man brushed aside her attempts 
 to thwart him and began to search the room 
 himself, and he did not have far to go before he 
 found a score of letters concealed in a drawer in 
 a table near the window. They w r ere all from 
 her lover, and, taken together, they were a history 
 of their intrigue. 
 
 " You had better go to your father," he said, 
 sternly. "It is not necessary for me to tell you 
 what I intend to do." 
 
 She was too proud to sue for forgiveness, know- 
 ing that he would never again receive her as his 
 wife, and she immediately left for Dirleton. The 
 earl journeyed to London to consult with his 
 lawyers and his friends there, and after the divorce 
 from bed and board had been obtained he en- 
 tered an action for criminal conversation against 
 Ferguson, who responded by engaging counsel, 
 not to deny misconduct, but to appeal to the jury 
 not to award excessive damages. 
 
 The case was tried in the Under-Sheriff's Court, 
 where Garrow told the story of his client's wrongs 
 and demanded exemplary damages. He argued 
 that if the defendant had not deliberately plotted 
 to ruin his client's happiness Lady Elgin would 
 not have dishonoured her husband, and he de- 
 
LORD AND LADY ELGIN 167 
 
 clared that the match had been purely a love 
 affair and that the earl had suffered acutely by 
 the loss of his wife. 
 
 It being necessary in an action of this nature 
 to prove that the plaintiff had been a devoted 
 husband and that his wife had had no reason for 
 wishing to be rid of him Garrow called witnesses 
 to speak to the relations between Lord and Lady 
 Elgin previous to the latter's infatuation for 
 Ferguson. Several officers, including a general, 
 and two gentlemen who had been detained in 
 Paris at the same time as the earl, spoke of his 
 lordship's affection for her ladyship and her pride 
 and love for him. It was shown that the plaintiff 
 never neglected her and had not contributed in 
 any way to her misconduct, either by neglecting 
 her or providing her with opportunities for seeing 
 Ferguson alone. 
 
 The defendant's counsel, Mr. Topping, delivered 
 an eloquent speech on behalf of his client, and 
 he implored the jury not to allow themselves to 
 be swayed by their natural feelings of indignation 
 into ruining the defendant financially. He main- 
 tained that there had been no treachery towards 
 the Earl of Elgin by Ferguson, and no abuse of 
 hospitality. The countess had become enamoured 
 of her friend, and Ferguson had realised when too 
 late that he could not withdraw from the position 
 he found himself in, without abandoning a lady 
 who had plainly revealed her passion for him. 
 
 It was a first-rate forensic effort, but the jury 
 were not to be persuaded that the loss of a wife 
 
168 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 of Lady Elgin's rank could be compensated by 
 the award of a few thousand pounds, and after a 
 very brief consultation amongst themselves their 
 foreman gave the finishing touch to a day of 
 thrills and sensations by announcing that their 
 verdict was that the plaintiff should receive from 
 Ferguson the sum of ten thousand pounds. 
 
 The defendant was somewhere in France when 
 the verdict was recorded, and Lady Elgin was 
 living in strict retirement at her father's Scottish 
 seat. Since the parting from her husband she 
 had not seen her lover, who had not attempted 
 to seek an interview with her. The social world 
 had been greatly excited by the lawsuit, and the 
 amount of damages created a sensation, but it is 
 doubtful if the successful plaintiff recovered a 
 shilling of the money. 
 
 His lawyers now prepared a Bill to go before 
 the House of Lords, for only their lordships could 
 put him in a position to marry again. This was, 
 however, merely a formality in the circumstances, 
 and the Bill was passed with surprising expedition, 
 and, in less than a year after the action for criminal 
 conversation, the Earl of Elgin had his desire. 
 But it was not until two more years passed that 
 he took advantage of the act to marry Elizabeth 
 Oswald, a daughter of a gentleman who had been 
 a member of Parliament for a Scottish constituency, 
 and by her he had children, including the son 
 who succeeded him when he died in 1841. 
 
 The divorced countess did not come into the 
 limelight again and it does not appear that she 
 
LORD AND LADY ELGIN 169 
 
 married Ferguson. As she could not help meet- 
 ing acquaintances who knew Lord Elgin and his 
 second wife, she must have known that his mar- 
 riage with Miss Oswald proved a great success 
 and that the lady was a fit partner for a nobleman 
 of distinguished position and attainments. She 
 was very popular both in Scotland and London, 
 and she actively assisted the earl in his negotiations 
 with the government respecting the purchase of 
 the famous marbles which to this day serve to 
 keep his memory green. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 LORD AND LADY CLONCURRY 
 
 Previous to 1858 divorce could not be obtained 
 without the expenditure of a small fortune and a 
 minimum of three lawsuits extending over two 
 years at least. There was first of all an appeal 
 to the Ecclesiastical Court ; then an action for 
 " criminal conversation " ; and, finally, a Bill 
 praying for complete divorce, which had to be 
 passed by the House of Lords before the desired 
 relief could be obtained. 
 
 It is not too much to say that a large proportion 
 of the criminal conversation cases were steeped 
 in fraud, and often set in motion to obtain money 
 from wealthy victims, and it was this oft-recurring 
 scandal that forced the government to reform 
 the laws and make one trial take the place of 
 three. 
 
 But when Lord Cloncurry, the second holder 
 of the title, wished to dissolve his marriage the 
 old laws were in force, and, consequently, the 
 legal proceedings were spread over four years, 
 and if he had not been rich he would have been 
 unable to persevere in his efforts to get rid of the 
 woman who, while still his wife, had given birth 
 to a child by another man. 
 
 170 
 
LORD AND LADY CLONCURRY 171 
 
 The litigation attracted more than the attention 
 usually bestowed by the public on these cases, 
 for the peer was that human rarity, an Irish noble- 
 man with strong Nationalist sympathies. In his 
 salad days he had been twice arrested for coquet- 
 ting with suspected rebels, and his own class had 
 boycotted him, and that with which he threw 
 in his lot had regarded him rather as a curiosity 
 than an ally, but Lord Cloncurry had a large 
 income, and it eventually procured for him those 
 amenities which poorer democrats would have 
 found unattainable in the circumstances. He 
 lived to eighty, and at that age one has generally 
 outlived the opinions and enthusiasms of youth. 
 He would be branded as an old-fashioned Tory 
 now, for the innovations of yesterday are the 
 accepted commonplaces of to-day, and his revolu- 
 tionary notions would seem tame in the twentieth 
 cent my. 
 
 However, of his sincerity in love and politics 
 there could be no doubt, and when the Solicitor- 
 General for Ireland told the story of the peer's 
 courtship and marriage in the course of the action 
 for criminal conversation, which was tried in 
 Dublin, the audience felt that Lord Cloncurry 
 had been as romantic a lover as he was a strenuous 
 champion of Irish independence. 
 
 When he had been in possession of the title 
 and estate for three years, Lord Cloncurry accom- 
 panied two of his sisters to Nice. He was then 
 twenty-nine, and if in political circles he was 
 deemed a crank or an impostor, when travelling 
 
172 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 on the continent he was the great English lord 
 who spent money freely and was generous and 
 the soul of courtesy and good breeding. 
 
 The young peer had not yet had a serious love 
 affair, for he had been so immersed in politics that 
 he had had little time for anything else, but the 
 days of his bachelorhood were numbered when 
 he took up his residence at Nice and was presented 
 to the lovely daughter of General Morgan. The 
 Solicitor-General described her as very beautiful 
 and fascinating, and he does not seem to have 
 exaggerated. Miss Elizabeth Morgan was lively 
 and witty, and, lacking the premature solemnity 
 of the Irishman, she attracted him because she 
 was his opposite. 
 
 They were soon friends, and, within a week, 
 lovers, and her father approved her choice at 
 once, for if Lord Cloncurry's opinions were fan- 
 tastically absurd, there could be nothing ridiculous 
 or disreputable about a peerage and thirty 
 thousand a year. When he was asked for his 
 consent to the marriage he did not keep them in 
 suspense. The old soldier, however, had a keen 
 sense of the shekels, and he declined to permit 
 the ceremony to take place until Lord Cloncurry 
 had settled a thousand a year on his daughter. 
 
 " I am not returning to Ireland for six 
 months," said Cloncurry, who was upset by the 
 decision, " and I cannot arrange the settlement 
 here." 
 
 " Send a trusted messenger for the necessary 
 papers," the general advised, bluntly. " We need 
 
LORD AND LADY CLONCURRY 173 
 
 not be in a hurry. My daughter can wait, and 
 so can you." 
 
 The impatient lover had no retort to this, and 
 it was tacitly agreed that the engagement should 
 last for some months. Lord Cloncurry had a 
 great deal to do on behalf of his sisters, both of 
 whom were delicate, but he was constantly in 
 Miss Morgan's society, and he became so infatuated 
 that he urged her to marry him at once. He was 
 anxious to make her his wife, settlement or no 
 settlement, but General Morgan resolutely op- 
 posed him, and both parties, when they left Nice 
 for Rome, were still divided on the subject. 
 
 The soldier's daughter and her lover were of 
 one mind, but the general and Cloncurry's sisters 
 opposed them. The latter were, perhaps excus- 
 ably, not enthusiastic at the prospect of another 
 woman monopolising their brother, and, although 
 they must have known that this marriage was 
 inevitable, they sided with the general because 
 it was in their interests that his lordship should 
 remain a bachelor. 
 
 At Rome, however, the discussion was resumed, 
 and eventually General Morgan consented to the 
 marriage being celebrated, despite the impossibility 
 of arranging the monetary side of it. Lord 
 Cloncurry pledged his word that he would give his 
 bride a thousand a year, and her father thereupon 
 bestowed a dowry of five thousand pounds on her. 
 
 The social importance of the contracting parties 
 enabled them to secure the services of the English 
 chaplain to a British princess who was residing 
 
174 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 in Rome, and, accordingly, the ceremony was 
 performed in the palace of the princess, and Lord 
 and Lady Cloncurry appeared destined " to live 
 happily every afterwards." 
 
 The succeeding couple of years were spent in 
 Italy, the happy pair preferring to remain abroad 
 until Europe was more settled, and in that time two 
 children were born to them. They entertained 
 lavishly and were the leaders of the English colony 
 in Rome, and the devotion of Cloncurry to his 
 wife, and her affection for him, were very noticeable. 
 
 According to his counsel at the trial, the peer 
 had been a perfect husband, and Lady Cloncurry 
 had been equally devoted to him until what 
 Sergeant Buzfuz would have termed " a serpent 
 in the guise of a man " appeared on the scene 
 to destroy their happiness. 
 
 When Lord and Lady Cloncurry found it desir- 
 able to return home, the young wife assumed the 
 position of mistress of Lyons, the magnificent 
 residence near Dublin on which her husband had 
 spent nearly two hundred thousand pounds. In 
 accordance with his promise to her father, the 
 settlement was immediately executed, and, 
 monetary matters having been amicably arranged, 
 the Cloncurrys had little else to do but to look 
 after their young children and enjoy the privileges 
 of their wealth and rank. But Lady Cloncurry 
 thought that Ireland was extremely dull after 
 Rome and Nice, and she did not share her hus- 
 band's passion for improving his mansion and 
 estate. 
 
LORD AWD LADY CONCURRY 175 
 
 The change from continental life to the pro- 
 vincialisms of an obscure Irish village created a 
 longing for excitement, and she was in the mood 
 for an intrigue when Sir John Piers called. As 
 his lordship was not at home, her ladyship received 
 him alone, and he made a great impression on her 
 by his pose as a man of the world and a votary 
 of pleasure. He had travelled extensively on 
 the continent, knew everybody worth knowing, 
 and he had adventures to relate which, if not 
 exactly true, nevertheless suggested that they 
 had a substratum of truth. 
 
 He was, as she expressed it, a delightful man, 
 and her husband was delighted when he heard 
 that she and Piers were friends, for he had been at 
 school with the baronet, and they had been inti- 
 mates for many years. Sir John Piers was, in 
 fact, indebted to Lord Cloncurry for a large sum, 
 and he hastened to get on good terms with her 
 ladyship in order to have a friend at court should 
 the question of repayment ever come up for 
 discussion. That was why he had exerted himself 
 to fascinate her, never imagining that she would 
 fall in love with him. 
 
 The baronet's finances were in a chaotic con- 
 dition, for ever since he had come of age he had 
 lived at the rate of four times his income. He 
 had taken advantage of the generous nature of 
 his former school-fellow to borrow thousands 
 of pounds from him, and when his position was 
 most critical and a large sum was necessary to 
 save him from arrest and disgrace, Lord Cloncurry 
 
176 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 had advanced it and had facilitated his escape 
 to the continent. He was, therefore, under many 
 obligations to the peer, but he forgot that when 
 it became evident that Lady Cloncurry was 
 infatuated with him. 
 
 There was very little peace for Lord Cloncurry 
 after his return to Ireland, although for a short time 
 he remained in ignorance of his wife's unfaithful- 
 ness. He had a great deal to do when they first 
 took up their residence at their principal seat, 
 and he was so busy with the management of his 
 property that Lady Cloncurry 's presentation at 
 the viceregal court in Dublin had to be postponed. 
 
 She encouraged further delay, finding it easy 
 to persuade him not to be in a hurry on her account 
 as he wished to complete the improvements he 
 had ordered at Lyons, his Irish residence, before 
 going to court, and he had little time to mix in 
 local society. This devotion to business gave 
 Lady Cloncurry daily opportunities of receiving 
 Sir John Piers, and she spent hours in his company 
 chatting of mutual friends and places abroad 
 which they had grown to like. 
 
 The baronet had never been a lover ol travelling, 
 but his creditors had, by their efforts to extract 
 money from him, often driven him to the con- 
 tinent, and for several years he had been com- 
 pelled to live out of his native land. He did not 
 tell Lady Cloncurry this, and he made a virtue 
 out of his necessities, flattered and cajoled her, 
 praised her skilfully, and, never anticipating 
 danger, readily responded to any hints of affection 
 
LORD AND LADY CLONCURRY 177 
 
 she was pleased to give him. Thus, before she 
 had been in Ireland six months, she had a lover, 
 and even the prospect of losing her children, 
 to say nothing of reputation, husband, and home, 
 could not curb her passion for the needy rogue 
 who was living on the bounty of her husband. 
 
 Lord Cloncurry never suspected anything, and 
 he approved of the friendship between his wife 
 and Piers, who owed him so much that he could 
 not link his name with ingratitude. The secret 
 lovers dare not commit themselves in his house 
 where they were surrounded by old and attached 
 servants of the peer, but circumstances arose 
 which provided them with the opportunity they 
 desired, and when it came they took full advantage 
 of it. 
 
 His lordship was reputed to dislike court cere- 
 monies, and he certainly disapproved of the union 
 between Great Britain and Ireland, but when he 
 was married and in his native country again he 
 was anxious as his wife that she should make 
 her bow to the king's representative. Various 
 matters caused delay, but when they had been 
 disposed of he renewed the subject, and a house 
 having been engaged in Dublin they went to that 
 city, leaving behind them one of their children 
 who was not well. 
 
 Ireland's capital, which had recently been shorn 
 of its parliament, was not then at its best. It 
 wore the air of a deserted city, and the great 
 houses were on the way to being turned into 
 lodging-houses. There was now no necessity for 
 
 M 
 
178 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 peers to have residences there, and they preferred 
 London or their country seats, and Lady Cloncurry 
 was disappointed, for she had expected something 
 quite different. 
 
 However, there was Sir John Piers to comfort 
 her, and Lord Cloncurry, without waiting for her 
 to suggest it, invited the baronet to stay with 
 them until the festivities of the imitation court 
 were concluded. 
 
 The infatuated woman was now in a position 
 of freedom and irresponsibility. Her husband's 
 old servants were at Lyons, and it was easy enough 
 to dispose of the few attendants they had brought 
 with them, and who were desirous of seeing the 
 sights of the capital. But it was not possible 
 to banish his lordship so easily, and she was trying 
 to discover a way of doing it without making him 
 suspicious when he solved the problem for her. 
 
 " I can't bear to think baby is all alone at 
 Lyons," he said, three days after their arrival in 
 Dublin, " I'll go back and see her as I won't be 
 wanted here until Friday." 
 
 Lady Cloncurry praised him for his forethought 
 and saw him off, but his carriage was hardly out 
 of sight when she was rejoicing with Piers at 
 having disposed of him. 
 
 " That night," said the Solicitor-General, who 
 conducted the case on behalf of Lord Cloncurry, 
 " the defendant and Lady Cloncurry committed 
 adultery, and on every occasion my client was 
 with his ailing child at Lyons the}' repeated the 
 offence." 
 
LORD AND LADY CLONCURRY 179 
 
 That statement was denied but not disproved 
 by counsel who represented Sir John Piers, and 
 it was fully confirmed when the erring woman 
 confessed everything to her husband. But that 
 was not to happen for a short while yet, for 
 throughout their stay in Dublin Lord Cloncurry 
 was wholly unconscious that his wife loved an- 
 other man, and at the last dinner party they gave 
 in the city the baronet occupied a place of honour 
 at the table and was one of the j oiliest persons 
 present, although aware that if he ever incurred 
 his host's enmity his lordship could ruin him by 
 simply claiming payment of the money he had 
 advanced. 
 
 From Dublin they returned to Lyons, which 
 was less than seven miles from the home of the 
 baronet. The mansion of the Cloncurrys was 
 now complete, and it was no idle boast when the 
 peer claimed that it was the finest private residence 
 in Ireland. It was a veritable museum of treasures 
 and, proud of his possessions and deeply attached 
 to his wife, he determined to fill his house with 
 guests and do all he could to prevent Lady Clon- 
 curry suffering from dullness or depression. 
 
 A few choice friends were staying at Lyons 
 when the secret of his wife's guilty intrigue was 
 revealed to him. One evening he asked her to 
 accompany him on a walk through the grounds, 
 but she excused herself with the plea that she 
 was indisposed. He thereupon went on to the 
 lawn in front of the house with Colonel and Mrs. 
 Burton, his brother-in-law and sister. 
 
180 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 Now, he had informed Lady Cloncurry that 
 they would remain there until dinner-time, but 
 they changed their minds, and proceeded to the 
 rear of the house, and they were turning the 
 corner when, to their astonishment, they saw 
 her ladyship arm-in-arm with Sir John Piers, 
 both laughing and behaving in the most familiar 
 manner. The peer did not remonstrate or show 
 any disfavour, for lie did not care to make a 
 scene, and when he retired to his bedroom late 
 that night his wife was asleep, and he did not 
 wake her. 
 
 At four o'clock in the morning, however, he 
 discovered that she was wide awake, and he there- 
 upon reproached her with having foolishfy risked 
 her reputation. He spoke as gently as he could, 
 but his obvious desire not to hurt her more than 
 was necessary moved her. 
 
 " I'm not worthy of you," she cried, bursting 
 into tears. " Sir John Piers is an infamous 
 wretch, and he is determined on my ruin. For 
 God's sake, let me never see him again." 
 
 On hearing this, he immediately dressed and 
 went in search of the baronet, and he came on him 
 shooting in a distant part of the demesne. Now, 
 Lord Cloncurry was popularly supposed to be a 
 fire-eater, but he was in no mood for bloodshed 
 when he confronted Piers, and, although excited 
 and overwrought, he was tactful enough to master 
 his emotions and obtain Sir John's gun by pre- 
 tending that he saw a rabbit which he wished 
 to shoot. Once he possessed the weapon, how- 
 
LORD AND LADY CLONCURRY 181 
 
 ever, he disclosed the nature of his business, but 
 without passion or vituperation. 
 
 " Piers, don't be angry with me," he said with 
 astonishing humility. " For God's sake, don't 
 drive Lady Cloncurry to infamy. Quit this place ; 
 go, and God bless you." 
 
 Piers, frightened and dismayed, yet puzzled 
 by the oddly apologetic tone of the friend he had 
 betrayed, mumbled denials previous to beating a 
 retreat. When he was in Dublin he wrote twice 
 to Cloncurry asserting his innocence, and, these 
 letters being ignored, sent a third suggesting a duel. 
 
 Meanwhile, Lord Cloncurry had returned to 
 his wife's side and had informed her that she 
 would not be troubled by Sir John Piers again. 
 He was proceeding to protest his love for her 
 and to apologise for having been the means of 
 causing her any pain when, overcome by his 
 chivalrous and generous demeanour, she threw 
 herself at his feet, and confessed that she had been 
 guilty of misconduct with the baronet. 
 
 The shock killed his love for her on the spot, 
 and, separating from her at once, he allowed her 
 an adequate sum to maintain her, and instituted 
 legal proceedings. Piers' letters to Lord Clon- 
 curry were handed over to his lordship's legal 
 advisers, and a fourth addressed to Lady Clon- 
 curry was intercepted by one of her servants 
 and delivered to the peer. It proved to be a 
 passionate love letter in which Lady Cloncurry 
 was styled " My beloved Eliza," and Lord Clon- 
 curry was derided as a poor, tame wretch. In a 
 
182 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 postscript the writer asked if her husband knew 
 everything, or if he was merely suspicious, and 
 he wound up by offering to marry her ladyship 
 when she was free to accept his proposal. Of 
 course, this was complete corroboration of Lady 
 Cloncurry's confession, and Piers was well ad- 
 vised to keep out of Ireland when the action was 
 tried in Dublin. 
 
 Sir John, however, was represented b}' counsel 
 who fought valiantly for him. The Solicitor- 
 General's speech for the plaintiff was answered by 
 a two hours' oration by Mr. Burrows, but it was 
 mainly a plea for mitigation of damages. Con- 
 sidering that the baronet was a penniless bankrupt 
 Mr. Burrows' anxiety was superfluous. Lord 
 Cloncurry wanted to secure a verdict that would 
 make the public realise the extent of his loss, 
 and he had his wish, for the jury awarded him 
 £20,000. It might as well has been as many 
 millions, for the defendant could not pay a farthing. 
 
 This was only a preliminary step to a divorce, 
 and it was not until some years later that the 
 last stage was reached, and a Bill was passed by 
 the House of Lords to enable Lord Cloncurry to 
 marry again. Before he obtained his freedom 
 he had met a lady whom he decided to make his 
 wife, and the year the Lords pronounced judg- 
 ment in his favour he married the Hon. Mrs. 
 Leeson, a widow with children, and the daughter 
 of a .Scottish gentleman. Their union proved a 
 very successful one, and the eldest son by it 
 eventually succeeded his father in the peerage. 
 
LORD AND LADY CLONCURRY 183 
 
 Lord Cloncurry survived his domestic troubles 
 by forty-two years, dying in 1853 at the age of 
 eighty. He led a strenuous existence, and had 
 many controversies with the government, but 
 he dropped his separatist ideas in 1831, when he 
 was created a peer of the United Kingdom, for 
 the nobleman who had declined to sign an address 
 to George IV. had by then become one of the 
 strongest adherents of the royal family. 
 
 Very little was heard of the divorced Lady 
 Cloncurry, her ladyship living in retirement until 
 her death. 
 
 The end of Sir John Piers was tragic. Com- 
 pelled to retire from England by his inability to 
 pay the damages given against him in the action 
 for crim. con. he spent a short time on the con- 
 tinent before going to the Isle of Man, where he 
 lived in lodgings under an assumed name. But 
 even in misfortune his love of intrigue proved 
 irresistible and he formed a liaison with the daugh- 
 ter of a clergyman. It lasted until the father, 
 hearing of her disgrace, committed suicide by 
 shooting himself, for when the distracted woman 
 brought the news to the baronet he was overcome 
 by remorse and took his own life. This was in 
 August, 1808. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 LORD WILLIAM LENNOX AND HIS WIFE 
 
 Mary Anne Paton, one of the greatest actresses 
 and singers of her generation, scored most of her 
 theatrical triumphs in London, where she was a 
 popular favourite, but her life-story is inextricably 
 bound up with the city of Edinburgh, for she 
 was born, married, and divorced in the Scottish 
 capital. 
 
 Her native place could never have been pro- 
 ductive of happy memories, and despite her 
 cleverness she never acquired the sense of enjoy- 
 ment, and her moody, irritable, restless and 
 neurotic temperament led her into more than 
 one dramatic adventure in which she proved 
 that she was as good an actress off the stage as 
 on it. 
 
 Her father, a schoolmaster in Edinburgh, was 
 not a child-lover, but when he discovered that 
 his daughter was something of a prodigy he seems 
 to have determined to train her into an Infant 
 Phenomenon, not forgetting that there was 
 " money in the business." George Paton and his 
 wife, who was a Crawford, of Cameron Bank, 
 were both musical, and Mary, the first of their 
 
 184 
 
LORD W. LENNOX AND HIS WIFE 185 
 
 family, was immediately consigned to a musical 
 career. 
 
 At six a rumour was industriously circulated 
 that she had composed several pieces, and at eight 
 she appeared on the concert platform in the triple 
 character of vocalist, harpist, and pianist. Fame 
 and fortune would have been hers if she had not 
 been so juvenile a phenomenon, but her health 
 was affected by the strain and she retired into 
 private life again, to remain there until 1820 
 when she was seen in the role of actress, and she 
 became a celebrity in 1822, when she scored a 
 brilliant success at her London debut. 
 
 The careful and thorough training bore fruit, 
 and Paton was fully rewarded for his trouble. 
 His daughter was a "star," and managers com- 
 peted for her services. The wily Scot, hard- 
 headed and shrewd, looked carefully after the 
 " siller," and his dragon-like guardianship of his 
 money-maker would have done credit to an ultra- 
 Grundyfied Mrs. Grundy. Paton, who chose her 
 friends for her, regarded all bachelors as possible 
 wooers. Lavish with his flattery and almost 
 orientally deferential where a wealthy nobleman 
 was concerned, he was the stern moralist and 
 heavy father when younger sons and penniless 
 adventurers attempted to make the acquaintance 
 of his famous daughter. 
 
 No one, however, was deceived by his pose of 
 fond parent. Everybody knew that Paton's real 
 reason for his elaborate watchfulness was a resolve 
 to marry Mary to a man who could afford to com- 
 
186 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 pensate him for the loss of her salary and re- 
 imburse him for the money he had spent on her 
 education and training. 
 
 Amongst those who were fascinated by her 
 was a young doctor of the name of Blood. Tall 
 and handsome, a ready conversationalist and 
 an adept in the art of pleasing women, he found 
 in his passion for acting an opportunity to become 
 friendly with Mary Paton. 
 
 An engagement at the Haymarket Theatre, 
 where she was playing, led to a very close friend- 
 ship, and, while George Paton was deciding on 
 the merits of the men of good family who belonged 
 to his circle of friends, the actor-doctor was making 
 love to the beauty with the dark eyes and the 
 lovely complexion. 
 
 Mary was due to appear at the Covent Garden 
 Theatre after she had finished at the Haymarket, 
 but she took the trouble to get Blood a part in the 
 new piece at the former theatre before she entered 
 it. This evidence of her goodwill inspired Blood 
 to propose to her, and when she accepted him 
 they agreed it was time to take her father into 
 their confidence. 
 
 The ex-schoolmaster had a terrible shock. The 
 success of all his schemes depended on his daughter 
 marrying a wealthy man, and his bitter dis- 
 appointment found an outlet in frantic denuncia- 
 tion of the actor. He immediately informed 
 the manager of the Covent Garden Theatre that 
 if Blood were allowed access to Mary he would 
 take her away and they could please them- 
 
LORD W. LENNOX AND HIS WIFE 187 
 
 selves about suing him for breach of contract or 
 not. 
 
 When Blood was informed he instantly gave up 
 his engagement in order that the lady might 
 not be inconvenienced or suffer pecuniary loss 
 on his account. His act of self-sacrifice had, of 
 course, the effect of endearing him to her more 
 than ever, and Mary, who could revel in a. real 
 love-romance, met her lover by stealth, and finally 
 consented to marry him on a certain day. But 
 Paton heard of their plans and set to work to 
 influence his daughter against Blood. 
 
 Day and night he pestered her, criticising the 
 young doctor, inventing lies about him, and ex- 
 citing her by relating what such and such a famous 
 peer had said of her. He was anxious that she 
 should marry a nobleman, and he laboured the 
 point that Blood would merely drag her down 
 and that family cares would soon rob her of her 
 beauty and her ability. He reminded her that 
 there were plenty of other women waiting to 
 succeed her on the boards and that when she was 
 the wife of a country doctor they would be the 
 favourites of London. 
 
 The arguments were weak and often ridiculous, 
 but Mary Paton, who was addicted to dramatic 
 and theatrical emotions, finally gave in. Her 
 decision presented her with the leading part in a 
 very sentimental drama, and she arranged for 
 the " curtain " on the very day fixed for her 
 wedding. 
 
 Blood was preparing to drive to the church 
 
188 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 when he received a letter from her, accompanied 
 by a parcel. The former announced that she 
 had changed her mind and the latter contained 
 all the presents he had ever given her. The 
 doctor instantly rushed off to her house, but was 
 refused admission, and, having persuaded himself 
 by a re-perusal of her letter that she had not been 
 coerced into jilting him, he did not attempt to 
 see her again. 
 
 A few years later he started to practise in Bath 
 and he was a happy husband and father when 
 Mary Paton's matrimonial affairs brought unto 
 her unhappy notoriety. 
 
 It is certain, however, that Mary never forgot 
 him and that Blood was the only man she ever 
 loved. Her father alone knew how she suffered 
 by the parting, but he kept her secluded and 
 she was too able an actress to betray herself. 
 The public saw nothing to indicate that she had 
 been the chief figure in an affair which was to 
 affect her for the rest of her life ; she sang and 
 acted as brilliantly as ever ; her circle of admirers 
 grew, and George Paton congratulated himself on 
 having saved her from an act of crazy folly. 
 
 He was doubfy pleased because she was in such 
 a state of mind now that she did not care what 
 happened to her. " I'll marry anyone you like," 
 seems to have been her attitude once Blood was 
 out of the running for her hand. 
 
 Paton took advantage of her pliabilitj^ to urge 
 the claims of a nobleman of twenty-five named 
 Lord William Lennox. He was a younger son 
 
LORD W. LENNOX AND HIS WIFE 189 
 
 of the fourth Duke of Richmond, and he was well 
 known in society and in royal circles. His rank 
 was, however, his only asset, for he had no 
 means, and he was heavily in debt. 
 
 It may have been that Paton was not aware 
 that the young prig was an unscrupulous cad — 
 would-be husbands do not reveal their true char- 
 acters even when their motives are mercenary — 
 for Lord William Lennox could talk familiarly 
 of his friends in high places, and one had only 
 to read the fashionable papers to find confirma- 
 tion of his statements. His father had held some 
 of the highest positions in the service of the crown, 
 and thus when the youthful nobleman made 
 overtures to Mary, the ex-schoolmaster encouraged 
 him. Perhaps at the back of his mind was a 
 notion that Lord William's family would " behave 
 handsomely " and help with settlements, but, 
 whatever the reason, Paton became the champion 
 of Lennox, and with such a friend victory was 
 alwaj^s a certainty. 
 
 The actress, however, could see nothing at- 
 tractive about the society of a man whose chief 
 hobbies were women and horses. Giggling des- 
 criptions of his wagers bored her, and his few 
 attempts to pose as an authority on the arts 
 would have been funny if they had not been quite 
 so crude. When a few weeks after her broken 
 engagement she went to Edinburgh with her 
 ever-watchful parent she had not treated seriously 
 Lennox's proposals of marriage. 
 
 Now, had she proved complacent he would not 
 
igo SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 have valued her at all, but, being denied, he 
 became infatuated, and followed her to Sctoland. 
 Paton, of course, provided him with their address 
 and arranged a suitable time for him to call at 
 their lodgings, and, having set his heart on the 
 marriage, he grew more insistent, boldly expressed 
 his wish to Mary that she should accept Lord 
 William, and when she declared her unwilling- 
 ness for a public ceremon}? reminded her that in 
 Scotland they could be married anywhere pro- 
 vided there was a witness present to hear their 
 simple acceptance of each other as husband and 
 wife. 
 
 It was this fact that overcame her scruples. 
 The girl believed that she would have to marry 
 someone eventually and she decided that she 
 might as well be Lady William Lennox as any- 
 body else. She could never love him, but she 
 could say the same of all the men in the world 
 with the exception of Blood. Then Lord William 
 Lennox desired the marriage to be kept a secret 
 for a year or two, and this appealed strongly to 
 her, for she wished to continue on the stage and 
 she did not want the public to know that she 
 had saddled herself with a husband. 
 
 Thus the simplicity of the Scottish law on the 
 subject tempted her to yield to Paton 's wishes, 
 and she and Lennox were married privately on 
 May 7th, 1824, and, although news of it leaked 
 out immediately, few believed it, and Lord 
 William's family, not crediting it, did not attempt 
 to investigate. Even when Lord and Lady William 
 
LORD W. LENNOX AND HIS WIFE 191 
 
 Lennox took up their abode together the 
 papers did not hesitate to proclaim that she 
 was his mistress and not his wife, and that was 
 the general opinion until an enterprising writer 
 professed to be able to assure his readers that 
 the actress was indeed Lord William's wife, 
 the duke's son having married her because — 
 so the scribe recorded — he was hard-up and had 
 to find someone to keep him. 
 
 This was, indeed, the truth stated with brutal 
 candour, and Lennox, never worried by questions 
 of honour, did not openly resent the contumely 
 in which he was held, finding relief for his feelings 
 by ill-treating his wife, whose earnings he spent 
 on himself and on other women, and countered 
 her remonstrances with cruelty. George Paton 
 was banished by his ungrateful son-in-law, who 
 drove him back to Scotland with curses and did 
 his best to prevent Mary sending him any 
 money. The marriage was, certainly, a bad 
 investment for the worldly-minded ex-school- 
 master, who was severely punished for his 
 mercenary motives. 
 
 Lady William Lennox at first rather enjoyed 
 the part of tragedy queen she found herself cast 
 for by the failure of her loveless marriage. She 
 had her happy moments when she was acting, 
 and there were periods of relief when Lord William 
 was too busy elsewhere with his horses and his 
 disreputable friends to have the time to bother 
 about her. She knew she was an object of curi- 
 osity and sympathy wherever she went, and 
 
192 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 enterprising managers made profit out of her 
 misfortune, and legends accumulated around her 
 always attractive and unique personality, and 
 she liked to believe that they were true. 
 
 But the situation could not last many years. 
 The actress was too human to be able to endure 
 active cruelty for long. The loss of her con- 
 siderable earnings scarcely affected her, but the 
 brutalities of her husband did, and her health 
 suffered. There were occasions when she had 
 to hire an ex-pugilist to protect her from Lord 
 William outside the stage door, for he would some- 
 times come from his club in an intoxicated con- 
 dition and, when she emerged from the theatre, 
 assault her. Thus she paid dearly for her blunder, 
 and she had greater reason than ever to wish 
 that she had kept that engagement to marry 
 Blood at the church in the West End. 
 
 The situation quickly became ripe for a tragedy 
 — or comedy. Mary did not seek consolation 
 in the arms of another man simply because there 
 was none she met who appealed to her, but a lover 
 was bound to appear, and when he did she was 
 as surprised as anyone else. The actress was 
 not a flirt, and all her interests were centred in 
 her profession. Many men attempted to gain 
 her friendship, but she tactfully repulsed them. 
 It was not that she was a prude. Lady William 
 Lennox was too bored with life to care for an 
 intrigue. 
 
 In the early part of 1831 the company, in which 
 she was playing the lead, received an addition to 
 
LORD W. LENNOX AND HIS WIFE 193 
 
 its ranks in the person of a tenor who, although 
 a member of a Yorkshire county family, appeared 
 on the stage under his own name, which was 
 Joseph Wood. He had a fine voice and he was 
 a hard worker, and up to the time of meeting 
 Mary Paton the only woman for whom he cared 
 was his mother, for whom he provided. W T ood, 
 of course, occupied an inferior position to Mary, 
 but she took immediate notice of him, and his 
 gentlemanly manners and chivalrous attitude to- 
 wards her aroused her warm sympathy, and very 
 soon she was confiding her troubles in him. 
 
 He had heard, of course, that Lord and Lady 
 William Lennox were on the worst of terms and 
 he had been amazed that the son of a duke should 
 have been content to let his wife keep him. The 
 scandalous stories that were being told about 
 Lennox in the clubs and in the greenrooms implied 
 that the fellow was a loathsome cad, and Wood 
 was astounded that Lord William did nothing 
 to vindicate his character by an appeal to the 
 law. 
 
 When he was the friend of Lady William the 
 tenor's astonishment increased, for he could not 
 understand how any man could treat brutally 
 a creature of such charm, refinement, and grace. 
 It may be that he told the actress this, for their 
 friendship speedily became the talk of the theatre, 
 but Wood took precautions to ensure that her 
 fair name was not tarnished by his conduct. 
 Whenever he escorted her home after the theatre 
 his mother accompanied them, and when Lady 
 
 N 
 
194 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 William entered their house it was Mrs. Wood 
 who received her. 
 
 When analysed, however, it will be admitted 
 that all these elaborate experiments in correct 
 behaviour were only a strong evidence of Wood's 
 love for Lady William and her consciousness of 
 the fact. Both most likely realised that there 
 was no need for them to be precipitate and that 
 Lord William Lennox would in due course drive 
 his wife to seek permanent shelter in Wood's home. 
 The nobleman's requirements were by now far 
 beyond Mary's earning powers, and his consequent 
 dissatisfaction was vented in greater cruelty, 
 and her position was quite impossible. 
 
 The inevitable happened when, stung by his 
 reproaches and humiliated by his conduct, she 
 fled from his house and asked Mrs. Wood to 
 protect her. That lady was anxious that her 
 son should marry the actress, and she now worked 
 solely in his interests and defied Lennox when he 
 called to demand the return of his wife. Joseph 
 Wood was present at the second interview with 
 the nobleman, which was not so very stormy, 
 because Lennox was seldom pugnacious in the 
 presence of a man his physical superior. 
 
 " You were married in Scotland," said Wood 
 bluntly, " and as your wife is determined not 
 to go back to }^ou I would advise you to get your 
 marriage annulled in Scotland. Should you not 
 care for that plan, you might allow her to divorce 
 you, but whatever happens, I am determined 
 to marry her the moment she is free." 
 
LORD W. LENNOX AND HIS WIFE 195 
 
 Lennox was in high dudgeon. He hated Mary, 
 but she had been a certain and regular source 
 of income, and, as she was now at her best and 
 commanded a large salary, he informed the tenor 
 that he would not give her up. Wood advised 
 him to think it over, and the nobleman did so, 
 and, on reflection, agreed that it would be better 
 to sever the marriage tie. 
 
 An action was accordingly entered at the Court 
 of Session in Edinburgh and eminent counsel 
 retained on behalf of Lord William Lennox. So 
 anxious was Lady William to get rid of him that 
 it was said at the time that it was her money that 
 paid the legal costs although even when the hus- 
 band is the complainant and succeeds the rule is 
 that he must foot the bill. 
 
 Lady William did not defend the action, and 
 the pursuer's counsel having briefly told the story 
 of his client's unfortunate marriage — omitting 
 naturally all the details that would have reflected 
 on the Duke of Richmond's son — the divorce 
 was granted, and Mary Paton was entitled to 
 marry the man who had been her best friend. 
 
 The proceedings in the Court of Session attracted 
 considerable attention. Lord William could not 
 charge his wife with misconduct, greatly to his 
 chagrin, and it was only because the Scottish 
 marriage laws were about a hundred years ahead 
 of the English that he was able to secure a divorce 
 for desertion. What interested the public most, 
 however, were the revelations of the life of a 
 nobleman and his actress- wife, and the fame and 
 
196 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 talents of the Edinburgh girl who had married 
 into the peerage got a great advertisement by 
 means of the law case. 
 
 Immediately the decree was pronounced Lady 
 William Lennox became Mrs. Joseph Wood, and 
 an era of happiness began for her. She and her 
 husband appeared together in London and the 
 provinces and prospered exceedingly, and when a 
 son was born to them and Wood inherited an 
 estate in Yorkshire, there appeared to be nothing 
 left for them to desire. 
 
 But a lengthy tour in America had a bad effect 
 on her nerves, and when she reappeared in England 
 she was almost a neurotic wreck. Wood, who was 
 calmness itself, endeavoured in vain to soothe 
 her. Mary declared that she must get away 
 from the world or she would go mad. Even her 
 child's welfare did not interest her. She suffered 
 from boredom, hallucinations, and fits of hysteria. 
 Nothing pleased her, and human society became 
 unbearable. 
 
 One da}? her husband returned home to hear 
 that she had gone to a convent twenty miles away. 
 His first impulse was to follow her ; his second 
 to leave things as they were, and time justified 
 his " second thoughts." He guessed that convent 
 life would not possess an endurable attraction 
 for a woman who had from her early years been 
 accustomed to the homage and admiration of 
 crowds. He believed that the fascination of the 
 footlights would draw her back into the world, 
 and that she would not be able to forget that 
 
LORD W. LENNOX AND HIS WIFE 197 
 
 he had a baby boy who required her care and 
 attention. 
 
 He had, however, to spend a difficult and un- 
 easy twelve months without her society before 
 his hopes were fulfilled, but when she re-entered 
 their home he did not complain or reproach her, 
 and they resumed their life together at the point 
 it had been temporarily interrupted. 
 
 For a year or two they pursued their profession 
 and then they went to live on his estate in York- 
 shire. Lord William Lennox was now producing 
 novels and books of reminiscences, all of which 
 were derided by the critics and bought by those 
 who thought that a nobleman must have some- 
 thing of importance to say. Never once, how- 
 ever, did he refer to his actress-wife, and he 
 married twice after Mary became Mrs. Joseph 
 Wood. The wife he had divorced was banished 
 from his life because she reminded him of the days 
 when he had been anything but an ornament to 
 society. 
 
 It is to be hoped that the second and third wives 
 had better luck, and probably they had, because 
 he was less prone to mischief as a middle-aged 
 and an old man. Mary bore him no ill-will, as 
 she showed when his name was mentioned in her 
 presence. She could regard him as with complete 
 detachment because her second marriage was 
 so complete a success. 
 
 In 1864 she died at the age of sixty-two, and it 
 was her obituary notices that enlightened the 
 public that she had once been Lady William 
 
198 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 Lennox. Lord William outlived her by seven- 
 teen years, and before he expired in 1881 he had 
 survived by exactly half a century the divorce 
 suit he had instituted in Scotland to rid himself 
 of the woman who had declined to keep him in 
 idleness and dissipation. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE TALBOT CONSPIRACY 
 
 When John Talbot, a young Irishman of ancient 
 family and considerable means, made the ac- 
 quaintance of Mary Anne M'Causland he was an 
 officer in the army, and she was one of the beauti- 
 ful daughters of a wealthy gentleman who lived 
 in Leicestershire. 
 
 Her family was not displeased when he showed a 
 preference for her society, for he appeared to be 
 generous and high-minded, and, knowing that 
 his means were ample, they could not suspect 
 that her fortune, which amounted to a few 
 thousand pounds, could be any attraction. By 
 means of lavish presents and the exercise of his 
 powers of flattery and cajolery, Talbot succeeded 
 in gaining the affections of the girl, who, with 
 the approval of her parents, accepted him when 
 he proposed. 
 
 The engagement was commendably brief, and 
 no young people could have been so happy as 
 these two were. John Talbot acted as though 
 nothing was too good for his fiancee, and, her 
 love for him growing, there was no reason to fear 
 that their marriage would prove a failure. When 
 
 199 
 
200 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 she involuntarily expressed regret at having to 
 leave England for Ireland, where she would be 
 surrounded by strangers, Talbot immediately 
 promised to do all he could to make her environ- 
 ment less foreign, and to prove his sincerity he 
 engaged three English servants to wait on him 
 and his bride. 
 
 They were expensive additions to his house- 
 hold staff, but he dcelared that he did not mind 
 what it cost him to please her, and it was in that 
 spirit that he married her and took her to his 
 Irish home. 
 
 About ten months after the marriage — the date 
 of which was January, 1845 — a daughter was 
 born, and, although Talbot had hoped for a son, 
 he did not then display any disappointment at 
 the sex of the child. The reason was that he 
 owned absolutely all his property and could 
 bequeath it to his daughter if he pleased, and by 
 now his wife had reason to know that he had every 
 intention of leaving a large estate. For, John 
 Talbot courting the English beauty had been one 
 person, and John Talbot, the husband of Mary 
 Anne M'Causland, was quite a different character. 
 
 The honeymoon had scarcely ended when she 
 discovered that he was by nature the very per- 
 sonification of meanness. He took the first oppor- 
 tunity to dismiss the expensive English servants, 
 and it was not easy to induce him to part with 
 sufficient money to provide his wife with new 
 clothes. Mrs. Talbot, accustomed to a luxurious 
 home and generous parents, was startled at the 
 
THE TALBOT CONSPIRACY 201 
 
 change in him, but she would not make trouble, 
 and, although she suffered acutely because of his 
 miserly habits, she found consolation in her love 
 for her child. It was not unusual for her to go 
 for weeks without any money, and once, when 
 refused a small sum by Talbot, she had to borrow 
 it from one of the servants. The amount was 
 only three shillings and sixpence, yet it took 
 her nine weeks to repay it by instalments. 
 
 But John Talbot's passion for money was to 
 have a more serious result than she or anyone 
 else could have foreseen. His wife could endure 
 the petty annoyances she was subjected to by 
 his miserliness, for she alwa}^ had the comforting 
 society of her daughter, and her husband was 
 never actively cruel to her. She was always busy 
 in the house, for her servants were not efficient, 
 and every morning it was her custom to inspect 
 the bedrooms to see that they were kept clean. 
 She did this at Talbot's request, and she never 
 carried out the inspection unless accompanied 
 by her child. 
 
 The Talbot household., however, reflected the 
 characteristics of the master of the mansion. It 
 was tawdry, dirty, and uncomfortable. Food 
 was plentiful enough because of the home farm, 
 but it was served by untidy servants amid squalid 
 surroundings. This met with Talbot's approval, 
 because he considered that cleanliness cost money, 
 and that it was a luxury he could not afford. 
 
 Such was the position when an event happened 
 which altered John Talbot's outlook on life. In 
 
202 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 the summer of 185 1 he inherited from his uncle 
 the Mount Talbot estates in Roscommon, a very 
 valuable property which, added to what he already 
 possessed, made him exceedingly rich. 
 
 Elated by this addition to his wealth he removed 
 with his family and servants to the historic resi- 
 dence, Mount Talbot, and for a few days forgot 
 his " principles of economy " and spent several 
 pounds, but before he was a fortnight in his new 
 house he issued orders for a strict supervision 
 of expenses, and Mrs. Talbot accordingly had 
 duties assigned to her which ought to have been 
 performed by an upper servant. However, she 
 submitted quietly. Her daughter was nearly six, 
 and she was happy to be allowed to teach her 
 and make her worthy of the splendid inheritance 
 that would be hers one day. 
 
 When they had settled down in their new quar- 
 ters Talbot sent for the family lawyer and dis- 
 cussed with him his position as owner of the 
 Mount Talbot estate. He wished to draw up a 
 new will, and he was pompously giving directions 
 as to the disposal of the property in the event of 
 his death when his solicitor politely drew his 
 attention to the fact that the estate was strictly 
 entailed in the male line, and that as John Talbot 
 had no son he could not bequeath it to anyone, 
 even his own daughter. 
 
 The news was a severe shock to the miser, 
 and the idea that Mount Talbot would have to 
 go to a distant cousin infuriated him. He 
 wanted it for his daughter, not because he loved 
 
THE TALBOT CONSPIRACY 203 
 
 her, but because she was his. and he could not 
 bear to think of an outsider handling what he 
 considered ought to remain in his own family. 
 
 " Are you likely to have a son ? " asked the 
 solicitor surprised by the gloomy fury of his 
 client. 
 
 " We've been married over six years," answered 
 Talbot, with a frown, " and I don't expect we'll 
 have any more children." 
 
 " Then you had better leave all you can to your 
 daughter," he advised. " There is no need to 
 trouble about the Mount Talbot estate." 
 
 From that day Talbot's manner toward his 
 wife changed, for he hated her because she had not 
 given him a son. He treated her with deliberate 
 unkindness, and in the presence of servants 
 reproached and insulted her, and more than once 
 they heard him express his bitter disappointment 
 that he was tied to a woman who was unlikely to 
 provide him with an heir to the entailed estate. 
 The staff at Mount Talbot often discussed the 
 relations between their master and mistress, 
 and some of the older servants became appre- 
 hensive on her account. 
 
 Mrs. Talbot might be in rags but he refused her 
 an allowance, and, as he had her dowry com- 
 pletely under his control, she was helpless. She 
 could have appealed to her relatives in England, 
 but she was afraid that if she did so serious trouble 
 would result and she might find herself separated 
 from her child. It was always the latter that 
 chained her to her husband's house, the husband 
 
204 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 she had long since ceased to love. But she was 
 determined to do her duty by him, and he could 
 not make the slightest imputation against her 
 character. 
 
 It is probable that he did hope that by cruelty 
 and neglect he would drive her into the arms of 
 some lover and thus secure the means of obtaining 
 a divorce from her, but Mrs. Talbot was not a 
 flirt, and she did not care for the society Ros- 
 common afforded. In fact, she was a mother, 
 first and last, and anything that did not concern 
 her daughter had no interest for her. 
 
 When Talbot realised that to get a divorce 
 he must manufacture the evidence himself he 
 naturally hesitated. It was a dangerous thing 
 to do, and it might have cost him a great deal of 
 money. Further reflection convinced him that 
 his wife's family would not offer any opposition 
 provided he presented a fairly strong case against 
 her. He believed that they would be so terrified 
 of creating a scandal and damaging their reputa- 
 tion that they would be willing to hush the pro- 
 ceedings up and allow him to have his own way. 
 
 It is fairly certain that had the miserly scoundrel 
 known that the matrimonial freedom was to cost 
 him £15,000 he would not have begun the cam- 
 paign of organised perj ury which he planned in the 
 spring of 1852, but he never anticipated having 
 to pa}' the costs of four trials. 
 
 The universal condemnation he earned mattered 
 little to him. It was the expense that upset his 
 calculations. However, when he had taken the 
 
THE TALBOT CONSPIRACY 205 
 
 first step he could not draw back, because, had 
 he done so, he would have run the risk of rinding 
 himself in the dock of a criminal court, and he 
 persevered in spite of many dangers and pitfalls. 
 
 With all the dark cunning of the miser he care- 
 fully prepared the bombshell for his wife's relations. 
 Knowing that amongst his present staff of servants 
 there was not one vile enough to do his bidding, 
 he searched for an abandoned ruffian whose record 
 would not be tarnished by participating in an 
 attempt to blacken the character of an innocent 
 woman. He speedily found the creature whose 
 services he required, and Mount Talbot received 
 its new butler, Halloran, on March 12th, 1852. 
 
 The fellow was a notorious drunkard and thief, 
 and had been dismissed from several situations. 
 A judge of the High Court in Ireland later on 
 declared that his character was " stamped with 
 features of infamy and disgrace," and Halloran 
 actually entered Talbot's service without a char- 
 acter one month after leaving jail. The fellow, 
 of course, had to have a companion-in-perjury 
 to corroborate any lies it would be necessary to 
 swear on oath, and he was discovered in the person 
 of one, Finnerty, a rogue who had also dabbled 
 in forgery in addition to the more common vices 
 of his colleague. 
 
 When a third confederate had to be enlisted in 
 the cause, a groom of loathsome habits, whose 
 name was William Mullane, was brought into the 
 conspiracy, but he was not permitted to know 
 all the intentions of the gang headed by John 
 
206 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 Talbot, retired army officer and landed proprietor. 
 
 The plans were now ready, and on the 19th May, 
 1852, they were put into operation against the 
 honour and well-being of an unsuspecting and 
 innocent wife and mother. 
 
 It has been mentioned that one of Mrs. Talbot's 
 duties was the supervision of the servants' bed- 
 rooms, and on the day referred to the villains 
 decided to take advantage of her presence in one, 
 which contained the bed of Mullane, the groom, 
 to accuse her of misconduct. It happened, how- 
 ever, that it was not until shortly after midday 
 that she entered it and only then because there 
 was a fire in it and she wanted to dry the stock- 
 ings of her daughter, who had got them wet when 
 playing in the farmyard. But once she was 
 inside the room the door was suddenly locked 
 from the outside, and a minute later Halloran 
 and Finnerty were heard loudly demanding ad- 
 mission. When they had created the sensation 
 they desired they entered and — so they reported 
 to John Talbot — they found the lady and the 
 groom within, the former secreted with her child 
 behind the curtains of the bed. 
 
 Talbot now appeared on the scene in the well- 
 rehearsed character of the injured husband. It 
 mattered nothing to him that his wife, over- 
 whelmed by the terrible accusation against her, 
 had passed from hysterics into fainting fits, and 
 was almost lifeless. 
 
 He brutally ordered Halloran and Finnerty to 
 take complete charge of her, sent for Mullane — 
 
THE TALBOT CONSPIRACY 207 
 
 who, of course had no reason to avoid an encounter 
 with his master in perjury — and paid him his 
 wages to the very hour and then dismissed him. 
 It was amazingly generous on Talbot's part, con- 
 sidering what a miser he was, but it was also an 
 indiscreet act, for it is not easy to imagine a man 
 troubling to pay all he owes to a servant he believes 
 has just seduced his wife. 
 
 However, the master of Mount Talbot was 
 in too great a hurry to be able to give these small 
 matters his care. He wanted to get to Dublin 
 at once and begin divorce proceedings, and when 
 he had settled with the presumably guilty groom 
 he set out for the Irish capital, leaving Halloran 
 and Finnerty in control of his home and his wife 
 at their mercy. 
 
 The night that followed was one of misery 
 and terror for poor Mrs. Talbot, and it un- 
 doubtedly, drove her out of her mind. Halloran 
 got drunk, as usual, and made an attempt on her 
 honour, and only the interference of the other 
 servants saved the unhappy woman. It is not 
 surprising that ever afterwards she was never 
 quite sane. The loss of her child, who had been 
 taken from her, the nature of the charge against 
 her and the behaviour of the scoundrels by whom 
 she was surrounded, all had their effect on a mind 
 already weakened by her husband's unkindness. 
 
 When Talbot returned from Dublin, having 
 arranged with his lawyer for an action to be 
 instituted against the groom and Mrs. Talbot, he 
 was informed by a local clergyman, the Rev. 
 
208 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 Robert Gage, of Halloran's attempt on his wife. 
 He received the news coolly, and he indicated 
 what he thought of it by retaining the cur in his 
 service and raising his wages. When circum- 
 stances did compel him to get rid of him he gave 
 the fellow this testimonial : — " Halloran lived 
 with me as butler one year, and during that time 
 he conducted himself soberly, quietly and honestly. 
 He left my service at his own request." Every 
 statement was a lie, and yet this county gentleman 
 was willing to give a false character to a servant 
 who had tried to outrage Mrs. Talbot. 
 
 But Talbot, once proceedings had started, was 
 so determined to attain his object that he spent 
 money like water, and to the amazement of every- 
 body he met with success after success. 
 
 He entered an action against the penniless groom 
 Mullane, for damages, and was awarded £2,000, 
 but, of course, he did not attempt to collect even 
 his costs. Mullane had fled soon after being 
 served with the writ, but before he left the neigh- 
 bourhood of Mount Talbot he confided in three 
 acquaintances that all the trouble had been the 
 invention of spiteful servants, and that he had never 
 behaved towards Mrs. Talbot except as a servant 
 ought to. 
 
 The verdict in his favour was, however, a good 
 beginning for the chief conspirator, and, con- 
 fident of another triumph, he sued for divorce. 
 Extraordinary evidence was given at the hearing 
 of the case, and the public heard the history of 
 the Talbot family for the first time. 
 
THE TALBOT CONSPIRACY 209 
 
 Talbot's counsel described the discovery of 
 Mrs. Talbot's guilt by Halloran and Finnerty but 
 having to admit that these two rogues could not 
 be believed even on oath, he announced that he 
 would produce a clergyman who would swear that 
 the erring wife had confessed her sin to him. 
 As a matter of fact three clergymen came forward 
 to champion the strong against the weak, and 
 the strongest partisan of them, M'Clelland, was a 
 brother-in-law to the petitioner. 
 
 This parson stated that Mrs. Talbot in one of 
 her lucid intervals had clearly confessed that 
 she was a wicked woman and that Mullane, being 
 her servant, had not been to blame for yielding 
 to her wishes. 
 
 All this seemed very clear, but Mrs. Talbot' 
 was not without defenders. When Halloran and 
 Finnerty had been relieved of their posts as jailers 
 at Mount Talbot her husband had decided to carry 
 her off to England and place her in the charge of a 
 woman who could be relied on to safeguard his 
 interests. By some means or other he had un- 
 earthed at Clewer a woman who passed under a 
 false name and whose house was little better 
 than a brothel. As by this time Mrs. Talbot 
 had lost her reason, it was not difficult to smuggle 
 her into this hiding-place and keep her presence 
 there a secret from her friends and relations for 
 nearly six months. During that period her parents 
 and her brothers-in-law and sisters had searched 
 for her, and it was only by the merest chance 
 that Mr. Paget, a barrister, who had married a 
 
210 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 sister of hers, got a clue to her address and promptly 
 removed her to her mother's residence. 
 
 But while she was under confinement Talbot's 
 lawyer had visited Mrs. Talbot and had persuaded 
 her to sign a certain document. She believed that 
 it was some communication to her father ; in 
 reality it was an order to a firm of solicitors to 
 act on her behalf ; and as John Talbot had 
 selected this firm it is easy to understand why 
 her defence to the divorce suit in Dublin was 
 faulty and most imperfect. 
 
 Despite this, however, a strong case was made 
 out for her, thanks to the exertions of Mr. Paget. 
 The evidence put forward by the petitioner was 
 examined and sifted, and all its glaring weak- 
 nesses exposed. Counsel proved to the court the 
 absurdity of the statements of Halloran, Finnerty, 
 and the other servants who were supporting Talbot. 
 
 It would occupy too much space to go into the 
 details of the evidence of the other servants. 
 Everyone of them was proved to be lying, with 
 the exception of one, who, although called on 
 behalf of Talbot, told the truth, and consequently 
 could not but speak in favour of Mrs. Talbot. 
 She was the one person whose character was 
 unassailable, and altogether the case would have 
 collapsed if it had not been for the support lent 
 the petitioner by the three clergymen. 
 
 These ready tools of the chief conspirator 
 appear to have worked overtime on his behalf. 
 Disguising themselves as sympathetic ministers 
 of the gospel, whose sole object was to afford 
 
THE TALBOT CONSPIRACY 211 
 
 spiritual comfort to an unhappy woman, they 
 had so harassed her with questions and veiled 
 accusations that they had tortured her into ex- 
 clamations such as "I'm a wicked woman ! " 
 " I deserve to die ! " and " My sins are too great ! " 
 
 That she was raving mad when she uttered 
 these meaningless remarks they admitted, but 
 the judge who presided at the divorce proceedings 
 was greatly impressed by them. He had disposed 
 of Halloran, Finnert}^ and Co. as worthless 
 scoundrels and perjurers, but he was very tender 
 with the Revs. Gage, M'Clelland and Kemmis. 
 
 The decision in favour of John Talbot caused 
 an immense sensation, but when on appeal to five 
 judges, his lordship's ruling was confirmed the 
 whole of Great Britain and Ireland was astounded. 
 
 The Press took the subject up, and pamphlets 
 and " open letters " were circulated by the un- 
 happy woman's champions. The cause was carried 
 to the House of Lords, and for the fourth time 
 the story was gone into and once again every 
 definite statement against the respondent was 
 proved to be a lie. Medical evidence was pro- 
 duced to show that William Mullane and Mrs. 
 Talbot could never have committed adultery, 
 and this ought to have been conclusive, but their 
 lordships were hypnotised by the trio of parsons, 
 and, to the blank astonishment of the nation, 
 Talbot was granted his divorce by the highest 
 tribunal in the land. 
 
 But it was a Pyrrhic victory. The public 
 derided it, and Talbot was treated as a pariah. 
 
212 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 The woman who had been driven mad by his 
 cruelty had the sympathy of the world, but she 
 did not survive her separation from her child by 
 many years. The wealthy scoundrel who was 
 responsible for her insanity never had the son 
 he wanted, and the Mount Talbot estate passed 
 at his death into possession of a distant relative. 
 
■ 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 A SENSATIONAL ELOPEMENT 
 
 The elopement of the wife of Captain the Hon. 
 John Cranch Vivian, M.P., and Junior Lord of 
 the Treasury, with the fifth Marquis of Waterford 
 in the early spring of 1869, had its inevitable 
 sequel in the Divorce Court a few months later, 
 although it was not until Mr. Prentice, Q.C., out- 
 lined the case for the injured husband that the 
 public heard of the efforts which had been made 
 to prevent a scandal. 
 
 It had been impossible to keep it a secret from 
 the relatives of the two families and from certain 
 political friends of the petitioner, but for more 
 than one reason Captain Vivian would have for- 
 given his wife had she consented to return to him. 
 However, her emphatic refusal compelled him 
 to initiate proceedings, and on August 4th, 1869, 
 the petition for divorce was heard by Lord 
 Penzance and a jury. 
 
 For Vivian, Sir John Coleridge, then Solicitor- 
 General, and afterwards Lord Chief Justice of 
 England, had been briefed, along with Mr. Prentice 
 and Dr. Swabey, but at the last moment he could 
 not attend, and the conduct of the case devolved 
 on Prentice, who had an easy task. 
 
 213 
 
214 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 Lord Waterford, who was only twenty-five, 
 did not wish to contest the action, but his family 
 deemed it advisable to make some sort of defence, 
 and Sir John Karslake and Dr. Tristram were 
 retained, and they duly earned their heavy fees 
 by objecting successfully to the reading of a 
 couple of letters which the marquis and his rela- 
 tives were anxious to keep out of the papers. 
 
 That accomplished, they did little else, but, 
 despite the fact that there was no real opposition 
 to the plaintiff, the suit caused considerable ex- 
 citement and sensation owing to the social and 
 political importance of the parties to it. 
 
 Captain the Hon John Cranch Vivian left the 
 nth Hussars to represent Truro in Parliament. 
 A younger son of Lord Vivian, he had more in- 
 fluence than brains, but he was respectable, hard- 
 working, and ambitious. 
 
 Admiring relatives confidently predicted high 
 political office for him when the Liberals came 
 into power, and Vivian carried himself with due 
 gravity and arrived at middle age without doing 
 more than falling in love. 
 
 He had recently lost his first wife when he met 
 Florence Rowley, whose father was a major in the 
 Indian Army, and when, in 1861, they were 
 married at St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, a fashionable 
 crowd attended the ceremony, and, doubtless 
 regarded the second Mrs. Vivian as a fortunate 
 woman, for her husband was rich and had some 
 standing in society and Parliament. 
 
 Three children, all girls, were born to them and, 
 
A SENSATIONAL ELOPEMENT 215 
 
 according to all accounts, the Vivians were a very 
 happy and united family during the years they 
 resided in Belgrave Square with the Dowager 
 Countess of Kinnoull. The M.P. was an indulgent 
 husband, genuinely devoted to his wife, and she, 
 on her part, did not find him as staid as she had 
 expected, and was contented with her lot. 
 
 They went into society a good deal and enter- 
 tained in return, and there were always the back- 
 stairs gossip and intrigues of the political world 
 to add a spice to life. Vivian was in the confidence 
 of his leaders, and, being determined to obtain 
 office, he was keenly interested in the varying 
 fortunes of the two great parties. 
 
 It was two years after his marriage that Vivian 
 became acquainted with Henry, fifth Marquis of 
 Waterford. In his speech for the petitioner, Mr. 
 Prentice stated that the nobleman was then 
 twenty-five or twenty-six, but in reality he was 
 only nineteen. 
 
 A rather handsome boy, with engaging manners, 
 he bore the courtesy title of Earl of Tyrone until, 
 in 1866, he inherited the peerage and estates, and 
 the Vivians were charmed by him and enthusias- 
 tically included him in their circle of acquaintances. 
 It had been settled that when he reached twenty- 
 one he was to enter Parliament, and for that reason 
 he was encouraged to mix with politicians and 
 their kind. A younger brother, at this time a 
 midshipman, died as Admiral Lord Beresford a 
 year or two ago, and another earned a V.C. and 
 the rank of general. 
 
216 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 A close friendship sprang up between Mr. and 
 Mrs. Vivian and their youthful friend. The 
 M.P. for Truro assumed the role of political tutor, 
 and when the future Lord Waterford secured a 
 seat in Parliament, gave a dinner in his honour. 
 He did not remain there long, however, for the 
 death of his father in 1866 removed him to 
 " another place." 
 
 But previous to these events the Irish nobleman 
 and Mrs. Vivian had formed a separate party 
 against her husband. The lady, who was Lord 
 Waterford's senior by several years, conceived 
 such a passion for him that she could not bear to 
 let him out of her sight, and had it not been that 
 Vivian was almost as eager to have him in the 
 house the crisis might have occurred sooner than 
 it did, but with nothing to prevent them meeting 
 constantly she was satisfied. 
 
 When he was in possession of the marquisate, 
 the Vivians visited him at Curraghmore, his 
 historic Irish residence. The two men were on 
 familiar terms, and his lordship wrote to " My 
 dear Johnny " to congratulate him or console 
 with him as occasion demanded. When, for 
 instance, Vivian did not receive the appointment 
 he had confidently expected, Lord Waterford 
 sent him a letter sharply criticising the govern- 
 ment and extolling the merits and talents of his 
 friend. 
 
 The Beresford family subsequently complained 
 that the experienced parliamentarian and man 
 of the world ought to have terminated the friend- 
 
A SENSATIONAL ELOPEMENT 217 
 
 ship between his wife and the young marquis, 
 but he could reply with perfect candour and truth 
 that in view of the nobleman's tender years and 
 his wife's affection for himself he would have been 
 ridiculed by her and the marquis had he exhibited 
 the slightest jealousy. 
 
 The few persons who doubted the propriety of 
 Mrs. Vivian's partiality for Lord Waterford did 
 not care to involve themselves in a domestic 
 squabble, and the M.P., elated by his inclusion 
 in Mr. Gladstone's first administration and im- 
 mersed in his new duties, was too proud and self- 
 conscious to imagine that anyone would have the 
 audacity to steal his wife from him. 
 
 An event which was to have an important effect 
 on all concerned was the removal of the Vivians 
 from Belgrave Square to Lowndes Street. Now 
 that he was a Junior Lord of the Treasury, Captain 
 Vivian decided that he must have an establish- 
 ment of his own, and, accordingly, the change 
 was made. Mrs. Vivian welcomed it with enthu- 
 siasm. She had chafed under the watchful eye 
 of the Dowager Countess of Kinnoull, a strict old 
 lady who, nevertheless, had proved herself an 
 exceedingly good friend to the young wife. But 
 the latter had no affection for her husband now. 
 
 She and the Marquis of Waterford had come to 
 the decision that concealment would soon be 
 impossible, and she at any rate was desirous of 
 taking definite steps to pave the way to matrimon- 
 ial freedom. The welfare of her three children 
 was not considered, for she had been rendered 
 
218 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 reckless by her passion for the Irishman, and she 
 hardly troubled to contemplate the serious con- 
 sequences of adultery. 
 
 Two near relatives of Lord Waterford's urged 
 him to cease visiting the house in Lowndes Street, 
 and to avoid Mrs. Vivian at social functions. 
 He promised he would, but, knowing that he had 
 gone too far to withdraw, he broke his word in 
 order to stand by the woman who was prepared to 
 endure social extinction and the loss of her children 
 for his sake. It is almost certain that by the 
 beginning of 1869 he had not the same enthusiasm 
 for the intrigue that she had, but she was much 
 older and very persuasive, and the Beresford 
 tradition was never to let a woman down. 
 
 An anonymous friend of Captain Vivian's un- 
 wittingly precipitated the crisis, but who he was, 
 or how he managed to secure the two letters he 
 forwarded to the M.P., is still unknown. It is 
 astonishing that a letter written by Lord Water- 
 ford and packed with the most endearing senti- 
 ments and protestations of undying love should 
 have been mislaid by its recipient, Mrs. Vivian. 
 
 It is equally surprising that a letter from her 
 to the marquis, revealing the extent and magni- 
 tude of her passion for him, should not have been 
 carefully guarded by the nobleman, if not destroyed 
 by him. Strangest of all, it is inexplicable how 
 both letters should have come into the hands of 
 the person who enclosed them in an envelope and 
 addressed them to Vivian at the House of Com- 
 mons. Anonymous communications are amongst 
 
A SENSATIONAL ELOPEMENT 219 
 
 the stock ingredients of divorce suits, and they 
 have also played their part in crime and history. 
 They are bores who worry about the authorship 
 of " The Letters of Junius," and the lover of 
 justice who omitted his name from the communi- 
 cation which led to the undoing of Pritchard, 
 the poisoner, never revealed himself. The anony- 
 mous slanderer is always with us, and it is rarely 
 one of the species is detected and sent to gaol. 
 
 The method adopted to open the eyes of Vivian 
 was, however, unique, and the astounded hus- 
 band could not disbelieve the evidence thus 
 placed in his hands. The shock was terrific, 
 and unnerved him, and for some time he could 
 not bring himself to go home. He shrank from 
 confronting his wife, and was unwilling to force 
 a confession from her. The letters were in them- 
 selves a confession of guilt by Mrs. Vivian and 
 Lord Waterford, but even in these circumstances 
 Vivian hoped to retrieve the position. 
 
 Mr. Prentice did not say if husband and wife 
 had a scene, although it is known that they shared 
 at least one meal together in the house in Lowndes 
 Street previous to the elopement. However, the 
 moment Mrs. Vivian knew that the intrigue was 
 within the knowledge of her husband she hastened 
 to get into touch with the marquis, and the day 
 after they departed together for the continent. 
 
 There was nothing dramatic or heroic about 
 the elopement — there seldom is in these prosaic 
 days. Mrs. Vivian, heavily veiled, met her lover 
 at the railway station and proceeded with him 
 
220 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 to Calais, and from there they went to Paris, 
 indifferent to the possibilities of recognition en 
 route, and oblivious of the consequences of their act. 
 
 The highly neurotic woman was capable of 
 touching the extremes of happiness and despair, 
 but the friend who saw her in the train remarked 
 afterwards that although pale she seemed over- 
 joyed. No doubt life with Captain Vivian had 
 become unbearable and impossible, and the elope- 
 ment was the only cure for her nervous condition. 
 At Paris they engaged a suite of rooms at the Hotel 
 Westminster, and waited for the storm. 
 
 Captain Vivian's first act on discovering that 
 his wife had eloped with the Marquis of Waterford 
 was to summon her sister to a conference. His 
 chief desire was to save her from disaster and 
 bring her back to the three children to whom she 
 had been a devoted mother. A minor reason that 
 influenced him was the effect the affair might 
 have on his political future, and he wanted, if 
 possible, to bring Mrs. Vivian home and try and 
 make her forget that the marquis had ever existed. 
 
 A private detective, Henry Smith, who had 
 recently retired from the police force, was en- 
 gaged to trace the fugitives. He had little diffi- 
 culty in picking up a trail that led to Paris, and 
 his report to Vivian was a detailed account of the 
 journey of the guilty couple from London to the 
 French capital. Apparently Lord Waterford had 
 been recognised by several of his fellow travellers 
 who had been ignorant of the identity of the 
 lady who accompanied him. 
 
A SENSATIONAL ELOPEMENT 221 
 
 Once they had Mrs. Vivian's Paris address, 
 Mrs. Knight, her sister, and Captain Vivian deter- 
 mined to have an interview with her. On their 
 arrival at Paris they put up at the Grand Hotel, 
 and the same afternoon Mrs. Knight drove to the 
 Westminster, and, without announcing herself, 
 walked into the room occupied by Mrs. Vivian. 
 The latter was completely taken by surprise 
 and burst into tears, and she broke down when 
 she heard that her husband was only a short 
 distance from her and that he wished her to receive 
 him so that they might amicably discuss the 
 position. 
 
 " I daren't see him," exclaimed the over- 
 wrought woman. " I'm sure he could never 
 forgive me for the wrong I've done him." 
 
 " You must meet him, Florence," urged Mrs. 
 Knight, who was equally distressed. " Will you 
 fling away a chance that may never occur again ? 
 
 " Don't torture me," cried Mrs. Vivian angrily, 
 but the next moment she was apologising for her 
 ingratitude. 
 
 " If you won't go to John," said Mrs. Knight 
 finally, " he will have to come to you, and I won't 
 be responsible for what may happen if he meets 
 Lord Waterford here." 
 
 The suggestion that her husband and her lover 
 might have a public quarrel in the hotel alarmed 
 Mrs. Vivian, who immediately promised to call 
 at the Grand if she were first allowed a couple of 
 hours' rest. 
 
 " Take the night to think it over," her sister 
 
222 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 advised her. " You are not in a fit condition 
 now to see anyone." 
 
 The following afternoon Captain Vivian and 
 Mrs. Knight waited anxiously and nervously 
 at the Grand Hotel for the arrival of the faithless 
 wife. Realising something of her feelings, and 
 understanding what an ordeal it would be for 
 her, they were afraid that she would not appear, 
 but at three o'clock she came, deathly pale, and 
 trembling violently. Before she spoke Mrs. Knight 
 left the room, and husband and wife were alone 
 to decide between them their future course of 
 action. 
 
 Hitherto nothing had been seen of the marquis, 
 who had wisely kept out of the way after the 
 arrival of Captain Vivian. He was still in Paris, 
 but he stopped at another hotel until Vivian and 
 his sister-in-law returned to London. 
 
 The meeting between the injured husband and 
 the mother of his children lasted an hour and a 
 half, and most of the talking was done by the 
 former, who again and again implored her to give 
 up Lord Waterford and accompany him to Lowndes 
 Street. He assured her that the elopement was 
 still their own secret and he pointed out that if 
 she compelled him to divorce her she would lose 
 her children and in all probability her seducer 
 would not marry her owing to the disparity in 
 their ages. 
 
 He reminded her that the numerous powerful 
 relations of the marquis would fight tooth and 
 nail to prevent him making her his wife, and he 
 
A SENSATIONAL ELOPEMENT 223 
 
 wound up by reminding her that she could have 
 no cause for complaint against him. 
 
 Except for an occasional ejaculation of remorse 
 or self-pity, the woman scarcely spoke. She 
 cried when her children were mentioned, but 
 she did not speak of them at all. Captain Vivian 
 was not noted for eloquence, but his appeal to 
 his wife was inspired by genuine feeling, and if 
 she had not been so slavishly in love with the Irish 
 nobleman she could not have resisted it, and 
 must have gone straight from the Grand Hotel 
 to London with her husband. 
 
 The most she could promise, however, was to 
 consider all he had said, and when she parted 
 from Vivian it was understood that she was to 
 give him her decision by letter as soon as possible. 
 He hoped that she would find writing unnecessary 
 and that she would come to him in person and 
 promise never to think of Waterford again, and 
 it was in this frame of mind that he remained at 
 the Grand for her. 
 
 It was nearly six the same evening when a 
 special messenger handed him a letter in the 
 familiar handwriting of the woman he still loved, 
 but before he tore the envelope open he must have 
 guessed that she had decided against him, though 
 he did not admit that until he had glanced at the 
 brief message which dismissed him from her life 
 and left her and her reputation at the mercy of a 
 man who was considerably under the influence 
 of strong-minded relatives who disliked her. Her 
 jetter was a mixture of hysteria, remorse, and 
 
224 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 fear, and it revealed the signficant news that the 
 marquis had advised her to accept the offer of her 
 husband. 
 
 " Five o'clock. I cannot go," she wrote, " I 
 have tried and tried to give him up, and, against 
 his own urgent advice, I shall stay. For God's 
 sake, don't think too hardly of me or I shall do 
 myself some harm. I am going to my ruin, I 
 know, but it is impossible for me to go back. Try 
 and forgive me in your heart. I could not look 
 at those poor children after what I have done, 
 and do not send for me for Heaven's sake." 
 
 The reading of this letter in court made it 
 certain that the action would not be defended 
 seriously, and when Mr. Prentice called his wit- 
 nesses their evidence was not disputed by the 
 other side. The Dowager Countess of Kinnoull 
 testified to the mutual happiness of Captain and 
 Mrs. Vivian until the friendship with the Marquis 
 of Waterford developed, and Smith, the detective, 
 and various other minor characters in the drama, 
 assisted to prove that adultery had been com- 
 mitted by the respondent. 
 
 It was a clear case, and, as Sir John Karslake 
 did not attempt to palliate his client's offence, 
 the proceedings did not occupy a whole day. 
 The verdict was, of course, in favour of the pe- 
 titioner and the usual decree was pronounced and 
 the Marquis of Waterford ordered to pay the 
 costs. The crowd which had packed the court 
 came out into the August sunshine discussing 
 what it had heard, and, despite wars and rumours 
 
A SENSATIONAL ELOPEMENT 225 
 
 of wars, in the clubs and drawing-rooms and 
 other places where men congregate the Vivian 
 divorce suit was the topic of the hour. 
 
 It was generally thought that at the end of the 
 regulation six months the decree nisi would be 
 made absolute and that immediately afterwards 
 Mrs. Vivian would become Marchioness of Water- 
 ford, but the relations of the nobleman had dif- 
 ferent opinions on that subject. 
 
 An uncle of his, Colonel Leslie, had been incensed 
 by the miserable intrigue, and he determined to 
 stop the match. The lady was so much older 
 than his nephew, and, there were many objections 
 to her entering the Beresford family that he took 
 the extreme course of applying to the court to 
 order the Queen's Proctor to intervene. Colonel 
 Leslie appears to have become obsessed with the 
 notion that the whole affair had been deliberately 
 arranged between the Vivians and Lord Waterford 
 to enable the M.P. to pass his wife on to the 
 marquis. He gave the public the impression that 
 he believed that the youth and inexperience of 
 his nephew had been taken advantage of and 
 that he had been victimised by the politician 
 and his astute, if neurotic, wife. 
 
 The idea was ridiculous, and had not the smallest 
 justification, and the colonel eventually admitted 
 this to the judge and asked to be allowed to with- 
 draw his application. A legal argument ensued 
 to decide if he could be condemned to pay the costs. 
 However, it was found that he could not be held 
 responsible for the expenses, and thus after a 
 
 p 
 
226 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 vexatious and worrying delay Captain Vivian 
 obtained his complete divorce in June, 1870, and 
 the Hon. Mrs. Vivian was free to marry. 
 
 But the Beresfords and the Leslies did not relax 
 their efforts. They were bitterly opposed to a 
 union between the marquis and the lady, whom 
 they regarded as the temptress. He was im- 
 plored to desert her, and to refuse to meet her. 
 They induced him to offer her a considerable 
 sum of money, but, wise in her generation, she 
 refused to accept any compensation except 
 marriage. 
 
 The redoubtable Colonel Leslie took him in 
 charge, and showered advice on him. It might 
 have had the wished-for effect if the Hon. Mrs. 
 Vivian had not fallen ill. On hearing of this, 
 Lord Waterford hastened to her side, and a few 
 minutes later they were married, but the date of 
 the ceremony was nearly three years subsequent 
 to the hearing of her first husband's petition for 
 divorce. Within a year, however, she died, and 
 in 1876 Lord Waterford married the daughter 
 of a duke. He ought to have found life pleasant 
 and profitable, but his youthful eccentricities 
 increased with age, and, in 1895, he startled the 
 world by committing suicide. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE GARDNER PUZZLE 
 
 When in March, 1796, Captain the Hon. Alan 
 Gardner, R.N., married Miss Maria Elizabeth 
 Adderley, he and his bride had the good wishes 
 of all their friends and acquaintances, for it ap- 
 peared to be an ideal match in every respect. 
 The sailor possessed all those qualities which go 
 to make members of his profession so popular 
 with both sexes, while the lady was young, ex- 
 ceedingly beautiful, and had a charming, winsome 
 manner which captivated everybody. She brought 
 her husband an adequate dowry, and there was 
 no reason to doubt that the marriage would be a 
 success. But, as a matter of fact, it proved a 
 failure, though, if Gardner had remained at home, 
 he might have prevented the catastrophe. 
 
 For the first five years there was nothing to 
 cloud their happiness. The young officer was 
 permitted to take his wife with him when he was 
 on service, and at each port the ship touched 
 they found friends, and, as befitting their social 
 position, were entertained lavishly. Mrs. Gardner 
 enjoyed these voyages. She was popular with the 
 seamen, and the deference paid her by the officers 
 gratified a beauty whose composition contained 
 a large amount of vanity. She visited China and 
 
 227 
 
28 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 Japan, Australia, and South Africa, and every 
 day of her existence she saw something fresh, 
 fc't was just the life for a woman who had a horror 
 of solitude, and who, as she expressed it, " could 
 not bear to have no one to talk to." The bustling 
 yet disciplined world aboard ship suited her ad- 
 mirably, and she sighed with regret when they 
 returned to Portsmouth, after a long voyage, 
 with the knowledge that it would be many months 
 before they should set sail again. 
 
 However, Mrs. Gardner could not be depressed 
 for long, and within a few days she was her bright, 
 cheerful self again, and night after night she dined 
 or danced at some famous house in the West-end 
 of London. Her husband generally accompanied 
 her, obviously proud of her beauty and vivacity, 
 and fully conscious that his own popularity had 
 been increased by the personality of his wife. 
 
 Her attractiveness, however, was the chief 
 cause of her downfall, and it only needed an ad- 
 mirer bolder than usual to secure a place in her 
 affections, for Mrs. Gardner was of the butterfly 
 order of beauty, and her subsequent conduct 
 proved that she had very few scruples. 
 
 It happened that one evening she and her hus- 
 band were preparing to drive to the London resi- 
 dence of the Earl of Strathmore, when the naval 
 officer received a communication from the Ad- 
 miralty which necessitated his attending the 
 First Lord at once. He therefore left her at 
 Lord Strathmore's, promising to come for her 
 later. 
 
THE GARDNER PUZZLE 229 
 
 At the house of the Scottish nobleman she met 
 several old friends, and one man, hitherto a 
 stranger to her. The latter was Henry Jadis, 
 and Mrs. Gardner had not been in his company 
 ten minutes before she decided that he was quite 
 different from other men. Jadis was tall, and 
 had fine, clear-cut features, which were illumined 
 by a singularly compelling expression radiating 
 kindness and happiness. He was an interesting 
 talker, too, and he expressed himself wittily 
 and epigrammatically. 
 
 To her surprise, Mrs. Gardner found herself 
 hoping that her husband would not be able to 
 call for her, and she experienced a sense of relief 
 when, at eleven, she heard Jadis beg for the honour 
 of conducting her home in his carriage. She did 
 not refuse his offer, and that journey through the 
 silent streets was an episode in her life which the 
 wife of the peer's son never forgot. 
 
 That she fell in love with Jadis that night there 
 is no reason to doubt, and that he was amazed 
 when he discovered his conquest is equally obvious. 
 Perhaps Jadis never intended to fascinate the 
 Hon. Mrs. Gardner, and very likely he flattered 
 her without suspecting that she might take him 
 seriously. 
 
 She was a married woman, and report had it 
 that she and her husband were perfectly happy, 
 and the rich man-about-town may have imagined 
 that it would be safe to make love to her. If 
 that was his state of mind, he soon had reason to 
 feel sorry for himself, for he became one of the 
 
230 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 chief figures in an intrigue which created much 
 gossip and not a little sensation in Society. 
 
 Before the month was out Jadis was on friendly 
 terms with Captain Gardner, and had become a 
 regular caller at the house which Lord Gardner's 
 son had rented for the season. The naval officer 
 welcomed Jadis with open arms, for he was a man 
 who influenced everybody with whom he came 
 in contact, and he appeared to have such a fine 
 sense of honour that Gardner never had the least 
 suspicion of his intentions, finding in Mrs. Gard- 
 ner's liking for him another reason why he should 
 be invited. But, with a woman willing to run 
 any risks to secure the society of the man with 
 whom she was secretly in love, it did not require 
 much to change Jadis into something more than a 
 mere friend. 
 
 The time soon came when Mrs. Gardner and 
 Jadis were meeting unknown to her husband. 
 At first they exercised the greatest caution, but 
 continued success in evading Captain Gardner 
 rendered them careless, and, if the officer had not 
 had such implicit faith in his wife he would have 
 discovered for himself the nature of the intrigue. 
 
 Practically everybody else in Society knew of it, 
 and the subject was discussed everywhere, but 
 Gardner was absolutely ignorant of his wife's 
 infidelity, and he was genuinely distressed when he 
 was ordered by the Admiralty to assume command 
 of H.M.S. Resolution, and at the same time notified 
 that he would not be permitted to take his wife 
 with him. 
 
THE GARDNER PUZZLE 231 
 
 The thought of being separated from her for 
 a year upset him, and if it had not been that he 
 feared to offend his father, Lord Gardner, he 
 would have resigned his commission. However, 
 Mrs. Gardner agreed to accompany him to Ports- 
 mouth, and to remain on board the ship until it 
 was due to sail, and with this he had to be content. 
 
 The day came, however, when she had to be put 
 ashore for the last time, and after an affecting 
 leave-taking, she stepped into the tender, and, 
 waving a farewell to her husband, was rowed 
 towards the land. 
 
 The date was February 7th, and she did not 
 see him again until July 10th — both very import- 
 ant dates, for the reason that on 8th December 
 in the same year she was delivered of a male 
 infant, who was christened Henry Fenton Gardner, 
 although his birth was kept a secret from Captain 
 Gardner. 
 
 Once her husband was out of the way, Mrs. 
 Gardner threw herself into the arms of Jadis, 
 and they scandalised Society by appearing every- 
 where together. They flung discretion to the 
 winds, did not even attempt to conceal their doings 
 from Gardner's own servants, and the woman 
 declined invitations to houses where her lover 
 was not received. 
 
 The few friends who proffered advice were told 
 to mind their own business, and eventually the 
 scandal became so great that Lord Gardner declined 
 to see his daughter-in-law, and Henry Jadis 
 was advised to resign from his clubs. 
 
232 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 But the lovers were not affected by the censure 
 of the world. They defied criticism and went 
 their own way, and when Mrs. Gardner informed 
 Jadis that she was expecting a child, he saw no 
 reason why it should not be palmed off on the 
 naval officer as his own offspring. 
 
 It was shortly after she had advised Jadis of 
 her condition that Captain Gardner unexpectedly 
 returned home. He was still blissfully ignorant 
 of his wife's behaviour, and for a few weeks they 
 lived together, and he got the impression that the 
 long-wished-for heir was on the way. 
 
 Had a child been born within nine months of 
 February 7th, all might have been well, but it was 
 not due until December, which, of course, ren- 
 dered it impossible for the infant to be legitimate. 
 
 Soon, however, the nature of the gossip con- 
 cerning his wife reached the ears of Gardner, but 
 his indignant protests against the slanderers were 
 followed by evidence which convinced him that 
 rumour was right. In the meantime a very 
 important event had happened — the birth of 
 Mrs. Gardner's baby. 
 
 She had fully realised the absurdity of trying 
 to persuade her husband that he was the father 
 of the child, and so she arranged for the birth to 
 be kept a secret. This she managed to do by 
 means of much cunning and considerable luck, for 
 Captain Gardner was away in the country when 
 the infant came into the world, and the mother 
 ordered her maid, Susan Baker, to take it the 
 same day to a Mrs. Bailey, who had agreed to 
 
THE GARDNER PUZZLE 233 
 
 nurse it and keep its existence unknown to Captain 
 Gardner and his family. 
 
 The little plot was carried out without a hitch, 
 and when the officer returned he accepted the 
 false explanation of his wife's illness, but a few 
 months later he discovered the familiar terms 
 on which his wife and Henry Jadis were, and 
 that instant he quitted the house. 
 
 His lawyers got to work, and an action for 
 damages was brought against Jadis, who was 
 ordered to pay one thousand pounds compensation 
 to the outraged husband. A divorce suit speedily 
 followed, and some two j^ears after the birth of 
 Henry Fenton Gardner the latter 's mother was a 
 divorced woman, and engaged to be married to 
 her lover. 
 
 Her second marriage was no sooner accom- 
 plished than her secret child was removed from 
 the care of Mrs. Bailey and openly acknowledged 
 by Mr. and Mrs. Jadis, and in due course the boy 
 was sent to Westminster School, where he was 
 known by the name of Henry Fenton Jadis, 
 and did very well. 
 
 From all accounts Mrs. Jadis was perfectly 
 happy with her second husband, and in time 
 Society forgot her errors, and she and Jadis were 
 received at houses which had been closed to them 
 by the divorce proceedings. Occasionally she 
 read about her first husband in the newspapers 
 and it was not without some emotion — for she 
 was an ambitious woman — that she saw a notice 
 of his father's death, for this meant that the naval 
 
234 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 officer was now a peer of the realm and the owner 
 of the family estates. 
 
 Two years after his accession to the title, Alan, 
 Lord Gardner, married the Hon. Charlotte Smith, 
 daughter of Lord Carrington, a union which 
 greatly strengthened his position and also 
 brought him great happiness. 
 
 When a son was born, that happiness seemed 
 to be complete, for he had longed for an heir, but 
 he was destined to die within seven years of his 
 second marriage, leaving the boy, Alan Legge 
 Gardner, aged six, to inherit the barony as third 
 Lord Gardner. 
 
 Lord Carrington was appointed guardian of 
 the infant peer, and his office seemed to be a 
 nominal one entailing very little trouble, but 
 about nine years from his son-in-law's death he 
 was amazed to be informed that the youth who 
 had gone to Westminster as Henry Jadis had 
 dropped the last name and insisted on being called 
 Henry Fenton Gardner. 
 
 Furthermore, he intended to claim the barony 
 of Gardner on the ground that he was legally the 
 eldest son of the late Alan, second Lord Gardner. 
 This was a bombshell, and Lord Carrington foresaw 
 plenty of trouble for all concerned, unless steps 
 were taken at once to disprove Henry Fenton 
 Gardner's claim. 
 
 Accordingly, he petitioned the king to confirm 
 his grandson's right to the title, and, his petition 
 having been referred to the Attorney-General, 
 the latter gave it as his opinion that Alan Legge 
 was the heir. 
 
THE GARDNER PUZZLE 235 
 
 He advised, however, an enquiry before a 
 tribunal so that all doubts might be set at rest, 
 and a court consisting of the legal members of the 
 House of Lords, presided over by the Lord Chan- 
 cellor, sat specially to decide whether Henry 
 Fenton Gardner or Alan Legge Gardner was 
 entitled to style himself third Lord Gardner. 
 
 Henry Fenton Gardner, at the age of twenty- 
 one, was a very ambitious young man who quar- 
 relled with his mother for having entered him at 
 Westminster under the name of her second hus- 
 band. He accused her of trying to deprive him 
 of his rights, and he now informed the Attorney- 
 General that he was the real Lord Gardner, and, 
 as he had a large sum of money placed at his dis- 
 posal by Henry Jadis, who was commonly accepted 
 as his father, he lacked none of the sinews of war. 
 
 The trial was one of the most interesting con- 
 nected with a disputed peerage, and it remains 
 in a class by itself because of the fact that some 
 of the leading doctors of the day gave evidence 
 as to the possibility or otherwise of a woman 
 having a child eleven months after cohabiting 
 with her husband. 
 
 It was Henry Fenton Gardner's contention that 
 he was the elder son of the second Lord Gardner, 
 and that when the latter — then, of course, Captain 
 the Hon. Alan Gardner — returned home in the 
 year that witnessed Henry's birth, he had known 
 that his wife was expecting a child, and had 
 accepted the position as a natural one. 
 
 Old servants and friends were called as well 
 
236 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 as the doctors, and Mrs. Gardner's once favourite 
 maid, Susan Baker, gave a history of the intrigue 
 between her mistress and Henry Jadis in a manner 
 which indicated that she had reason not to wish 
 Mrs. Gardner well. 
 
 In cross-examination it was elicited that Susan 
 had quarrelled with the lady, but that did not 
 weaken her very circumstantial account of the 
 incidents which led up to the divorce suit by 
 Captain Gardner. 
 
 Doctors will always differ, and Henry Fenton 
 Gardner was able to produce medical men who 
 expressed the opinion that it was possible that 
 Captain Gardner was his father. The balance of 
 expert opinion pointed to young Legge as being 
 the only son of his father, and the judgment of 
 the court was to the effect that Henry Fenton 
 Gardner was not Lord Gardner's son, and that 
 Alan Legge was the holder of the barony, and 
 entitled, when he came of age, to take his seat 
 in the House of Lords. 
 
 Undoubtedly the non-medical fact which did 
 most to demolish Henry Fenton Gardner's claim 
 was the extraordinary precaution taken by his 
 mother to conceal his birth. The petty but suc- 
 cessful manoeuvre to get Captain Gardner out 
 of the house, the arrangements with Mrs. Bailey, 
 and the active assistance of Susan Baker were 
 all proved to the satisfaction of their lordships, 
 who were also informed that Mrs. Gardner had not 
 told her own mother that she had had a baby. 
 
 Now, if her child had been legitimate, she must 
 
THE GARDNER PUZZLE 237 
 
 have been proud of being the mother of the heir 
 to the title. As it was, she was only anxious to 
 keep the world in ignorance of it, and it was only 
 when she was divorced by her husband that she 
 acknowledged the infant's existence. 
 
 There was nothing significant to be inferred from 
 the boy's name when at Westminster, for there 
 was something to be said in favour of his mother's 
 second husband giving the boy his own name to 
 avoid confusion. 
 
 Very little was said about any resemblance 
 between the elder claimant and the late peer, 
 principally because Henry knew that he had 
 nothing in common with the man he swore was 
 his father. In appearance he was a Jadis, and 
 not a Gardner, and one can only marvel at his 
 hardihood in advancing the claim at all. 
 
 He was, as might have been expected, dis- 
 satisfied with the decision, and wished to style 
 himself Lord Gardner, but older and wiser friends 
 persuaded him to be sensible, and before the 
 public had ceased to discuss the amazing trial 
 he had retired into obscurity. 
 
 The successful claimant lived until 1883, and 
 when he died leaving no son there was great un- 
 certainty as to who was his successor. Since the 
 hearing of the famous case the descendants of 
 the younger sons of the first Lord Gardner had 
 undergone many adventures, and the family was 
 scattered all over the world. 
 
 A great-grandson of the founder of the family 
 had married a native girl in India about the time 
 
238 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 of the Indian Mutiny, in which he served as a 
 trooper. Another descendant of the first lord 
 had likewise taken to wife a dusky maiden. Both 
 these adventurers in matrimony had sons and 
 daughters, and both claimed to be the successor 
 to the third holder of the peerage. 
 
 Apparently each doubted the legality of other 
 marriages in the family, and thus the peerage is 
 at present dormant, and no one knows who ought 
 to have it. It is fairly certain, however, that 
 somewhere in the world there is a man who has 
 the right to call himself Lord Gardner, and it is 
 equally probable that he is in a humble station in 
 life. 
 
 The writer met a few years ago a handsome 
 man in the thirties who claimed the barony, and 
 at intervals insisted on being addressed as Lord 
 Gardner. He looked a Gardner to the life, and 
 it was in his favour that he strongly resembled 
 the first and second peers. 
 
 But there was some informality in the marriage 
 of his parents, or he may have found it impossible 
 to satisfy the House of Lords on the point. In 
 any case he was not accepted as a peer, and when 
 he died he was still just a claimant. The problem 
 is complicated by the inability of the Gardners 
 themselves to agree as to which of them is the 
 head of the family. 
 
 There are, of course, plenty of instances of 
 lineal descendants of peers who have had to toil 
 for their living. Some time ago an elderly work- 
 house master passed away in a Devonshire village, 
 
THE GARDNER PUZZLE 239 
 
 and only at his death did it become known that 
 he was related by ties of blood to a ducal family. 
 There used to be a cab-driver in London who 
 would have been an earl had six individuals, 
 who stood between him and the title, expired 
 before him, and until recently there was a miner 
 in South Wales who was sixth in descent from 
 the first Lord Gardner, his grandmother having 
 been a granddaughter of the nobleman. 
 
 It is probable that the Gardner title will never 
 be claimed, for there is no property attached to it, 
 and a coronet without ready money is only an 
 embarrassment. The only chance is that a Gard- 
 ner may make a fortune and then consider it 
 worth while to open up another chapter in the 
 history of a family which has, during the last 
 hundred years, provided more than one sensation. 
 
 Henry Fenton Gardner, the defeated claimant, 
 married early, and had several sons, so that if he 
 had gained the verdict there would have been no 
 problem about the succession. But his offspring 
 never entertained any hope of getting the peerage, 
 and his descendants have long since ceased to 
 count as factors in the dispute. 
 
 It was estimated that it cost Lord Carrington 
 twenty thousand pounds to establish his grand- 
 son's rights, but, as his lordship was a millionaire 
 banker and a great landed proprietor, the expendi- 
 ture was of no consequence to him, and he must 
 have considered himself amply repaid when he 
 gained the title for the son of his widowed daughter, 
 who was his favourite child. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE 
 
 When it was rumoured that the Earl of Euston, 
 the eldest son and heir of the Duke of Grafton, 
 had instructed his solicitors to bring an action in 
 the Divorce Court to have his marriage annulled 
 the sensation was great. Nearly thirteen years 
 previously the country had been startled by the 
 unexpected marriage of the young earl — he was 
 only twenty-three — and Kate Cook, a woman 
 with a lurid " past," who was eight or ten years 
 older than her lover, and ever since gossip had 
 been busy with both. Many accounts of that 
 marriage had been given in the papers, but it was 
 not until Sir Charles Russell, Q.C., who led for 
 the plaintiff, delivered his opening speech that 
 the full details were revealed. The story he told 
 was a very remarkable one, and long before he 
 sat down nearly everybody present must have 
 regarded the issue as certain. 
 
 According to the famous counsel, who later 
 became Lord Chief Justice of England, Lord Euston 
 had fallen in love with Kate Cook at first sight. 
 She had been a minor actress, and more often than 
 not out of an engagement, but she always dressed 
 well, was remarkable for her cheery disposition, 
 
 240 
 
THE INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE 241 
 
 and, being a clever, artful woman of the world, 
 had had no difficulty in fascinating the very sus- 
 ceptible heir to the ancient dukedom. 
 
 The youthful aristocrat made violent love to 
 the beauty, and, as he was proud of his acquaint- 
 ance with her, he took no trouble to conceal it, 
 and they were seen together constantly. When 
 his relatives heard of his passion family influence 
 was brought to bear on him, and he was implored 
 not to marry her. Lord Euston laughingly de- 
 clared that he was not a marrying man, and that 
 Kate did not expect him to make her his wife. 
 
 " Let him sow his wild oats," said a cynical 
 uncle. " Young as he is, he isn't such an ass 
 as to marry such a woman." 
 
 This became the opinion of his family, and for 
 more than a year the earl and Kate Cook were 
 on intimate terms, and those who were in the con- 
 fidence were under the impression that they would 
 never become man and wife. 
 
 But the woman secretly cherished an ambition 
 to become Countess of Euston. Despite her 
 affection of gaiety her life had been a sordid one, 
 and she was usually discontented. Her parents 
 had been humble working-class folk and Kate 
 had suffered much from poverty. Many men had 
 come into her life, but she had never had a real 
 lover until now, and she, therefore, did her best 
 to make the earl believe that she was necessary to 
 his existence, and eventually she persuaded him 
 to marry her. 
 
 In the circumstances marriage was a great 
 
 Q 
 
242 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 adventure. The Duke of Grafton had never 
 ceased to keep an eye on his son in London, and 
 Lord Euston realised that it would be impossible 
 to have the ceremony performed in the metropolis. 
 He was aware that his family would go to any 
 extreme to prevent it taking place and that the 
 fear of scandal would not deter them from trying 
 to save him from himself, even if it meant a public 
 scene. 
 
 He and Kate had many debates as to where and 
 how they could be married, and, finally, it was 
 decided that she should pay a visit to Worcester 
 and live in retirement there for a week or two 
 until she was joined by her lover who was to come 
 provided with a special license. 
 
 They carried out their plans without a hitch, 
 and one morning the young nobleman and the 
 pretty actress were married by the rector of a 
 church in the famous cathedral city. Lord Euston 
 walked out of the building proud and happy. He 
 had been carried away by the romance of the 
 affair, and he felt like a knight-errant, for the 
 world seemed to be against his bride, and he was 
 determined to protect her. 
 
 There is little doubt that the bridegroom had 
 been influenced by the stronger personality of 
 the woman and that she had to make many ap- 
 peals to his sense of chivalry before he agreed 
 to give her his name. He was in a state of quixotic 
 emotion when he did so, but it could not last for 
 long, and the day came when he realised that he 
 had perpetrated a blunder likely to ruin his life. 
 
THE INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE 243 
 
 When the news of his marriage leaked out 
 his family and friends were horrified. It was 
 not that they objected to his marrying a girl 
 in an inferior social position. Other noblemen 
 had wedded actresses and had easily overcome 
 the prejudice thus temporarily created, but this 
 was something quite different, and the new Lady 
 Euston had such a reputation that she and her 
 husband were ostracised, and Lord Euston, hitherto 
 popular in Society, found himself an outcast with 
 every door closed against him. 
 
 The opposition and the treatment he met with 
 exasperated him, but he had not been married 
 six months before he discovered the hideous mis- 
 take he had made. Determined, however, to do 
 his best by his wife he settled every penny he 
 possessed on her — £10,000 — and stuck to her until 
 her conduct made it impossible for him to live 
 with her. Then he separated from her, secured 
 an appointment in Australia and left England. 
 They had been married four years when the final 
 parting took place and they did not see each other 
 again till they met in the Divorce Court. 
 
 The position, however, was an unenviable one 
 for the heir to a dukedom, and, although it seemed 
 that Lord Euston must pay dearly for his folly 
 for the remainder of his life, his family, rendered 
 desperate by the unsatisfactory state of affairs, 
 initiated a thorough investigation into the ante- 
 cedents of Lady Euston, hoping to discover some- 
 thing that would enable them to win matrimonial 
 freedom for the future head of the Fitzroys. 
 
244 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 It appeared to be sheer waste of money, and 
 the duke was advised to " let sleeping dogs lie," 
 but he refused. Expense was no object and if 
 they failed they would have the satisfaction of 
 knowing that they had done their best. 
 
 A clever solicitor took up the case on behalf 
 of the Duke of Grafton, and a beginning was 
 made with an enquiry into the first marriage of 
 Kate Cook, who had described herself as a widow 
 at her second wedding. After a great deal of 
 trouble it was ascertained that when very young 
 she had hastily married a commercial traveller 
 of the name of George M. Smith at St. Mungo's 
 Catholic Chapel, Glasgow. The ceremony had 
 been almost a secret one and, for some unknown 
 reason, within twenty-four hours of it husband 
 and wife had separated. 
 
 At the time Kate had been appearing in the 
 chorus at a local theatre, and there is no doubt 
 that she was very beautiful and attractive. But 
 why she should have become the wife of Smith 
 was never revealed. But the fact remained that 
 she did so and that she had been relieved when 
 he had agreed to let her go her own way. 
 
 For years after this secret marriage Kate Cook 
 had led an adventurous life in which her husband 
 took no part. She had had many ups and downs ; 
 now apparently rich and prosperous ; then poor 
 and despairing. 
 
 The proprietor of a circus had been her friend 
 for a brief time, supplying her with plenty of 
 money and introducing her to his Bohemian 
 
THE INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE 245 
 
 acquaintances, and, when he had abandoned her, 
 Kate had descended into the depths. She was 
 just recovering from this set-back when she was 
 introduced to another chorus girl who presented 
 her to the Earl of Euston. 
 
 " But when did George M. Smith die ? " That 
 was a question often asked by the investigators, 
 who strove to secure a clue to the doings of the 
 commercial traveller subsequent to his marriage. 
 They did not approach Lady Euston, for the 
 excellent reason that they did not wish her to 
 know that they were working in secret against her, 
 and they were beginning to despair of finding 
 the answer to it when, by a fortunate chance, they 
 came upon a solution. 
 
 In the course of her career it had been Kate 
 Cook's misfortune to be summoned many times 
 for debt, and when each of these summonses was 
 being examined by the duke's representative he 
 came upon a signed statement by the lady herself. 
 It was to the effect that she was unable to pay 
 because she was a widow without employment, 
 her husband, George M. Smith, having had the 
 misfortune to be drowned in the wreck of the 
 London. 
 
 Now the loss of the London had been a very 
 sensational affair, which had attracted wide-world 
 attention, and the duke's agent knew that there 
 was in existence a complete list of those on board 
 at the time of the disaster. When he went to the 
 offices of the company which owned the ship 
 he was inspired by a feeling that he would find 
 
246 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 no " George M. Smith " on the list, and he believed 
 that he was very near success. His disappoint- 
 ment may be imagined when half way down the 
 catalogue of the dead he saw the one name he 
 did not wish to see. 
 
 It was a knock-down blow, and reluctantly he 
 reported to his employer that Kate Cook had 
 been a widow when she married Lord Euston, 
 but he was instructed for form's sake to enquire 
 into the matter more fully, and, accordingly, he 
 asked the shipping company to give him any 
 particulars they could of the relations of the 
 " George M. Smith " who had gone down with 
 the London. They did so, and hope returned 
 when he received the name and address of the 
 widow, for it was not that of Lady Euston. The 
 investigator immediately called on Mrs. George 
 M. Smith, and to his joy heard that there could 
 never have been any relationship between her 
 husband and Kate Cook. 
 
 Here was an astounding piece of good luck. 
 When the Fitzroy family were informed of it 
 they were delighted. They persevered and found 
 evidence which convinced them that the woman 
 who had entrapped their son had committed 
 bigamy by marrying him, and that Lord Euston 
 would only have to apply to the President of the 
 Divorce Court to secure his freedom, while she 
 would not be able to call herself Countess of 
 Euston a moment after the decree had been 
 pronounced. 
 
 The good news was immediately sent to the 
 
THE INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE 247 
 
 young earl, and he resigned his appointment in 
 Australia and returned home. A writ was there- 
 upon issued, and Lady Euston's advisers im- 
 mediately briefed Mr. Inderwick, Q.C., and another 
 barrister to champion her cause. 
 
 On her appearance in court every eye was 
 turned in the direction of the defendant, and it 
 was noticed at once that she displayed nervous- 
 ness when she caught sight of her first husband, 
 George M. Smith, seated next to the lady who 
 was the widow of the Smith who had lost his life 
 in the shipwreck of the London. But she quickly 
 regained her composure, and even when Sir Charles 
 Russell was thundering accusations against her 
 and making the most serious and damaging state- 
 ments about her past her countenance never 
 changed. 
 
 The wealthy and influential Fitzroys had, cer- 
 tainly, left nothing to chance, for from the moment 
 they had established beyond the shadow of a 
 doubt that Kate Cook's husband had not been 
 on the London they had poured out money like 
 water to discover his whereabouts. Finally, at 
 an expenditure of some thousands of pounds they 
 ran him to earth in New Zealand, and persuaded 
 him to return to England and give evidence in one 
 of the most sensational cases ever tried in the 
 courts. 
 
 When counsel had explained that he had com- 
 plete proofs of the defendant's bigamy, and that 
 amongst his witnesses were her former husband, 
 the widow of the Smith who had been drowned, 
 
248 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 and a witness of the marriage at the Catholic 
 chapel in Glasgow, it seemed to those present 
 that there could be no real defence. 
 
 Some sympathy was expressed for the woman 
 who, whatever her faults may have been, was 
 in danger of losing a great title and the right to 
 demand the support of her husband, and it was 
 rough luck on her to be changed from a countess 
 into the wife of a commercial traveller by a few 
 words pronounced by the President of the Divorce 
 Court. Everybody marvelled at her composure. 
 Lady Euston appeared to be less affected by the 
 prevalent excitement than any of the spectators. 
 
 The most important witness was, of course, 
 Smith, the man who had married Kate Cook 
 years previously and who had parted from her 
 after the briefest experience of matrimony. He 
 gave his evidence reluctantly, and it was plain 
 that he was very nervous ; and the reason for this 
 became apparent when Mr. Inderwick, Q.C., 
 rose to cross-examine. 
 
 " You married my client at Glasgow ? " he 
 asked, politely. 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Smith, eagerly. 
 
 " You described yourself as a bachelor ? " 
 
 The witness nodded, but there was fear in his 
 eyes. 
 
 " Was that true ? " demanded counsel, leaning 
 forward and fixing him with a stare that meant 
 volumes. 
 
 Smith hesitated. He knew little of the procedure 
 in courts of law, but he had a vague idea that 
 
THE INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE 249 
 
 perjury was a severely punishable offence, and he 
 did not wish to commit himself. But he was on 
 the horns of a dilemma, and it was only after 
 counsel had pressed him that with dry lips he 
 whispered that he had not been a bachelor when 
 he had gone through that secret ceremony with 
 Kate Cook. 
 
 " You were, in fact, a married man ? " said 
 counsel remorselessly. " Isn't that so ? You had 
 a wife living at the time ? You had deserted her, 
 and it was because you feared that she might 
 discover you were a bigamist and have you arrested 
 that you deserted my client ? " 
 
 " I didn't desert her," exclaimed the wretched 
 man. " We agreed to separate, and we parted 
 friends." 
 
 " But the suggestion first came from you ? " 
 persisted Mr. Inderwick. " Come, had you a wife 
 living when you married Lady Euston ? " 
 
 " I had not," he answered doggedly. 
 
 During this cross-examination the face of Sir 
 Charles Russell was a perfect study in bewilder- 
 ment. It was obvious that the great advocate 
 had been taken completely by surprise, but his 
 amazement was nothing compared with that of 
 the Fitzroy party. Lord Euston was flabber- 
 gasted, and he was deathly pale as he listened to 
 the questions Mr. Inderwick flung at the trembling 
 man in the box. 
 
 " You called yourself a bachelor," counsel re- 
 sumed, after a pause, " but that was a lie, wasn't 
 it? " 
 
250 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 " I ought to have said I was a widower," Smith 
 explained, lamely. 
 
 " Supposing I proved that your first wife lived 
 for four years after that bogus marriage of yours 
 to Lady Euston, would you be surprised ? " 
 asked the barrister who was evidently enjoying 
 himself. 
 
 " I would," said the witness, with an effort 
 to appear at his ease. 
 
 " Very well, then," retorted Mr. Inderwick. 
 " You may stand down. I have another witness 
 to examine." 
 
 A middle-aged man now stepped into the box 
 and took the oath, and then the leading counsel 
 for the defence by his first question acquainted 
 all present with the fact that the newcomer was 
 the brother of the first and, in fact, the only legal 
 wife of George M. Smith. 
 
 It did not take long to extract from him the 
 statement that his sister had been alive when Smith 
 had married Kate Cook — as Lady Euston had 
 been then — and Mr. Inderwick backed up his 
 evidence with a copy of the real Mrs. Smith's death 
 certificate, which satisfied judge and jury that 
 Smith had committed bigamy and that Kate Cook 
 had never been his wife at all, for the date on 
 the certificate was 1867, and Smith and Lady 
 Euston had " married " in 1863. 
 
 The sensation was profound, and when the first 
 feeling of amazement passed the crowded audience 
 could only stare helplessly at the woman with 
 the smiling face who sat immediately behind her 
 
THE INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE 251 
 
 counsel. They realised now why she had been so 
 quietly confident and they showed their aston- 
 ishment at the sudden and complete discomfiture 
 of the Duke of Grafton and his relations. His 
 grace had paid Sir Charles Russell a record fee to 
 appear on behalf of his son, and, even with the 
 odds so heavily against him, the famous Irishman 
 made a final effort to break down the strong 
 position of the defence. 
 
 He delivered an ingenious speech, but he could 
 not explain away the proved fact that George 
 Smith, the alleged husband of Lady Euston, 
 had had a wife alive when he had stood before the 
 altar of the Catholic chapel in Glasgow and had 
 sworn that there was no impediment to prevent 
 him making Kate Cook his lawful wife. 
 
 It was all there in black and white — the certifi- 
 cates and every document the law required to 
 establish the ex-chorus girl in the position of the 
 wife of the heir to a historic title, and Sir Charles 
 might call names and look black and threatening, 
 but, as Mr. Inderwick pointed out, truth was 
 on the side of his client, and she must have a 
 verdict in her favour. 
 
 In carefully chosen phrases the judge announced 
 that Lady Euston was still the lawful wife of the 
 earl, and that she had never been really married 
 until she had gone through that ceremony at the 
 church in Worcester. With the verdict went 
 costs, but the latter item did not worry the Fitz- 
 roys. It was their unexpected and signal defeat 
 that rankled and the knowledge that the heir 
 
252 SOCIETY SENSATIONS 
 
 was tied for life to a woman of whom he was 
 ashamed. 
 
 Someone suggested a reconciliation, and Lord 
 Euston declined it. Circumstances rendered it 
 impossible for him to live with his wife again, 
 and he preferred to retire into the country. Lady 
 Euston was given an allowance befitting her 
 rank, and she behaved with good sense, lying low 
 whilst the world was discussing her triumph, 
 and declining the offers of music-hall agents and 
 theatrical managers to turn her notoriety into gold. 
 
 " I want no more publicity," she said to a well- 
 known music-hall owner. " I'll never enter a 
 court again. I've had two actions, and I want 
 no more worry." 
 
 She was referring incidentally to the occasion 
 when she had had to prosecute one of the most 
 rascally solicitors that ever disgraced the profes- 
 sion. It will be remembered that, immediately 
 on his marriage, Lord Euston settled the whole 
 of his fortune — £10,000 — on his wife. This had 
 been invested in gilt-edged securities, and the 
 shares deposited with a lawyer of the name of 
 Froggatt, the same man who took part in the 
 sensational conspiracj^ of the Scotland Yard 
 detectives. 
 
 Froggatt 's practice had never been a good one, 
 and his extravagant style of living kept him on 
 the verge of bankruptcy for years, but it was 
 owing to a financial crisis which threatened to 
 land him in the dock that he was tempted to 
 embezzle the whole of Lady Euston 's dowry. 
 
THE INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE 253 
 
 When her ladyship learned that she had been 
 robbed she applied for a warrant, and Froggatt 
 was arrested and committed for trial. He had 
 just served two years for conspiracy, and at his 
 second appearance at the Old Bailey he was given 
 seven years' penal servitude. 
 
 This happened while Lord Euston was in Aus- 
 tralia, but he never exhibited any interest in the 
 case, and his relations studiously avoided referring 
 to it. They were too busy with their inquiries 
 to bother about the financial misadventures of 
 the woman they hated. 
 
 After this abortive suit in the Divorce Court, 
 Lord Euston lived in retirement, and when in 1903 
 the countess died he was fifty-five. Nine years 
 later he passed away, and a brother succeeded to 
 the courtesy title of earl, and later to the duke- 
 dom, which, as long as it exists, must remain 
 associated with one of the most remarkable of 
 Divorce Court dramas. 
 
 PRINTED AT THE DEVONSHIRE PRESS, TORQUAY, ENGLAND 
 

 

 
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