“The Man of Law,.......
And a great suit is like to be between them.”
BEN JONSON: Staple of News.
On arriving in London, Philip went first to the lodging he still
kept there, and to which his letters were directed; and, among some
communications from Paris, full of the politics and the hopes of the
Carlists, he found the following note from Lord Lilburne:--
“DEAR SIR,--When I met you the other day I told you I had been
threatened with the gout. The enemy has now taken possession of the
field. I am sentenced to regimen and the sofa. But as it is my rule in
life to make afflictions as light as possible, so I have asked a few
friends to take compassion on me, and help me ‘to shuffle off this
mortal coil’ by dealing me, if they can, four by honours. Any time
between nine and twelve to-night, or to-morrow night, you will find me
at home; and if you are not better engaged, suppose you dine with me
to-day--or rather dine opposite to me--and excuse my Spartan broth. You
will meet (besides any two or three friends whom an impromptu invitation
may find disengaged) my sister, with Beaufort and their daughter: they
only arrived in town this morning, and are kind enough ‘to nurse me,’ as
they call it,--that is to say, their cook is taken ill!
“Yours,
“LILBURNE
“Park Lane, Sept. --”
“The Beauforts. Fate favors me--I will go. The date is for to-day.”
He sent off a hasty line to accept the invitation, and finding he had a
few hours yet to spare, he resolved to employ them in consultation with
some lawyer as to the chances of ultimately regaining his inheritance--a
hope which, however wild, he had, since his return to his native shore,
and especially since he had heard of the strange visit made to Roger
Morton, permitted himself to indulge. With this idea he sallied out,
meaning to consult Liancourt, who, having a large acquaintance among
the English, seemed the best person to advise him as to the choice of
a lawyer at once active and honest,--when he suddenly chanced upon that
gentleman himself.
“This is lucky, my dear Liancourt. I was just going to your lodgings.”
“And I was coming to yours to know if you dine with Lord Lilburne. He
told me he had asked you. I have just left him. And, by the sofa of
Mephistopheles, there was the prettiest Margaret you ever beheld.”
“Indeed!--Who?”
“He called her his niece; but I should doubt if he had any relation on
this side the Styx so human as a niece.”
“You seem to have no great predilection for our host.”
“My dear Vaudemont, between our blunt, soldierly natures, and those
wily, icy, sneering intellects, there is the antipathy of the dog to the
cat.”
“Perhaps so on our side, not on his--or why does he invite us?”
“London is empty; there is no one else to ask. We are new faces, new
minds to him. We amuse him more than the hackneyed comrades he has worn
out. Besides, he plays--and you, too. Fie on you!”
“Liancourt, I had two objects in knowing that man, and I pay to the toll
for the bridge. When I cease to want the passage, I shall cease to pay
the toll.”
“But the bridge may be a draw-bridge, and the moat is devilish deep
below. Without metaphor, that man may ruin you before you know where you
are.”
“Bah! I have my eyes open. I know how much to spend on the rogue whose
service I hire as a lackey’s; and I know also where to stop. Liancourt,”
he added, after a short pause, and in a tone deep with suppressed
passion, “when I first saw that man, I thought of appealing to his heart
for one who has a claim on it. That was a vain hope. And then there came
upon me a sterner and deadlier thought--the scheme of the Avenger! This
Lilburne--this rogue whom the world sets up to worship--ruined, body
and soul ruined--one whose name the world gibbets with scorn! Well, I
thought to avenge that man. In his own house--amidst you all--I thought
to detect the sharper, and brand the cheat!”
“You startle me!--It has been whispered, indeed, that Lord Lilburne
is dangerous,--but skill is dangerous. To cheat!--an Englishman!--a
nobleman!--impossible!”
“Whether he do or not,” returned Vaudemont, in a calmer tone, “I have
foregone the vengeance, because he is--”
“Is what?”
“No matter,” said Vaudemont aloud, but he added to himself,--“Because he
is the grandfather of Fanny!”
“You are very enigmatical to-day.”
“Patience, Liancourt; I may solve all the riddles that make up my
life, yet. Bear with me a little longer. And now can you help me to a
lawyer?--a man experienced, indeed, and of repute, but young, active,
not overladen with business;--I want his zeal and his time, for a hazard
that your monopolists of clients may not deem worth their devotion.”
“I can recommend you, then, the very man you require. I had a suit
some years ago at Paris, for which English witnesses were necessary.
My avocat employed a solicitor here whose activity in collecting my
evidence gained my cause. I will answer for his diligence and his
honesty.”
“His address?”
“Mr. Barlow--somewhere by the Strand--let me see--Essex-yes, Essex
Street.”
“Then good-bye to you for the present.--You dine at Lord Lilburne’s
too?”
“Yes. Adieu till then.”
Vaudemont was not long before he arrived at Mr. Barlow’s; a brass-plate
announced to him the house. He was shown at once into a parlour,
where he saw a man whom lawyers would call young, and spinsters
middle-aged--viz., about two-and-forty; with a bold, resolute,
intelligent countenance, and that steady, calm, sagacious eye, which
inspires at once confidence and esteem.
Vaudemont scanned him with the look of one who has been accustomed
to judge mankind--as a scholar does books--with rapidity because with
practice. He had at first resolved to submit to him the heads of
his case without mentioning names, and, in fact, he so commenced his
narrative; but by degrees, as he perceived how much his own earnestness
arrested and engrossed the interest of his listener, he warmed into
fuller confidence, and ended by a full disclosure, and a caution as to
the profoundest secrecy in case, if there were no hope to recover his
rightful name, he might yet wish to retain, unannoyed by curiosity or
suspicion, that by which he was not discreditably known.
“Sir,” said Mr. Barlow, after assuring him of the most scrupulous
discretion,--“sir, I have some recollection of the trial instituted by
your mother, Mrs. Beaufort”--and the slight emphasis he laid on that
name was the most grateful compliment he could have paid to the truth
of Philip’s recital. “My impression is, that it was managed in a very
slovenly manner by her lawyer; and some of his oversights we may repair
in a suit instituted by yourself. But it would be absurd to conceal from
you the great difficulties that beset us--your mother’s suit, designed
to establish her own rights, was far easier than that which you must
commence--viz., an action for ejectment against a man who has been some
years in undisturbed possession. Of course, until the missing witness is
found out, it would be madness to commence litigation. And the question,
then, will be, how far that witness will suffice? It is true, that one
witness of a marriage, if the others are dead, is held sufficient by
law. But I need not add, that that witness must be thoroughly credible.
In suits for real property, very little documentary or secondary
evidence is admitted. I doubt even whether the certificate of the
marriage on which--in the loss or destruction of the register--you lay
so much stress, would be available in itself. But if an examined copy,
it becomes of the last importance, for it will then inform us of the
name of the person who extracted and examined it. Heaven grant it may
not have been the clergyman himself who performed the ceremony, and who,
you say, is dead; if some one else, we should then have a second, no
doubt credible and most valuable witness. The document would thus become
available as proof, and, I think, that we should not fail to establish
our case.”
“But this certificate, how is it ever to be found? I told you we had
searched everywhere in vain.”
“True; but you say that your mother always declared that the late Mr.
Beaufort had so solemnly assured her, even just prior to his decease,
that it was in existence, that I have no doubt as to the fact. It may be
possible, but it is a terrible insinuation to make, that if Mr. Robert
Beaufort, in examining the papers of the deceased, chanced upon a
document so important to him, he abstracted or destroyed it. If this
should not have been the case (and Mr. Robert Beaufort’s moral character
is unspotted--and we have no right to suppose it), the probability is,
either that it was intrusted to some third person, or placed in
some hidden drawer or deposit, the secret of which your father never
disclosed. Who has purchased the house you lived in?”
“Fernside? Lord Lilburne. Mrs. Robert Beaufort’s brother.”
“Humph--probably, then, he took the furniture and all. Sir, this is a
matter that requires some time for close consideration. With your leave,
I will not only insert in the London papers an advertisement to the
effect that you suggested to Mr. Roger Morton (in case you should have
made a right conjecture as to the object of the man who applied to him),
but I will also advertise for the witness himself. William Smith, you
say, his name is. Did the lawyer employed by Mrs. Beaufort send to
inquire for him in the colony?”
“No; I fear there could not have been time for that. My mother was so
anxious and eager, and so convinced of the justice of her case--”
“That’s a pity; her lawyer must have been a sad driveller.”
“Besides, now I remember, inquiry was made of his relations in England.
His father, a farmer, was then alive; the answer was that he had
certainly left Australia. His last letter, written two years before that
date, containing a request for money, which the father, himself made a
bankrupt by reverses, could not give, had stated that he was about to
seek his fortune elsewhere--since then they had heard nothing of him.”
“Ahem! Well, you will perhaps let me know where any relations of his
are yet to be found, and I will look up the former suit, and go into
the whole case without delay. In the meantime, you do right, sir--if you
will allow me to say it--not to disclose either your own identity or a
hint of your intentions. It is no use putting suspicion on its guard.
And my search for this certificate must be managed with the greatest
address. But, by the way--speaking of identity--there can be no
difficulty, I hope, in proving yours.”
Philip was startled. “Why, I am greatly altered.”
“But probably your beard and moustache may contribute to that change;
and doubtless, in the village where you lived, there would be many with
whom you were in sufficient intercourse, and on whose recollection,
by recalling little anecdotes and circumstances with which no one but
yourself could be acquainted, your features would force themselves along
with the moral conviction that the man who spoke to them could be no
other but Philip Morton--or rather Beaufort.”
“You are right; there must be many such. There was not a cottage in the
place where I and my dogs were not familiar and half domesticated.”
“All’s right, so far, then. But I repeat, we must not be too sanguine.
Law is not justice--”
“But God is,” said Philip; and he left the room.