Part 73 (1/2)

”It were kinder to leave me as I am,” replied I. ”He who can only awake to sorrow had better be let sleep on.”

”Just as you please, my man,” rejoined he, gruffly; ”though, if I were you, I 'd like to know that my case was not hopeless.”

”You fancy that it matters to me whether my sentence be seven years or seventy; whether I be condemned to chains here, or hard labor there, or mere imprisonment without either; but I tell you that for the terms of the penalty I care almost nothing. The degradation of the felon absorbs all the rest. When the law has once separated from all save the guilty, it has done its worst.”

This was the second attempt he made to stimulate my curiosity. His third venture was more successful.

”So, Gervois,” said he, seating himself opposite me, ”they 're on the right scent at last in your business; they're likely to discover the real heir to that property you tried for.”

”What do you mean?” asked I.

”Why, it seems somehow there is, or there ought to be somewhere, a young fellow, a son to this same Carew; and if what the newspapers here say be true, his right to the estate can be soon established.”

I stared at him with amazement, and he went on.

”Listen to this: 'Our readers cannot fail to remember a very remarkable suit which lately occupied no small share of public attention, by the efforts of a fraudulent conspiracy to undermine the t.i.tle of one of the largest landed proprietors in this kingdom. It would appear now that some very important discoveries have been made in America respecting this claim, particulars of which have been already forwarded to England.

As the parties who have made these discoveries may soon be expected in this country, it is not impossible that we may soon hear of another action of ejectment, although on very different grounds, and with very different results from the late one.'”

A very few days after this there appeared another and still more remarkable paragraph, copied from the ”London Chronicle,” which ran thus:--

”We mentioned a few days back that an estate, the claim to which was the subject of a late most remarkable lawsuit, was likely again to furnish matter for the occupation of the gentlemen of the long robe. There would seem now to be no doubt upon the subject, as one of the most eminent solicitors in this country has received instructions to take the necessary steps preliminary to a new action at law. The newly discovered facts are sufficiently curious to deserve mention. The late Walter Carew, Esq., was reputed to have married a French lady, who, although believed to have been of high and distinguished rank, was no longer traceable to any family, nor indeed to any locality in France There were many mysterious circ.u.mstances attending this alleged union, which made the fact of a marriage very doubtful. Nothing certainly could be discovered amongst Carew's papers, or little to authenticate the circ.u.mstances, nor was there a single allusion to be found to it in his handwriting. A singular accident has at length brought this doc.u.ment to light; and although the individual whose fortune it most nearly concerned has ceased to exist,--he died, it is believed, in the affair of the Sections at Paris,--the result will, in all probability, affect the possession of the vast property in question.

”The discovery to which we allude is as follows: A ma.s.s of papers and family doc.u.ments were deposited by the late Duke of Montpensier in the hands of certain bankers in Philadelphia, in whose possession they have remained, undisturbed and unexplored, up to within a few weeks back, when the Duke of Orleans, desiring to know if a particular doc.u.ment that he sought for was amongst the number, addressed himself to the firm for this purpose. Whether success attended the search in question we know not, but it certainly elicited another and most curious discovery: no less than that the late Madame de Carew was a natural daughter of Philippe, Duke of Orleans, the celebrated 'egalite,' and that her marriage had been the result of a wager lost by the Duke to Carew. We are not at liberty to divulge any more of the singular circ.u.mstances of this strange compact, though we may add, what in the present is the more important element of the case, no less than this marriage certificate of Walter Carew and Josephine de Courtois, forwarded to the Duke in a letter from the d.u.c.h.esse de Sargance, who had accompanied them.

”The letter of the d.u.c.h.ess herself is not one of the least singular parts of this most strange history, since it mentions the marriage in a style of apology, and consoles the Duke for the _mesalliance_ by the a.s.surance that, probably, in the obscurity of Ireland, they will never more be heard of.

”Amongst the strange coincidences of this strange event, another still remains to be told. It was in the hands of the firm of Rogers and Raper that these doc.u.ments were deposited, and Mr. Raper himself has pa.s.sed half a lifetime in the vain search for the very piece of evidence which mere chance has thus presented to him.

”That Gervois, the celebrated impostor in this case, must have, by some means or other, obtained an insight into the strange circ.u.mstances of this story, is quite evident, and we understand that the order for his departure has been countermanded till he be interrogated as to the amount of his knowledge, and the sources from which he derived it. Mr.