Part 14 (1/2)

”Yes,” answered the reverend gentleman; ”perhaps it would have been better--”

”To have burnt the copy and given us the original, and more especially after the lady was dead. But, let me ask you, _why_ did you destroy the original will?”

I pressed him again and again, but he could not answer. The reason was plain. His ingenuity was exhausted, and so I gave him the finis.h.i.+ng stroke with this question,--

”Will you swear, sir, that an original will ever existed?”

The answer was, ”No.”

I knew it _must_ be the answer, because there could be no other that would not betray him.

”What is your explanation?” asked Cresswell.

”My explanation, my lord, is that the testatrix had often expressed to me her intention to leave me 5,000, and I wrote the codicil which was destroyed to carry out her wishes.”

Cresswell had warned James early in the case as to the futility of calling witnesses after the two who alone were necessary, but to no purpose; he hurried his client to destruction, and I have never been able to understand his conduct. The most that can be said for him is that he did not suspect any danger, and took no trouble to avoid incurring it.

It is curious enough that on the morning of the trial we had tried to compromise the matter by offering 10,000.

The refusal of the offer shows how little they thought that any cross-examination could injure their cause.

Hannen said he could not have believed a cross-examination could be conducted in that manner without any knowledge of the facts, and paid me the compliment of saying it was worth at the least 80,000.

CHAPTER XV.

TATTERSALL'S--BARON MARTIN, HARRY HILL, AND THE OLD FOX IN THE YARD.

Tattersall's in my time was one of the pleasantest Sunday afternoon lounges in London. There was a spirit of freedom and social equality pervading the place which only belongs to a.s.semblies where sport is the princ.i.p.al object and pleasure of all. There was also the absence of irksome workaday drudgery; I think that was, after all, the main cause of its being so delightful a meeting-place to me.

There was, however, another attraction, and that was dear old Baron Martin, one of the most pleasant companions you could meet, no matter whether in the Court of Exchequer or the ”old Ring.” A keen sportsman he was, and a shrewd, common-sense lawyer--so great a lover of the Turf that it is told of him, and I know it to be true, that once in court a man was pointed out to him bowing with great reverence, and repeating it over and over again until he caught the Baron's attention. The Judge, with one pair of spectacles on his forehead and another on his eyes, immediately cried aloud to his marshal, ”Custance, the jockey, as I'm alive!” and then the Baron bowed most politely to the man in the crowd, the most famous jockey of his day.

Speaking of Tattersall's reminds me of many things, amongst them of the way in which, happily, I came to the resolution never to bet on a horse-race. It was here I learnt the lesson, at a place where generally people learn the opposite, and never forgot it. No sermon would ever have taught me so much as I learnt there.

Like my oldest and one of my dearest friends on the turf, Lord Falmouth, I never made a bet after the time I speak of. No one who lives in the world needs any description of the Tattersall's of to-day. But the Tattersall's of my earlier days was not exactly the same thing, although the differences would not be recognizable to persons who have not over-keen recollections.

The inst.i.tution has perhaps known more great men than Parliament itself--not so many bishops, perhaps, as the Church, but more statesmen than could get into the House of Lords; and all the biographies that have ever been written could not furnish more ill.u.s.trations of the ups and downs of life, especially the downs, nor of more ill.u.s.trious men. The names of all the great and mediocre people who visited the famous rendezvous would fill a respectable Court guide, and the money transactions that have taken place would pay off the National Debt. All this is a pleasant outcome of the national character.

Do not suppose that Judges, other than Baron Martin, never looked in, for they did, and so did learned and ill.u.s.trious Queen's Counsel and Serjeants-at-Law, authors, editors, actors, statesmen, and, to sum it up in brief, all the real men of the day of all professions and degrees of social position.

At first my visits were infrequent; afterwards I went more often, and then became a regular attendant. I loved the ”old Ring,” and yet could never explain why. I think it was the variety of human character that charmed me. I was doing very little at the Bar, and was, no doubt, desirous to make as many acquaintances as possible, and to see as much of the world as I could. It is a long way back in my career, but I go over the course with no regrets and with every feeling of delight.

Everything seems to have been enjoyable in those far-off days, although I was in a constant state of uncertainty with regard to my career. There were three princ.i.p.al places of pleasure at that time: one was Tattersall's, one Newmarket, and the Courts of Law a third.

There used to be, in the centre of the yard or court at Tattersall's, a significant representation of an old fox, and I often wondered whether it was set up as a warning, or merely by way of ornamentation, or as the symbol of sport. It might have been to tell you to be wary and on the alert. But whatever the original design of this statue to Reynard, the old fox read me a solemn lesson, and seemed to be always saying, ”Take care, Harry; be on your guard. There are many prowlers everywhere.”

But there was another monitor in constant attendance, who was deservedly respected by all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance--that is to say, by all who visited Tattersall's more than once. He was not in the least emblematic like the old fox, but a man of sound sense, with no poetry, of an extremely good nature, and full of anecdote. You might follow his advice, and it would be well with you; or you might follow your opinion in opposition to his and take your chance. His name was Hill--Harry Hill they familiarly called him--and although you might have many a grander acquaintance, you could never meet a truer friend.