supreme bench, for there had never been any but pleasant relations
between them.

Terry resigned from the bench in 1859 to challenge Senator Broderick
of California to the duel in which the latter was killed. He entered
the Confederate service during the war, and some time after its close
he returned to California, and entered upon the practice of the law.
In 1880 he was a candidate for Presidential elector on the Democratic
ticket. His associates on that ticket were all elected, while he was
defeated by the refusal of a number of the old friends of Broderick to
give him their votes. It is probable that his life was much embittered
by the intense hatred he had engendered among the friends of
Broderick, and the severe censure of a large body of the people of the
State, not especially attached to the political fortunes of the
dead Senator. These facts are mentioned as furnishing a possible
explanation of Judge Terry's marked descent in character and standing
from the Chief-Justiceship of the State to being the counsel, partner,
and finally the husband of the discarded companion of a millionaire
in a raid upon the latter's property in the courts. It was during
the latter stages of this litigation that Judge Terry became enraged
against Justice Field, because the latter, in the discharge of his
judicial duties, had been compelled to order the revival of a decree
of the United States Circuit Court, in the rendering of which he had
taken no part.

A proper understanding of this exciting chapter in the life of Justice
Field renders necessary a narrative of the litigation referred to. It
is doubtful if the annals of the courts or the pages of romance can
parallel this conspiracy to compel a man of wealth to divide his estate
with adventurers. Whether it is measured by the value of the prize
reached for, by the character of the conspirators, or by the desperate
means to which they resorted to accomplish their object, it stands in
the forefront of the list of such operations.

CHAPTER I.

THE SHARON-HILL-TERRY LITIGATION.

The victim, upon a share of whose enormous estate, commonly estimated
at $15,000,000, these conspirators had set their covetous eyes, was
William Sharon, then a Senator from the State of Nevada. The woman
with whom he had terminated his relations, because he believed her
to be dangerous to his business interests, was Sarah Althea Hill.
Desirous of turning to the best advantage her previous conne