, preferred to bargain for his return
through the medium of an attorney and the keeper of a missing-friends'
office. All this, however, did not shake the faith of Lady Tichborne.
Then he gave accounts of himself which did not in the least tally with
the facts of Roger's life. He said he was born in Dorsetshire, whereas
Roger was born in Paris; he accounted for being an illiterate man by
saying that he had suffered greatly in childhood from St. Vitus's
dance, which had interfered with his studies. "My son," says Lady
Tichborne, in reply, "never had St. Vitus's dance." When asked if he
had not been in the army, he replied, "Yes," but that he did not know
much about it, because he had merely enlisted as a private soldier "in
the Sixty-sixth Blues," and had been "bought off" by his father after
only thirteen days' service. What ship did you leave Europe in?
inquired Mr. Gibbes, with a view of sending further tokens of identity
to the Dowager. To this inquiry, Roger Tichborne might have been
expected to answer in "La Pauline," but, as was shown in the trial,
this mysterious person replied, in "The Jessie Miller." "And when did
she sail?" "On the 28th of November, 1852," was the reply; whereas
Roger sailed on the 1st of March, 1853. Asked as to where he was
educated, the long-lost heir replied, "At a school in Southampton,"
where Roger never was at school. But it happened that Lady Tichborne
in a letter to Mr. Gibbes had said that her son was for three years at
the Jesuit College of Stonyhurst, in Lancashire; Mr. Gibbes accordingly
suggested to the client "in a humble station of life," that his memory
was at fault on that point, but the client maintained his ground. "Did
she say he had been at Stonyhurst College? If so, it was false;" and,
he added, with an oath, "I have a good mind never to go near her again
for telling such a story." Yet this strange person was able to confirm
the entire story of the tramping sailors. He _had_ embarked in the
"Bella," he _had_ been picked up at sea with other survivors in a boat
off the coast of Brazil, and it was quite true that he was landed with
them in Melbourne. In short, he corroborated the Dowager's long
advertisement in every particular; but beyond that he had nothing of
the slightest importance to tell which was not absurdly incorrect. His
replies, however, were forwarded to the Lady Tichborne, with pressing
requests to send L200, then L250, and finally L400, to enable the lost
heir