66 whether there was good ground for her hesitation. He will also see that her correspondent was somewhat disappointed that the mother did not on this evidence at once acknowledge him as her son;" adding, "surely, my dear Mama, you must know my writing. You have cause me a deal of truble." The reproaches, however, were needless, for the Dowager declared her unabated faith; sent small sums and then larger, and finally made up her mind to forward the four hundred pounds. Meanwhile she sent to him, as well as to her other Australian correspondent, much family information. Among other things, she told him that there was a man named Guilfoyle at Sydney, who had been gardener for many years at Upton and Tichborne, and another man in the same town named Andrew Bogle, a black man, who had been in the service of Sir Edward. Mr. Gibbes' client lost no time in finding out both these persons. Whether he was, in fact, Roger Tichborne, or whether he was an impostor, there was now really no reason why he should not set sail to join the Dowager in Paris. Her letters, spread over many months, had revealed her singular character. They had shown her proof against every suspicious token. Even total dissemblance of handwriting had not shaken her faith, and it was evident from her letters that the "photographics," making allowances, as she said, for changes, were in her fancy like her son. Why, then, should he hesitate? It was shortly after this time that it became known in the colonies of Victoria and New South Wales that there was a man named Thomas Castro, living in WaggaWagga as a journeyman slaughterman and butcher, who was going to England to lay claim to the baronetcy and estates of Tichborne. From the letters and other facts it is manifest that it was originally intended to keep all this secret even from the Dowager. "He wishes," says The Claimant to Lady Tichbome in 1866. Sydney Puly 2 My Dear Mama li receved yous letter В меселедець yesterday morning. And was sumennet disapointed. that you do not acknowledge me bes your sous surely длаб my you must know my writing. On have me a deal oft truble But it matters not. Has I have Cause no wish to have le Country be Country + + Dear. with Gund bye my dear mans und Meray may on the Blifed Maria have your soul. his attorney, Mr. Gibbes, "that his present identity should be totally disconnected from his future." It happened that one Cator, a Wagga-Wagga friend of the Claimant, whose letters show him to have been a coarseminded and illiterate man, was leaving for England shortly before the time that Castro had determined to embark. Whether invited or not, Cator was not unlikely to favor his friend with a visit in the new and flourishing condition which appeared to await him in that country. Perhaps for this reason and clearly for the sake of avoiding inconveniences that might result from this man's knowledge of the past, Castro gave to Cator a sealed envelope, bearing outside the words, " To be open when at sea," and inside a note, verbatim, as follows: “Wagga Wagga, April 2nd, 1866. "Mr. Cator,-At any time wen you are in England you should feel enclined for a month pleasure Go to Tichborne, in Hampshire, Enquire for Sir Roger Charles Tichborne, Tichborne-hall, Tichborne, And you will find One that will make you a welcome Guest. But on no account Mension the Name of Castro or Alude to me being a Married Man, or that I have being has a Butcher. You will understand me, I have no doubt. Yours truly, Thomas Castro. I Sail by the June Mail." All this secrecy, however, was soon given up as impracticable; for articles in the famous Melbourne Argus, and the Wagga-Wagga and Sydney journals, quickly brought the news to England, and finally Castro determined to take with him his wife and family. One of his earliest steps was to take into his service the old black man, Bogle, and pay the passage-money both of himself and his son to Europe with him. Whether Bogle believed the stout slaughterman of Wagga-Wagga to be the same person as the slim young gentleman whom he must have seen often on his visits to Tichborne many years before; whether he was consciously assisting a fraud, or whether he was merely indifferent to the question of whether it was a fraud or not-is matter still of fierce controversy. A high authority has acquitted the old black man of anything like criminal connivance. But that he was useful in aiding Castro's claims is certain; and it is equally certain that though clear enough in intellect, he was decrepit and unable to render any other kind of service in return for the wages and the heavy expenses which his new master undertook on his account. Certain relics of Upton and of Tichborne, which the Claimant forwarded to a banker at WaggaWagga from whom he was trying to obtain advances, were described by the Claimant himself as brought over by "my uncle Valet who is now living with me." The bankers, however, were cautious; when the Claimant made statements about his past history, they were enabled from more than one source to compare them with facts in the true life-especially as regards the military career-of Roger Tichborne. Hence it was that they declined to make loans, though Mr. Gibbes was able to prove that the mother had thought favorably of the " Photographics." Nevertheless the Claimant had the good fortune to convince a Mr. Long, who was in Sydney and had seen Roger "when a boy of ten years old riding in Tichborne Park," and accordingly this gentleman advanced him a considerable sum. Finally, the Dowager received the information that her long-lost son, Roger Tichborne, had embarked aboard the Rakaia on his way to France via Panama. "Sir Roger" and "Lady Tichborne," accompanied by their family, and attended by old Bogle, his son, and a youthful secretary, left Sydney on September 2nd, 1866, and the long-lost heir was expected by the Dowager in |