“Because, in that case, you are probably well acquainted with the circumstances of his family history, and can set me right if I state them incorrectly,” replied Lewis, upon whom the mantle of the General’s cast-off dignity appeared suddenly to have fallen. “Sir Hugh had two sons, I believe; the elder married imprudently, quarrelled with his father, who refused to receive the lady he had espoused, and severing all family ties, lived abroad under a feigned name, and was believed to have died without issue. The second son was Walter’s father, and Walter inherits the baronetcy in default of male issue of the elder son.”
He paused, and the General observed, “You are correct in your facts, sir, but to what does all this lead?”
“That you will be better able to perceive, sir, when I inform you that I am prepared to prove, indisputably, and to your full satisfaction, the following additional particulars. Sir Hugh’s eldest son, Captain Desborough——”
“Right; he was captain in the ——th Lancers, and threw up his commission when he chose to live abroad. It was said he entered the Austrian army, and attained the same rank in that service,” interrupted the General.
“He did so,” resumed Lewis, who spoke in the same calm, unimpassioned voice which he had used throughout the interview, though to any one who knew him well it would have been perceivable that he did so by the greatest effort; “but those who believed that he died abroad, and without male issue, were misinformed: he died in England, in the spring of 18——, and left (besides a daughter) one son, who is still living.”
“Left a son! why he would be heir to the title and estates instead of Walter. Where is he, sir? who is he?” exclaimed the General impetuously.
Lewis rose, drew himself up to his full height, advanced slowly till he stood face to face with the General, and then, fixing his piercing glance upon him, said, “He now stands before you, General Grant, and asks you whether, when he has established his rights before the eyes of the world, you will again refuse him your daughter’s hand?”
Reader, the only little bit of mystery in our story (if indeed it has presented any mystery at all to your acuteness) is now cleared up; and the interest ended, the sooner the tale itself arrives at a conclusion the better. But for the satisfaction of the unimaginative, the strong-minded women and practical men of the world, who cannot rest assured that two and two make four till they have counted it on their fingers, we will write a few more last words, winding up the various threads of this veracious history.
In his interview with General Grant, Lewis had only stated that which he was fully prepared to prove; and when the lawyer and his blue bag (not that lawyers ever do carry blue bags anywhere but in farces at the minor theatres, or those still more “unreal mockeries,” the pages of modern novels) were called in to assist at the conference, the following facts were elicited:—
The packet of letters which Lewis found amongst Hardy’s papers, and which gave him the first intimation that he, and not poor Walter, was heir to the title and estates of Desborough, had been written by Captain Arundel, or, as his name really was, Desborough, to his younger brother, Walter Desborough (the father of the poor idiot, who was in fact first cousin to Lewis); the object with which these letters were written being to bring about a reconciliation between Sir Hugh and his eldest son—Walter Desborough having undertaken the office of mediator. In order to do this, it was first of all necessary to disabuse Sir Hugh’s mind of an idea that Captain Desborough’s marriage was not valid and that the children were illegitimate; for this purpose the wedding certificate was enclosed (proving that he had been married in his own name and by a properly constituted authority), together with certificates of the baptism of Rose and of Lewis. The letters also contained an account of his having taken the name of Arundel, and his reasons for so doing; in fact, without going into minutiae, the papers afforded complete evidence legally to establish the identity of Captain Desborough and Captain Arundel, and to render Lewis’s claim to the baronetcy indisputable. To account for their having been found among Hardy’s papers, it must be borne in mind that Walter Desborough was the scoundrel who first roused the evil nature in that misguided man by eloping with his wife. Hardy, be it remembered, followed the guilty pair, and assaulted the betrayer of his honour to such good effect as to confine him to his bed for months; his companion in crime returned to her father’s house, and died shortly after giving birth to the unfortunate Miles.