“Oh,” he replied, “I knew you at once. I have just come from seeing you at Madame Tussaud’s.”
CHAPTER XXIII
The Tichborne “Claimant”—Nearly an explosion—The big man’s clothes—The real heir—The Claimant’s release from prison—Confession and death.
I can hardly allow this period to pass without making some reference to the fact that from 1872 till 1874—when he was sentenced, on the 28th of February, to fourteen years’ penal servitude—the name of the “Claimant” to the Tichborne baronetcy and estates was on every lip, and it seems to me that no trial in my time has ever engrossed public attention to such a degree.
THE TICHBORNE “CLAIMANT”
Central figure in a famous perjury trial in England. An impression was made of him before his conviction to penal servitude and another model was made eleven years later on his return.
People flocked to see the Claimant’s portrait when it was added to the collection, and perhaps that was the first time one saw queues assembled outside the doors of Madame Tussaud’s.