The following year was not very eventful. In March the King performed the ceremonies of finishing and opening the Forth Bridge in the presence of an illustrious assembly, including his son Prince George, the Duke of Edinburgh, who had travelled from Russia on purpose, the Duke of Fife, and the Earl of Rosebery, who entertained the Royal party at Dalmeny. The last rivet, which the King fixed, is on the outside of the railway, and holds together three plates. Around its gilded top there runs a commemorative inscription. At the hour appointed for the formal declaration of the opening of the bridge, the wind was blowing so violently that it was impossible for His Majesty to make a speech. He simply said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I now declare the Forth Bridge open.”
It was in March, also, that the King and Prince George attended a Chapter of the Order of the Black Eagle in Berlin, at which Prince George was invested with the insignia of the Order. Subsequently the Royal visitors took part in the Ordensfest.
CHAPTER XV
THE BACCARAT CASE—BIRTH OF LADY ALEXANDRA DUFF—THE KING’S FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY—ILLNESS OF PRINCE GEORGE
During the winter of 1890 various rumours had been rife as to a cause célèbre in which King Edward was to be called as a witness. These reports proved to have had substantial foundation in the following spring, when Sir William Gordon-Cumming, a cavalry officer of good family, who had distinguished himself in the Egyptian campaign, and was understood to enjoy the personal friendship of the King, brought an action for slander against five defendants—Mrs. Arthur Wilson, Mrs. A. S. Wilson, Mr. and Mrs. Lycett Green, and Mr. Berkeley Levett—who had accused him of cheating at baccarat at Tranby Croft, the Wilsons’ place near Hull.
The trial opened early in June before Lord Chief-Justice Coleridge, and the King was accommodated with a seat on the bench. The Court throughout wore the air of a theatre rather than of a Court of Justice, the bench and both the galleries being filled with ladies, who used their opera-glasses with freedom to discover the notable personages in Court, and to watch Sir William Gordon-Cumming under examination. The great counsel of the day were engaged. Sir Edward Clarke (Solicitor-General), with Mr. C. F. Gill as his junior, conducted the case for Sir William Gordon-Cumming; and Sir Charles Russell (afterwards Lord Chief-Justice), with Mr. Asquith, appeared for the defendants, the Attorney-General having withdrawn from the case.
The Solicitor-General made a speech of singular power and skill on behalf of his client. The point of the defence was that Sir William Gordon-Cumming—who was accused of the trick known as la poussette, by which a player at baccarat increases his stake after he sees that the cards are in his favour or the coup has been declared—had simply been playing on a system. This theory Sir William supported in the witness-box with great steadiness, and though his cross-examination was most severe, he maintained that on no occasion had he wrongfully increased the stake. When the cross-examiner came to a document which the plaintiff had signed, practically admitting his guilt, and which had been witnessed by the King, Sir William’s explanation was, in effect, that he was hopeless of convincing those round him of his innocence, and that he desired for his own sake and that of others to avoid a scandal.
King Edward entered the witness-box and was sworn in the ordinary way on the second day. Sir Edward Clarke addressed him as “Sir” and “Your Royal Highness,” and Sir Charles Russell did the same. His Majesty gave his evidence with much frankness, but it was largely of a formal character. He did, however, say that at the time when, as banker, he questioned Sir William Gordon-Cumming on the largeness of his winnings, he did not think he had been cheating; but he added, in cross-examination by Sir Charles Russell, that in advising Sir William Gordon-Cumming to sign the document, he considered he had been acting most leniently.
As the King was leaving the witness-box an amusing incident occurred. A juryman rose from the back of the jury-box, and with naïf frankness put two important questions—whether the King had ever seen Sir William Gordon-Cumming cheating, and whether he believed him to be guilty. In reply to the first question the King answered that the banker would not be in a position to see foul play, and that among friends it would not be expected; and to the second he replied that, Sir William’s accusers being so numerous, he could not but believe them. Having elicited these very important facts, the little juryman sat down, and the King left the box with a smile and a bow.