“Have you got them about you?”
“I have got copies of the documentary proofs, my lord, and I shall now place them before you.”
“Yes; have the goodness to let me see them.”
Birney immediately handed him the documents, and mentioned the facts of which they were the proofs. In fact, only one of them was absolutely necessary, and that was simply the record of a death duly and regularly attested.
The old man seemed struck with dismay; for, until this moment he had not been clearly in possession of the facts which were now brought against him, as they were stated, and made plain as to their results, by Mr. Birney.
“I do not know much of law,” he said, “but enough, I think, to satisfy me, that unless you have other and stronger proofs than this, you cannot succeed in disinheriting my son. I have seen the originals of those before, but I had forgotten some facts and dates connected with them at the time.”
“We have the collateral proof you speak of, my lord, and can produce personal evidence to corroborate those which I have shown you.”
“May I ask who that evidence is?”
“A Mrs. Mainwaring, my lord—formerly Norton—who had been maid to your first wife while she resided privately in Prance—was a witness to her death, and had it duly registered.”
“But even granting this, I think you will be called on to prove the intention on my part: that which a man does in ignorance cannot, and ought not to be called a violation of the law.”