until Mary Cole had borne several children to the
Earl, did she become legally his wife by the valid knot tied at Lambeth.
It was, in fact, decided by the House of Peers that the Berkeley
marriage was not proven, and thus seven of the children were
illegitimate.

It was one of Lord Berkeley's children thus branded to the world who is
said to have won the heart and the homage of Lord George Bentinck. And
little wonder; for Annie May Berkeley had inherited more than her
mother's beauty of face and of figure, with the patrician air and
refinement which came from generations of noble ancestors.

But handsome Lord George was only one of many wooers whom her charms had
enslaved. There were others equally ardent, if less favoured; and among
them none other than the Marquess of Titchfield, Lord George's elder
brother, and the future "eccentric Duke" of Portland, often referred to
as "The Wizard of Welbeck." The Marquess and his younger brother had
never been on the best of terms. They had little in common; and when
they found themselves rival suitors for the smiles of the same maiden
this incompatibility gave place to a bitter estrangement.

It was not, however, until Lord George discovered that the Marquess was
more intimate with his ladylove than he should be, that their mutual
relations became strained to a dangerous degree. It is said that the
brothers quarrelled fiercely whenever they met, and that Lord George,
whose temper was violent, frequently struck his brother, who was no
physical match for him. One day, so the story goes, their constant
squabbles reached a climax. After a fiercer quarrel than usual Lord
George struck his brother and rival repeatedly, until the latter, roused
to fury, struck back and landed a heavy blow on his brother's chest,
over the heart. Lord George's heart was diseased, and the blow proved
fatal.

This, then, is said to be the true explanation of the tragedy of that
September day in 1848; of that "spasm of the heart" which, according to
the verdict of the coroner's jury, was the cause of Lord George
Bentinck's death. If this story is true, much that has been so long
mysterious becomes clear. Lord George's sudden and tragic death is
explained; as also the fact that it was from this period that the Duke
of Portland's moroseness and shunning of the world became so marked as
to be scarcely distinguishable from insanity. If the death of a brother,
however provoked and accidental, had been on his