discovered that the Strongs, who
had had no children, devoted themselves to the propagation of various
"fads." Mr. Strong indeed was anti-everything, but, which is rather
uncommon in such a man, had no extraneous delusions; that is to say, he
was not a Christian Scientist, or a Blavatskyist, or a Great Pyramidist.
Mrs. Strong, however, had never got farther than anti-vaccination, to
her a holy cause, for she set down the skin disease with which she was
constitutionally afflicted to the credit, or discredit, of vaccination
practised upon her in her youth. Outside of this great and absorbing
subject her mind occupied itself almost entirely with that well-known
but most harmless of the crazes, the theory that we Anglo-Saxons are the
progeny of the ten lost Tribes of Israel.

Steering clear of anti-vaccination, I showed an intelligent sympathy
with her views and deductions concerning the ten Tribes, which so
pleased the gentle little woman that, forgetting the uncertainty of my
future movements, she begged me to come and see her as often as I liked,
and in the meanwhile presented me with a pile of literature connected
with the supposed wanderings of the Tribes. Thus began my acquaintance
with my friend and benefactress, Martha Strong.

At ten o'clock on the following morning I returned to the dock, and the
nurse repeated her evidence in corroboration of Sir John's testimony.
A searching cross-examination showed her not to be a very trustworthy
person, but on this particular point it was impossible to shake her
story, because there was no standing ground from which it could be
attacked. Then followed some expert evidence whereby, amongst other
things, the Crown proved to the jury the fearfully contagious nature of
puerperal fever, which closed the case for the prosecution. After this
my counsel, reserving his address, called the only testimony I was in
a position to produce, that of several witnesses to character and to
medical capacity.

When the last of these gentlemen, none of whom were cross-examined,
stood down, my counsel addressed the Court, pointing out that my mouth
being closed by the law of the land--for this trial took place before
the passing of the Criminal Evidence Act--I was unable to go into the
box and give on oath my version of what had really happened in this
matter. Nor could I produce any witnesses to disprove the story which
had been told against me, because, unhappily, no third person was
pres