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."

"But the law in this case will deal only with facts, my lord; and your
lordship must now see and feel that we are in a capacity to prove
them. And before I proceed further, my lord, I beg to say, that I
am instructed to appeal to your lordship's good sense, and to that
consideration for the feelings of your family, by which, I trust, you
will be influenced, whether, satisfied as you must be of your position,
it would not be more judicious on your own part to concede our just
rights, seeing, as you clearly may, that they are incontrovertible, than
to force us to bring the matter before the public; a circumstance which,
so far as you are yourself concerned, must be inexpressibly painful,
and as regards other members of your family, perfectly deplorable and
distressing. We wish, my lord, to spare the innocent as much as we can."

"I am innocent, sir; your proofs only establish an act done by me in
ignorance."

"We grant that, my lord, at once, and without for a moment charging you
with any dishonorable motive; but what we insist on--can prove--and your
lordship cannot deny--is, that the act you speak of was done, and
done at a certain period. I do beseech you, my lord, to think well
and seriously of my proposal, for it is made in a kind and respectful
spirit."

"I thank you, sir," replied his lordship, "and those who instructed you
to regard my feelings; but this you must admit is a case of too much
importance, in which interests of too much consequence are involved, for
me to act in it without the advice and opinion of my lawyers."

"You are perfectly right, my lord; I expected no less; and if your
lordship will refer me to them, I shall have no hesitation in laying
the grounds of our proceedings before them, and the proofs by which they
will be sustained."

This was assented to on the part of Lord Cullamore, and it is only
necessary to say, that, in a few days subsequently, his lawyers, upon
s