ad not
slackened his interest in my behalf, had politics to occupy his mind.
The presidential campaign was on. He was the leader of his party in
Illinois; and his presence in Chicago was opportune.

The half-breed was quickly tried, convicted, and hanged. And before I
was scarcely ready Fortescue had come to Jacksonville with his witnesses
to prove the marriage. I tried to engage Douglas as my counsel, but he
was deep in campaigning. Accordingly I turned again to Mr. Brooks. There
was nothing left of defense to us but the cross-examination of these
unknown persons who came to swear that they were witnesses to the
wedding. That Zoe and Fortescue had lived together as husband and wife
there was little doubt. Had I not seen them together on the lake front
in Chicago? Had not Zoe then hidden herself behind a suspicious
reticence? These things corroborated the witnesses.

Mr. Brooks' cross-examination was not very acute. Perhaps there was not
much to ask. But we had no witnesses with whom to rebut Fortescue's
claim. I could not conceive how I could find any such witnesses; but I
had gone to Chicago and left without trying to do so. And neither
Douglas nor Mr. Williams had suggested it.

If some six men and two women were willing to swear that they were
present to hear, and did hear, Zoe and Fortescue pledge themselves to
each other, what could break the evidentiary effect? Fortescue had paid
the expenses of these witnesses to Jacksonville; there was no attempt to
hide that. But why not a formal marriage? They did not wish it that way.
Was not this marriage as valid as any? To be sure. Then the ring! We
made little of a defense. Mr. Brooks seemed overcome by the emphatic
answers. We lost. And Fortescue came into my life as a co-tenant, a
brother-in-law.

Of course I inherited from Zoe too; but here was Fortescue, sharing in
every acre, in every piece of timber in my house. Only a division by a
court could set off to him his share and leave me in individual
possession of mine.

He came to Jacksonville to live. He went into possession of the hut.
Whether I would or no, I had to confer with him about various things,
fences, taxes, road service. He knew nothing of farming. He often came
to ask me what to do, and I could not rebuff him. He brought strange
characters about him, particularly some of the witnesses who had helped
him to sustain his claim. He sent to borrow utensils, household
necessities. He visited with my work