recall the expression
of Roger Tichborne's features," he had no doubt, from the knowledge
which the Claimant had shown of the neighbourhood of Tichborne and of
family matters, that he was the same person. All Alresford may, in
fact, be said to have been converted; the bells were rung on the
Claimant's arrival there; and Colonel Lushington, the tenant of
Tichborne house, invited the Australian stranger and his wife to stay
with him there. Colonel Lushington had never seen Roger Tichborne, but
he has explained that he was impressed by his visitor's knowledge of
the old pictures on the walls, which, it will be remembered, Bogle had
been sent by "Mr. Taylor" to reconnoitre. When the news came that "Sir
Roger's wife," on a visit with her husband to Col. Lushington, had had
a child baptised in the chapel at Tichborne, while Mr. Anthony
Biddulph, another convert, and a remote connection of the Tichborne
family, had become godfather, the bells of Alresford rang louder; and
nobody seemed for a moment to doubt the right of the Claimant to the
estates and title. Still it was felt strange that "Sir Roger" went
near none of his old friends. He had left Paris without an effort to
see his former circle of acquaintances. Chatillon, his early tutor,
had been brought by the Dowager there to see him; but Chatillon had
said, "Madame, this is not your son!" Neither the Abbe Salis, nor
Roger's dear old instructor, Father Lefevre, nor Gossein, the faithful
valet, who had played with him from childhood, and had known him well
as a man, nor, indeed, any person in Paris who had been acquainted
with Roger Tichborne, received a visit. In England the facts were the
same. The stranger would go nowhere, and at last it began to be
believed that he was afraid of detection.

Active measures were meanwhile in preparation for those legal
proceedings which have, within the past three years, occupied so large
a share of public attention. Mr. Holmes and many others were busy in
procuring information. The voluminous will of Roger Tichborne, setting
forth a mass of particulars about the family property, was examined at
Doctors' Commons. Then there were records of proceedings in the
Probate Court and in Chancery relating to the Tichborne estates, of
which copies were procured. The Horse Guards furnished the
indefatigable attorney with minute and precise statements of the
movements of the Carabineers during Roger Tichborne's service, and of
the dates of every