rtly afterwards two out of the
three daughters of old Mr. Orton made affidavit that the Claimant was
not their brother, nor any relation of theirs; the other sister and
Charles Orton, however, made no affidavit. Four years later the
Claimant confessed that he was, after all, the mysterious visitor at
the Globe public-house on that Christmas eve; that he shortly
afterwards entered into secret correspondence and transactions with
the Orton family; that he gave the sisters money whenever they wrote
to say they were in want of any; and that after the period when
Charles Orton was solicited to give information to "the other side,"
he allowed him L5 a month--Charles Orton, who was then in concealment,
being addressed in their correspondence by the assumed name of
"Brand." The Claimant's explanation of these relations with the Orton
family, which he at first denied, was, that their brother, Arthur
Orton, had been a great friend of his for many years, and in various
parts of Australia, and that hence he was desirous of assisting his
family. At one time he said that his object was to ascertain if his
friend, Arthur Orton, had arrived in England; at another he stated, on
oath, that when he sailed from Australia he left Arthur Orton there.
The solicitors for the defendants in the Chancery suit, however, did
not hesitate to declare their conviction that the pretended Roger
Tichborne was no other than Arthur Orton, youngest son of the late
George Orton, butcher, of High Street, Wapping; that his visit to
Wapping on the very night of his arrival was prompted by curiosity to
know the position of his family, of whom he had not heard for some
years; and that his stealthy transactions with the three sisters, and
with the brother of Arthur Orton, had no object but that of furnishing
them with an inducement to keep the dangerous secret of his true name
and origin.

While all these discoveries were being made, the poor old lady went to
live for a time with her supposed son at Croydon; but even she could
not manage to stay in the extraordinary household, and after a time,
though still strong, despite the advice of her best friends, that the
huge impostor was her son, she left, and gradually becoming weaker and
weaker in body as well as mind, she was, on the 12th of March 1868,
found by a servant dead in a chair, and with no relative or friend at
hand, in a hotel near Portman Square, where she had sought and found a
shelter.

Amidst much t