had swindled him under
the various disguises of the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon,
the Honourable David Granton, Count von Lebenstein, Professor
Schleiermacher, Dr. Quackenboss, and others. He had not the
slightest doubt of the man's identity. He could swear to him
anywhere. I thought, for my own part, he was a trifle too cocksure.
A certain amount of hesitation would have been better policy. As
to the various swindles, he detailed them in full, his evidence to
be supplemented by that of bank officials and other subordinates.
In short, he left Finglemore not a leg to stand upon.

When it came to the cross-examination, however, matters began
to assume quite a different complexion. The prisoner set out by
questioning Sir Charles's identifications. Was he sure of his man?
He handed Charles a photograph. "Is that the person who represented
himself as the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon?" he asked
persuasively.

Charles admitted it without a moment's delay.

Just at that moment, a little parson, whom I had not noticed till
then, rose up, unobtrusively, near the middle of the court, where
he was seated beside Cesarine.

"Look at that gentleman!" the prisoner said, waving one hand, and
pouncing upon the prosecutor.

Charles turned and looked at the person indicated. His face grew
still whiter. It was--to all outer appearance--the Reverend Richard
Brabazon in propria persona.

Of course I saw the trick. This was the real parson upon whose outer
man Colonel Clay had modelled his little curate. But the jury was
shaken. And so was Charles for a moment.

"Let the jurors see the photograph," the judge said, authoritatively.
It was passed round the jury-box, and the judge also examined it.
We could see at once, by their faces and attitudes, they all
recognised it as the portrait of the clergyman before them--not
of the prisoner in the dock, who stood there smiling blandly at
Charles's discomfiture.

The clergyman sat down. At the same moment the prisoner produced a
second photograph.

"Now, can you tell me who _that_ is?" he asked Charles, in the regular
brow-beating Old Bailey voice.

With somewhat more hesitation, Charles answered, after a pause:
"That is yourself as you appeared in London when you came in the
disguise of the Graf von Lebenstein."

This was a crucial point, for the Lebenstein fraud was the one count
on which our lawyers relied to prove their case most fully, within
the jurisdiction.

Even wh