Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur OrtonAnonymous
History
Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton
Anonymous
Impostors and imposture -- Biography
disclosure, the Claimant for the first time made a statement to his
supporter, Mr. Bulpett, as to the packet. It may be supposed that Mr.
Bulpett and the Claimant's friends generally were inclined to draw
unfavourable inferences from his apparent ignorance of the contents of
the packet. He now, however, declared that not ignorance of its
contents, but delicacy and forbearance towards Mrs. Radcliffe, had
alone prevented his answering Mr. Gosford's test question. Mr. Gosford,
he said, was right. It did relate to "an arrangement to be carried out
at Tichborne," but an arrangement of a very painful kind. Then it was
that he wrote out the terrible charge against the lady whom Roger had
loved so well--confessing, it is true, his own diabolical wickedness,
but at the same time casting upon her the cruellest of imputations.
This, he said, was what he had sealed up and given to Mr. Gosford. Mr.
Bulpett, the banker, put his initials solemnly to the document, and
within a few months all Hampshire had whispered the wicked story. It
is to be observed that, during all this time, no word had been spoken
by the Claimant of his having confided to Mr. Gosford a vow to build a
church. Four years later, when under examination, he was asked whether
he had ever left any other private document with Mr. Gosford, and he
answered, "I think not." Then it was that counsel produced the copy of
the vow to build the church in Roger Tichborne's hand, which he had
fortunately given to his cousin on the sorrowful day of their last
parting; and finally there was found and read aloud the letter of
Roger Tichborne to Mr. Gosford, dated January 17th, 1852, in which
occur the precious words, "I have written out my will, and left it
with Mr. Slaughter; the only thing which I have left out is about the
church, which I will only build under the circumstances which I have
left with you in writing." Happily these facts render it unnecessary
to enter upon the question, Whether this story was not wholly
irreconcilable, both with itself and with the ascertained dates and
facts in Roger Tichborne's career?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account