Mysteries of the missingSmith, Edward H. (Edward Henry)
History
Mysteries of the missing
Smith, Edward H. (Edward Henry)
Biography; Kidnapping; Missing persons
None of these things appeared to make any difference to Lady Tichborne.
She received the claimant without reservation, said publicly that she
had recovered her darling boy, and went so far as to announce her
reasons for accepting him as her son.
The return of Roger Tichborne was, to be sure, an exciting topic
of the newspapers of the time, with the result that the romantic
story of his voyage, the shipwreck of the _Bella_, his rescue, his
wanderings, his final discovery at Wagga Wagga, and his happy return
to his mother’s arms became known to millions of people, many of whom
accepted the legend for its charm and color alone, without reference to
its probability. Indeed, the tale had all the elements that make for
popularity and credibility. The opening incident of unrequited love,
the journey in quest of forgetfulness, the crossing of the Andes, the
ordeal of shipwreck, the adventures in the Australian bush, and the
intervention of the hand of Providence to drag him back to his native
land, his title and his inheritance! Was there lacking any element of
pathetic grace?
For those who saw in his ignorance of Tichborne family affairs
and his sad illiteracy sober objections to the pretensions of the
claimant, there was triple evidence of identification. Not only had
Lady Tichborne recognized this wanderer as her son, but two old
Tichborne servants had preceded her in their approval. It happened
that one Bogle, an old negro servant, who had been intimate with
Roger Tichborne as a boy, was living in New South Wales when the first
claim was put forward by the man at Wagga Wagga. At the request of
the dowager this man went to see the pretender and talked with him at
length, first in the presence of those who were pressing the claim
and later alone. The servant and the claimant reviewed a number of
incidents in Roger Tichborne’s early life, and Bogle reported that he
was satisfied. He became “Sir Roger’s” body servant and subsequently
accompanied him to England. Later a former Tichborne gardener,
Grillefoyle by name, who also had gone out to Australia, was sent
to interview the Wagga Wagga butcher. The result was the same. He
reported favorably to his former mistress, and it seems to have been
mainly on the opinion of these two men that Lady Tichborne based her
decision to disregard the difficulties inherent in the letters and to
finance the return of the man to England. Their testimony, backed by
the enduring hunger of her own heart, no doubt swayed her to credence
when she finally stood face to face with the improbable apparition that
pretended to be her son.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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