CHAPTER LXXI.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 199, 16 April 1887, Page 6

CHAPTER LXXI.

BIOAMY OR NO BIGAMY. The firm of Welle & Bpston enjoyed one of the highest .reputations in London, indeed in all England, for shrewd practice and business management. Their office was thronged with clients bringing them difficult cases. The fame was not only popular, but professional ; other lawyers feared and reepecced them. This firm had been, since its establish went, the legal advisers of the Hartingtons, and the rich colonel, who was po3sibly to be Lord of Leigh, had enjoyed a large share of the cares and counsels of these eminent barristers. Not three hours after Helen Hope's interview with Colonel Hartington, the colonel drove with furious haste to the Temple, And with much eagerness demanded a private interview with the firm. Having made his report, ho laid before them the paper which Miss Hope had given him. It was in her clear bold hand, • statement of the case made out, and a list of the evidence procurable. Nothing could be more clear. "This is very well done," said Mr Wells, of the firm of Wells & Ep3ton. " You say a lady gave it to you. Where can she be eeen ?" **She said she would be for two days at the Golden Cross Hotel, Strand. And the man Kemp, also," •' We must see them." '•But what do you think of it?" demanded the colonel. "It is plausible, certainly." " Leigh will fight to the death. His lawyers are Storms and Morton," said Hartington. *' A trustworthy firm, but never a match for us," eaid Mr Wells, calmly. "I want no labour, no expense, no ingenuity spared to substantiate these statements, and put me in my legal position as Lord of Leigh." "Ifc will be one of the greatest cases on record," said Mr Wells, rubbing his bands with the zest of anticipated battle, '* and if we can prove that our honourable client is Lord of Leigh, no zaal of ours shall be wanting to make the fact plain." 41 You must see these peoph at ones," said Hartington. "My carriage is in the court. We will go to them immediately." They found Helen Hope in a private parlour at the Golden Cross, and Kemp was promptly summoned. A long conversation ensued, and the attorneys and their client departed. *' What do you think ?'' rried Hartington. iC It Beom3 a very strong and simple, if an unusual case," said Mr Wells. "The woman is a master-spirit. The man is dogged, but there is an unflinching tenacity in his statements that will toll. Evidently this Miss Hope has some incentive other than love of justice ; but that is nothing to na, if these facts can be established. Our first step must be to notify Storms & Mor ton that we intend, on further evidence received, to challenge, in your behalf, the title of the present Earl of Leigh. They will inform Leigh, and we muet have a meeting," "Can it be a fraud?" demanded the colonel nervously. "We are not responsible ifit is a fraud. We must act on evidence laid before us ; if the evidence is fraudulent it remains for Storms & Morton to chow it. We would not take it up if it appeared a fraud, certainly ; but if this is a fraud, detection is so certain, and punishment so severe, that I do not think these shrewd people would venture upon it. The strangest thinga are often the real occurrences of life, and these simple facts, to day laid before us, afford to my mind an almost unbreakable chain of evidence in your favour." With this view Colonel Hartington went home jubilant, Meanwhile, at Leigh Towers, Norman the Earl sat as one who waits for a blovv to fall. The words that Helen had written ■were ever limned in fire on the air before him, Finally, suspense ended in an earnest summons to London, to meet his legal advisers. The place appointed for the meeting of the two law firms, and their respective clients, was the now closed and lonely house of Lord Leigh, facing the green park. The case was then briefly stated by Mr Epston on behalf of Colonel Hartington, thus : "The present Norman, known as Earl of Leigh, is and has been holding his earldom and estates and privileges of Leigh upon a false and invalid title, evidence being offered to show, that 'the said Norman, called Earl of Leigh, is not legitimate, his mother having been guilty of bigamy when she married the late Lord Loigh. And the bigamy wag without the knowledge of fcny of the parties concerned in, or cognisant of, said marriage." The pieces of evidence were stated thus : The lady known as late Countess of Leigh wa3 firat married to Bart Kemp,an attorney, of the town of Meafcb, Ireland, who died at a small hamlet called Shields. Said Bart Kemp was a widower with one eon ; both father and eon were subject to occasional fits resembling epilepsy. Bart Kemp and bia Eecond wife agreed bo ill that the lady left him, and wenfc to live in England with ber father, a h^lf-pay officer. After two' years' separation, the wife received news, first by a newspaper paragraph, and then by letter, of the death of Kemp. Mrs Kemp, a woek or two after this return to freedom, made the acquaintance of the then Lord Leigh. She waß a handsome woman and Succeeded in infatuating the earl, and was married to him in the sixth month after hearing of her widowhood. But the evidence now produced by Barfc Kemp, eon of the attorney, showed that his father did not die at the time stated. He leas supposed to have died, and was prepared for .burial, but his apparent death was but a prolonged mßtance of the state of insensibility into which he sometimes fell, And he revived, and lived in a low and nearly imbecile condition for six months wad lour days after, really dying nine days »fter the marriage of his eupposed widow to Lord Leigh. Therefore the marriage was invalid, being unintentional bigamy on the purfc of the Countess of Leigh, and her ■on, the present Norman, was illegitimate, and could not inherit estates or. title of Leigh, which estates and title properly pissed to Colonel Hartington, as next of The proofs advamced for this remarkable tSMi were a formally drawn up document by thei grave digger of Shields station at vt&at dote he buried Mr Kemp< Second the inscription on Mr, Kemps grave-stone.' Third ft statement of the stonecutter that. lit bad lettered the stone at such a date, *nd chief of all a document written and signed by Mr Kemps physician, stating

the circumstances of 'apparent death; the revival and date of real death. This physician was dead, but many witnesses would testify to his handwriting. , Thia was the terrible case which Norman Leigh heard made 'out against bis olaim to the peerage. 11 The claim is just here," said Mr Wells. " You say that Mr Kemp died in December, '39. We expect to prove that he revived after that apparent death, and lived until the last of June, 1840, and was living when the late Lord Leigh married Mrs Kemp. She had, after leaving her husband, taken her maiden name, and under that was marriad, which, of course, would not have invalidated her marriage." " Underatand," said Lord Leigh's lawyer, " that we shall combat, and fully expect to disprove, all this evidence, and show that these witnesses who have offered themselves to Colonel Hartiogton, are deceiving him with false evidence, concocted at the instigation of malice and revenge." 41 And we believe our evidence to be an honest statement of facts, and as such shall do our utmost to maintain it," eaid the lawyers of the colonel. After a long conference, the parties separated. Wells & Epston aeked if Lord Leigh would yield to the evidence, and, without further contention, relinquish his claims. This Leigh's lawyers indignantly rejected. " The case," said the lawyers, "must then come before the highest court in the land." Norman Leigh slept alone in his deserted house, and in the morning returned to the Towers.