Litchfield enquirer., 1879-01-30
whose name appears in the same manuscript

was vast inGucement but-she liked best of all one Sir Randall Hazlewood, of Hazlewood Park, baronet, a man Of fashion, and gam
 bier, who had already run through two for
 tunes. Her guardians were strongly opposed 1 to such match, but Miss Smith was obstinate,
 and after sine came of legal age nothing could
 be done to stopit. She married Sir Randall, ,stip- ] uating only for settlement of a few hundreds year upon herself as pin-money and her con | fdence was rewarded in the usual way. Ev- erything that her husband could spend he l spent, and when he was finally killed in duel 1 for trying to run off with some other mans 1 wife. he left behind him nothing but debts | for his son, and for his widow only the small 1 income settled upon her Sir James, the son,
 however, was of very different disposition.
 He was called to the Bar. obtained some legal l appointment, marrled, and lived narrowly and ] ufrcu.scurtaDiy, saseu money, and Iost It all
 in defaulting bank and died of the chagrin. i His widow did not survive him long, and thus
 his three daughters fell to the charge of their 1 grandmother, old Lady Hazlewood; which 1 brings Ills to the present and existing state of l things.
 i When Lady Hazlewood had given me this account of her family history, should much i have liked to question her on various points, | but the old lady was too much fatigued to 1 bear any more talk. Fanny followed me down stairs, and brought me to the room she called l her studio. What dld I think of it Was l there any chance for them? Would 1 help i them-they were so frendiess and powerless i? l As man of business. l can say that I 1 thought the claim all mOonshine. Fanny saw 1 my opinion in my face and her eyes filled
 with tears and then Bridget came -Bridg- ct with her intense faith and confidence. She
 had bundle of papers in her hands. l i've found the documents, Mr. Phillip"
 she said My lady recolected where they | were put the documents that were sent her l when Mir. Spiller died'
 This had been in 1889, about thirty years before, and the papers had never been opened | since that date. There was nothing seeming 1 ly important about tiionl- First. memoran- 1 dunn by Mir Spiller that from 1792 to 1915 the i Continental war had prevented any Inquiries 1 as to the existing descendants of Madame De l la Motte; but that, on the declaration of peace 1 Mr. Spiler had himself proceeded to Paris to l institute inquiries. That he had obtained l proofs of the death of Monsieur and Madame 1 De la Motte, and of the existence of a daugh- ter, but could find no trace of the latter. That i he inserted advertisements in the chief Conti- 1 mental papers, but without result. That the /! matter had been mentioned to the Vice Chan i cellor. who remarked that, in the absence of 1 further evidence, there seemed to be no neces- | sity to make any order in the case ; and that thereupon. the subject was dropped. In Mr. | Spillers investigations. he had been aided by certain letters, addressed by Madame De la Motte to her sister in England. These letters
 were inclosed in the packet. They were part ly in English and partly in French; the latter language evidently familiar to both, cir cumstance probably due to their creole extrac-
 ti0n. We gathered from the letters that the
 French husband had been of noble family, an officer in the Kings Guard, but extravagant
 and poor; several of the letters, indeed, con
 tained requests for help in money matters. The English wife was good deal neglected, ap- parently spending most of the year in the old family chateaux at St. Arnoult, in Normandy, while Monsieur amused himself in Paris. When the revolutionary troubles were in prog
 ress it seemed that NJ. De la Motte was play ing the double part of running with the Royal
 hare and hunting with the Jacobin hounds: his English connection even seemed to have l been made use of for secret communication with the English Ministry. There was anxious inquiry after a letter that it was feared had been intercepted, and then silence; the bitter end coming close after.
 And now what do you think, Philip?" cried Fanny, laying her hand beseechingly upon my arm. It was the first time she had
 addressed me by my Christian name since she had refused me.
 Well the papers were not of much value,
 but they seemed to give reality and texture to what before had been visionary. It was quite possible admitted, that there might be some
 such unclaimed fundin the Court of Chancery; but as to getting hold of it, that was another
 matter. Costs would be certain and the result
 most doubtful. Still, if they had money to spend over it.
 Fanny looked at Bridget, and Bridget at
 Fanny. At last the Scotchwoman suggested :: Gould it not be done on spec, Mir. Phil lp;"
 Not for any pecuniary reward. There is, in the first place. the doubt as to success, and,
 in the event of success, still greater doubt as
 to payment That is how shark would look
 upon it-and none but shark would take it
 up."
 Not for money, Phillip, but for love-"
 whispered Fanny. Could it not be done for
 love-
 Putting it in that way, found it difficult to
 turn my back upon the affair. At all events
 we would find out whether the supposed fund
 had any real existence. l obtained permission
 to make the search and, after tediNue i.'~oe
 tigation, to which 1 sacrificed whole months
 holiday, I found something to the purpose.
 Nothing less than an order to invest in consois
 in the narue of the Accountant General, the
 sum of eighty thousand pounds unclaimed
 residue of the estate of Philip Rankin. Fur
 ther research convinced me that this sum still
 remained undrawn, part of that huge accumu-
 laton known as the +Suitor's Fee Fund
 There was great rejoicing at the news in
 Hornton street. Fanny was haf-wild with
 excitement and delight. She laughed and sue
 cried, and looked as if'she had mind to give
 me kiss anyhow, 1 gave iHr the benefit of
 the doubt by taking one. II don't think I
 quite like, Philip" she sad doubtfully, rub
 ping her cheek, and little offended But I
 was quite sure that l liked it.
 We began operations as soon as the courts opened, with slender resources and plenty of
 courage. At first we applied for leave, we
 were mentioned. we moved for this or that we
 put evidence en record, and by degrees ap-
 preached the kernel of our eighty thousand
 pounds But such treasure as that has al-
 ways fierce, intractable guardians The pro-
 ceedings lasted for year, and we were no
 nearer success at the end; and it became evi-
 dent that we should do no good till we had
 accounted for the French girl. Our counsel
 argued in vain that lapse of time was sufficient
 evidence that no descendants of Jeanne de Ia
 Motte now existed. The Vice Chancellor shook his head decisively at this, the shake was emphasized by the Lords Justices, and f-
 nalIy clenched by the Lord Chancellor him. self. All we could get was permission to ap- ply again when fresh evidence should be forth coming.
 This was a serious decision for both the Ha-
 zlewoods and myself. The costs had been
 heavy, and they had been able to pay but small part of them. 1 had supplemented the deficiency out of my current income. But I
 was in debt all round in consequence. and creditors were beginning to be troublesome. We were not in funds to pay for expensive in-
 quiries, and had we been, there seemed little
 hope of their doing any good And then I
 made up my mind to go and make the search 1 myself. Another months holiday must be
 devoted to the inquiry
 The question now was where to begin To 1 try in Paris would be waste of time as we'll
 look for needle in haystack. But the
 neighborheod where the girl had been brought 1 up offered more hopeful ookout. There ! would be relations possibly on the fathers
 side, who might have retained some knewl- edge of the girl. There was the chance that she had returned to the familiar spot. must 1 find my way tothe chateau of St. Arnoult, in 1 what was then Normandy, now in the De- partment of Seine Inferieure.
 It was not till October that could get away from London, leaving the Hazlewood girls in