Year: 1879

meeting host of lawyers coming
out in wig and gown, he stopped
one. This happened to be none other
than the renowned Brougham, who
listened to the man patiently. Calling a
younger lawyer, he briefly informed him
of the facts, and he asked Layman to wait
where he was for a moment. The lawyer
returned with cab, and he and Layman
drove to Bow street. A warrant was pro-
cured, and Seldom was arrested


Now follows the most remarkable part of
this strange narrative.


Seldom denied all knowledge of Layman
or his family, or that he ever went by the
name of Miller. His handwriting, how
ever, was shown to correspond exactly
with that of Miller, and that of the man
who signed "Seldon" to the scrap of paper
found in the chimney of the inn.


Seldon's father was also positively identi-
fed by Layman as the gray haired man
who thrust him away from the carriage on
the night OF Fanny's disappearance. A
host of witnesses, however, swore that the
elder Seldom was at home at that time and
sick in bed. To crown all, while Seldom
was still under examination, a young man,
answering Millers description somewhat,
surrendered himself 10 the authorities and
confessed that he was Miller and had en-
ticed Fanny away and murdered her.
The admission of this cold-blooded crime
aroused the Indignation of all who heard
it. He was tried, convicted and sentenced
to be hanged within iorty-eight hours


AT the last moment he was reprieved,
and his sentence was subsequently COM
muted to banishment for life.


Layman persisted in his belief to the
very last that Seldom was the real man, and
his conviction was intensified by what oc-
CURED some years later. There was hunt
at Rock Hall, the seat Of Sir Joseph Rock
cliffe, Layman's landlord. Seldom was
there, and following the hounds he took
path which no one knew butthose acquainted
with Layman's farm. This strengthened
the farmers belief that Seldom and Miller
were identical.


But the most confrmatory proof is as yet
to be given. Inquiry showed that the man
presenting himself as Miller was pardoned
the very day his sentence of death was COM
muted to transportation, and that he was
actually keeping hotel at Richmond, in
Yorkshire, within few miles of the country
seat of the Seldons, and passing under his
own name, Marft. This fact was first as
certained in 1882. The very same year one
King was hanged at York for highway rob-
berry. Before the execution he made a con-
fession of his crimes, and, among other
things, he admitted that he was one of the
gang who assailed Laynan, near Selby,
soon after the murder of his sister. He was
formerly groom with the Seldom family,
and confessed that he was hired to aid two
gypsies in dispatching Layman and getting
rid of his sister. He declined to say who
hired him, but enough escaped from him to
show that the employer was the elder
Seldom.


Finally, in 1S41, the wife of James Au-
breyss. Seldom filed a bill of divorce against
her husband, asking for a separate mainte-
nance. One OF the facts set up was that the
respondent was at times subject to fits of
great mental excitement, during which he
recounted crimes which he said he had COM
mitted, and among them the instigation Of
the murder of one Fanny Layman, to whom
he was married clandestinely. An attempt
was thereupon made to revive the inquiry
into the murder, but Marft disappeared
from Richmond, and Seldom was placed in
a lunatic asylum near Durham. Thence
he escaped in 1847 and nothing was heard
of him for several weeks, until his remains
were found on a heap of straw in an old
barn on Layman's farm.


Taking all the circumstances together,
there is no doubt that James Aubrey Sell
don and Miller were the same. Seldom had
returned from the continent, and took a
fancy to stroll through the country toward
home. On his way he came to Layman's
and there saw Fanny. That was the at
traction that held him.


By some means his father, who was a
desperate and unprincipled man, learned
of his marriage, and a plan was devised to
remove her. In the first instance, it is sup
posed that the gypsies were to abduct her
and inyeigle her into some situation which
wonld warrant divorce. Subsequently,
however, her death was resolved on, whether
with the sanction of the Seldons or not is
uncertain The old woman who claimed
the girls body was doubtless one of the
gang of gypsies. The alleged sickness of
the elder Seldom must have been irumped-
up story, to which it was not difficult to get
retainers to swear, especially when all the
authorities were anxious to cover up the
guilt of the real culprits.