Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/584

 ending supply; besides which there are the provinces to work upon. Of course he gives the preference to new establishments desirous of pushing business, as they respond more liberally and with less hesitation to his verbal and written applications.

will, true to its character, seems to beget strange and exceptional spasms of inconsistency; in its mysterious presence men will delight to belie their own whole life, or steady course of love and affections. The annals of wills show that there is no security in a long course of love on one side, or of devotion on the other, between parent and child, husband or wife. The word "will" is suggestive; and, with a sort of devilish freak, all is reversed of a sudden, and at the moment of discovery the faithful and loving child finds herself defrauded and cast out.

In the year 1838, a most respectable Welsh gentleman, "Thomas Williams, Esq., of Bryncross Castle, near Carnarvon," was placed in the dock at the Central Criminal Court, charged with forging the will of his father-in-law, Mr. Panton, a wealthy Welsh proprietor. It was a most suspicious transaction, and when the case against the prisoner closed, no one in court could have a doubt of his guilt, as, indeed, no one could who reads through the next few paragraphs.

At a castle in Wales, near Carnarvon, there was living, in the year 1837, a wealthy old gentleman named Mr. Jones Panton. He was possessed of large estates, and many shares and stocks, and his son, Mr. Barton Panton, was high sheriff of the county. Knowing as we do the monotonous nomenclature of Wales, it is scarcely a surprise to learn that the son was married to the daughter of a Williams, or that another Williams had married a sister of the high sheriff. Both the gentlemen bearing that name were local solicitors, and some awkward circumstances made the marriage of Miss Lauretta Panton singularly unfortunate. When the wealthy owner of the castle found himself obliged to bring some charge concerning a diamond ring against his own son-in-law, no one could have been surprised to learn that a complete alienation had taken place between those branches of the family. But it naturally turned to the profit of the son, who had behaved as became him, and it was accepted that the unlucky business of the diamond ring had entirely cut off Lauretta and her solicitor husband from all chances of inheritance. And this seemed reasonable, for the theory that those need pardon who have done the wrong would, of course, be fortified in the case of one armed with the powers of a testator.

The position of the son was, besides, a strong one. From the day he left his cradle, to use his own words, to the death of his father, there was the most unbounded affection between them. When the son married, the father stipulated that both wife and son should come and live with him. He talked to other people of this attachment, and was known to dote upon his little grandchild. In due course of time he had prepared wills. In an early one, he had divided his property between his son and daughter; but after the diamond ring affair he had cut the latter off with a miserable two hundred pounds. In May, 1837, he pointed his wishes still more emphatically, and on one occasion, when his last sickness was on him, and in presence of an intimate friend, he handed over to his son, with great solemnity, a bundle which he said was his will, adding a sort of proclamation: "I give you all the money I have got in the house, with the arrears of rent now due, my canal shares, stocks, plate, books, pictures, wines, and farming stock." During the fortnight's illness that followed, the old gentleman received his medicines only from the hands of his son and daughter-in-law; and on the 24th of May he died. At the funeral it was noticed that the disinherited solicitor arrived very late; and, indeed, bearing in mind his old disagreeable associations with the deceased, any alacrity of attendance at the obsequies was scarcely to be expected. All the relatives and friends then assembled at the castle to hear the document read, which was to make Mr. Barton Panton the heir. This was a sort of local custom, but here, again, it was remarked that the solicitor of "diamond ring" notoriety, just as the recital was about to commence, left the room abruptly. This embarrassed the new owner, who, with some courtesy, put off the reading to another occasion. The behaviour of the solicitor grew more and more mysterious. He drove up one morning in his carriage, and asked his brother-in-law if he had any communication to make to him. It must have been a disagreeable surprise for the latter, though a solution of this doubtful conduct, when, having duly proved his will in all form, the solicitor came hesitatingly to the front, and, announcing that he was in possession of a later will, proceeded to enter a caveat. This faltering was suspicious in the extreme, but when the document itself was produced, these suspicions became very grave indeed. By this document the solicitor was named executor, the disinherited Lauretta residuary legatee. The body of the instrument was written in the solicitor's handwriting, and, though the signature was admittedly genuine, a close examination with strong glasses discovered some highly suspicious matters. Underneath the writing were pencil-marks, imperfectly rubbed out, of plans and names of streets, and the name "Hurlock" was distinctly made out. It was then recollected that some one of that name had been co-tenant with the deceased of some property in London, and that the solicitor had negotiated the matter; further, the witnesses were his own man, since dead, and his two maid-servants. Taking the whole circumstances together, no reasonable man could doubt but that this had very much the air of a clumsy forgery and a more clumsy plot.