The estates of Tichborne were not likely to be left undefended either by the trustees or by the family, who, with the exception of the Dowager Lady Tichborne, had, with one accord, pronounced the Claimant an impostor.  Accordingly, very soon after his arrival in England, a gentleman named Mackenzie was despatched to Australia to make inquiries.  Mr. Mackenzie visited Melbourne, Sydney, and Wagga-Wagga, and up to a certain time was singularly successful in tracing backwards the career of Thomas Castro.  He discovered that, some months before the Dowager’s advertisement for her son had appeared, and Mr. Gibbes’ client had set up his claim, the slaughter-man of Wagga-Wagga had married an Irish servant-girl named Bryant, who had signed the marriage register with a cross.  He also found that the marriage was celebrated, not by a Roman Catholic priest, but by a Wesleyan minister.  Searching further he found out that immediately after the date of the arrival of a letter from the Dowager, informing Mr. Gibbes that her son was a Roman Catholic, Thomas Castro and Mary Anne Bryant had again gone through the ceremony of marriage in those names, and on this occasion the wedding was celebrated in a Roman Catholic chapel.  By applying to Mr. Gibbes, Mr. Mackenzie then discovered that the Claimant, before leaving Australia, had given instructions for a will, which was subsequently drawn up and executed by him, in which he pretended to dispose of the Tichborne estates, and described properties in various counties, all of which were purely fictitious.  The Tichborne family had not, and never had, any such estates as were there elaborately set forth, nor did any such estates exist; and the will contained no bequest, nor indeed any allusion to a solitary member of Roger’s family except his mother, whom it described as Lady “Hannah Frances Tichborne,” though her Christian names were, in fact, “Henriette Felicite.”  Mr. Gibbes explained that it was the knowledge which this document seemed to display of the Tichborne estates and family which induced him to advance money, and that the Dowager Lady Tichborne’s letters being merely signed “H.F.  Tichborne,” he had inserted the Christian names, “Hannah Frances,” on the authority of his client.  Lastly, Mr. Mackenzie learnt that there had been a butcher in Wagga-Wagga named Schottler, and that Higgins’s slaughter-man, known as Tom Castro, had once told some one that he had known Schottler’s family, and lived very near their house when he was a boy.  Schottler had disappeared, but he was believed to have originally come from London.  This information was slight, but it appeared to the shrewd Mr. Mackenzie to be valuable.  If the Schottlers were known to Tom Castro as neighbours when he was a boy in London, it would seem to be only necessary to find the Schottler family in order to discover who the Claimant to the Tichborne estates really was.  After much trouble, though Schottler was not discovered, a clue was found.  The solicitor to the defendants in the Chancery suits