The case came to trial at the Assizes on my circuit, and I won it in the face of some very strong points, very well put, on the other side.

I was in poor health at the time, and my exertions so completely knocked me up that I was confined to bed in my lodgings for a week or more--" "And the grateful lady came and nursed you, I suppose," said the Queen of Hearts, in her smart, off-h and way.
"The grateful lady did something much more natural in her position, and much more useful in mine," I answered--"she sent her servant to attend on me.

He was an elderly man, who had been in her service since the time of her first marriage, and he was also one of the most sensible and well-informed persons whom I have ever met with in his station of life.
From hints which he dropped while he was at my bedside, I discovered for the first time that his mistress had been unfortunate in her second marriage, and that the troubles of that period of her life had ended in one of the most singular events which had happened in that part of England for many a long day past.

It is hardly necessary to say that, before I allowed the man to enter into any particulars, I stipulated that he should obtain his mistress's leave to communicate what he knew.
Having gained this, and having further surprised me by mentioning that he had been himself connected with all the circumstances, he told me the whole story in the fullest detail.

I have now tried to reproduce it as nearly as I could in his own language.