More than twenty years had elapsed since the question had been
mooted; and though the discussion had left upon Lord de
Mowbray an impression from which at times he had never
entirely recovered, still circumstances had occurred since the
last proceedings which gave him a moral if not a legal
conviction that he should be disturbed no more. And these
were the circumstances: Lord de Mowbray after the death of the
father of Walter Gerard had found himself in communication
with the agent who had developed and pursued the claim for the
yeoman, and had purchased for a good round sum the documents
on which that claim was founded, and by which apparently that
claim could only be sustained.
The vendor of these muniments was Baptist Hatton, and the sum
which he obtained for them, by allowing him to settle in the
metropolis, pursue his studies, purchase his library and
collections, and otherwise give himself that fair field which
brains without capital can seldom command, was in fact the
foundation of his fortune. Many years afterwards Lord de
Mowbray had recognised Hatton in the prosperous parliamentary
agent who often appeared at the bar of the House of Lords and
before committees of privileges, and who gradually obtained an
unrivalled reputation and employment in peerage cases.
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