THE DRUCE MYSTERY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 6, 7 January 1908, Page 3

THE DRUCE MYSTERY.

ANOTHER REMARKABLE WITNESS.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, November 29. Surrounded by the bevy of fashionably dressed ladies who are now a regular feature of the Druce proceedings, Mr. Plowden resumed at Clerkenwell Police Court on Wednesday the hearing of this amazing case. Miss Robinson, the witness from New Zealand, was again in the wit-ness-box. Mr. Avory, K.C., had a few more questions to ask. They hinged upon the handwriting of certain letters, but the witness was "difficult," and Mr. Plowden had to adopt severe tones in order to induce her to save the time of the court. The upshot of It was that she admitted that the two sets of letters were not in the same handwriting. There was much about the mysterious tunnels at Welbeck, but it was all very dull, and more than one distinguished lady on the bench slumbered peacefully. When Mr. Atherley-Jones came to the meeting of the witness with Charles Dickens interest revived. Just before concluding there were a few merry moments. Mr. Atherley-Jones wanted to know whether the witness still had the brooch and ring presented to her by the late Duke of Portland. "Yes, she had." Miss Robinson, however, declined to remove either of the articles for inspection. Mr. Avory was anxious to see theni, but his blandishments were unavailing. "Won't you trust my learned friend," her counsel asked. "No," she replied, with emphasis. Eventually, however, the brooch was removed from Miss Robinson's dress and passed to Mr. Plow- I den, Mr. Atherley-Jones, and Mr. Avory, I who examined it carefully before passing i it back. Miss Robinson seemed relieved when she had her property in her own possession again. Mrs. Margaret TTa.Tnilt.nTi, who is now known to have been the mysterious veiled lady of an earlier etage of the Druee case, entered the witness-box when Mr. Plowden resumed his seat after lunch. Mrs. Hamilton is a little old lady. She wore a black bonnet and a long light j cloth coat. Her replies to the questions addressed to her were given in a clear voice. She was born in Rome in 1830, and the fourth Duke of Portland was one of her godfathers. When she came to England she was quite a little girl, and when about fourteen she came to London and met Mr. Druce at the Bakerstreet Bazaar. In 1849, on the invitation of the fourth Duke of Portland, her father and herself visited Welbeck, where they met the gentleman who became the fifth Duke. DELIGHTFULLY GARRULOUS. "Was that gentleman the same gentleman you knew as Mr. Druce?" "Oh, yes, of course he was." Mrs. Hamilton was delightfully garrulous, and when it was gently hinted that she might speak more slowly she seemed pained and surprised. "I always speak like that and I cannot help it," was her only comment. It was not many minutes, however, before she sank into her seat, overcome. A glass of water was handed to her, and she was soon giving some of the most astonishing evidence in this extraordinary case in sharp, clear sentences. In 1864, Mr. Druce told her father that he (Mr. Druce) was going to die, but two years later she met Mr. Druce again, when she remarked tnat she thought he i was dead and buried. He resented the remark. She last saw the Duke in Fitzroy Square, where her father lived in 1576". He told her he thought he was going to die, and she said, "Oh, well, I j hope you'll repent of all your sins." He I said, "Thank you, Madge." He had been "a wicked old man," added the witness, amidst laughter. "The Duke of Portland and Mr. Druce was the same man?" "Of course he was." '»Did he wear a false beard?" "False beard, of course he did. He had lots of wigs, and false beards, and false eyebrows." Mrs. Hamilton's answers were generally completed before the question was quite ended, but she seemed relieved when the examination closed. THE CROSS-EXAMINATION. Mr. Avory, in cross-examination, touched upon Mrs. Maznilton's long connection with the Druce case, and then on her early years. She was thirteen when she came to London, and directed her footsteps to the Baker-street Bazaar, where she knew Mr. Drnce, her father's friend, lived. She did not go in, but she saw Mr. Druce in a window, and he came out. He asked her what she was doing there, and she told him that she had left her home. He took her to a Mrs. Harrison's, and left her in that lady's charge. A fortnight later her father came to London and took her back, and placed her in charge of her grandmother. Mrs. Hamilton had confronted Mr. Avory before, and the irrepressible old j lady "of earlier in the afternoon became I curt and concise in her answers.