THERE may still be some very old men about town who remember the duel between Sir George Marston and Colonel Merridew; there may still be a venerable lawyer or two who recollect the celebrated case of Merridew against Marston. With these exceptions the story probably survives only in the two families interested in the matter and in the neighborhood where both the gentlemen concerned lived and where their successors nourish to this day. The whole affair, of which the duel was the first stage and the lawsuit the second, arose out of the disappearance of the Maharajah's rubies. Sir George and the colonel had both spent many years in India, Sir George occupying various important positions in the company's service, the colonel seeking fortune on his own account. Chance had brought them together at the court of the Maharajah of Nuggetabad, and they had struck up a friendship, tempered by jealousy. The Maharajah favored both; we Merridews maintained that Uncle John was first favorite, but the Marstons declared that Sir George beat him; and I am bound to admit that they had a plausible ground for their contention, since, when both gentlemen were returning to England, the Maharajah presented to Sir George the six magnificent stones which became famous as the Maharajah's rubies, while Uncle John had to content himself with a couple of fine diamonds. The Maharajah could not have expressed his preference more significantly; both his friends were passionate lovers of jewels, and understood very well the value of their respective presents. Uncle John faced the situation boldly, and declared that he had refused the rubies; we, his family, dutifully accepted his version, and were in the habit of laying great stress on his conscientiousness. The Marstons treated this tradition of ours with open incredulity. Whatever the truth was, the Maharajah's action produced no immediate breach between the colonel and Sir George. They left the court together, arrived together at the port of Calcutta, and came home together round the Cape. The trouble began only when Sir George discovered, at the moment when he was leaving the ship, that he had lost the rubies. By this time Uncle John, who had disembarked a few hours earlier, was already at home displaying his diamonds to the relatives who had assembled to greet him.
Into the midst of this family gathering there burst the next day the angry form of Sir George Marston. He had driven posthaste to his own house, which lay some ten miles from the colonel's, and had now ridden over at a gallop; and there, before the whole company, he charged Uncle John with having stolen the Maharajah's rubies. The colonel, he said, was the only man on board who knew that he had the rubies or where the rubies were, and the only man who had enjoyed constant and unrestricted access to the cabin in which they were hidden. Moreover (so Sir George declared), the colonel loved jewels more than honor, honesty, or salvation. The colonel's answer was a cut with his riding-whip. A challenge followed from Sir George. The duel was fought, and Sir George got a ball in his arm. As soon as he was well my uncle, who had been the challenged party in the first encounter, saw his seconds to arrange another meeting. The cut with the whip was disposed of; the accusation remained. But Sir George refused to go out, declaring that the dock, and not the field of honor, was the proper place for Colonel Merridew. Uncle John, being denied the remedy of a gentleman, carried the case into the courts, although not into the court which Sir George had indicated.
An action of slander was entered and tried. Uncle John filled town and country with his complaints. He implored all and sundry to search him, to search his house, to search his park, to search everything searchable. A number of gentlemen formed themselves into a jury and did as he asked, Uncle John himself superintending their labors. No trace of the rubies was found. Sir George was unconvinced; the action went on, the jury gave the colonel £5,000; the colonel gave the
