EPILOGUE

MURDER ENQUIRY
The recent murder of an unidentified gentleman at Baker Street remains a mystery. While the landlady, Mrs Druce, claims the murderer was the infamous stage magician Philidor, her mental capacity has fallen into question and her assertions it is him are doubtful. Investigators conjecture that a third person, a woman, was there that night and witnessed the event, and they are appealing to her to come forward.

Philidor was hospitalised with a gunshot wound but made a full recovery only to be recently arrested and charged with drunkenness, thievery and public disgrace after attempting to steal a man’s watch, and then, once caught, defending his actions by declaring he was the victim in an elaborate plot to relieve him of his money and that supposedly a living wax automaton had been part of it all. Those readers who recall Philidor from his shows in London and at Welbeck Abbey know that Antoinette, as she was called, was most impressive. However, it seems her maker has fallen on hard times – and perhaps fallen out with Antoinette. He remains in gaol awaiting sentence.

SENSATIONAL SCANDAL
Mrs Druce of Baker Street has claimed that His Grace William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Portland has been masquerading as Thomas Charles, her tenant who ran the Baker Street Bazaar from her lodgings for some time. Thomas Charles, however, died last week, and she in fact attended his funeral at Highgate Cemetery, although it was a closed coffin so she did not see the body. She claims that he is not dead and that her child of six months is his, conceived one night when he visited her to ask about rent. She claims he has faked his death in order to return to living his secluded and privileged aristocratic life as well as to prevent her son from claiming his rightful inheritance. If her story is true, her boy would be the heir to the duke’s fortune, which includes the entire estate of Welbeck Abbey as well as Cavendish Square in London. Mrs Druce has applied to have the body of Thomas Charles exhumed, but her petition has not been successful.

Yesterday Mrs Druce was admitted to Bethlem under the care of Mr Gribble, the resident physician, and her child placed in the workhouse.

CASE OF MISSING GIRL RESOLVED
A body has been exhumed at Welbeck Abbey and identified as that of the girl Elanor Hemmings who disappeared sixteen years ago from the estate. His Grace William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Portland, is not under any suspicion, and investigators are emphatic that he is not to blame, instead citing a tragic accident with a gun that was mishandled.

DEATH NOTICE
His Grace William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Portland has died in his home in peaceful surroundings after languishing for considerable time with ill health. A recent fire in his underground ballroom is said to have affected him greatly and also consumed the collection of books, antiques and artefacts stored in his subterranean library. His estate, Welbeck Abbey, will be inherited by a distant cousin.