CHAPTER XV

Scrobby’s Trial

Rufford was a good deal moved as to the trial of Mr Scrobby.  Mr. Scrobby was a man who not long since had held his head up in Rufford and had the reputation of a well-to-do tradesman.  Enemies had perhaps doubted his probity; but he had gone on and prospered, and, two or three years before the events which are now chronicled, had retired on a competence.  He had then taken a house with a few acres of land, lying between Rufford and Rufford Hall, the property of Lord Rufford, and had commenced genteel life.  Many in the neighbourhood had been astonished that such a man should have been accepted as a tenant in such a house; and it was generally understood that Lord Rufford himself had been very angry with his agent.  Mr. Scrobby did not prosper greatly in his new career.  He became a guardian of the poor and quarrelled with all the Board.  He tried to become a municipal counsellor in the borough, but failed.  Then he quarrelled with his landlord, insisted on making changes in the grounds which were not authorised by the terms of his holding, would not pay his rent, and was at last ejected,—­having caused some considerable amount of trouble.  Then he occupied a portion of his leisure with spreading calumnies as to his Lordship and was generally understood to have made up his mind to be disagreeable.  As Lord Rufford was a sportsman rather than anything else Scrobby studied how he might best give annoyance in that direction, and some time before the Goarly affair had succeeded in creating considerable disturbance.  When a man will do this pertinaciously, and when his selected enemy is wealthy and of high standing, he will generally succeed in getting a party round him.  In Rufford there were not a few who thought that Lord Rufford’s pheasants and foxes were a nuisance,—­though probably these persons had never suffered in any way themselves.  It was a grand thing to fight a lord,—­and so Scrobby had a party.

When the action against his Lordship was first threatened by Goarly, and when it was understood that Scrobby had backed him with money there was a feeling that Scrobby was doing rather a fine thing.  He had not, indeed, used his money openly, as the Senator had afterwards done; but that was not Scrobby’s way.  If Goarly had been ill-used any help was legitimate, and the party as a party was proud of their man.  But when it came to pass that poison had been laid down, “wholesale” as the hunting men said, in Dillsborough Wood, in the close vicinity of Goarly’s house, then the party hesitated.  Such strategy as that was disgusting;—­but was there reason to think that Scrobby had been concerned in the matter?  Scrobby still had an income, and ate roast meat or boiled every day for his dinner.  Was it likely that such a man should deal in herrings and strychnine?