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The little court at Marlborough-st. has never been so crowded as it was this morning since Oscar Wilde initiated the famous libel proceedings against the Marquess of Queensberry. As then, so now the Marquess figures in the role of the defendant, but on this occasion he has a companion in adversity in the person of his own son, Lord Douglas of Hawick. Both the principals of the Piccadilly rumpus were early upon the scene, the Marquess being the first to arrive. For a few minutes he loitered outside the court, the central figure of a gathering crowd, but after he had been joined by his solicitor he proceeded to push his way through the group which barred the entrance to the court. In his buttonhole he wore three Marechal Niel roses. Lord Douglas entered the building soon afterwards, and it was at once observed that

BOTH HIS EYES WERE BLACK

--more black than lovely. As soon as Mr. Hannay had taken his seat both were put into the dock and charged with disorderly conduct and fighting in Piccadilly.

The first witness was Constable C.R. 32, who was on duty at the corner of Bond-st., and whose attention was called to large crowd across the street outside Scott's, the hatters. He went there, and found the Marquess and his son fighting. The constable separated them, after which they again closed, and witness parted them again. Both father and son then crossed Bond-st. They met again outside Stewart's confectionery shop, and there

RECOMMENCED FIGHTING.

Witness thereupon arrested the Marquess, and his son was taken in charge by another constable. At Vine-st. the Marquess, in reply to his charge, said, "It is quite correct."

The Marquess, who defended himself, only asked one question, which suggested that Lord Douglas began the attack, and continued it while the Marquess was walking to his hotel. The constable, however, could not altogether agree with this version.

Mr. S. T. Stoneham (for Lord Douglas): At the station did you hear the Marquess say anything?

Witness: I heard the Marquess say he was willing to

FIGHT HIS SON FOR £10,000.

You did not hear Lord Queensberry call his son an opprobrious name? - No.

Constable C. R. 6, who was also on the spot, was asked who struck the first blow, and the witness replied that he fancied it was Lord Douglas.

It was C. R. 6 who took Lord Douglas to the station, and during the journey his lordship remarked, "The Marquess has been writing to my wife letters of an obscene nature. I have written to my father on several occasions asking him to cease writing them. But he has refused to do so, and this is the only remedy I have. That is the cause of the row."

Mr. Stoneham: Didn't Lord Douglas say that he had spoken to his father, and asked him to discontinue those letters, and that they were

THE CAUSE OF THE ROW?

Witness: Yes, similar words to those.

The inspector who received the distinguished defendants at Vine-st. was the next witness. After the charge had been read over to them the Marquess exclaimed, "That is my son who has bailed Oscar Wilde to-day. H =e has been following me about, and struck me in Piccadilly." Lord Douglas added, "Yes, that occurred through my father writing letters to my wife of a most disgusting character."

The Marquess Speaks.

This was the case for the police, and the Marquess then proceeded to make his statement. He had driven, he said, from the Old Bailey to the bottom of St. James's-st. As he was crossing the road to go up Albermarle-st., he saw his son walking down Piccadilly. As soon as the latter recognised him Lord Douglas "came straight at me, almost at a run, and pushed me up against a shop window, at the same time speaking at the top of his voice. "I struck him certainly," added the Marquess, "but it was done in self-defense."

Lord Douglas's Story.

Mr. Stoneham, in giving Lord Douglas's version of the affray, said he and a friend walking in Piccadilly saw Lord Queensberry crossing the street. The Marquess had evidently just come out of a post-office, where he had sent to following telegram to Lord Douglas's wife:--

To Lady Douglas. Must congratulate on verdict. Cannot on Percy's appearance; looked like a dug-up corpse. Fear too much madness of kissing. Taylor guilty. Wilde's turn to-morrow.-- QUEENSBERRY.

"That," said Mr. Stoneham, "is a sample of the letters Lord Queensberry has been writing not onlu to Lord Douglas's wife, but to other members of the family. He has been requested time after time to stop those letters, but he still persists in continuing the annoyance, and your worship will remember the application I made some time ago in order to get Lord Queensberry bound over to keep the peace." Mr. Stoneham added that his client, seeing his father in the street last night, went up to him and asked whether he intended to cease writing these filthy letters. Lord Douglas was repeating the question when his father hit him in the eye with his fist. All that his client intended to do was to obtain an assurance from his father that this sort of behavior should cease.

Lord Queensberry here broke in with the remark that, as his son refused to receive any letters from himself, he was obliged to write to his wife.

Mr. Hannay thought these family affairs had nothing to do with the case, and suggested that the Marquess should call his witnesses.

Eye-witnesses' Accounts.

Accordingly Mr. Charles T. Sheriff, who was an eye witness of the occurrence, was called to say that Lord Douglas began the attack. Both defendants admit fighting, the only question at issue being who struck the first blow.

Lord Queensberry's second witness, Mr. Charles Taylor swore that he saw the son begin the fight by knocking his father against the painters' trestles outside the shop.

Lord Douglas's only witness was Mr. Fred Weston, the gentleman in whose company he was at the time. Mr. Weston's story was that the son approached the father in the most respectful fashion, and merely asked him to stop writing obscene letters to his wife. The Marquess's only reply was to make "a noise with his lips."

Mr. Stoneham: Who struck the first blow?

Witness: It was a near thing, but I think the Marquess was the quicker. (Laughter.)

Mr. Stoneham: He naturally would be, seeing that the Marquess is a boxer. (Laughter.)

An Adjective Objected to.

Lord Queensberry, with the magistrate's permission, then offered an explanation of the letters he had written to his son's wife. He objected to the adjective "obscene" which had been applied to them. Hearing, he said, that Mr. Oscar Wilde was staying at his son's house, he went down to see whether his other son (Lord Alfred) was also there. He saw Lord Douglas's wife, who gave him her word of honor that Lord Alfred was not staying there, and then he was obliged to tell her what he had called for.

Mr. Hannay once more interposed, and the Marquess's further explanation was abandoned.

The Magistrate's Decision.

In giving his decision, the magistrate said it seemed to him to be a matter of very little importance who began the fight, because both were fighting, both were close to policemen, and neither evoked their assistance. Under those circumstances he should bind over both defendants in their own sureties of £500 to keep the peace for six months.

Father and son, who had carefully taken up their positions in the two extreme corners of the dock and who seemed to be unaware of each other's presence, were then escorted into the gaoler's room to be bound over. A small crowd was waiting outside the court to give them a parting salute.

LONDON, May 22. - While Oscar Wilde's trial was proceeding at the Old Bailey this morning two of the eccentric Queensberry's family - the Marquis himself and his heir apparent, Lord Douglas of Hawick, whom he hates almost as furiously as he does his younger son, Lord Alfred Douglas - were in Marlborough-street Police Court complaining about their flight in Piccadilly yesterday afternoon.

Lord Douglas, with his left eye black and highly swollen, attesting to his old father's prowess, was content to be heard through his solicitor, but the Marquis of Queensberry had no lawyer and was loquacious in his own defense. He told how he had written letter after letter to his eldest son about the Wilde affair in general and Lord Douglas' friendship for Wilde in particular.

"At last," said the Maruis, "my letters were returned unopened. I was forced to write to my son's wife in order to reach him. I wanted to find out where Lord Alfred Douglas was, and whether it was true that my eldest son was harboring Wilde. Yesterday my son rushed up to me and, without provocation, assaulted me. I defended myself. Three times we were separated, and each time he followed me and attacked me again."

Lord Douglas' lawyer then said that the Marquis had been writing offensive letters to his client's wife. These letters were produced and were read by the Justice, who, however, resisted Queensberry's excited entreaties that they be put in evidence and given to the public.

ONE OF THE TELEGRAMS.

Lord Douglas' lawyer, however, read one communication, which was in the form of a telegram to Lady Douglas of Hawick. Queensberry must have sent it only a few minutes before his son attacked him, and after the verdict of the jury in the Taylor case had been announced. It read thus:

"I must congratulate you on the result of the trial. I cannot on Percy's appearance. He looks like a dug-up corpse. I fear he has had too much madness of kissing. Taylor guilty; Wilde's turn to-morrow. QUEENSBERRY.

Lord Douglas' lawyer then said: "Again and again my client has requested him to stop sending these communications to his wife. He promised to stop, but only the other day he sent a picture of an antedeluvian monster with, 'This is Wilde's ancestor,' written under it. My client approached the Marquis of Queensberry yesterday only to ask him to cease writing to Lady Douglas."

Both sides produced witnesses, but the testimony all showed that, however aggressive a part the famous boxing Marquis may have taken in the row, the onset was made every time by his son. The magistrate deplored bringing a family quarrel into the Police Court, reprimanded both father and son, and bound them in £500 to keep the peace for six months.

Father and Son were side by side in the dock during the whole hearing. They stood side by side at the signing of the bond and went out of the courtroom together, but neither spoke to the other unless frequent exchange of savage looks may be called speaking.

There was a great crowd outside the courtroom, and the Marquis was loudly cheered when he appeared. He has become a sort of hero with the masses ever since he cast aside all restraints of family pride in his exposure of Wilde and the gang who took or pretended to take Wilde as their high priest. The Marquis has suffered but little in his reputation for heroism from the fact that he has frequently had public rows with various members of his family on all kinds of pretexts, besided making a number of general exhibitions of his eccentricities.

HE SHOWED IN PUBLIC.

Immediately after the conclusion of the court proceedings to-day the Marquis repaired to Willis' rooms, the most fashionable of the London restaurants, where he had luncheon with a lady and a young girl. He was obviously in great glee. He wore a very large white boutonniere and evidently enjoyed the attention he received from the other guests. He showed to his companions the picture he had sent Lady Douglas. It was a full-page representation from one of the weekly papers of a prehistoric iguanodon, as restored by Professor Woodward and placed in Kensington Museum.

Lady Douglas, to whom he has been sending these remarkable letters, is a daughter of Thomas Walters, Vicar of Boyton. She is very young and quiet, even shrinking. Her husband is only twenty-six years old, and made a considerable fortune in the mines of Australia before the death of his older brother last year. Since he went bail for Wilde he has not been so well thought of as before.

The Marquis of Queensberry talked with the utmost freedom to the World correspondent this evening and gave many facts heretofore unpublished. He had just returned from a tricycle ride, and was clad in a light-blue dressing robe, preparatory to dressing for dinner. "The cause of my son's anger," said the Marquis, "was this: before Wilde was released on bail I went to Holloway Prison and left a note saying that if he went about with my younger son, Lord Alfred Douglas, after his release he would be at serious risk. Had he replied that he would not see Alfred I would have taken his word, but he sent no reply. I accordingly put a detective on him. I called at his hotel after his release, but he refused to see me.

WILDE FLED BEFORE HIM.

"My other son, Lord Douglas, took him, the Rev. Stewart Hadlam and his lawyer to dine, but just as they were sitting down to dinner I appeared, and Wilde forthwith fled out of the house.

"I could not object to Lord Douglas bailing Wilde or befriending him if he chose, but I did object to Wilde’s renewing his intimacy with Alfred. I heard next day that Wilde had gone to stay at Lord Douglass’ country house, at Kensington on the Thames, and Alfred was there. I went down and presented myself at the house and was received by Lady Douglass, who refused me admission and said I should not come there.

Subsequently, however, I learned that Alfred was at Rouen, Oscar Wilde having frightened him into leaving the country by stating that a warrant had been issued for his arrest. No warrant had been issued, but Wilde was advised that the facts of Alfred’s hanging about the prison and so forth was damaging his case, so he invented the story about the warrant to get rid of him.

"Lord Douglas must still believe in Wilde, but his associating with him is partly obstinacy, out of spite to me, partly to stand by Alfred, for which I don't blame him. I've always thought a little blood-letting a very good thing, and though I felt bitterly against Douglas before, now I have no ill feeling, and rather like him for having gone for me. It showed pluck, and I admire him for it. Of course, when I saw he was going to strike me, I got my right in first, but only for a tap on his eye. It didn't hurt.

"I may tell you that Douglas was the cause of my originally bringing matters to a head with Wilde. He came to his hotel and attacked me for saying in clubs what I believed Wilde to be, and challenged me to make a charge in some way so it could be tested. I went, there and then, to Wilde’s club and left a card, for which I was arrested."

WILDE WILL BE CONVICTED.

"Do you believe Wilde will be convicted?" the World correspondent asked.

"A million to one on it," Lord Queensberry answered, "though I was scanning the jury to-day, and I think there are a couple of queer looking fellows among them."

"Do you believe the authorities want a conviction?" the correspondent inquired.

"It looks as if they didn't," the Marquis replied. "They have got no such evidence as they might have done. By the way, there is one matter I would like you to mention, that is the shabby way in which the authorities have treated me. They are relying altogether on a case prepared at my expense. It has cost me £2,000, and when I applied to the treasury for compensation they offered me £35. I protested against this meanness, and they offered me £100, but I told them they might keep it. I intend to get a question put in Parliament on this subject when the case is concluded. I have already seen Mr. Labouchere about it. I am a poor man and can't stand this expense. Then Wilde was decreed to pay me £800 costs in any suit he has. He offered me £200, and I suppose I shan't get a farthing, but I shall make him bankrupt.

"I have just received a check for £200 from a stock exchange, where it was subscribed to-day out of sympathy with me. My son, Lord Douglas, is a member of the stock exchange. It was very nice of them. My sole object was to keep Wilde and Alfred apart, so I hope Wilde will be convicted. Should he escape I will pursue him until I am satisfied that the intimacy between them is stopped."

Lord Queensberry spoke throughout the interview with perfect calmness, but with the quiet conviction of a man who felt that he had been grievously wronged.