I just read the Wikipedia article on the baccarat scandal of 1890.
You read about Victorian society in books, you see movies. But it all seems a bit remote, legendary, and you think it’s all a bit exaggerated, these people placing honour above all else while having extramarital affairs, high-ranking officers having formal dinners wearing their swords, discussing the dreadful uprisings in India last month, and then attending the races to see who’s who; that surely these people had an everyday life like we do and just put on a show for the public.
But here we have an account of a real-life event that reads like one of those novels. A guy having his military career ruined because people in a posh mansion saw him cheat at a game of cards where the Prince of Wales acted as banker, and because he subsequently signed under pressure a letter that didn’t admit any guilt, and then sued his accusers for slander and lost his case – though he was never himself on trial for cheating, as far as I can tell. And the Prince’s reputation was somehow at stake because of his handling of this alleged cheater, and not because it was well-known that the Prince had a mistress.