The Sun.
London, England, 1825-03-14 00:00:00

SINGULAR STORY.

The Gazette of Genoa contains the following
article, -which will not fail to excite conjectures :—" Cornet
L--- J. a Frenchman by birth, travelling in Italy in 1773,
Stopped with his wife at Modigliana, a small place in Tuscany,
that she might be delivered. He wished to have an heir, and
• up to that time his wishes had been diSappointed. He was
resolved, if his wife gave birth to a daughter, to change the
infant for a boy ; and he proposed to the gaoler of the place, a
man named Chiappini, to make such an exchange. The Coun-
tess
,was brought to bed of a girl, and the wife of the gaoler of
a son, about the same period, and the exchange was accom-
plished, the gaoler receiving a considerable sum of money.—
The girl was accordingly baptised as the daughter of the
gaoler, under the name of Maria Stella, on April 17, 1773.
At four years of age she was carried to Florence, and Chiap.
Pith receiving a certain sum annually for her education through
the hands of a Count and Countess B—, of Faenza, the
friends of Count She was instructed in music; at
the age of twelve, she was obliged to gb on the stage, and ob-
tained great success. Lord Newborough, travelling in Italy,
heard her in Florence, fell in love with her, and married her.—
He gave her supposed father 10,000 crowns, a country house,
and two farms. Some time after he went to England, carrying
his wife with him, who bore him' two sons, still living. He
died in a few years, and she then married Baron Ungern Stein-
berg, a Russian, by whom she had another son. Desiring to
revisit her native country, after so long an absence, she returned
to Florence, where she was somewhat astonished to• find- her
father receive her with more respect than tenderness, giving
her t•he name of benefactress, and • not of daughter. Some
rnonths afterwards, in'Deeember 1821, an apoplectic stroke
deprived Monsieur Chiappini of the use, of speech. :Madame
Sternberg hastened to visit him, and While' she was expressing
her sorrow for his misfortune he seized her hand and kissed it.;
!le then wished to tell her of the exchange, but was only able to
mutter the -orals hdratto, harattio (exchange), the meaning of
Which they lady could not comprehend. The following day
Chiappini recovered' the use of his speech, but one of his
82Os, who knew his intention, to avow the secret to Ma-
dame Sternberg, prevented her. from seeing him, and say-
log the sick man was in g state, of stupor. Chiappini died
800 a afterwarda, and, Madame Stemberg was at the ex-
Pence of his funeral, and of rutting up a monument to
°is memory. She then went from Florence to Sienna.
Three months afterwards she- received by the post, a
letter written by the deceased, containing a declaration,
that she was not his daughter, but the daughter of a man
4)f high rank whose name he concealed from her. The hand-
writing was proved, and witnesses sought after as to the ex-
:- ih,ange ; two persons found were present, and several others
• woo were well acquainted with the whole business. Madame
Steinberg then made a reclamation to the magistrates of Faen-
- 219 in whose district Modigliana is, requiring that the register
• of her birth should be corrected; after a solemn debate, the
Judge decided, that " Maria Stella was in fact the daughter
of Count Louis de J—, and the Countess de Jr--, natives
of France; that the register in which she was inscribed as the
daughter of Lorenzo Chiapini, hnd Vincenza Diligente,
• • should be corrected, and that her baptism should be again
following•elebrated, which accordingly took place." Madame de
Stemberg being now at Genoa, has sent us the following
40
flee :.—Lady U. Sternberg exchanged, in the month of April,
1773, at Modigliana, in Tuscany,.-for a boy, the son of Lo-
renzo Chiappini, the jailer of that. town, informs the public,
that in consequence of the confession made by the said
Chiappini in the last moments of his life, and of the decision
p
a'Onouneed in this matter; after a solemn hearing, by the au-
thority of Faenza, dated May 29, 1824, she was declared to•be
-a 'daughter of Count Louis J.-- and the Countess J—,. na7
fives of France ; the register of her birth was in consequence
eWivedrltied, and she was baptized again. If any persons, how-
Possess proofs or letters ,of her parents, proving still
strongeru t the exchange of which she waS the object, they are re-
.nel. to apply to the Director of the Gazette dc Genes, and if
the
intormation is correct, those who bring it shall receive'a
'hardproportion to its importance.—(Constitutionnel.)