Litchfield enquirer., 1869-12-09


 evidence against him unmasking every profession he had ever made, and conclu siveiy showing his charlantism and rascal tsy 1t dld no better auH His shis fsl' table was spread with the choicest viands. At last Fouche. tired of playing with so mischief making scapegrace, took hold of him in earnest, and, straining point of law fol the sake of the pRblic veal, not only had him convicted of being a common cheat but kept him in prison till he died. Her. vagault was game to the last ''Je suis Loui. Charles. le Dauphin ]" were his latest words. ''The Dauphin!" said his old father, "why his mother was my wife, Nicole Bizot, and as honest a woman as ever lived" His death occurred in 1872
 l ssAfter the fall of the empire in 1915, great numbers of the emiyres returned. They had, most of them, been absent many years. Children had grown up; the young had become middle-aged, and the middle aged grey and decrepit. They had endur. ed various hardships and pursued various avocations, and new thoughts and inter ests had been created. Recognition oi members of one's own family was difficult identification. except in peculiar cases, i'm possible. The temptation to profit by this-since nearly all the wanderers return ed pOor-was too great, and impostors, more than half of whom it is believed were ] successful, filled the country. Among oth- CTS there took passage from New Orleans a man of about thirty-three years, upon whose passport appeared the name of Charles de Navarro. He represented him. self to be the sol of an emlgrant noble man who had died in America, and was on his way home to reclaim from confscation estates to which he was heir. His appear ance was rough, his manner brusque, his education defective. He had neither the person nor air of gentleman. But if all this was not expected, it was excused and accounted for in the returning absentees. Times had been so confused, horrors so plentiful, and minds so agitated, that any romantic story might be true, and was hard to judge of. Navarre's answered. A royalist baroness received him as her long lost son and heir. Like Hervagault, he assumed at first only nobility. Happening to pass through Vezin in a travelling car riage with the baroness, he was identified, to his great disgust, as Jean Brunot, the son of a sabot maker-a vagabond orphan boy, who, from childhood, had taken turn at every thing except honest work He had been apprenticed as an idler, and pursued as runaway; detected in petty thieveries. and publicly whipped as an in- corrigible: liar, convicted as a highway man, and branded as burglar; until seiZ- ed at last by the military law, he had been forced into the marine artillery, from which he had deserted on the American coast. The evidence was conclusive against him, and the baroness left him to shift for himself. +-'
 Bruneau, as be ever afterwards styled himself, now took up a higher roIe He established his quarters at St. Maio, and there publicly announced his helrship to the throne. Neither detection of his i'm positions nor disgrace of punishment abashed him. Entering the hotel Of La Clerc, whilOm chief cuisinier at Versailles, he expressed surprise that he was not re- cognized. '1 am Louis the Seventeenth, |" he said to Le Clerc, " and you have often pulled my ears in your kitchen of the pal ace." "Did I?" inquired the indignant inn-keeper; II will at all events add to 1t by kicking you out of thisv' And forci- bic election followed.
 There must have been something re. markable about the man to have achieved such success as he had for several years, in the face of such brutal manners. Ills me- moirs were we'll written, and his state- ments in personal intercourse plausi ble Though no two parts of his story held to- gether, yet the dupes came in crowds. He made pretence of piety, and priests and women of quality thronged his boudoirs. He grew rich, and maintained considera- ble state. Barons, gentlemen of Norman dy, farmers, abDes and retired officers of the army became his warm adnerents Prayers were put up, and a palatial resi- dence built for him. He required from visitors the etiquette exacted by royal per sonages. He wrote letters to the Duchess of Angouleme, addressing her as Dear sister! and begging taat she would ''r re- ceive the embraces of her unfortunate bro- ther, the King of France and of Navarro. !" Of the political attempt to overturn the government, known as the Doth of March. he was the instigator. It failed, and at the trial to which 1t led he was thoroughly Identified and his pretensions unmasked. Every word he uttered told against him. self. He Was convicted on every charge brought against him, and passed, in 1918, into we'll earned captivity, which lasted as long as his life. .1 - E The con nviction of Bruneau did not kill off other aspirants for the throne of France Silvio Pellico relates, in his Imprison- ments," a romantic and probably truthful account of s' De Bourbon, Due de Nor mandie, with whom he had long conver- sations through the walls of their common prison in Milan, at this very date. Mar tin, of Gallardou, also came forward. and, in an audience with the king, declared that he personally knew the Dauphin to be alive.
 Hebert, who styled himself Baron de Richemont, flashed out in the following year; and, supported by the wealth, rank, and legitimist power of several provinces, compelled the government to arrest him as a usurper. During the progress of the tri- { al of this last, tthere appeared at the bar of the court an envoy from Paris. who de- nounced the baron as an impostor; and, in proof thereof, produced documents estab- fishing still another heir. The baron was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment; Martin of Gallardou, was sent to an asy- lum for the insane, and Silvio Pellico s claimant, of 'silver speech and high bred tone" was reported to be murdered in one of the valleys of Switzerland. sH 4a aa g. At this stime, during many months of the years 1918 and 1919, the newspapers of Paris were filled with statements of the various claimants for the vacant heirship. the old king was fat and infrm; the Duch- ess of Angouleme shrunk from criminal trials; the Ministry were doubtful of their own heads. "How good are the heav- ensi'' said the wits; '' they rain heirs to the throne of France. 7" " In the heavens