The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1874-03-13
Was this the Real Heir to the French
Throne?


After the execution of Louis XVI.
in January, 1893, his son, the Dau-
phin, who was then a bright, intelli-
gent boy Of eight years of age, was
recognized by the European courts
and by the Vendean chiefs as King
of France under the title of Louis
XVII. The royal family were then
imprisoned in an old fortress in
Paris called the Temple; but in the
following July the young Prince
was torn from the arms of his moth
er and carried to a remote part of
the building, where he was placed
under the control Of q shoemaker
named Simon. He was trated by
his jailer with unvarying cruelty and
neglect. From July, 1898, until the
end of the Reign of Terror in 1874
he was kept in solitary confinement
in his cell, from which the light and
air were shut out. His clothing was
unchanged for over year and his
bed was not made up for months.
He was fed scantily and given stag
nant water to drink.
After Simon had been guillotined
in 1894 the rigor of the Dauphin's
imprisonment was somewhat relaxed.
In May, 1895, physician who was
called in pronounced him to be dy-
ing of scrofula; and it is said that
he died on June II. On the day fol-
loving his death we are told that
his body was identified and certified
to by four member Of the Commit
tee Of Safety, and four distinguished
physicias held an autopsy on the
body before its interment in the
cemetery Of St. Marguerite.
A case is now occupying the at
tention of the Court of Appeal IN
Paris, in which Jules Favre appears
for the claimants; and this case de-
pends entirely upon the question
whether the Dauphin really died in
the Temple or not. M. Favre con
tends that in accordance with a plot
of Barras, the President of the Di-
rectory, and some of the members
of the convention, such as Gambia
ceres, Fouche and Matthew, Louis
XVII. was rescued from the prison
by substituting the body of another
child, and that he lived until 1845,
and was known by the name Of
Charles William Naundorff. The
present case is an appeal from the
decision Of the tribunal Of the Seine
in 1851, against the claim of Naun-
dorff on the grounds that from
August 10, 1892, until 1895, the
Temple was so strictly watched that
the alleged substitution could not
have taken place; that the autopsy
was attended by so wide a publicity
as to leave no room for doubt; that
Naundorf's ignorance of the French
language up to 1882 sufficed to re-
fute his alleged origin; and that had
the story of the escape been true,
some Of the participants in it would
have r,vealed the secret after the
Restoration ni1Sl4. The appellants
are Naundorff's son, Count Albert
de Bourbon,and his oldest daughter,
Amelia. The Count is forty five,
and has the genuine@Bourbon look.
His sister, who is now fifty-two, is
said to bear striking resemblance
to Marie Antoinette.
Naundorf's story was that after
the escape from the Temple he was
kept for years in seclusion by his
friends, at one time in a chateau
and afterward in prison, and that
afterWard he travelled in England
and in Italy. There seems to be no
doubt that he was in Berlin when
about twenty-five years Of age, where
he followed the occupation of watch
maker, and that when summoned be-
fore the police authorities he declar-
ed himself to be the Dauphin. The
Prussian authorities sent, him to
Spandau, where he lived in obscuri
ty, still pursuing the same occupa-
tion, and here in 1918 he married a
merchants daughter named Fred
erika Heinert. After the Restora-
ton in France he wrot9 to the
Duchess d'ADgouleme, daughter of
Louis XVI, recalling to her mind
the incidents of the flight of that
monarch and his family to Varen-
mes in 1871. This letter was never
answered. In 1917 he intrusted a
French officer with a mission to the
King of France, to whom certain pa
pers were to be delivered. The of
ficer was never heard from, nor we're
these papers ever returned. After
the birth of a daughter in 1919,
Naundorf wrote as follows to the
Duchess d'Angouleme, his supposed
sister:
al do not dare to give her your name, for it
would recall to me past too cruel. It would
preserve in memory the details of the unhap-
py journey to Yarennes. Who would have
said that so many years afterWard 1 should
give to my first child the name of Amelia
borne by you during that journey ?"
The Duchess did not reply. Naun-
dorff wrote to the Prussian Minis
ter of the interior, signing his letter
"Charles Lewis, Duke of Normandy"
and saying: "In case you leave this
letter unanswered, 1 shall find some
way of approaching the King, for the
truth has nothing to fear"
From Spandau Naundorff was sent
to Brandenburg, where he was i'm
prisoned on a charge of being enga-
ged in coming counterfeit money,
and there his jailer became convinc-
ed that he was the true Dauphip.
After this he was sent to Crossen.
Silesia, by the Prussian authorities.
The police magistrate at Crossen,
Herr Pezold, became an ardent
friend and advocate of the exile. In
his behalf Pezold wrote letters to
Louis XVIII, Charles X. and the
Duchese D'Angouleme, and petition
ed the Prussian Government to re-
store Naundorff's confiscated papers.
This was not done, and when PezOld