Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1911-05-12
A ROYAL M J { | cry
One Of the Legacies of the French
Revolution.
Fate OF the YOUNG OAUPHIN

tA't Ut The YOUNG DAuPHIN
Whether the Son Of Louis XVI. and
Mario Antoinette Was Murdered or
Died or Was Spirited Away Is an
Enigma Without Solution.
Every healthy minded man or WON.
an loves mystery. and, fortunately
for the world, history has provided
one or two problems which have been
worn threadbare without revealing
their secrets. Among these is the fate
of the nine-year-old son of Louis XVI.
and Marie Antoinette which Nine.
Louise Latour recently dealt with in
a lecture in London.
A child judicially murdered or else
spirited away, another substituted for
him to die and to be buried under a
false name. the people who reported of
these things silenced or poisoned, the
period of events comparatively recent
the story sounds incredible. but it
rests on basis of established fact.
The dauphin. delicate child of nine.
was removed from his mother and
friends and given to the care of Simon.
the brutal savetier. and his wife.
After this all remains obscure except
that while the boy was in their care
the Simons gave up their post-in it.
self rather strange. as it was lucra-
tive one-and on the day Of the change
of residence the substitution is sup
posed to have taken place. In the even
Ing a child in bed was shown to the
emissartes of the convention, and the
next morning he was removed to a
smaller room with the door nailed up,
the only air coming in by the grille
through which his food was passed.
So he remained until he became so i'll
that DR.. Dessault. who had often been
to Versailles in the old days. was sum-
moned to attend him and was amazed
to find scrofulous and dying boy.
''Ce nest pas lie petit dauphinr'
(''That is not the little Dauphinv) he
blurted out tmprudently, and day or
two later he died by poison.
Other doctors were brought who
were unacquainted with the royal chill
dren, and the child died and was bur-
led in his assumed character He is
generally supposed to have been lad
called Gombeau, and his mother was
actually seen by people in America,
where she admitted the wickedness Of
having sold her dying son when she
was In condition of extreme poverty.
La femme Simon talked, but her
words were discred1ted by the authori-
ties, who declared she was drunken
and garrulous. Nevertheless, on her
deathbed she confessed to a priest and
a nurse that substitute had been put
in the dauphin's place.
Such are the historical facts as re-
lated by Nine. Latour, and to account
for them two theories have been de-
duced. says a writer in the London
Times The first, in which Nine. La
tour believes, was that the dauphin
was judicially murdered by Simon in
the temple and the dying Gombeau
put in his place to hide the crime from
the world. OF the second, that the
child escaped alive from his prison.
many people are strenuous supporters
Some Of them describe the course of
events thus: Gombeau was brought
into the temple on the day of the de-
management in large cardboard
horse given ostensibly as souvenir to
no hv fh1
mon, while the dauphin was carried
out by the woman in a big basket of
dirty linen. Others declare that the
prince was actually kept hidden in a
garnet in the temple until the subsi-
tute died. more than year later,
when he was taken out in coffin with
false bottom. the body of Gombeau
being buried in the moat.
This theory has had two startling
combinations. A small coffin filed
with paper and stones was actually
found in the cemetery of La Madeleine.
and General d'Andigne. imprisoned in
the temple in 1901 and allowed to re-
ueve the tedium of his confinement by
gardening, was digging in the moat
when he found the uncoff1ned skeleton
of child
But, as Nine. Latour asked. If the
deuphin escaped alive into the world,
where did he go? No fewer than
thirty pretenders. one a negro, at diff
ferent times have declared themselves
the son Of Louis XVI. and Marie An
toinette. The two who attracted most
disciples were the Due de Richemont
and "Naundorc" With regard to the
latter, it was against him that he did
not come forward until he was thirty
years of age and he could not speak
q word of French Nine Latour added
that he married a middle class wife
and was an excellent matchmaker, con-
sequently unlike what the heir Of a roy.
al line ought to be. Obviously the speak.
ers had forgotten Louis Seize and his
passion for making and mending locks.
Real Experience.