The Washington herald., 1911-04-25

I And even at the present moment COM
petent writers are still convinced OF the
fact that the man who died at Delft In
lsi5 was none other than the descendant
OF 81. Louis and OF Henry ". Nine.
Severine. stanch republican though she
is. published in Gil Bias a series OF ar
ticles endeavoring to prove the veracity
Of the so-called pretender's pretensIon.
Louis XVIII, Charles Y, and Louis
Philippe did not hesitate to sacrifice 10
their personal ambition the prince whom
IN their hearts they knew to be the right
full heir to the throne. The story which
this pretended or real son OF Louis XVI
told was that he had escaped from the
temple and was afterward taken by his
friends to the Vendee, Venice, Trieste,
and Rome. where he was secretly protect
ed by Pope Plus VI The French gov
ernment. discovering the flight OF the
royal child. substituted some founding
from one of the hospitals, who soon died
and was buried as the boy Capet The
physician Desault and his friend Chop
part, who had expressed some doubts as
10 the identity OF the child buried In the
cemetery OF Ste. Marguerite, died soon
afterward
From Rome the escaped prince went to
Holland, where he lived under the name
Of Naundorff In 1893 he came to Paris,
where he succeeded in convincing many
Of the most influential members of the
Legitimist party that he was the mar
tyr Of the temple" A former chamber
maid to the dauphin and other persons
who had been in the service Of his pa
rents not only discovered a resemblance
between this handsome stranger and the
unhappy royal pair whose heads had
fallen under the knife of the guillotine,
but solemnly declared him to be Louis
XVII.
In spite of the efforts Of his many
friends, he was not granted a legal hear
ing, and no Investigation as to his claims
took place. Was the government, were
the members of his family, in whose
interest It was to know the son of Marie
Antoinette dead, afraid of his identity
being publicly recognized and the secret
revealed? His sister. the daughter of
Louis XVI then the Duchesse d'Anglu-
lcme, refused to see him. Had she been
convinced of his falsehood, 1t is psyche
logically incomprehensibIe that she
should not have evinced at least some
curiosity to see the man who so much
resembled her dead brother.
There Is a story, however that the
Duchesse d'Angluleme did see the pre-
tender without his knowledge and recog-
nized him as her brother, but for rea-
sons of state kept the secret to herself.
She seems to have known the real truth:
she knew that certain marks peculiar
to the royal children OF France were to
be found on Naundorff's body
After the death of this pretender, his
sons summoned their aunt. the Duchesse
d d'Angluleme. and the Due de Bordeaux
before the Tribunal of Paris. This sum-
mons was repeated In 1872. but in both
instances their case was dismissed. The
monument erected to Louis XVII" at
Delft. and upon which ne is declared to
be 'Roi de France ct de Navarro" has
remained unmolested by the government
of the Netherlands. Is this not a tacit
admission that the prince whose rights
his uncles and sister refused to recog-
nize was in reality the legitimate King
Of France? The family knew the secret
of his escape and Of his subsequent life,
but chose to ignore II for the sake Of a
crown and throne. FLANEpR.
Copyright. 1911. by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate,