The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1911-07-11
A ROYAL MYSTERY
One Of the Legacies Of the French
Revolution.
FATE OF THE YOUNG DAUPHlN
WHISTLER the Son Of Louis XVI. and
Marie Antoinstte Was Murdered or
Died or Was Spirited Away 10 an
Enigma Without a Solution.

Died or Was Spirited Away 10 an
Enigma Without a Solution.
Every healthy minded man or won.
an loves mystery, and, fortunately
Tor the world, history has provided
one or two problems which have been
worn threadbare without revealing
their secrets. Among these is the fate
or the nine-year-old son OF Louis XVI.
and Marie Autoinette. which Nine.
Louise Latour recently dealt with in
lecture in London.
A child judicially murdered or else
spirited away, another substituted for
MIN TO die and to be buried under a
raise 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. a 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 1t was a lucra
tive one-and on the day of the change
or residence the substitution is sup
posed to have taken place. In the even.
Ing child In bed was shown to the
emissaries of the convention. and the
next morning he was removed to n
smaller room with the door nailed up
the only air coming in by the grille
through which his food was passed
10 he remained until he became so III
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 dauphinv
c'That Is not the little Dauphinr' he
blurted out imprudently, 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 IL
1 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 a condition of extreme poverty.
La femme Simon talked. but her
words were discredited by the authori
ties. who declared she was drunken
and garrulous. Nevertheless. ON hel
deathbed she confessed to II priest and
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 Il writer in the London
Times. The first, in which Nine. La
tour believes. was that the dauphin
was judicially murdered by Simon IN
| tne 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 Il large cardboard
horse given ostensibly as souvenir &c
the royal prisoner by the femme ST
mon, while tns dauphin was carried
out by the woman In n big basket oi
dirty linen. Others declare that the
! prince was actually kept hidden In a
| garrett in the temple until the subsi.
tute died, more than year later
when he was taken out in coffin with
a false bottom, the body OF Gombenr
being buried in the moat.
This theory has had two startling
combinations. A small coffin filled
with paper aud stones was actually
found In the cemetery of La Madeleine
and General d'Andigne. imprisoned IN
| the temple in 1871 and allowed To re.
lieve the Iedium of his confinement by
gardening. was digging in the moat
/ when lie found the uncoffned skeleton
| If Il child.
| But. ak Mime Latour asked. II the
| dauphiH escaped alive into the world
| where did he go: No fewer than
thirty preirndrrS, one a negro, at diff,
'cr"nt times have declared themselves
he sun uf LOuis XVI. and Marie An.
uln",tr. The two who attracted most
disciples were The Due de Richemont
aud "Nuuadorr." With regard to the
latter, II was against him that he did
not come forward until he was thirty
years OF age and he could not speak
word of French. Nine. Latour added
that he married middle class wife
and was an excellent matchmaker, con
'eqnently unlike what the heir of roy
al line ought TO be. Obviously the speak
er bad forgotten Louis Seize and his