The Adair County news., 1911-06-28
A ROYAL MYSTERY
One of the Legacies of the French
Revolution.
FATE OF THE YOUNG DAUPHiN
Whether the Son of Louis XVI. and
Marie Antoinette Was Murdered or
Died or Was Spirited Away Is an
Enigma Without a Solution.

"s'S H"eo'HSttc was "uToeTeo or
Died or Was Spirited Away Is an
Enigma Without a Solution.
Every healthy minded man or wom-
an loves a 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 Mime.
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 1t was a 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
emissaries 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 Ill
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 dauphinp'
c'That is not the little DauphinvO he
blurted out imprudently. and day or
two later be 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
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 discredited by the authori
ties. who declared she was drunken
and garrulous. Nevertheless. on her
deathbed she confessed to a 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 writer i'm 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 a large cardboard
horse given ostensibly as a souvenir to
the royal prisoner by the femme ST.
mon, while the dauphin was carried
out by the woman in big basket of
prince was actually kept hidden in a
garrett In the temple until the subsd-
tute died, more than a year later,
when he was taken out in coffin with
a 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-
lieve the tedium of his confinement by
gardening. was digging in the mOat
when he found the uncOffined skeleton
of a child.
But. as Nine LatOur asked. If the
dauphin escaped alive into the world,
where did he go? No fewer than
thirty pretenders, one 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
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 roy
al line ought to be. Obviously the speak
er had forgotten Louis Seize and his
passion for making and mending locks.