The Cairo bulletin., 1911-05-19
A ROYAL MYSTERY
One of the Legacies of the French
Revolution.
FATE or THE YOUNG DAUPHIN
Whether the Son of Louis XVI. and
Marie Antoinette Was Murdered or
Died or Was Spirited Away Is an
Enigma Without Solution.

OIed or was SPIRITED Away Is an
Enigma Without Solution.
Every healthy minded man or wom-
IN loves mystery, aud. 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
lecture in London.
A child judicially murdered or else
spirited away. another substituted for
him to die and to be buried under
false name. the people who reported Of
these things slenced or poisoned. the
period of events comparatively recent
the story sounds incredible, but 1t
rests on a 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 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 child in bed was shown to the
emissaries of the convention. and the
next morning he was removed to Il
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 DIR. 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.
zee nest pas lie petit dauphinw
("That is not the little Dauphin!D he
blurted out imprudently, and day or
two later he died by poison.
Other doctors were brought who
We're 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 a 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 garruious. Nevertheless. on her
deathbed she confessed to priest and
a nurse that a substitute had been put
in the dauphins 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 t
the royal prisoner by the femme 81
mon, while the dauphin was carried
out by the woman In a big basket Of
dirty linen. Others declare that thu
prince was actually kept hidden in {
garnet in the temple until the substi
| tute died, more than year later
when he was taken out in coffin will
n false bottom, the body Of Gombeal
being buried In the moat.
This theory has had two startling
combinations. A small coffin filleC
with paper and stones was actual!
found In the cemetery Of La Madeleine
and General dAndlgne, imprisoned II
the temple in 1901 and allowed to re
lieve the tedium of his confinement b.
gardening, was digging In the moa
when he found the uncofEined skeleton
of child.
But, as Nine Latour asked. If tn
dauphin escaped alive into the world
where did he go? No fewer thar
thirty pretenders. one negro, at diff
ferent times have declared themselye
the son of Louis XVI. and Marie An
toinette. The two who attracted mos
disciples were the Due de Richemon
and "Naundorc." With Vegard to tn
latter, it was against him that he dl'
not come forward until he was thirt
years Of age and he could not speal
word Of French. Nine, Latour adde
that he married middle class wifi
and was an excellent matchmaker, cor
sequently unlike what the heir of a roy
oil line ought to be. Obviously the speak
er had forgotten Louis Seize and hi
passion for making and mending locks
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Real Experience,