The Springdale news., 1915-07-02


 should be secretly taken from it's par ents and substituted for the royal infant.
 Incredible as 1t may seem to you-as 1t still seems to me-thlS monstrous scheme was adopted, the physician himself undertaking to carry it out. He took away the tiny princess, without being detected, gained admit tance to the keepers wife under the pretext of being sent by the king to offer his services, exchanged the in- fants, and brought back the plebeian l child to be reared in the palace as the heir to the Netherlands and Luxem- burg.
 Thus was this extraordinary plot carried out with the most complete suc- cess The early death of the unhappy little daughter of the royal house, from a eongenital cause. seemed to condone the kings treaehery to his wife, and effectually stopped all fear of discovery. The king and his two accomplices preserved their secret. till the moment when fit of rage led to the revelation of it to the person most concerned"
 And what did the prince of Orange do, when the king informed him of all this?' l asked, as the ambassador made long pause.
 That is the very question which I put to him on the occasion when he took me into his confidence. He re- piled:
 My first feeling, on learning that 1 had no title to the position that I occupied, was one of sheer dismay. But this feeling deepened into one of fierce resentment as 1 realized what these men, this king and his ministers, had made of me 1 was a living falsehood, the most colossal im- postor in the world, robbed of my very manhood, and unable thenceforth te look my fellow creatures in the face
 If my adopted father had hoped to crush me by the disclosure of my true position. he must have been sadly disappointed. My first impulse was to reject the lying role he had thrust upon me, and to publicly renounee my borrowed rank The first hint of such an intention vas enough to bring him to reason For the first time some faint notion of the deadly injury he had done me appeared to penetrate his mind. In his humilia- tion, he eondescended to implere me not to expose him in the eyes Of Europe.
 "I could not entirely resist these prayers. Had any other person than myself been the victim. 1 could not have withheld all sympathy from the scheme, which was intended to baffie the enemies of Holland As it was, the evil was now past mending Miserable as my life had been in the oppressive atmosphere of a court, had sense enough to know that it was too late in the day for me to aceustom myself to the obscure poverty of a peasants life. l even forbore to ask the king for the names of my unknown parents.
 Yet I could not face the prospect of continuing to play part which l found so iRtolerable. l discussed the matter with my father-as l have con
 
 was decided that I should live abroad in a semi-priYate manner q substan- tial pension being assigned to me on the condition that the secret of my birth was strictly kept.
 Such I am. such is my career. You perceive in me a monster of the moral | world creature to whom every virtu- ous and noble aspiration has been for bidden before he was born. a wretch whose life is prolonged crime, and who will render the only atonement | to society which is in his power by hastening his progress to the grave. >
 As the ambassador repeated these pathetic words of the prince, his voice shook It was indeed necessary to be- leve that his recolleetions had caused l him genuine emotion
 T endeavored to soothe this young man, so miserably situated but with out success By this time dawn was approaching, and he decided to return to his own residence where he pressed me to visit him To gratify him I consented but I did not fulfill my promise With every sentiment of pity for this fmpostor in spite of him. self l did not care to associate with him, and, besides, his circle, you 1 understand, was not one Of those in which one gains reputation by mixing And as shortly afterwards l entered upon the series of foreign employ ments which have since filled my life. it so happened that we never met again
 When did the prince die?" I asked presently.
 "I think it was in the year Of 1884, D was the reply Queen Sylvia died six or eight years before that, thus ena- bling the king to marry again. But