Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-12-21
A KINGS
SECRET
By DONALD CHAMBERLIN

HarlS.
81 am concentrating the scene we
witnessed today"
He was having tattooed on his right
arm in india ink a picture of a guillo-
tine with a figure lying on it.
what are you doing nowY' asked
the other again.
81 am beginning to have tattooed I'm.
der the picture Of the gui1lotine the
words Death TO kings and tyrants.'n
These men had been stationed with
their corps about the scafffnl on which
Louis XVI. had that day been behead-
ed. He who tattooed his arm was
young and an enthusiastic revolution
list. So devoted was he to the cause
of the people of France against their
king that he did not suppose he would
ever be a royalist. As to his being
a king, that of course was absurd. He
was but a French peasant and a ser
geant in the ranks of the army.
But that was an age when the people
Of France rose to the surface. The
kings and mobiles passed away, and the
commoners took their places. a great
commander arose, and with him he
pulled up many others. Among them
was the soldier who had tattooed his
arm. Sergeant Jean Bernadotte under
Napoleon became a marshal of France
and married a relative of the emperor.
During the early part of the nine
tenth century Bonaparte was conquer
ing kingdoms. He did not make re
N,,IJ;o. of 4hnn, H. ho1 hann N ~
publican and had made up his mind
that the government France most need
ed was a monarchy, with himself at
its head. The people he conquered he
placed under the control of kings, and
these kings were usually members of
his w family. Even if Napoleon did
not conquer a kingdom his influence
was so great that he could control its
government.
The throne of Sweden became va
cant, and Napoleon nominated-whom =:
The man who had stood guard over
his king when he was executed and
had tattooed a picture of the deed on
his right arm with the words under it
Death to kings and tyrants."
Here was a king with his W con
demnation indelibly stamped on his
person. There was no eliminating 1t.
The king was doomed to wear the now
hated picture of the death of his SOW.
ereign till his own death should de.
stroy it.
The supreme object of the king of
Sweden's life was to guard his secret.
No valet was called Upon to hand him
his clothing when he dressed in the
morning or to take it from him when
he disrobed at night. The Office of
master of the robes was a s%inecure.
Had it not been for that which chung
like a serpent to his arm he might
have at times forgotten that he was a
French peasant of whom another com
moner monarch had made a king. But
the accursed spot would not out. In
the morning when he performed his
additions there it was barred to his
gaze. At night when he disrobed it
stared at him as with the malicious
eyes of a serpent.
In those days when a person was Ill
the doctors drew blood from him. This
was done by lancing the right arm.
There is a story that the king of
Sweden fell i'll, and the doctors sug.
gested that he bare his right arm to
be bled. The king refused. The doc
tors told his majesty that if he did
not permit them to bleed him they
would not be responsible as to what
| toiUHf honpoa 70 him Tho limo would
not yield, but barred his left arm. He
was told that it would not be profess
sional to bleed him on his left arm
Nevertheless. since the king would not
yield, he was bled from his left arm.
The king recovered, but he was des
tined to die in his bed. When his last
illness came upon him and he believed
his end was approaching he sent for
DR.. Gorgensen, his principal physician.
and charged him in east he died to
see that his right arm vas exposed to
no one except himself. He alone vas
to possess the secret under a pledge
that he would not reveal 1t. The ply
stefan made the pledge, promising that
he would personally superintend the
laying out of the body. The king did
not exact a promise hat the doctor
would not examine the arm about
which so much curiosity had been ex-
cited by the kings refusing to be bled
from it. Gorgensen might consider it
his duty to make the secret public.
Having been confided with it and
knowing that it did not affect the
state, he would likely refrain from di.
vulging it.
When the king was known to be
dead DR.. Gorgensen sent every one
out of the DON and, having locked the
doors, lifted the sleeve that covered
the dead sOvereign's right arm. There
was the guillotine, the body strapped
to it and the words death to kings
and %tyrants."
Many years had elapsed since that
pfntura Woe maTa and fhOSa word