The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1928-02-24

COnunemeHC anu no one, except the
person who attended to his needs,
knew anything about the mode of his
existence. Within six months the
Commune had fallen, but the Temple
still held its royal prisoner or, at
least, child who was supposed to be
the Dauphin.
The last guardian of the little pris-
oner, Etienne Alsne, reported that
the boy was an imbecile or very much
like one and finally on June 8, 1895,
this boy died. An autopsy was per-
formed and various persons were
shown the corpse. Care was taken to
prevent anyone from properly identi-
flying him. Although the boy had been
rumors persisted that the Dauphin
was not really dead. 1t is a plausible
theory that the real Prince was taken
away from the Temple by Simon and
that a substitute was placed there
in his stead; that Royalist plotters
abducted this substitute in the be-
lief that he was Louis XVII, replac-
ing him with the boy who actually
died in the Temple and was buried
as the prince, child who was ap-
parently diseased and an imbecile.
If this is true, then the mystery Is
no nearer solution than ever before.
for not long after Simon left the
Temple, he was guillotined without
revealing what disposition he had
made of the real Louis XVII. The
Dauphin had simply disappeared and
not even the careful researches of
this French historian has accounted
for his ultimate fate. He Is certain
that the boy did not die in the Temple
but is unable to find any trace of him
after his removal by those who hoped
to profit thereby but who died before
they had the chance to make use
of their opportunity.
In the years that followed the dis
appearance of the real Dauphin and
the death of the supposed Prince in
the Temple, there came veritable
deluge of claimants to the title of
being the real Louis XVII. No less
than twenty-five Lest Dauphins"
appeared before French courts from
time to time to press their claims
and to disturb the peace of mind of
the government of France.
The most picturesque perhaps of
all the claimants was Charles Will
liam Naurendorf, who appeared in
Paris in 1888 as the long missing lost
Dauphin. He too, had a long list of
documents in support of his assump-
ton that he was Of royal blood, but
when the court heard the evidence
this lost Dauphin" was summarily
banished from France. He eventually
made his home in Delft, Holland, and
died in 1915. So strongly did he i'm
press his claims upon a large group
of French royaiists that he was bur-
led with greal ceremony and over
his grave in the Delft cemetery was
erected monument bearing these
words. "Here reposes Louis XVII,
King Of France and Navarro, Charles
Louis, Duke Of Normandie, born in
Versailles, March 81, 1855, died in
Delft August 10, 1S45."
1t is far cry from the palace of
Versailles and the Temple in Paris
to the little town of Hogansburg,
N. Y, and Green Bay, Wis, yet these
two American towns have also been
concerned in the mystery of the lost
Dauphin. Seventy-seven years ago
both Europe and America were agog
over the assertion Of Rev. Eleazer
Williams, an Episcopal missionary
among the Indians, that he was the
son of Louis XVI, and therefore the
lost Dauphin of France, Eleazer Will
liams was the son of halfbreed