Show Is ij the lct dauphin aidau hio n 4 r a IL V qu 0 t ins jas ak UJ 4 mn at al P t 1 P 41 fa E I 1 q i t p 44 t T r 7 F x 4 SCOTT WATSON NE E of the most absorbing mysteries dpn 0 of I 1 f at all time a mystery which historians tor for years have vainly tried to dear clear up Is that in which the central figure was a little boy the son of louis XVI and tearie an antoinette olnette of france a prince of royal blood who although althou gli known in history as I 1 louis never reigned and who is supposed to have died at the age of ten he Is perhaps better known as the lost dauphin than as louis and the story of the beginning of the mystery is familiar to most of us briefly it is this after the heads of the french monarch and tits liis queen rolled down the guillotine their son the eight year old dauphin was held as a prisoner in the tower of the temple in paris by the revolutionary lutio nary go eminent the boy was kept in close confinement and even tits his sister adarle therese also a prisoner was never permitted to see him the french royalists most of whom had bad lied fled from that country as the red tide of the revolution on mounted higher had proclaimed the dauphin king louis lonis but in june 17 1795 1793 the revolutionary authorities announced that after a short illness capets son had bad died this version of the dauphins dauphine Daup hins fate was generally accepted no tonly during the revolution and the reign of napoleon but even after the bourbons had been restored to the throne for ili ft period of their brief rule it is true that were constantly recurring whispers in france and throughout europe that tile the dauphin had not died in the temple but that he had been secretly removed by royalist conspirators and was still living along with these rumors came the first of the crop of pretenders who were to bob up regularly each to claim or have it claimed for him that he be was the lost dauphin one of the most famous of all these pretenders was the prussian clockmaker karl earl wilhelm who came forward with his claims in 1833 1933 recently there has appeared a new book on the lost dauphin mystery which affords no end of interesting speculation RS as to the answer ansier to this historic puzzle it Is the shadow king by bans roger madol first published in leipzig germany in IM 1928 and recently published tn in this country by the houghton company it Is based upon original documents many of which have hitherto been unknown to historians the shadow king is king louis and herr madol believes and sets forth in this book evidence to prove that he be was karl wilhelm regarded during his lifetime only as one of the numerous pretenders to that title the first part of his book Is devoted to proving that the real dauphin was secretly smuggled away from the temple and another child a dear deaf mute put there in his place tile the evidence in support of tire the belief that the boy who died there was vms not bot the dauphin Is based upon these facts that the dauphin was declared to have died of scrofula although there is nothing to indicate that he had it before that beginning in december 1794 he suddenly stopped speaking and that a committee from the national assembly which visited Ms his cell could not get a word ord from him whereas before that time the little prince had talked volubly that about the same time his warden jean laurent suddenly resigned tits his post and left parts paris and that years later when the grave in which the dauphin was offic officially lally reported to have been burled buried was opened the skeleton of a fifteen year old boy and not of a ten acar earold ear old boy was found further evidence in support of the belief that the dauphin was aas abducted la Is based upon tile secret history of the french revolution that hns has come to light in comparatively recent years year this includes the fact that innumerable intrigues were under way to release the royal prisoner mainly on tile the part of royalists both those who had led fled front from france and those who were able to remain TI then ten too it has been that two great rascals among the revolutionists fauche ana barras regarded the boy as a valuable asset to have in their possession in case the resolution failed and they were not above double crossing the members of their party to serve their own ends so the probability of the dauphins dauphine Daup hins escape seems convincing enough As for establishing identity as the dauphin the second part of tile the shadow king which Is devoted to that task Is pretty well summed up lit in the follow ing words from the first chapter of the hook hok seldom Is the picture vt a historical charac er found in such a complicated frame as that of ilie he clockmaker clock maLer karl wilhelm Wlllie lm Naun durn who came from froin prussia to france in the thirties of the last century and declared that lio lie was the die son of louis XVI the dauphin who was supposed to have died to in the temple as a buy boy of tell and who had won the file pity of all who had rend read of the ilie ill III treatment suffered by the child at it the limits bunds of la v 44 14 61 NM r aj 4 V T v it IRS V the shoemaker simon the astonishing thins thing is that this same saine a mere artisan and to all appearances of common origin hardly able to speak french at the be beginning inning of his stay in paris a R stranger to the country for at least twenty years and by no means a young man was vas yet able to win the confidence of a mass of people and of people of consequence the members of louis court his minister of justice and private secretary the dauphine dauphins Daup hins nurse who was still alive all identified him jules favre the famous barrister and statesman undertook to defend his case and remained tits his friend throughout the manifold vicissitudes ot of his adventurous life which brought him remarkable successes as well as bitter fallu failures recognized in england and holland the pretender died at the very moment when a convention with the dutch government had relieved him of fit his main anxiety about the fate of ills wife and children his sons and grandsons have never given up 1111 the fight for recognition As officers in the lie dutch army they hear bear today by right of patent the name of Bo Rou rhon urboin the vigorous attempts which were made at all times to eliminate the disturbing existence of this pretender are illustrated by fit alic unsuccessful attempt which was made on it his lire life by lit his expulsion sion from france in 1830 1816 and by the thins of those hit hi could find no further legal weapon against him hibb which lusted right up to his death Ila however wever much right minded people in france protested against again st this unconstitutional treatment as for instance cremieux Crem Creni leux the minister of justice at the time of his expulsion they were unable to do anything an tiling for the pretender the 2021 documents with which lie he intended intend eil to defend tits his claims and which were confiscated on this occasion were ere nener neer returned d to him Kl liere lit in life his book herr madol ascribes the attempts to eliminate the disturbing existence of tile the pretender it to lit alir involved political situation in europe lit at the little a situation in fit which prussia austria and france were involved and in which alch chancellor of austria chancellor hardenburg of nf prussia and talleyrand of france pla placed ed fit UK lending leading roles the motives which set auls louis on tile throne and robbed the man inan alio wis was perhaps louls louis of tits ills heritage are still difficult to defect lie he says tile the reading of the hl history tory of the ventury century will no doubt have to be mure inore than once nce before adequate light Is shed on the figure of louis but the cothes of others concerned with naun dorfas history are fairly obvious louis philippe louis and his government refused to examine Naundorf Ts claim lu lit tile the dill clel court and expelled him without trial to england in spite of repeated entreaties marle ther alier ese tile tho dauphins dauphine Daup hins sister who survived her imprisonment in the temple persistently refused to grant blin tin an interview and never ceased to describe him us as an imposter it Is reasonable to suppose that both of them thein feared that sI claims might bo be proved genuine and lie he would thus be the only legitimate heir to louis throne and anahis lils wealth if was vies identical bouls his life Is so remarkable that his adventures de serve i a place in history says madol if on the other hand lie he was an imposter he has an even greater title to recognition for lie he must have been a genius to emerge at the age of fifty from an insignificant existence in prussia and go oft off tc an unknown land there to play the part of a claimant to the throne after a few months lie ha was able to express himself so perfectly in a foreign language that he was able to convince nce the most important persons in n his long years of correspondence with his wife and children he never once quits tile the role of heir to the throne tl irone in addition to the circumstance that both lie he and his eight children all bear a striking resemblance to the bourbons his handwriting follows the characteristics of the bourbons he was able to show a number of personal marks such as a mole mola in the shape of 0 a pigeon which had been conspicuous ious in the dauphin even eien his opponents were so much struck by the dignity of his demeanor that no one found him ridiculous in the part the man who was able to sustain his assumed role so well must have been a genius this man attained ills his object to the point that his children were registered in england as princes of france that his grandchildren tire are today entitled by law to live under the name of bourbon and that in 1913 henri was as sentenced for libel for refusing to admit that the family had the right to call themselves bourbon their grandfather Is none tile the less still branded as rin nn impostor the supposition that he nas obsessed by a manla mania Is easy to rebut in spite of many ties never in it his life showed signs of being mentally defective died in 1815 in delft holland and an examination ot 0 tits his body which was made in the presence of dutch officials huse report incidentally referred to him as ouis louis I showed that it bore the same marks as were kinn to have been borne by the dauphin these were the sear scar on the lip the broad mole on the thigh the prominent teeth si similar nillar to louis rab rabbit lilt teeth art and the triangular vaccination mark exactly as Al adanie de Itani baud tits his nurse had described and recognized ed thein to this day despite protests which lime liae been made tidy by the french government its ills gravestone in the churchyard lit at delft bears the lie inscription which reflects the recognition of his clavins accorded by tile dutch government it reads here lies iles lou louis S charles louis due de normandie king of prance france and navarre born birn at versailles on march 27 1785 died at delft on august 10 Kaun dorns appearance ou on tin tile stage of history took place a century ago agg hut but his name has been heard again in recent cars when jules favre who alio had been legal adviser and worked for years to establish his 1111 claims went as freish minister of foreign jiff affairs airs to sign the terms of tile the armistice imposed upon france by bismarck to end the Franco Prussian islan war in 1871 lie he had with him no oll official iclal seal to put on tile agreements after lie had signed them bismarck suggested that it use the ring lie he was wearing so favre tool ot off the ring and pressed it into the wax beside tits his signature the ring an antique gem in it a simple got gold setting bore upon its surface the lilies of france the symbol of the bourbons it had been given to favre in 1852 by ills his grateful client karl Wi Willi thelin elm in telling his aide able de camp about the incident its as they were ere returning from the meeting with the germans favre stated it as tits his firm b ellef belief that naundorf Naun dorn was louis and remarked upon the fact act that this important document which he had just signed bore the emblem of the son of louis XVI this ring had an interesting later history at the end of the alie world war ar premier clemenceau CIemence au sealed scaled the treaty of versalles versailles with the same tin ring which had sealed frances defeat in 1871 so the man mail who may hae been tho lost dauphin and the shadow king of france franca again played a part in world history CS a by western newspaper union |