Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur OrtonAnonymous
History
Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton
Anonymous
Impostors and imposture -- Biography
Lasne at once acquainted Gomin and Damont, the commissary on duty,
with the event, and they instantly repaired to the room. The poor
little royal corpse was carried from the apartment where he died into
that where he had suffered so long, the remains were laid out on the
bed, and the doors were thrown open. Gomin then repaired to the
offices of the Committee of Safety, and announced the decease of his
charge. He saw one of the members, who told him that the sitting was
ended, and advised the concealment of the fact till the following
morning. This was done. The same evening supper was prepared at eight
o'clock for "the little Capet," and Gomin pretended to take it to his
room. He left it outside, and entered the chamber of death. Many years
afterwards he described his feelings to M. Beauchesne--"I timidly
raised the covering and gazed upon him. The lines which pain had drawn
on his forehead and on his cheeks had disappeared.... His eyes, which
suffering had half-closed, were open now, and shone as pure as the
blue heaven. His beautiful fair hair, which had not been cut for two
months, fell like a frame round his face, which I had never seen so
calm."
At eight o'clock next morning four members of the committee came to
the Tower to assure themselves that the prince really was dead. They
were satisfied and withdrew. As they went out some of the officers of
the Temple guard asked to see "the little Capet" whom they had known
at the Tuileries, and were admitted. They recognised the body at once,
and twenty of them signed an attestation to that effect. Four surgeons
arrived while the soldiers were in the room, and had to wait until it
could be cleared before they could begin the autopsy which they had
been sent to perform. By this time also everyone outside the Temple
had learned the event, except his sister, who was confined in another
part of the Tower; and the good-hearted Gomin could not muster up
courage to tell her.
On the evening of the 10th of June the coffin which contained the body
was carried out at the great gate, escorted by a small detachment of
troops, and the crowd which had collected was kept back by gens
d'armes. Lasne was among the mourners, and witnessed the interment,
which took place in the cemetery of Sainte-Marguerite. As the
soldier-guarded coffin passed along, the people asked whose body it
contained, and were answered 'little Capet;' and the more popular
title of dauphin spread from lip to lip with expressions of pity and
compassion, and a few children of the common people, in rags, took off
their caps, in token of respect and sympathy, before this coffin that
contained a child who had died poorer than they themselves were to
live.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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