Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur OrtonAnonymous
History
Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton
Anonymous
Impostors and imposture -- Biography
The trial lasted for ten days, and the career of Bruneau was clearly
traced from his very childhood. As revelation after revelation was
made, and the history of crime after crime was disclosed, his
interruptions became more and more frequent and violent, until his
very accomplices shrank from him in horror, protesting that it he had
presented himself to them in the same guise when he first proclaimed
his pretensions, they would not have been seduced by him. Their
advocates pleaded on their behalf that they were dupes and not
confederates, and the plea served to exculpate the Abbe, Madame
Dumont, and Tourly. The impostor himself was condemned to five years'
imprisonment, three thousand francs fine, and a further imprisonment
of two years for his offences against the dignity of justice and the
public morality committed in open court. He was further condemned to
remain at the after-disposal of the government, and to pay
three-fourths of the expenses of the trial. Branzon, his literary
friend, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, and to pay a fourth
of the expenses. When that part of the sentence was pronounced, which
referred to the cost of the proceedings, Bruneau burst into an
insulting laugh, and informed the judges that he would take care to
defray the heavy responsibility laid upon him as soon as he was able.
But, as the saying is, he laughed without his host. The subscriptions
of his dupes were lying at the Bank of France, were confiscated by the
state, and, amply served to pay the pecuniary penalty. After his
imprisonment had expired Bruneau disappeared from public view.
NAUeNDORFF--_SOI-DISANT_ LOUIS XVII. OF FRANCE.
One evening, while Napoleon I. was still reigning at the Tuileries and
guiding the destinies of France, a stranger appeared in the
market-place of Brandenburg, in Prussia. He had travelled far, was very
tired, and sat him down to rest. But the Prussian police had then, and
have still, a deep dislike to weary tramps; and the poor wayfarer had
not been long seated when he was accosted, by the guardians of the
peace, who demanded his papers. The stranger told them he had none,
that he was very weary, that he liked the town, and that he had
resolved to take up his abode in it. The police were astounded by his
coolness, and continued to ply him with questions. They asked what his
station in life was, when he seemed a little confused; but ultimately
said he was a watchmaker. They demanded his name, and he said it was
Nauendorff, but whence he had come he refused to tell; and his sole
worldly possession was a seal, which, he said, had belonged to Louis
XVI. of France. The police kept the seal, and, finding that they could
elicit no further information from the mysterious being who had thrust
himself so unceremoniously into their dull town, permitted him to
settle down quietly in Brandenburg.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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