Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur OrtonAnonymous
History
Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton
Anonymous
Impostors and imposture -- Biography
"As they approached the lady unfolded her mantle, and I heard the
faint cry of an infant, and distinguished for a moment the glisten of
a little white mantle and cap, as she laid her charge in the arms of
her companion. The officer immediately lifted her into the boat, and
as soon as she was seated the cavalier delivered to her the child;
and, folding it carefully in her cloak, I heard her half-suppressed
voice lulling the infant from its disturbance. A brief word and a
momentary grasp of the hand passed between the lady and the cavalier;
and, the officer lifting his hat, the boat pushed off, the oars fell
in the water, and the galley glided down the creek with a velocity
that soon rendered her but a shadow in the grey tide. In a few minutes
I lost sight of her altogether; but I still distinguished the faint
measured plash of the oars, and the feeble wail of the infant's voice
float along the still water.
"For some moments I thought I had seen the last of the little bark,
which seemed to venture, like an enchanted skiff, into that world of
black waters. But suddenly I caught a glimpse of the narrow boat, and
the dark figures of the men, gliding across the bright stream of
moonlight upon the tide; an instant after a faint gleam blinked on the
white mantle of the lady and the sparkle of the oars, but it died away
by degrees, and neither sound nor sight returned again.
"For more than a quarter of an hour the tall black figure of the
cavalier continued fixed upon the same spot and in the same attitude;
but suddenly the broad gigantic shadow of the frigate swung round in
the moonshine, her sails filled to the breeze, and, dimly brightening
in the light, she bore off slow and still and stately towards the
west."
So much for the birth. Doctor Beaton, at least, says that Louisa de
Stolberg, the lawful wife of the young pretender, gave birth to a
child at St. Rosalie in 1773, and that it was carried away three days
afterwards in the British frigate "Albina," by Commodore O'Haleran.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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