Unfortunately Naundorff's pretensions did not die with him, for he left
two children, Louis and Marie Antoinette "de Bourbon," who some few
years since renewed their claims to the reversion of the French throne.
In 1873, the son, Louis, summoned the Count de Chambord before a Paris
court, to show cause why a judgment pronounced many years ago against
Naundorff's father, by the Civil Tribunal of the Seine, should not be
reversed in his, Louis's, favour. Notwithstanding the fact that the
putative "grandson" of Louis the Sixteenth retained the services of
Jules Favre as an advocate, he was unable to soften the iron hearts of
the Parisian jury, and had to subside into oblivion.
THE FALSE DAUPHINS: AUGUSTUS MEVES.
Of all the tawdry fictions invented by pretenders to the name and title
of "Louis the Seventeenth," none are so ridiculous as the tale told by
the Meves family, if that really be their name, and yet none have so
persistently troubled the public with printed assertions of their
claims as they. The quantum of probability in their story may be
gauged by telling it in the words of Augustus Meves, _alias_ "Auguste
de Bourbon, son of Louis the Seventeenth." However, the tale cannot be
given _in extenso_ from the works issued by this illustrious man, as,
not only has it required several volumes to put it before the world,
but it is so contradictory, and at times obscure, that it requires no
slight manipulation to render it comprehensible.
Beginning his career with the Temple epoch, this pseudo-dauphin,
contrary to the accounts of his competitors, declares that he has no
recollection of Simon the jailer having ever wilfully ill-treated him,
and that owing to a person named Hébert having wounded him in a fit of
passion, Madame Simon's womanly feelings were aroused on his behalf,
and she determined to save him. His rescue was thus brought about: Tom
Paine, author of "The Rights of Man," who was at this time a member of
the French National Convention, wrote to a lady friend in London, to
bring him a deaf and dumb boy to Paris. This lady, unable to execute
the commission, communicated the secret to her bosom friend Mrs. Meves,
and she naturally informed her husband. It so happened that Mr. Meves
had a son who, being in delicate health, his father was naturally
desirous of getting rid of. Mr. Meves, therefore, without confiding in
his wife, went to Paris with his son, who, by the way, was neither deaf
nor dumb, and placed him in the hands of certain people, who
substituted him for the dauphin. The exchange was effected at a time
when public interest being concentrated on the Queen's trial, the
vigilance at the Temple, says "Auguste de Bourbon," was relaxed.
According to the recollection of the dauphin, his escape was thus
managed: "It seems to my reflective powers that I was lying on the sofa
in the parlour of the small Tower of the Temple, and was awakened by
Madame Simon saying, '_Votre père est arrivé_.' She then aroused me
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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