Freaks of Fanaticism, and Other Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Freaks of Fanaticism, and Other Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History; Mysticism; Patarines
As the Prussian courts would not take up the matter of the parsnips,
a private investigation was made by the Count d'Avaray, with
the Royal physician, Dr. Lefèvre, and the Warsaw physician, Dr.
Gagatkiewicz, together with the Apothecary Guidel and a certain Dr.
Bergozoni. The seals were broken in their presence, and the three
roots were examined. It was ascertained that they were stuffed
with a mixture of white, yellow, and red arsenic. This having been
ascertained, and a statement of the fact duly drawn up, and signed,
the president of the police, Herr von Tilly, was communicated with.
He, however, declined to interfere, as had the President von Hoym.
"Thus," says M. Beauchamp, "one court shuffled the matter off on
another, backwards and forwards, so as not to have to decide on the
matter, a specimen of the results of the system adopted at this time
by the Prussian Cabinet."
No other means of investigation remained but for Count d'Avaray
to have the matter gone into by the court of the exiled King. They
examined Coulon, who held firmly to his story as told to the Baron
de Milleville, and all present were convinced that he spoke the
truth.
As the King could obtain no justice from the hands of Prussia, he
suffered the story to be made public in order that the opinion of
all honourable men in Europe might be expressed on the conduct of
both Napoleon and of the Prussian Ministry. "The impression made,"
says M. Beauchamp, "especially in England, was deep. Men recalled
Bonaparte's former crimes that had been proved--the poisoning at
Jaffa, the--at the time--very fresh indignation provoked by the
murder of the Count de Frotté, of Pichegru, of Captain Wright, of
the Duke d'Enghien, of Toussaint l'Ouverture; they recalled the lack
of success he had experienced in demanding of Louis XVIII. a formal
renunciation of his claims, and weighed well the determination of
his character. Even the refusal of the Prussian courts to go into
the charge (for if it had been investigated they must needs have
pronounced judgment on it)--encouraged suspicion. Hardly an English
newspaper did not condemn Napoleon as the instigator of an attempt
that providentially failed."
Such is the legend as formulated by M. de Beauchamp. Fortunately
there exists documentary evidence in the archives of the courts at
Berlin that gives an altogether different complexion to the story,
and entirely clears the name of Napoleon from stain of complicity in
this matter. It throws, moreover, a light, by no means favourable,
on those of the Legitimist party clustered about the fallen monarch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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