And at eight o'clock next morning, there being no answer to Lecomte's
knocking to arouse the Prince, the door is broken open at the orders of
the Baronne de Feucheres. The Prince is discovered dead in his bedroom,
suspended by the neck, by means of two of his own handkerchiefs knotted
together, from the fastening of one of the French windows.
The fastening was only about two and a half feet off the floor.
The handkerchief about the dead man's neck was loose enough to have
permitted insertion of all the fingers of a hand between it and the
neck. The second handkerchief was tied to the first, and its other end
was knotted to the window-fastening, and the dead man's right cheek was
pressed against the closed shutter. The knees were bent a little,
the feet were on the floor. None of the usual indications of death by
strangulation were present. The eyes were half closed. The face was pale
but not livid. The mouth was almost closed. There was no protrusion of
the tongue.
On the arrival of the civil functionaries, the Mayor of Saint-Leu and
a Justice of the Peace from Enghien, the body was taken down and put
on the bed. It was then found that the dead man's ankles were greatly
bruised and his legs scratched. On the left side of the throat, at a
point too low for it to have been done by the handkerchief, there was
some stripping of the skin. A large red bruise was found between the
Prince's shoulders.
The King, Louis-Philippe, heard about the death of the Prince de
Conde at half-past eleven that same day. He immediately sent his High
Chancellor, M. Pasquier, and his own aide-de-camp, M. de Rumigny, to
inquire into the matter. It is not stretching things too far to say
that the King's instructions to these gentlemen are revealed in phrases
occurring in the letters they sent his Majesty that same evening. Both
recommend that Drs. Marc and Marjolin should be sent to investigate
the Prince's tragic death. But M. Pasquier mentions that "not a single
document has been found, so a search has already been made." And M. de
Rumigny thinks "it is important that nobody should be accused who
is likely to benefit by the will." What document was expected to be
discovered in the search? Why, a second will that would invalidate
the first. Who was to benefit by the first will? Why, the little Duc
d'Aumale and Dame Sophie Dawes, Baronne de Feucheres!
The post-mortem examination was made by the King's own physicians.
During the examination the Prince's doctors, MM. Dubois and Gendrin,
his personal secretary, and the faithful one among his body-servants,
Manoury, were sent out of the room. The verdict was suicide. The
Prince's own doctors maintained that suicide by the handkerchiefs from
the window-fastening was impossible. Dr Dubois wrote his idea of how the
death had occurred:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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