"The fate of the young prince has brought sorrow to many. It has also been the cause of numerous schemes, and served as basis for ambitious delirium. An Austrian drummer declares before a council of war that he is your brother; another, whose brain has become addled from a bullet wound, is so insistent in his claims that it has been found necessary to incarcerate him in Bicetre; a servant in this asylum disputes with him the honor, by name Fontolive; a hunch-back assistant to a notary follows suit and he will likely end his career in Bicetre; there is a Dufresne who displays on his right calf a fleur de lis. There are others too numerous to mention, including one who dresses like a woman. To enumerate them all would be to number the sands of the seashore. I shall speak only of the most audacious among them, of those who have succeeded in investing their ridiculous pretensions with the semblance of truth, namely a certain Fruchard, a man of brains and resolution; Hervagault, the son of a tailor who plays his cards well indeed; Maturino Bruneau of Vezins, a most popular impostor; Baron Richemont, the most dangerous of them all, for he is a man of education, a profound student of history, and of irreproachable morals. Several gentlemen, formerly staunch royalists, have placed themselves in his ranks--" The Duchess listened with attention, fixing upon her husband her inquisitorial eyes which cut like a keen knife. The Duke hesitated and she asked coldly: "And what more? Is the list of farceurs ended?" "No," he replied, making a visible effort to compose himself. "There is another, Thérèse--He is seconded--O 'tis incredible!--by such men as René de Giac, whom we considered so devoted to the throne. His mother is inconsolable and no longer permits him to visit her. Besides René, there are La Rochefoucauld, Madame de Rambeau, who was the Dauphin's guardian during infancy, the family Saint Hilaire, the Marquis Feuillade, the Marquis de Broglio Solari--a legion, indeed." "But you do not tell me this impostor's name," she asked in a bitter voice. "Whence comes he?" "His name is William Naundorff and he comes from England, though he has been brought up in Prussia." The Duchess seemed about to swoon. Her head dropped upon the chair back and swayed from side to side. The Duke hastened to revive her by holding to her nose a flask of English smelling salts. Chapter II THE QUESTION More through an effort of her strong will than because of the efficaciousness of the smelling salts, the Duchess sat upright and fixed upon the Duke her keen eyes. "Why," she asked, "does the King desire that; I should be so minutely informed? Why not settle the matter in those departments wherein the governmental thunderbolts are forged, since it is a question pertaining to statecraft? Can I not be left in peace, I the desolate survivor of the shipwreck?--I who ask only for solitude in which to pray."