CORNELL 
 
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KOV ?-!»«, 
 
 DATE DU£ 
 
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S^ Cornell University 
 WB Library 
 
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 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924077242612 
 
THE REV ELEAIAR WILLIAMS. 
 From aPovhail by tlu-Xhualwr raqnani ■ 
 
€lie faiit;^ ^riETK 
 
 PACTS TENIUNG TO PROVE 
 
 THB IDENTITY OF 
 
 LOUIS THE SEVENTEENTH, OF FRANCE, 
 
 REV. ELEAZAR WILLIAMS, 
 
 HISSIONAKT AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 JOHN H. HANSON. 
 
 ToiRB la no historical truth against which obslinapy cannot laiM many objections. . IVIany people think 
 * ^baxoMehm justified in aeserting agnihat an alleged hiBtoricsl 6^e,t ita improbntailily, -withoui conBideriog that 
 nothjng^is true or untrue in the eye of hiHtory because il ie probable or improbable, but simply because nssuming 
 its gimbral logical pouibjlity, it can be proved to be or not to be a Eact. — Bvhbkh. 
 
 On applying, after a number of years, to the evidence of-^acta, it will always be found, id the end, that 
 prcbahility is to all things the best symptom of truth — Lauabtins. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM & 00., 10 PABK PLACE. 
 
 1854. 
 
A ^^^• 
 
 ./^OeNELlX 
 j-'UlSfVi^HSiTYl 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1898, by 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM k CO., 
 
 TsL the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-Tork, 
 
 W. H. TiNSON, Stereotyper, &e., 
 
 SS SpruM Street, Ilew York. 
 
THE REV. FRMCIS L. HAWKS, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 AT WHOSE SUGGESTION THE INVESTIGATION 
 INTO 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE REV. ELEAZAR WILLIAMS, 
 
 WAS FIRST UNDERTAKEN, 
 WHICH EXHIBITS AN OUTLINE OF ITS RESULTS, 
 
 AI.IEE AS A TOICEN OF ADMIRATION FOE HIS GENIUS, ESTEEM FOK 
 HIS VIRTUES, AND GRATITUDE FOR HIS KINDNESS 
 
 m 
 
 HIS AFFECTIONATE FRIEND AND BROTHER IN THE MUnSTRT, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The public, I trust, is sensible by this time, that in this investi- 
 gation there has been no attempt to impose on its credulity. 
 If there be aught I hate, next to injustice, and against which I 
 would stoutly contend, it is what Carlyle calls shams. The chief 
 interest in this discussion is its intense reality. With Mr. Wil- 
 liams, as a clergyman, it has become a vital question of veracity ; 
 and I would not have published one word on the subject, had I 
 not been morally convinced of his truthfulness, since I would not, 
 for the sake of any temporary, but worthless literary iclat, trifle 
 with the fortunes of a suffering brother in the ministry. He is 
 no claimant for royal name, any more than he is an aspirant for 
 political elevation. He stands in the position of one who asserts 
 facts, the confirmation of which is derived, without his aid, 
 from the most widely different sources. Even with respect to 
 his journals and the events of his life, the use I have made 
 of them in the argument, is as novel to him as it is to others. 
 And for myself, I seek only to establish a historical fact, and let 
 that fact take care of itself. 
 
 I received, this morning, a call from- a gentleman, who 
 represented himself to be a friend of M. de Beauchesne, whose 
 curiosity, I find, is roused by the circumstances of Mr. Wil- 
 liams's life, though it would appear from the statements of this 
 gentleman, M. de Beauchesne knew much of his history many 
 years before I heard of his existence. Long before the conclu- 
 sion of the reign of Louis Philippe, I learn that M. de Beau- 
 chesne had his name registered, among some thirty others, of 
 whom it had been asserted that they were Louis XVU. This 
 fact is of high importance, for, as M. de Beauchesne, if he did 
 not write under the command of the French government, did so 
 with its knowledge, it affords evidence, that in France, the name 
 
n pRErACE. 
 
 of Mr. "Williams was associated with the history of the Dauphin, 
 and, therefore, renders more equivocal the conduct of the Prince 
 de Joinville, in professing ignorance of the name of Mr. 
 Williams. Where so muph deception has been practised, it is 
 difScult to distinguish between the innocent and the guilty, 
 and, although the motives which animated the composition 
 of the work of M. de Beauchesne remain yet a mystery, it 
 will aflford me great pleasure to find he is no partizan, bent 
 on the falsification of history, but is honestly devoted to 
 the discovery of truth. By chronicling facts which came 
 under his knowledge, he has rendered great service. A 
 fact, however trivial, is inestimable — even a fact concerning 
 JGnlsehood — and, in due time, finds its place in a chain of 
 evidence. M. de Beauchesne -is seeking ,to obtain from the 
 ituperial government permission to examine the cemetery of St. 
 Marguerite, and will, I hope, succeed ; for, though the result 
 would throw no light on the question of identity, it might aid in 
 developing some details of the history. 
 
 I would take this opportunity of acknowledging many favors 
 received, during this investigation, from the Hon. Hamilton Fish, 
 the Hon. J. C. Spencer, the Provisional Bishop of New York, 
 the Bishop of California, the Rev. Dr. Vinton, of Brooklyn, Dr. 
 J. W. Francis, Mr, John Jay, Mr. Beach, of the Sun, the Cheva- 
 lier Fagnani, Mr. Bogle, Mr. G. Genet, Mr. E. Genet, the Rev. 
 Dr. Leacock, and the Clergy generally of New Orleans, Mr. 
 Bradford, of that city, the Rev. Mr. Wells, of Boston, the Rev. 
 Mr. Denroche, of Brockville, C. W., the Hon. Phineas Attwal^, 
 and many others. But more especially would I return thanks to 
 the Rev. Dr. Hawks, and Mr. A. Fleming, in whom I have 
 always found firm and judicious friends. With the one, long 
 known, long loved, and long honored, this investigation has 
 only served as a cement of friendship, and with the other, it will 
 be, T trust, a bond of affection, lasting as life, since I can never 
 forget the generous spirit -he has manifested throughout. 
 
 Bebokai, N. J., Jfommier 22, 1833, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I.HAFTEK I. 
 PRINCIPLES. 
 
 Outline of the work — Probability-r-Biahop Butler — ^Newspaper Critics 
 — Question to be discussed — Cui bono ? 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 REVOLUTION. 
 
 Louis XrV. — Louis XV. — Louis XVI. — Marie Antoinette — The Count 
 de Provence— the Count D'Artois — the Letter of Death — ^French 
 and American Revolutions contrasted — Ambition of the Count de 
 Provence— Conspiracy against the Queen and her Children — the 
 States General — Flight of the Emigrants — Conspiracy of the Mar- 
 quis de Favraa — Flight to Varennes — ^the Countess de Baibi — Mon- 
 sieur and Robespierre — Trying situation of the King and Queen — 
 Attempts to create Monsieur Regent — Coblentz — the Legislative 
 Assembly — The Karseillais — 10th August — the Swiss . . .20 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 CHILDHOOD. 
 
 Birth of the Duke of Normandy — Fall of the Regalia — Omen — ^Death 
 of the First Dauphin — Personal appearance of the Second Dauphin 
 — Anecdotes — ^Masquerade and Misery . . • ■ . .39 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 THE ORPHANS. 
 
 "^pwer of the Temple— Trial of Louis XVI.— the King's Will— Death 
 — Proclamation of the Regent — Last Letter of Marie Antoinette^ 
 Execution SI 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 SIMON. 
 
 Marat — Marie JTeane — Revel — Fidelity in Evil — Solitude— Insanity- 
 Rescue 66 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 INTRIGUE. 
 
 The Fall of Robespierre — ^M. de Beauchesne — Testimony of thieves in 
 their own favor — Intrigues erf the Agents of the Regent — ^Laurent 
 
Vm CONTENTS. 
 
 FAOI 
 
 — the Marquis de Fenonil — Gomin — Doisy — Debierne — LUnard — 
 Treaty with Charette — Harraand — Lasne — Prospects of the Royal- 
 ists in 1795 '8 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 SISAFPEABAHCE. 
 
 Sickness of the Dauphin — Deaault — No Scrofula — Bellanger — ^Death 
 of Desault — Five Days at the most Critical Period left unaccounted 
 for — Ireland — the National Guard — the Death of Somebody — Police 
 Itecorda — ^Escape of the Prince — Procfes Verbal — Authentic Demon- 
 stration of a Physical Impossibility — Testimony of M. MuUer — 
 Desault — ^Vendeean Treaty — Circumstances versus Words . . 95 
 
 CHAPTEK VIII'. 
 FUNERAL SOLEMNITIES AND DRIED HEART. 
 
 Got rid of — Proclamation of Louis XVIII. — ^Yearnings of France for 
 a Father — Liberation of Madame Boyale — ^Matrimony without 
 Courtship — Suppression of the War in La Vendee — the Empire — 
 the Boyal Monomaniac — Fall of Napoleon — Cemetery of the Made- 
 leine — Omission of respect for the memory of Louis XVII. — An 
 Epitaph in Limbo^Cemetery of 9k- Marguerite — the Heart — 
 Clitics and Historians 123 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 KAUNDORFF AND RICHEMONT. 
 
 Hervagault — Marturin Eruneau — Percival — Early History of Naun- 
 dorff — Agents in the Escape of the Dauphin — Martin — St. Didier 
 — the' Duchess D'Angouleme — Interview with the King of Prassia — 
 Letter of Naundorff — -Mystery — ^M. Lamprade— M. de Rochow — M. 
 de Gairivihte — Labreli de Fontaine-r-Pezold — M. AbeiUe— rCha- 
 rette — Summary — Richemont — Madame de Chateaubriand . . 145 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 ADOPTION AND EDUCATION. * 
 
 The Old and New World — Madame de Jardin — ^Monsieur Louis— 
 Skenondogh — Lake George — Rev. John Williams — Deerfield — M. 
 de Vaudreuil — De Rouville — Death of Mrs. Williams — Eunice — 
 Thomas Williams — Revolutionary War — Head of Lake George — 
 First Recollections — Wigwam — the Visit — Deacon Ely — Mrs. Jewett 
 — ^Urania Stebbins — Acquaintance of Ely with the Secret of Mr. 
 Williams's birth— Miss Grosvenor-^Mrs. .Tenkins — Mrs. Dickenson 
 — Mrs. Jewett — Mrs. Temple — ^Ely's Journal — Eleazar Williams's 
 Journal — Revival — Rev. Thomas Williams — III health — Travelling 
 — First visit to Montreal — Portrait — Bishop Chevreux — President 
 Dwight — Mental Phenomena — Hanover— Mr. Ely's death — ^Mans- 
 field 175 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 FJlU 
 CH APTEK XI. 
 
 THE SECKET CORPS. 
 
 Missionary Tour to Canada — Prayer for the Indians — ^American Board 
 — ^War of 1812 — Gen. Dearborn — Gov. Tompkins — Superintendent 
 General of the Northern Indian Department — Gen. Mooers — Travel- 
 ling in the Woods — Gen. Bloomiield — St. Regis taken — Council of 
 War— End of the Camijaign of 1812 .... .218 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 THE WAR JOIIRNAL. 
 
 The Bangers — Sir Geo. Provost — Danger of Surprise — ^Divinity and 
 War — Death of Col. Pike at Toronto — Commodore MoDonough— 
 Sacketts Harbor — Capture of Lieut. Smith — Gen. Hampton — ^Pro- 
 posed Plan of Campaign — Rev. Mr. Clowes — Gen. Wilkinson — ^Isle 
 Aox Noix — Sfone Mill — Gen. Izard — Gen. Macombe— Strength of 
 British force — Battle of Plattsburg — Victory — Confinement from 
 wound ... 230 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 THE LAY MISSIONARY. 
 
 Qualifications for an Indian Missionary — Treaty of Peace — The Epis- 
 copal Church — The Rev. Dr. Butler — ^Dr. Hossack — first acquaint- 
 ance with Dr. J. W. Francis — Bishop Hobart — ^Rev. Mr. Onderdonk 
 — ^Rev. E.G. Stewart — St. Regis — Oneida — Conversion of Six Hun- 
 dred Pagans — the Menomenies and the Winnebagoes — Honi soit 
 qui mal y pense — Proorusteanism in accidents — Poverty^Self-saori- < 
 fioe — ^Interview with Rev. Mr. Richards, at Montreal — Confirmation 
 —Indian Council — Debate with Red Jacket — Proposed Removal of 
 New York Indians — Dr. Morse — ^Lieut.-Gov. Woodbridge — De Witt 
 Clinton — Monroe and Calhoun — Purchase of Land by N. Y. Indians 
 in the West — Dissatisfaction at Oneida — Mr. Solomon Davis — ^Rev. 
 Mr. Lacy — ^Mrs. Sigourney — Emigration to the West . . . 270 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 MARRIAGE AND ORDINATION. 
 
 Indian Afiairs — ^Project of Mr. Williams for the Regeneration of the 
 Indians — Green Bay — Chapel in the Garrison — Marriage — Estate 
 of Mrs. Williams — Charge of Romanism — ^Duck Creek— Ordination 
 — Bishop Hobart's Address . . S95 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 REVERSES. 
 
 Diificulties between the Menomenies and the New York Indians- 
 Sanction of the Purchase by the United States Government — Gen. 
 Cass — Hon. D. A. Ogden — Mr. Trowbridge— Butte des Morts — Oiscoss 
 —Hell Creek — Manslaughter and Murder — ^Missionary Duty and 
 Compensation — Poverty — Rev. Mr. Colton — Commission of 1830 — 
 Gen. Cass — Bishop Onderdonk — ^Washington — Immorality among 
 the Indians — Farewell Sermon — School at St. Regis — Lord Aylmar 
 
 1* 
 
■X CONTENTS. 
 
 rAOB 
 
 —Treaty of 1836— Sohermerhom and Gillet— A Letter— Mr. Eld- 
 ridge — ^Eev. Dr. Lothrop — Loss of Property — Affliction . . 305 
 
 CHAPTEK XVI. 
 CUE FIRST INTEKTIEW. 
 
 Adventure on Lake Champlain — Marie Antoinette — Description of Mr. 
 WilUains ... 336 
 
 chaftek xvii. 
 futnam's magazine. 
 Hon J. C. Spencer — ^Dr. Hawks — Dr. I. W. Francis — ^Le Ray de 
 Chaumont — BiUaud Varennes, and Genet — De Ferrifere — Letter 
 fioin Mr. Williams — Hogansburg-^Professor Day — Caughnawaga — 
 Interview with the Prince de Joinville — Journal for 1841— Mr. Ogden 
 — Mr. Bowker — ^Record of Interview with the Prince — Journal &r 
 1848 — Rev. Joshua Leavitt — Question of Veracity between Mr. 
 Williams and the Prince de Joinville — Futnam's Magazine . . 347 
 
 CHAPTEB. XVIII. 
 TOKENS OF FEBSOHAI.' IDENTITY. 
 
 ' Resemblance to the Bourbons — ^the Chevalier Fagnani — ^M. MuUer — 
 French Officer^ — Coimt de Balbi — Indian Characteristics— ^Marks on 
 
 the Body of Louia XVII Medical Certificates — ^Arithmetical 
 
 Problem .387 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 THE PRINCE DE JOINVILLE AND M. A. DE BEAVCHESNE. 
 
 The Prince de Joinville — the " Phare de New York" and Mr. H. De 
 Couroey — Letter of the Prince de Joinville — ^Examined and re- 
 examined — Capt. Shook — Mr. Irayman — ^Mr. Raymond — ^M. Trog^ 
 non — Correspondence between Mr. Williams and the Prince de 
 Joinville — ^Mr. George Sumner — Appeal to Beauchesne— Motives of 
 Louis Philippe ....... , , 400 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 THE BATTLE OF THE AFFIDAVITS. 
 
 New Orleans — ^Adventures of the Wife of the Secretary of the Count 
 D'Artois — Conversation with the Duchess D' Angoulerae — Bellangei 
 — Affidavit composed by the Rev. Mr. Marooux — Affidavit of Mrs. 
 Williams •••••...... 424 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 KIN AND KIND. 
 
 Dr. Stephen Williams 439 
 
 C HAPTER XXII . 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Summaxy — Brother and Sister 445 
 
 Appendix 45j 
 
PART I. 
 
 THE PALACE AND. THE PRISON. 
 
THE 
 
 LOST PRINCE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PRIKOIPL] 
 
 Mt object, la the following pages, is simply to group together 
 for historic reference, the circumstances ■which tend to prove that 
 in the person of a venerablS clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church, there is still living, in America, the representative of the 
 ancient glories of the French Monarchy. 
 
 The interest which this subject has excited, and the deep con- 
 viction entertained by those who have had the best opportunity 
 of judging of the truth of many of the facts upon which this 
 opinion is based, together with the inherent importance of the 
 question, in a historic point of view, must form my apology for 
 again appearing before the public in connexion with it. 
 
 I have hesitated as to the precise form into which I should 
 throw this little work. At first, my design did not extend beyond 
 a reprint, with notes, of the original articles in which a por- 
 tion of the evidence is contained, together with an Appendix 
 furnishing the testimony which las since come to light. I was 
 inclined to pursue this course because the easiest for a person whose 
 
1 t THE LOST PMITOE. 
 
 time is already fully occupied with professional duties, and also 
 because anxious to exhibit in this way the gradual manner in which 
 facts have been developed, as the investigation has proceeded. 
 But, apart from the dislike of mere verbal repetition, there are 
 many points of importance to the general understanding of the 
 subject, and a correct estimate of the evidence, which I have either 
 not alluded to, or but slightly touched upon, and which it is neces- 
 sary to include, when throwing the matter into a permanent form. 
 I have, therefore, determined to rewrite the whole, adopting the 
 simplest and most natural plan, viz. to give a narrative of the 
 main circumstances in what seem to be two lives spent in different 
 hemispheres, and in forms of society the most widely different, but 
 which, if there be truth in circumstantial evidence, blend harmo- 
 niously into one, conducting the same individual from the palace 
 and the prison to the wigwam, the camp, and the church. 
 
 I shall begin by a cursory review of the events which led to 
 the subversion of the French Monarchy, towards the conclusion 
 of the last century ; of the imprisonment of the royal family ; of 
 the tragical death of several of its members; and of the mysterious 
 disappearance of the child whose straOge after history forms, it ia 
 my belief, the principal portion of the following pages. As it is 
 necessary to keep distinctly in view the thread of events on both 
 sides of the Atlantic, as far as they have any bearing on the his- 
 toric problem at issue, I shall next consider some of the subsequent 
 changes in France, with especial reference to the history and move- 
 ments of the members of the Bourbon family, and also give a sum- 
 mary account of the pretensions and life of Herr Naundorf, all of 
 which are deserving close attention. ' 
 
 Fi'om Europe we shall next be carried by the necessities of the 
 case to this country, and, after briefly tracing the romantic history 
 of the family, in one of whose supposed members the lost Prince 
 appears to be discovered, I will furnish from the most authentic 
 sources all that is worthy of note, or has a bearing on the subject 
 of our investigation, in the life of the Rev. Eleazar Williams, up 
 
PRINCIPLES. 15 
 
 to the period of his interview with • the Prince de Joinville. 
 Here we enter on the great debateable ground, and mnst introdnoe, 
 in substance, the matter which lias ah-eady appeared, bringing up 
 the testimony to the time of publication. 
 
 The introduction of many of the circumstances of Mr. Wil- 
 hams's private life, which would otherwise have been omitted, has 
 been forced upon me by others, and is necessary to clear away 
 the obscurity which hangs over a chequered and sorrowful career. 
 His journals and papers might never have seen the light but for the 
 present discussion ; and it is with reluctance that he has permitted 
 what was intended merely for his own eye, and which from early 
 boyhood has been kept in secrecy, to be made public. But every- 
 thing which I shall produce weaves itself into the chain of evi- 
 dence. Or js necessary for his vindication. 
 
 That discussion of a somewhat exciting nature has been caused 
 by what I have already written, is not surprising ; for the question 
 at issue is likely to awaken the most different feelings, according to 
 the natural disposition of men, their power of weighing evidence, 
 and estimating character, the social influences by which they are 
 affected, and the direction from which they contemplate the sub- 
 ject. Society is pretty equally divided between two classes of 
 men, the generous and enthusiastic, and the cold and sceptical. 
 The first are, perhaps, too ready to adopt, without sufficient exami- 
 nation, whatever appeals to their sympathies, and addresses itself 
 to thejr imagination — and the other are equally prone to form 
 hasty conclusions against everything which seems strange and mar- 
 vellous. It requires time to adjust these states of mind to each 
 other, and to attain among masses of men to the true critical 
 temper, which I conceive to be as far from precipitate incredulity, 
 as it is from precipitate belief — a happy compound of what is 
 noble in sentiment and cool in judgment, and which as little 
 mistakes ridicule for argument, as it does feeling for proof. It was 
 to this temper that I have sought — it is to this that I still seek to 
 address myself; and however those who have neither understood 
 
10 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 my motives nor weighed my words, may have accused me of 
 special pleadmg, or of jumping at conclusions, I can honestly 
 say, that I have never knowingly strained a point of evidence 
 beyond its just extent, or indicated a conclusion which facts did 
 not seem fairly to warrant. Had the opposition I have met been 
 merely the result of natural incredulity respecting the marvellous, 
 the Imperfection of the testimony adduced, or my own inability 
 in handling the subject according to its merits, to which no one 
 would more willingly subscribe than myself, I should have had 
 neither room nor desire to complain. But in many quarters, and 
 from various motives, there have been attempts to put down 
 discussion. Such attempts will never succeed in cases like this, 
 where people have to deal with a man of ordinary firmness, 
 convinced alike of the rectitude of his intentions and the power of 
 his position. I have no desire, however, to perpetuate strife, and 
 shall be silent concerning much which deserves animadversion. 
 
 Before I plunge into the stream of rapidly shifting events, 
 let me say a few words as to the nature of the evidence which it is 
 reasonable to expect can be produced in a case like this, granting 
 the supposed identity actually to e:dst. This is the natural point 
 from which any candid mind will approach the subject. He wiU 
 not ask impossibilities or improbabilities, and sneer because his 
 demands are not complied with ; but being satisfied that a position 
 is taken by its advocate in good faith, will expect him to produce 
 only such evidence as under given circumstances it is rational to 
 look for ; neither will he say that evidence is no evidence, because 
 not of one particular kind, viz. demonstrative. 
 
 There are ooinparatively only a few things — and those not affect- 
 ing pnr highest interests or appealing to our noblest faculties — which 
 admit of demonstration. In all that is most important, morally, 
 intellectually, historically, " probability is the very guide of life." 
 Not, however, such probability or improbability as Bunsen refers 
 to in the passage placed on the title page — the mere coinage of the 
 fancy, apai-t from or in defect of evidence— the familiar' "it is 
 
PRINCIPLES. 17 
 
 likely or unlikely" of conversation — but probability based on the 
 critical survey of varied fact and extensive data — such as Lamar- 
 tine refers to when he says, " On applying after a number of years 
 to the evidence of facts, it will always be found in the end that 
 probability is in all things the best symptom of truth." In ascer- 
 taining a disputed historic fact, the probabilities of every kind 
 must be reckoned in as parts of the evidence determining its value; 
 but the conclusion finally arrived at, if investigation be rightly 
 conducted on sufficient data, is something more than mere proba- 
 bility, something upon which we can rest as fact. 
 
 " Probable evidence," says Bishop Butler, " is essentially distin- 
 guished from demonstrative by this, that it admits of degrees, and of 
 all variety of them, from the highest moral certainty to the very low- 
 est presumption. "We cannot, indeed, say a thing is probably true 
 upon one very slight presumption of it ; because, as there may be 
 probabilities on both aides of a question, there may be some against 
 it, and though there be not, yet a slight presumption does not 
 beget that degree of conviction which is implied in saying a thing 
 is probably true, but that the slightest possible presumption is of 
 the nature of a probability appears from hence, that such low pre- 
 sumption often repeated will amount even to moral certainty." 
 " In questions of difficulty, cr such as are thought so, where more 
 satisfactory evidence cannot be had, or is not seen, if the result of 
 examination be that there appears upon the whole, any the lowest 
 presumption on one side, and none on the other, or a greater pre- 
 sumption on one side, though in the lowest degree gi'eater. 
 this determines the question even in matters of speculation." The 
 question under consideration is one of probabilities, and I shall 
 neither insult the understanding of the reader by denying, nor do 
 I weaken my cause by confessing, that t'he probabilities prior to 
 examination against the conclusion to which 1 arrive are very 
 strong ; only I contend that the probabilities in its favor are far 
 stronger, and that to an extent which can leave little doubt to 
 an impartial and reasoning mind of its truth, or, in other 
 
18 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 words, which carries moral conviction very nearly to its fullest 
 height. 
 
 Now, granting that the supposed personal identity is actual, what 
 kind of probable evidence is it likely can at this time and place be 
 adduced in proof of it ? There is a great state secret affecting vitally 
 the interests and the honor of some of the most distinguished per- 
 sons in Europe, and which has done so for more than half a century. 
 The parties interested in keeping it will, it is probable, both use every 
 effort to suppress whatever evidence exists, and hold in their own 
 hands all correspondence between themselves on the subject, and all 
 communications proceeding from agents who from time to time they 
 may have found it necessary to employ. In the absence, therefore, of 
 original evidence of this description, the only conceivable means 
 by which the secret can come to light is the want of prudence in 
 some of the parties concerned, or of fidelity in some of their agentsi 
 affording a clue or indication of its existence, and leading thoughtful 
 minds to review carefully the whole field of the past, and gather into 
 one focus all those tokens which an extraordinary event can scarcely 
 faa to leave behind in its progress, and which, like foot prints and 
 down-trodden grass and broken branches to the Indian in the forest, 
 imperceptible or disregarded by the careless observer, conduct the 
 diligent investigator directly and inevitably, with a precision like 
 fate, to the very root and heart of the mystery. 
 
 I should like to have seen one of a certain class of our modern 
 newspaper critics and philosophers with eyes that never look 
 beyond the police intelligence and party politics of the day, and 
 who has grown mole-sighted in falsifying the appearance of every- 
 thing to suit the passions and prejudices to which he professionally 
 panders, standing beside a quick-witted savage on the trail, whose 
 only aim was to find his way by aid of the faculties which God 
 gave him. How acute would be his sagacity of denial 1 How 
 potent hirt sceptical profundity ! What pointed paragraphs would 
 he enter on his note book concerning the folly which saw a sign- 
 post in a broken twig— a pathway in a bent reed, and fullowod 
 
RBVOL0TION. 19 
 
 the guiding of tliese in preference to verbal reports wliich he has 
 no discernment to see are inoongi-nons or false. There are many 
 ways of arriving at truth, and we live in times when History is 
 written backward, and the wisely doubting Niebuhr of torday is 
 more to be trusted than the annalist who was two thousand yeai-s 
 nearer the facts which they relate in common. 
 
 rthe simple historic question under discussion is, whether a 
 person known in this country as the Rev. Eleazar "Williams be 
 the son of Louis XVI. of Fi'anoe, who it has been asserted died in the 
 Temple in the year 1795. The negative of this can be shown clearly 
 in either of three ways. 1. By proving that the son of Louis XVI. 
 in question died at the time and place mentioned. 2. By proving 
 that the Rev. Eleazar Williams is an Indian. 3. By establishing as 
 a fact, that although the Dauphin may not have flied as reported, 
 and Eleazar Williams is not an Indian as reported — there is nothing 
 to prove a personal identity between them, or that the evidence 
 adduced for this purpose is not reliable. The affirmative of 
 the question on the contrary requires me to show that there is no 
 reliance to be placed on the accounts given of the ftath of the 
 royal child — that Eleazar Williams is not an Indian, and that the 
 circumstantial identifying testimony is multifarious, strong, reliable 
 and to the point^ Here is the issue, and I meet it with no purpose 
 or design, but to argue it on its merits. The audience in the pres- 
 ence of which I speak is in itself a guarantee that I shall d^ fairly 
 with the subject. Besides which, belonging to a profession happily 
 standing aloof from secular strife, and constitutionally inclined in 
 all things to seek for truth, I have neither the art of the special 
 pleader nor the disposition of the sophist. If there be strength in 
 my argument it is simply because facts clearly stated and logically 
 reasoned from make it strong. 
 
 It is beyond the wit of man to coin a chain of circumstantial evi- 
 dence upon a great -historic question like this which will bear 
 examination. Various attempts have been made to do so, in all 
 quarters by those to whom I stand opposed, but I regard them all 
 
20 THE LOST PEINCE. 
 
 as signal failures. By some loophole or other the true state of the 
 case will leak out. Whoever examines with candid and unpreju- 
 diced mind the facts I have to present, instead of ridiculing any 
 lack of evidence will, I think, express surprise that Providence haa 
 preserved, and rendered available here, so much^testimony bearing 
 on a remote point of European history. To those who meet the 
 ifUvestigation with the query, cui bono? I have only to say, it will 
 be very unfortunate for mankind, morally and intellectually, when 
 they find themselves in the majority — and where there is nothing in 
 historic truth to awaken the curiosity, or in great reverses to excite 
 the sympathy, of men. To me it seems a moral lesson, not unim- 
 portant for the world's welfare, if it can be shown in so striking an 
 instance, that wrong, however carefully concealed, can scarcely hope 
 to escape ultimate detection even on earth — and that, though it be 
 through chinks and crevices, truth buried, like a plant immured in 
 darkness, will grope its way by strange avenues to the light. 
 
 OHAPTEE II. 
 
 EBVOLUTION. 
 
 A PA8SBN6BK, miraculously rescued from a lato terrible railroad 
 accident, describes the scene of unexpected and irremediable ruin by 
 saying, that while the train was dashingon in apparent safety, the car 
 in which he was sitting, broke, without visible cause, into a thousand 
 fragments, and disappeared, while a motley group of legs and arms 
 and heads came flying in the air towards him. He witnessed on a 
 small scale what was seen in a large one in the disastrous era of the 
 Bevolution. When all is over we can philosophize upon it, trace 
 its causes, remote and immediate, and sliow how it might have been 
 avoided. But to the majority of its spectators it was as sudden and 
 inexplicable, as the death crash of the flying train against the abut- 
 ment of the open drawbridge. "A frightful golf;" says a French 
 
REVOLUTION, 21 
 
 writer, " opens on a sudden beneath the feet of Lonis XVI. He is 
 irresistibly swallowed up — he, his throne, his power, and his family. 
 The effects of the lightning are not more terrible or more swift. 
 In an instant all has disappeared, and the affrighted spirit seeks in 
 Tain some vestige of so many grandeurs." In moments and scenes 
 like these, all ordinary calculations are at fault, and facts can alone 
 determine what is possible or probable, who shall rise and who shall 
 fall, where and in what condition they shall alight. Whatever can 
 happen, may happen, and the same apparent freaks of destiny which 
 elevated persons from the lowest ranks of society to be generals, 
 princes, and monarchs, may as easily cast the descendant of a hun- 
 dred kings like sea weed to the remotest shores. 
 
 In reviewing the history of France from the beginning of the 
 reign of Louis XVI. to the present time, I shall not enter further into 
 details than is necessary for the clear presentation of the evidence I 
 have to lay before the reader. I aim at no originality either of 
 thought or statement, but simply desire to recall, in connection and 
 for a definite end, facts well known to every general reader. 
 
 Louis XIII. died in 1643, leaving two sons, Louis XIV. who ascend- 
 ed the throne at the age of five years, and Philip Duke of Orleans, 
 great-grandfather of Philip Egalit6. Under the regency of Anne of 
 Austria and the able ministry of Cardinal Mazarin, the power of the 
 French Monarchy, and the subjection of the people of France, were 
 carried to their greatest extent, and what was wanting was supplied 
 under the sovereignty of Louis XIV. and the ministry of Colbert. 
 Prerogative was at its height. But so were the glory, power, wealth 
 and intellect of France, and in a social atmosphere, impregnated with 
 the slavish maxims of a gorgeous superstition, and not yet disturbed, 
 though voluptuously illuminated with the nascent brightness of an 
 epicurean philosophy, the gilded yoke of despotism was borne 
 proudly by both nobles and people. 
 
 But the clouds which gathered round the declining years of the 
 Grande Monarch, and dimmed the militai-y splendors of the early 
 portion of' his reign, were fit precursors of the convulsion whose 
 
22 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 elements were fermenting In concealment beneath the con-nption, 
 infidelity, and intellectual activity of the age. It required the 
 regency of Orleans, the impure reign of Louis XV. and the infidel 
 intoxication produced by the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau to 
 bring the nation to that maturity of evil which issued in the 
 French Eevolution. Yet never did the French Monarchy seem to 
 stand on a firmer basis of national consent and popular favor than 
 on the 10th May, 1774, when the courtiers of France, rushing, with 
 " a terrible noise like thunder," from the room wherein lay the dis- 
 figured remains of Louis XV. paid their first heartless service to 
 Louis XVI. and his queen. Dissolved in tears, and on their knees, 
 the youthful pair besought of heaven the wisdom and the strength 
 they needed. 
 
 In the midst of a licentious court, compared with which the 
 seraglio of the sultan is as the purity of heaven, Louis XVI. had 
 received a careful education, which gave him the morals of an 
 anchorite, the implicit faith of a devotee, the fortitude of a martyr, 
 and the bashfulness of a rustic. He would have formed the happi- 
 ness of a domestic circle, or been the beau ideal of an English cler- 
 gyman — for he had all vu-tues under heaven but those which he 
 most needed, — self-reliance, energy, promptitude, and decision. He 
 could be the father of his people — he could not be their ruler ; and 
 sacrificed the lives of thousands who loved him and deserved his 
 love, because unable to speak the kingly word which should crush 
 anarchy and punish murder. There was many a crisis in the Revolu- 
 tion, when a word, a look, a gesture of the hand, such as duty demands 
 from all who govern, would have rolled back the tide of revolt and 
 rallied a million swords around the throne. But while he diligently 
 educated himself, as the dangers of the social fermentation increased, 
 to play, with dignity and self approval, his part in the judgment hall 
 and on the scaffold, he neglected, with a weakness which Christianity 
 may pardon, but which Christian wisdom cannot justify, the active 
 heroism which makes a great ruler, entrusted with the guardianship 
 of social order, as prompt to do as he is ready to suffer. He was 
 
REVOLUTION. 23 
 
 bnt twenty years of age when called to the most arduous political 
 position which the world has yet offered to ambition. 
 
 Bom on thia very day on which the towers and temples of Lisbon 
 reeled beneath the throes of an earthquake, which was felt by half 
 the world, Providence seemed to afford, at the moment in which 
 Marie Antoinette entered on the theatre she was to adorn and 
 sadden, some prognostic of the moral and political convulsion in the 
 midst of which she was to expire. Possessed of natural abilities, 
 in every way answerable to the aSrial beauty and queenly majesty 
 of her person, her education was deficient in those solid mental 
 acquirements which are, the chief ornament and safeguard, next to 
 moral principle, of a woman in high station. When a child, the 
 present Queen of England was seen diligently studying Blackstone. 
 Marie Antoinette carried to the court of Versailles an absolute 
 ignorance, not of law merely, but of history. A complete fami- 
 liarity with Italian, the conversational mastery of French, a little 
 music, great skill in needle-work, beauty made perfect by grace, an 
 understanding ready to grasp whatever it grappled with, and a tongue 
 fluent to express in words most appropriate every varying emotion of 
 the soul, childlike simplicity, a contempt for etiquette, and a love of 
 nature, but, above all, a spirit warm, gentle, affectionate, and true, 
 form the sum of what she brought to Louis ; enough, indeed, to 
 make home happy in private station, or to shine foremost in 
 courtly circle, but inadequate to render woman the Mentor of a 
 man in times when thrones reel and nations are convulsed. It is 
 impossible to read the domestic history of this trne hearted 
 woman in the pages of a faithful chronicler like Madame Campan, 
 and gaze upon some portrait which truly reflects her linage, with- 
 out feeling for her, even apart from the mighty griefs and the 
 unparalleled tragedy of her closing life, love, pity, admiration, and 
 respect, which may teach even republican hearts what loyalty is 
 towards an object morally worthy of it. It is the misery of high 
 station, that it hides from the multitude all that would most create 
 love. It is hardly too mnoh to say, that had even revolutionary 
 
24 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 France known its king and queen, as we now kiow them, the tri- 
 bune would have been silent, the tricolor unraised, the Marseillaise 
 unsung, and the scaffold unstained. 
 
 Louis Stanislaus, Count de Provence, the eldest brother of the 
 king, the Monsieur of the Revolution, had aonter intellect, bolder 
 character, more cultivated mind, better knowledge of what is bad 
 in men, and greater capacity for governing them than his unfortu- 
 nate brother ; but his superiority was only in the understanding. 
 He was inferior to Louis in religious faith and moral principle. 
 In creed a philosopher of the school of Voltaire, in disposition an 
 intriguer, in politics an innovator with an.eye to self, he regarded 
 himself, even from early life, as the most considerable person, in all 
 but the accident of birth, of his family ; and, though not destitute 
 of affection for his brother, habitually looked down upon him, and 
 loved the flattery which drew a contrast in his favor. Eastern 
 despotism may have had its reasons for liking no brother near 
 the throne. Height is apt to produce high t]j.oughts, and the 
 latitude of future possibilities afford perilous scope for the imagi- 
 nation. There is no greater temptation than that which may be, 
 but is not. The Count de Provence was among the foremost to 
 give the first impulse to the Revolution. His object may be ques- 
 tioned — the fact is beyond dispute.* 
 
 The Count D'Artois, afterwards Charles X., though destitute of 
 personal daring, had the high bearing and the ciivalrio accom- 
 plishments which are the pride and ornament of a court; together 
 with the mediooral abilities which are moral blessings to a younger 
 brother of regal family, in times when circumstances foster ambition 
 in the naturally aspiring. There seemed no probability of his ever 
 mounting the throne ; his pride was to be what he was, high among 
 the highest, enjoying all the pleasures without any of the responsi- 
 bilities of royalty. But the tendency of events was to foster a 
 prospective ambition for his posterity, which he had too much 
 
 • AUson, Hist. Europe, vol. I. 68. Lamartine, Hist. Rest., vol. 1. 254. 
 
REVOLUTION. 25 
 
 good sense and proper feeling to entertain for himself. His creed 
 was -what was established — his philosophy courtly conservatism, 
 ■which views the world as a theatre for the privileged classes, and 
 the utiUty of the people as confined to uttering braves, trimming 
 the lights, and paying the orchestra. A beautiful illusion, but des- 
 tined to vanish liice fairy scenery under the hands of the scene- 
 shifter. As-the tragic drama of the Eevolution advanced to its 
 derudment, and the political position of Louis XVI. grew hopeless, 
 his interests became identified with those of the Count de Pro- 
 vence. The brothers were drawn closer together by their mar- 
 riage to two daughters of the King of Sardinia ; and as for many 
 years it seemed likely that, either from the coldness and indifference 
 of the king, or other more insuperable causesj^arie Antoinette 
 would have no issue, the hopes of succession appeared to rest with 
 the Countess D'Artois, who, in 1778, had already two children — 
 the Duo D'Angoulfeme and the Due de Berri. But this family 
 distinction, diminished at the close of that year, when the queen, 
 ,gave birth to a daughter, was entirely done away by the birth of 
 the first Dauphin in 1731 — and of the Duke of Normandy in 178j. 
 
 There is a mysterious story* connected with the birth of the first 
 Dauphin, which, resting entirely on the authority of Louis XVIIL, 
 is important in the light of a personal confession, and confirms 
 all that history has asserted of his ambition. He states that 
 on the evening of the 22d October, 1781, the birthday of thai 
 prince, on retiring to rest, he found u>n a table near his bed a let- 
 ter addressed, " for Monsieur only.^ In answer to his inquiries, 
 his attendants professed ignorance of the source from whence it 
 came, when he directed one of them to open it. When the 
 envelope was rerpoved, another was discovered with a similar 
 superscription. He then took it into his own hands; and, as he 
 represents, with a presentiment that he was going to read some- 
 thing unusual, turned from his attendants, that no one but himself 
 
 * Filla Soloion, p. 8. Se Qujnce^r'a AotobiograptUcal Sketches, ToL 1. p, 330. 
 
 2 
 
26 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 might see the contents. The second envelope contained a sheet of 
 black paper inscribed with white characters. Having dismissed his 
 suite, he retired to bed, and by the light of his night lamp read as 
 follows ; — 
 
 jf 
 
 " Be comforted ; I have just drawn the horoscope of the new-born 
 
 prince ; he will not deprive you of the crown j ho will cease to live when 
 his father ceases to reign. Another hesidea yourself will, however, 
 succeed to Louis XVI., but you will, nevertheless, be one day king of 
 France. He who becomes your successor will be most unfortunate. 
 Rejoice greatly that you are without progeny — the existence of your sons 
 would be menaced by too many evils — ^for your family is destined to drink 
 to the very dregs of the bitterest draught contained in the cup of Fate. 
 " Adieu, tremble for your life should you seek to know me. 
 
 " I am. Death ! ! !" 
 
 At this period the political atmosphere already began to exhibit 
 signs of the approaching storm. To the views of the theorists 
 of whom France was full, the American Revolution had given 
 a deceptive impetus ; deceptive, because if ever there were conn- 
 tries dissimilar in every particular on which sound calculations of 
 political expediency can be based, they were the United States of 
 America and the kingdom of France. It was not merely that one 
 country was crowded with a dense and fermenting population, and 
 the other, in its vast outstretched expanse of unreclaimed wilderness, 
 afforded ample latitude for the peaceful growth of a mighty people 
 for centuries to come, but that the geiiius, the character, the intel- 
 ligence of the two nations placed them mutually in the most 
 antipodal position which civilization can allow. In America 
 liberty was a principle — in France it was the passionate dream of a 
 people constitutionally in love with despotism — ^in America it was 
 but another name for law— in France it meant the disruption of all 
 legal restraint. "When America revolted she stood in a conserva- 
 tive attitude— pleading precedent, upholding law, protesting 
 against innovation ; but France did what no nation can do and 
 
KEVOL0T1ON. 27 
 
 live — ^tore herself violently from the past, and disregarded every- 
 thing chartered and prescriptive. The new country was in truth 
 the old — the old country a political infant. Anglo Saxon law, 
 reformed religion, English literature, and colonial life republican in 
 essence, all combined to njake America emphatically the land of 
 s^f-government. In Fi-ance, superstition dead even to rottenness, 
 and giving birth only to the efflorescent hut deadly fungi of infi- 
 delity, ignorance of law, save that of caste and prerogative, 
 and utter incapacity to keep down brute force and the upheavings 
 of a physical hell, but by the compulsion of grape shot, all render- 
 ed the establishment of republican freedom as chimerical as the 
 return to patriarchal simplicity and nomadic life. Louis and his 
 ministers had not discernment to perceive that the era of mere 
 rival nationalities was for the present over, and that what might 
 have been policy in the reign of Louis XIV., was the height of folly 
 in 17T7. Chatham could afford to applaud the sturdy colonists, 
 for their spirit was the spirit of Englishmen — but Louis brought 
 the inflamable mind of France in contact with a flame which burnt 
 healthily enough where it was native, and the very vital spirit of 
 the body whose iron enginery was of calibre to bear it, but which 
 exploded to the four winds of Heaven the rust-eaten constitution 
 of an effete despotism. 
 
 The Count de Provence, sitting on nearly the highest step which 
 led to the throne, had long made himself the centre of theoretic 
 schemes of public reformation, the object of which was to ingra- 
 tiate himself with the party of movement, increase his own popu- 
 larity ; and, in the event of a convulsion, supplant his brother and 
 his family.* Louis had begun his reign by a prudent system of 
 retrenchments, which if persisted in throughout, might have 
 warded off the dangers of revolution until the advent of some less 
 cautious monarch ; but war induced expenditure, expenditure reck- 
 lessness, recklessness ruin. His brother perceived his difficulties, 
 
 * LamaiUne, Hist. Rest., vol. i. p. 2S3. 
 
28 THE LOST PRISCE. 
 
 and- took advantage of them. He had gone so far as to devise a 
 new constitution of which he should be the head. Religious prin- 
 ciple could not restrain him, for he had none ; and a creedless man 
 has no compass but self-interest. Even natural affection could be 
 reconciled by an easy philosophy to the dictates of ambition. 
 Believing his brother incompetent for the crisis which he saw 
 approaching, and which he did his utmost to hasten, he fraternally 
 consulted his happiness, as well as the welfare of the kingdom, in an 
 imagined abdication, which should place the crown on his own 
 head, and hand over the conduct of the revolution to one capable 
 by nerve, and philosophy, and intellect, to control its forces, and 
 reconstruct society in harmony with principles of which Voltaire 
 could approve. " He surrounded himself," says an indulgent his- 
 torian, " with philosophers, theorists, and censors of government 
 and religion. He allowed them to divulge in public his criticisms 
 on the ministry, his ideas for reforming the kingdom, his accord- 
 ance in heart and soul with the general spirit of the nation, which 
 w^as evincing itself in complaints against the government, and in 
 outbursts of enthusiasm, the precursors of revolution. But he 
 never permitted these murmurs and this enthusiasm to pass the 
 bounds of external respect for religion and the throne. Although 
 a sceptic in religion and revolutionary, he regarded the church and 
 monai'chy as two popular idols, whose divinity might be contested 
 without removing their images from before the eyes of the people. 
 There was etiquette and ceremony even in his convictions, for he 
 believed in the Divine right of established custom; and all reform 
 which extended to Tiis own dynasty, appeared to him sacrilegious. 
 He foresaw a revolution, and thinking his hrother unequal to the 
 struggle of ,the times, helieved his weakness would drive him 
 to abdication ; that the Count D'Artois would lose himself in vain 
 resistance to the progress of the world; and that France, reconsti- 
 tuted on a new monwrchical plan, would take refuge under his own 
 government. He did not conspire to obtain, nor even desire this 
 consummation ; but he expected all. Nevertheless, he loved the 
 
EEVOLUTION. ' 29 
 
 king— his brother — as much as he was capable of loving any one 
 ranking above him."* 
 
 There is one clause ia this passage which contradicts all the rest, 
 and which cannot, if the rest be true, be true itself: — "He did not 
 conspire^ to obtain — ^he did not even desire, this consummation." 
 He did not openly, it is true, conspire and say to the nation — 
 ' Dethrone Louis XVI., set aside his descendants — and make me king 
 instead ' — for this would have been to defeat his own object, and de 
 Provence was too wise, and had too much sense of propriety to act 
 thus; but he who could precipitate a revolution, which he foresaw 
 mu^t end in the dethronement of the existing monarch, and which 
 he imagined would lead to his own elevation ; who placed himself 
 knowingly in the path of convulsion, as its termination, and took 
 care that his creatures should publish his schemes and principles of 
 reform, to the evident prejudice of his brother, and the accelera- 
 tion of the crisis which must cause his downfall, did conspire, as 
 effectually as a man in his position could conspire, against the 
 thj"one of Louis XVI., and did desire to possess that for which he 
 so conspired. He even predicted the king's death.t 
 
 "We must judge men in such periods by their actions, and those 
 of the Count de Provence neither showed the brother nor the loyal 
 subject. It is remarkable how entirely, in his visionary schemes 
 for the future, the right of inheritance, vested by the immemorial 
 laws of France in the male descendants of the king, were set aside. 
 He did not, according to the plain statement of Lamartine, contem- 
 plate merely an abdication and a regency in his person, during the 
 minority of the young Prince, but an actual transference of kingly 
 power intact to him and his heirs ; in other words, a Provence 
 dynasty. And if so, it follows that, ere one single stone was re- 
 moved from the ancient structure of the monarchy, the mind of 
 the Count de Provence was occupied with the problem of his 
 nephew's fate. It was an element in the future which could not 
 be overlooked by an acute and cu-pumspect intellect like his. The 
 • Lacartine, Hist. Rest. Book x. sec. v. t Lamartine, Girondists, 70I i. p. 454. 
 
30 TUB LOST I'RISCE. 
 
 incident of the mysterious letter is a proof tliat it was not. Wlien 
 tlie leprous distUlment of revolutionary principle liail removed the 
 old Hamlet, there would still remain the young one ; and there 
 was no widowed majesty of Denmark, by wedding wliich he could 
 safely permit the scion of an elder house to wander fetterless 
 through the land ; and if there had been, the young man's sword 
 might have smelt in due time a rat behind the arras, witliout there 
 being any Polonius for a scapegoat ; or in a domestic feud, as in 
 the classic example, both uncle and nephew might lose their lives. 
 These were contingencies which the Count de Provence could 
 not but foresee, for they were all inseparaby included in the idea 
 prophetic of a throne. How he pui-posed to deal with these diffi- 
 culties it is not for me to determine. SufBce it to show that they 
 must have been before his mind even prior to the outbreak of tlie 
 Revolution. He may have trusted to accident for some patliway 
 out of tlie labyrinth. He might propose to reconcile all difficulties 
 by adopting as his successor one who had legal riglits before liira ; 
 or, education, controlled by him in the principles of his proposed 
 philosophic monarchy, might make the facile intellect of youth a 
 convert to the laws of his regenerated constitution. Tliis was 
 afterwards the republican plan — it may have been that of De 
 Provence. But there was a far darker mode of escape from all 
 perplexity, which there are strong reasons for supposing he resorted 
 to. It was by impeaching the legitimacy of the cliildren of Mario 
 Antoinette, for which the long period which elapsed between lier 
 marriage with the king and the birth of lier first child, together 
 witli the scandal her enemies had for many years industriously cir- 
 culated, afforded some coloring of probability. At the meeting 
 of the Assembly of Notables in 1787, Monsieur appeared for the 
 first time publicly in his cliaracter of reformer, and by throwing 
 tlie whole weight of his influence against the aristocracy, and in 
 favor of the masses, and proposing sweeping schemes of constitu- 
 tional amendment, gained an amount of popularity which for awhile 
 intoxicated him, and whicli ho never censed to strive after by the 
 
REVOLUTION. 
 
 31 
 
 same means^ until the revolationary tide, which he had put in 
 motion, threatened to sweep him away. 
 
 While Jie was thus seeking to accomplish two portions of his 
 general design, viz. to shake the throne of his brother, and in so 
 doing attract the popular favor to himself, attempts were made in 
 the same Assembly to set aside the royal children, by the introduc- 
 tion of documents denying their legitimacy, by the Duke Fitz 
 James, of which Monsieur was openly declared to be the author.'? 
 
 Letters, said to be written by the Count de Provence to Fitz 
 James, have been published. That they express his sentiments 
 I have no doubt. As to their authenticity I know nothing. 
 The only thing suspicious about them is, that documents so dam- 
 natory should ever see the light. A knowledge of their history 
 would however bo requisite to decide this point — ^for when a letter 
 once gets out of a man's hand there is no telling into whose it may 
 fall. [A.] 
 
 But, Monsieur, like all pei-sons endowed with similar powers of 
 foresight, read the future only through the medium of his personal 
 interests, and imagined that events would take the course which 
 he desired. Every on6 at that time was willing to revolutionize to 
 his own level, and vainly imagined that the downward tendency of 
 things would be arrested just where he stood. A ti-nly honest and 
 unselfish mind, which had no bad ambition to gratify, would never 
 have been so blinded. 
 
 It is conclusive evidence against the moral integrity of Monsieur, 
 that he could weakly dream of a revolution potent enough to com- 
 pel abdication on the part of the reigning sovereign, but whose 
 waves should subside in admiring murmurs beneath his own feet. 
 Such a revolution was the vain chimera of that ambition which 
 o'erleaps itself. Monsieur made two miscalculations. He under- 
 estimated both his brother's powers of endurance and the intensity 
 and scope of the revolutionary forces. • 
 
 * Mouiteur, 20 Germiaal, year G. Ireland's France, p. 2S6. 
 
S2 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 {^liOuis XVI. Lad the passive heroism of the martyr, if he had not 
 the active heroism of the king. The last of his thoughts would 
 have been abdication, which should compromise the interests of his 
 son. , In the midst of his most trying diflSculties, the idea that he 
 could retire from the contest with his people seems never to have 
 crossed his mind. But both he and the queen were almost as 
 much disturbed by the fear of royalist movements without the 
 kingdom, having for their object the transference of sovereignty 
 to some other hand, as they were by the present dangers of an 
 insurgent populace. And as for the Bevolution itself, when once 
 set in motion it must run its course. It was beyond the control of 
 court intrigue. It was a whirlwind which could be ridden on by 
 those bold enough to mount it, but which could not be individually 
 directed or allayed. 
 
 The States General were summoned to provide means for liqui- 
 dating the public debts contracted by the war. They did not even 
 consider the question. To relieve the king from his embarrass- 
 ment was not their desire. They resolved themselves into a 
 single chamber. The Tiers Etats swallowed up tlie clergy and nobi- 
 lity. Individuals hesitated, struggled, and deserted, but the tide of 
 innovation swept on without impediment. The National Assem- 
 bly, declared permanent, set to work under the inspiration of its 
 master-spirit, Mirabeau, to reform the Constitution. Tlie king gave 
 in hig adherence to the project. He was no longer king. Conces- 
 sion only created the appetite for demand. From the senate 
 chamber the revolution descended into "the streets. There were 
 conflicts between the royal troops and the populace. The Bastdle 
 was besieged and taken. Tlie struggle every day displayed mora 
 visibly its deadly nature. Too late the high nobility perceived 
 their error. In despair they began precipitately to fly from danger 
 self-invoked. Emigration disintegrated the vital forces of the 
 nation. 
 
 Foremost among the emigrants, were the Count D'Artois and the 
 Prince de Oond6. Monsieur, in no personal danger, remained 
 
KEVOLUTION. 33 
 
 in Paris ; snpposing, that thougli the reformation waa more radical 
 than he had imagined, things were yet taking the course which he 
 desired. Like a philosopher, he watched his time, and in loving 
 intercourse with the brother whom he imagined himself destined 
 to supplant, abided the moment when the pressure of revolution 
 should render his throne no longer tenable. D'Artois removed, and 
 placed in opposition to the reforming nation, left no alternative in 
 case of regal vacancy but himself. The popularity derived from his 
 early advocacy of reform, and his connexion witli Mirabeau, still 
 continued ; and having the art to remain on good terms alike with 
 the king and people, he occupied for a considerable time the very 
 position most favorable for the accomplishment of his views. But, 
 as months passed on, and though the revolutionary movement con- 
 tinued unabated, gathering strength as it proceeded, Louis XVL 
 showed no signs of weakly flinching from personal danger by abdi- 
 cation. Monsieur seems to have grown impatient ; and, standing 
 between both parties, to have hoped by a coup Wetat to render 
 himself master of both. The conspiracy of which the Marquis de 
 Favras was the ostensible agent, had for its object no less bold 
 and sweeping measures than the destruction of Lafayette, Neckar, 
 and Baiiley, the abduction of the king to Perone, the proclamation 
 of the Count de Provence as Regent, an^ the denial of the legiti- 
 macy of the Dauphin and Madame Eoyale, on the evidence of the 
 documents formerly presented to the Assembly of Notables ; from 
 all which, if successful, there would have been but a short cut to 
 the actual possession of monarchical power by the Regent.* Now, 
 the evidence connecting Monsieur with this conspiracy is all but 
 conclusive. In the first place, the Marquis de Pavras had been an 
 officer in the household of the Count de Provence ; and, as the 
 whole scope of the conspiracy was to exalt the latter at the expense 
 of the most eminent men in the kingdom, it does not seem in any 
 
 * Moniteur, 20 Germinal, year Z. Ireland's, France, p. 237. 
 
 Lamartine Hist. Rest. toI. i. p, 255. 
 2* 
 
84 THK LOST PRINCE. 
 
 way likely, that a person in the suhordinate p&sition of Favrais 
 would have undertaken a project of such magnitude, without the 
 knowledge and consent of the party chiefly interested, and with whom 
 he stood at the time, as his agent, in the most intimate relation. 
 
 At the fery moment in which Favraa was preparing to carry his 
 project into execution, he was engaged — on the confessed authority 
 of the Count de Provence, for the fact was proved, and could not 
 be denied — to negotiate the loan of large sums of money. Favras 
 confessed his guilt, but refused to tell the names of his instigators 
 and accomplices ; hoping, as it would seem to the last, that those 
 who involved him in danger, would do what he felt they had the 
 power to do — extricate him from it. But, finding himself disap- 
 pointed in his just expectations, he broke out as the guillotine was 
 about to descend, in " muttered curses '' on some powerful accom- 
 plice who had thus left him to perish.* Posterity will incline to 
 , the belief, that the astute philosopher who had the audacity to 
 ask of the tribunal the pardon of Favras, perhaps the better to 
 keep him silent, at the very moment that he denied all knowledge 
 of his plot, though he admitted having employed him to negotiate a 
 loan, was not as innocent as he asserted, and as the judges, before 
 whom he voluntarily went with an imposing retinue, declared him 
 to be. 
 
 Lamartine attributes the acquittal of Monsieur at this critical mo- 
 ment less to his innocence than to the pride of the people and the 
 tribunal, at the unusual spectacle of a prince royal condescending 
 to plead his cause before them, and profess his adherence to demo- 
 cratic principles. One thing is clear — if history has not the power 
 of absolutely condemning him in this affair — she is equally power- 
 less to acquit him, for probabilities are all against him. He was 
 unprincipled enough for anything,'and had only one purpose in 
 life — self-aggrandisement. In June, 1791, the royal cause in France 
 had grown hopeless, and the transfer of authority from one mem- 
 ber of the Bourbon family to another, impossible. Monsieur, 
 
 * Lamartine, Hitt, Rest., vol, I. p. 235. 
 
REVOLUTION. 35 
 
 therefore, determined on emigration, wLich afforded the best 
 chance for the accomplishment of his designs. On the night in 
 •which liis brother set out on the fatal journey to Varennes, the 
 Count de Provence, leaving his wife to encounter all dangers unpro- 
 tected, fled from Paris, joined his mistress, the Countess de Balbi, and 
 with her hastened to Coblentz, the head-quarters of the royalists,* 
 which thenceforth became the centre of opposition to the authority 
 of Louis XVI., as uncompromising as that shown by the repub- 
 licans. Deplorable was the position of the king, after his return 
 from Varennes. A prisoner in his own palace, insulted and tram- 
 pled on by his subjects, he beheld his brothers on a foreign soil 
 collecting round them the ancient loyalty and chivalry of the 
 kingdom, bat, without consulting even his privately expressed 
 wishes, or regarding him as still invested with kingly authority. 
 The Count D'Artois had attempted to foment an European crusade 
 against republican France; but, though he received promises from 
 various courts, no active measures were taken ; and he had 
 finally established himself at Coblentz, to which place the princes 
 and nobility of Prance thronged from all quarters. Even before 
 the arrival of the Count de Provence, it had been proposed to 
 establish a regency, without the King's consent, in the person of one 
 of the emigrant princes ; and this may have accelerated his move- 
 ments to prevent the choice falling in his absence on his younger 
 brother. Ko sooner had he arrived, than he took on himself the 
 control of everything, and established a royal court surpassing in 
 magnificence those of the monarchs who visited Coblentz. With- 
 out proclaiming himself Regent he acted as king, distributed 
 among the emigrants, as the true source and fountain of honor, 
 crosses and military commissions, borrowed money from all who 
 had any, sent letters throughout France to the nobility who yet 
 remained, urging emigration, and threatened with forfeiture those 
 who hesitated to join his standard ; thus depriving Ms brother of 
 
 * Lamartlne, Hist. Rest., vol. i. p. 259. 
 
80 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 the countenance and presence of all ■who might aid him, and 
 leaving him in helpless solitude among his enemies. But, there 
 was no class of men -whom he more courted than the clergy, not 
 hecause he had any respect for religion — for his infidel principles 
 are well-known — but hecause he could use them as instruments.* 
 The bait which he held out was the promise of the restoration of 
 all confiscated ecclesiastical property. He also established a system 
 of agencies throughout the whole of Europe, by means of which 
 he had his creatures everywhere ; and, in proportion as the power 
 of the king declined at home, his grew abroad, and even spread in 
 secret throughout France, and in Paris itself, where he held, or ima- 
 gined himself to hold, from a safe distance, communication with the 
 revolutionary chiefs, and especially with Robespierre, who, there is 
 strong reason to believe, was often his unconscious instrument. 
 That he corresponded personally with Eobespierre is most certain, 
 since the late M. Genet saw a letter written by him to the latter. 
 " There is a time," said a writer of the period, " prescribed by 
 experience, when truth must be brought to light upon all occur- 
 rences; awaiting which period we can, nevertheless, pronounce 
 from proofs collected in various directions, this truth : tliat it was 
 from the exterior that Robespierre acted. He was surrounded by 
 the agents of Monsieur, who successively pointed out to him the 
 persons whose remorse of conscience gave that Prince cause of 
 fear; those who had penetrated his projects, and such as were not 
 favorable to his views." There were many, indeed, in all direc- 
 tions, who perceived the tendency which Monsieur was thus giving 
 to affairs.t The unfortunate Louis and his queen were tormented 
 with apprehensions that their wily brother — whose character they 
 well knew — would talce advantage of their condition,^ to set them 
 entu'ely aside ; and tlie tenor of his communications to them was 
 such as to show that he regarded himself as the centre of all hope 
 and power. They were to trust no one in France, bnt to rely 
 
 • Ireland's France, p. 2D0. t Lamartlne, Girondists, vol. i. p. 194; Ireland, p. 291. 
 i Iiamarline, Girondists, vol. i. pp. 1B4, 4S7. 
 
REVOLUTION. 
 
 SI 
 
 implicitly on hiin, and on the foreign aid wMoli he would bring, 
 and hence it -was evident that in case of a restoration, as tht 
 coQvulsions which had occurred would be attributed to the imbe- 
 cility of the king, so the revival of order would be placed to the 
 account of his brother, who, with popular consent, might retail 
 the throne instead of handing it back to its owner. And many of 
 the emigrants themselves, though compelled by circumstances tc 
 act in concert with Monsieur, yet feared, hated, and mistrusted 
 him. They knew him to be undoubtedly ambitious and intenselj 
 sel&h. " The only thing," says Lamartine, "in which he profound 
 ly helieved was himself, his hlood, his tradition, his right, his neces 
 sity. He adopted everything which could serve him,y And if thii 
 be not the character of a man ripe for all iniquity, I have learn 
 language and read history in vain. 
 
 But the interests of the great majority of emigrants — bishops 
 princes, nobility, oflSoers, inferior clergy, philosophers, politica 
 theorists, and writers — were so clearly bound up with those of thi 
 Count de Provence, who seemed alone able to conduct the wrecke( 
 vessel of their fortunes into a safe harbor, that, although there weri 
 not wanting those who openly accused him as being the author o: 
 every misfortune, yet the general feeling among them at this perioi 
 was, that the king had proved himself unfit for the crown, that 
 regency was necessary, and that Monsieur was the only person t 
 whom the regal authority should be delegated. The idea of pei 
 sonal legitimacy was subordinated, among royalists of eminence, t 
 that of proved capacity to reign, and they were willing to saerific 
 the letter of regality, provided they could insure the substance, an 
 regain their own footing and prerogative. Monsieur was at thi 
 time proclaimed Eegent, but the project was, through policy, abar 
 doned, and he contented himself, for the present, with exercisin 
 the power without continuing the name. " Louis XVl.," saj 
 Lamartine, "disapproved of emigration, and was not without 
 feeling of offence at his brother's intriguing abroad, sometimes i 
 his name, but without his wishes. He shrank from the idea o 
 
38 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 passing in the eyes of Europe for a prince in leading-strings, whose 
 ambitious brothers seized upon his rights in adopting his cause, and 
 stipulated for his interest -without his intervention. 
 
 " At Coblentz a regency was openly spoken of, and bestowed upon 
 the Count de Provence, and this regency, which had devolved on 
 a prince of the blood of emigration, whilst the king maintained a 
 struggle at Paris, greatly humiliated Louis XVI. and the queen. 
 This usurpation of their rights, although clothed in the dress of 
 devotion and tenderness, was even more bitter to them than the 
 outrages of the Assembly and the people. We always dread most 
 that which is nearest to us, and the triumph of the emigration only 
 pi-omised them a throne disputed by the Regent who had restored 
 it." 
 
 Until the acceptation of the new constitution, the king continued 
 a prisoner of state in the Tuileries, enjoying the mockery of respect 
 under the control of Lafayette. Barnarve, like Mirabeau at a for- 
 mer period, too late endeavored to repair the evils he had done, but 
 the clandestine meetings between him and his sovereigns may have 
 lent a merciful illusion to the dreary interval. The new constitu- 
 tion adopted and sworn to by the king, it seemed for a time as if 
 the bottom of the precipice had been safely reached, and the sur- 
 render of ancient prerogative might restore the king to the affec- 
 tion of his people. The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, 
 composed of men ripe in age and competent by experience for the 
 task of legislation, without capacity in its members for re-eleotioDj 
 from which, with Quixotic self-denial, they had debarred themselves, 
 handed over the task of government, or rather gave the power of 
 social demolition, to the Legislative Assembly, who, with the rash- 
 ness of youth, and the enthusiasm of theorists, proceeded to undo 
 all that their predecessors had, not without wisdom, accomplished. 
 Meanwhile the Clubs surpassing the Assembly in audacity, and the 
 brute masses exceeding the Clubs in violence, ushered in the reign 
 of anarchy, until, at length, on the arrival of the ferocious Marseil- 
 lais in Paris, on the 30th July, 1792, the hydra of ultra democracy 
 
CHUDHOOD. 39 
 
 gathered its strengtli for a last assault on everything which legisla- 
 tion had sanctioned, and on the 10th of the following month, the 
 painted skeleton of royalty, crumbled, at its first deadly touch, into 
 dust. 
 
 Falling dynasties, to expire with honor, should have heroes at 
 their head. Louis should have died in the Tnileries, but in those 
 corridors and courtyards the blood- of the slaughtered Swiss, loyal 
 in vain and martyrs to honor, finds a voice which, but for the sight 
 of a mother and her children, would bid us suspend our sympathy 
 for the fall of unheroio gi'eatness in the presence of a more costly 
 sacrifice. 
 
 The imprisonment of Louis threw all the remains of royal power 
 into the hands of his brother. As time advances, and the annals 
 and secret underplots of the Eevolution are more thoroughly under- 
 stood^ the character of De Provence will loom up into an evil 
 eminence, and History, in her classification of monarchs, will place 
 him on the same page which holds John and Eichard of England. 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 CHlLDnOOD. 
 
 (Louis Chaeles, the second son of Louis Xyi. and Marie An- 
 toinette, was born at Versailles, March 2T, 1785/ It had formerly 
 been the practice of the French court that the delivery of the 
 qneen should take place in public, but this needless cruelty had 
 been abolished in consequence of the danger incurred at the birth 
 of Madame Eoyale, and only the royal family and the chief offi- 
 cers of state were present on the occasion — ^witnesses enough to 
 testify that a prospective heir to the throne had entered the world. 
 But alas! how needless the precaution! (By a singular fatality, at 
 the very moment when the accoucheur proclaimed aloud the birth 
 of the Prince, a crown which ornamented the canopy of the 
 
40 THE lOST PRINCE. 
 
 queen's bedstead fell suddenly from its place, and rolled shattere 
 towards Marie Antoinette. Though little noticed at the tim( 
 subsequent events caused this incident to be viewed as a vivi 
 prognostic of the fate of the French monarchy under him wh 
 should be inheritor of its phantom royalty and broken crown.* 
 
 The child was baptized the same day by the Cardinal de Eohai 
 The Count de Prorence stood godfather and Madame Elizabet 
 was the representative, as sponsor, of the queen of the Two Siciliei 
 (He received the title of the Duke of Normandy, was decorafei 
 with the insignia of the order of the Holy Ghost, and fireworks 
 illuminations, popular acclamations, and royal bounties testified th 
 national joj^) 
 
 The republican element was already fermenting, and, nine day 
 after the birth of the child, a paper was read, before the royal acad 
 emy in Paris, advocating the novel idea that the title to the thron 
 rested on the will of the people. On the 24th May, Marie Antoi 
 nette returned public thanks to God for her safe delivery. The nex 
 year was signalized by the journey to Cherbourg. The infant duk 
 accompanied his father, and shared with him the popular acclama 
 tions wliich hailed his progress through his dominions, and espe 
 cially through the province from which he took his title. " Oom( 
 my little Normandy," exclaimed the enraptured king, "thy nam 
 brings happiness."t 
 
 Amid the inci'easing difficulties of the kingdom, two years o 
 domestic felicity succeeded — when, in the year 1788, the infan 
 princess Sophie died, a calamity which the queen always looke 
 upon as the first drop of the thunder shower. The opening of th 
 States General took place — and, on the eve of fresh domestic soi 
 row, and yet darker political troubles, superstition, by Strang 
 coincidence, contributed to cast its cloud over the future. For 
 wax candles were burning on the toilette table of the queen as sli 
 was sitting one evening, towards tlie end of May, conversing wit 
 
 • Memoirs of the Ducliess S'AngouISme, p. 10. t Beancheane, vol. i. p. 21. 
 
CHILDHOOD. 41 
 
 her ladies respecting the incidents of the day, and indulging ia 
 monrnfnl prognostications, when .in succession the lights hegan of 
 themselves to go out. When the third was extingnished " Misfor- 
 tune," said the queen, " has the power to make us superstitions ; 
 if the fourth taper go out like the rest, nothing can prevent my 
 looking upon it as a fatal omen." Tt went out — and though simple 
 natural causes were suggested to the queen, the unusual incident 
 r^ted on her spirits. 
 vThe Dauphin had for a long time been in a rickety and scrofulous 
 condition. Public opinion, always unjust to Marie Antoinette, 
 attributed the maternal affection with which she kept the child 
 from injurioas indulgences and amusements, to superior affection 
 for the robust, healthy and lovely little Duke of Xormandy. On 
 the 4th June, 1789, the young prince died at Meudon, only too 
 happy to escape thus early the troubles of his family. . The death of 
 the child was however made an occasion by the Tiers Etats for 
 exhibiting their disrespect for the king, and their growing encroach- 
 ments on the royal prerogative. The President of the Assembly 
 intruded almost forcibly into. the apartment where the king was 
 weeping over the remains, to ascertain the Prince's death. " Are 
 there no parents in the Tiers Etats?" said the indignant king. 
 The anxiety of the Assembly on this occasion strangely contrasts 
 with the apathy of the Convention in 1795, when informed of the 
 asserted death of the succeeding Dauphin. This child, now in the 
 fourth year of his age, was too young to have much sense of the 
 calamities which crowded on his parents — and, together with the 
 apparent title to a succession he was destined never to enjoy, was 
 made, by the death of his brother, the owner of a little pet dog 
 called Monfflet. The Bastile fell on the 14th Jane. On the succeed- 
 ing day the Dauphin made his first appearance, amid the stormy 
 scenes of the Revolution, in the balcony of the courtyard of Ver- 
 sailles, where the queen presented him to the people in her arms in 
 
 * Campan, vol. iL p. ST. 
 
42 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 obedience to the popular clamor, and in the hope to still "tlie tem- 
 pest of democracy by the presence of childhood. Vain hope! 
 "Here is that throne," said one of the creatures of the Duo 
 d'Orleans, as he looked up into the state room of the castle^ — " Here 
 is that throne, the vestiges of which will soon be sought in vain." 
 , The personal appearance of the young Prince at this time is 
 described by historians as of the most captivating character — and 
 in the pictures taken of Mm after his imprisonment in the Temple, 
 ■when confinement and disease had produced their terrible ravages 
 on his constitution and intellect, it is not easy to trace the infan* 
 tine beauty he possessed, when as yet the personal attraotionsj 
 derived from the combined blood of many kingly races, had only 
 been fostered by association Since infancy with the most refined 
 court in Europe, and all the ease and splendor of Versailles. It 
 must, indeed, have been an incomprehensible scene to the child as 
 for the first time he gazed upon the demoniac heavings of the wild 
 tempest of democracy, and felt — but knew not why — that tliose 
 he most loved, and (if whom he knew nothing but what could' 
 awaken love, were the objects on whom fell its concentrated; 
 rage. 
 
 His blonde flowing hair, fair open physiognomy, full of sense and 
 innocence, and finely-proportioned form, gave promise of both 
 beauty and vigor. One feature I must not overlook. There is a 
 marked discrepancy between the color of his eyes as described by 
 many historians, and as represented in the pictures which have 
 come down to us. The first say they were of a brilliant blue-r 
 whereas the latter, the most trustworthy witnesses, especially where 
 the artist is of the literal and unimaginative school, show them 
 to have been of a clear hazel — tinted perhaps slightly at the edges 
 with a bluish coloring, but having nothing of the deep clear azure 
 which enhance the aSrial beauty of Marie Antoinette by recalling 
 the hues of a southern sky. How far confinement and disease* may 
 
 * BeaucheBne, vol. il. p. 252. 
 
CHILDHOOD. 43 
 
 have contributed to modify the color of the eyes, is a question for 
 physicians to determine. 
 
 If the sayings and doings of most children in cultivated ranks of 
 society were carefully recorded, they would, I suppose, present about 
 the same level of intellect. Those which are handed down concern- 
 ing the Dauphin are in no way remarkable. Their interest consists 
 in the picture they present of the opening aspect of a life so soon 
 to be obscured by clouds. The queen was in the habit of playing 
 little airs upon the harp or guitar, as he lay amid the happy group 
 at evening by her side, and, on one occasion, she accompanied the 
 music with the words — 
 
 *' Sleep, my child, and cloye thine eyelids, 
 For thy cries disturb my heart. 
 Sleep, my child, for thy poor mother 
 Feels affliction's keenest dart." 
 
 At the words, "thy poor mother," and the allusion to sorrow, he 
 seemed touched ; and, reclining on the couch, gazed silently and 
 intently on the queen. Madame Elizabeth, misled by his silence, 
 cried out, " the best of it is, that Charles is sleeping." 
 
 " Ah, my dear aunt," was the I'eply, " how can I sleep when 
 listening to Mama Eeine ?"* 
 
 What a contrast between the peaceful evenings at St. Oloud and 
 the long, dark nights of solitude and alHiction in the Temple. 
 
 There is more point in another anecdote. One day, in the garden 
 at Bagatelle, he threw himself, with the waywardness of a child, 
 into the midst of a rose-bush, and, on an attendant warning him of 
 the danger he ran of tearing out his eyes, he exclaimed, " thorny 
 paths lead to glory !" 
 
 " My child," said the queen, when she heard his reply, " the 
 maxim you have cited is true, but your application of it is not 
 just. There is no glory in tearing your eyes out. Were you to 
 
 * Beauchesne, vol. i, p. 26. 
 
44 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 expose yourself to destroy some pemiciona animal, or protect som 
 fellow creature from danger, that might "be called glory. But, befor 
 you again speak of glory, wait till yoa have read the histories of D 
 •Guesclin, Bayard, and Turenne, who shed their blood for France. 
 
 Blushing for his folly, he kissed her hand, and said, "Dea 
 mamma, it shall be my glory to obey you."* 
 
 On another occasion, having hidden a flute belonging to on 
 of the pages in a chink in the terrace, the queen, to punish hitr 
 confined his dog, MouflBet, as his accomplice. Distressed by th 
 cries of the animal, he implored his release. " It is not Monffli 
 who did it. It 'is not Moufflet who should suffer." At his ow 
 request he was confined and the dog liberated ; and, when again s£ 
 free, immediately restored the flute with apologies to the owner. 
 
 The following incident occurred after the flight to Varennes, bo 
 may be mentioned here. Before going to his little garden at th 
 Tuileries, he exercised himself in the management of a light gun 
 At the moment of departure, the oflBoer of the National Guard o: 
 service said to him, " Monsiegneur, before you go out give up you 
 gun." He stoutly refused, and on being reproved by his governesi 
 replied, " If monsieur had asked me to give him my gun, it woul 
 have been well. But, he said, give it up." " Always quick an 
 blunt," said the king — " but I am glad to perceive that he knows tli 
 value of words and feels the propriety of terms."t 
 
 These anecdotes may serve to give some idea of the natural di 
 position of the child during his happiest days, and show a charai 
 tor which, under proper culture, promised to manifest the be 
 fruits. \He appears to have been affectionate, thoughtful, bold, at 
 endowed with a quick se^e, of his own rights, and what jasti( 
 demanded in respect of other?) 
 
 His chief employment, during his brief space of happiness at Ve 
 sailles, was in the cultivation of his flower garden, that he migl 
 be able to present bouquets to " Mama Beine." But the time hi 
 
 * Beaucliesne, vol. I. p.W. t Beauchesce, vol. 1, p. SO. 
 
CHILDHOOD. 45 
 
 amved •when these delights of childhoocl were to be surrendered. 
 The 2d Oct., 1789, ia memorable for the entertainment impru- 
 dently given to the body-guard at Versailles. The heart-intoxioa- 
 tion of the royalist chivalry was at its height, and the Dauphin as 
 he entered the festal chamber, holding his mother's hand, was greet- 
 ed with the wildest acclamations of delight — and there can be no bet- 
 ter proof of the insane joy of the assembled soldiers, than the suicide 
 of one of the body-guard out of remorse for previous feelings of dis- 
 loyalty. 
 
 A different scene did the Chateau of Versailles present to the 
 eyes of the child, who must have been bewildered by these inex- 
 plicable changes, when the bi'ute rabble assailed the ancient dwelling 
 of their kings, and his mother narrowly escaped the knives plunged 
 into her just vacated bed. Then came the hideous journey to Paris 
 amid troops and sans-culottes, and women, and cannon, and dust, 
 and blood, and gory heads, and curses, and insults. The Tuileries 
 had been uninhabited for more than a century, and presented a 
 desolate and dismantled appearance to the Prince, accustomed to 
 the freshness and splendor of Versailles. " How ugly everything 
 is here, mamma," he said, as they entered. To which the afflicted 
 mother replied — " Louis XIV. lodged here, my son, and was well 
 satisfied. We should not be more difficult to accommodate than he." 
 
 Kotwithstanding the rapid increase of political troubles, the 
 king and queen were diligent in the oversight of their children's 
 education — and the Dauphin, by this time, had made considerable 
 progress in his studies. He was still under the care of a governess 
 — but the Abb6 Davaux, of whom he was very fond, acted as his 
 private tutor. No sooner were they settled in their new abode, 
 than the routine of careful study was recommenced, and the marks 
 of thought and proficiency exhibited by the Prince, afforded his 
 parents some consolation under the pressure of political troubles. 
 The day after the arrival in Paris, hearing a noise in the court- 
 yard — and, afraid of another popular outbreak — ^he exclaimed, 
 > " Good God, mamma, has yesterday come again TS 
 
46 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 A few days after, his father, perceiving that he looked very 
 thoughtful, inquired what occupied him? — on which he asked, in a 
 serious and aflfectionate manner, why the people of France, who 
 formerly loved him so well, were now so exasperated against him? 
 The reply of the king is memorable, affording a happy instailce of 
 the manner in which the most complicated events can be conveyed 
 to childish apprehension, and also exhibiting the simple view 
 which the king himself took of the Revolution. " I wished, my 
 child, to render the people still happier'than they were. I wanted 
 money to pay the expenses occasioned by wars. I asked my people 
 for money, as my predecessors had always done. Magistrates com- 
 posing the parliament opposed it, and said that the people alone 
 had a right to consent to it. I assembled the principal inhabitants of 
 every town, whether distinguished by birth, talents, or fortune, at 
 Versailles. That is what is called the States General. When th6y 
 were assembled, they required concessions of me, which I conld not 
 make, either with due respect for myself, or with justice to yoB, 
 who will be my successor. Wicked men, inducing the people to 
 rise, have occasioned the excesses of the last few days. The peo- 
 ple must not be blamed for them."* He was easily made to see the 
 necessity of showing an obliging spirit to all the public ofiBoerg 
 with whom he came in contact, and after conversing with any of 
 thenj^ would say to his mother, " Was that right?" 
 VThe people in general — and even the members of the Assembly — 
 entertained respect and love for the child, the danger and difB- 
 oulties of whose position none conld fail to perceive, and few conld 
 refrain from pitying. Never were the popular acclamations, during 
 temporary lulls in the tempest, more heartfelt and sincere, than 
 when the royal parents presented themselves in company with their 
 child. Then, whether in the presence of the Assembly or the 
 mob, the air was rent with the cries of "Vive le Eoi ! — Vive la 
 Beinel — Vive M. le Dauphin!" 0, France! France! thou art a 
 
 * Caitiipaii, vol. 11. p. T3. 
 
CHILDHOOD, 47 
 
 strange land — variable as the sky or sea, and presenting some fea- 
 tures of the angel when most the demon. 
 
 Deprived of his recreation in the spacious gardens of Versailles, 
 he had given to him as a substitute a little spot of ground near the 
 Tuileries. "It is this same garden," says Beauohesne, "changed, 
 renewed, enlarged, that at a later period Napoleon consecrated to 
 the King of Rome, Charles X. to the Duke of Bordeaux, and Louis 
 Philippe to the Count de Paris. How man^ thoughts are awakened 
 by this little spot of ground, so soon abandoned by its young pro- 
 prietors." There is indeed a melancholy interest attached to it. 
 Here the Dauphin amused himself with raising flowers to present as 
 of old to his mother — and as, in his visits to the garden he was 
 usually accompanied by a detachment of the National Guard, he 
 himself assumed their uniform. \ It was this which probably led to 
 the formation <jf a little regiment of hoys, which gloried in the title 
 of the " Koyal Dauphin," of which the Prince was appointed hono- 
 rary colonel. The design of the king in giving his consent to 
 this ^heme, was to take advantage of the popular feeling in favor 
 of the Dauphin, and in this he for a time succeeded. 
 
 "The Eoyal Dauphin" became a general favorite. Recruits 
 were readily obtained, and after a few weeks' drilling, they took 
 their place among the troops of the line and acquired a semi-poli- 
 tical importance! Parisian wit indeed not inappropriately dubbed 
 it "The Royal Bonbon" — but it survived the satire — ^though at 
 length disbanded on account of difficulties which arose from the 
 formation of similar corps leading to jealousies, conflicts, duels and 
 wounds — until parents protested against so serious an amuse- 
 ment, and " The Royal Dauphin " was seen ho more — ^having how- 
 ever taken part in the funeral solemnities of Mirabeau and joined 
 with its little tambonrins in beating the " g6n6rale."* 
 
 The year 1790 was spent by the royal family between the 
 Tuileries and the palace at St. Cloud — and during this period of 
 
 Beauehetne, tpI. (. p. 64. 
 
48 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 domestic quiet the advancement of the Dauphin -vvas rapid in his 
 different branches of study, and the healthfulness of his constitu- 
 tion, and the robustness of his form, were daily on the increase, 
 lie presented no sign of the scrofulous disease of which his brother 
 had died, and never at any period had more than an incipient 
 tendency to it. 
 
 The next important incident in his life was the flight to Varen- 
 nes on the 21st June, 1791. For many months projects of escape 
 had been agitated among the royal family and their friends, but in 
 agreement with the fatality and fatuity which seemed to attend all 
 their plans, the favorable period of escape was allowed to pass, and 
 the time chosen when all France was alive with suspicion. 
 
 Let us look at this event in the point of view in which it appeared' 
 to the Dauphin himself. Roused out of sleep in the middle of the 
 night, he found himself dressed in girl's clothes — and all the family 
 were in some masquerade disguise. " What do you think of all 
 this?" said his sister as she equipped him. "I suppose we are 
 all going to the theatre." — He was carried down a secret stairway 
 into the street. It was midnight. The party separated into twos 
 and threes. He was put into a carriage, and fell asleep amid the 
 mutual congratulations of the family. The morning broke, the 
 weather was fine, the country lovely, and all the party in good 
 spirits. The comedy was complete. The king was a valet, the 
 queen a governess, and the Dauphin transformed intothe daughter 
 of the Bardness de Koff, and rejoiced in the name of Aglse. 
 
 But it was again night, and there was difficulty and danger. 
 They had lost their way. They descended from the carriage and 
 wandered about by tlie light of a lantern — returned to the vehicle, 
 drove on, were stopped, questioned, forced to alight — then there 
 were crowds, oonfusion, altercation and dismay, in the midst of 
 which the poor child dropped asleep in a strange dark room. 
 When he again awoke his sister said to him, " O, Charles — ^youhave 
 deceived yourself — this is no comedy!" "I have seen that for a 
 long time," he replied. 
 
CHILDHOOD. 49 
 
 Again he was in a carriage, and two strange gentlemen were added 
 to the company. One was kind and polite, and protected them 
 from insult and abase, and the cliild in gratitude clambered upon 
 his knees. — He was once more in Paris, in his old apartment in 
 the Tnileries — And such, to the Dauphin, was the flight to, and 
 return from, Varennes. Merciful ignorance of reality, which hides 
 from childhood the calamities of life. Worth a thousand pages of 
 philosophising is the following from Bertrand de Molleville, relative 
 to a period not long posterior to this : — 
 
 " While the queen spoke to me, the little BaupMn, beautiful as an 
 angel, amused himself with singing and dancing in the apartment, with a 
 httle sabre of wood and a buckler, which he, held on Kia arm. They came 
 to call him to supper, and in two bounds he was at the door. 
 
 " ' My son,' said the queen, ' do you go out without bowing to M. Ber- 
 trand ?' 
 
 " ' 0, mamma,' said the child, continuing to dance, ' M. Eertrand is 
 one of our best friends, good evening, M. Bertrand,' and he sprang out of 
 the apartment. 
 
 " ' Ii»he not handsome ?' said the queen, when he had gone out. 
 
 " ' He is very happy,' I added, ' to be so young. He feels none of our 
 sorrows, and his happiness does us good." ' 
 
 During the fourteen months which intervened between the 
 return from Varennes and the final catastrophe at the Tnileries, 
 there is little particularly deserving of record in this brilliant but 
 hapless childhood. When the mob defiled through the palace on 
 the 20th June, the Prince, seated on a table in front of his mother, 
 and half smothered with a red cap, served, as a safeguard for her in 
 the perils of the hour. 
 
 But, with the exception of snch occasional inconveniences, whilst 
 the faintest shadow of royalty remained, it was to the children of 
 the kipg as if his power stood on a base like the Pyramids. Shel- 
 tered from the mental anxiety which wrung the hearts of his 
 parents, and which in one hour at Vai'ennes had bleached the hair 
 of Marie Antoinette into the whiteness of snow, the Prince conti- 
 
 8 
 
50 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 nued to enjoy all the happiness which his age permitted, and to 
 develops alike in strength and mental activity. Under the care of 
 the Abb6 Davaux he made great progress, and wrote a good hand. 
 The life he led was calculated to expand his faculties, and impart 
 an unusual facility of acquirement. One example of depth of thought 
 remarkable in a child will serve to close the record of his happiest 
 days. While reading in the fifth book of Telemachus, the questions 
 proposed by the Cretans to the candidates for the throne, when 
 electing a king, he came to the second question, " Who is the 
 most unfortunate of men ?" " Let me," he said, " reply to this 
 question, as if I were Telemachus. The most unhappy of men 
 is a king who has the misfortune to see that his subjects do not 
 obey his laws." 
 
 The 10th of August came at last, and all was dismay and anguish 
 in the Tuileries. The Prince, in company with the king, queen, 
 Madame Elizabeth, and bid sister, passed through the ranks of the 
 National Guard, and then the whole 'party returned into the palace, 
 where the chambers were filled with military, and looked from the 
 windows upon the mingled throng of soldiers and people in the 
 gardens and streets below. Then there was confusion and alarm, 
 women hurrying hither and tliitber in helpless dismay — sounds of 
 conflict, rage, despair, in the midst of which the Prince was led by 
 his parents, through the ranks of the grenadiers, into the chamber 
 of the Assembly. He was no longer heir to a throne. The next 
 change was to a little green-papered cell in the monastery of the 
 Fenillans, Where the royal family awaited transmission to their 
 memorable prison with which we are chiefly concerned— the 
 Temple. 
 
THE ORPHANS. SJ 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE OEPHANS. 
 
 On the 10th August, 1792, the king and royal family took refuge 
 from the violence of the mob in the chamber of the National 
 Assembly. They were placed in the reporters' box — a small enclo- 
 sure, exposed to the burning heat of the sun. During the exciting 
 sitting they remained without refreshment, while the work of car- 
 nage went on without. The Dauphin fell asleep on his mother's 
 lap. Late in the night they were transferred to the monastery of 
 the Feuillans. Destitute of everything, linen was supplied to them 
 by their friends — and the wife of the English ambassador. Lady 
 Gower Sutherland — sent, for the use of the Dauphin, the clothes 
 of her son, who was a child of about the same age. They conti- 
 nued at the monastery until 13th August, when, by the order of the 
 Commune, they were transferred to the Temple. They were at 
 first taken to the portion of it called the palace, formerly inhabit- 
 ed by the Count D'Artois. At night they were transferred to 
 tkeir final prison in the Tower. "Your master," said a municipal 
 officer to one of the king's attendants, " was used to guilt ceilings — 
 he shall now see how the assassins of the people are lodged." 
 
 The following brief outline of the imprisonment of the royal 
 family divides itself into three parts : 
 
 1. From 13th August, 1T92, to the execution of Louis XVL,.on 
 21st January, 1793. 
 
 2. From thence to the execution of Marie Antoinette, October 
 16, 1793. 
 
 3. From the death of the queen to June 8, 1795, when the 
 Dauphin disappeared from the Tower, and was asserted to have 
 died. 
 
 The present chaptei* will contain a brief examination of the first 
 
52 THE LOST FRIKC& 
 
 two periods, in which I shall confine myself to those points which 
 enter into the general argument. 
 
 The Tower of the Temple — one of the most ancient and remark- 
 ahle huildings in Paris — was erected by the Knights Templar, 
 about the year 1200, and was designed as the treasury and arsenal 
 of the order. It consisted of a massive square tower one hundred 
 and fifty feet high, the walls of which were more than nine feet 
 thiclc. It was flanlied at the angles by four circular turrets, and 
 had on the north side a small stone building — attached to it, 
 but without internal communication — called the little tower, 
 naving similar turrets of lesser dimensions at the angles — ^while the 
 whole series of compacted structures were crowned with coniGsI 
 caps, and presented an appearance of stern gloomy strength in 
 keeping with the men and times that reared them. 
 
 This building had been the theatre of much of the heroismi 
 crime, magnificence, luxury, and tragic suiFering which are blended 
 in the history of the priestly linights of Jerusalem. It was now 
 dismantled and desolate, and converted into the sepulchre of a 
 dynasty. During the repair of the principal tower, the royal 
 family were temporarily placed in the little tower — the queen and 
 ladies occupying the second story, and the king and his attendants 
 the third.* 
 
 The fall from the height of royalty had been sudden and terrible. 
 But it found the king, formed by nature and education to act 
 the martyr, prepared to meet it with calmness and dignity. Ha 
 experienced some little regret at having made no effort to suppress 
 the insurrection, but solaced himself with the thought that he was 
 not responsible for the blood that had been shed. He knew there 
 was now no escape from death. The policy pursued by the Oonnt 
 de Provence had left" him alone in the midst of his enemies. The 
 royalists were all gathered round his brother at Ooblentz. From 
 the moment of entering the Temple, he began his preparation for 
 
 * Olery, 
 
THE ORPHANS. 63 
 
 death. The name of Charles I. was frequently on his lips. There 
 was providentially a library of some fifteen hundred volumes 
 in the tower, which formed a solace for his captivity, but he kept 
 his eye chiefly on the record of the suflferings of the martyr 
 king. 
 
 The queen, but for her children, would, withont a sigh, have 
 died in the Tnileries. She likewise was well awaire that death 
 awaited her, and, though hope might occasionally revive, looked 
 steadily to this as the consummation. 
 
 The fate of their children after their own decease, must have 
 both occupied the thoughts of the unfortunate pair and form- 
 ed the subject of conversation between them. The Dauphin was 
 necessarily the chief object of their anxiety. Madame Eoyale was 
 shielded by her sex and the saliqUe law. The king did not for a 
 moment contemplate the forfeiture of his son's right to the throne. 
 To the last he aimed at transmitting the princely inheritance 
 to him with all. its dangers, and trained his mind for this end, look- 
 ing forward to the hour when France would right itself. 
 
 It is remarkable that, on the 10th August, he did not adopt so 
 obvious an expedient for personal escape as abdication. Had he 
 retired into private station, even at that late hour, he might have 
 been saved. But he could not do this without sacrificing the 
 future interests of his son. The nation would have required of him 
 a dynastic surrender — and, on the other hand, the effect of abdica- 
 tion would have been to throw all power into the hands of his 
 brother, whose ambition he well knew, and whose designs he dis- 
 trusted. He chose rather to run all hazards, and permit power to 
 be wrested from him with life, than to jeopard the succession of his 
 son. 
 
 Freed from the cares of government, he applied himself reli- 
 giously to the task of educating his child. From the moment the 
 royal family entered the Temple, a routine of life was established, 
 which, occasionally interrupted by sickness or unusual calamity, 
 "continued to be observed while they remained together. Partiou- 
 
54 Tare lost prince. 
 
 lar seasons were set apart for devotion, study, rest, and recreation. 
 From ten till one was given by the king and queen to the educa- 
 tion of their children. The Dauphin possessed intelligence preco- 
 ciously developed, great facility of acquisition, and a remarkably 
 retentive memory. History and geography formed his principal 
 studies— and the latter was taught hiin according to the new divi- 
 sion of France. In the evening, the instruction of the Dauphin was 
 continued. 
 
 The massacres of September broke in upon their calm and not 
 unhappy life, but the usual routine was soon resumed. At the 
 latter end of that month they were removed to thfe great tower, 
 and as this was the scene of the Dauphin's long confinement, we 
 must enter into the details of the arrangements. 
 
 The enormous and massive pile was divided into four stories, 
 having a large central pillar mounting as high as the floor of the 
 fourth story, which rested on its supreme capital. The walls were 
 between nine and ten feet thick, and the space which they enclosed 
 nearly thirty-six feet square. The ground floor presented bare 
 walls, and was devoid of all ornament, except the elegant carving 
 of the capital, arches, and columns. It was devoted — togeth^ 
 with the apartments in three of the turrets — to the municipal offi- 
 cers on service in the Temple. 
 
 In the fourth turret was a spiral staircase, which ran unintermpt^ 
 edly to the top of the building — and, at each of the landings, were 
 two doors, one of oak and one of iron. The relative position of this 
 staircase and the different suites of apartments must be borne in 
 mind, as it shows how communication could be held with the 
 upper stories without the knowledge or suspicion of persons occu- 
 pying the other chambers. The first story resembled the ground 
 floor, and was occupied by the guard, who stacked their arms 
 around the central column. Provided the sentry was gained over, 
 any changes could be effected by the municipal officers without the 
 knowledge of the soldiers, when confined within the massive 
 walls of the guard-room. The second story was divided into font 
 
THE ORPHANS. 55 
 
 chambers, and was devoted to the king, the Daophin, and their 
 attendants. The apartments were warmed in winter by a central 
 stove. 
 
 In the third story, similarly divided, resided the queen, and the 
 other female members of her household. The fourth story, 
 destitute of the piUai- which ran through all the others, presented 
 a vast open hall, and was used, together with the gallery opening 
 from it, and running round the exterior of the building, for exercise 
 — although the spaces in the battlements were filled up with close 
 lattice-work, to prevent any communication by signals between the 
 captives and persons outside. 
 
 [During all the trials to which the royal family had for years been 
 sulyeoted. the health of the Dauphin had remained unimpaired, 
 and at theHime of going to the Temple he was in the very 
 height of his beauty, strength, and elastic vigor. But long con- 
 finement, notwithstanding all the precautions taken by his parents 
 to keep him in exercise, began now sensibly to wear upon bis 
 spiri^ 
 
 In the beginning of December it was determined to bring the 
 king to trial — but as yet the royal family were kept in suspense 
 concerning the time and method of proceeding. With a patient 
 heroism above praise, they continued to the last the routine which 
 they had established at the beginning of their captivity. On the 
 11th, the king and Dauphin went as usual at nine o'clock to break- 
 fast with the queen, and though various indications showed that a 
 crisis was approaching, Louis, with calm demeanor, retired with his 
 eon to his apartment. They amused themselves for awhile with a 
 game of chance. The number sixteen was invariably unfortunate 
 with the Dauphin. " I cannot" he exclaimed, "get beyond sixteen."* 
 The coincidence seemed sensibly to affect the king. fHe was hear- 
 ing him read when the commissioners entered to take the boy away. 
 Louis tenderly embraced him and they parted. The child had 
 
 ' Clei7. 
 
56 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 repeated the last lesson to the father. Out to the heart, the 
 Tinfortunate man continued for half an hour leaning his head «Jn his 
 hand in speechless dejection^ 
 
 At one o'clock on the same day he was brought to trial at the 
 bar of the Convention. Into the particulars of this long and 
 niemorable process, the end of which was determined from the 
 beginning, I will not enter. For the second tirae in history a sove- 
 reign stood for judgment at the bar of his people. The most inno- 
 cent of rulers was offered as a sacrifice for the sins of generations.' 
 The trial was atill in progress, on Christmas day, when Louis shut 
 himself up in his cabinet, and wrote his will. It is a document 
 which must claim a place even in this brief summary, for it affords 
 evidence of the mind of the king, in reference to his brothers, than 
 which no direct accusation could speak more eloquently at the 
 bar of posterity. 
 
 I give it for brevity's sake in the abridged shape ia which it 
 appears in the pages of Lamartine — nothing being omitted but 
 some unimportant formalities of expression. It ran thus : ' 
 
 " I, Louis, XVI. of that name, king of France, confined for four months 
 with my family in the tower of the Temple, at Paris, by those who were 
 my subjects, and deprived during eleven days, of all communication with 
 even my family, and moreover implicated in a tiial, the issue of which it 
 is impossible to foresee, on account of the passions of men, having no one 
 save God as a witne.ss of my thoughts, or to whom I can address myself— 
 declare here in His presence my last wishes and sentiments. I bequeath 
 my soul to God my Creator, and pray He may receive it into Hia mercy for 
 Christ's sake. I die in the faith of the Church, anc^ obedience to its deci- 
 sions. I pray God to forgive me all my sins. I have striven to remember 
 and detest them, and to humble myself before Him. I beg all those whom 
 I have involuntarily injured (for I do not remember ever having wilfully 
 injured any one) to forgive me the evil they believe I have done them. I 
 request all men who have any charity, to unite their prayers to mine. I 
 pardon, from the bottom of my heart, all those who have become my ene- 
 mies without ray ever giving them any motive, and I pray God to pardon 
 
THE OEPHANS. ST 
 
 tiiem, as well as those who. from n, false or mistaken zeal, have done me 
 much harm I reoonunend to God my wife and children, my brothers, and 
 all those attached to me by ties of blood, or any other manner. I pray 
 God to look with compassion on my wife, children, and sister, who for a 
 long time have suffered with me, and to support them if they lose me, and 
 BO long as they remain in this world. I recommend my children to my 
 wife, whose affection for them I have never doubted. I also pray her to 
 teach them to look upon the grandeurs of the world, if they should be con- 
 demned to suffer them, only as dangerous and temporary possessions, and 
 to turn their thoughts to the only real and durable glories of eternity. I 
 pray my sister to continue to show the same tenderness to my children, 
 and to replace their mother should they have the misfortune to lose her. 
 I pray my ^lofe to forgive me all the misfortunes she suffers on my account, 
 and the sorrow I may have caused her in the course of my life, as she may 
 be certain that I forgive her all, if she fancied she had anything where- 
 with to reproach herself. I recommend my children, after their duty to 
 God — which is before all, to remain always united among themselves, to 
 obey their mother, grateful for all the care she has taken of them, and in 
 memory of myself. I pray them to look upon ray sister as ii. second 
 mother. I recoimnend my son, if he has the misfortune to become king, to 
 remember that he owes himself to the happiness of his fellow citizens, to 
 forget all hatred and resentment, and especially that which relates to the 
 misfortunes and sorrows I now undergo. Let him remember that he can 
 only make his subjects happy by reigning according to the laws — ^but that 
 a king can only cause the laws to be respected, and do all the good he 
 wishes, so long as he possesses the necessary power j but that when the 
 contrary occurs, being thwarted in his actions, and inspiring no respect, he 
 is more injurious than useful. I conclude by declaring before God, and 
 ready to appear in His presence, that I am iimocent of all the crimes laid 
 to my chai'ge. 
 
 " Written in duplicate at the Tower of the Temple, December, 25th, 
 1'752. "Louis." 
 
 At the moment the king penned this sublime and touching 
 testament, the Count de Provence and the Count D'Artois at the 
 head of then- respective courts, were maintaining the splendor 
 
 S* 
 
68 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 and exercising the functions of royalty among their adherents. In 
 appearance, as well as by the ties of blood, they were the props on 
 which the youthful Prince would seem compelled to lean. But 
 though the king includes his brothers in the general prayer for all 
 those united to him by kindred, or in any other way, he poiutedijr 
 omits their names from all those portions of his will where it would 
 have been natural to mention them. At the beginning of the 
 document he shows, by retaining the title of -Louis XVL, that he 
 has not relinquished his own claim to the throne. But instead of 
 commending his son to the care of his uncles, as guardians of his 
 rights, he pointedly passes them by, and entrusts him solely to the 
 imprisoned queen, assigning emphatically as a reason, that he had 
 never doubted her aflfection — and in case of the queen's death, he 
 commits the guardianship of his children to his sister. But there 
 is no intimation that in any event he expects anything from his 
 brothers. 
 
 So marked an omission, under such circumstances, cannot he 
 explained on any probable ground but this, that he distrusted 
 them, and knew, from past experience, that their efforts, for the res- 
 toration of monarchy in France, were designed for their own bene- 
 fit, and not for that of him and his family He had no confidence 
 that they would respect the rights of his child, and therefore com- 
 mitted him to the care of two feeble, imprisoned women. The 
 Substitution of the Princess Elizabeth as guardian for his son in case 
 of the queen's death, is most marked and emphatic. 
 
 The last days of Louis XVI. have been chronicled by the ablest 
 pens of France and England. It does not enter into the scope of 
 my design to speak of them in detail. The historic drama is one 
 which holds us breathless though read a hundred times. We know 
 full well the tragic truth — yet scarcely c&n we refrain indulging a 
 fleeting hope as we mingle in fancy with the pale and weeping 
 group in the Temple — or picture the majestic martyr nightly con- 
 ferring with his heroic eounsel, or exchanging, with the fondness 
 of a lover, clandestine letters with those whom he is only to meet 
 
TnE ORPHANS. 69 
 
 once more before the long, long parting of death. We can sympa- 
 thize with the emotions in the chamber wliere the dread struggle 
 is going on — we can enter into the deep scorn of Robespierre as 
 Verniaud belies by his vote the eloquence still reverberating in the 
 air, and hear him hiss to his neighbor, " These are yoar orators " — 
 or feel the dead chill silence, of horror and disgust, as PhUlip of 
 Orleans gives his voice for death. 
 
 I Baf, the saddest and the most heoi't-rending scene of all is that 
 with which the painter's art has made us most familiar — the sepa- 
 ration of the dying king and his family. And this, too, was the 
 first deep sorrow of the Dauphin's life. Children do not grieve at 
 the exchange from palaces to poverty. His health might suffer 
 from confinement, but the happiest place on earth for him was the 
 prison chamber of his parents. In the midst of the terror of the 
 10th of August, the queen had made the little fellow happy by pro- 
 mising, as a reward for his presence of mind, that he should sleep 
 in her room. It was when he hung in agony to the venerated 
 form of his father, while his other relatives were fainting or weep- 
 ing around, that the Dauphin first entered into the shadow of the 
 cloud which was to go on increasing in darkness until it finally 
 left him in the merciful midnight of prostrated intellect^ 
 \ At this time he was sufficiently old and intelligent to feel 
 the full bitterness of a bereavement which has had few parallels 
 on earth — and his acutely sensitive nature, at that tender age 
 must have received a severe shock by the loss of his parent, his 
 preceptor, his friend, his companionl Terrible was the tension 
 of feeling with which the bereaved family waited the next morning 
 for the promised interview, at the moment of death, which Louis, 
 witli a loving self-denial, forbore to grant. Charles the First, by his 
 calm heroism on the scafiibld, assured the restoration of his family 
 to the throne of England — and Louis, treading with equal fortitude 
 in his steps, would have achieved the same end in respect to the 
 sovereignty of France, but for the brutality which first bereft his 
 child of reason, and the dark intrigue which, under the show <■ 
 
60 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 kindness, removed liim, as probability indicates, from the country 
 he would otherwise have governed. 
 
 I have no doubt, that Lamartlne's judgment of the Count de 
 Provence, is correct — that he loved his brother as much as it was 
 possible for him to love any one ranking above him — and can easily 
 conceive, that the blow which laid the discrowned head of Louis in 
 the dust, occasioned him as much sorrow as it was possible for him 
 to feel for any event, which removed the chief apparent obstacle 
 between him and the throne. But, that he dreamed of permitting 
 a helpless child to remain a perpetual barrier between him and the 
 prize so long coveted, and so nearly his, is an idea which cannot 
 be entertained by any fair estimate of the probable motives and 
 aims of such a character. 
 
 Hitherto, the royalist party, notwithstanding the efforts of De 
 Provence and his adherents, had steadily resisted his assuming the 
 title of Begent — and the pity with which the tragic death of the 
 king had filled all hearts, forbade any attempt to do more than 
 adopt that dignity now. Had Monsieur, in the face of the indig- 
 nant sorrow of Europe, dared to assail, openly, the title of the 
 young Prince to a throne that lay in ruins, it would have for ever 
 defeated his ambitious designs. No course remained for him but to 
 acquiesce nominally in the general sentijnentj and seek to accom- 
 plish his wishes in a more covert manner. | So soon, therefore, as 
 he received tidings of the execution of his brother, and while still 
 at Ham, in Westphalia, he issued the following proclamation. 
 This was on the 28th January, 1792 : — 
 
 " Louis Stanislaus Xavier de France, son of France, uncle of the king, 
 Regent of the kingdom, to all those to whom these letters shall come, 
 greeting : — 
 
 " Penetrated with horror, on learning that the most criminal of men 
 have crowned their numerous outrages, by the greatest offence, we hava 
 first implored heaven to obtain his assistance to surmount the sentiments 
 of a profound grief, and the movements of our indignation j so that we 
 may be nble to deliver ourselves to the accomplishment of the duties 
 
THE ORPHANS. 61 
 
 wMclu in circumstances so grave, are tlie iirst in the order of those which 
 the immutable lau>3 of the French monarchy impose ttpon us. 
 
 " Our most dear, and most honored brother and sovereign lord, the 
 King. Louis XVI., of that name, having died on the 21st of the present 
 month of January, under the parricidal steel which the ferocious usurpers 
 of the sovereign authority in I'rance have brought upon his august 
 person : — 
 
 pWe declare, that the Dauphm,1!iouis Charles, born 27th March, 1785, 
 is King of France and Navarre, under the name of Louis XYIL, and that, 
 hy the right of birth^ as well as hy the disposition of tlie fundarnental hews 
 of the h/ngdoTn^ we are and tvill he Regent of France^ during the 
 m/inority of the hing^ our nephew, and lordj 
 
 '' Invested in this equality, with the exercise of the rights and powers of 
 sovereignty, and of the superior ministry of royal justice, we, in taking 
 charge, being bound to arajuit our obligations and duties, to the effect of 
 employing, with the aid of God, the assistance of the good and loyal 
 ■ French of all orders of the kingdom, and of the recognized power of the 
 sovereign allies of the crown of France, do pledge themselves, 
 
 " 1st. To the liberation of the king, Louis XVIL, oar nephew. 2d. Of 
 the queen, hi.s august mother and nurse ; of the princess, his sister, our very 
 dear niece ; of the Princess Elizabeth his aunt, our very dear sister ; all 
 detained in the severest captivity by the chiefs of faction, and, simulta- 
 neously, to the re-establishment of the monarchy upon the unalterable bases 
 of the Constitution; to the reformation of abuses introduced into the^ 
 regimen of the public administration j to the restoration of the religion of 
 our fathers in the purity of its worship and canonical discipline ; to the 
 re-establishment of the magistracy for the maintenance of order and the 
 disposition of justice ; to the re-establishment of the French of all orders 
 in the exercise of their legitimate, rights, and in the enjoyment of all their 
 property usurped and alienated ; to the severe and exemplary punishment 
 of crimes ; to the re-establishment of the I'aws of peace ; and, in fine, to the 
 accomplishment of the solemn engagements which we have taken, con- 
 jointly with our very dear brother Charles Philip, of France, Count 
 b'Artois, to whom are united our very dear nephews, grandsons of France, 
 Louis Antoine, Duo de Angouleme, and Charles Ferdinand, Duo de Berri, 
 and our cousins, princes of the blood royal, Louis Joseph of Bourbon, 
 
63 THE LOST PEIKOE. 
 
 Prince of CondB, Louis Henry Joseph de Bourbon, Due of Bourbon, and 
 Louis Antoine Henri de Bourbon, Due d'Enghien, by our deliberations 
 addressed to our brother the king, Uth September, 1791, and other acts 
 emanating from us, in which acts we persist and shall invariably persist. 
 
 " To which end we command and ordain to all French and subjects of 
 the king, to obey the commandments which they shall receive from us on 
 account of the king, and the commandments of our very dear brother 
 Charles Philip, of France, Count D'jfflois, whom we have nominated and 
 instituted lieutenant-general of the kingdom, when our said brother and 
 lieutenant-general shall ordain anything on account of the king and the 
 Regent of France. ■»*♦**» 
 
 " Given at Ham, in Westphalia, under our sign and seal ordinary, of 
 which we shall make use for the acts of governing, until the seals of the 
 kingdom, destroyed by the factions, shall have been re-established — and 
 under the countersign of the ministers of state, the Marshals de Eroglie and 
 
 de Castries. 
 
 "Signed, ' 
 
 " Louis Stamislaus Xvaibe, 
 " By the Regent of France, 
 " The Marshal Ddc de Beogijk. 
 "The Marshal de Castsies." 
 
 Now, on this proclamation I may remark, that neither by the 
 right of birth, nor by the disposition of the fundamental laws of 
 the kingdom, was the Count de Provence necessarily Regent on the 
 demise of his brother. Precedency was in favor of the regency of 
 the queen-motlier, and a proposition that Marie Antoinette should 
 be appointed regent had actually been made prior to the imprison- 
 ment of the royal family, but was strenuously opposed by the 
 adherents of Monsieur. During the' minority of Louis XIIL, the 
 Queen-mother, Marie de M6dicis, became regent, although an uncle 
 of the king, Gaston, Duke of Orleans, was alive. And so also on the 
 accession of Louis XIV., Anne of Austria, as queen-mother, was nomi- 
 nated, notwithstanding the imaginary " rights of birth and fundamen- 
 tal laws," which should have given this office to the brother of the 
 late king, Philip, Duke of Orleans. He had as little in the will of 
 
THK ORPHANS. 63 
 
 Loiiis XVI. to 1-est on, as in the customs and laws of the kingdom. 
 But to believe in his own rights and necessity was part of the fun- 
 damental creed of De Provence. He accordingly issued another pro- 
 clamation to the French refugees, in which the same idea is repeat- 
 ed. " I have taken the title of Kegent of the kingdom, which the 
 right of my birth, gives dm-ing the minority of the king, Louis 
 XVII., my nephew." 
 
 But, another remarkable portion of the first of these documents, 
 is the pledge git^en by the Regent, that he would seek to accom- 
 plish the liberation of Louis XVII. from the Temple. "We must 
 expect, therefore, to find the young Prince surrounded in prison 
 by the secret emissaries of the Regent, w'hose cliaracter leaves no 
 doubt that he would not undertake the project without turning it 
 to his own advantage. Copies of the Regent's proclamations were 
 printed- and spread through Prance by millions, showing the vast 
 system of agencies under his control. The Vend6ean army, under 
 La Rochejaquelin, proclaimed Louis XVII. king — but without any 
 recognition of the authority of the Count de Provence — which was, 
 however, proclaimed, together with the accession of the young king, 
 by the Prince de Oonde, in Swabia. Among -the European govern- 
 ments there was a general acknowledgment of the Dauphin as 
 king. 
 
 The hapless survivors in the Temple were, for a time, sunk in 
 the lowest abyss of despondency. But, necessity roused them to 
 action, and the queen entertained the hope of escape in company 
 with her children. One plot was so ingenious that it would pro-" 
 bably have succeeded, had it been put into immediate execution. 
 But, delay was fatal — and the increased severity with which the 
 young king was watched, rendered it impossible to eflfect his escape 
 — while Marie Antoinette refused to avail herself of a personal 
 deliverance which would be attended with the abandonment of her 
 son. 
 
 ^ In the spring of 1792, the health of the child began visibly to 
 decline. He suffered much from fever, pain in the side, and gene- 
 
64 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 ral debility — occasioned in a great measure by confinementj but 
 more by mental exhanstion. It was impossible that one so young 
 could live in the centre of the most terrific alarms and extreme reml- 
 sions, without being weakened both in mind and body — and the 
 murder of his father broke down completely the elasticity of his 
 natural dispositioji^ 
 
 While he remained under his mother's care everything was done 
 for his relief. But the moment came when he was to be for ever 
 separated from all that made his young life happy. ^--On June 3, 
 the Convention decreed that he should be taken from his mother..' 
 The queen resisted desperately. But his life was threatened unless 
 she complied, and she resigned him. For several days both mother 
 and child remained inconsolable in their separation. But, thence^ 
 forth, the current of their lives was to fltfw on apart, and each had 
 soon their peculiar sorrows. 
 
 While she remained in the Temple, the queen occasionally saw 
 her son on the top of the tower, through a chinlc in the wall, but 
 she was soon deprived even of this consolation. On 2d August, she 
 was conducted to the Conciergerie to await her trial. Her relatives 
 never saw or heard from her again, except when she sent to obtain 
 worsted to knit some stockings for her son. The last letter of the 
 queen to the Princess Elizabeth, in which she committed to her the 
 care of her children, seems never to have reached its destination. 
 In this letter, the same omission is observable which we have 
 remaa-ked in the will of Louis XVI. She mentions her brothers in 
 the same brief manner with the king, but, in compliance with the 
 wishes of her deceased husband, commits the care of her children, 
 solely and entirely, to the Princess Elizabeth. M. Beauchesne, 
 indeed, attempts to show the afifeotionate and confidential footing 
 on which Marie Antoinette stood with the Count de Provence and 
 the Count D'Artois, by inserting a few lines, said to be written by 
 the queen, to each of them, immediately after the execution of 
 Louis XVI. If these documents are authentic, it is not surprising 
 that at such a dreadful moment, she should write half a dozen linos 
 
THE ORPHANS. 65 
 
 in a tone of affection and kindness to the brothers of her deceased 
 husband. I am inclined to look on them as forgeries of Lonis 
 XVIII., becanse the signature of the Danphin, appended to the one 
 ■written to the king, a fao simile of which is given at the end of the 
 fli'st edition of " Clery's Memoirs," does not correspond with his 
 handwriting at the time, but seems to belong to an earlier period. 
 Louis the XVIII., who showed the documents to Clery in a very 
 dramatic manner, evidently, got him to publish them to create an 
 idea that he had been on the best footing with the queen, which 
 every one who knows their mutual relations during late years, 
 must be satisfied, was not the case. But, be this as it may, acts 
 speak more plainly than words ; and the distrust with which both 
 the king and queen regarded their ambitious and scheming brothers 
 is shown by their committing at death the heir of their throne 
 and their misfortunes to an unproteeted and imprisoned woman. 
 
 But the foresight of the dying queen seems to have extended yet 
 further. She anticipated that efforts would be made to keep her 
 children separate, and by so doing lessen their mutual attachment, 
 and destroy the power they would possess so long as they continued 
 united. It was not difficult for the keen perception of a woman 
 like Marie Antoinette, thoroughly acquainted with all the persons, 
 elements, and interests at work, to decipher the combinations 
 which would probably be attempted after her decease, and events 
 show that she did not err in her calenlations. "I hope,'' she 
 writes to her sister, " that when they ar^ older they will ie reunited 
 with you " — and then, using language as explicit as prudence would 
 permit, she begs her to remind her children, "that their friendship 
 and mutual confidence will be their happiness," — and, "that 
 in whatsoever position they may find themselves, they will be only 
 truly happy by their union." It was evidently her desire, that, 
 avoiding aH entangling connections with the families of the Count 
 de Provence and the Count D'Artois, her children should, for their 
 mutual interest, remain together under the sole care and guardian- 
 ship of the Princess Elizabeth. 
 
66 TH-K LOST PRINCE. 
 
 But few wgre the thoughts which the dying queen could give to 
 this world. <^r trial was the burlesque preliminary to the judical 
 murder, which on 16th October, 1793, left the Dauphin and his 
 sister orphans, unconscious of their- loss. She died on the scaflfold, 
 with the dignity and courage befitting her race and station ; and 
 fulfilled her dying wish, to show the same firmness which had 
 distinguished her husband in his last moments, and the calmness 
 of one whose conscience was at peace. \ 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 S I M O K. 
 
 In the Eevolution all parties deceived themselves, and everj 
 individual miscalculated his interests. The king trusted in the 
 love of his people — they brought him to the scaffold. Monsieur 
 fostered convulsion in the hope that it would unseat his brother 
 and enthrone himself — he was twenty years an exile. Egalit6 looked 
 for an Orleans, instead of a Bourbon dynasty — the same blade that 
 decapitated the king dissipated the illusion. The ambition of 
 Lafayette was to be the Washington of America — to save life he 
 had to abandon politics. The Boyalists fell before the Oonstitntion- 
 alists — the Constitutionalists before the Girondists — the Girondists 
 before the Mountain — the Mountain before men as base as them- 
 selves, but less bloody because less bold. 
 
 On the 3d July, 1793, when the young Prince found himself 
 separated from his relatives, the party of Marat and Bobespi^liE^ 
 was in full and apparently stable power. They were cruel on 
 principle. They shed blood to cement institutions. It is probable, 
 they sincerely contemplated a time when the Eeign' of Terror 
 should cease ; but it was when the guillotine had left no more aris- 
 tocrats in France. To them the death of Marie Antoinette seemed 
 necessary to widen the breach between republican France and its 
 
BIMON. 
 
 67 
 
 enemies, and render a return to royalty impossible They would 
 have killed the Dauphin to eradicate the race, if they could have 
 found any justification for the act. The weakness of childhood 
 was its defeigi^. 
 
 \Simon was a shoemaker, who lived next door to Marat, in the 
 Eue de Cordeliers — and it is, perhaps, to this circumstance that 
 history owes its acquaintance with this interesting personage. He 
 was about fifty-seven years of age, short, robust, and square, with 
 features of sinister and repulsive deformity — coarse black hair, 
 thick eyebrows — and eyes which, could they have been prolonged 
 at their inner extremities, "would have met in a sharp angle about 
 the top of the forehead. His wife was a person of similar age ; 
 short, fat, brown, and ugl^ 
 
 This respectable pair might have passed quietly through life but 
 for the Revolution, which dislocated all conditions, and afforded, 
 like all drunkenness, an admirable facility for the display of 
 character. (T? be coarse, brutal, and unfeeling, was Simon's 
 natu^-fortnne set him on a pinnacle, to exhibit to generations a 
 specimen of the domestic ruffian. The first effect of the Revolu- 
 ' tion, had been to make him an orator in his section, and the 
 eloquence which might else have been confined to bestowing 
 curses on Marie Jeane, was soon exerted, under the shade of the 
 trees in the Eue de Cordeliers, in denouncing kings, and instruct- 
 ing sans-oulottes in the science of self-government. 
 
 Marat, eminently qualified to act as professor and confer degrees 
 in the college of i-asoality, into which revolutionary France had 
 rapidly resolved itself, partly, out of neighborly feeling, that 
 lingering vestigo of amiability in rogues, and partly out of a just 
 appreciation of the latent genius for low evil in his friend, pitched 
 upon Simon as the best person within the range of his acquaint- 
 ance, to give a democratic education to the young descendant of 
 St. Louis, and destroy him if necessary, both in soul and body. 
 Bobespierre approved of the nomination, well knowing the pliant 
 
68 THE LOST PMNCB. 
 
 rascality of the man, Ms revolutionary enthusiasm, and his fidelity 
 in evil. 
 
 His patrons must have been pleased with their discernment, 
 when they heard the celebrated conversation between Simon and 
 the deputation from the Committee of Generaljgafety. ^^itizens, 
 what is to be done with this young wolf ?y'^is insolent. I will 
 tame him— but what, after all, is desired? Carry him away!" 
 "No." "Kill him?" "Ko." "Poison him?" "No." "What 
 then?" " Get rid of him/j 
 
 This was a refinement beyond the intellectual ability of Simon 
 to originate, but he was just the person to carry it into eflfect. 
 He failed indeed — ^Ijut it was through lack of time, and the 
 baffling strength of his victim's constitution. 
 rBehold then the child in company with Simon. He had been, 
 up to that moment, accustomed to all ennobling sentiments and alj 
 endearing treatment. Torn from the embrace of his mother, he 
 was conducted to the chamber where he had parted from his 
 father on the eve of his execution, and where • he had, for many 
 weeks, enjoyed his unremitting attention as his instructor. The 
 memories of 'the past must have returned with overpowering 
 violence. What a change of tutors, from Louis XVI. to Simon!] 
 
 His jailer, bein^ yet in ignorance of the designs of the revolu- 
 tionary chiefs, did not, at first, treat him with fuU severity. He 
 taunted, but did not beat him. Grief kept the weeping child 
 silent for a time. He declined food. Then, a sense of wrong 
 inflamed him to demand, indignantly, by -what law he was separated 
 from his mother ; but obtaining no reply, he resigned himself in 
 apathy to his fate. 
 
 After two days, Simon, beginning to enter into the spirit of his 
 employment, attempted to teach him to chant the Carmagnole and 
 cry, " Vive la Eepublique." Being unsnccessfnl, he gave him a 
 hurdy-gurdy. " Thy wolf of a mother, and thy dog of an aunt, play 
 on the harpsichord. You must accompany them. It will make a 
 
SIMON. 69 
 
 nice hnrly bnrly." The child refused, because he would not insult 
 Lis mother — and received his first blow as a punishment. Similar 
 scenes occJurrod, and being still strong, he resisted with spirit. 
 "Animal," said Simon, in reply to his expostulations against 
 corporeal punishment, '.'I am here to command you, and can do 
 what I please. Liberty and equality for everl" 
 ^s soon as h^learned definitely the indefinite powers conferred 
 on him, he began, in earnest, his system of brutalization, and did 
 everything to corrupt the morals, and break down the constitution 
 of his victimi " He has no children,'' cried the agonized Macduff, 
 when informed of the pillage of his castle, and the slaughter of 
 his wife and little ones ; and the inhumanity of the childless 
 Simon is a good commentary on the fidelity to nature of the poet. 
 A few days after his entry on his employment, the news arrived of 
 the capture of Oond6 by the Austrian army — " Damned wolfs cub," 
 said Simon to the child, " you are half Austrian — you deserve to be 
 half-killed." The 14th July, was the anniversary of the taking of 
 the Bastile, but the popular joy on the occasion was maddened 
 into frenzy, by the assassination of Marat on the previous evening. 
 "When this news reached the apartment of Simon and his pupil, 
 as soon as the first outburst of grief and rage was over, the jailer 
 determined to celebrate the combined feast and fast of revolution in 
 a characteristic manner. He obtained wine, brandy, and pipes, and 
 carried his wife and the child to the platform of the Tower. The 
 mingled sounds of merriment and mourning from the city below 
 ascended to their ears — and, as the drunken revel on the Tower 
 increased, Simon amused himself by pufiSng tobacco-smoke in the 
 Prince's face, and telling him that the mourning which he still wore 
 for his father, was only retained for the sake of Marat. ''Ah, ha, 
 Capet is in mourning for Marat." It was thus that every public 
 event which happened in those exciting times — every reverse of 
 the republican arms — every disaster m the city was made an occa- 
 sion of ill-treating the unfortunate child — of dragging him about 
 by the hair — lifting him by his ears — dashing his head against the 
 
70 THE LOST PBINCE. 
 
 wall— stifling him with smoke— taunting him with the misfortunes 
 and asserted crimes of his family— and telling him revolting-stone* 
 of his mother and other female relatives. 
 
 His beautiful hair and his mourning were offensive to his jailer; 
 who despoiled him of both— put the red cap on his head, compelled 
 him to drink to intoxication, and, in this state, taught him to 
 swear, to sing revolutionary songs, and repeat odious tales concern- 
 ing his mother, which he afterwards adduced as evidence against 
 her. 
 
 Before the removal of Marie Antoinette from the Tower, she 
 had the misfortune to see the wretched child in company with his 
 jailer in one of his fiercest paroxysms of rage-^and to find him fast 
 becoming a wreck in body and in mind. To enter into all the 
 revolting details, which M. Beauchesne has carefally collected, is 
 not necessary for my purpose in this chaptfer. ( I simply wish to 
 show the gradual manner in which the constitution of the child 
 was broken, and his mind destroyed. His beauty began to desert 
 him; the alternate flush and pallor of drunkenness succeeded to the 
 rich hue of health. The knowledge he had acquired under the 
 teaching of his father and his successive tutors was soon lost — his 
 proficiency in writing, which had been remarkable in a child of 
 his age, was changed into a slow, painful, and almost illegible 
 scrawl, scarcely sufllcient to sign his name — and the rapid pro- 
 gress of demoralization and imbecility cannot be better shown than 
 by the hideous accusations he was compelled to make against the 
 mother he had loved so much; 
 
 The day of the execution of Marie Antoinette at length arrived. 
 The princesses were entirely ignorant of what was going forward. 
 Simon himself, who, devoted entirely to his charge, lived in 
 gi-eat isolation, suspecting the truth from the unusual stir in th6 
 city — but, not certain that it was the case, carried, as was his 
 wont on all public occasions, his wife and the Prince to the platform 
 of the Tower— and, in consideration of the occasion, permitted the 
 child to play at ball while the procession was marching to the 
 
SIMON. 11 
 
 scaffold. He then made a bet with his wife, that it was tha 
 moment of the queen's execution — and amused himself in the even- 
 ing by making the poor child drink some of the brandy which his 
 wager purchased. 
 
 For somewhat more than six months this fearful tyranny conti- 
 nued. Simon confined himself in the strictest manner, and with 
 conscientious fidelity, to the limits <Jf his assigned duty. He would 
 have been ready at any moment, had the command been issued, to 
 put the child to death — but his commission did not extend beyond 
 the slow process of demoralization and domestic ill-treatment, by 
 which murder might ape the appearance of natural decay. 
 
 Of all the crimes with which the Eevolntion is stained, there is 
 not one which in demoniac atrocity can be compared to this. The 
 drunken assassins of September are innocent to those who, in cool 
 blood, could conceive such a project for ridding themselves of 
 a child whose only crime was the misfortune of his birth. 
 
 Simon set himself to his task with scientific zest, patience, and 
 perseverance. He had no idea of hurrying a work which, to be 
 done well, must be done with the forbearance of death in its most 
 insidious advances. It was sufBcient that, evei-y hour made the 
 child a hair's breadth worse in mind or body than he was the pre- 
 ceding — ^that no petty irritation — no insult — no wrong which the 
 ingenuity of malice could suggest was omitted — that no oppor- 
 tunity was passed by to impair a virtue or to implant a vice, to 
 take away a grace or add a vulgarity. He was agent at once for 
 death and hell. 
 
 The care and affection by which the tenderest of mother's seeks 
 to foster all that is good, and beautiful, and healthful, in her only 
 child, were outdone by the demoniac devotion of Simon to the task 
 of breaking down the constitution, deforming the appearance, cor- 
 nipting the morals, and weakening the mind of his pupil. If he 
 eat, it was to be driven from the half-finished meal weeping, and, 
 perha^JS, bleeding. On one occasion, he narrowly escaped the 
 destruction of his eye by a blow inflicted at dinner. 
 
72 THE LOST PEINCE. 
 
 If he called the child kindly to him, it was to spnrn him with 
 his foot to the other side of the apartment. If amusement was 
 permitted or encouraged, it was to mock his misery, to abuse his 
 parents, to caricature the downfall of his house, to stupefy him by 
 inebriation, to make him sing obscene songs, to teach him to curse, 
 blaspheme and lie — and the child was praised and encouraged in 
 proportion as he cooperated in the work of murder and demora- 
 lization of which he was the victim. If his health was broken down 
 too rapidly, a physician was sent for to lengthen out his misery, and 
 give to murder the aspect of tenderness. If he revived more than 
 was desirable, some new brutality speedily reduced him to the re- 
 quired level. If a day had passed without something being done to 
 injure him, Simon would have regretted it, like Titus, as a lost day. 
 When he had been peculiarly happy in his combinations, he retired 
 to rest with the self-satisfaction of a man who has performed hia 
 duty — and then arranged beforehand some new mortification, 
 hardship, indignity, or immorality for the ensuing day. 
 
 In all this he was strictly conscientious. He believed himself 
 engaged in a work for which the Eepublio owed him gratitude, and 
 to which there was dignity attached. He was the representative 
 of the French nation, performing an act of retributive justice on the 
 offspring of a race of tyrants, and deserving the praise of posterity 
 by destroying the last link in the succession. He- had arrived at 
 that depth of iniquity in which evil is a man's good, and to fail in 
 crime is to fail in duty. 
 
 " The Republic is eternal," he said to the child, one day. " There 
 is nothing eternal," was the reply, and then, as if struck with 
 -remorse for the mistake, "there is nothing eternal but Grod." 
 Even Simon's tyranny was to come to an end. I"^ more lucrative 
 oflttce was offered him. He could not retain the two. He resigned, 
 not without regret, his unfinished task in the Temple, but before he 
 left, called the child up to him, and then felled him to the floor with 
 his fist. Such was the parting between the Prince and his 
 jailery 
 
SIMON. 73 
 
 /WhUe this scene of terror -was enacting in the Temple, the Count 
 de Provence was exercising, with all the pomp which, in his idea, 
 the situation demanded, his office of Eegent of the kingdom. The 
 miseries which his nephew was suffering could not be unknown 
 to hiin^ But while they were at their height he was plotting, 
 through his agents, for the establishment of his own power upon 
 the ruins of the fallen monarchy. It is highly probable that these 
 emissaries deceived him, and for their own purposes reported 
 interviews and correspondence with Danton and Eobespierre, which 
 had no foundation but in their misrepresentations. 
 
 But, however, this might be, the Regent himself wrote to the 
 revolutionary chiefs, and imagined that he had possession of the 
 clue to a counter revolution in his own favor, in Paris, and that 
 the troubles would terminate by proclaiming him king. "He 
 acknowledged," says Lamartine, "as king, the child then a captive, 
 who was being slowly immolated in the Temple. He gratified the 
 friends of his brother, the Count D'Artois, by appointing him 
 Lieutenant-General of the kingdom — a painful but politic division 
 of that ideal authority which these two princes were going to 
 exercise in exile. Eecognised by the army of Cond6 and by the 
 Empress of Russia, he addressed solemn proclamations to Europe 
 and to the army of Cond6 at each tragic blow struck by the 
 Convention against the members of the royal family. He fomented, 
 with all his efforts,'the troubles, the insurrections, the civil wars 
 of the South and La Vendue. He received all the distinguished 
 negotiators from France, and all the political adventurers who 
 throw themselves between two causes, less to serve them than to 
 serve themselves. 
 
 " His court and his connoU were the perpetual focus of plans, of 
 chimeras, of conspiracies, real or imaginary, of the corruption of 
 generals, of the venality of the Tribune, and movements of the 
 people, with which the men of intrigue amused the idleness or 
 flattered the importance of the exiled courts. He there imbibed 
 the feeling and the taste for those secret reports, for that confidence 
 
74 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 in underlings, for those intrigues of diplomacy, of police, of govern- 
 ment, for that domestic favoritism and that personal labor which 
 afterwards distinguished him on the throne. He there maintained 
 that royal attitude, and that distance between him and the crowd 
 which he never allowed to be violated, except by a few confidants. 
 He knew the prestige of distance for men and for things, and 
 constantly withdrew from events and from observation, to main- 
 tain a more imposing attitude. 'He assiduously studied there the 
 history of his country and his race, in order to personify in himself 
 the power, the kings, and the grandeur of his house, and to recall 
 some day in himself alone, all the illustrious men, or at least all the 
 mementos of his race. He prepared himself incessantly for the 
 throne, never doubting that he would be recalled to it by the 
 vicissitudes of human affairs, and not wishing that his reign should 
 find him for a single day deficient in dignity. Little sought after, 
 and less beloved, he commanded respect from others by the respect 
 which he affected for himself." 
 
 And here I would repeat my conviction, that such a man ever 
 seriously designed to permit the infant son of Louis XVI. to mount 
 the throne to his prejudice — is contrary to every probability which 
 knowledge of human character could lead us to entertsdn. He 
 knew the child to be possessed of a strong constitution and of 
 excellent- natural abilities — and that, in bringing him publicly 
 forward, he Would be taking the most effectual step to prevent 
 his ever being king himself — more especially, as the feelings of 
 loyalty which the Revolution had outraged, and the regret and 
 veneration which the memory of the martyred king and queen 
 inspired, would natuijally centre on the object that inherited their 
 name and rights, and recalled their virtues and their sorrows. The 
 man Who, when the monarchy of France stood erect in all the here- 
 ditaiy prestige and potency of centuries, could deliberately contem- 
 plate its overthrow, and lay his plans for the humiliation of his 
 brother, to effect his own elevation, was not the person to be thus 
 thwarted in his ambition by a feeble child in prison. I could as soon 
 
SIMON. ^5 
 
 believe in the sincerity of the kiss of Judas as in the loyalty of 
 Louis XVIII. to Louis XVII. 
 
 His acknowledgment of him as king proceeded from the same 
 policy which dictated the appointment of his brother as Lieutenant- 
 Governor of France. This very division of authority has in it 
 something suspicious — ^for the Count de Provence was not a man 
 to weaken his power in this manner, but through the compulsion 
 of political motive. And had his own right stood on a strong 
 foundation, had there been no necessity for cultivating the good 
 will of the Count D'Artois, to cover sinister designs and support 
 dubious claims, and give him an interest in concealing crimes 
 committed for the advantage of another — he would have kept the 
 reins of government in his own hands. 
 
 But leaving the Regent to his plots and his ambition, let us 
 return to the little sufferer in the Temple, the most fearful portion 
 of whose existence was now beginning. 
 
 It was a mistake in Marat and Eobespierre, not to stipulate that 
 Simon should leave his wife behind when he undertook the tutor- 
 ship of the Prince. Madame Simon, though hot remarkable for 
 sweetness of disposition, was still a woman, and did much to soften 
 the severity of her husband's conduct. The beauty and innocence 
 of the boy won from the first upon her heart. She regretted that 
 she had no children herself, and would have gladly been kind to 
 the little captive. Not unfreqnently she interposed to check the 
 brutality of Simon, and paid all those nameless little attentions to a 
 child's comfort which only a woman can do. 
 \ But, when the child got rid of Simon's ill-treatment, he lost his 
 wife's care. The authorities had lately grown economical, and 
 curtailed in every way the expenses of the prisoners — and now 
 thought it a useless outlay to keep a tutor for the Prince. They 
 therefore determined he should for the future live alone. 
 
 He was, consequently, transferred from the apartment he 
 had hitherto occupied to a smaller one, which had been used by 
 Clery, his father's valet. It had only one window, fastened by 
 
76 THE LOST PBINOE. 
 
 padlocks. Besides which, it stood in a very deep recess, and the 
 light was ohscnred by immense iron bajs.-' 
 pft was on the i9th January, 1794, that Simon left him, and from 
 that time till the 27th July, more than six months, he remained in 
 solitnd^ His food was handed to him through a revolving aperture, 
 which did not permit him even to see the person who delivered it. 
 During the whole period the door of his apartment was never 
 opened. No gleam of^sunlight — no breath of fresh air — came to 
 the little victim. To sweep his apartment, while strength per- 
 mitted him, was merely to transfer the filth from one place to 
 another. 
 
 A gruff voice, bidding him at evening go to bed, or calling him at 
 dead of night to present himself for inspection at an iron grating, 
 through which the light of a lanthornwas thrown upon his person, 
 was his whole intercourse with the human species. 
 
 It is difficult to conceive the physical condition to which a child 
 would be reduced by such confinement. But, his mental state sur- 
 passes imagination. He no longer had liquor to inebriate him. 
 Por awhile he mnstf have pondered in silence over the mingled and . 
 inexplicable past, the magnificence, the power, the dreamy tender- 
 ness, the beauty, the terror, the tears, the strife, the humiliation, 
 the heart-rending separations, and the systematic brutalization, 
 succeeded by blank solitude, silence, and breathless suffocation — 
 and then — having no clue through the labyrinth — intense feeling 
 and agonising thought, would gradually yield to apathy. Thus, 
 in loneliness, and darkness, and filth, and intolerable stench, devour- 
 ed by vermin, and sharing his food with rats, all consciousness 
 would cease, and mechanical, vegetable life, devoid of memory, 
 and destitute of hope, would alone remain. 
 
 But while all was dead silent misery in the apartment of the 
 child, the Revolution was advancing to its goal, with giant strides. 
 
 The 5th March saw the downfall of Marat and Desmoulins, the 
 last of the fierce enthusiasts, who, too late, regretting the excesses 
 into which they had fallen, attempted to atone for the past, by 
 
SIMON. n 
 
 Btemming the torrent of blood, and perished, tardy advocates of 
 humanity. Theo, succeeded the reign of death, "when blood 
 drenched the soil of France, like a hot thunder shower. On the 
 10th May, Madame Elizabeth, the sister of Louis XVI., poured 
 from her veins the purest libation which had yet -fallen on the 
 scaffold. The children were now, doubly orphans, but they knew 
 it not. At length, came 27th July — and Robespierre, who, a little 
 more than a month previously, had proclaimed the existence of God, 
 fell beneath his retributive power. Many a prison door was then 
 thrown open — and among them, that of the apartment of the 
 young Prince, whose sufferings were ameliorated at nearly the same 
 time when Simon accompanied his master, Robespierre, to the 
 scaffold. 
 
 JBaras, commandant of the National Guard, appointed a man 
 named, Laurent, keeper of the TemgleJ But his powers, in respect 
 to the prisoners, were of a very limited character, and liable, 
 in all things, to be controlled by the acting commissary, who 
 visited the prison daily. As soon, however, as Laurent entered on 
 his employment, he, naturally, visited the different chambers of the 
 Temple, to see the condition of the prisoners. 
 
 fit was night-time when he first came to the door of tbe young 
 Prince. The lanthorn was applied as usual to the grating, and the 
 child summoned to the door. But no reply was made to the loud 
 and repeated calls on him, to rise and show himself. He had, in 
 fact, now, lost the power of motion as well as of mental conscious- 
 ness. A feeble sound, showing he was still alive, was all that came 
 from the suffocating stench of the dungeon. 
 
 The barricaded door was, at last, broken open, and Laurent and 
 his associates made their way as well as they could, to the bed-side 
 of the captive. The chamber smelt like the grave, and was 
 hideous as gloom, filth, and pestilential air could make it. The last 
 food received by the child was untouched. He was worn to a 
 skeleton. His livid skin was scarcely visiblex for dirt. He was 
 covered with vermin.j There was vermin everywhere — on the bed, 
 
18 THE LOST PKINCK. 
 
 on the floor, on the walls, in every fold of the rags which huiig 
 about him. They were matted in his hair, and knitted in every 
 hollow of his body. The noise around him made him tremble- 
 but he did not stir. He answered to no question. He was con- 
 scious of 'nothing. He breathed. His open eyes had no 
 expression. Tfteir color had changed. He had the looTc not of a 
 fool, hut of an idiot* His bones seexHed protruding angularly 
 from his skin — for he had no flesh to conceal them. Both his. 
 knees and his elbows were covered with tumors, the result of long 
 confinement, bad usage, and depression of spirits. 
 
 A few hours more of such solitude would have ended his career. 
 God willed otherwise, and he survived. He was to enter on a new 
 stage of his chequered existence, under altered cironmstancesy 
 which we jvill pause to review. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 INTKIGTH!. 
 
 " Thb Eepublic," said Eobespierre, " falls with me." The pro- 
 phecy was true, and based on a profound insight into the elements 
 at work in FranceJ The Eevolntion had spared no one capable of 
 conducting it to a successful issue, and of founding a stable and 
 compact structure on the bloody pedestal. To do so, required 
 incorruptible honesty and single-minded devotion to an idea. The 
 race of unselfish, albeit, bloody devotees to principle was fast dis- 
 appearing. The great revolutionary phiefs had successively fallen 
 — all with whom the Eevolution from its earliest stages had been 
 identified — and he was the only person who inherited the memories 
 of the past. To strike at Jiim was to repudiate that past, to stig- 
 matize its deeds as crimes, and say — ^Fi-anoe has awoke, from her 
 dream of blood, and will no more of it. She sought liberty, but 
 
 * Eeaucbesne, vol. li. p. 268. 
 
INTRIGUE. 79 
 
 she found hell, and cannot love institutions which entwine them- 
 selves with a name she abhors. The jubilant crowds who attend- 
 ed Robespierre to the scaffold, chanted the requiem of the Kevo- 
 lution. 
 
 From that moment began a new era. Its ultimate form was all 
 uncertain. But full scope was open for speculation, for ambition, 
 for intrigue, for plots and counterplots, and every evil work which 
 shuns the light. Bold, avowed action was over. The dominant 
 party — more sanguinary than Kobespierre — were compelled to lean 
 to the side of mercy, and pursue a course of moderation abhorrent 
 to their principles, but in keeping with their mediocrity. Every- 
 thing took a milder tone. More external decency prevailed, pri- 
 sons were emptied, tribunals were more cautious, jailers less 
 severe. 
 
 With respect to the captive, the republican policy, as well as the 
 republican interest, was unchanged. But, another Simon was not 
 to be found, and had there been, the times would have repudiated 
 him. The condition of the child was, therefore, alleviated, but 
 contrary to the wish of those in power. They admitted the per- 
 plexity his life occasioned them, their unwillingness to abate the 
 rigor of his confinement, and their fear of attempts to seat him on 
 the throne. But they shrank from the responsibility of extreme 
 measures, and restricted themselves to such a measure of neglect 
 as the newly-awakened sense of decency rendered safe. 
 
 C|Vom this point we need a critical examination of the proofs 
 adduced by M. Beauchesne of the death of Louis XVu) ; and it is, 
 therefore, necessary to inquire into the general nature of his work. 
 It was published in Paris at the latter end of 1852, and the reasons 
 which induced its publication are thus stated in the preface : — 
 
 " We have understood from the beginning of our researches how it has 
 happened that puHic o2nmon Jms never been definitely settled on a point 
 imperceptible in appearance, but, nevertheless, considerable — the death of 
 a child. France and Eui-opehave only assisted from afar in the drama Of 
 the Temple — they have not seen a,ll the scenes — they have only learned 
 
80 THE lOST PRINCE. 
 
 the lamentable denoument in such a manner that roam wees itill left, open 
 for doubt Before the veil which has enveloped the tragical end of the son 
 of Louis XVI., one is not astonished to hear it said, with tfie warmth of a 
 profomut conviction, that the young victim went out living from his prison 
 riPis conceded that a child really died in the Temple, but it is added, 
 that if it was the offspring of our kings, no one could aflBrm it — that the 
 physicians have certified to his death, but not to his identity — that it is 
 not known how the man in the iron mask came on earth — ^that it is equal- 
 ly uncertain how the infant vvas taken from the Temple, and that the 
 tomb of the one remains as mysterious as the cradle of the other.'J^ 
 
 flet me here call attention to the admission of M. Beanchesne. 
 He confesses that, up to the time of the publication of his 'work, no 
 proof had been adduced of the death of the chil^ Since the agi- 
 tation of the subject in this country, some whg profess to be pro- 
 foundly versed in questions of French history and opinion, have 
 assured us that the death of Louis XVII. is as veil authenticated as 
 that of Napoleon. Let them listen to M. Beauchesne. Had there 
 T)een proof of the fact, his work would not have appeared. It was 
 published to supply a felt deficiency. He tells ns, that up to 
 November, 1852, " room was still open for doubt,^' and that, in 
 ■fact, there was in France " a profound conviction" of the Prince's 
 existence. 
 
 "It was natural," he continues, "after this, that impostors should 
 think they were authorized to impose themselves on the world, as the 
 inheritors of a glorious name." " The conviction of his death has for me 
 the character of a certainty, authentically demonstrated — a curse on mc, 
 if my mind, in possession of the truth, should suffer my pen to lie. I have 
 spared neither care, nor research, nor study to arrive at this truth — I have 
 , particularly known Urfwne and Gomin, the two last jailers of the TowerJ 
 in whose arms Louis XVII. died." " We hope that we bring to this history 
 not only the certitude, but the material authentic proof that the Dauphin 
 of France, the son of Louis XVI. really died in the Temple. I have not 
 mked among these ruma, nor built this edifice to give food to the passions 
 of the day. I have still less the pretension of pleading a cause." 
 
INTRIGUE. 81 
 
 ■ f It will be seen that all the fresh evidence on ■which he relies 
 to settle the question, consists simply of the testimony of Laxne and 
 Oomin, which, strangely enough, is not ushered before the world 
 until after their death) M. Beauchesne has built a very imposing 
 structure on narrow and infirm foundations. No one who looked, 
 for the first time, upon his portly volumes, containing each their 
 five hundred pages, w^juld be apt to imagine that all the solemnly 
 heralded evidence, which was to lift up for ever the veil from a 
 hitherto impenetrable mystery, dwindled into this. 
 
 He spent, we are told, twenty years upon the work — as much 
 as Gribbon spent on the Decline and Fall — and there is something 
 awful in the literary labor of a mature intellect for twenty years upon 
 a single historic point. Either M. Beauchesne's habits of composi- 
 tion are very slow, or he must have found he had a hard task. For 
 there is nothing novel in the bulk of his work. Whole pages of it 
 are transcribed verbatim from such well known writers as Hue and 
 Olery. The novelty and the point of his book consist entirely in 
 the autograph testimony of Lasne and Gomin, taken from his album. 
 Here is what Johnson's ghost calls "the muscipular abortion" of 
 the "parturient mountain.'' 
 
 [But how is it, that for fifty seven years, it never entered into the 
 human brain to substantiate the fact of the Dauphin's death in the 
 Temple, by the production of the testimony of these men ? How 
 came there such a lack of discernment in the French nation? 
 Because there was evident folly in the attempt. If the Dauphin 
 escaped, it must have been with the connivance of these very 
 official With the same plausibility might a counsel for the 
 defence produce two men, accused of stealing some article from 
 their master's shop, to prove that it was not stolen. Fifty-seven 
 years work wonderful revolutions — but cannot make testimony, 
 which has been worthless all that time, worth anything now. 
 
 Concerning M. Beauchesne and his motives, I know nothing, 
 and will not trouble myself^ssith conjecturing. I will take 
 his narrative as it stands. iThe renewed attention I have 
 
82 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 given to his work has not lessened, but confirmed my conviction 
 of the insufficiency of his testimony, and of the weakness of his 
 position^ So far from allaying doubt, his narrative more com- 
 pletely throws the question open — and the nearer we approach the 
 heart of the mystery, the more profound is the conviction that, 
 whether Louia XVII. be now alive or not — which is a question for 
 after-consideration jthe re is no proof .that he died in the Temple — 
 nay, no probability — and, farther still, no possibility-^if the inquiry 
 be limited to the question, whether the body represented as his 
 was really so or not. And this is the issue. It is not pretended 
 that he died at any other time than the 8th June, 1795 — ^nor under 
 any other circumstances than those specified by Beauchesne. 
 Whoever, therefore, desires to prme the death, must first show that 
 wnder the circumstances it was physically possible. And here, I 
 apprehend, will be an insuperable ba/. 
 
 ^giirent who was appointed, on the fall of Kobespierre, guardian 
 of the children of Louis XVI. was a man of private property, not 
 devoid of taste, information, and good feeling, but a zealous repub- 
 lican, and devoted to the interests of his part^ His appointment^ 
 was an index of the times. From him, nothing unworthy conld 
 be asked — but care was taken that his appointment, which gave 
 dignity to the position of the Convention, should be of as little 
 service to the child as possible. He was permitted to visit the 
 captive only at particular periods, and then but for a short time. 
 
 To the child, however, in the vegetable condition of life to which 
 he was now reduced, solitude was no longer a hardship. He had 
 now fallen into that listless apathy which distinguislied him, as 
 far as we have any reliable accounts, to the last moment spent in 
 the Temple. He had sense enough to play mechanically with a 
 toy or a flower, but felt no want of companionship. 
 
 (l^have mentioned that, on the opening of his chamber, his knees 
 and elbows were covered with swellings, the result of filth and 
 confined air. The location of these swellings is not only a means 
 of distinguishing the Prince from the substitute who died in the 
 
INTRIGUE. 83 
 
 Temple, on the 8th June, but of establishing the identity of the 
 child at this period, in the Temple, with the one seen and reported 
 on, by Harraand.) He also suffered from a continual pain in the 
 head, which was so extreme that the slightest touch made him 
 groan ; and he could neither endure a comb to be passed through 
 his matted hair, nor even the gentle friction attending the applica- 
 tion of ointment. But change of air, cleanliness, plain wholesome 
 food, the-absence of all irritation, and profound repose, gradually 
 revived his corporeal strength, though his mind continued pros- 
 trate and unobservant. 
 
 pSnt while he was thus slowly recovering, the name of Louis 
 XVII. was the rallying point of hope to tens of thousands in 
 France]} and the perplexities of the Convention daily increased. 
 It seemed alike dangerous to keep him in the heart and centre of 
 political intrigue, or to banish him from the country. 
 
 The position of the royalist refugees, at this period, was peculiar. 
 The Count de Provence, who had usurped the title of Eegent, held 
 his court at Verona — and the Count D'Artois, at Arnheira, while 
 the Prince de Cond6, with his aimy, was actively engaged on the 
 Rhine. The Eegent had little power over the other two, and his 
 position, so long as the Prince was known to survive, was embar- 
 rassing in the extreme. 
 
 At first, the brothers had hoped for assistance from foreign 
 courts, but, with the exception of Russia, none oflScially acknow- 
 ledged them, though they clandestinely received and corresponded 
 with their agents. The war in La Vendue promised no profitable 
 results ; mainly because the two princes would not risk themselves 
 on the scene of action. Disappointed, however, in his expecta- 
 tions of foreign aid, the -principal trust of the Eegent was, 
 nevertheless, in La Vendde, and on his agentc and intrigues in 
 France. 
 
 In La Vendue, and especially among its chiefs and generals, 
 loyalty was a religion and a passion — no thought, unworthy the 
 hero, the martyr, or the patriot, burned in the bosoms of the 
 
84 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 peasant warriors or their gloriong leaders. Unstained by corrupt 
 intrigue, uowarped by selfish ambition, they fonght and bled for 
 ■what they deemed the right. 
 
 But they distrusted the Kegent, and unf'uried their banner solely 
 for the captive monarch of the Temple. To obtain possession of 
 him was their great object, and it may be easily seen, that while 
 nothing could be more detrimental to the ambitious designs of the 
 Eegent, than to permit them to do so, his agents could only 
 approach them successfully by feigning an interest in the Prince, 
 and promising to procure his escape, and his surrender to them. 
 
 From these agents in the interior, the Count de Provence 
 derived hopes of a speedy movement in his favor — and held inter- 
 course, real or imaginary, with the heads of the French 
 government.* There is far more probability, that the men now in 
 power would intrigue with him, than those in previous periods. 
 The principal royalist agents, were the Count U'Entraignes, 
 Lemaitre, Laville Henrnois, and the Marquis de Fenouil. They 
 assumed the appearance of republicans, and often deceived the 
 French government, making their way into places least to have been 
 expected. They swarmed in Paris, and availed themselves of the 
 wide-spread sympathy in favor of the children of Louis XVI. to 
 increase the popular dissatisfaction with the Republic, and the 
 desire to return to monarchy. In addition, royalist journals began 
 openly to advocate a counter-revolution, and though prosecuted, 
 the editors escaped with impunity. Thus, while there was much 
 to discourage the Regent in the apathy shown by European courts, 
 there was everything in the internal condition of France, evi- 
 dently in a transition state, to promise the fulfilment of hia 
 original expectation — thatrhis nephew being removed, the Revolu- 
 tioii,would terminate by elevating him to thfe throne. 
 
 ^fter being guardian to the Prince for some months, Laurent, a 
 man of social habits, felt wearied with the incessant servitude, and 
 applied to the Oommitte of General Safety for a oolleagne. Oh the 
 
 • Thiers, vol. ill. p. 281. 
 
INTE1G0E. 85 
 
 Sth November, a man named Gomin, was appointed to assist hiS. 
 Ma^this nomination we find the first traces of the inflnence of tlie 
 Begent in the Temple, on which, according to his proclamation, 
 his eye had been long fixed with the design of removing the kingj 
 
 Hitherto, his agents had been unable to gain any footing there, 
 bnt, under the altered condition of things, the case was dififerent. 
 " M. le Marquis de Fenonil, who Icnew Gomin intimately," says 
 Beanohesne, an unimpeachable witness on such a point, " had, 
 thanks to certain soi-distant patriotic intrigues, which he Icnew 
 how to manage and employ with art, contributed powerfully to a 
 nomination, which was a guarantee for the royalist party." |In 
 other words, Gomin was placed in the Temple by one of the crea- 
 tures of the Count de Provence, to act according to instructions^ 
 "We may be certain, that the pretended republican intrigues — the 
 nature of which Beanohesne is careful not to mention — ^had rela- 
 tion to Louis XVII., both because by virtue of them he gained 
 the power of nominating his keeper, and also, because when he 
 had placed Gomin in the Temple, he kept up a constant corres- 
 pondence with him, by means of Doisy, Ms valet de ohambre, 
 who, under pretext of being a relative, went frequently to visit 
 him, and converse respecting La Vendue and the Prince.* ^ 
 
 There was also another royalist, named Debierne, who, being 
 appointed acting commissary, opened instant communication with 
 Gomin concerning the escape of the Prince, and received the pro- 
 mise of his co-operation.t Gomin and Debierne were in the habit 
 of holding stealthy interviews in the apartment of the steward, 
 Lienard, who also acted as a sentinel. Debierne, as well as Doisy, 
 falsely represented himself as a relative of Gomin, and under thi? 
 pretext came frequently to see him. He brought, at first, play- 
 things for the Prince, then showed Gomin some assignats issued in 
 the name of Louis XVIL, and made payable on the Restoration. 
 He also informed the keeper of a design for carrying the young king 
 into La Vendue. " The good heart of Gomin,'' says Beauchesne, 
 
 » Beauchesne, vol. 11., p. 208. t Jbli. 
 
86 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 "opened itself to this hope with a lively joy." Here, then, we 
 find evidence that the agents of the Kegent were' playing with both 
 parties— the Convention and the Vend6eans— and that Gorain 
 entered fully into the scheme for the removal of the captive. 
 On another occasion, whenDebierne came to see "his accomplice" 
 — the word accomplice is that used by Beanchesne — ^he brought 
 concealed under his cloak a dove or pigeon. The sight of it occa- 
 sioned Gomin some anxiety-^as it was, in ti'uth, a very suspicions 
 present — and, if discovered, likely to compromise him with the act- 
 ing commissaries. But, he concealed it under his cloak, and car- 
 ried it into the Tower. 
 
 In all this we may see the way slowly paved for future action. 
 Here, without controversy, is proof that the royalist agents were 
 plotting, in the end of the year 1794, to remove the Prince — that 
 Fenonil, Doisy, Debierne, Gomin, and probably Lienard, were in 
 the plot — that meetings were held for consultation in the apart- 
 ments of one of the sentinels, who had the responsible post of 
 steward, and all they waited for was the formation of some definite 
 plan to carry their design into execution. And, now let us turn to 
 the state of feeling in the Oonvention, and to the action of the 
 government respecting the Prince, and see if we can discover any- 
 thing which corresponds with the events going on within and 
 around the Tower, and any clue to the intrigues of the Marquis de 
 Fenouil, and to the meaning of the project to cai-ry the chUd into 
 La Vend6e. 
 
 There had been frequent and fierce debating as to what should 
 be done with the Prince, when, on the 28th December, Legninio 
 argued, that as there was no hope of quelling the royalists while he 
 remained in Paris, " measures should be taken to purge the soil of 
 tlie sole vestige of tyranny that remained," and moved, that he 
 should be exiled. But, on the 22d January, Cambaceres, on the 
 part of the government committees, made a report unfavorable to 
 his proposition, taking the ground that the expulsion of tyrants had 
 always prepared the way for their restoration. The Convention 
 
INTEIGUB. 8Y 
 
 ■was greatly divided in opinion; but, as the Tiew expressed by 
 Oambaeeres seemed the wisest, the question was dropped. 
 
 It is not, however, from open action that the designs of such a 
 government as the one then ruling France can be derived. Only 
 eight days previous to the report of Oambaeeres, a treaty had been 
 made with Charette, at Nantes, in one of the secret clauses of which 
 the government stipulated to put the young Prince and his sister 
 into the liands of the Vend6ean leader, on condition that the sur- 
 render should be delayed until June 13, 1795.* 
 
 If the reader will connect this with the " oertaines intrigues soi- 
 disant patriotiques,'' of Fenouil, and the plot for the young king's 
 removal into La Vendue — ^he will scarcely have the discernment I 
 would wish to attribute to him, if he does not perceive the gradual 
 working and development of a deep laid scheme, worthy of the 
 intriguing genius of Louis XVIII., a very master piece of Machiavel- 
 liaa policy, to deceive and overreach both parties. It is not impro- 
 bable that Oambaeeres and others may have secretly lent their aid 
 injarrying out his design. 
 
 \W6 now come to a portion of this history of utmost importance 
 in many respects. I allude to the visit of three members of the 
 Committee of Geger^ SaTety, to the Tower, to ascertain the state of 
 the child's healthySjBefoi'e, however, we enter on it, let me call 
 attention to one of the most important considerations it involves, 
 viz. the mental condition of the Prince at the time^ 
 
 ^. BeanohesngPwithout formally raising the question or throw- 
 ing the subject into the shape of argument — a thing he carefully 
 avoids throughout-Qabors to prove that the mind of the captive 
 was not impaired^ ffhis position is necessary to give any -weight 
 to the evidence he adduces of his death) [if his reason was alienated, 
 
 * *' Charette, avait sign^, le 17 Janvier, dans le petit chateau de la Jaunaie, pres de 
 Nante8, un traite, dont lea clauses secretes stipulaient la remise entre ses mains du 
 jeuneRoiet de la Frincesse, sa sceur. Le gouvernement r6publicain avait feint d'ac- 
 quiescer a ces conditions, en demandant seulement que la remise des enfans de Louis 
 XVI., ne fut effectu^e que le 13 Juin, 1T95."— Beaiwliesne, vol. ii. p. 410. 
 
88 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 then every word which Lasiie and Gomia have put into his mouth 
 is proof of their falseho,o57 They represent him as not only retain- 
 ing his senses, hut manifesting to the last the most sprightly and 
 vivid intelligence, in conjunction with a fixed heroic determination, 
 which savors of the miraculous. 
 
 The Duchess D'Angoul^me, who derived her knowledge from 
 Gomin, says her brother's mind " suffered from the effects of the cruel 
 treatment that had so long been exercised towards him, and show- 
 ed symptoms of increasing weakness ;"■ and again, that " the horri- 
 ble treatment of which he was the victim gradually affected his 
 mind, and even had he lived, it is probable he would never have 
 i-ecovered from the effects of it." Lamartine says — "They had 
 brutalized him not only to dethrone him, hut to deprive him even 
 of his childish innocence and hu^man intelligence."* 
 
 (On the 36th February, 1794, the commissaries of the Temple, 
 Laurent and Gomin, reported to the Committee of General Safety, 
 that the life of the prisoner was in imminent danger — and, on 
 being asked, " What was the nature of the danger?" they replied, 
 " that the little Capet had tumors on all the articulations, ard 
 pa/rticula/rly at the hnees — that it was impossible to obtain from him a 
 single «iori-^and that always, whether sitting or laying down, he 
 refused all kinds of exercise." When questioned as to the period 
 from whence this obstinate silence and systematic immobility 
 dated, they said it was since the 6th October, 1793, the day on 
 which he had been made to sign a charge of incest against his 
 mother. Here let me remark, that Gomin stands directly opposed 
 to himself. As one of the commissai-ies, he affirmed that it was 
 impossible to get a word from him, and, in fact, that he had never 
 heard him speak ; and yet, through M. Beauohesne, he has favored 
 us with particular accounts of his conversations) 
 
 (a committee, consisting of MM. Harmand, Matthieu, and Rever- 
 chon, were appointed to visit the prisoner) They found him in a 
 clean and well-lighted room, having no furniture but a bedstead, a 
 
 * Lamartlne'a Qlrondista, vol. I. p. 300. 
 
INTEIOUE. 89 
 
 table, and earthen stove. " The Prince," says Harmand, " was 
 sitting before a little square table, on which were scattered some 
 playing-cards, some bent into the form of boxes and little chests, 
 others piled up in castles. He was amusing himself with these 
 cards when we entered, but he did not give up his play. He was 
 dressed in a sailor's jacket of slate-colored olotli — his head was 
 bare." Harmand approached him, but he took no notice. 
 He spoke to him, but he looked steadily forward without any 
 change in his position. He promised him toys, but he stared with 
 steady and vacant indifference. To all questions, he answered nei- 
 ther by gesture, expression, nor word. Baffled in all attempts, 
 Harmand now tried peremptory command, which succeeded a lit- 
 tle better. "Monsieur, have the goodness to give me your hand. 
 He, presented it, and I felt, in prolonging my movement up to the 
 arm-pit, a tumor .at the wrist, and another at the elbow, like knots. 
 The tumors were not painful, for the Prince showed no sign of 
 their being so. The other hand. Monsieur. He presented it also. 
 There was nothing. Permit me, sir, to touch your legs and your 
 knees. He raised himself up. I felt the same swellings at the two 
 knees under the joint.'' This mechanical movement of his limbs at 
 oonimand was the only indication of sense he showed during 
 the whole interview. " He remained on his seat — his look did 
 not change a single instant, by the least apparent emotion, by the 
 least astonishment in the eyes — he acted as if we were not there 
 and I had said nothing." 
 
 His dinner was now brought. He eat without saying anything. 
 They threatened if he did not speak, to remove the commissaries 
 (Laurent and Gomin), who were kind to him, and send him others 
 who might he more disagreeable to him. He neither changed his 
 look, nor gave an answer. "Do you wish," inquired Harmand 
 "that we should go away?" There was no reply. 
 
 The deputies began now to question the commissaries, i. «., 
 Laurent, Gomin, and the acting commissioner for the day, as to the 
 cause of this. " We demanded, if this obstinate silence had been 
 
90 THE LOST PEINCE. 
 
 really preserved since the day when that monstrous deposition 
 against his mother had been violently forced from him.'O'hey 
 assured us, that ever since that day, the poor child had ceased to 
 speak. Remorse had prostrated his understanding.'''* These 
 words, preserved by Lamartine, are omitted by M. Beauchesne, 
 who inserts three points in their stead, though he pretends to give 
 the narrative of Harmand entire. He well knew that a prostra- 
 tion of the child's understanding would be fatal to all the accounts 
 of pointed remarks, and interesting conversations, between the 
 Prince and his jailers, which give so much particularity to their 
 narrative of the last days and hours of his life ; and, not content 
 with omitting the testimony in respect to his aberration of mind, 
 accuses Harmand of having exaggerated in his- statement concern- 
 ing the child's silenc^ 
 
 Now, it is undeniable that the commissaries, in their first report 
 to the Committee of General Safety, acknowledged that the Prince 
 never spoke even to them — ^that Harmand and his colleagues could 
 obtain from him, no reply or token of sense — that Laurent and 
 Gomin acknowledged a second time to them, that he never spoke, 
 and had not done so for months — that the deputation justly con- 
 cluded, that his understanding was prostrated — that his sister 
 believed him to be incurably insane, and that Lamartine repre- 
 sents him as deprived of " human intelligence." Of what value, 
 then, let me ask, is testimony which proceeds upon an entirely dif- 
 ferent hypothesis, and which represents him indulging to the last 
 in a lavish garrulity ? 
 
 U>n the 29th March, 1795, Laurent left the Temple. He was 
 tired^of his employment, and wished to return to his family, and 
 to the care of his private affair^ He parted with affection from 
 the prisoner, whom he had always kindly treated, and in two days 
 afterwards, [ihe vacancy was filled by the appointment of Etienne 
 Lasn^ Lasne, had formerly been a soldier in the Garde 
 Franjaise ; in 1789, he entered the National Guard ; and in 1791, 
 
 * Lamartine, Hist. Restoration, vol. 1. p. 808. Beauchesne, voL 11. p. 80». 
 
INTEIGUE. 91 
 
 ■was made captain of grenadiers. \" Kevolntionary inflnences," 
 says Beauchesne, ^had nominated Lasne, as royalist influences 
 had nominated Gomin, but they both belonged to the moderate 
 part^^ As the Marquis de Fenouil, Gomin, and Debieme, are 
 proofs that it was no unusual thing for royalists to appear in 
 republican garb — and as M. Lasne's republicanism was confessedly 
 of & moderate character, being, probablyj of that convenient 
 quality which enables a man to do whatever seems best for his 
 pecuniary interests — ^his practical principles must be estimated by 
 his actions. 
 
 ^is republicanism yielded to time, for he was a very loyal subject 
 at the Restoration, and, when Mr. Beauchesne. first visited him, in 
 1837, had, in his room, many portraits of the royal family, including 
 some of the Dauphin) He had sufficient influence with Louis 
 XVin. to induce him to discredit the word of an eminent physician 
 like Felletan. 
 
 ^s soon as Lasne entered on office, we find indications of a dis- 
 position to aid in the escape of the Prinofe? The keys made a great 
 noise in turning in the locks, and he accordingly had them care- 
 fully oUed. He also denied the necessity of the doors being closed 
 on the landings, and ordered them to be left open. There can be 
 no question that these are the very things which would be done by 
 a person in his position, anxious to facilitate escape. 
 
 The acting commissaries, hoover, objected to the doors being 
 left open, as they said they were put there to be shut ; and Lasne, 
 " imowing that all resistance wovU he untimel/y^ amd could only Irring 
 suspicion on Tiim" acceded in silence. There was a perfect under- 
 standing between Lasne and Gromin, and they continued to act 
 from beginning to end in entire harmony. They made mutual 
 arrangements to give each other the fullest liberty, and broke up 
 every established usage which interfered with this. Hitherto the 
 keys could only be used in the presence of both the keepers. They 
 were now placed at the disposal of either of them, at any time. 
 Instead of the previous severe and silent discipline, they introduced 
 
92 THE LOST PEINCK. 
 
 music into the tower, and, though unskilled, Gomin played on the 
 violin, and Lasne accompanied him with his voice ; all -which was 
 well calculated to distract attention, and accustom all who might 
 entertain suspicion, to noise and commotion in the hitherto quiet 
 and monotonous prison. x 
 
 "We are here reminded, hy M. Beauohesne, that the silence of the 
 Prince was only relative — ^in other words, that he could talk when 
 and to whom he pleased — and are informed that although he 
 observed, for three weeks, an obstinate silence towards Lasne, he, 
 at length, yielded to the kindness of his keeper, and, during the rest 
 of his life, took pleasure in chatting with him, especially respecting 
 the events of his early childhood, before the Revolution, of which 
 he retained a distinct and clear remembrance. " Contra/ry to hit 
 Tidbit" this is admitting something, "he theed and thoud him and 
 treated him, with familiarity." 
 
 For reasons already given, and for others which will appear as 
 we advance, I can yield no credence to these long jocose conver- 
 sations, and shall, therefore, merely allude to them for the purpose 
 of denying in the strongest manner their probability. They mili- 
 tate with everything recorded of the captive, by those whose testi- 
 mony can be credited— they indicate a state of mind entirely 
 different from what his physical condition would require — they are 
 confessed to be exceptions to his usual conduct — and unless, there- 
 fore, they rest dn evidence, itself .above dispute, they deserve to 
 have no place in history. 
 
 QSnt as their improbability, though great, is far exceeded by what 
 we shall be asked to believe hereafter, I must beg the reader to 
 observe that it was three fuU weeks before Lasne, by dint of the 
 most assiduous and unremitting care, could get oven a look of 
 recognition, or the slightest intimation that his attention was 
 appreoiatedj 
 
 Never since the beginning of the Revolution was the prospect of 
 the royalist party so bright in France as in the spring of the year 
 1795. The strife between the two extreme factions in the state, the 
 
INTRIGUE. 93 
 
 royalists and the patriots, was severe and constant — and the former 
 obtained ererywhere the ascendency. In league with the Giron- 
 dists, they became daily bolder, and caused decrees, of which they 
 made terrible use, to be passed against them. " They imprisoned 
 them," says Thiers, " as accomplices of Robespierre, or as having 
 had the management of the public money, without rendering any 
 account of it. They disarmed them, as having participated in the 
 tyranny abolished on the 9th Thermidor ; or, lastly, they hunted 
 them from place to place, as having quitted their communes. It 
 was in the south itself that these hostilities against the unfortunate 
 patriots were most active; for violence always provokes equal 
 violence. In the department of the Rhone a terrible reaction was 
 
 in contemplation.'' -t-^-^t-v^^^ »<, ^rro, -».£--= .^ 
 
 (Those who had fled, from the country in the year 1T93, now 
 returned into it by thousands — and so powerful was the influence 
 exerted, that Lyons, which had been wholly republican, became 
 now, as extreme in royalismN In the chief cities of Switzerland, 
 shoals of emigrants collected, ready to re-enter France. The res- 
 toration of Louis XVII. was the universal cry.* The priests too, 
 who had fled, returned into France, declared that all the ordinances 
 performed by those who had taken the republican oath were void, . 
 and began to rebaptize, remarry, and excite every popular hatred 
 against the government. From words and recriminations the roy- 
 alists soon came to blows, and, in many parts, blood was shed by 
 them, a slavishly as by their enemies in past years. An armistice 
 was concluded with Charette, the Venddean chief, in the secret 
 articles of which, the government at Paris promised to re-establish 
 the Roman Catholic worship throughout France, and to restore 
 Louis XVII. to the armies of La Vendue and Brittany .f 
 
 ^aris was full of reports conoeniing the disposition to be made 
 of the Prince, whose longer retention in captivity was felt to be 
 impossiblf . Various movements had been made in -his favor by 
 foreign courts. Spain had a project of making him king of 
 
 • Thiers, vol. ill. p. 252. t Beaochesne, vol. il. p. 342. 
 
94 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Navarre. On the other hand, it was said that the conrts of 
 Vienna, Petershnrg, and Berlin designed to place him on the throne 
 of Poland. ^3here -was a general public belief that attempts were 
 on the eve of execution to carry him from the Tow|^. He was an 
 object of universal conversation, and everything betokened a crisis. 
 Never, perhaps, in the history of the world, was there a child on 
 whom so many expectations and fears were centered — who. stood 
 in the path of so many ambitions, who had so many potent rivals, 
 anxious to remove him out of their waj^ or who was exposed in 
 such perfect helplessness to his enemies^ It seems inexplicaMej 
 that in those times of blood, no one was found to deprive him of 
 life. Before the downfall of Robespierre, it might have been 
 effected without leaving a trace behind. Providence, it is all that 
 we can say, destined he should survive. 
 
 At this critical moment, we find him in the hands of a royalist 
 keeper, placed in his position by an intriguing agent of the Count 
 de Provence, who, to effect this end had, with Jesuit policy, 
 feigned to be a republican. We see this keeper^oseted with roy- 
 alists, and are permitted to hear enough of their conversations to 
 know that they contemplate his removal from the tower in which 
 ■ he is confined. We next find another keeper added to the previous 
 one, who, though nominally republican, does everything which 
 would be politic were he preparing for his liberation. In the 
 French government we perceive men ready to lend themselves 
 to anything — anxious, if the Republic survive, to remove the 
 child — but equally willing, should there be a change in the tide, to 
 court the favor of an usurper. 
 
 Such is the situation of affairs, when the curtain lifts upon the 
 scene of mystery, in which the Prince disappears from our sight. 
 
DISAPPEARANCE. 95 
 
 OHAPTEE Vn. 
 
 DISAPPBAEANOE. 
 
 (^HE thirteenth of June, on -which day the Convention had 
 ooreaanted to deliver the royal children into the hands of 
 Oharette, rapidly approachejl The Marqnis de Fenouil, though 
 endeavoring to outwit the repuhlioan government, was possessed 
 of its confidence, and ostensihly acting with it, to overreach the 
 Vend^eans. Between him and his creatures in the Temple, there 
 was, doubtless, a complete understanding and a concerted plan of 
 operations. They could act with greater freedom, because plotting 
 against the government under its shadow, with its sanction, and, 
 perhaps, with the secret co-operation of some of its members. 
 The lax discipline which prevailed in the Temple; the good- 
 natured, easy, and unsuspicious course of the keepers towards each 
 other and the guard ; the boisterous fiddling and singing, which 
 made the stern old walls and vaulted staircase ring with unwonted 
 merriment ; — were all admirably contrived to lull watchfulness to 
 sleep. " Like master, like men," is a homely but true proverb, and 
 if the principal officials in the Temple led a careless, jovial life, it 
 is not probable that those on whom less responsibility rested, were 
 a whit more alert. (The only real difBcnlty in the way of an 
 escape, consisted in the vigilance of the acting commissaries — offi- 
 cers, whose term of duty lasted only for a single day, and who, on 
 that very account, were apt to be strict and watchi^M. 
 HBut this was an obstacle easily evaded. The Marquis, who had 
 secured the appointment of permanent officials in his interest, 
 could easily, when the proper moment arrived, obtain the nomina- 
 tion of a royalist acting commissary. That he could do so, is 
 evident from the case of Debiefne. >o agreement, doubtless, with 
 a concerted scheme, the keepers were only obeying their instruc- 
 tions when, in the beginning of May, 1795, they wrote upon the 
 
96 ' THE LOST PEINCE. 
 
 Eegister of the Tower, " The little Oapet is indisposed"— and the 
 next day, "The little Oapet is dangerously ill, and there is fear of 
 his death.ji)(lt was necessary to go through the formality of an 
 especial sickness, in order to arrive at the formality of a pre- 
 tended death/!) On the 6th May, 1796, they were informed that, 
 M. Desault, the chief surgeon in France, a man of world-wide renown 
 in his profession, had been appointed to take care of the Prince. 
 
 (^here is no evidence that the physician considered his young 
 charge in any dangeiy from which there was not an easy esdfepe. 
 He examined him long, with great attention, and questioned him, 
 without being able to obtain an answer. He expressed in the 
 prison, no opinion of his condition, but ordered merely, a decoo- • 
 tion of hops; and on hisTisit the next day, directed, in addition, 
 that his tumors should be rubbed with volatile salts. These pre- 
 scriptions are as simple as can well be imagined. They indicate no 
 anxiety — and this quiet, easy course — ^hop tea and gentle frictions, 
 was continued by Desault to the very last. In his conversations 
 abroad, we are told by M. Beauchesne, that he said, that the 
 Prince "had the germ of the scrofulous affection of which his 
 brother had died, at Meudon; but this malady had scarcely 
 imprinted its seal on his constitution, nor manifested itself with any 
 violent symptom ; neither vast ulcers, nor rebellious ophthalmia, nor , 
 chronic swellings of the joints." In the opinion of Desault, and 
 his opinion cannot be rejected, the swellings on the articulations of 
 the Prince's body were not scrofulous. They had been in 
 existence ever since his solitary imprisonment ; and, if they were 
 scrofulous tumors, the disease must, already, have been of long 
 standing, and firmly seated in his constitution. Instead of suffering 
 from scrofula, Desault said, he was sinking under decline, occa- 
 sioned by confinement, and proposed an immediate transportation 
 to the country, hoping that good air, careful treatment, and 
 constant attention, would restore him. In a word, "He under- 
 took," says the Duchess D'AngouWme, " to cure him.* 
 
 * Filia Dolorosa, p. 345. 
 
DISAPPEABANCB. , 97 
 
 (J' 
 
 (It was with difficulty the child could be induced to take the 
 medicine prescribed. The government refused to comply with the 
 pfaysiciau's request for his removal, and hop tea and sal-volatile 
 frictions constituted, let me repeat, the whole treatment the child 
 received at the hands of Desault]) The frictions had no effect In 
 diminishing the swellings, and there can be little doubt that conti- 
 nued confinement, but not scrofula, would soon have deprived the 
 child of life. The only evidence of immediate danger adduced, is the 
 testimony of Lasne and Gomin, who are themselves on trial. Both 
 M, Hue and Madame Eoyale were forbidden to see him, so that we 
 have none but most suspicions witnesses to prove his condition — 
 for no record of Desanlt's opinion remains. 
 
 We are told that the child gradually became attached to his phy- 
 sician, and, towards the last, before he left his apartment, would 
 timidly detain him by the skirt of his coat. This incident seems, 
 under the circumstances, characteristic and natural. If he had 
 any sense at this time, it was just in such acts of shy, sensitive gra- 
 titude that he would show it. 
 QVe now come to the point of mystery.* TTp to the 30th May, 
 
 • " Oa the 11th Frairial (80th May), le Sfeur BrieuUard, the actingcommissaryfor the 
 day, who accompanied Desault, said to him, in going down the staircase, * The child 
 will die — will he not f * I fear it ; but there are, perhaps, those persons in the world 
 who hope it,* replied Desault, the last words which he pronounced in the Tower of 
 the Temple, and which, though spoken in a low voice, were heard by Gomin, who 
 walked behind Brieullard, 
 
 " On the 12th Frairial (81st May), the acting commissary, on his arrival, at nine 
 o'clock, said he would wait for the Doctor in the chamber of the child, to which he 
 caused himself to be introduced. This commissary was M. Bellanger. painter and 
 designer of the cabinet of Monsieur (the Count de rrovence, afterwards Louis XVHL) 
 who lived No. 2t Rue Poissonniere. He was an honest man ; ihe miaforUme of his 
 ienefactor — alas, in those sad times he was almost an exception — had not dried up 
 t/ie devottonof Jiia heart. M. Desault did not come. 
 
 " M. Bellanger, who had brought a portfolio filled with his drawings, asked the Prince 
 if he Kked painting ; and, without waiting for an answer, which did not come, the 
 artist opened his portfolio, and put It under the eyes of the child. He turned it over, 
 at firsU-with indifference, afterwards with interest, dwelt a long time on each page, 
 and when he had finished, began again. This long examination seemed to give some 
 solace to his sufferings, and some relief to the chagrin which was caused by the 
 
98 TIIK LOST TRINCE. 
 
 Desault paid his visits regularly, at nine o'clock, without any change, 
 either in the patient or in his treatment. On tha-t day, it is assert- 
 ed, on the authority of Gomin, he expressed, in a low voice, fears 
 for the child's life, when going down stairs, never to return. The 
 next day, & new actor appears upon the scene under most sus- 
 picious circumstances. Already, the child was surrounded within 
 and without the Temple by royalist agents, who were plotting to 
 effect his removal. There now entered another, who was. a creature 
 and confidant of the Regent^ and devoted to the cause of his patron 
 
 absence of his physfcian. The artist often gare him explanations of the different 
 su1]ject8 of his collection. The child had at first kept silence, but, little by little, he 
 listened to M. Bellanger irith marked attention, and finished by anavering his 
 questions. 
 
 " In taking the portfolio from his hands, AI. Bellanger said to him, ' I much desire, 
 sir, to take away one drawing more, but I will not do it if you object.* * What 
 drawing?' said the Dauphin. 'That of your coivitenance j it will give mnch 
 pleasure, if it will not cause you pain.' ^ Will it give you pleasure V' said the child, 
 and the most gracious smile completed his sentence and the mute approbation which 
 he^gave to the desire of the artist. M. Bellanger traced in crayon the profile of the young 
 king, and it is from this profile, that, some days after, M. Beanmont, the sculptor, aod, 
 twenty years after, manufacturer of Sirres porcelain, executed the bust of liouia XTII. 
 
 "The ISth Frairial (1st June), M. Besault did not come again. The keepers were 
 astonished at his absence, and the child regretted it. The acting commissary, M. 
 Benoist, Faubourg St. Denis, 4, was of opinion that word should be sent to the house 
 of the physician, to inquire the cause of so prolonged an absence. Gromin and lasoe 
 had not yet dared to act according tp this advice, when the n6xt day M. Bedault 
 Rue de Boi^di, 37, who relieved M. Benoist, hearing him on his arrival pronounce 
 the name of M. Desault, said immediately, ' DopH wait for him any longer, be died 
 yesterday.' 
 
 " This sudden death, under such circumstances, opened a vast field of conjecture 
 There is one, which must astonish by its boldness, let us say more justly, by its infiimy. 
 They dare assert that M. Desault, after having administered a slow poison, to hin 
 patient, had been himself poisoned by those who had commanded the crime. But the 
 noble life of M. Desault protects him, without any doubt, against such a calumny. 
 Other inventors have not feared to say, that M- Desault did not recognise in the poor, 
 sickly one in the Tower of the Temple, the child bo tail of strength and grace whom 
 he had admired more than once, and in a happier dwelling; and tha* it was because 
 ha showed an intention of revealing to the government this substitution, that the 
 doctor had been poisoned. This supposition is equally true with the fint. M. 
 Desault, who had been physician to the royal children) never doubted that his young 
 patient was the Dauphin. "^.ff^t»oA£»n«, vol. ii. 349. 
 
DISAPPEAKANCE. 9^ 
 
 and ienefactor — M. Bellanger, painter and designer of the cabinet 
 of Monsieur. It cannot, with semblance of reason, be denied that 
 this man was there as agent of the Regent. And now, let us watch 
 his actions. It was usual for the acting commissary to wait the 
 arrival of the physician, and go with him and the two guardians 
 -^who were also styled commissaries of the Committee of General 
 Safety — into the chamber of the patient; hut M. Bellanger, though 
 he arrived precisely at the hour when M. Desault was expected, 
 said that he would go up at once to the Prince's room, and stay 
 there till the physician came. The discipline of the prison was 
 relaxed, so that this infraction of rule would occasion no particular 
 remark. The physician did not come, and the creature of the 
 Eegent remained wkh the child the whole day. He had come 
 prepared to stay, and try to gain the affections of the captive. He 
 amused him with pictures, and concluded by taking a sketch of 
 him. "When he went away, or how, we are not informed. "What 
 was done in the prison that day, besides, has no record. But, 
 there was time enough to effect any change, and there were hands 
 enoftgh within and without the prison ready to co-operate in 
 removing the young captive. There was no spy on their opera- 
 tions—no inconvenient physician — no harsh republican commissary. 
 All were agreed, keepers,' commissary, steward, probably sentinel, 
 within— Fenouil, Doisy, Debierne, and who else, we know not, 
 without. The child, conciliated and pleased with pictures, and 
 dosed for a month with decoction of hops, which I very much ques- 
 tion whether Desault ever ordered, would offer no opposition to 
 accompanying a stranger. If ever there were a conjunction of men 
 and circumstances favorable to the easy and unobserved remcival of 
 a prisoner, we have them here. But we are left to imagine what 
 happened, with probability only for our guide. 
 
 The next day comes, and no physician appears. The guardians, 
 according to their testimony, are very much astonished, and the 
 child very sad. On the 2d June, the news arrives that Desault 
 had died the previous day. Even before the event of the Dauphin's 
 
100 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 illness is known, the sndden death of such a man, at such a time, 
 tlii-ows. all Paris into bewildermmt) The j)ublie mind feels that 
 there is a mystery transacting. Oi conjectures this, and it conjec- 
 tures that; but though its surmises take different shapes, there is a 
 rooted suspicion of foul play, and a firm belief that, for some 
 reason, Desault has been poisoned) ^t can scarcely be imaged 
 that a careful and skilful practitioner, like Desanlt, 'would keep no 
 record of his visits to the Prince — no description of his case, his 
 symptoms, and the probabilities of-his recovery or death. But, no 
 such record is found, which creates another strong suspicion that 
 his papers were tampered with, and all traces of an inoonvenieat 
 character removed. Had his memoranda been preserved, it 
 would, probably, have appeared that the Dauphin was in no 
 immediate danger.A Desault did not act as if he imagined him to 
 be in any. Physicians do not like to assume sole responsibility in 
 such cases. The moment that Felletan was called to the Tower, 
 he asked for a colleague. Desanlt continued to treat the case, 
 quietly, by himself, making no extraordinaiy visits, giving no 
 unusual remedies. He was taken sick, we are told, by M. Bean- 
 chcsne, in explanation of his death, with ataxique fever, on the 
 night of the 29th May. CjM. Abeill6, his medical pupil, who, pro- 
 bably, understood his symptoms better than any one else, has 
 declared, both in Europe and America, that he was poisone^^ 
 But, notwithstanding his asserted sickness on the 29th May, the 
 SOth found him well enough to visit his patient, as usual, without 
 exhibiting any signs of indisposition. Had he been suffering, at 
 his last visit to the Temple, under a fever, which -in a few hours 
 would bring him to the grave, he would have shown some indica- 
 tion of his condition ; but, the veracious witness, Gromin, observed 
 none, and was at a loss to imagine the reason of his absence the 
 next day. 
 
 Clf his illness increased so much during the 29th that he found 
 himself unable to make his usual visit to the Prince, he would, »» 
 
 * PeroiTnl, p. 165. 
 
DISAPPBAKANCE. 
 
 101 
 
 all human probability, heme sent some substitute, had the child, in 
 his opinion, been in immediate dang^ A great physician is the 
 most faithful of mortals ; and the sense of duty and the esprit du 
 corps operate, as in the soldier's or the sailor's heart, to the last 
 beat of life. That Desault, even on his death-bed, would volun- 
 tarily allow the dying Prince, if such he deemed him, to be 
 neglected for forty-eight hours, is impossible. Let the profession 
 say whether I am right. ' In short, the conduct, as vcell as the 
 death, of Desault, are wrapped in impenetrable mystery, and do 
 not, in any way, coincide with the hypothesis that he regarded his 
 patient in extreme danger. 
 
 ^t this point there occurs an entire break in the narrative of M. 
 Beauchesne. From the time that Bellanger left the Tower, on 
 Slst' May, until June 5, there is -no record of anything that 
 ti-anspired in the sick chamber, except a remark, requiring no 
 great stretch of intellect to coin, that the child felt sad on Jnne 
 1st. The space left, at this most critical period, affords ample room 
 and verge enough for any new arrangements, and we are not to 
 si^pose the ingenuity of our friend the marquis, and his accom- 
 plices within and without the Temple, was at fault/) 
 
 ^eUetan, receiving his appointment from the Committee of 
 General Safetj', on the morning of June 5, went to visit his patient 
 at five in the afternoon. He was entirely unacquainted with the 
 Prince, and had never seen him. "I found the child," he^ays, 
 " in so sad a state that I demanded instantly that another profes- 
 sional person should be joined with- me, to relieve me from a 
 •burden I did not wish to bear alone." The instinctive feeling and 
 the ordinary practice of the medical profession immediately displayed 
 themselves, in a case fraught with real danger No sooner did 
 Pelletan cast his eyes upon the child Ije was called on to attend, 
 than he cried, " Give me a colleague.'' Desault convinced, as the 
 Duchess D'Angoulfeme acknowledges, that he could cure the 
 Prince, made no allusion to the subject. 
 
 The sick child in the Temple was now in the hands of a perfect 
 stranger. Of such a person the Prince was, according to every 
 
102 THE LOST PKINCE. 
 
 account, most shy. His timid recognition Of Desault, after the 
 lapse of some weeks' acquaintance, we have seen, as well as the 
 difficulty experienced by every one in obtaining, by the most win- 
 ning arts, the slightest attention, ^ut, if the authorities on whom 
 M. Beauchesne relies are to be trusteS, an entire change now came 
 over his feelings and conduct. Clestead of waiting to be spoken to, 
 he began to converse with the strange physician, and displayed 
 every sign of a mind thoroughly plive to all that was going on) 
 
 Rogues have seldom the genius of Shakespeare, and truth, there- 
 fore, has little to fear from the combinations of falsehood. They 
 outrage nature and probability in their attempts to make a plausible 
 case, and though they may deceive some, cannot deceive all. The 
 physician, it is said, on entering the apartment, found fault with 
 the confined air, and, in a loud tone, proposed to the municipal 
 officer on duty, that the child should be carried into another room, 
 on which he immediately beckoned M. Pelletan to approach, and 
 said, " Speak lowei-, I pray you ; I fear they will hear you above, 
 and I should be very sorry they should learn that I am sick, for it 
 would give them much pain," He was removed to another room, 
 and during all the time the preparations were being made, his eyes 
 followed every motion. 
 
 So many asserted details respecting his feelings, which must be 
 purely imaginary, are given, that it is folly to notice them. As 
 even'M. Beauchesne could perceive the necessity of accounting for 
 the remarkable change which is henceforth visible, he ascribed it 
 to the sunny room. " He found himself in an airy chamber, with-_ 
 ■ out bars, and ornamented with great white eurtains, which permit- 
 ted him to see the sky and the sun. The gay sun of June entering 
 by the open window — what a spectacle for a child so long shut up 
 in a dungeon!" 
 
 There "is some inconsistency in this, for the sky and the sun were 
 not such strangers to the eyes of the child who had been for 
 months accustomed to a daily walk on the Tower, and the deputa- 
 tion who visited him in February, represented his room as 
 
DISAPPEARANCE. 103 
 
 agreeable and -ffell lighted. "Are yon pleased with this cham- 
 ber?" said Pelletan. "Oh, yes! very much plensed," was the 
 ready and animated reply. His heroic resolution of never speaking 
 again, mnst have been long abandoned. On 7th June, M. 
 Dnmangin, chief physician of the Hospital of the Unity, was 
 added to Pelletan, and both of them came immediately to visit the 
 child, who, at all convenient occasions, continued to talk and chat, 
 with unabated interest, respecting all that was going on around him. 
 
 But we are not left without other testimony of the real scenes 
 which the interior of the Temple, at this time, presented. 
 
 ">.--veTy~fespecta1^ tradesman," says Ireland,* in stating the 
 '^valent disbelief in Paris at the Bestoration, coticeming the 
 Dauphin's death, "is my authority for the following narrative, 
 who has heard his father, to whom the circumstance occurred, 
 repeat it in society fifty times. I shall now give it as nearly as 
 possible, in his own words, or, rather, as if the father himself were 
 repealing the facts : — 
 
 I tVipp fl. rpgid pnt in that quarter of JParji; -wbgra thn 
 Tfemple was situated, in my capacity as a National Guard, it 
 became my turn to attend there as sentry ; when having seen the 
 Dauphin about six months before, and being anxious, if possible, to 
 behold him again, prior to his death, as the current report was his 
 being in a very dangerous stata; I, in consequence, applied to the 
 jailer to know whether I mignt be permitted to occupy the post 
 of the guard, destined to keep watch on the Dauphin's apartment, 
 .there being always one stationed there. To this request, after 
 regarding me with an air of doubt, which the frankness of my 
 manner dispelled, he acceded under one proviso, that I was not to 
 exchange a single syllable with citizen Oapet in case he addressed 
 me, as the infringement of such order would be attended with the 
 loss of my head. I promised strict obedience to these commands, 
 and immediately entered upon my duty, being forthwith introduced 
 into the chamber, where I relieved a brother guard. In this 
 * Ireland's Prance, p. 27. London, 1822. 
 
104 THE LOST P21INCS!. 
 
 apartment there Trere three common chairs, a table, and a low 
 bedstead, whereon the Dauphin was lying, bnt from the position 
 of the bed clothes I could not perceive his countenance, and thus I 
 continued nearly the space of an hour, only observing, at intervals 
 a motion beneath the covering; at length, however, he pushed 
 away the sheet from his head, when I was enabled to consider 
 a countenance squalid in the extreme, partially covered with 
 blotches, and disfigured by one or two sores ; as he perceived in me 
 a stranger, he inquired, in a faint voice, who I was, but the 
 peremptoi-y order received, and the heavy price set upon a breach of 
 my faith, sealed my lips, upon which I placed my finger, thereby 
 indicating the prohibition under which IJay. 
 
 " ' At this he appeared displeased,^nd after turning abont, I 
 beheW his body rise until he sat upright in the bed, when nothing 
 could exceed my astonishment, on viewing a figure much taller, from 
 the head to the bottom of the back, than the Dauphin could possi- 
 bly have displayed from what I had seen of him only six months 
 before ; my wonder, however, increased on beholding him thrnst 
 his legs from beneath the covering, from which I was enabled to 
 form an estimate of the height of the figure before me, if standing 
 erect, when I felt an inward conviction, that however extraordi- 
 nary the efforts of nature may be in some instances, no such change 
 could have taken place in the growth of a youth in the half a year, 
 as must have beeiMJie case, supposing the object before me to have 
 been the Dauphin/ "With respect to the physiognomy it was impos- 
 sible to identify from thence anything for a certainty, as the fright- 
 ful effects of disease, with blotches and sores, had so disfigured the 
 countenance, that no conjecture could he hazarded as to what its 
 appearance might be in a healthful state ; the lips, like the face, 
 were also covered with livid spots, and it appeared to me that 
 there were also scabs on the hinder part of the head ;(in short, f 
 more pitiable object never met the human sight, whosoever it may 
 have been, for as to the Dauphin, I am fully convineed it iiia» not 
 hvrrj. After remaining some minutes with the legs exposed, and 
 
DISAPPEARANCE. 105 
 
 seated in a kind of Btupefled positioo, he again replaced thera 
 beneath the clothes, and covered himself as high as the neck, leav- 
 ing the face exposed, and turned towards me, the eyes being some- 
 times shut for a few minutes, which, when re-opened, were always 
 bent upon me, and, in two or three instances, I saw the lips move, 
 and heard a faint articulation, but nothing was distinguishable. In 
 this manner the allotted period of my attendance elapsed, upon 
 which I was relieved by another National Guard from the melan- 
 choly duty, and descended to the chamber adjoining the grand 
 entrance of the Temple, where I found the jailer, who inquired of 
 me how I had left the citizen Oapet, upon which, after expressing 
 my opinion that his death must soon take place, 1 very foolishly 
 remarked that, I thought the youth by far too tall for the Dauphin 
 — when he hastily demanded my reason for harboring such a 
 doubt. I then explained my having seen the youth six months 
 before, and the absolute impossibility of such a change in stature 
 taking place within so short a period. To which remark I received 
 the following singular reply, " Sick children, citizen, will sometimes 
 shoot up very fast ; but I advise you to go home and keep a still 
 tongue in your mouth, lest you should grow shorter by the head." 
 I immediately left the prison and profited by this advice, as I 
 never opened my lips upon the subject until the settled state of 
 affairs in France, left me at liberty to do so without any apprehen- 
 sion of danger.' " 
 
 I give this narrative as I find it in the pages of Ireland. It is 
 simple and natural. The time and place at which the work in 
 which it occurs was published, and the absence of design in the 
 ■writer to connect it with any theory on the sulgeot, simply record- 
 ing it as an isolated fact, which had come to his knowledge, entitle 
 it to vreight, and will not justify its omission, when presenting 
 the evidence of the Dauphin's having survived his captivity. I 
 may observe, further, that' the external condition of the body, as 
 described above, corresponds well with the account of its inter- 
 
106 THE LOST PKINCK. 
 
 nal state given in the procSs verbal, and is quite agreeable to an 
 advanced Mage of scrofulous disease. 
 
 The last night of the child's life is thus described by De Bean- 
 ohesne : — 
 
 " ' How unhappy am I to see you suffer so much,' said Gomin. ' Con- 
 sole yourself,' replied the child, 'I shall not suffer always.' Gomin pla«ed 
 himself on his knees to be near him. The child took his hand, and carried 
 it to his hps. The religious heart of Gomin (Gomin, of course, ia the 
 authority) breathed forth an ardent prayer, one of those prayers which 
 sorrow wrings from men, and love sends to God. The child did not quit 
 the faitiiful hand which remained with him ; he lifted his eyes to Heaven, 
 while Gomin prayed for him. It is impossible to describe all that is holy 
 and angelic in this last look of the child. You will ask without doubt, what 
 were the last words of the dying child ? You have heard those of his 
 father, who, from the height of the scaffold, which his virtue had made a 
 throne, sent pardon to his assassins. You have heard those of his mother, 
 that heroic queen, who, impatient to quit the earth where she had suffered 
 BO much, prayed the executioner to make haste. You have known those 
 of his aunt, of that Cliristian virgin, who, with supplicating eye, when 
 they removed her dress, to strike her better, asked, in the name of modesty, 
 that they would cover her bosom. 
 
 " And, now, shall I dare to repeat the last words of the orphan ? Those 
 who received his last sigh have related them to me — and I come faithfully 
 to inscribe them on the royal raartyrology. Gomin, seeing the infant 
 calm, immovable, and mute, said to him, ' I hope you do not suffer at this 
 moment ?' ' Oh, yes, I suffer still, but much less, the music is so fine.' 
 Now, there was no music in the Tower or its neighborhood ; no noisb 
 from without came into the Tower where the young martyr lay. Gomin, 
 astonished, said to him, ' In what quarter do you hear this music ?' 
 ' From above.' ' Have you heard it a long time ?' ' Since you have been 
 on your knees ;' and the child raised by a nervous movement his falling 
 hand, and opened his great illuminated eyes in ecstasy. His poor guar- 
 dian, not wishing to destroy this I^t and sweet illusion, set himself also 
 to listen, with the pious desiie to hear that which could not be heard. 
 After some moments of attention, the child was again agitated, his eyes 
 
DrSAPPBARANOE. 
 
 107 
 
 flashed, and he cried in indescribable transport, ' In the midst of all the 
 voices, I have heard that of my mother.' This name falling &om the lips 
 of the child, teemed to take from him all pain. His contracted eyebrows 
 distended, and hia look vi^as illumined with that serene ray which gives the 
 certainty of deliveranoe or of victory. His eye fixed on an invisibk spec- 
 taola— his ear open to the far-off sound of one of those concerts which the 
 human ear has never heard — ^hia young soul seemed to blaze out with a 
 new existence. Lasne came up to relieve Gomin, who went away with a 
 broken heart, but not more unquiet than the evening before, for he did not 
 foresee an approaching end. Lasne seated himself near to the bed. The 
 Prmce looked at him, for a long time, with an eye fixed and dreamy. 
 Lasne asked him how he was, and what he wanted? The child said, ' do 
 you think that my sister could have heard the music? What good it 
 would have done her.' Lasne could not reply. A look, full of anguish, 
 from the dying child, darted — earnest and piercing^— towards the window 
 — an exclamation of happiness escaped his lips — then, looking at his guar- 
 dian — ' I have something to tell you.' Lasne approached, and took his 
 hand — the little head of the prisoner fell on the breast of his guardian, 
 who listened, but in vain — God had spared the young martyr the hour of 
 'the death rattle — God had preserved for himself alone the confidence of hia 
 last thought. Lasne put his hand upon the heart of the child. The heart 
 of Louis XVn. had ceased to beat. It was two hours and a quarter after 
 mid-day i'^ 
 
 As every striking discrepancy between tlie statements of those 
 connected with this affair should be brought out, I will here refei- 
 to a curious question of time.. ^t half-past two o'clock on 
 the afternoon of the 20th P«airialfeth Juae), according to the 
 Btate'ment of Lasne, the prisoner died/ When he had drawn hia 
 last breath, Lasne went to inform Gromiu,, and Damont, the acting 
 commissary, who went up into the room. Some time was spent in 
 arranging the clothes on the bed, in opening the windows, and in 
 maWng the ordinary changes in a chamber of death. After all 
 this^omin set off to the Tuileries, in a distant part of the city, to 
 inform the Committee of General Safety of the event. But, he 
 found the session for the day was overj " La sSaftoe est lev6e." 
 
108 THE LOST PBISCE. 
 
 It was, oonsequently, impossible for him to make his report to the 
 committee. He met, howev,er, in the Tuileries, one of the mem- 
 bers, who said to him, " Keep the seoret until to-morrow," which 
 he accordingly did. /Now, the next day after the proc6s verbal had 
 been made out, Sevestre^ one of the Committee of General Safety, 
 reported to the Convention the death of the Prince, from " a swell- 
 ing in th0 right Tenee and the left wrist" adding, that the Com- 
 mittee of General Safety "received the news of the death of 
 Capet's son at t giifiTti" pf)"* twp tho pyoTHmT. pftoi-nnon^* 
 
 ^ow it was possible for them to do this, when the sitting was 
 closed before GomJn got to the Tnileries, which must have been at 
 least an hour after the death of the Prince, is more than I can con- 
 ceive^ In the proems verbal, the decease is said to have occurred 
 about threp o'clock; in Gomin's certificate of death, exactly at 
 three ;and yet the Committee of General Safety beard of it at a 
 quarter past two. As in those days there were no electric tele- 
 graphs to antedate time, the I'eader mqst frame the best expla- 
 nation he can for these facts,* 
 
 But, it now comes out that, on the 8th June, the Committee of 
 General Safety were engaged in business of acoAer kind, which 
 may serve to explain this difficulty as to time. \0n the very day 
 on which the tragic death-scene of the Prince — so graphically and 
 lugubriously chronicled by Beauohesne-— occurred, the Committee 
 made no less a discovery than that they had been overreached, and 
 that he had esoapeif*' " The great fact of the escape of the ; 
 Dauphin from the Temple," writes the Paris correspondent of the : 
 " London Atlas," quoted in the " New York Tribune," of Septem. 
 ber 19, " is well establlshed.by the archives of the police, where is 
 .still preserved the order sent out to the departments to arrest on 
 every high road in Prainoe any travellers bearing with them a 
 child of eight years or thereabouts, as there had been an escape of 
 royalists from the Temple. This order bears date June 8, 1795— 
 the very day of the death of the child in the Temple." That this 
 
 * Berestre also Informs us that DesauU died on the 4t)> June— Beancbeane says ha 
 4ted on the 1st. When did he die r 
 
DISAPPEARANCE. 109 
 
 order was rigorously acted on, and that the police over the whole 
 of France were on the alert, the reader will hereafter see, when 
 he comes to the statement of M. Gn6rwidre, of Paris, who was 
 arrested, shortly after, when travelling in the carriage of the Prince 
 de Cond6, under the suspicion that he, then a child of ten years, 
 was the Dauphin.* 
 
 At the very sitting, therefore, of the Committee of General 
 Safety, to which Sevestre affirms that the death of the Dauphin 
 was reported hy Gomin, who did not arrive until the hour after 
 the session was closed — this very police order must have been pre- 
 pared. The fact is acknowledged by the historian of the Duchess 
 D'Angoulfeme.t 
 
 But, to proceed with the solemn farce. In the morning of the 
 21st Prairial (9th June), two members of the Committee came, at 
 eight o'clock, to verify the decease of the Prince. But they made 
 no examination of the body, and treated the matter as a thing 
 of no moment. "The event," they said, "is a matter of no 
 importance. The Commissary of Police in the section will come 
 and receive the declaration of the decease — ^he will certify it, and 
 proceed to the inhumation without any ceremony. The Committee 
 will give the necessary orders." 
 
 Four surgeons were appointed to open the body, and visited 
 the Temple for this purpose. I give the proc6s verbal, but 
 it is worthy of remark, as indicating the nervous haste with 
 which the a€Pair was hurried through, that the year is omit- 
 ted from the date entirely, and that, although, at the conclusion, 
 reference is made to a day and year on which the instrument was 
 written, there are none given, 
 
 " PftoCES VsBBAL of the opening of the body of the son of the deceased 
 Louis Capet, drawn up at the Tower of the Temple, at eleven o'olook io 
 the morning of the 21st Prairial ; — 
 
 " We, the undersigned, Jean Baptiste Engine Dumangin, Fhysician-in 
 Chief of the Hospital of the Unity, and Philippe-Jean Pelletan, Surgeon- 
 in-Chief of the Grand Hospital of Humanity, aooompanied ty the citizens 
 * PerclTal, p. ITO. t HUa Dolorosa, p. in. 
 
110 THE LOST PMNCE. 
 
 Nicholas Jeanroy, Professor in the Schools of Medicine at Paris, and Plena 
 Laasus, Professor of Legal Medicine ia the School of Health at Paris; 
 whom we have joined to ourselves in virtue of a decree of the Committes 
 of General Safet/ of the National Convention, dated yesterday, and sigaed 
 Bergoing, President, Courtois, Gauthier, Pierre Guyoraard, to the effect that 
 we should proceed together to the opening of the body of the son of the 
 deceased Louis Capet, to declare>the condition in which we have found it, 
 have proceeded as follows : — 
 
 " ' All four of us having arrived at eleven o'clock in the mommg at the 
 outer gate of the Temple, we were received by the Commissaries, who 
 introduced ua into the Tower. Wa proceeded to the second story into an 
 apartment, in the second division of which we found upon a bed the boily 
 of a child, who appeared to us about ten years of age, which the Commis- 
 saries told us was that of the son of the deceased Louis Capet, and which 
 two among us recognised to be the child of whom they had taken care for 
 some days past. The said Conomissarles declared to us that the child died 
 the day before, about three o'clock in the afternoon, upon which we sought in 
 verify the signs of death, which we found characterized by an universal 
 paleness, the coldness of the whole habit of the body, the stiffness of the 
 limbs, the dullness of the eyes, the violet spots common to the skin of a 
 corpse, and, above all, by an incipient putrefaction of the stomach, the 
 scrotum, and between the thighs. 
 
 " ' We remarked before proceeding to the opening of the body, a general 
 leanness-, which was that of marasmus. The stomach was extremely 
 swollen and puffed with air. On the inner side of the right knee wo 
 remarl^ed a tumor without change of color to the skin ; and another 
 tumor, less voluminous, upon the os radios near the vnrist of the left side. 
 The tumor of the knee contained about two ounces of a greyish matter, 
 pussy and lymphatic, situated between the periosteum and the muscles ; and 
 that of the wrist contained matter of the same kind, but thicker. 
 
 " 'At the opening of the stomach, there flowed out about a pint of 
 purulent serum, yellow and very offensive ; the intestines were swollen, 
 pale, and adhering one to another, and also to the sides of the cavity ; 
 they were covered with a great quantity of tubercles of different sizes, and 
 which presented, when opened, the same matter that was contained in ilic 
 exterior deposits of the Imee and of the wrist. 
 
DISAPPEARANCE. Ill 
 
 " ' The intestines, open throughout their whole extent, were very healthy 
 inwardly, and contained but a small quantity of bilious matter. The 
 stomach presented to us the same condition — ^it adhered to all the sur- 
 rounding parts, was pale outside, covered with small lymphatic tubercles, 
 like those on the surface of the intestines ; its inner membrane was sound, 
 also the pilorus and the omeutiurr; the liver adhered by its convexity to the 
 diaphragm, and by its concavity to the viscera which it covered, its sub- 
 stance was healthy, its volume ordinary, the vessel of the gall bladder was 
 moderately filled with bile of a yellowish green color. The spleen, the 
 pancreas, the reins, and the bladder were sound, the epiploon and mesen- 
 tery covered with fat, were iiUed with lymphatic tubercles, similar to those 
 of which we have spoken. Similar tumors were scattered over the thick- 
 ness of the peritoneum, covering the inward face of the diaphragm. This 
 muscle was sound. 
 
 " ' The lungs adhered by their whole surface to the pleura, to the 
 diaphragm, and to the pericardium ; their substance was soimd, and with- 
 out tubercles; there were only some near the tracheal artery and the 
 omentum. The pericardium contained the ordinary quantity of serosity — 
 the heart was pale, but in its natural state. The brain and its depen- 
 dencies were in their most perfect integrity. 
 
 " ' All the disorders of which we have given the detail, are evidently the 
 effect of a scrofulous disease of a long standing, and to which the death 
 of the child should be attributed. 
 
 " ' The present proces verbal has been made and signed at Paris, at the 
 said place, by the undersigned, at four hours and a half, in the morning of 
 the day and year below written. 
 
 " ' J. B. E. DUMANSIN. 
 
 '"P. J. Pelletan. 
 
 " ' PlEEBE LaSSVS. 
 
 " ' N. Jeaheoy.' 
 
 " This proces verbal was completed in 1817, by M. Pelletan, who made 
 the following declaration ; — 
 
 t' ' I, the utidersigned, Clvevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honor, 
 member of the Uoyal Academy of Science, professor of the Faculty of 
 
]12 , THK LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Medicine, certify moreover, that after having cut the cranium transversely, 
 on a level with the orMts, to make the anatomy of the brain in the open- 
 ing of the body of the son of Louis XVI., which had been assigned to me, 
 I replaced the skull-cap of the cranium, and covered it with four strips of 
 skin which I had separated, and which I sewed together ; and that, finally, 
 I covered the head with a linen handkerchief^ or perhaps with a cotton 
 cap, fastened below the chin, or at the nape, as is practised in similar 
 oases. This dressing will be found, if it bo true that corruption has not 
 destroyed it; but certainly the skuU-oap of the cranium still exists 
 enveloped in the remains of those linens, or the cotton cap. 
 
 ' "Signed, 
 
 " ' Pelletan. 
 " ' Paris, nth AuguH, 1817.' " 
 
 M, Pelletan declared still later, that he had set apart the heart 
 of the Dauphin in the operation of the autopsy, and had carried it 
 away, so as to be able to offer to the royal family this sad and 
 mournful relic of the infant king. 
 
 Beside the procSs verbal, the documentary proofe of the death of 
 Louis XVII., are the official declaration of Lasne and Gomin, and 
 Bigot, a royalist, and certificates vpritten by the said Lasne and 
 Gomin for M. Beauchesne in 1837 and 1840; that of Lasne being 
 confided to the scented pages of our author's album. Lasne asserts 
 " on his honor, and before God, that the young prince died in his 
 arms," at the time and place officially specified, and tells us that, 
 having all his life told the truth, he will not lie at its conclusion. 
 Both of the keepers unite in affirming the scrupulous exactness of 
 our author. That these authentic testimonials of asserted facts may 
 make the deepest impi-ession, they are given in the form of fac-sinu- 
 les, after which M. Beauchesne states that Providence preserved 
 the lives of the two old men to give light to his researches, and pre- 
 sent, hour by hour, the bulletins of the dying agony. He then car- 
 ries us to the grave in the cemetery of I'Eglise Ste. Marguerite, 
 expresses " painful perplexity " as to whether the body was interjred 
 by itself or iu a common sepulchre, indicates on a map the exact 
 
DIBAPPEARANCE. 113 
 
 spot of interment, relates all the efforts -whioh Louis XVIU. made 
 to obtain certainty as to the place of burial, and of a certain monu- 
 ment which he intended to erect to the memory of the royal mar- 
 tyr, but which " n'a point 6te ex6cut6," and ends with the Latin 
 epitaph which was to have been inscribed on the said Mansolenm, 
 " Memoriae et cineribus Ludovici XVIL" 
 
 . yj'wonld here call attention to one or two singular and suspicious 
 facts, which in a subsequent chapter I will consider at greater 
 length. The royal ordinance, issued in 1816, for the disinterment 
 of the body of Louis XVIL, was without any suflSoient reason, 
 revoked, as if it were a matter the king was afraid to meddle with. 
 Again, orders were issued for the removal of the heart, asserted to 
 be in the possession of Pelletan, to St. Denis; but, according to 
 Beanchesne (see Appendix), Lasne, who was present at the autopsy, 
 declared that he never left the surgeons for a minute, and that 
 Pelletan did not take the heart out; consequently, he was left in 
 possession of the sacred and precious relic, which the royal family 
 did not deign to receive. Now, it is obvious that either Pelletan 
 or Lasne must have lied, and thus either the proofs verbal is dis- 
 credited, or the testimony of Lasne ; and the whole affair is left in 
 uncertainty. For myself, I believe the statement of Pelletan. And 
 here, too, the reader is requested to mark that the whole tegtimom/, 
 as to identity, resolves itself into tJie truth or falsehood of declaration* 
 made Try Lasne and'Gomin, To this, we have only to add that, 
 acfcording to Beanchesne, the testimony as to the place of interment 
 is equally contradictory; and that, to say the least, it is singular, 
 that in 1817, after Louis XVIIL was on the throne, he should have 
 thought it necessary to call in the aid of Pelletan, to make a further 
 statement, hadiit not been felt that the proofs verbal was transpar-~ 
 ently defectivjf. 
 
 We are now prepared to consider the authentic demonstration 
 of M. Beanchesne. 
 
 ^e^has proved undoubtedly, that a child died in the Temple, 8th 
 June, 1793, and was buried somewhere in the cemetery of I'Eglise 
 
114 THE. LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Ste. Marguerite, on the 10th June, and we will not dispiitia the 
 assertion tliat at nine o'clock that night, " the air was pure, and 
 the aureola of luminous vapor which crowned that fine evening 
 seemed to retain and to prolong the adieu of the sun." But I 
 give the following reasons for denying entirely that it was Louis 
 XVII. who then and there died, and was buried. 
 
 I. The surgeons do not testify that it was the body of the Dau- 
 phin which they opened. 
 
 II. Louis XVII. had tumors at all the joints, and particularly at 
 the feees. This is a fact, so positively stated by the French officials, 
 as to stand beyond reach of contradiction. The tumors were not 
 scrofulous, but the result of confinement, and were in the shape of 
 knots. 
 
 The procSs verbal speaks of only Iajoo tumors, one on the mner 
 side of the right knee, and the other near the left wrist. 
 
 III. M. Desault, on 6th May, testified that scrofula had scarcely 
 imprinted its seal on the constitution of the Dauphin, and that he 
 had merely the germ of a scrofulous affection. 
 
 MM. Dnmangln, Pelletin, Lassus, and Jeanroy, certify that the 
 death of the child, whose body they examined, was the effect of a 
 scrofulous disease, which had existed for a long time, and the internal 
 condition of the body, so minutely specified by them, shows how 
 deeply seated the disease was in the constitution, so that the whole 
 stomach and intestines were covered with'a great quantity of tuber- 
 cles, and all the other organs, where the disease could manifest 
 itself, were in the state which showed the ripeness of the malady 
 unto death. 
 
 IV. All testimony, except that of Lasne and Gotain, nay, that of 
 Oomin also, in 1796, proves that, mentally, the Dauphin was in a 
 condition of imbecility, coincident with his physical prostration, 
 lethargic, timid, mute, difficult of access, shy of strangers. 
 
 The boy who died, if the whole account is not false, was exactly 
 the contrary, forward, talkative, animated, imaginative. 
 
 V. Again, let any physician say whether a child in the mental 
 
DISAPPEARANCB. US 
 
 condition in which Desanlt found the Dauphin, could have had not 
 only the brain, but aU its dependencies, perfectly healthy, or whether 
 its vessels would not have been in a state of temporary derange- 
 ment. The examining physicians say, "Le cerveau et ses d6pen- 
 danoes etaient dans leur plus parfaite intdgrit^. 
 
 VI. The police records prove the fact of escape^ 
 
 Now, unless M. Beauchesne can demonstrate that a body having 
 tumors at both knees, both wrists, and both elbows, is the same 
 with a body having only two tumors in all, and leaving one knee, 
 two elbows, and one wrist, without them ; that a child who, on the 
 8th of May, had scarcely a taint of scrofula, but whose diseases were 
 caused by confinement, could, on the 8th of the next month, die of 
 Borofnlous disease of long standing; that mental characteristics the 
 most opposite, are the same, and all the dependencies of an 
 enfeebled brain can be in the most perfect integrity, his certificates, 
 and his witnesses, and his sentimentality, his .tears, unbuilt ceno- 
 taph, and Latin epitaph, and even " le coeur de I'enfant," of which 
 M. Pelletan says, "je I'enveloppais en linge, et je le mit dans ma 
 poche," and which he afterwards touched and examined, " avec 
 attention, plus de mille fois," will be of no avail, and he must be 
 forced to confess that a fact may be authentically demonstrated, 
 and yet physically and morally disproved. 
 
 The certificates of our author may be correctly copied — his 
 reports of conversations, as Lasne testifies, of the most "scrupuleuse 
 exactitude" — ^bnt certificates are pieces of paper with ink upon 
 them, and words spoken are sounding breath, and there their 
 worth begins and ends, in times and cases on which great issues 
 hang, unless consistent with confessed facts, and we have moral 
 confidence in those who spoke and wrote. 
 
 But some possible objections may be made to this conclnsion. 
 It may be said that the number of the swellings was decreased by 
 the frictions and applications made by order of Besanit, and that 
 he may have been mistaken in his opinion as to the nature of the 
 Dauphin's malady, or that it increased with an nnnsnal rapidity 
 
116 THE LOST PKINCE. 
 
 during the last montli of his life. Such objections can never be 
 made by medical men, but it is necessary to guard against the pos- 
 sible difficulties of others. If the disease were sorofnloBBl' all 
 diminution of the tumors would imply diminution of the disease 
 unless it manifested itself in some other place, of which there is no 
 intimation, and thus the-first and the last supposition would be at 
 entire variance. /Again, Desanlt was the most celebrated surgeon 
 of the time in France, and it is not conceivable that he could have 
 erred in opinion in a case of such importance ; and, if his opinion 
 were correct, that, in the beginning of May, scrofula had scarcely 
 imprinted its seal on the constitution of the Dauphin, then it is a 
 physical impossibility that it should attain its most advanced stage 
 in a month ; for scrofula, as I am professionally advised, is a disease 
 most slow in its progress, beginning in the glands, progressing to the^ 
 skin and articulations, and gradually taking possession of tKelntes- 
 tines and vital organs, nor does it destroy life until the mastery 
 over the last is complete. • It would require years to bring abont 
 the state of things described, in the proems ver^, as being pre- 
 sented at the autopsy of the asserted Dauphin, and the declaration 
 of the physicians that the disease was of long standing concedes 
 this. 
 
 Now, against evidence of this character, proving by uudeniable 
 physical differences the non-identity of two bodies," no official 
 recognition of identity based on mere casual observation, however 
 positively declared, and however formally certified, can be of any 
 avail. Bodies change so much after death, in many cases, that 
 nothing but the closest examination, with the desire to ascertain 
 the truth, can afford grounds for certain, or even a probable 
 opinion. Four members of the Committee of General Safety came 
 to verify the death of the Prince, but they showed the greatest 
 indifference. The officers and sub-officers of the guard of the 
 Temple were, we are told, afterwards admitted, but no documen- 
 tary evidence is afforded of the fact. Some of them, it i> mid by 
 Beauchesne, without proof, recognized the body of the Prince. 
 
DISAFFEABAMCi:. 
 
 117 
 
 How they could have done so, when the police were hunting him 
 all over France, is somewhat difflcnlt to nnderstand. 
 (^nt I am able to neutralize snch testimony, if any should be 
 inclined to attach importance to it, by proof at least of equal 
 weight. Mr. H. B. Muller, of Howard street, New York, an emi- 
 nent artist, and who authorizes me to refer to him, assured me, in 
 the presence of Mr. A. Fleming, that he was well acquainted with 
 a person named Anvray, formerly an oflSoer in the household of 
 Louis XVI. — and who, though afterwards a republican, still retained 
 his attachment for the royal family, and frequently saw the Prince 
 in the Temple, both in a civil and military capacity, having pre- 
 viously known him well at the Tuileries ; and that the said Auvray 
 declared to the said Muller that he was present when the body 
 was exhibited to the officers of the Garde National, and that it 
 v:as not the iodi/ of the Dwuphinj 
 
 (jn the " New Jersey State Gazette," of February 11th, 1800, 
 published at Trenton, N. J. there occurs the following paragraph : 
 " It is stated in political circles as a fact, that.about two years ago, 
 a Frenchman who had left his country on account of his principles, 
 and resided at Philadelphia, afBrmed that he was on the Commit- 
 tee of Snrgeons who examined the body of the child said to be the 
 Dauphin, and to have died of scrofula, in the Temple, but having 
 known the Prince while alive, in examining the face of the corpse 
 (eontrary topositwe instruetiom) he perceived no resemblance, and 
 was convinced that some artifice had been used to preserve the life 
 of the young PrinceJ 
 
 "This circumstance is related by gentlemen of credit, who 
 received it two years ago from the surgeon who was present at the 
 dissection, and is therefore highly confirmatory of the recent 
 rumor that, Louis XVII. was really saved from the prisons of the 
 National Convention by an artifice of Sieyes." 
 
 There are several discrepancies in this statement, though it is 
 probably substantially true. I have never heard that either of the 
 four physicians officially employed at the autopsy were in thi| 
 
118' THE LOST PRINCSS. 
 
 country. (Bnt M. AbeiH6, the pupil of Desault, -who would bo 
 likely, as well as his master, to know the Danphin, was in America, 
 and declared openly hjs belief in the Danphin's existence,' and in 
 the murder of Desanlt.) He probably may have been admitted to 
 the apartment under the circumstances described, though not m aa 
 official capacity* 
 
 It may, however, be mentioned in this place, that Charles 
 Lafond de Savines — ex-Bishop of Viviers, a man of learning, 
 honesty, and ability, though he had embraced French revolutionary' 
 principles, till convinced, by the events, of their pernicious conse- 
 quences, and who became the chief advocate of Hervagault, the 
 first of the Pretenders, was mainly influenced by what he heard 
 from the four physicians, "He was more convinced that the 
 alleged Dauphin was really the brother of the Duchess of 
 Angoulfeme from the fact that he, the bishop, Tiad comersei -with 
 the surgedris who had been summoned to open the body of a 
 child, but that they had not recognized it, nor were able to 
 pronounce upon it as that of the Son of Louis XVI."t 
 
 vLthefefore meet hearsay with hearsay, neither being legal evi- 
 depce, and one just as good as the oth^ 
 ^~51ie evidence adduced renders it, I think, certain that 
 Louis XVII. was removed from the Temple after his last interview 
 with Desault — and another boy of about the same age, in the most 
 advanced stage of scrofiila, introduced in his stead — ^while Desault 
 himself was murdere^. 
 
 Between May 30th and June 1st, there were only four persons 
 who are said to have had any intercourse with the Prince, Desault, 
 Bellanger, Lasne, and Gomin. The first, who knew the Dauphin 
 intimately, and, as a noble and good man, could never have been 
 brought to testify that he was dead when he knew him to be 
 alive, died suddenly, as all Paris suspected, of poison, on 1st June.' 
 Bellanger was alone in the Prince's room for hours on 31st May, 
 under circumstances which show that he was seeking to gain the 
 
 • Percival, p. 165. t Memoirs of the Duchess D'AngouItoe, p. 889. 
 
DISAFPKAEANOK 119 
 
 affections of the child. The keepers in the pi-ison, placed there by- 
 an emissary of Louis XYIII., present ns with the very combination 
 ofinstruments necessary for the removal of the child, 
 
 Clhe precise mode by -which the deatli of Desault was accom- 
 plished, or the agents, may never be known, but I think there wiU 
 be few to deny the extreme probability that he was polson(^ 
 Certainly, death never occm-red more opportunely. He knew the 
 Danphin well, and was convinced of the identity of the patient he 
 was attending with the son of Louis XVL 
 
 i^ad he visited the Temple after M. Bellanger had removed the 
 Prince, he would have at once detected and exposed the imposition 
 that had been practised^ It would have been impossible to obtain 
 from him a proems verbal, stating thatXouis XVII. was dead when 
 he knew him to be alive, or even an indefinite document, of the 
 character furnished by Pelletan and his colleagues, which would, in 
 fact, from bim have been worthless. They might shelter themselves' 
 under the plea of personal ignorance. He could not do so ; and 
 had he violated the principles of his moral nature, and disgraced 
 Mmself in the eyes of the profession and the world, by the lame 
 non-committalism that the commissaries assured him, that the dead 
 body was that of the Dauphin, no one would have believed him, 
 and the deception would have immediately recoiled on the heads of 
 its contrivers. Nor would it have answered to have dismissed him 
 and appointed other examining physicians in his place, for the 
 world would Immediately have askedj Why is this ? Why keep 
 away from the body the man who knows the Danphin, and substi- 
 tute others who do not know him? A crisis had evidently 
 
 * De Quinoey, who has pronounced in the iret rolnme of Ma autobiographical 
 sketches, a favorable opinion of the evidence adduced in my articles, in " Patnam'a 
 Magazine," expresses some hesitation on this point. I am inetined to think, that 
 further reflection will induce him to change his opinion. It is, indeed, an act abhor- 
 rent to the thought— but the times of the Revolution were not ordinary times, and 
 men were so accustomed to bloodshed, out of mere caprice, that I cannot conceive 
 they would And any difficulty in murdering ^en " a celebrated pbysician," when the 
 crown and destinies of France were at stake Vide Appeadias B. 
 
120 
 
 THB LOST PRINCE. 
 
 arrived in those uuscrupnlous and bloody days, vrhen either 
 Desault must die, or the combined treachery of two hostile fac- 
 tions must be exposed, and all their plans and contrivances, and 
 hopes for the future, come to naught. Can we thinlt the moviag 
 agents in this dark drama would hesitate a moment between mur- 
 der and utter discomfiture, or that they would lack the instrument'! 
 to accomplish their resolves. 
 
 As to Lasne and Gomin, if my reasoning on the evidence be sus- 
 tained, no other sentence can be passed on them than that they lied 
 knowingly to the end, and the solemnity of their falsehood is on a 
 par with the credulity of M. Beauchesne. Perhaps they were 
 taught to regard it as a religious duty thus to act, and superstition 
 was strengthened by habit, worldly interest, and the too natural 
 desire to preserve consistency to the last. It is not improbable also, 
 that while they found silence or falsehood lucrative, they knew that 
 truth would be attended with the forfeiture of life. (Appendix 0.) 
 
 Let me say a few words, before I conclude this chapter, as to 
 the treaty with Charette. It seems evident that, in the contest of 
 chicanery, the republicans were outwitted by the Eegent and his 
 agents — as the Vend6eans were duped by both. The Convention 
 never designed to fulfil their stipulation, but merely to gain time ; 
 and a pretended death was necessary to cloak their breach of faith. 
 What they intended to do with the Prince, is beyond conjecture. 
 Certainly they had no expectation that he would escape thek 
 hands. The Vend6ean treaty was just the thing to afford scope 
 for every species of intrigue. The agents of the Eegent in Paris 
 were corresponding at the same time both with Oharette and the 
 government, and got the better of both — ^forwarding the ratifioa-, 
 tion of the treaty to please the Vendfieans, countermining it to 
 gratify the Convention ; and, in the confusion into which everything, 
 ■was finally thrown, they advanced the ambitious designs of their 
 master, by removing the lad from the clutches of both parties. la 
 days when life was so rapidly sacrificed, and many of the royalist 
 intriguers perished in the midst of suooessive conspiracies, it may 
 
DISAPPEARANCE. 121 
 
 hare easily happened that most of the prominent actors in the 
 removal of the Prince died upon the scaffold. 
 
 U)n the whole, the matter stands thus : — 
 
 1st. There is no shadow of pretence that Louis XVII. died in 
 the- Temple, at any other time than June 8, 1795, or that any other 
 body was the body of Louis XVII. than that opened by M. Pelle- 
 tan, and described in the proems verbal. If he did not die at this 
 time, and if the body in question was not bis, then it is Qonceded 
 that he did not die in the Temple. 
 
 2d. The only evidence adduced to prove his death is that of Lasne 
 and Gomin. If that fail, there is utter absence of proof. But, their 
 testimony is not reliable, 1st. Because they were interested parties. 
 2d. Because a great portion of their statement is evidently false — 
 inasmuch as they represent a person to have talked and been in his 
 senses, who is known to have been devoid of reason, and from 
 whom one of them acknowledged it was impossible to extract a 
 word.* Probability is, therefore, against their credibility — and 
 there only remains a naked possibility, that they spoke the truth in 
 this instance. Such is one side of the question. 
 
 3d. As it is conceded, in the premises, that the body described in 
 the procfe verbal is that of the boy who died on the 8th June, 
 1795, it is physically impossible— as explained in this chapter— that 
 this individual could have been Louis XVII. ; and, therefore, the 
 possibility in favor of the truthfulness of Lasne and Gomin is anni- 
 hilated, and it is evidently demonstrated that Louis XVIL did not 
 die in the Temple. In addition, there are a cloud of collateral cir- 
 cumstances, all tending to establish the same result, the half of 
 which are not yet exhibited?) 
 
 What is remarkable, in tffis case, is that, circumstantial evidence 
 breaks down and brings to naught seemingly direct testimony, 
 and shows that those do not widely err who attribute to oironm- 
 Btances, undoubtedly proved, a greater power in the development of 
 
 • Cefl offioie« municipal (Laurent and Gomin) repondenl-^',7 IMt impouibU 
 de liu arracher iiiw panle.--Beaucheme, vol. il. p. 299. 
 
 6 
 
men 
 
 122 TUB LOST PEINCE. 
 
 truth, than to verbal testimony. sElacts cannot lie. Interested .u™ 
 may^^In this instance, yon might bring a thousand witnesses to swear 
 to tjie identity of the dead body with that of LonisXYII., withont 
 affecting my conclnsion, because, while their testimony, if nnim- 
 peachable on the ground of veracity and sincerity, might be 
 resolved into mistake arising from physiognomical resemblance, it 
 could with irresistible cogency be said to them — you swear that 
 two bodies are identical, but they are known to be in entirely dif- 
 ferent conditions ; and, therefore, yon must speak false or be in 
 error, unless you can prove that different things can yet be the 
 same. In a celebrated criminal case, witnesses swore they saw s 
 person walking in the street who was at that moment a dismem- 
 bered corpse. It is easy to multiply proofs that Louis XVII. did 
 not die in the Temple ; but, I need nothing more than a compa- 
 rison of Desault's opinion with the procfes verbal, to satisfy my ow?i 
 mind. Those who do will find it in the police records and the 
 acknowledgment of the French government. 
 
 CHAPTER Vm. 
 
 FUNEBAL SOLEMNITIES AND S B I E D EEABT. 
 
 The death of Louis XVII. was officially declared. The procte 
 verbal of the autopsy was published. His death was inscribed on 
 the minutes of the Convention, and on the register of the section. 
 The room in which he had been confined was empty. A funeral, 
 said to be his, had taken place. Still the public mind was ncit 
 satisfied, fxhere was a general belief that the Prince was notdeaii. 
 The mystery and contradiction, which hung over everything con- 
 nected with the alleged event, created an impression of foul play 
 never removed. 
 
 One thing alone was certain. He was not to be foundj He had 
 disappeared. He had been got rid of. The desire of the Conven- 
 tion was accomplished. The treaty with Cbarette was evaded. 
 
FUNERAL SOLEMNITIES. 
 
 123 
 
 '^Xhe loirg ambitions dream of the Count de Provence seemed also 
 nearly realized. He was now Louis XVIIy Between him and the 
 throne there was now no known barrier of prior hereditary right. 
 'The nominal monarchy was vested in him, and the times appeared 
 ^ecnliarly favorable for the restoration of ro^^if. The excesses 
 of the Eevolution had produced disgust, and there was an ardent 
 desire for the establishment of a more stable government than the 
 Eepnblio could offer. 
 
 On his accession, Louis XVIII. issued a proclamation to the 
 people of France. It is a curious document, and well deserves 
 attention. Its length prevents my giving it entire, but in the 
 present historical inquiry it cannot be passed without notice. In it 
 the long repressed impatience of an ambitious mind, chafing under 
 a sense of its own importance, breaks out in despite of all politic 
 considerations. 
 
 " LOUIS, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, KIHG OF FBANOK AND NAVAKEK. 
 
 " To all our suljeots, greeting: — 
 
 " In depriying you of a king, whose whole reign was passed in cap- 
 tivity, but whose infancy, even, afforded snfGcient grounds for believing 
 that he would prove a worthy successor to the best of kings, the impene- 
 ti'able decrees of Providence, at the same time that they have transmitted 
 his crown to ns, have imposed on us the necessity of tearing it from the 
 hands of revolt, and the duty of saving the country, reduced by a dis- 
 astrous revolution to the brink of ruin. 
 
 / " Latigy too' long, hwve we Jiad to deplore those fatal <iirciwnistmtces which 
 /•imperiously prescrihed the necessity of silence ; hut now that we are allowed 
 to exert our voice, attend to it.''^ 
 
 • V^his is a strange sentence. "What fatal circumstances had impe- 
 riously prescribed the necessity of silence^ The existence of Louis 
 XVII., and the limited, uncertain, and unacknowledged powers of 
 the Count de Provence. He could only speak as Eegent. In that 
 capacity he had found his voice was but little heeded by those who 
 
124 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 knew Ws ambition, and disliked or feared him, or who had ambi- 
 tious designs of their own. He oonld not address France from the 
 position of self-inherent authority which belongs to one who 
 stands in unquestioned possession of hereditary right, whererer 
 that right is acknowledged to reside in any one. He had been a 
 Belf-appointed regent, not nominated by the late king's will, not 
 elected by the royalist party — and the adherents of the monarchy 
 could all take their own stand, and make their own terras, inde- 
 pendently of him. Oond6 could manage his forces as he pleased, 
 without consulting the Begent. The Count D'Artois, at the 
 British camp, paid him but a nominal submission, followed his 
 own plans, and intrigued for his own interests. Charette and the 
 Vend6an3 did not acknowledge him as Regent. The royalist 
 leader fought in the name, and for the sake of the legitimate king, 
 Louis XVII. And could he have obtained, in accordance with the 
 treaty, possession of the person of his sovereign, what would he 
 have cared for the Eegent Provence ? He would have struggled 
 for the restoration of monarchy on his own terms, and in his owa 
 way. The head-quarters of the royalists would have been trans- 
 ferred from Verona, or wherever the Count de Provence held Ms 
 court, to the camp at La Vendue ; and the Eegent, if he desired to 
 exercise any control, must have appeared, as a subordinate, ia the 
 midst of a fierce insurgent army, and complied with the wishes of 
 its chief. 
 
 All this was, to the last degree, galling to the proud mind of Lonis 
 XVIII. And now he breaks out with the confession, "Long, too 
 long, have we had to deplore." Deplore what ? I can see hnt one 
 answer. The continued existence of Louis XVII., who obstinately 
 persisted in dragging out an imprisoned life in the Temple, to the 
 detriment and impediment of his successor. " But now that we are 
 allowed to exert our voice, attend to it." Allowed, by what? By 
 the death of that infant king, whose crown, by the impenetrable 
 decrees of Providence, had been transferred to the Eegent. 
 
 Had the proclamation of Louis XVIII. been the tiompositioil of 
 
FUNKRAI. SOLEMNITIES. 125 
 
 a friend, or a minister, no sentence of this kind >yould have laid 
 bare his heart. It was profound policy in Talleyrand to commit to 
 a secretary the composition of his despatches, that his judgment 
 might not be swayed by the natural egotism of an author. But 
 Louis XVIII., vain of his literary acquirements, prided himself, in 
 every oasis of his fate, in penning every important document him- 
 self; and, on this occasion, joy at deliverance from the embarrass- 
 ments of a regency was too great not to find vent in words. 
 
 In a subsequent part of the proclamation, he expresses a somewhat 
 similar feeling. " In those empires," he says, " which have attained 
 the highest pitch of glory and prosperity, abuses most generally pre- 
 vail ; because, in such states, they are the least likely to attract the 
 attention of those who govern. Some abuses had, therefore, crept 
 into the government of France, which were not only felt by the 
 lower class of the people, but by every order of the State. The 
 deceased monarch, our brother, and sovereign lord and master, had 
 perceived and was anxious to remove them. What Louis XVI. 
 could not effect, we will accomplish." 
 
 H^e again he involuntarily gives expression, in the midst of 
 words of loyalty and affection for his brother, to feelings which 
 had long engrossed his mind — and justifies all that history says of 
 his brother's incompetency, fostering expectation of his own ele- 
 vation. Had he tried, he could scarcely have more effectually 
 disclosed, than in this proclamation, his sentiments towards the 
 unfortunate princes whose fatal dignity descended on him. 
 
 This document, however, as a whole, though labored and pomp- 
 ous, like everything else which proceeded from his pen7 was not 
 unsuited to the occasion. He depicts in strong colors the miseries 
 of revolutionary France, the social advantages which the country 
 would derive from a return to her ancient institutions, admits the 
 necessity of reform, to adapt the institutions of the country to the 
 intelligence and wants of the age, promises reward to the royalists, 
 mercy to the republicans — denies, in strange inconsistency with hia 
 known sentiments and previous" expressions, all feelings of 
 
126 THK LOST PEINCB. 
 
 ambition, and ends by declaring his hopes for the future, and. 
 lavishing praise on the army of Cond6. 
 
 One of the closing sentences shows the strong expectations he 
 cherished of effecting a restoration. " Misfortune has removed the 
 veil which was placed before your eyes, the harsh lessons of expe- 
 rience have taught you to regret the advantages yon have lost. 
 Already do the sentiments of religion, which show themselyesjt 
 with eclat, in all the provinces of the kingdom, present to our sight 
 the image of the glorious ages of the church ; already does the 
 impulse of your hearts, which brings you back to your king, 
 declare that you feel the want of heing governed ly a father.^' 
 Louis XVIII. could readily apply balms to any feelings of remoree 
 which might at times disturb him, and believe that the end sancti- 
 fied the means — that the weakness pertaining to a contested 
 regency, in troublous times, and the dissipation of authority, con- 
 sequent on the absence of one acknowledged head, imperatiTfily-. 
 demanded the politic usurpation of authority by one competent to 
 govern. The French nation needed a father. Could it find one in 
 the embeoile captive of the Temple ? — and though, both by his age 
 and inability, the practical duties of sovereignty must devolve on 
 some one else, a regency would leave the door open for perpetual 
 resistance to authority and the strivings of ambition. The shortest 
 and easiest way for the Regent was to cut the Gordian knot— and • 
 by making himself the sole source and fountain of legitimacy and 
 right in the kingdom, to consult the common weal, while he 
 advanced his own individual power. 
 
 The asserted death of Louis XVII. led necessarily to the libera- 
 tion of Madame Royale, his sister. There was no longer any 
 object or policy in .retaining her as a captive. The press took np 
 the unfinished work of Charette. Petitions and addresses poured 
 into the Convention on all sides. Deputations from distant parts 
 of the country presented themselves in Paris, to pray for the 
 release of the last remnant of the unfortunate family of Louis XVI 
 Concession to public opinion cost nothing, and was an escape fron 
 
FUNERAL SOLKMNITIEB, 12"; 
 
 embarrassment. But a pecuniary ransom offered by Austria wa3, 
 rejected, and the more popular measure adopted of exchanging the 
 Princess for certain representatives and other official persons, whom 
 the fortune of war had thrown into the hands of that power. 
 
 Previous to her release, however, care was taken to communi- 
 cate the inteUigence that she was now alone on earth, and Madame 
 de Chanteraine was commissioned to perform the task. " Madame," 
 she said, " has no parents." " And my brother ?" was the imme- 
 diate question. "Ko brother." '> And my aunt ?" "No aunt." 
 " All is finished !" was her pathetic exclamation. Her situation 
 was gradually ameliorated. Madame de Maokau and the former 
 governess of the Dauphin, Madame de Tourzel, were permitted to 
 visit her, with Madame de Chanteraine. 
 
 Louis XVIII. employed M. Hue to commuaicate his wishes to 
 the Princess. "He hired," says Lamartine, " one of the windows 
 which overlooked the garden, where he used to sing like Blondel, 
 the servant of another royal captive, consolatory lays to the 
 daughter of his sovereign. By means of signals, he succeeded in 
 puttij^g her in possession of a letter from her uncle, to which the 
 princess sent a reply by the connivance of the commissioners (i. e. 
 Lasne and Gomin), who shut their eyes on the occasion. Oharette 
 also transmitted to her, through this medium, the wishes and devo- 
 tion of the army." 
 
 We here still find the agents of Louis XVIII. holding communi- 
 cation with the inmates of the Temple, through the connivance of 
 the soi-disant republican jailers, and, at the same time, maintain- 
 ing intercourse with Oharette. Some time elapsed before the 
 necessary negotiations for the exchange with Austria were 
 concluded, and it was not until the night of December 18th, that 
 the princess left the Temple. Gomin accompanied her — and from 
 him she derived confirmation of her brother's death. Surrounded 
 by such influences she had composed, in the tower of the 
 Temple, previous to her release, the account of the captivity of 
 her family and the death of Louis XVIL, so frequently appealed to 
 
128 THE LOST PEINCE. 
 
 as direct evidence, whereas her testimony, at this time, simplj 
 resolves itself into that of Louis XVIII., Lasne, and Gomin. 
 
 At a subsequent period, as I ■will hereafter show, the true secret 
 of his fate was comiminicated to her, and she was made acquainted 
 with the fact that, instead of having expired in the Templej her 
 brother was living in America. On 25th December, the exchange 
 was consnmmated at Huningue, and on 9th Jannary, 1796, she 
 arrived at Vienna, where she remained for some time in the enjoy- 
 ment of the hospitalities of the imperial conrt. Her ti'avelling 
 companion had been Madame de Soucy, a confidante of Lonis 
 XVIII., but, who, in consequence of the rivalry which arose 
 between the house of Austria and the exiled Bpurbons, in seeking 
 her hand, was compelled to leave her. The emperor, anxions to 
 unite the daughter of Marie Antoinette to the Archduke Charles, 
 viewed with suspicion the appointment of Madame de Soucy. Her 
 dismissal, however, was attended with no beneficial result to his 
 wishes, and Madame Eoyale evinced her preferences for the Duke 
 D'Angoulfeme, to whom it was the policy of Louis XVIII. tliat she 
 should be united. " I am, before all things, French," she said to 
 the emperor, " and consequently in entire subjection to the laws of 
 France, which, from my childhood have rendered me alternately 
 the suject of the king, my father; the king, my brother; and 
 the king, my uncle ; and I will yield dbedienee to the latter 
 whatever he the nature of his eommands." "I remained inflexi- 
 ble," she says, " constantly making reference to the will of the 
 king, my uncle."* 
 
 Louis XVin. was, at that time, sojourning at Mittau, where the 
 Ozar Paul had afforded him a refuge. Through the intercession of 
 the latter with the court of Vienna, the princess was released, and 
 arrived at Mittau, on 4th June, 1799. On the 10th of the same 
 month she was married to the Duke D'Angoulime. "The 
 affianced pair," says the historian of the daughter of Louis XVL, 
 " were calmly happy, and yet there had been no wooing, The 
 
 * Memoirs of tbe DucbetB D'Angool&ne, p, 863. 
 
FUHEBAL SOLEMNITIKS. 129 
 
 ceremony was the result of a political combination."* In all his 
 wanderings, the king kept by him the prospective successors to his 
 throne, whose affections, feelings, interests, and Mews became 
 naturally identified with~his own. Over the duchess he exercised 
 an almost despotic control. 
 
 The industry and zeal of the agents and intriguers of Louis 
 XVIII., who assumed also the title of the Count de Lisle, were 
 only increased by his nominal accession to the crown. The whole 
 of their plots, conspiracies, and correspondence is wrapt in such 
 mystery, that it seems impossible to distinguish clearly the true 
 from the false — what they did, from what they only pretended to 
 do. But from first to last, they were thoroughly unprincipled. 
 
 In La VeDd6e, the contest for the Restoration was the result of 
 an heroic passion. A species of religion pervaded all ranks, 
 prompting a willing surrender of property and life for the sake of 
 a beloved cause. But the partizans of Louis XVIIL, with few 
 exceptions, were actuated by purely mercenary motives, and con- 
 tinued their conspiracies against the internal peace of France, that 
 thgy might draw their accustomed stipend. 
 
 The year 1796 witnessed the death of Charette, who was taken 
 prisoner and shot — manifesting to the last a heroism worthy of his 
 name and cause. 
 
 From the suppression of the war in La Vendue, all interest in 
 counter-revolution ceases. It is impossible to respect those whose 
 object is money — whose weapons are intrigue — and who work in the 
 dark. It is equally foreign to mj purpose to chronicle the suc- 
 cessive efibrts and systematic chicanery, through a series of years, 
 by which they sought to impose upon France a government daily 
 becoming more distasteful to the people, as the military triumphs 
 of Bonaparte gave a new object to the popular enthusiasm. 
 
 France was now under the power of the Directory, which was 
 a gradual preparation for still more concentrated authority ; and 
 the certainty that the government of five was only an introduction, 
 
 • Memoiri of the Dacbesa J)'AngniiI£iue, p. 278. 
 4* 
 
130 THE LOST PKINCB. 
 
 in soma shape, for the government of one, gave an impetus to the 
 intrigues of the royalists, which sometimes were on the hrink of suc- 
 cess. Under the protecting shadow of the Directoty; the Empire 
 grew gradually up, in the person of the victorious chief, who gave 
 the principal eclat to the Republic in its final forms. With super- 
 stitious confidence in his destiny, he steadily and sternly resisted 
 all overtures to cast his sword into the scale of royalty— while 
 tiohegru, and, perhaps, Morean, listened to offers tempting to all 
 ambitions bat the highest. 
 
 (The 18th Fructidor (September 4, 1797) witnessed, however, 
 the death-blow to the present hopes of the royalists; when the 
 Directory, by a bold coup d'etat, excluded from the legislature the 
 deputies of forty-eight departments — banished forty-three members 
 of the Council of Five Hundred, andelevenof the Council of Ancients'. 
 Deprived of all influence in the governmeni; of the Republic, the 
 royalists sank into an insignificant factiop^ By petty conspiracies 
 they might give work to the police — or, by pretended or exagge- 
 rated intrigues, draw subsidies from England — ^but were utterly 
 powerkss to disturb the country, in the presence of the gigantic 
 influence and reputation of Bonaparte. His course of empire must 
 be run before a sane word could be lisped for the dethroned Bour- 
 bons. Rising first into power soon after the disappeiarance of the 
 child, he seems, like a gigantic storm cloud, thrust between Louis 
 and the crown. 
 
 The Count D'Artois retired to Great Britain, and divided hia 
 time between the Palace at Holyrood, and his residence in London 
 — except when absent, on brief intriguing excursions, to the conti- 
 nent. He had become far less obsequious to Louis' XVHL, and 
 his plots and manoeuvres had an individual bearing. He designed, 
 if an opportunity offered, favorable to the restoration of royalty, to 
 throw himself into France and forestall his brother in the race of 
 popular favor. 
 
 In the meantime, the king, driven from one place to another, by 
 the current of events, still preserved, under every mutation of for- 
 
FHSERAL SOLEMNITIES. 1^1 
 
 tune, the mock majesty of external state, which, but for his nltimata 
 elevation to the throne, wonld have shown him to posterity in the 
 light of a monomaniac* His court was transferred successively 
 
 • " gurrounded by Mb two young nephews, the Dakea D'AngouIeme and Berry, his 
 nieee, his ministers, his great officers, his courtiers, his friends, his captain of the guards, 
 the Dukes de Villeguier and Pleury, Count D'Avary, Count de Oosse, Commandant of 
 his Swiss Guard, the Marquis de Jancourt, the Duke de Vanguyon, Marshal de Cas- 
 tres, hy his gentlemen, his almoners, and by all the appendages of the Church and 
 the Court which he included in his suite, he still represented in miniature the showy 
 royalty of Versailles. Differing from Dionysius of Syracuse, who taught children at 
 Corinth, he only knew the business of a king, which he exercised even among the peasants 
 of Brunswick. It might be said that this long exile was only the rehearsal of a reign. 
 The same solemnity presided at every act and every step he made. The ceremonies 
 of worship, the levees, the councils, the public dinners, the assemblies, the play, were 
 all assigned to their respective hours, with the uniform etiquette of the palace. From 
 thence he conferred powers on his commissioners in the provinces, and withdrew 
 them, as he thought fit, reigning, in idea, over the mai> of his dominions, which 
 always lay open before him. He encouraged the armies at a distance by proclama- 
 tions, and the chiefs by a smart saying. He wrote to Marshal Broglie io a style fuU 
 of epic allusions about his son, who had distinguished himself on the Rhine : — * Ancient 
 throniders inform us that the Cid was the last of the sons of Don Diego de Bivar, 
 and that he surpassed him, in the opinion of all Spain. Adieu, my marshal.' His 
 costume was that of the old regime, absurdly modified by the alterations which time 
 had introduced in the habits of men. He wore velvet boots, reaching up above the 
 knees, that the rubbing of the leather should not hurt his legs, and to preserve, at 
 the same time, the military costume of kings on liorseback. His sword never left his 
 side, even when sitting in his easy chair — a sign of the nobility and superiority of 
 arms, which he wished always to present to the notice of the gentlemen of his king- 
 dom. His orders of chivalry covered his breast, and were suspended with broad blutr 
 ribbons over his white waistcoat. His coat, of blue cloth, participated by its cut in 
 the two epochs whose costumes were united in him. Two little gold epaulettes shone 
 upon his shoulders, to recall the general, by birth, in the king. His hair, artistically 
 turned up, and curled by the hairdresser on his temples, was tied behind with a black 
 silk ribbon, floating on his collar. It was powdered, in the old fashion, and thus con- 
 cealed the whiteness of age under the artificial show of the toilet. A three-cornered 
 hat, decorated with a cockade and a white plume, reposed on his knees or in his 
 hand, He seemed desirous that ceremonial should command respect through aston- 
 ishment. He generally continued in a sitting posture, supported on th» »rm of a 
 courtier or a servant."— ZomortiTM. 
 
132 THE LOST PRINOE. 
 
 from Verona to Blankenbourg, Mittau, Warsaw, and, a second time,- 
 to Mittau. Finally, in 1807, he took refiige in England. 
 
 For a long time he retained the chimerical hope of reducing 
 Napoleon to be the architect of his throne.. But the great captain 
 — though he justly despised him-^to rid himself of the continual 
 conspiracies of the royalists, made overtures to the king for the 
 renunciation of his title to the crown — a proposition which, with 
 verbal dignity that never failed him, he declined. The theatrical 
 pomp and circumstance of Jjis life were somewhat modified by the 
 bracing republican air of England, and he gradually abated the 
 mimicry of inexistent power, in which his puerile mind delighted. 
 "With the ken of a political prophet, and the patient, egotistic arro- 
 gance of a fatalist, he looked forward, even under the empire, 
 against which he, as usual, protested, for the restoration- of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 The climax of Napoleon's power came at length — and then its 
 descent and obscuration. Disaster followed disaster. The image 
 which had filled the world, stricken on its feet of clay, at length 
 grovelled in the dust. Napoleon was no founder of a dynasty.* 
 Had he died in the Tuileries, and been succeeded by his son, 
 loyalty — ^like a plant growing on the grave of the Bourbons, 
 and bearing old heroic fruit — would have twined around the 
 column of the empire, and rendered glorious, and venerable, and 
 stable, the stately, but newly erected structure. But it was other- 
 wise ordained. As the long anticipated moment for the Bourbons 
 came more distinctly in view, the rivalry of the brothers increased 
 in a manner which shows that D'Artois felt he had as much right 
 to the throne as Louis XVIII. " My brother," said the latter, 
 " contests and almost devours me for the attainment of this reign 
 before it is assured to either." 
 
 Let us now pass rapidly over the interval. In the early part of 
 the year 1814 the Count D'Artois entered France, and assuming the 
 
 * Inaugural Address of Napoleon m. 
 
PUNKRAL SOLEMNITIES. 133 
 
 tide of Lientenant-General of the kingdom, took measures for the 
 restoration of the Bourbons on the downfall of Napoleon, which 
 appeared certain. He was strongly inclined to negotiate for himself. 
 Great mistrust existed between him and Louis XVIII., not compatible 
 with an assured hereditary title in the king ; and I shall hereafter 
 show that the Count D'Artois was well acquainted with the exist- 
 ence of his nephew. Feeling, therefore,- that, in point of fac^ the 
 legitimate claim to the throne was vested in neither, he would 
 bo naturally inclined to dispute a possession which, if hereditary, 
 could only be achieved by his brother as an act of usurpation. 
 The force of events, the influence of family, prudence, and a thou- 
 sand motives — personal and political — ^may have contributed to 
 quell the temptation. 
 
 ^he treaty of Fontainhleau, between"Napoleon and the allied sove- 
 re%ns, was signed on the 11th April. But, on the 6th, the Senate 
 had already acknowledged Louis XVIII. as kijg? He left Hartwell 
 on the 18th April — entered London in state on the 23d, and, the 
 next day, sailed from Dover for his long anticipated dominion. 
 
 "With all the intricate-eombinations of political events to which 
 the Restoration gave rise, we have nothing to do. But much that 
 transpired of a more private 'nature in Paris, is so intimately con- 
 nected with the historic problem before us, that I must consider it 
 in detail. 
 
 (Soon after the re-establishment of the royal family in the capi- 
 tal, arrangen;ents, of various kinds, were made to pay due honors 
 to the memory of all the Bourbons who had perished since the 
 beginning of the Revolution) Here we evidently tread on ground 
 which must present some strong indications of the truth in respect 
 to the death or preservation of Louis XVII. ^ere he dead, 
 nothing was more easy and simple than the "course to be pursued. 
 If alive, and the fact known to all the members of the Bourbon 
 family, nothing could be more perplexing, or more likely to lead to 
 those inconsistencies of conduct and contradictions in policy, which 
 mark" the er^ and which constitute a labyrinth inexplicable on any 
 
134 THB LOST PRINCE. 
 
 other ground. But, let the reader judge -wheii he has the whole 
 before him. 
 
 The first aot in the funereal drama, was the exhumation of the 
 remains of the unfortunate Duo D'Enghein from the moat in the 
 Chateau of Vincenn^s, where they had been deposited after the 
 inhuman murder, .perpetrated by order of Napoleon, the most 
 damning deed in his career of blood. 
 
 The Duchess D'Angoulfeme played the most prominent part in 
 fihe funeral pageant. She caused a chapel to be fitted up in the 
 ph4teau, draped in black, rendered entirely dark, and lighted only 
 by feeble tapers. Here the corpse of her murdered cousin was 
 placed, and hither she repaired, once a week, to pray for the 
 repose of his soul.* At the same time efforts were made to 
 discover the remains of Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, and the 
 Princess Elizabeth. There was the greatest improbability that any 
 Vestige of their bodies remained — and certainly no means of iden- 
 tification. They had been buried in the churchyard of the cemetery 
 of the Madeleine, and every, care taken to destroy them, and prevent 
 their being afterwards disinterred, as relics, to the prejudice of the 
 Eepublic.t The bodies had been deposited in beds of quick lime, 
 cartloads of which had been afterwards heaped on them, and, to 
 fiid in their rapid and effectual decomposition, immense quantities 
 of water had been poured upon the whole. Hundreds, or rather 
 thousands of bodies,- aristocratic and plebeian, royalist and revolu- 
 tionary, had been heaped pell-mell in the narrow ground— the' 
 royal dust lay in the very midst of the five hundred Swiss ;t inter- 
 ments, of all kinds, had been purposely and recklessly made 
 to defeat identification, and no wonder then that " the thermo- 
 meter of sentiment descended below freezing point as soon as the 
 royal conclusion was published, that the ashes of the illnstriou} 
 dead should be publicly and solemnly transferred to St, Denis."§ 
 
 • Irelind, p. 28. •> 
 
 t Alison, vol. I. p. 165. Memoirs of the Duchess D'Angoultoe, p. 3SS. Ireland, p. St, 
 
 f Memoirs of the Duchess D'AngouUme, p. 331, { Ibid, p.^95 
 
FUNERAL SOLEMNITIES. 133 
 
 Paris stood laughing by as the mock pageant swept along, in fiine- 
 real pomp and heraldic blazonry, bearing to the royal mansolenm 
 " the lodies of the most high, most powerful, and most excellent 
 Prince, Louis XVI. by name, and by the grace of God, King 
 of France and Navarre; and of the very high, very powerful, and 
 very excellent Princess, Marie Antoinette Joseph Jeane, of Loraine, 
 Archduchess of Austiia, wife of the very high,, very powerful, and 
 very excellent Prince Louis, XVI. of the name. King of France and 
 Navarre.* But, while the transaction was ridiculed, attention 
 tion was drawn to the significant fact, that there were no fnnera. 
 solemnities for Louis XVII. Attempts, I know, are sometimes made 
 to explain this, by saying that, the Roman Ohuroh offers no prayers 
 for the souls of children, who are not supposed to need them.t 
 Biit this is an evasion, and by no means meets the difficulty. The 
 Roman Ohuroh buries children, and relatives, in Romish countries, 
 respect the remains of those members of their family who die in 
 youth. Louis XVII., if dead, was buried in a spot, well-known- 
 no quick lime had been cast, as in the other cases, on the corpse — 
 an indication, by the by, that it was not deemed worth while 
 to destroy inexistent relics. The Duchess D'Angoulfeme, who 
 showed such marked respect and affection for the dust of the Duo 
 D'Enghien, a distant relative, would be likely to pay equal regard 
 for the memory and remains of a brother, who shared her captivity, 
 and with whom the most mournful memories of her life were con- 
 nected. If she did not pray for his soul^or that is not the point- 
 she would assuredly gather his remains, to be deposited beside those 
 of his august parents, or would at least take care that a monument 
 was erected to perpetuate his name, his virtues, and his suffer- 
 
 ^-3;^eomission, therefore, of all respect to Louis XVII., at such a 
 moment, occasioned, in every place where the circumstances were 
 known, surprise and suspicion, which revived all the doubts con* 
 
 * Memoirs of the Dachess P'AngoulSme, p. 325. 
 t Lo Fhave ae New York, Febi-uar y, 1858. 
 
136 .THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 cerning .the death of the Prince which had so long slept in tie 
 ohlivion of the Bourbons and the martial splendors of the em- 
 pir£) 
 
 /But ^11 speculation on the subject was out short by the spectral 
 revivification of the power of Napoleon, in 1815. Again were the 
 Bourbons scattered to the four winds, flying, fighting, or intriguing 
 — and the valor and determination of the Dncliess D'Angoultae 
 drew from Napoleon the celebrated remark, that she was the only 
 man of , her family. But the bloody drama of the Hundred Days 
 soon came to an end, and Louis XVIII., a second time, entered the 
 Tuileries in triumph, at the very moment when Napoleon quitted 
 i'rance for ever.\ 
 
 The perplexities attending the second restoration, for some 
 months, so exclusively occupied the national mind, that the 
 question of tho death of Louis XVII. was not again revived, until 
 aflfairs assumed a sufficiently settled .state, to allow the public to see 
 that if the predecessor of the reigning sovereign was indeed no 
 more, common decency required that some respect should be 
 paid to his memory. Public opinion imperatively demanded 
 action of some sort, and Louis XVIII jfelt compelled to hnmor it 
 to a certain extent — or rather to play with and lull it to sleep by 
 promises never fulfilled. 
 
 In January, 1816, a law was passed, by the two. Chambers, com- 
 manding a monument to be erected at the expense and in the name of 
 the French nation, to the memory of Louis XVIL) The king, as if 
 designing to put this law in immediate execution, issued a royal 
 ordinance for the erection of the monument in the church of the 
 Madeleine, and gave directions to Lemot, a Parisian sculptor, to 
 execute it. M. Belloo was also employed to write an epitaph to be 
 inscribed on the mausoleum of the infant king. 
 
 ^U-this looks well. But after all this show of regard, the law 
 remained a dead letterji The ordinance was never carried into 
 effect — the monument was never erected, and the epitaph has no 
 place but among the curiosities of literature, the Limbo of all lost 
 
PUITEBAL 60LEMNITIBS. 13Y 
 
 and all abortive things. I give the proposed epitaph and a transla- 
 tion below.* Tacts are more satiric than Juvenal. 
 
 The next ofScial action taken in the matter was on 1st March, 
 1816, when the Count Decazes, Minister of Police, addressed the 
 following letter to the Count Anglte, Prefect of Police : — 
 
 "Paws, Mm-eh Ut, 1816, 
 " MmrneurU Comte : 
 
 " His majesty has detemuned by his ordinance of 14th February, 
 the place to be occupied by the religious monument, to he erected to the 
 memory of Louis XVII. It is really necessary, and I have already called 
 your attention to this subject, to discover the precious remains of this illus- 
 trious victim of the Eevolution. It is linown that the young king was 
 interred in the Cemetery of St. Marguerite, m the Faubourg St. Antoine, 
 in the presence of two civil commissioners, and of the commissary of 
 police, of the section of the Temple, 8th June, 1795. 
 
 " The young king should be placed in St. Denis. 
 
 "I request you to render me an account of the precise measures which 
 you have prescribed to attain this end, and of their probable result. It 
 
 • Memoriie et cineribuB To the memory and ashes • 
 
 tudovici XVU., of Louis xVU., 
 
 "i"™ whom, 
 
 parentibua sanctiasimia from his sacred parents 
 
 intando funere orbatmn separated by a mom-oful fate, 
 
 nuUas non arumnas perpessmn and stricken with every sorrow, 
 In ipso fere vita limine mors sustulit on the very threshold of life, death removed 
 
 die Vin. jnnii an. MDCCXOV. on the 8th day of June, 1795. 
 Vixit Annis X. Mensibns II. diebns XH. He lived 10 years, 2 months, 10 days 
 
 ludoTicusXVm. Louis xvm. 
 
 '"°" hath erected this 
 
 fratris alio dulcissimo u> his nephew most lovely, 
 ac supra stalis modum, pietissimo and, beyond the measure of his age, religion, 
 
 salve animainnocens Hail innocent sonl, 
 
 qu« ceu aureum Gallic sidus who, like a guttering star of Prance, 
 
 beato spatiaris polo ^^Ikest in the blessed skies ; 
 volenshanopatrlamdomum que BorbonI- auspiciously, this country and the House 
 
 d«m placido imnlne intuetor. „, Bombon, with placid eye, behold. 
 
138 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 will be essential, if tliis precaution has not been taken, to call the com- 
 misaariea, and other persons who assisted at the inhumation. 
 " The Minister of Greneral Police, 
 
 " CoMTE Becazes." 
 
 To this letter M. Angles returned the following answer : — 
 
 '' Paeis, let Jtme, 1816. 
 
 " Monsieur le Comte : 
 
 " On the reception of your excellency's letter, I appointed two com- 
 missaries of police to obtain from the Sieur Sasser — formerly commissary 
 of police of the section of the Temple, who in this quality must have 
 assisted at the interment of the young monarch — all the information 
 which he could furnish on this subject. It results from the information 
 that the commissaries obtained, that the Sieur Voisin, aged, at present, 
 sixty-fiTC years, and retired to the hospital of Eicetre — was, at the period , 
 of the death of Louis XVIL, conductor of funeral processions, in the 
 parish of St. Marguerite, in the cemetery of which the Prince was 
 interred, and that they could, in consequence, obtain all the informatiou 
 on the very spot of the inhumation. 
 
 " The Sieurs Simon and Petit have obtained from him many detailii 
 which have put them in the way of establishing a system of positive 
 information. He has assured them that he dug, in the morning of the day 
 of this sad ceremony, a particular grave, in which the body of the king 
 was placed, and going to the cemetery with the conomissaries, Simon and 
 Petit,' he traced for them an extent of ground, within the limits of which 
 should be found, according to him, at the depth of six feet, the cofGn of 
 the king, made of white wood, and having at the head and at the feet, a 
 D, written by himself with charcoal. 
 
 " The commissaries have also seen the Sieur Bureau, keeper of the ceme- 
 tery for twenty years, who aflBrms that Voisin asked of him, on the morn- 
 ing of 12th .Tune, 1795, a cof&n for a little girl, and that he understood, 
 during the day, that it was for the Prince whom they then called the 
 Dauphin. He pretends that Voisin did not dig a particular grave, and 
 that the proofes verbal of the inhumation in the common grave was drawn 
 up in the parsonage house. Following their inquiry, the commissaries 
 haT9 learned firom the present cure of St. Marguerite, that a grave-digger 
 
rUKBBAL SOLEMNITIES. 139^^ 
 
 named EetriiBcouri, called Valentine, whose wife stiU lived, had talcen 
 away the body of the young Prince from the common grave, and had 
 interred it in a separate place. On inquiring <Tf the widow of this man, if 
 ehe could give any information as to the precise place of burial, she indi- 
 cated a friend of her deceased husband, named Beconflet, Beadle of the 
 Parish des Quinze Yingts, who informed them that Betfancourt, called Valen- 
 tine, in digging a grave in the cemetery of St. Maguerite, in 1802, pointed 
 out a place near a pilaster, on the left of the church, from whence he raised 
 about two feet of earth, and disclosed a stone of the foundation of the 
 church, upon which was a cross. Betrancovut added, that they would one 
 day make a monument there :' for beneath that, he added, is the coffin of 
 the Bauphin. 
 
 ■' From all the information obtained from these different persons, follows, 
 that on 12th June, 1795, the mortal remains of his Majesty, Louis XVII., 
 enclosed in a coffin of white wood, four feet and a half in length, was car- 
 ried ii-om the Temple to the cemetery of St. Marguerite, about nine o'clock 
 in the evening,; that the proems verbal of this ceremony was drawn up in 
 the parsonage house, by the Sieur Gille, then commissary of pohce : that 
 it appears probable that the body was taken from the common grave ; 
 that this operation was executed in secret, and during the same or the 
 foUowing night, by Voisin or Valentine ; that, if it was by the last, the 
 place where the ashes of the young king repose, is near the pilaster, on 
 the left side of the gate of the church, on entering the cemetery ; that, if 
 it was by the former, the particular grave can be found, vrithin the space 
 which Voisin has designated, to the left of the cross raised in the middle 
 of the cemetery, in going round the back of the church, &e. 
 " I pray your Excellency, Sec, 
 
 " C. AhgiAs." 
 Here, certainly, was information, which, though differing in 
 details, was sufficiently precise to found an imeatigaUon upon 
 Two places were indieated-in one of which there was every rea- 
 son to suppose the body would be found. And, to avoid all possi- 
 bility of being deceived as to the remains, M. PeUetan certified to 
 the condition in which the body buried as the Dauphin would be 
 found; viz. that the skull was divided in a particular manner 
 
140 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 'which he minutely described, together with the dressing- in which 
 it was enveloped, portions of which he said " certainly existed," as 
 means of identification. But there the matter ended. No attempt 
 was made to discover the asserted remains of the Piince. ^e skele- 
 tons of Louis XVI. and his queen, buried in quick lime for twenty 
 years, and mixed up indistinguishably in a common revolutionary 
 sepulchre, were infallibly discovered, by an instinct peculiar to some 
 classes. of men. But, notwithstanding the passage of laws and 
 ordinances, the employment of sculptors and epitaph writers, the 
 very first effort was not made to recover a body, whose place 
 of interment was indicated, and which could be submitted tp a 
 certain and definite process of identification^ Beauchesne, him- 
 self, has to acknowledge that he cannot account for the annulling 
 of the royal ordinance, and declares that the place where the body 
 was buried is demonstrably certain. "As I have proved," h^ 
 says, " that the royal infant died in the Temple, it is to me equally 
 demonstrated that his corpse, wrapped in a winding-sheet,. was 
 placed in a cof&n, which has neither been opened nor changed ; 
 that it was, with the remains which it contained, buried in the 
 cemetery of St. Marguerite, and in the place indicated." Now, if 
 M. Beauchesne's enthusiasm be not all assumed, and, if be, indeed, 
 feels the affection and reverence for the memory of Louis XVIL 
 which he asserts, I cannot doubt that he would most gladly, were 
 he permitted, even at this late day, undertake the search for the 
 royal remains, which he believes to exist. How then, on any 
 principle of natural affection or probability, can it be imagined 
 that the sister of the Prince, subjected to the same imprisonment 
 with him, and the uncle who sat on his throne, would neglect such 
 plain and simple means to gather, from their ne^ectedand dis- 
 honored grave, the bones of the young martyr kingQ 
 
 But this is not all. We come now to the controversy concern- 
 ing the heai't of the captive Prince, which affords moral evidence, 
 of precisely the same nature, that the royal family did not believe 
 in the death of their relative in the. Temple. At least, if they, did, 
 
FUNBRAL SOLKMNITIKS. 1*1 
 
 their condnct is the strangest and most nnacconntable that the 
 world has ever seen. 
 
 What, then, are the facts in the premises? ^. Pelletan, one of 
 the surgeons charged with opening the asserted body of Louis 
 XVII.— a man of high character, socially and professionally, whose 
 testimony we are hound to receive, unless we cast aside all reliance 
 on direct evidence — communicated to Louis XVIII., through the 
 Minister of the Interior, the startling information that Tie was in 
 poaaeaiion of the hea/rt of his predecessor, and gave a minute his- 
 tory of the interesting relioj 
 
 Now, the existence of the heart of Louis XVIL, if true, was a 
 fact doubly important, in case of there being some insuperable bar 
 to the discovery of his grave, or the identification of his remains ; 
 and it would be natural to expect that the royal family would 
 manifest a deep interest in the subject, and not lightly reject the 
 respectable evidence adduced to identify the relic. 
 
 Pelletan stated, that being specially charged with conducting the 
 post-mortem, and finding himself, for a few minutes, left alone by 
 hi& associates, who had retired into the embrasure of the window, 
 to converse, the idea occurred to him of possessing the heart of 
 his patient. "Watching a moment when entirely unobserved, and 
 entertaining no fear of being searched, he covered it with bran, 
 wrapt it in linen, and put it in his pocket. On his return home, 
 he deposited the relic in spirits of wine, and concealed it on a 
 lofty beam in his library. During ten years, he replenished the 
 spirits of wine many times — but, at last, it entirely evaporated, 
 leaving the heart dried and shrivelled. There was now no neces- 
 sity for further precaution, and he placed it in a drawer of his 
 secretary, where he saw and examined it a thousand times. 
 
 It, however, happened that he communicated the fact to a 
 pupil, who, when the period of his professional study was over, 
 surreptitiously took it away, and it was some time before he dis- 
 covered the theft. Being on intimate terms with him, he hesitated 
 to charge hira with dishonesty. But when, on his death-bed, his 
 
142 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 friend confessed the larceny to his family, and commissioned hit 
 wife to return him the relic ; he received it from her hand — and, as 
 she and other members of the family were witnesses to the confes- 
 sion, we have proof not only of the identity of the heart recovered, 
 but of Pelletan's truthfulness. But, in addition, M. Dumangin, 
 his colleague, testified that, at the close of the operation, he saw 
 him wrap something up carefully, and put it in his pocket. 
 Although he did not at the time know that it was the heart, he 
 declared that, " in his soul and in his conscience he was morally 
 convinced of the fact " stated by M. Pelletan. On the communi- 
 cation of this important information, the following royal order 
 was issued, after full examination of testimony : — 
 
 " Paris, 3d September, 1817. 
 "ministry of the interior. 
 " To the Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Jjtstice : 
 " ffiy Lord : — 
 " I have received the pieces which youi highness has done me the honor 
 to communicate, both relative to' the preservation of the heart of his 
 Majesty Louis XVIL, and as to the place where his body was bnried. 
 The intention of the king being that the heart of this Prince, and that of 
 S. A. E. le Dauphin, elder son of his Majesty Louis XVL, which is in 
 possession of the mayor of the 12th anondisement, be transferred to St. 
 Denis, without pomp, but, nevertheless, with proper ceremonies. I trans- 
 mit, conformably to the order of his majesty, all the documents to the 
 grand master of the ceremonies. 
 
 " The Secretary of State to the 
 
 "Department op the Isteeioe." 
 
 lere was the termination of the matter. The order was never 
 carried into effect, as far as the heart of the prisoner of the Temple 
 was concerned^* The only plea for not depositing the heart in St. 
 Denis, was the negative testimony of an underling, Lasne, that he 
 had not seen the surgeon put It in his pocket, and although this 
 was in fact confirmatory of Pelletan's statement, yet with an apa- 
 thy, entirely unaccountable, it was permitted to outweigh the 
 
FCNEBAL SOLEMNITIES. 1*3 
 
 ^'positive and respectable testimony of a man of station and cliarac- 
 "ter like Pelletan, confirmed in so many ways. The heart, enclosed 
 in a vase of crystal, remains to this day in the family of the great 
 physician. 
 
 In view of all these facts, relative to the fnneral solemnities for 
 the departed Bourbons, and the remains of the asserted Danphin, I 
 do not think there can be any other reasonable conclusion than 
 that the royal family of Prance knew that the Prince was not dead, 
 and therefore dared not risk the mockery of searching for a corpse 
 that had never been buried — of building a mausoleum for one stUl 
 alive — of consecrating a relic which they knew, though honestly 
 preserved, had throbbed in no bosom of their race. 
 
 I can readily conceive, that state reasons might induce the sister 
 of the Prince to consent that one untrained for political life should 
 continue in obscurity, and not endanger the happiness of France 
 and the peace of Europe by being thrust into a position he was 
 incompetent to fill : but that, while she so far yielded to the sophis- 
 try of her uncle and the various influences that surrounded her, she 
 vaould steadily resist the mockery of rearing a sepulchre to the living. 
 
 Throughout this whole transaction the king seems willing to per- 
 petrate the required deceptions, but withheld by some concealed 
 influence. 
 
 It is unnecessary to pursue further the history of the Bourbons. 
 Hereafter I may have occasion briefly to refer to some of the sub- 
 sequent changes in the French government. It is sufficient for the 
 present that I have shown conclusively not only tliat Lonis XVII. 
 did not die in the Temple, but that all the probabilities of history 
 apart from the central chain of evidence, lead to the same conclu- 
 sion. The review of the French Eevolution, and of the history of 
 France up to the period of the second Bourbon Restoration, has 
 opened the various influences, political and domestic, which, from 
 hb cradle surrounded the unfortunate Prince. We have seen an 
 ambitious and unprincipled relative scheming to obtain the throne 
 which he inherited, and aiding to produce the convulsion that de- 
 
144 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Inged Europe with blood. We have seen the Prince in person emv 
 rounded by the creatures of his uncle, under circumstances which 
 afford the highest probability of their design to remove him. It has 
 been demonstrated on admitted facts that he did not die in the Tem- 
 ple. The data furnished by those ■who labor to prove his death, esta- 
 blish the contrary. If people cannot be satisfied with absti-act 
 physical impossibility, there is no use in reasoning, for, beyond tbis, 
 argument and evidence cannot go. Finally, although Louis XVII. is, 
 in history, usually numbered among the dead, there is up to this 
 moment no funereal, no monumental recognition of his death, but a 
 mystery, and an inconsistency attending every official effort to pay 
 him the respect which his misfortunes deserve at the hands of the 
 great French nation, and an apathy on the part of his nearest rela- 
 tives, bound by every principle of religion, morality, and social 
 feeling, as well as by every prescriptive law of custom and decency, 
 to pay some honor to his memory, which carry the historic argu- 
 ment to its climax. 
 
 And yet, perhaps, there are those who vrill tell me, the death of 
 Louis XVII. is an historical fact — the evidence for it direct and 
 positive ; and, pointing to some inconsiderate sentence in Scott, or 
 Alison, or Thiers, will sagely assure me that if I deny his death in 
 the Temple, I must also deny that of Napoleon, or of his father and 
 mother, since the testimony for the former was as strong and con- 
 clusive as for the latter.* On such persons I do not care to waste 
 a thought or a word. They seem to think that because some man, 
 calling himself a historian, makes a statement, we have no right to 
 qvestion it. Magister dixit. Thank Heaven, the age for such men- 
 tal slavery has passed. 
 
 In truth, much that we call history is very loosely written, and 
 the conclusion of most sensible minds will, I think, be, that the his- 
 toric guides, on whom, in a general way, we are forced to depend, 
 lead us astray as often as they conduct us right; that usually only 
 
 • The United States Review. June, 13S8, Tol, i., No. 6. 
 Br. Stephen Williama's Appendix and Notes to the Redeemed Oaptlre, p. 1N> 
 
NAUPDORFT? AND MCHEMONT. 145 
 
 the most anperfioial aspect of events is presented by the chronicler, 
 and that he who would gain light on material points most search 
 for it himself. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 H A. UK D BFF AND BICHKUONT. 
 
 Wb now approach a portion of onr subject, invested with a mys^ 
 tery which may never fnlly be removed. Many of the attempts to 
 personate Louis XVII., were simply the result of the popular 
 belief in his existence; and, standing 'entirely apart from the msun 
 current of events, do not deserve even a passing attention, except 
 as evidences of that impression in the public mind, out of which 
 they originated, and from which they derived their power of decep- 
 tion. There are others, however, which though equally false in 
 themselves, yet bring ijs into contact with facts that bear directly 
 on the subject of our investigation. Such, especially, b the claim 
 put forth by Herr Nanndorff. 
 
 ^he imposture of Hervi^ault, 1?98, is of no historic importance, 
 except as eliciting, through his zealous partizan, the bishop of 
 "Viviers, the fact, that the physicians who opened the body in the 
 Temple, expressed, in conversation, the same uncertainty apparent 
 in the procSs verbal, and acknowledged their inability to testify to 
 tlw death of Louis XVIL*) 
 
 C^rturin Bruneau, the second pretender, after personating the 
 son of a French nobleman, went to America, and on his return to 
 France, in 1815, set up in the new character of the Danphl^ His 
 fictions, concerning his personal history, were so gross and palpable 
 that I need not allude to the^ It seems, probable, however, that 
 the idea of his imposture was derived from a report then circula- 
 ting in France, that Louis XVH. was in the United States. As ho 
 
 • Memoirs of the Dochess D'Anganleme, p. 88». 
 b 
 
146 THE LOST PRINOB. 
 
 had been in this country, this ■was a suflSoient basis for Lis preten- 
 sions. In a letter, addressed by him, from Bonen, in March, 1816, 
 to the Duchess D'Angoulfeme, he says, "I dispersed' the last 
 calumny which perversity had aimed at me, when it declared that, 
 your trother was still in the United States. No, I had left it long 
 ago."* However slight be the indication hero presented, it is 
 worthy of preservation, as it tallies with the alleged fact that, 
 about this time, a certificate of the death of the Prince, in a 
 foreign land,t was forged by the adherents of Louis XVIII. 
 
 IfATTUDOEFV. 
 
 Qt was no ordinary imposture which could deceive the claiis 
 of minds whom Kanndorff enlisted in his service, and we can- 
 not dismiss his pretensions without examination, becansejvhile 
 they prove their own falsehood, they also establish important 
 historic facts^ In 1838, the Eon. and Bev. G. C> Percivill 
 published, with notes, an English translation of the evidence 
 adduced by his advocates, M. M. Gruan and Brnquet. In an intro- 
 duBtion to the work, he states the grounds of his own belief, which 
 are simply these — ^that Naundorff had endeavored to procure a 
 legal inquiry into the validity of his claims; that the !French 
 government, which had brought otKer pretenders to trial, had 
 declined to grant him a hearing; and that persons of respecta- 
 bility and credibility imagined that they recognised him.t Mr, 
 Piercival frankly admits that there are many difficulties attending 
 the pretensions of Naundorff, and that much of his evidence, 
 especially the supernatural portion, is of a questionable character; 
 but perceiving clearly that there was some unexplained connectaon 
 between the Pretender and the truth, and having no due, but the 
 statements of Naundorff, to the mystery, appears to have yielded « 
 forced acquiescence. The work of Naundorflfs advocates ia most 
 
 * Memoirs of the Duchess D'Angouleme, p. 417. 
 tPeroWal, p. 185. X Perclval, Preface, p. rvU. 
 
NAUNDOHFF AND RICHEMONT. 1^" 
 
 perplexed in its arrangement, or rather want of arrangement, 
 but I will endeavor to extract ^rom it the evidence which 
 it containa. Falsehood attends truth like its shadow, and unde- 
 signedly gives testimony against itself, and in favor of that which 
 it darkly mimics. 
 
 (Li 1833, a stranger arrived'in Paris, who represented himself to 
 be the son of Louis XVlT) He assumed the name of Louis Charles, 
 Duke of Normandy— introduced himself iuto legitimist circles, and 
 very soon obtained ardent and highly respectable adherents. 
 Among them were Madame de Kambaud, who had been nurse to 
 the Dauphin from his birth until his confinement in the Temple. 
 M. Marco de St. Hilaire, formerly gentleman usher to Louis XVI., 
 and M. Morel de St. Didier. Of the perfect sincerity and honorable 
 convictions of these persons there can be no question. 
 
 The most- diligent inquiries respecting Naundorffs past history 
 could only elicit a few leading facts apart from his own account. 
 He arrived in Prussia in 1810, was known by the name of Charles 
 Willjam Nanndorff, and followed the trade of a watchmaker. He 
 lived as a citizen of Spandau from 1812 to 1821, having married in 
 1818, without producing the certificate of his birth. In 1820 he 
 was arrested on a charge of having circulated false coin, and, 
 being found guilty, was sent to the house of correction. In 
 the course of the trial he avowed himself to be a prince, but with- 
 out stating any name. He was at the same time accused of setting 
 fire to the theatre at Brandenburg, but his accusers were found 
 guilty of perjury, and, on the other charge, the evidence against 
 him was far from satisfactory. He continued in prpon until 1828 
 when he received pardon, and was sent into Silesik In 1832 he 
 obtained a passport to Prance, and, passing through Bavaria and 
 Switzerland, arrived in Paris, declared himself to be Duke of Nor- 
 mandy, affirmed that the proofs of his identity were in the hands 
 of the Prussian cabinet, and referred to the inhabitants of Spandau 
 for a vindication of his character. 
 
 In support of his pretensions, NaundorfF gave the following 
 
148 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 account of his early years. His memory, Le pretended, extended 
 back, without a break or flaw, until some time prior to the journey 
 from Versailles to Paris, when he was four yeass of age. From 
 that time he professed the most minute knowledge of places, per- 
 sons, names, dresses, the situation of furniture, the succession of 
 events, and everything, public and private, which happened to the 
 Dauphin. He was acquainted with all the details of the Temple, 
 the manner in which the rooms were furnished, and the familiar 
 manners and actions of all the members of the royal family, which 
 he described in the style of exact and well- written memoirs, com- 
 posed when objects and events were fresh before the eye and mind. 
 He, however, evidently overdid the matter, and while he sometimes 
 fell into egregious misstatemeuts,*(pretended to be familiar with 
 minute details of transactions occurring in his early childhood, 
 BucU as no ordinary human memory could have retained, and which 
 were peculiarly inconsistent with the mental condition to which 
 the Prince had been reducedj 
 
 In respect to his asserted escape, he said that, some months pre- 
 vious, he was conveyed from his apartment into the large, open 
 room at the top of the Tower, and concealed behind fumitm:e. 
 Prior, however, to his removal, he had witnessed the substitution of 
 a large wooden doll for him, which was carved and painted to 
 resemble him, and placed in hia bed. This Story outraged all pro- 
 bability, and he subseqtiently modified it. The doll was exchanged 
 for a dumb boy, the person visited and reported upon, by Har- 
 mand; Desanlt was taken out of the way for not recognising 
 in this dumb child the Dauphin — and the dumb child had in tnm 
 a rickety child substituted for him, because, though poisoned, he 
 would not die — and then the rickety child was poisoned outright, 
 and the dumb child carried as the Dauphin to Madame Bean- 
 harnais. The body of the rickety child was buried in the Temple 
 privately, and he was then brought from th* garret and placed in 
 
 * " The particulars given respecting the return of the royal family after the ill-fated 
 journey to Varennes, are not in accordance with those mentioned by Madame Can- 
 pan and others."— PercitiaZ, p. 83. 
 
NAUNDORFP AND KICHEMONT. 149 
 
 the coffin; but a further change was effected in the carriage 
 between him and some stones, which were buried as the Dauphin.* 
 " My friends," says Naundorff, " fearing I might be discovered, dis- 
 guised me, and sent me in a carriage out of Paris, thinking it expe- 
 dient to remove me from the capital. At the same time to put my 
 enemies upon a wrong scent, tliey sent off a child, a native of Ver- 
 lonlla, with his pa/rents, intending to pass Mm for me. It was 
 intended to convey me to the Vend6ean army." During this jour- 
 dey, he says he was taken sick, and remained at a chateau in the 
 country under the care of a lady, when " one day there came three 
 persons dressed in uniform with which I was unacquainted. I 
 was told they were General Charette and two of his friends." 
 " While at the ch4teau, I knew that a Mr. B. was in communica- 
 tion with Madame * * * ; he had also another friend, formerly 
 dame du palais to my excellent mother. It was they who then 
 furnished me with all that was necessary. I have seen Mr. B. at a 
 distance, always disguised as an old peasant. I was delivered into 
 the hands of Mr. B., with whom I found a young girl named 
 Marie, and his huntsman Jean, whose real name was Mont Morin. 
 
 " These two friends, henceforth, managed my affairs. They sent 
 for a man and his son, who was about my age. This man received 
 a sum of money sufficient to enable him to emba/rle for America, 
 and when these measures were taken, we set out ourselves for 
 Venice." Here, he asserts, he had a secret interview with the 
 Pope, that he was rejoined by the old man and his son, who again 
 
 embarked, that he took flight for England ;t that Mr. B and 
 
 the young Marie were assassinated, and he iiimself taken prisoner 
 and carried' into France, where he remained in confinement until 
 1808, when he was liberated by Josephine and Fouch6. In 1804, 
 
 * This story 19 Tery different from one trhich he told in an earlier period ot hia 
 I career, when he stated that he was removed from the Temple, in a basket, in a state 
 of unconsciousness.— Viite Filia DolorMo, p. 47S. 
 
 t In his earlier narratives, he went himself to America, at this time and " was 
 Inclined to think he learned watchmaking there, but conld not exactly teU whether 
 he acquired this art in the United States or in Italy."— FiJia Doloroaa, p. 476. 
 
150 
 
 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 he was carried by his friends to Strasbnrg, where he was 
 arrested and confined in the fortress. The description of his suf- 
 ferings in this prison is so graphic, that it would almost induce 
 me to regard them as real. It strongly contrasts, in its viyid sim- 
 plicity, with the forced and mystified style of the earlier portions of 
 , his narrative, where everything is enveloped in clouds of incongnjc 
 ity. " The light of sun or moon never reached me. All idea of day 
 was effaced from my mind as well as of division of time. I knew 
 every step of my dungeon. With the exception of that of my 
 jailer's feet, I heard no sound but that of the heavy drums, which 
 appeared to me like the rolling of distant thunder. The space iB 
 the roof through which the light might have penetrated more 
 freely, gave me the idea of being at the extremity of a long tube, 
 which appeared to terminate in dirty water, through which the 
 Bun might shine, or which was covered with cobwebs. The space 
 between the walls formed a square of about twelve feet. My hair 
 became long and curly, my beard had grown, and when I tonoied 
 my face I could have fancied myself a wild beast. My nails were 
 so long that they broke in bits, and I could only avoid the pain, 
 which was the consequence, by biting them with my teeth. I 
 despaired of again beholding the surface of the earth." In the 
 spring of 1809, be was delivered from this dungeon by his friend, 
 Mont Morin, and the secret aid of Josephine. He was taken to 
 Frankfort. Mont Morin, at this time, he pretends, sewed in the 
 collar of his great-coat, c&rtain papers, vrritten by Marie Antoinettf, 
 earnestly recommending him never to part with them, as thpy 
 would prove undeniable proofs of his identity to all the sovereigns 
 of Europe. So that, according to his own statement, the papers 
 which were to establish his claims, did not come into his posses- 
 sion until fourteen years after the escape of the Prince, and would 
 be worthless as evidence, could they be shown, because the^ would 
 prove just at much in f amor of any person who might chance to hoU 
 them. 
 Again he led a life of wandering and romantic adventure, the sc- 
 
NAUNDORrP AND MCHEMONT. 151 
 
 ooDDt of which s^ems, from ite raciness and eimplicity, to be for the 
 most part, genuine. In January, they obtained from the Duke of 
 Brunswick, letters of recommendation for Prussia, by means of 
 which they were kindly received at Semnicht, by Major de Sohill, 
 an officer of the dnke's army. In a ekirmish Mont Morin was 
 killed, and he himself struck from his horse by a blow from the 
 butt-end of a musket. He was taken prisoner and put in an 
 hospital. While still suflfering from the effects of his wound, he 
 was carried to the fortress of Wesel, on the frontier of France, and, 
 mixed up with other prisoners, was transferred from one prison to 
 another. Left behind in consequence of sickness, he regained his 
 liberty, and lived a wretched vagabond life until 1810, when he 
 emerged from the dreamy obscurity which attends him while he 
 has only himself for a historian, to the daylight of a watchmaker's 
 shop, Schutz en Sti-asse, 52, Berlin. Here, he pretends, he lost his 
 papers, by giving them tor the purpose of his identification to Mr. 
 Leeoque, who handed them to the Prince Hartenburg. He now- 
 assumed, by compulsion, he asserts, the name of Charles W. Naun- 
 dorfl^ From 1812 to 1833, when he appeared in Paris, he was in 
 the habit, at intervals, of writing letters to the Duchess 
 D'Angoulfeme, the Prince Hartenburg, Louis XVIII., and other 
 eminent persons, but without obtaining any response. 
 
 Such was the story which in 1832, '3, Naundorff told to his circle 
 of intimate friend.-, in Paris; although it was not published in 
 detail until several years after, when he had exhausted, without 
 success, every means of obtaining an interview with the Duchess 
 D'AngoulSme, or a hearing of ^his cause before the French tri- 
 bunals. His adherents imagined that they recognised in him the 
 Dauphin by his Bourbon physiognomy, by marks upon his person 
 and by his memory of historic events. But not content with natu- 
 ral means of identiflcation, he resorted to supernatural. There 
 was, at that time, in France, a peasant named Martin, who had the 
 reputatwn of being inspired. It seems to be historic, that in 1818 
 he obtamed au interview with Louis XVIIL, under the plea of 
 
152 THE LOST PEINCB. 
 
 having some divine revelation to commrinioate ; and popular rumor 
 declared that it related to the king's nephew, as it tmdonbtedly exer- 
 cised a great influence on his inind. In 1825, Martin announced in 
 public, with oracular brevity, the burden of his interview with 
 Louis XVIII. "Louis XVII. exists." Nanndorff, who before his 
 coming to Paris, had disbelieved and hated Christianity,'wa3 sud- 
 denly converted to the Eomish faith, and shortly after had an inter- 
 view with Martin, when it appeared they were old acquaintances, 
 and had long seen each other in visions, except that Martin's 
 ghostly counterpart had white hair; but I may state, on the 
 authority of the curate of St. Arnoult, who relates the story, that 
 the peasant's hair, soon after, miraculously changed from a raven 
 black to a snowy whiteness. After this, apparitions crowded thick 
 upon each other, and the Prince was consoled in his troubles, by 
 spiritual converse with the protecting angel of France, and as Mar- 
 tin was also In habits of intimacy with the spirits, they received 
 telegraphic information from the other world of all that was to 
 occur in this. One day, Martin brought the news of his own 
 death, and the Prince became the sole receptacle of ghostly infor- 
 mation, anxl, in a truly Christian spirit, was accustomed to 
 forewarn his enemies, and among them, Louis PhiUipe, of the ills 
 that awaited them. 
 
 Things stood in this position in the beginning of 1834, when it 
 was determined that M. Morel de St. Didier should visit the 
 Duchess D'Angoulfeme, then resident at Prague, and by the presen- 
 tation of evidence, induce her to grant an interview with Kaundoff. 
 He carried with him a letter fi-om Madame de Eamband, in which 
 that lady assured the duchess of her full and entire conviction that 
 Nanndorff was her brother, that his personal appearance, their 
 interchange of recollections and especially an inoculation ma/rh in 
 the form of a crescent were indisputable proofs to her that he was 
 what he asserted himself to be — "the Prince, the Orphah of the 
 Temple." 
 
 Marco de St. Hilaire also stated that, on similar grounds, hia 
 
NAUNDOBPF AND RICHEMONT. 153 
 
 conviction was so strong that it was impossible to overthrow it. 
 St. Didier had two interviews with the Duchess, one in February, 
 and the other in September, 1834, in which her words on some 
 occasions were so enigmatical, her conduct so much at variance 
 with her expressions, her anxiety so evident, and her final treatment 
 of St. Didier and Madame de Eambaud so disingenuous, if not 
 insulting, that it seems impossible to explain the affair, except on 
 the score of her knowledge of some secret which entirely under- 
 cut the claims of Naundorff, but was of a nature which would not 
 permit her to state her grounds of action. On seeing the portrait 
 of Naundorff, she remarked, after attentive examination, " I do not 
 see any resemblance to my family." Subsequently she r^ected 
 that of Eichemont with an indignant, "No, sir, that is not the 
 thing." While she professed to believe that her brother was dead, 
 " unless another was substituted in his place" she evinced, to say 
 the least, her uncertainty on the subject, by saying, "This is too 
 serious a matter to bo lightly examined, and of such Importance 
 that it wjll be necessary to devote several days to the consideration 
 of ft." As to the evidence adduced she remarked, "If anything 
 could for a moment arrest my attention, it would be Madame de 
 Rambaud's letter, because I remember that she was in fact my 
 brother's attendant, but all that is nothing." When his recollec- 
 tions of the details of early events were mentioned, she replied, 
 "yes, I understand, but all that is not sufficient ; I must have other 
 proofs before I can grant the interview — tell him he must send me 
 ly a confidential messenger, amd in writing, all that lie now refuses 
 to tell me but by word of mouth. Above all, tell him to send me all 
 the details relative to his escape from the Temple ; that is absolutely 
 necessary, and I persist particularly on this point." And here I 
 may remark that this message argues an acquaintance on the part 
 of the duchess with the fact of her brother's existence, and with 
 the mode of his escape, otherwise she could not have brought 
 Naundorffs statement, however false, to any test — while at the same 
 time the evasive answer, which, as we shall see, the pretender 
 
 r* 
 
154 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 returned, shows, he felt, she had the power of detecting his falsehood. 
 M. de St. Didier departed from Prague to consult with Naundorff. 
 Meanwhile, a remarkable and mysterious interview took place 
 between the duchess and the King of Prussia, in relation to Naun- 
 dorff. Dresden was the spot first fixed on for the meeting, and the 
 king went there incognito, but not finding her, he followed her first 
 to Pilnitz, and then to Toplitz, where they had a long conference, 
 concerning which, nothing distinct can be ascertained, except that 
 the duchess asked a variety of questions respecting Naundorff, which 
 the king answered. St. Didier again went to Prague in September, 
 carrying with him a letter in relation to the asserted escape of 
 Kaundorff, and being accompanied by Madame de Bamhand. He 
 found the manner of the duchess this time, entirely altered. She 
 was cold and reserved, and instead of the interest she had formerly 
 manifested, she now showed perfect indiiference and contempt for 
 Kaundorff, as if she had fathomed him. As to his recollections, she 
 said all that he had stated had appeared in print, or must have been 
 read by him. 
 
 When St. Didier spoke of a recent attempt to assassinate him, 
 though she smiled incredulously at first, yet on being assured it was 
 a fact, she used, in reply to the observation that " no one would 
 think of assassinating an imipostor,^^ the remarkable words, "Por- 
 don m«, sir" — and, then, struggling between affected composure 
 and irritation, exclaimed, " M. de St. Didier, this man is nothing 
 but an impostor, an intriguer, but very clever — Men, AaWi!e— youare 
 under a delusion of which I do not partake." This was all that St. 
 Didier could obtain, except an acknowledgment of the interview 
 with the King of Prussia. The letter, of which he was the bearer, 
 was certainly not calculated to increase the confidence of the 
 duchess. It is remarkable on two accounts. 1. It tells a different 
 story from that which NaundorfF has elsewhere given. 2d. It shifts 
 thepointof mystery from himself to another. He begins, " Madame, 
 your royal highness wishes to know in what manner I escaped from 
 the Tetaiple. Three men came to me, among whom was the 
 
NAUNDflBFr AND RICHEMONT, 155 
 
 person who guarded me constantly, and who was also one of those 
 who removed me first out of this room, and soon afterwards out of 
 the Temple. I was put, against my will, into a lai-ge kind of wicker 
 basket, from which a child of about my own age omd size had ieen 
 tahm (md placed in, my ied." Here the wooden doll entirely dis- 
 appears from the narrative, and the substitution of the children is 
 direct. Instead of proceeding to state, as was required of him, how 
 he got out of the Temple, lie continues, " This, madam, is all the 
 information that I think I ought to give your royal highness in 
 writing, prudence forbidding me to confide to paper the mystery 
 which envelopes" — what, in the name of consistency, does the reader 
 think ? — " all which relates to the child who was substituted for me. 
 Nevertheless, I am willing to give to my sister, to your royal high- 
 ness, I mean, but to your royal highness alone, and by word of 
 mouth, indisputjible proofs which will remove all your remaining 
 doubts, if any remain ; and it is on that account that I firmly 
 believe that an early interview between you and myself is now 
 bec6me -indispensable. Admitting, for an instant, that I am not 
 tli^ son of the unfortunate Louis XVI., that I am, in fact, only an 
 .impostor," &c., &c., &c. The presentation of this letter, and all St. 
 Didier's entreaties having failed to obtain the consent of the 
 duchess to a personal interview, the following singular scene 
 occurred. "There remained another painful duty for me to 
 fulfil. I was about to wound the heart of the Prince's unfortu- 
 nate sister in its dearest affections. All the strength of a deep and 
 entire conviction was necessary to, determine me to do so. But, 
 .fidelity, devotion, and honor, imposed on me this painful duty, and 
 I could not shrink from it. Having gathered all my resolution, I 
 added in a serious tone : 
 
 "- ' My respect for your royal highness is a sacred duty which my 
 heart will never allow me to forget. Your royal highness will, 
 therefore, condescend to appreciate the violence I do to my own 
 feelings in wounding a heart already torn by so many sorrows ; 
 but, however, painful the effort, my orders ^re peremptory, and my 
 
150 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 obedience to them must be implicit. I am commanded to inform 
 your royal highness, in the name of the Prinoe, that he has certain 
 knowledge of the two following facts' — 
 
 ******** 
 It is not my business to reveal them here. Secresy is commanded 
 by the Prince. I will only say, that I had the honor of informing 
 her royal highness that he had in his possession unanswerable 
 proof of the facts in question. Her royal highness listened to me 
 with great and visible attention ; her agitation was extreme, it was 
 in vain that she endeavored to assume an air of calmness, she wa3 
 unable to recover her composure. Her royal highness denied one 
 of these factsr— the other she passed over in silence." 
 
 Still, St. Didier did not despair. Having failed himself, he next 
 strove, through the agency of the Viscountess D'Agoult, to obtain 
 an audience for Madame Kambaud, who had gone from Paris to 
 Prague, expressly to see the duchess; but, to his infinite and 
 somewhat ludicrous mortification and surprise, he received from 
 the viscountess the following note : " Sir — I have executed your com- 
 mission ; the answer of the Dauphiness is : that she knew Madame de 
 Eambaud, who, more than forty years ago, was the attendant of 
 the Dauphin : that not thinking it possible that a person of her age 
 should have undertaken so fatiguing a journey, she has no reason 
 for seeing the person of that name whom you have brought 
 hither." They soon received a notification from the police to 
 leave Prague, and the door of all further communication was 
 closed. 
 
 The next event which throws any light on the afiair, is the 
 account of a conference by M. Lamprade, between him and M. de 
 Boohow, ministers of the interior, at Berlin, in 1886. This seems 
 to admit us to the knowledge of the sentiments of the Prussian 
 court upon the subject, and, consequently, to lift the veil, in part, 
 from the interview between the king and the duchess. l,amprade 
 began by attempting to prove the escape of the Dauphin, when 
 Bochow interrupted him by saying, " Every one knows what to 
 
NACNDOBFB' ■AND EICHEMONT. 
 
 think on that subject, and IlelieM with ym, tU DmpMn did rwt 
 die in the prism of the Temple, but how do you prove the ide,i- 
 tity?" and, after admitting there was a mystery, referred to the 
 documentary proofs which NaundorfP asserted, had been confided 
 by him, in 1811, to the Prince Hartenbnrg, denied that there were 
 any such in the king's possession, but added "Ihim if the papers 
 were in the Mng's calinet, what would that prove ? Might it not le 
 fosnbU that this mam, had, in fact, Tenown the real J)aniphvn .»" We 
 may fairly conclude these words of the Prussian minister to be an 
 indication of more distinct knowledge possessed by his master. 
 
 It is not necessary to say much respecting the vain efforts which 
 Nanndorff made to bring his claim for adjudication before the 
 tribunals of France. There is no question, that he used every 
 possible exertion to bring the matter to a legal issue, but was 
 denied. Hervagaijlt and Bruneau had long since been tried and 
 condemned. "Eichemont seems to have been brought forward 
 almost under the patronage of the police, to disconcert Nanndorff, 
 for, in his baseless claims, he had none of the enthusiasm of an 
 intriguer, but the placid coolness of an instrument who feels him- 
 self safe. But Naundorff was excluded from a hearing. It seems 
 certain, also, that an attempt was made to assassinate him — for the 
 fact does not rest on his own testimony, but on that of the St. 
 Hilaires, who were people of station and character. The evident 
 injustice, in a legal point of view, which was done him, naturally 
 created sympathy, and induced the belief, that since the French 
 government shunned an investigation, they believed him to be what 
 he pretended. - In 1838, he was quietly hustled out of France and 
 conveyed to England. He employed himself at first in the manu- 
 facture of rockets, and afterwards of bomb-shells. Another attempt 
 at assassination induced him to retire to Delft, in Holland, where ha 
 expired in 1844, and was buried with r^gal honors^-an object of 
 sympathy and respect to thousands, who felt that he could not be 
 confounded with the ordinary run of impostors. 
 The pretensions of Nanndorff kept the French government^ fi:om 
 
158 THE LOST .PRINCE. 
 
 1832 until 1844, in continual nneasinesB, because they tended to 
 revive half-buried memories, to excije discussion, and to elicit 
 important evidence upon the general question. Persons in almost 
 every rank of society came forward and threw their contribntions 
 upon the accumulating pile. Unfortunately, much fell either into 
 the hands of Naundorff or of the government — ^by the latter it was 
 concealed for its own purposes, and by the former, mangled and 
 mystified id^publication, b_y the substitution of initials for names, 
 and by being mixed up with documents, undoubtedly forged, or 
 liable to strong suspicion of being so. But there are two species 
 of evidence elicited by the appearance of Naundorfij which have 
 intrinsic value. 1. That which was published by persons of cha- 
 racter and standing, challenging denial, and giving authorities of 
 name, time, and place; and, 2, That which, though imperfectly 
 Stated in respect to these particulars, by the legal advisers of 
 Naundorff, yet, tended to cast discredit on his individual claims, 
 and was acknowledged by his friends to militate with his story, 
 while it went to establish historical facts independently of him. 
 Such evidence I consider to be historical and just as good now as 
 ever. 
 
 Thus M. Morin de Gu6rivi6re, an artizan and manufacturer, 2, 
 Kue Chapon, Paris, laid a memorial before the Count D'Artois, in 
 1823, an account of wliich was published in the " Quotidienne " of 
 November 6th, of that year, stating that in July,- 1795, while 
 travelling in a postchaise, under the protection of M. Jervais 
 Ojardias, agent of the Prince de Coud6, he was arrested on his 
 arrival at Thiers, Puy de D6me, on the charge of being the 
 Dauphin. He was surrounded by gens d'armes, the local authori- 
 ties summoned, a proems verbal drawn up, and he was only set at 
 liberty after full examination and disproval.* 
 
 • He was fortunnlely able to exhibit the order for his release, which is as follows: 
 
 "LiBBRTT. "JOSTICB. 
 
 "Jht Puy, the 22 Meaaidor , year 8, (10 July, 1795). 
 
 " EQUiXirr. " HOHAsmr. 
 
 " J. P. Ohaael, representatlTO of the people, dolegateiT by the National ConrenUoa 
 
NAnNDOEFP AND RICHEMONT. 1S9 
 
 In 1832, he pnblished a pamphlet, entitled—" EeeolUctiont to serve 
 as a supplement for the completion of the proofs of the existence of the 
 Mke of Normamdy, son of Louis XVI." in whioh, besides stating 
 the above facts, he gives an account of an interview with an agent 
 of Louis XVIII, in 1823, named Desmarres, living in the court of 
 the Palais Royal, who was sent to him, in consequence of the pre- 
 sentation of the memorial to the Count D'Artois, and stated that he 
 had caused great dla/rm in the palace, and occasionM the report that 
 Louis XYIL had presented himself there. After this, another per- 
 son from the court, who was in close intimacy with the Duchess 
 D'Angoul6me, and who went direct from him to her, advised him 
 to preserve the d.ocument concerning his arrest with great care, as 
 it would hereafter' be of value, adding, " Well, Louis XVII. is 
 living, I know it, but the dearest interests of France" forbid that he 
 should now ascend the throne of his ancestors." The Abb6 
 AilSgre Tourzel also congratulated him on having been arrested as 
 the son of Louis XVI., and said, " I know from good authority 
 that the Prince is living, and that his health is not at all injured 
 by flie dreadful sufferings he endured in the Temple, My convic- 
 tion, on this subject, is so strong, that I have not feared to declai'e 
 it openly to the king himself, and to tell. him that the crown he 
 wears does not belong to him." 
 
 Again, M. Labreli do Fontaine, librarian to the Duchess D'Or- 
 leans, in a pamphlet, entitled — " Disclosures respecting the exist- 
 in the department of Puy-de-ddme, of the Upper Loire, of Cantal of the Aveyron, and 
 Lozdre to the Procureur Syndic of the district of Thiers. I have heard Ojardias, he 
 has justiBed his conduct, the charge made against him is false, I authorize you to 
 rescind the orders which detained the child in Barge Real's house, as also any which 
 may hare issued against Ojajdias's liberty, 
 
 " HbALTH and PaiTERBITT, * 
 
 "Signed, J.P. Chazel. 
 
 " A true copy. 
 
 " The Procureur Syndic of the 
 " District of Thiers. 
 "Signed, Bniyere Barftnte.*' 
 
160 ■ THE LOST PRINCB. 
 
 ence of Loiiis XVII.," says, " The first article of the secret treaty of 
 Paris, ISl't, explains the manner in which the powers of Europe 
 had permitted the Count de Provence to occupy the throne of 
 France ; the following is the substance of the article : 
 
 " That although the high contracting powers, the Allied Sove- 
 reigns, have no certain evidence of the death of the son of Louis 
 XVI., ,the state of Europe and its political interests, require that 
 they should place at the head of the government in France, Louis 
 Xavier, Count de Provence, ostensibly with the title of king; but, 
 being in fact, considered in their secret transactions only as Begent 
 of the kingdom for the two years next ensuing, reserving to them- 
 selves during that period to obtain every possible certainty, con- 
 cerning a fact which must ultimately determine who shall he the 
 sovereign of France." A person of his position wouldr~Boar6ely 
 make such a statement without good authority. He also asserts, 
 that when he was himself at Venice, in 1812, Siguier Erizzo, for- 
 merly a senator of Venice, showed him a proclamation of the Oqnnt 
 de Provence, dated from Verona, the 14th October, 179T, in which 
 he only assumed the title of. Regent of the kingdom, and jnstly 
 asks, '"if Louis XVII. died in the Temple, why did not his uncle 
 assume the title of king." M. Grnau, declares that, " It is known 
 from good authority, that during the reign of Louis XVIII., a 
 court sycophant had a false certificate fabricated of the death of 
 the Dauphin in foreign lands after his escape."* 
 
 The " Journal of Commerce,'' 3d December, 1832, in a re- 
 view of a work, entitled — " Secret History of the Directory," 
 says : — 
 
 " It appears certain that the public has been deceived as to the 
 real time a.nd place of the death of Louis XVII. Cambaceres 
 aeknowledges this, hut would never reveal what he hnete on this point. 
 We shall be led to believe there was some great mystery con- 
 cerning it, when we remember with what consideration the 
 
 • Parctral, p. 186. 
 
NAUNDORFP AND EICHEMONT. 
 
 161 
 
 restored Bourbons treated this regicide, and the eagerness with 
 which they took possession of his papers after his death." 
 
 In a pamphlet published by M. Bourbon le Blqouo, there is an 
 attestation by M. Pezold, notary of Crossen, in which he says: "I 
 have found fifty documents fully substantiating the existence of his 
 majesty; for instance, the manner and by whom he was taken 
 from the Temple. I can prove all that I state ; omd there it not a 
 - sovereign in Europe who did not m 1818 receive letters from, me on 
 the subject. I will always affirm that he was carried off from the 
 Temple by one of my fri^ds. 
 
 "Pro vera copia in fidem publioam testatur, a 15 Januar, 1832. 
 " Signed, " Pbzold, Notar." 
 
 M. Pezold, it must be remarked, did not pretend to affirm any- 
 thing concerning identity; his statements respect the fact of escape. 
 He died of poison. There is another important pieioe of testimony 
 contained in the pamphlet of Labreli de Fontaine. 
 
 "M. Abei)16, medical pupil under Dr. Desault at the time of his 
 violent death, has declared to whoever would hear it in France 
 and in the United States, where he has since sought refuge, that 
 the murder of the doctor immediately followed the report he made 
 to the effect that the ohildrto whom they had introduced him was 
 not the Dauphin. The 'American Bee,' edited by M. Chandron, 
 mentions this fact in an article inserted in 181T. Madame Delisle, 
 an inhabitant of New York, and now in Paris, has declared that 
 she heard this circumstanoe mentioned by M. Abeill6 himself, and 
 has, moreover, read the above cited article in the American jom-nal." 
 
 ^, one of the most Important items of evidence is, that a boy, 
 purporting to be the Dauphin, was, in 1795,- actually delivered 
 into the hands of Ohare^ The proof of this is partly historic, 
 and partly rests on the testimony adduced by M. Gruan, the 
 advocate of Nanndorff ; but, as ,the fact directly overthrows tha 
 claims of the latter, and the bearing of it was perceived by M. 
 
162 THB LOST FRINC£. 
 
 Gruau, we may accept his evidence, thongb unable to fathom the 
 mptives which led him to produce it. 
 
 [ 1. There is, extant, a proclamation of Charette, cited by Labreh 
 de Fontaine, towards the close of 1795, addressed to his army, ia 
 which he speaks of Louis XVII. as being then in his camp, and 
 asks his followers — " Will you abandon to the caprice of fortuna, 
 to the uncertainty of erents, the royal orphan whom you swore to 
 defend — or, rather, lead him captive in the midst of you, condnct 
 him to the assassins of his father, and cast at their feet the head 
 of your innocent king.'' 
 
 2. A friend of Gruau's, who served in the army of Charette, 
 remembered to have seen a cbild who was shown to the Vendfiean 
 arjuy as Louis XVII. 
 
 C^. Another royalist, cited by Gruau, declared that he, himself, 
 "delivered Louis XVII. into the hands of Charette;" adding— 
 " By what means General Charette and I obtained possession of 
 him, and where we took him to — ^this is what I shall not hesitate 
 to prove, when the proper time is come. Till then, a solemn oath 
 binds me to silence.'' Now Gruau, Naundoi-ff's advocate, states 
 that this testimony does not refer to the real Dauphin. But, look 
 at the position in which it places Naundorif. He says, that, being 
 the true Dauphin, he saw Charette in 1795. Why Charette so 
 easily allowed him to escape his hands, he does not say. Now, 
 either he was, or was not, the child mentioned above,, as being in 
 the Ved6ean camp. If he was that child, he was not " the real 
 Dauphin," according to the confession of his advocate, and stands 
 also convicted of falsehood, in the details of his story. If he were 
 not, then it will be impossible to explain how Charette, being per- 
 sonally acquainted with the true Prince, should allow himself to be 
 so deceived immediately after, as to receive a pretender into his 
 camp. Percival feels the full difficulty of the case, and confesses 
 that he cannot " satisfy the curiosity which may be felt as to the 
 inotives which led " to the production of such testimony. 
 On reviewing the facts presented in this involved case, the 
 
NAUNDOBFB' AND RIOHEMONT. 163 
 
 obscnrity clears away sufficiently to enable ns to diseern distinctly 
 the following truths. It appears :— 
 
 1. That, Nanndorff was an impostor, because— 1. There is a radi- 
 cal discrepancy between the two accounts given by him of his 
 escape fi-om the Temple, in one of which he represents himself to 
 have seen a wooden doll substituted for him before the introduc- 
 tion of the dumb child ; and, in the other, to have seen, at the 
 same time and place, the immediate substitution of the child him- 
 self. 
 
 2. The account, given by him, of his interview with Charette, 
 cannot be made to tally with the evidence adduced and vouched 
 for by his advocate, respecting the presence of a child, supposed to 
 be Louis AVIL, in the Vend6ean army. 
 
 3. The accounts, he gave of his early history, vary so much from 
 each other, at different periods of his life, at one time represent- 
 ing him U> have been in America at the moment when, according 
 to another statement, he was on the continent of Europe, that 
 one or the other must be fictitious. 
 
 4. His conduct, in the afiair of Martin, proves him to have been 
 a deceieer. The man who was on such intimate terms with the 
 protecting angel of France, is of veracity too etherial for ordinary 
 credence. 
 
 / 
 11. That, Nanndorff, thougn an mipostor, had facts as the basis of 
 his deception, and was in possession of some state secret, and 
 some documents of importance, which enabled him to carry on the 
 deception, because — 
 
 1. He was denied by the French government a iegal hearing 
 which was not only granted to, but forced upon, the other impos- 
 tors ; wassubjected to attempts against his life, and compelled by 
 the authorities to leave France to prevent investigation 
 
 2 The conduct of the Duchess D'Angoulfeme showed his case 
 embarrassed her, and sh^ confessed that though he was an impos- 
 
164 THE LOST FBINCB. 
 
 tor, yet there were circumstances which might, in the eyes of the 
 French government, render his assassination expedient. The inter- 
 view between her and the King of Prussia, in relation to him 
 proves the importance attached to his pretensions ; and all these 
 things in connection, are only consistent with the idea of dangerons 
 truth lying beneath the falsehood of his individual claim. 
 
 3. He undeniably had the means of deceiving persons so compe- 
 tent to judge as Madame de Eambaud, St. Hilaire, St. Didier, and 
 others, and showed an acquaintance with facts, known solely to the 
 initiated, explicable only on the ground that he had been behind 
 the scenes, or obtained authentic information of things hidden 
 from the public eye. 
 
 III. That, the secret which gave him political importance as an 
 impostor, did not relate to himself but to some other person, 
 because — 
 
 1. He confessed as much in his letter to the Duchess D'Angon- 
 16me, when required to give an account of his escape from the 
 Temple, by saying, that prudence forbade him to commit to paper 
 the mystery which enveloped some other child in the Temple, 
 which child, it is every way probable, was Louis XVII. 
 
 2. In the opinion of the Prussian court, whom Nanndorff 
 acknowledged to be in the secret of his life, the facts in his case 
 only went to show that he knew the true Dauphin. 
 
 IV. That, it seems to be a historic fact, that a child purporting to 
 be Louis XVII., was actually in the possession of Charette, in 
 1795, and afterwards disappeared, no one knows where. 
 
 V. That the government was aware of the fact of the Prince's 
 escape, because: 1. the police records of the time show that orders 
 were issued for the arrest of Louis XVII. 2. M. Guerivi^re was 
 arrested by the police, on the charge of being the Dauphin, while 
 travelling in a carriage with the agent of the Prince de Oondi; 
 
NAUNDORFF AND RIOHEMONT. 165 
 
 and both of these oircumstanoes tonfinn Naundorflfs story, that 
 carriages with children were sent out in different directions, for 
 the purpose of baffling pursuit, and tend to prove that he was, by 
 some means, conversant with the events connected with the 
 escape. 
 
 VI. That, Naundorff intimates his knowledge of the fact, that a 
 child, said to be Louis XVII., was sent to America, that a certain 
 
 Mr. B was engaged in the" transaction, that he was in concert 
 
 with a lady, fcnrmerly a member of the queen's household, and that 
 they had with them a young girl. 
 
 VII. That.it is shown by the statement of Madame de Eam- 
 baud, that Louis XVII. had on his arm a crescent-shaped soar, the 
 result of inoculation. 
 
 The following points, which it is not necessary to specify sepa- 
 rately, were also brought out by the discussion of Naundorff's 
 claitns — viz. that the existence of Louis XVII. was not only sus- 
 pected but a well-known fact, admitted in the best informed 
 circles, and by the agents and intimates of Lonis XVIII. and the 
 Duchess D'Angbulfeme; that in 179V, Louis XVIII. signed a pro- 
 clamation as Regent, which was seen by Labreli de Fontaine, at 
 Venice, that at the Restoration of the Bourbons the allied powers 
 declared there was no proof of the death of Louis XVII. ; and 
 that M. Abeill6, pupil of Desault, solemnly declared that that phy- 
 sician had been murdered. 
 
 Taking all the circumstances of IfaundorflPs history into conside- 
 ration, I do not think that you can harmonize them, and reduce 
 them to their true proportions, but by some theory which will not 
 vary far from the following; which I propose as the most probable 
 view of his Ufe and character, and most consistent with facts 
 which are proved. 
 
 I conceive him, then, to have been one of the boys made use of 
 
166 THB LOST PRINCE. 
 
 at the time of the Dauphin's escape to personate him, and selected 
 for the purpose on account of his Bourbon features, which may be 
 traceable as a native of Versailles or Paris, to illegitimate Bourbon 
 blood — furnished with credentials and information to enable him to 
 act his part plausibly — conveyed to Oharette, and exhibited to his 
 army as the Prince, whom he continued to represent until the 
 trick was discovered, having personally learned the general outline 
 of the real Danphin's destiny, and the names of the agents by 
 whom he was removed. He was probably imprisoned to conoeri 
 his secret — and afterwards reduced to a wandering and necessitous 
 life, but retained documents and letters originally given him to 
 play his part, and which admitted him to the knowledge of many 
 of the incidents of the private life of the royal family. 
 
 The journals and papers of Marie Antoinette and the Princess 
 Elizabeth, were taken from them, during their imprisonment in the 
 Temple ;* and if any of these, by some of the accidents of the times, 
 fell into his possession, they would sufiBciently account for his fami- 
 liarity with recondite incidents. The documents delivered to Prince 
 Hartenburg probably revealed to the eyes of diplomatists the true 
 nature of his case, and m'ay have induced them to watch him 
 as one who might be dangerous. Meanwhile, his early adventures 
 moulded his mind and destiny^-a man of one idea, he prepared 
 himself through life to play his part, so that he became at last "bien 
 habile," and gathered from all available sources all that conld ^ve 
 consistency to his pretensions. Possessoi* of a secret which might 
 shake thrones, he could not rest till he tried its potency in evoking 
 strife. He does not seem to have had any settled plan — but to have 
 shaped his course by circumstances. When he first came to Paris, 
 he is described by St. Didier as very timid and shy — ^bnt success 
 soon emboldened him, and he made use, with equal facility, of the 
 fanatic falsehood of Martin and of the sincere and honorable devo- 
 tion of Madame de Eambaud and M. St. Hilaire. With the talents 
 of a fortune-teller, he might easily draw forth information while 
 
 • Olery. 
 
KAUNDOKFF AND KICHEMONT. 16T 
 
 seeming to impart it, and make a conversation with one the source 
 of a revelation to another. He had judgment to perceive the strength 
 of his position, and tact to avail himself of it. He had nothing to 
 hazard. The French authorities had all to lose. He could safely 
 appeal to the tribunals, because he knew that his appeal would 
 never be granted — for his condeinnatidn might have been gained at 
 the expense of political destruction, too dear a price to pay for the 
 suppression of a charlatan. Mf impression is, that he desired to 
 sell his secret, and bring his adversaries of the' two opposite parties 
 to terms. Thus, on the one hand, he offered the Duchess D'Angou- 
 Ifeme to make over his rights to the Due de Bourdeaux, and held up 
 his knowledge of the mystery which hung over the real Dauphin, 
 as an inducement why she should grant an interview — ind. on the 
 other, he gave hints and indications of the truth, in some instances 
 puzzling to his^own adherents. -After all, finding it most for his ad- 
 vantage to retain his secret and maintain his dubious position, he 
 gave vent to the swaggering boast, fully characteristic of the swin- 
 dlerj_ " I fear nothing, for it is not in the power of any one to prove 
 that I am not the son of the martyr king of France, the true orphan 
 of the Temple." 
 
 EIOHEMOirr. 
 
 A person, named Eichemont, who, for years, has been known aS 
 one of the most obscure of the Dauphin pretenders, has lately died 
 in France,- and, it is said that, now he is dead, an attempt will be 
 made to prove that he was actually the son of Louis XVI. I retdrn 
 my thanks to the "Tribune" for calling my attention to the article in 
 the "London Atlas," on this subject, which otherwise I should not 
 have seen, and hope that it and other papers will advise us of any 
 facts which may ti-anspire on the other side of the Atlantic, or of any 
 suggestions contained in European publications. A great change 
 has come over the Parisian letter writers, within a few months. 
 On the first agitation of this subject, at the beginning of the year 
 nothmg was more certain than the death of Louis XYH., in the 
 
168 TBB LOST FRINGE. 
 
 Temple, in 1795. But, now, it is admitted that he did not die, that 
 the Convention was deceived — and that the archives of the police 
 prove he escaped shortly before January 8, 1795. This fact may, 
 therefore, now be considered historically beyond dispute. The 
 existence of the decree of the French government to si^rest Lonis 
 XVII. after his asserted death, is admitted by Mrs. Romer.* 
 
 rlhe story of Riohemont is, in some respects, the counterpart of 
 that of Naundoi-ff. Neither of them pretended to be the child who 
 was visited by Deaanlt, and who, up to the 1st of June, was known 
 to be the 'Prince. But there was this difference between them— 
 Naundorff did not leave the Temple till the day of the burial— Riohe- 
 mont escaped so long ago as the good old times when Madame 
 Simon held sway, and was removed, with her furniture, in a basket 
 of clothes. But how does this story of Riohemont tally with the 
 order given to the police, on the 8 th of June j 
 
 Is it credible thatj^if Louis XVII. had been a'year ontof the 
 Temple, the whole police of France would then be set to work to 
 arrest him, just then escaping, in a postchaise; or that, out of the 
 hundreds of acting commissaries and other officials, who had seen 
 the captive, not one had discovered the fraud until this identical 
 8th June? 
 
 I can see no reason for the shadow of a doubt, that the child 
 represented to be Louis XVII. up to the beginning of June, was 
 actually so. His identity is proved — 
 
 1. By the marks upon his body. 
 
 2. By the recognition of Desault, who knew him, and never 
 expressed a doubt, during the month he attended the child, as to 
 his being the Prince. 
 
 3. By the picture of Bellanger, which is confessed to be that of 
 the Dauphin. 
 
 But, establish this fact, and the pretensions of both Naundorff 
 and Riohemont go to the ground ; for each asserts himself to be 
 not the cbUd whom Besanlt visited. 
 
 • FUia DoloroBa, p. 470. 
 
NADNDOfiFF AND BICHEMOHT. 
 
 169 
 
 Nothing can be more immatwal amd absurd than the account of 
 the interview between Richemont and the Duchess D'Angoulfeme ; 
 which the correspondent of the " Atlas" says, he himself heard 
 from Madame Chateaubriand, provided the words attributed to the 
 duchess, are .considered as referring to one she deemed her hrother. 
 Under such a oonstrnotion, the story carries falsehood on its face, 
 no matter who tells it — give them a different sense, and I have no 
 objection to it. It is as follows : " Madame Chateaubriand, whose 
 truth has never been questioned, has told me the circumstances of this 
 interview, at which, by virtue of her office, she was present. The 
 duchess was walking on the terrace of Versailles, when the Prince 
 de Cond4, coming up the marble steps of the parterre, suddenly 
 appeared before her, leaning on the arm of the Baron de Eiche- 
 tnont — the latter fell at the feet of the duchess, who seemed for a 
 moment overcome with emotion. The baron spoke in a low tone 
 recalling cu:ouing;ances which had taken place in their early youth, 
 and which were unknown to the world beside. The duchess drew 
 back presently, and, gazing at the baron from bead to foot, she 
 exclaimed, " Go, sir, I cannot call you h-ather-^ou are my 
 mother's murderer." The idea intended to be conveyed, is that, 
 the duchess recognised Eichemont as her brother— but would not 
 acknowledge him as such, on account of the paper -which he had 
 been oompeUed to sign in prison, charging Marie Antoinette with 
 incest. The duchess was a woman of too much good sense and 
 right feeling ever to entertain such sentiments— the child was the 
 mere passive instrument of the brutality of others. Her memoira 
 show that she never dreamed of imputing to him as a crime, what 
 was merely his misfortune. Besides vhich, the charge of incest 
 did no harm to Marie Antoinette. Ko one believed it. It rather 
 aided her, and came near causing her acquittal. If the daobess 
 did utter those words, it is most certain they bore no relation to 
 her brother ; and that, instead of proving anything in favor of Eiche- 
 mont, they settle the question against him. It is not impossible 
 that he, as well as Kaundorfi; may have been some child oon- 
 
 8 
 
1*70 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 neoted with the Temple, and that the dnohess did recognize Mm ta 
 one who had heen instrumental, on some occasion, in inflicting 
 injury on her mother, perhaps in preventing her escape. This is 
 tiar the most natural conclusion. The duchess, we have seen, 
 indignantly rejected his portrMt, when offered her by St, Didiev, 
 saying, " No, sir, that is not the thing." 
 
 After the interview was over, she took the arm of Madame 
 Ohatfeaubriand, "and pushed open the glass door of the grand 
 talon with such violence, that several panes of glass fell to the 
 ground. She did did not sleep that night, she did not even retire 
 to her own room, but paced the floor of the drawing-room till 
 morning, now and then sinking on her knees in prayer, and often 
 stopping in her restless walk to lean her head against the wall and 
 sob aloud." It seems undeniable that some deep chord of feeling 
 was stirred. Knowing, as I have evidence she did, her brother'? 
 existence, in America, but compelled from state Aotives-to conceal 
 the secret, every fresh attempt at imposture was calculated to 
 wound her spirit most acutely ; and this, together with memories 
 of the Bufferings of departed years, awakened by the incident, 
 is quite sufficient to account for her agony of mind, withont 
 attributing to her the absurdity of calling her IrotTwt the mwrierer 
 of Tier mother. There are some things impossible — and this is one 
 of them. 
 
 Richemont, like Naundorff, attributed all the assassinations, 
 among people of ranl^ in Europe, to acquaintance with his secret, 
 and favor of his pretensions. This is cheap kind of evidence. 
 But it amounts to nothing. Kleber and Piohegm, and the Dno 
 de Berri, and the Prince de Oond6 might be assassinated, but 
 it proves nothing in favor of the pretensions of either impostor. 
 As to the offer of Louis Philippe, by letter, to give the Princess 
 Louise, afterwards Queen of Belgium, to Richemont, we will 
 wait till the letter is produced. If he had such a thing, he would 
 ■ have shown it during his life-time, and, besides, would scarcely 
 have rtgected an offer which would, necessarily, have been 
 
NATJNDOKFF ABD BICHEMOKT. 1*1 
 
 accompanied by the pubUc recognition of his claims, if U mre 
 the DmpUn, and by his ultimate accession to the throne. But I 
 care not what documents may be produced under the circum- 
 stances. Such things only prove their own existence, nothmg 
 more. So long as Eichemont's own story disagrees fundamentally 
 with known facts, all the documents in th^ world would not prove 
 identity. For this is a case of dliM. ^hemont was not in the, 
 TmpU in June, 1795. Xouis XYII. was in the Tmmh until the 
 first week in June, iTOj) No, Eicheraont was both an impostor, 
 and, in all probability, an instrument of Louis Philippe; and, 
 should the attempt ever be made to silence the truth respecting 
 the living, by setting up the baseless claims of the dead, it will 
 only add a tenfold force to every argument in favor of the former. 
 
 Here I must let the curtain fall upon the Old World, leaving 
 everything unQBjjtain, unfinished, mysterious. A great wrong has 
 been done, and we can clearly trace the whole course of motives 
 and events up to a ^ven point, and then there is an abrupt cessa- 
 tion,^with only, here and there, an indication of a dark secret, to 
 which the published annals of Europe afford no clue. Like one 
 of.those rivers which suddenly lose themselves in the earth, and 
 roll their tide along in subterranean darkness, the fate of Louis 
 XVIL is, for more than half a century, hidden from the eyes of 
 men, and every attempt hitherto made to unriddle the enigma of 
 his destiny, only deepens the mystery, and carries the mind into 
 more inextricable labyrinths, which, like the mazes of some 
 primeval forest, afford no outlet. 
 
 KHD OP THB riKST FABI. 
 
PART II. 
 
 THE WIGWAM, THE CAMP, AED THE CHUKCH. 
 
ADOPTION AND BDDOATION. 1'6 
 
 OHAPTEK X. 
 
 ADOPTION AND E D IT A T I O N . 
 
 SciENOE has remarked mysterious affinities between the Old 
 World and the New, and there are social yearnings, historic ties and 
 sympathies of unearthly brotherhood, which unite hands and 
 hearts across the deep, and make men love each other with an 
 intenser love, because they at once are and are not one. The two 
 continents were made for each other. There is the battle-field — 
 here the asylum from strife — and yet it is from those old ensan- 
 guined soils, that the men, the principles, and the faith have been 
 derived, which make the New World glorious and peaceful. It 
 will add another strange link to the chain of tmion, if it can be 
 shown that, republican America numbers among her citizens, one 
 born to be a monarch, in Europe; and that the Protestant Episco- 
 pal church has, in the same individual, a minister and a 
 missionary, who, but for reverses, unparalleled in history, would 
 have wielded the forces of a rival communion. 
 
 ^n the year 1795, a French family, calling themselves De Jardin 
 or De Jourdan, arrived in Albany, direct from Erance) Refugees 
 were crowding at that time to America, but there were circum- 
 stances connected with these persons which attracted unusual 
 attention. (The family consisted of a lady, a gentleman, and two 
 children. The two former, though they bore the same name, did 
 not seem to be, nor were considered, as husband and wife. While 
 Madame de Jardin dressed with elegance. Monsieur was very 
 plainly attired, and acted in almost a menial capaeit^ Much mys- 
 tery was observed concerning the children under their care, who 
 were never taken out in public. The eldest was a girl, named 
 
l'Z6 THE LOST PEINCE. 
 
 Louise, the youngea/ a boy of nine or ten years of age, who was 
 called, simply, Monsieur Louis. He was scarcely seen, except by a 
 few ladies and children. He did not appear to notice those who 
 saw him^ Madame de Jardin, who had in her possession many' 
 articles which belonged to the deceased king and queen of France 
 and among them some gold plate, on which was engraven the 
 royal arms, stated, in familiar conversation, that she had b^en a 
 maid of honor to Marie Antoinette, aiid was separated from her on 
 the terrace of the palace, prior to her imprisonment in the Temple. 
 She was in a state of high mental excitement, and while speaking 
 of the events of the Eevolution, would wildly play the " Marseil- 
 laise," and then burst into tears. The children were considered by 
 those on terms of familiar intercourse with Madame de Jardin, and 
 who had opportunities of judging which 'others had not, to belong 
 to the royal family of France, ^he little boy, is said, by a highly 
 respectable and intelligent lady, who saw him under peculiar cir- 
 cumstances, calculated to excite her attention, to resemble, in the 
 general contour of his face, the Eev. Eleazar Williamsu The 
 De Jardins, after remaining a short time in Albany,- for what pnr- 
 p'ose was not publicly known, sold most of their effects, some 
 articles of which are still, or recently were, in that city, and then 
 suddenly disappeared, no one knew whither. Conjecture, for a 
 time, aroused and excited, fell at length asleep, for want of mate- 
 rial to work on, but the mystery attending these incidents, has 
 caused them to be vividly remembered to the present time. 
 
 An interesting letter on this subject from Mrs. Dudley, of 
 Albany, a near connexion of Governor Seymour, whose character 
 and social position place her testimony beyond reach of question, 
 will be found in the Appendix, and repay perusal. (Appendix D.) 
 Learning from a friend that she was in possession of information, 
 which might throw some light on the subject, I called on her, in 
 company with the Eev. Dr. Kip, now Missionary Bishop of Cali- 
 fornia, and llr. "Williams, when she famished me with the particn- 
 lars detailed above, and afterwards threw them into a written form. 
 
ADOPTION AND EDUCATION. '■ ' * 
 
 The reader, as he advances, will be able to jndge of the con- 
 nexion of these facta with the thread of our narrative, but before I 
 leave them, I would call his attention to the coincidence, which, 
 however, can scarcely escape him, between these incidents and the 
 -particulars obscurely given by Naundorff* In both statements 
 occur the lady of Marie Antoinette's household, the gentleman in 
 very plain clothes, and the little girl. These things coupled with 
 the intimation given by the pretender that the Prince was sent to 
 America, and the exact correspondence in time are certainly strik- 
 ing. But from Albany let us now travel, by an obvious route, to 
 Ticonderoga, and observe what happened there in the same year. 
 
 frhere is still living, at about a hundred years of age, a respect- 
 able Indian chief, of whose chai-aoter and veracity I have full assu- 
 rance from the Hon. B. Skenondogh Smith, of Philadelphia, who 
 has known him upwards of thirty yearejj^is name is John Sken- 
 ondogh O'Brien, and he is the son of dn Irishman and an Oneida 
 woman. He was sent to France for education, and returned to 
 , this country daring the American Eevolutio^ In the hunting 
 season, he was frequently, with other Indians, in the vicinity of 
 Lake George, and, while at Tioonderaga, in 1795, two Trenchmen, 
 one of them having the appearance of a Eomish priest, came there, 
 bringing a weak sickly boy, in a state of mental imbecility,- whom 
 they left among the Indians. (Being well acquainted with French, 
 O'Brien convei-sed with the men, and learned from them that the 
 boy was born in FranoeP \B.s was adopted by an Iroquois chief, 
 named Thomas Williams, and O'Brien, who has since repeatedly 
 seen him in youth and manhood, testifies, on oath, that he- is the 
 same person with the Rev. Eleazar Williamy (Appendix E.) 
 Now, it is true we have no means of demonstrating that the boy 
 called Monsieur Louis, by Madame de Jardin, at Albany, in 1Y95, is 
 the boy left at Ticonderoga, in 1795, by the two Frenchmen ; but, 
 whoever considers the coincidences of circumstance, time, place, 
 age, mental condition, and bodily resemblance, must admit that 
 
 • vide page U9 
 i* 
 
178 THB LOST PRINCE, 
 
 apart from all other testimony, it is highly probable. But,whoam- 
 JEleazar Williams he, Tie is a native of France. This point is esta- 
 ilished on the threshold." ' 
 
 To exhibit the social influences by which he was now sur- 
 rounded, it will be necessary here to give some account of tlie 
 origin of the family by whom the child, henceforth known as 
 Eleazar Williams, was adopted. 
 
 Among the romantic stories of former days of trial and hardship, 
 which charm the imagination, and, by contrast with present pros- 
 perity, gratify the pride of New England, there are few which 
 appeal more strongly to our sympathies, than the sufferings of the 
 family of the Rev. John Williams, at the inroad of the French and 
 Indians on the town of Deerfield, Massaohnsetts, in 1704. It forms 
 the historic basis of my narrative of events in this country, and is 
 full of the interest which pertains to tales of frontier life in half- 
 rooted colonies. The original settlers of New England looked upon 
 the Indians in much the same light that the children of Israel, 
 Tinder Joshua, viewed the idolatrous Oanaanites. In the pages of 
 the inspired warrior, they found a full vindication alike for cruelty 
 and injustice, and the red man repaid at every fit opportunity the 
 injuries he had already received, and avenged, beforehand, the 
 approaching extermination of his race, by ceaseless inroads on the 
 colonists. Deerfield was first settled in 1671, and the Indians 
 treated in the customary manner. The Eastern, or, as they were 
 afterwards called, the St. Erancois Indians, had owned the land, 
 and entertained a bitter hostility towards those who had gained 
 possession of their territory. Before the close of the century, they 
 made many attacks npon the place, which, being the most remote 
 settlement on the Connecticut river, was peculiarly exposed to their 
 incursions. In 1697, an attack was made on Deerfield, but was 
 repulsed by the inhabitants, headed by their pastor, the Eev. John 
 Williams. But, though baffled, the Indians did not relinquish their 
 design. In the spring of 1703, some of the "praying" or Christian 
 llahawks, brought intelliganoA te Albany, of an intended inoanion 
 
ADOPTION AND EDUCATION. 
 
 179 
 
 on Deerfield, and Lord Combnry, then governor of New York, 
 communicated the tidings to the governor of Maasachnsetts. A 
 guard of twenty soldiers was sent to the village, and every precau- 
 tion taken against surprise. But, there was a presentiment in the 
 mind of Williams that the town would be destroyed, and in his 
 sermons he frequently warned the people of the coming calamity.* 
 
 The governor of Canada, M. de. Vandreuil, sent a body of 
 French and Indians into Hew England, who committed considerable 
 ravages, and slew several hundred men. The Kew Dnglanders, in 
 their turn, in the fall of the year, made an incursion into Canada, 
 ~ and killed a great number of the Indians. This was the immediate 
 cause of the attack on Deerfield. The chiefs applied for assistance 
 to M. de Vaudreuil, who sent them two hundred men under the 
 command of le Sieur Heutel de Eouville, who, accompanied by 
 a large body of Indians, made his way to Deerfield.t John Wil- 
 liams was a man of sincere piety, more than ordinary attainments 
 in literature, a strong mind, and entire devotion to his flock, which, 
 in those days, was like a New England pastor's family. He was in 
 the prime of life, married to an excellent woman, the father of 
 seven or eight children, with a good farm, and every prospect of 
 uninterrupted happiness. 
 
 Such was his condition when he retired to rest, on the 28th 
 Eebruary, 1704. About daybreak the village was attacked— the 
 sleeping sentinels gave no alarm— the sound of axes and hammers 
 at their doors and windows was the first notification of danger, 
 Williams, who combined the valor of the soldier' with the piety of 
 the clergyman, had barely time to seize his pistols from the head 
 of his bed, when the Indians were in his room. He fired, but as 
 he shed no blood, his life was spared. Two of his children were 
 murdered in cold blood, his house set on fire, and himself, his wife, 
 and their remaining children, bound and driven away, in company 
 with about a hundred other captives. 
 The snow was knee deep when they set out on their journey of 
 
 • HuUhln™'. HUt. Mm., vrt. n. f ahtrI«TO(x, vol. M. p. m 
 
180 THE LOST PKINCE. 
 
 three hundred miles, towards a " Popish conntry " — ^the darkest 
 picture which could be presented to a New England mind. It was 
 not long before Mrs. Williams was mm-dered. " I overtook her," 
 says her husband, in his simple and touching narrative, " I walked 
 with her to help her on her journey. On the way we disconrsed 
 of the happiness of those who had .a right to a house not made 
 with hands, and God for a father and friend, as also that it was our 
 reasonable duty, quietly to submit to the will of God, and say, the 
 will of the Lord he done." He was separated from her, and soon 
 heard that, having fallen down in wading through a swift icy 
 stream, her savage captor had buried his hatchet in her head.* 
 
 "Williams lived now only for his children. But a few hours 
 before, in the enjoyment of happiness, he had nothing but the rem- 
 nant of a slaughtered and captive family. His wife and two 
 childi'en lay unburied in the snow, and his surviving children were 
 separated from him. 
 
 After travelling with tremendous speed, he arrived in the neigh- 
 borhood of Montreal, and was courteously treated by the French, 
 who, with the ready hospitality of their nation, did everything to 
 alleviate his sorrows. But, in Canada a new series of afliotionB 
 began, more trying to the spirit of the Puritan, than even his losses 
 and afflictions. He was compelled to attend mass, and wearied with 
 efforts to convert him. These he could resist himself, but not so his 
 children. His youngest daughter, Eunice, a child of seven, who had 
 been tenderly carried by her captor during the whole journey, was 
 now in the hands of the Jesuits, and though the governor of Mon- 
 treal used his influence in his behalf, it was with great difBoulty 
 that he obtained permission to see her. She had not yet forgotten 
 her catechism, and was anxious to return to her father — hut, not 
 long after, he found that, by mixing continually with Indians, she 
 had lost the English language, and had no desire to be redeemed 
 from captivity. 
 He remained in Canada until 1706, when he was ransomed and 
 
 * Aedeemed OaptiTS. 
 
ADOPTION AND EDUCATION. 
 
 carried to Boston, from whence, after an interval, he returned to 
 his old parish of Deerfield, where he spent the rest of his life. 
 
 One of his sons in the interval, had emhraoed the Romish faith, 
 but eventually returned to Protestantism, and all that survived of 
 the family were restored, with the exception of -Eunice, who had 
 entirely adopted Indian life'and hahits, and had no desire to leave 
 her new associations of nation and religion. She married an 
 Indian of the name of Turoges, which is probably a corruption of 
 De Sogers, by whom she had three children, one son and two 
 daughters. 
 
 The loss of Eunice and her adoption of Eomanism, were calami- 
 ties from which the afflicted father never recovered. Day and 
 night, in public and in private, she was the object of his prayers. 
 Her conversion to the simple faith of her ancestors, became the 
 passionate desire of the whole community of Deerfield. Those 
 who are acquainted with New England life, can easily understand 
 how it was fanned into an hereditary flfime by prayer meetinfa'and 
 sermons, and only glowed more intensely as the lapse of time ren- 
 dered its accomplishment more hopeless. There is a tenacity in 
 the New England mind which social h%bits and religious 
 enthusiasm serve alike to encourage, and every effort which per- 
 suasion, affection, prayer, and faith could put in operation, was 
 tried, and tried in vain. The friends of the captive had to contend 
 with purpose as determined, and religious zeal as unbending as 
 their own. .Mr. Williams died in 1729, but, after his death, the 
 desire for the conversion of Eunice continued as unabated as ever. 
 Before his decease, she had once visited Deerfield, and consented 
 to appear at the meeting house in English dress, but, in the after- 
 noon, she resumed the blanket, and ever after continued inflexible 
 in her attachment to the dress, customs, and religion in which she 
 had been educated. Still her relatives and former neighbors did not 
 despair. In IWO, she was induced again te visit Deerfield. She 
 repeated the visit in 1741. Her voluntary coming caused great 
 hope and excitement among her friends, and a final effort was 
 
182 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 made for her recovery. A time was set apart " for prayer and for 
 the revival of religion, and on behalf of Mrs. Ennice, the daughter of 
 Rev. John Williams." " Some of you well know," said the preacher, 
 on the occasion, "how Ipng she has been the subject of prayer. 
 What numberless prayers have been put up to God for her by many 
 holy souls now in Heaven, as well as many who yet remain on 
 earth. How many groans and fervent prayers can these ears wit- 
 ness to have been uttered and breathed forth with a sort of burning 
 and unquenchable ardor, from the pious and holy soul of her dear 
 father, now with God. I know not that I ever heard him pray 
 after his own return from captivity without a remembrance of her, 
 that God would return her to his sanctuary. God did not give 
 him leave to see the performance of his wishes and desires for her 
 — but he now encourages us to hope that by the mighty power of 
 his providence and grace, he will give us an extraordinary convic- 
 tion that he is a God that heareth prayer."* 
 
 It was thus in crowded assemblies, and, with all due collateral 
 associations and influences, that the natural desire for the re-con- 
 version of Eunice, was fanned into a flame of enthusias'm, which, 
 bequeathed by one religious gathering to another, was still felt in 
 its effects, when she, herself, was in the grave. All the zeal of 
 her friends was unavailing, and she died as she had lived. 
 
 John de Bogecs, her son, was killed at Lake George, in 1758, 
 in battle between the English and Indians. Her daughter, Catha- 
 rine, married an Indian, named Rice. Mary was married to an 
 English physician, named Williams. They had one son, Thomas 
 Williams, who married an Indian woman, named Mary Ann 
 Konwatewenteta, on the 7th January, 1779. 
 
 During the Revolutionary War, Thomas Williams fonght on the 
 British side, and commanded an Indian detachment. He was jire- 
 sent at the naval conflict on Lake Ohamplainj near Valoour Island, 
 between General Waterbury and Governor Oarleton, and operated 
 on the shore, with a body of Indians, intending to surprise the 
 
 * Redeemed CsptlTs. 
 
ADOPTION AND EDUCATION. 183 
 
 American forces, should they attempt a landing. He accompanied 
 the army of General Burgoyne to Saratoga, and attended the 
 oonnoil held by him, at Bonqnet river, in August, 1777. After the 
 retreat of the American army, he followed, with his Indians, in 
 pursuit, in company with General Frazer's detachment, and was 
 engaged in the skirmish at Fort Anne, and also in the action at 
 Bennington. The principal service, however, which he rendered 
 to the British, was in the two actions between Burgoyne and Gates, 
 at Saratoga. He escaped from the field, with his detachment, and 
 returned into Canada. In the year 1800, he had eight children, 
 whose names were all registered in the records of the Romish 
 Church at Caughnawaga, and three others were subsequently born, 
 whose names were also found there. The name of Eleazar, the 
 adopted child, is not among them. (Appendix F.) The habits of 
 Thomas Williams were very erratic. Though his usual residence 
 was at Caughnawaga, he paid an annual hunting visit to Lake 
 George, and was often absent from home several years together. 
 Ij^leazar was, for a long time, in delicate health, and large quan,ti- 
 tils tf Indian decoctions were given him, by which means his 
 physical con-dition was much improved, and, though still unsound 
 in mind, he took delight in playing with the other children He 
 accompanied Thomas WiUiams to lake George several years in 
 succession; (The Indian hunting-grounds were oocnpied,-y«ar after 
 year, by nearly the same persons, and O'Brien remembers that- 
 Eleazar, some considerable time after his adoption by the Indians 
 received a severe fall, from a rock, somewhere in the vicinity of' 
 the Old Fort, ,. e., Fort William Henry, at the head of the lake 
 
 by rock eneath the sn^ace. It is from this time that all dis- 
 mct recodecfon begins^Of this fall itself, he has no remem- 
 brance, except as told Mi^ by others. The first waking ima!e L 
 
 reaaer better to understand looalitiea T m„o i 
 
 'ot-anties, i give a rude map of the 
 
184 
 
 THE LOST PKINCE. 
 
 head of the lake, where Thomas Williams -was accustomed to 
 encamp. 
 
 Exquisite, in its own still beauty, is the lake, with its ultra- 
 marine waters, locked in by rolling and serrated hills, dyed, at this 
 season, in green and scarlet, purple and gold, the whole scene pre- 
 senting; under a brilliant sun, that exaggeration of color which, in 
 ' a painting, would be deemed unnatural. There are few spots 
 which awaken so many sad, yet thrilling^ historic recollections. 
 Not far distant, is the rook where the Sachem Hendrick, and Ool. 
 Williams, an honored ancestor of the Williams' family, were slain, 
 by Dieskau, in 1755. Then, there is the Bloody Pond, and Fort 
 Gage, and Fort George, and Fort William Henry, each with tlieir 
 own heroic memories. But, if history shall hear- me out in the 
 conclusion I would draw from the tale I have to teU, there will be 
 added to them all, a story scarce equalled in the legendary past^ 
 and worthy of the scene. 
 
ADOPTION AND EDUCATION. 185 
 
 At the end of the last century, there were at the head of the 
 lake no settled habitations. The beach, which had once been alive 
 with armies, was deserted, and the dismantled fortifloatipns were 
 slowly crumbling. Bnt all along the shore, to the West and South, 
 were choice spots for the rude Indian wigwams, under the shade 
 of lofty trees, and on the smooth sloping greensward, cleared of the 
 tangled underbrush. In the fall of the year, there was quite a bjisy 
 scene where the traders came to barter their goods for furs. The 
 market-ground as we may call it, was on the clearing near the site 
 of Fort "William Henry — and it was in the nighborhood of this that 
 Thomas Williams generally encamped. In rowing round the basin, 
 and comparing the statements of Skenondogh with th^, recollections 
 of Mr. Williams, and the nature of the localities, it seems probable 
 that the spot on which the incident occurred, which led to the res- 
 toration of his mind, was in the vicinity of Teal Island, or between 
 that and the old Tort. The purple Sierra, whose lofty peaks shut 
 in the view to the north east, was the first object of which Mr. Wil- 
 liams has any distinct recollection. The gloom that spreads be- 
 yond,* presents nothing but faint, dreamy, and indistinct remem- 
 brances, except in a single instance, in which there is the vivid por- 
 traiture of a hideous face, but to which he can attach neither name, 
 nor place. He only knows, that it was connected with feelings of 
 misery. All else is chaotic confusion, in which Indians roasting 
 chestnuts around a Are, are mixed up with dream-like and vague- 
 images, which elude the effort to grasp them, as realities, of splen- 
 did architecture, of troops exercising in a garden, of being in a room 
 where there- were persons magnificently dressed, and of lying on 
 the carpet with his head against the sillc dress of a lady, and things 
 of a similar chai'scter, but all is indistinct and unconnected, like a 
 phantom of the night, whereas since he was first roused to an ap- 
 prehension of life, on the shores of Lake George, his mind retains 
 consecutively and with tenacity all that has transpired. 
 
 The wigwam of Thomas Williams was a small log honse, about 
 twenty feet square, perhaps a little larger, roofed with bark, leaving 
 
186 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 an opening in the centre to give egress to the smoke from the fire, 
 ■which blazed beneath it, on the floor, in the middle of the apart^ 
 ment. Around this fire were ranged the beds of the family, com- 
 posed of hemlock bonghs, covered ivith the skins of animals taken 
 in the chase, bears or deer. As the season closed in, Eleazar, with 
 the other boys, nearly naked, except a check shirt and a handker- 
 chief upon his head, occupied himself in filling up the crevices be- 
 tween the logs with moss plucked from the trees, to keep the wig- 
 wam warm ; but, sometimes, when the wind was unfavorable,' the 
 smoke, unable to ascend through the apertufe.in the roof, would iill 
 the apartment, and Mrs. Williams, after bearing the annoyance as 
 long as her Indian stoicism permitted, would rush out in her blan- 
 ket, and destroy the work of the poor boys, by pulling away the 
 moss, to allow passage to the smoke, through the sides of the wig^ 
 wam. The fare of the family was as simple as their dwelling-placej 
 From cross sticks over the fire, hung a huge kettle in which the 
 squaw made soup of pounded corn, flavored with" venison. They 
 purchased their salt and spirits at Fort Edward. The streams; 
 when unfrozen, supplied them with flsh, the woods and the moun- 
 tains with game. 
 
 Wigwams, such as I have described, were, in the hunting season, 
 scattered at intervals, all along the shore of the lake, near its head, 
 and it was the habit, when any family got a fresh supply of spirits 
 from the fort, to send round and invite the neighboring Indians. 
 One of these parties, shortly after the recovery of his reason, is viv- 
 idly remembered by Mr. Williams. The Indians arrived from all 
 directions, bringing in deer and everything necessary for a feast, and 
 waited impatiently fov the young men who had been dispatched tor 
 that which was the soul of the merry-making. At last, about sun- 
 set, the war-whoop was heard over the wooded hills, and responded 
 to and re-responded by the crowd around the wigwam, till the 
 jocund messengers ai-rived, and the night revel around the forest 
 fires grew fast and furious. 
 
 Shortly after this, when Eleazar was one day sporting on the 
 
ADOPTION AND EDUCATION. 
 
 187 
 
 lake near Fort William Henry, in a little wooden oanoe, with seve- 
 ral other boys; two strange gentlemen came up to the encampment 
 of Thomas Williaraa, and took their seats with him upon a log at a 
 little distance from the wigwam. With natural curiosity, at a cir- 
 cumstance which broke in upon the usual monotony of Indian Jife 
 on the hunting grounds, the boys paddled their canoe ashore, and 
 strolled up to the encampment to ascertain who the strangers 
 were, when Thomas Williams called out, " 'Lazau, this friend of 
 yours wishes to speak with you.'' As he approached, one of the 
 gentlemen rose and went off to another Indian encampment. The 
 one who remained with Thomas Williams, had every indication in 
 dress, manners, and language, of being a Frenchman — for Eleazar 
 remembers underiitandingafew words, sufficient to know that -he 
 spoke in French. V^e had dn a ruffled shirt, his hair was powdered, 
 and bore to the child a very splendid appearance. When Eleazar 
 came near, the French gentleman advanced several steps to meet him, 
 embraced him most tenderly, and when he again sat down on the log, 
 made him stand between his legs) In the meantime he shed abun- 
 danoaiof tears, said, " Panvr§ gargon," and continued to embrace him. 
 Thomas Williams was, soon after, called to a neighboring wigwam, 
 and Eleazar and the Frenchman left alone. The latter continued 
 to kiss him and weep, and spoke a good deal, seeming anxious 
 that he should understand him, which he was unable to do. When 
 Thomas Williams returned to them,- he asked Eleazar whether 
 he knew what the gentleman had said to him, and he replied, 
 "No." They both left him, and walked off in the direction in 
 which the other gentleman had gone, frhe two gentlemen came 
 again the next day, and the Frenchman remained several hour^ 
 Thomas WUliams took him out in a canoe on the lake ; and the 
 last which^gleazer remembers was, their all sitting together on a 
 log, when the Frenchman took hold of his bare feet and dusty legs 
 and examined his knees and ankles closel^ Again, the Frenchman 
 shed tears, but young Eleazar was quite indifferent, not knowing 
 
190 TBB tOS* PRINCE. 
 
 mysterious in the difference between them that those who saw tliem 
 have never forgotten it. (Appendix H.) 
 
 Too late to allow of anything more than the insertion of the fact 
 in the text, I have learned that Mr. Ely was, to a great extent, ac- 
 quainted with the secret of Eleazar's birth. He certainly knew that 
 he was of distinguished origin. Next door to Nathaniel Ely, resided 
 his brother, Ethan Ely, who had charge of a niece by name Urania 
 Stebbins, now Mrs. Smith, and who is still living at an advanced 
 age, at Milwaukee, "Wisconsin, with her son, W. E. Smith. She 
 testifies as follows, " Mr. Ely said the names of the boys were Elea- 
 zar and John Williams (i^j English). The Indians, he said, called the 
 former Lazau. ^r. Ely, when remonstrated with concerning the 
 , boys being brothers, as they looked not alike, said there was some- 
 thing about it which he should possibly never reveal, but would 
 say this much, that Eleazar Williams was born for a great man, . 
 and he intended to give him an education to prepare him for the 
 station."^ I have also been informed by Mr. Stanley Snjtfth, M th^ 
 "Albany Express," who gives me permission to use his name, aid 
 has frequently stated the fact in his paper, having learned it from 
 undoubted authority, that money was transmitted from France, to 
 the late John R. Bleeker, and devoted to the support of Eleazar. I 
 have searched the accounts of this gentleman, in a very casual man- 
 lier, however, but could discover no signs of this transaction. 
 Without some clue to the parties from whom the money was re- 
 ceived, it will be next to impossible to trace the affair. Thomas 
 Williams frequently went to Albany, and returned with money in 
 his possession, though withont ostensible means of procuring it. It 
 would seem most natural that the funds should be paid over to hira. 
 Jacob Vanderheyden, with whom Talleyrand was in communication, 
 may, as an Ipdian trader, have been concerned in the transaction. 
 But here we can only conjecture until further developments take 
 place. (Appendix 1.) 
 Arrived at Long Meadow, Eleazar was under an entirely new 
 
 • letter from W. E. Smith, Milwaukee, Sept. 18, 18S8. 
 
ADOPTION AND EDUCATION. 191 
 
 series of influences and associations. I have made such inquiries 
 concerning his condition, appearance, and estimatioh at this period 
 as time permitted. The following extract, from the letter of a lady, 
 now residing in New York, gives so lively a picture of the nature 
 of the interest he excited, that I will let her tell her own story :— 
 
 " In early childhood my deepest sympathies were excited on his behalf, 
 from listening to the rehearsal of anecdotes of him by my beloved mother, 
 who knew him personally. When he, with his reputed brother, John, was 
 placed under the care of Mr. Ely, my mother was spending some time 
 with her brother, a resident of Long Meadows. She soon became inter- 
 ested in the lads, especially Eleazar, or Lazau. She found him posseased ol 
 fine traits of character, amiable, kind, sensitive, frank, generous, and 
 gratefully susceptible to every overture of kindness. She often invited him 
 to her brother's house, and found great pleasure in showing him kind 
 attentions, and supplying many of his little wants. In the garden was a 
 profusion of melons and cucumbers, of which he was very fond, and as his 
 daily route to and from school led him directly by the house, she invited 
 him always to call as he passed, and partake of them freely, and while 
 enjoying the repast he would look, up to her, with gratitude beaming on his 
 countlnance, and say, in broken English, ' Good Missy Gomee (Grosvenor), 
 give poor Lesau cucummer. Missy Gomee very kind poor Lesau.' At one 
 time he came to her, and said, 'Missy Gomee, poor Lesau very sick.' 
 She found him pale and very chilly, although it was in midsunmier. She 
 tried various means to relieve him, and at length, took him into the yard, 
 and with a blanket wrapt around him, seated him by the sunny side of the 
 house, where he would feel the full influence of the sun, and she had soon 
 the happiness of seeing him relieved. But it was the strangeness of his 
 appearance and circumstances, and the deep mystery which hung around 
 him, which excited her deepest pity. His total unlikeness, in his personal 
 appearance, as well as character and habits, to his reputed brother, 
 forbade, at once, the supposition of one and the same origin. (Wiile the 
 latter was truly an Indian, with long black hair, his complexion aSd every 
 feature, corresponding with his race, Eleazar had brown hair, hazle eyes, 
 light complexion, and European features. The strangeness of these facta 
 gave rise to various conjectures and speculations concerning hiirf. 
 
192 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Although he -was naturally cheerful, still, a tinge of thoughtful sadness 
 would steal over him when interrogated with regard to his early history 
 and he would say, lie couldn't remember much about it, and it gave him 
 pain, apparently, that he could not. The prevalent opinion, in that 
 vicinity, seemed to be that, he was a French boy, who was stolen from his 
 family, and brought away at so early an age, as to render his recollections 
 of other than Indian life, vague and unsatisfactory. So great was the 
 interest felt iu his case by my inother, and so great her desire and belief 
 that the mystery which enshrouded him would be cleared away, that dur- 
 ing her life, so long as was in her power, she kept herself advised of his 
 situation and circumstances^ and I well remember with what delight she 
 heard the announcement, that he had been located at Oneida, twelve miles 
 distant &om her residence, and would remain with the Indians'some time. 
 She was then in feeble health, but she remarked, ' as soon as I am able to 
 go so far from home, I must go and see Mr. 'Williaras,' which intention, 
 however, though she constantly cherished the hope of it, she was never 
 
 able toiealize. 
 
 " Very respectfully yours, 
 
 " Julia M. Jenkins. 
 " New York, Pebruai-y ITth, 1858.'' 
 
 There must have been sometMng very remarkable in one who 
 could attract such attention, and awaken so much curiogity. This 
 was not an isolated instance, but the same thing has attended him 
 through life. People have been unable to reconcile his look, bear- 
 ing, and intelligence vrith what they were told about him. He 
 carried a mystery with him. It enshrouded him. It was felt, but 
 could not be explained. In the letter of Mrs. Jenkins, allusion is 
 made to his ignorance conoeruing the events of his childhood, which 
 people, it seems, were, even then, anxious to pry into. I receive the 
 same information, varied in details, from Mrs. Clarissa Dickenson,- 
 of New York, who was a schoolfellow of Mr. "W"illiams,.and who 
 has no acquaintance whatever with Mrs. Jenkins, so that their tes- 
 timony stands entirely separate, and affords the highest confirma- 
 tion to the truth jDf the facts which they assert in common. 
 
 "He was a fine handaome boy," says Mrs. Dickenson, '-'sprightly and 
 
ADOPTION AND EDUCATION. 193 
 
 fair in complexion, and my father frequently told him that, he looked more 
 like a Frenchman than an Indian. The soars were always upon his face, 
 firom the earliest period of my recollection, and one day, he came in heated 
 with exercise, and the perspiration standing on his forehead ; as ha 
 passed the mirror, his eyes fell upon the soars, and he turned quickly 
 round and asked me, if I had ever noticed them, and if I had any idea 
 when he got them ? I replied, ' I suppose in childhood,' upon which he 
 added, there were painful thoughta coimected with them in his mind, 
 which he could not bear to dwell on. At this period of his life, though 
 usually happy, and frank in his disposition, he was, as the whole family 
 remarked, frequently subject to fits of musing and abstraction, as if endea- 
 voring to remember something, and when questioned as to the reason of 
 it, he said that, there were painful images before his mind of things in 
 childhood, which he could not get rid of nor exactly understand. I saw 
 an asserted brother of Mr. Williams, who was sent to Long Meadows for 
 education. He was entirely unlike Mr. Williams in appearance, being 
 quite thin, dark, and like an Indian, whereas Mr. Williams was always 
 full and portly in person. 
 
 "Clakissa W. Diokensok. 
 "February 18th, 1858." 
 
 There is another important letter -wluoh I will here introduce, 
 and which will tell its own tale : — 
 
 " 46, Bank Steeet, New Toek, 
 
 ,,^ „ " September 1, 1853. 
 
 " Deak Sm : 
 
 "In reply to your inquiries respecting my acquaintance with the Eev. 
 Eleazar Williams in early life, I beg to say'that I was a schoohnate of 
 his at Long Meadow. I am a descendant of the redeemed captive, the 
 Eev. John Williams, who was my great-great-grandfather. According to 
 the best of my recollection, Eleazar was about fourteen years of age, when 
 he came t» the care of Mr. Ely. There was no similarity whatever in 
 appeaianoe between him and any of his family, either his brother John, or 
 his reputed father and mother, who I saw on their visit to Long Meadow. 
 Thomas WiUiams I have seen frequently. Eleazar was a very studiou. 
 boy-indeed, he seemed to do little but study ; and I can weU remember 
 
 9 
 
192 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Although he was naturally cheerful, still, a tinge of thoughtful sadness 
 would steal over him when interrogated with regard to his early history ; 
 and he would say, he couldn't remember much about it, and it gave him 
 pain, apparently, that he could not. The prevalent opinion, in that 
 vicinity, seemed to be that, he was a Trench boy, who was stolen ftom his 
 family, and brought away at so early an age, as to render his recollections 
 of other than Indian life, vague and unsatisfactory. So great was the 
 interest felt in his case by my inother, and so great her desire and belief 
 that the mystery which enshrouded him would be cleared away, that dur- 
 ing her life, so long as was in her power, she kept herself advised of his 
 situation and circumstances;, and I well remember with what delight she 
 heard the announcement, that he had been located at Oneida, twelve miles 
 distant from her residence, and would remain with the Indians'some time. 
 She was then in feeble health, but she remarked, ' as soon as I am able to 
 go so far from home, I must go and see Mr. Williams,' which intention, 
 however, though she constantly cherished the hope of it, she was never 
 
 able toiealize. 
 
 " Very respectfully yours, 
 
 " Julia M. Jenkins. 
 " New York, February 17th, 1858." 
 
 There must have been something very remarkable in one who 
 could attract such attention, and awaken so much curiosity. This 
 was not an isolated instance, but the same thing has attended him 
 through life. People have been unable to reconcile his look, bear- 
 ing, and inteUigenoe with what they were told about him. He 
 carried a mystery with him. It enshrouded him. It was felt, but 
 could not be explained. In the letter of Mrs. Jenkins, allusion is 
 made to his ignorance concerning the events of his childhood, which 
 people, it seems, were, even then, anxious to pry into. I receive tie 
 same information, varied in details, from Mrs. Clarissa DiokensODj- 
 of Kew York, who was a schoolfellow of Mr. Williams,.an3 who 
 has no acquaintance whatever with Mrs. Jenkins, so that their tes- 
 timony stands entirely separate, and affords the highest confirma- 
 tion to the truth jaf the facts which they assert in common. 
 
 "He was a fine handsome boy,'' says Mrs. Dickenson, '-'sprightly and 
 
ADOPTION AND EDUCATION. 193 
 
 fair in complexion, and my father frequently told liim that, he looked more 
 like a Frenchman than an Indian. The soars were always upon his face, 
 from the earliest period of my recollection, and one day, he came in heated 
 with exercise, and the perspiration standing on his forehead ; as he 
 passed the mirror, his eyes fell upon the scars, and he turned quicldy 
 roimd and asked me, if I had ever noticed them, and if I had any idea 
 when he got them ? I replied, ' I suppose in childhood,' upon which he 
 added, there were painful thoughts connected with them in his mind, 
 which he could not bear to dwell on. At this period of bis life, though 
 usually happy, and frank in his disposition, he was, as the whole family 
 remarked, frequently subject to fits of musing and abstraction, as if endea- 
 voring to remember something, and when questioned as to the reason of 
 it, he said that, there were painful images before his mind of things in 
 childhood, which he could not get rid of nor exactly understand. I saw 
 an asserted brother of Mr. Williams, who was sent to Long Meadows for 
 education. He was entirely unlike Mr. Williams in appearance, being 
 quite thin, dark, and like an Indian, whereas Mr. Williams was always 
 full and portly in person. 
 
 " Claeissa W. Dickenson. 
 "February 18th, 1858." 
 
 There is another important letter -wMch I will here introduce, 
 and which wiU tell its own tale : — 
 
 " 46, Bank Street, New Tore, 
 
 " Sevtemier 7, 1853. 
 " Dear Sm : 
 
 "In reply to your inquiries respecting my acquaintance with the Rev. 
 
 Eleazar Williams in early life, I beg to say'that I was a schoolmate of 
 
 his at Long Meadow. I am a descendant of the redeemed captive, the 
 
 Rev. John WUUams, who was my great-great-grandfather. According to 
 
 the best of my recollection, Eleazar was about fourteen years of age, when 
 
 he came to the care of Mr. Ely. There was no similarity whatever in 
 
 appearance between him and any of his family, either his brother John, or 
 
 his reputed father and mother, who I saw on their visit to Long Meadow. 
 
 Thomas Williams I have seen frequently. Eleazar was a very studiouB 
 
 boy— indeed, he seemed to do little but study ; and I can wall remember 
 
 9 
 
164 TUB LOST PRINCE. 
 
 his remarkable proficiency in writing, and that the second winter after his 
 coming to Long Meadow, he would say to me, ' Come, Cousin Mary, and 
 hear my sermon,' when he would produce and read some MS. on religious 
 subjects. There was something so remarkable in his character, attain- 
 ments, and amiable and religious disposition, that the highest attention 
 was shown him by the most distinguished persons, as he was not like 
 other children, and was always in the company of gentlemen of literature 
 and sobriety. 
 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 (Appendix J.) " Mabt W. Jewett." 
 
 To these documents I must add another from Mrs. Temple, 
 daughter of Nathaniel Ely :^ 
 
 "Dear Sib 
 
 " The eflForts made by my dear departed father, deacon Nathaniel Ely, 
 ' to educate and q^ualify' you for usefulness among your countrymen, as well 
 as to prepare you for glory, honor, and immortality, have given me so 
 deep an interest in you, that I should feel pleasure in complying with any 
 reasonable request of yours. I, therefore, . state in writing, as you 
 desired, that there was an entire and striking dissimilarity between your- 
 self and your brother John, in the features of your face, your general 
 appearance, and also in your predilections and character. 
 " Tour early and sincere friend, 
 
 " Rev. Eleazar Williams. " Martha E. Tebplb. 
 
 "January 24, 1851." 
 
 I have already alluded to the practice x>f Mr. Ely, of keeping, a 
 regular diurnal record of the principal events of his life ; and as 
 this has esercised a very Important influence on the character and 
 habits of Mr. "Williams, I will, before I proceed further, give the 
 reader a specimen of it, from the page which records the first 
 coming of Eleazar Williams to Long Meadow : — 
 
 "1800. January 21. Monday, Stripping Tobacco, &c. 
 " 28. Tuesday, at do., &o., &c. 
 " 23. Wednesday, at do., &c., &:o., our cousins from 
 
ADOPTION AND EDUCATION. 
 
 195 
 
 Connawaga came, viz. : Thomas Williams and his 
 sons, Lezau and John Sir Wattis WUliams. 
 Thursday, at home, &c. 
 Friday, about home. 
 Saturday, Rode to Springfield, &c. 
 Lord's Day. Attended Divine Service. Mr. Storrs 
 Preached, and Baptized Patty, Daughter to 
 Martha Suh, &c. 
 Monday, Eode to Somers with Cousin Thomas, 
 
 and Bietumed. 
 Tuesday, about home. 
 30. Wednesday, Uode to Wolcott Brussels, &c. 
 " 31. Thursday, attended Samuel Keep's Wedding. 
 February 1. Friday, Cousin Thomas Set of for Albany. 
 " 2. Saturday, about home, it Snowed, &e. 
 " 3. Lord's Day, attended Divine Service, Mr. Storrs 
 Preacht and Baptized Chancey, son to Luther 
 Cotton." 
 
 1800. January 24. 
 
 25. 
 
 " 26. 
 
 " 27. 
 
 28. 
 
 29. 
 
 And' so the good old conscientious man went on, to the day of 
 his death ; recording every ride, every storm, telling how at such a 
 time he " did chores," and got his " slay shod," and how " the 
 Bcholls in the streeat met," and how he " visited the schoUs in the 
 middle deastrict," and how Lord's Day, after Lord's Day " Mr. 
 Storrs Preacht." On May 1, 1808, he wrote, " Sacrament day — 
 my mind is very tender with the thought that this is the last time 
 r shall ever commune with the Chnrch Militant! ! !" Had it heen 
 possible, he would, doubtless, have recorded how he died, June 13, 
 1808, aged fifty-seven years, and that Mr. StWTS preacht the 
 funeral sermon, and said that " both in the male and female line 
 his ancestors were distinguished for piety and good sense, for use- 
 fulness and respectability;" and that "for more than twenty years 
 he had sustained the office of a deacon in the church, and so dis- 
 charged the appropriate functions of that office, as to purchase to 
 himself a good report, and promote the spiritual welfare of hia 
 
196 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Christian brethren." By the convictions of my mind, and the feel- 
 ings of my heart, I am a chnrcliman ; but there is something in the 
 character of the old-fasiiioned Congregationalist of New England, 
 of which Deacon Ely seems to have been so good a sample, that 
 makes Ine bow my head in reverence and love; and, though we 
 worship in difiEerent sanctuai'ies below, may we meet in the temple 
 that is above. Under this good man it was that young Williams 
 acquired the habit of journalizing which has been continued, with > 
 occasional breaks, throughout life. But, with the intuitive good 
 sense of a highly superior mind, he improved upon his model. The 
 earliest journal of Mr. Williams in my possession was written, as 
 handwriting and internal evidence show, as early as the year 1803, 
 but It dates back to January, 1800 ; and the portion which relates 
 to that and the following year were then composed from recollec- 
 tion and previous memoranda. Like Mr. Ely's, it is written on 
 sheets of paper sewn together, but instead of giving the events of 
 every day it only records the most important circumstances, such 
 as visits from his supposed father, journeys, chaoges of residence, 
 &o. It begins thus : — 
 
 " MEMORANDUM FOE THE YEAR 1800. 
 
 " On Jmimey of XAfe^ 1800. 
 
 " I have written £:oin time to time, and now collected in part by recol- 
 lection : First, my*coming to England in the year 1800. I, Eleazer Wil- 
 liams, aged 13 years, and John Williams, my brother, both of us came to 
 Long Meadow, it being Wednesday, 23d of January, 1800, this being the 
 day we began with Nathaniel Ely. After a long tedious journey we 
 arrived at this place safely, through the kindness of Providence — praised 
 be God for our preservation. We was receive wilcome to our friends here 
 and treated kindly by them. My brother and I was not able to converse 
 with them, and went to school next day after our arrival. Mr. Ely, Mr. 
 Cotton, and my father went with us to school house. Mrs. Hale kept the 
 school, and we was treated kindly by her. I hope I shall remember her 
 amiable disposition. Mr. Ely and uiy father went to [illegible] and irorar 
 thence, Mr. E. and my father went to Hartford, and returned with Min to 
 
ADOPTION AND EDUCATION. 
 
 19'? 
 
 Long Meadow, and brought us little books, a present ftomEev. Dr. Strong, 
 of Hartford. "We receive tbem very thankfuU/. 
 
 » Long Meadow, Feb. 11, 1800.— Friday.— My father set out for home 
 with Mr. Fitch and his wife, by way of Albany. The occasion, his going 
 ' that way that the counsel [i. e. Indian Council] was then sitting in that 
 city, and he was the member. Mrs. Fitch is cousin to ray father, Mr. 
 ■Williams' daughter, of this town. We heard ii-om them in course few 
 days. The iirst da they went from here, they went as far as Chester, to 
 Rev. Mr. Bascom, and kept Sabbath with him, 30 miles from here, and 
 Mrs. Bascom is cousin to my father. 
 
 " We heard no more irom out father until he came down again to see us 
 next October. It was great trial to me when he left us, more so on 
 account that we could not speak the language. However, we soon learn 
 the languag — so as to be able to converse, and the family were very 
 agreeable and kind to us. The blessing of the Lord rest upon them. 
 '• October 3, 1800. Thanks be to God for his loving kindness towards us. 
 We have been very well since our father left us, and came to see us this 
 month, and we have reason to bless God that all our friends at north, were 
 well.^ Went down to Hartford with him, and Mr. Ely went with us. 
 We went to Mr. Pitkin, and dined there, from thence went over the river 
 to E/ev. Dr. Strong, and lodge there one night. And give us many little 
 books, story books. Friday, my father and I set out for Tolland. Mr. 
 Ely and John return to Long Meadow. We arrived, toward night, at Rev. 
 Dr. Williams, we was received kindly by the Gov. and the family, and 
 this being the first time I am in this place, we set out next raoniing and 
 dine at Rev. Dr. Backer's — Sommers — from thence we start for Long Mea- 
 dow, "and arrived about sundown, this being Saturday, and my father set 
 out for home this week, and my brother was veiy anxious to go home with 
 him — ^but it was soon over — his home sickness^ — hoping the Lord will be 
 with my father on his journey, and return him safely to his friends. If I 
 only consider the blessings I have received from my common father which 
 is in Heaven, oh, how ought I to give him praise which is due to him. I 
 could exclaim in the language of the good Jacob, " I am not worthy the 
 least of all thy mercies." Oh, my soul, forget not all the benefits which 
 thou hsist received from thy father of all mercies. Praise him. Praise 
 him, oh my soul. This being written by the reooUeetion. The end 1800. 
 
198 THE LOST PRINOK. 
 
 The only entry which is made for the year 1801, is the fol- 
 lowing : — 
 
 " Memorandttm, year 1801. 
 
 " Jany. 1, 1801. — ^The God of all mercies preserved us and brought ua 
 to see another of New Year's day. Let every created being give him 
 thanks and praise. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness 
 and his wonderful worlcs towards the children of men ! 
 
 " Meditation on the Anniversary of the New Year's Bay. 
 "0 Lord, thou art the great preserver of men. I give my humble 
 hearty thanks for my preservation and protection the year past. Thou 
 hast been so kind and merciful as to bring me to see another New Year's 
 Say. Oh, may t serve thee this year more faithful than I have done 
 hitherto. Assist me, most gracious God, to devote myself wholly to thy 
 service and glory — ^presetve me firom sinning against thee, and I pray thee 
 forgive me all the sins which I am guilt of, and prepare me for thy whole 
 providential dealings with me, whether life or death — and I beseech thee to 
 bless my fiiends wherever they may be ; may thy name be known on earth 
 — may all flesh see thy salvation. I ask thee in the name of Jesus Christ, 
 thy beloved Son. Be all honor and praise be given to the Father, the Son, 
 and the Holy Spirit, now and ever more. Amen." 
 
 Now, these entries in his journal seem to have been written • 
 somewhere about 1802 or '3, but they are copies in part of previous 
 MSS., and partly composed from recollection. At first, he scrib- 
 bled his thoughts on little scraps of paper, some specimens of 
 which, in the year 1805, remain; and then, afterwards transferred 
 them to larger sheets, and wrote with greater care. The journal 
 itself bears every mark of great age, and there is k providential 
 test of its accuracy and authenticity in the journal of Mr. Ely. 
 There is an invariable correspondence in the entries in the two doc- 
 uments, a specimen of which it may be well in this place to 
 exhibit. Whenever young Eleazer writes down, in full, with all 
 attendant circumstances, any event, to him remarkable, snch as the 
 arrival or departure of his father, you find it briefly noted, in a 
 line, in the diary of the deacon. 
 
ADOPTION AND BDUOATION. 
 
 19» 
 
 This agreement is best shown in parallel columns. 
 
 N. Ely. 
 " 1802. 
 
 " Dec. 9, Thiiraday at home, <}•«., 
 Ifc. — Thomas Williams, of Con- 
 
 E. Williams. 
 " Long Meadow, Dec. 9, 1802.— 
 God is once more pleased to send 
 our father. He came to-day about 
 sun down, and brought us news 
 that my sister is sick. God be 
 praised. 
 
 "Long Meadow, April 2, 1803. 
 — God is merciful towards his chil- 
 dren — he does everything that is 
 right and for their good. Let the 
 whole earth give him.^praise for his 
 loving-kindness towards them. 
 This day I receive a letter from my 
 father, as follows : — 
 
 " ' Dear son, I take this oppor- 
 tunity to let you know of our wel- 
 fare. I arrived here in ten days 
 after I left you, and found two of 
 my children very sick, and now I 
 am to inform you that they are 
 taken fi-om me by immortality, &o. 
 
 " ' Since that time we have lost 
 one of your brothers, six years - 
 old,' &c. 
 
 "Long Meadow, April, 1803.— "April 30, Satmrdm/.—'RoAe in 
 
 I am going to live with Mr. Brook- chaise with laaau to Elington, left 
 way, ElUngton." him with Mr. Brockway, &o., &c., 
 
 &c., and returned." 
 
 There can thus be no doubt, and if there were, personal inspection 
 of the documents would at once remove it, of the entire authenticity 
 of the remarkable and most interesting record of Mr. Wiliams's early 
 life contained in his journal. But what a strange problem it pre- 
 
 nawaga, came to our house. 
 
 " 1803, 
 
 "April 2, Satmday. — ^Met at 
 Lieut. 'Hezekiah Hale's on select 
 mens business, heard of the death 
 of three of Thomaa Williams's 
 children,- of Connawaga, viz. 2 
 daughters and one son. 
 
 N.B. Tkia was written by an in- 
 terpreter, Thos. Williams being un- 
 acqzcainted with, English 
 
200 THE LOST PHINCE. 
 
 Bent3 by itself. A child, talsen from the midst of savage life, is with- 
 in a year or two master of the English language so as to write it 
 with a fluency, ease, and precision of expression — ^notwithstanding 
 marks of simplicity which create a smile — usually attained only 
 after long and painful study, by those born to the use of it. His ob- 
 servations and reflections are all just, he exhibits a mind previously 
 disciplined in the ways and feelings of civilization, his conscience is 
 cultivated, his religious sentiments are those of a mature intellect, 
 and, in a word, in a very short space he has made a progress in learn- 
 ing and morals almost miraculous. If I had stated all this without 
 having the documentary evidence to produce to the world, and the 
 ability to annihilate scepticism by fact, with what incredulity 
 should i have been met. A distinguished gentleman has expressed 
 doubts as to Mr. WUliams having ever kept a journal — because he 
 could see no use for it. .Why, the school-boy, fresh from the wilder- 
 ness, found the utility of preserving a record of his thoughts, feel- 
 ings, religious convictions, domestic sorrows and joys ; and, as if with 
 an instinct, unaccountable except as the inspiration of Providence, 
 that all these random effusions might some day be of interest, has 
 treasured them, amid all the vicissitudes of an adventurous and 
 checquered life, and now produces, when forced by oiroumstanoes 
 and in self-defence to do so, to the gaze of the world, the words 
 penned with no idea that any eye but his own and God's woujd 
 read them. 
 
 Now these papers show that from the very outset, civilized life 
 was natural to him. There is every token that education came to 
 him as a recovery. There is none of the impatience of the Iialf- 
 savage Indian accustomed only to the wigwam and the hunting 
 ground, and unable to endure the thraldom of civilization, but every 
 token that he felt himself at home among books, and in the use of 
 the pen, and in religious meditation, so as actually to outstrip, within 
 a short period of his residence in New England, the good Deacon- 
 who had been the Providential instrument of withdrawing him 
 from the barbarism in which he had been engiilfed, and would 
 
ADOPTION AKD EDOOATION. 
 
 COl 
 
 soon have been everlastingly and indistinguisliably bnried. The 
 moment that he is placed in civilized aooiery, his mind expands 
 upon it, and grasps the whole. Though mnrljy clouds of oblivion 
 roll between him and a past life, emitting, through their gloom, but 
 faint, intangible, and mystic rays, which only bewilder and perplex 
 him, the discipline of that life, both to the mind and conscience, 
 remains in its effects. It is in its psychological aspect that Mr. 
 Williams's case has, from the first, next to sympathy with his mis- 
 fortunes, interested me, and the perusal of his early journals deep- 
 ens the interest excited by his most singular mental condition. I 
 feel certain that the best intellects will have their attention riveted 
 to this point, as to a problem worthy of profound study, and exhi- 
 biting a new phase In the laws of mental action, only capable of 
 development under circumstances the most exceptional and extra- 
 ordinary. 
 
 In the- beginning of the year 1802, there was a great revival, 
 as it is called, among Oongregationaljsts and others, of religion, 
 in Long Meadow. The principal trace of it in Mr. Ely's diary 
 is the record that other ministers were then preaching in Mr. 
 Storr's faithfully occupied pulpit, and the texts, " Sirs, what must 
 we do to be saved ?" and " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ 
 he is none of his," show the nature of the exhortations then em- 
 ployed. In addition to which, under date of 5th and 6th March, 
 the following entries occur : — 
 
 " 1S02. 5th March, Friday. — ^At home. Conference Preparations at our 
 house J Mr. Harris present, Lazeau Williams much alfeoted, &c., &o. 
 
 " 6th March, Saturday.— Xboat home. The minds of the children 
 affected, &o., &o., the Spirit of the Lord is at worlt," &o. 
 
 But, all which the good deacon, who was the very soul of 
 brevity, indicated by &o., may be found at large in Eleazar Williams's 
 journal. " Wonderful works in the month of February. God was 
 pleased to pour out his Holy Spirit in the hearts of the people in this 
 
 9* 
 
202 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 place, many are inquiring the way that leads to eternal life or 
 the holy city of God. It is wonderful the great revival of religion 
 in this place ; O Lord, be pleased to show us our nnhappy state, 
 and make us inquire wliat we should do to he la/oed from thy 
 wrath." It was, according to Mr. Ely's journal, on the 21st of this 
 month, that Mr. Enos Bliss preached from this text, and the inci- 
 dental coincidence is cnrious and important. " Say to our heart," 
 continues the journal, " tremble ye not — ^believe in and look to tby 
 Creator, and Jesus Christ thy Saviour, and the Holy Spirit thy 
 Sanctifler, and keep my commandments, and thou shalt be saved. 
 
 "Zonff Meadow, Feb. 28, 1802. — Many of the young people now 
 begin to speak with freedom to one anothfer, concerning the inte- 
 rest of Christ's kingdom. In the evening conference, meeting was 
 attended by a large number of people, both old and young." la 
 Beacon Ely's journal this conference meeting is~ also spoken of. 
 
 But, I may here avail myself of his convenient, &c., and spare 
 my eyes the pain of deciphering from the faded MS. whole pages, 
 which follow, of Eleazar's revival enthusiasm. I do not believe it 
 was in this school he first acquired his religious feelings ; but that 
 the devotional tendency of his mind was from a pre-existent life. 
 His piety, however, was here fanned into a flame, and has, throngh 
 all vicissitudes, burned steadily and uniformly. The death of his 
 reputed relatives, in 1803, seems strongly to have affected his mind, 
 and gave rise, in his journals, to long reflections on the uncertainty 
 of life, and prayers to God that he might be prepared for his own 
 departure. He went in April, 1803, to reside at Ellington, and 
 remained there until July 20, when Mr. Ely brought him back to 
 Long Meadow. 
 
 This gentleman, as was generally understood, had undertaken the 
 education of the two boys at his own expense ; but his means being 
 very moderate, he soon found the necessity of applying to others 
 for assistance. 'His first application was made to the Massachu- 
 setts Missionary Society, who granted him fifty dollars ; and in 
 
ADOPTION AND EDnOATION. 203 
 
 Kovember, 1802, he applied also to the Hampshire Missionary 
 Society, who made him a similar donation, upon a report from a 
 committee consisting of Joseph Lathrop, D.D., Rev. Richard Storrs, 
 and Justin Ely, Esq. In their report, these gentlemen state the 
 ages of- the children to be, at that time, fifteen and ten years of 
 age; although in an account of expenditures by Mr. Ely, to which 
 their signatures are attached, it is said that Eleazar was nineteen, 
 and John twelve years of age in January, 1800. They are repre- 
 sented as having made "remarkably good proficiency in school 
 learning, to exhibit strong proofs of virtuous and pious dispositions, 
 and seem likely to make useful missionaries among the heathen." 
 This praise, though thus bestowed intocriminately on the two 
 lads, was only, in its full extent, deserved by the eldest ; for, in the 
 course of a few years, it was found impossible to cultivate the mind 
 of John, whose passion for savage life was irrepressible, though in 
 many respects a fine young man. He could not be broken into the 
 trammels of civilization, and returned home to live and die a mere 
 Indian. Dr. Jenkins, of New York, informs me that years ago, ha 
 heard an aged gentleman, now dead, speak of the singular impres- 
 sion made on his mind by the contrast in the conduct of the boys, 
 as well as their appearance, when he took them out one day for a 
 walk in the fields. John would not come near him, but played 
 about in a shy, wild, manner; while Eleazar kept close by his 
 side, and asked him questions on all subjects, politics, reli^on, his- 
 tory, and geography. 
 
 Whatever solitary distress the school-boy experienced, in the dim 
 and shadowy reminiscences of horrors whose intan^ble featorea 
 escaped him whenever he attempted to grasp them and give them 
 form, time, name and locality, he was now in the midst of scenes 
 and influences which left their own impress on his character and 
 mind, and claimed the prominent share of his attention. He was 
 in Massachusetts, among enthusiastic religionists, as the embodiment 
 of theDeerfield tragedy, and all the treasured traditions of a century 
 of prayer meetings, mournful and stern recollections of invarion. 
 
204 THE -LOST PRINCE. 
 
 fire, and blood, hostility to Komanism, veneration for the memory 
 of John Williams, and piqued affection for the poor Euniee, whose 
 perversion was looked upon rather as a misfortune than a crime, all 
 centred in him, so that he found himself a hero from the alphabet, 
 a predestined crusader and missionary of Protestantism, and became 
 tinctured with all the feelings in the social atmosphere around him. 
 Naturally of an ambitious turn of mind, he had an idea, as I am in- 
 formed by a schoolmate, that he was superior to every one, and 
 when questioned as to the reason for this feeling, which he took bo 
 care to conceal, would impute it to his Indiap blood. His friends, 
 on the other hand, were captivated by his frankness, grace, and in- 
 telligence, and felt proud of a kinsman, who issued fi'om the bosom 
 of barbarism, with such susceptibilities for refinement and culture.' 
 All this has been remembered and treasured up, apart from the inte- 
 rest recently excited, as something most remarkable. He exhibited 
 a grace and polish of manner, unusual in a New England village, at 
 that period, and seemed rather to give than to receive the polished 
 manners of social life. He was called familiarly "the plausible 
 boy." 
 
 The Williams family felt justly proud of him, and clung pertina- 
 ciously then, as some of them do now, against all external evidence, 
 to the idea that he was a descendant of Eunice, and were in the 
 habit of carrying him round the country to exhibit to different 
 branches of the wide extended stock, as one by whom an honor was 
 conferred upon them. 
 
 The strength of this feeling is shown, in a somewhat eccentric 
 and ludicrous manner, in the following extract from a letter written 
 by the Eev. Thomas Williams, of Providence, E. I. and published 
 in the papers at the beginning of the year : — 
 
 "We thought ourselves to be highly honored by such a kinsman as Ele- 
 azar Williams, on account of his conversion from Popery, his native genins, 
 his firm health, his manly form, his pleasant countenance, his cheerful and 
 peculiar conversation, and the happy union of Indian shrewdness with 
 our Waleh ardor. I took him with rat &em Hartford to mj father') 
 
ADOPTION AND EDUCATION. 
 
 205 
 
 in Pomfret; from Pomfret to Dr. Emmons in Frantlin, whose wife 
 was Martha Williams, whose father and mj father were first ooasins. 
 rrom Franklin I went with cousin Eleazar to Boston. Since those days I 
 have irequenlly had mformation respecting the Eev. Mr. Williams. But 
 if I had ever had the least reason to believe that he was not our beloved 
 and honored cousin, as descended legitimately iirom Eunice Williams, 
 and only a son of Louis XVI. of France, I never should have rejoiced and 
 gloried in him as one of our family." 
 
 Eleazar, on his part, repayed the affection of the Williams 
 family with gi'atitude and love ; and although there was ever an 
 obscurity in his mind, concerning his ori^n, yet being unable to 
 lift the veil of mystery from the past, he fell passively into the 
 state of things in which he found himself, and took as much pride 
 and pleasure in considering himself the descendant of Eunice, as 
 her relatives took in calling him so. Adopted, to apparent identi- 
 fication, by the family, he identified his feelings and interests with 
 theirs, adopted their traditions, their sentiments, their principles, 
 and has continued, up to the present time, to entertaiji for them 
 all ftie love which springs from the most cherished and honored 
 ties of relationship. His situation was most peculiar. Against tho 
 tangible and evident claims made on him by his reputed kinsmen, 
 the every day realities of life, and all the endearing associations 
 which spring from the reception of a thousand marks of kindness, 
 social and pecuniary, he had nothing to oppose but thick clouds 
 and darkness brooding over his early childhood, feihtly lighted up 
 by mysterious dreams of unknown things, to which he could 
 assign neither date nor place. 
 
 If, in long after yeai-s, when the events of his Ufe had become 
 inextricably confused and complicated, we find him the sport of 
 contending feelings, and the prey of a corroding anxiety which did 
 not permit him to rest, and showed no avenue of escape, leading tr 
 apparent inconsistencies of conduct in perfect haj-mony with the 
 incongruities and anomalies of his lot, we should rather pity him 
 ■ fer the soul ori;eifision, entailed by his position, than harshly and 
 
206 
 
 THE LOST PTilTUCK. 
 
 superficially jndge him to be a deceiver, beoanse he still continued, 
 nominally, to identify himself with his adopted kinsmen, at a time 
 when grave and well-founded doubts as to the truth of his 
 personality were torturing his spirit. An unjust and unjustifiable 
 attempt has recently been made to injure him in public estimation 
 simply because, within a few years, he has, within the circle of his 
 nominal kindred, spoken of himself as a member of the Williams 
 family. This is not the place to enter into the question, which 
 belongs historically to a later period, and I only allude to it, in 
 passing, because suggested by the circumstances of his boyish days, 
 and the associations in the midst of which he was reared. 
 
 On the 15th January, 1804, Thomas and Mary Ann Williams 
 visited Long Meadow. Their coming, at that time, recorded in the 
 journals, is well remembered by Mrs. Jewet, a descendant of the 
 Redeemed Captive, who was at school with Eleazar, and who, 
 though a child, was struck with the incongruity in appearance 
 between him and all his reputed relations. After staying a few 
 days, and visiting with the boys in various places, all of which is 
 duly recorded, Mr. and Mrs. Williams returned. "Oh, it was 
 grevious to my heart," says Eleazar, "I hope God will be with 
 them." 
 
 In May, being quite unwell, and suffering from pain in the head, 
 he was taken to Boston for change of scene and recreation.. He 
 now attended various missionary meetings, and says, concerning one, 
 " Here I saw the largest assembly that ever I have seen before." 
 Alas, poor boy, thou hadst probably witnessed vaster and wilder 
 gatherings. Previous to their return home, Mr. Ely made applica- 
 tion to the House of Bepresentatives of Massachusetts, for tud in 
 supporting and educating the lads, acknowledging the assistance he 
 had received from the missionary societies, and saying that a 
 reverse in his circumstances had put it out of his power to fnlfil 
 his original design of educating them at his own charge. Together 
 with his petition he presented a specimen of Eleazar's writing, in 
 large and small hand, which Mr. Williams has preserved among hi) 
 
ADOPTION AND BDUCATION. 207 
 
 papers, and which is now before me. A resolution passed by the 
 Senate, 13th June, 1804, that three hundred and fifty dollars should 
 be paid for this purpose, was concurred in by the House of Eepre- 
 ' sentatives, June 15th. Shortly after, Mr. Ely set forth an account 
 of his expenditures with the quaint heading " The Humane, the 
 Noble, and the Charitable of every name to Nathaniel Ely, of Long 
 Meadow, Massachusetts, Dr. To expenditures for the education of 
 Laziu Williams and John Surwattes Williams,'" but with vfhstt suc- 
 cess this appeal was attended there is no means of ascertaining. 
 From a letter written by a Mr. David Avery, it appears that in 
 some minds there was a violent prejudice against them, because 
 they had been " soaked with the blood of their relatives slain by the 
 Indians from Canada." But this feeling must have been quite 
 exceptional. 
 
 From October, 1804, to May, 1805, the journals are missing. 'By 
 the latter date, he had obtained great precision and considerable 
 elegance of style : — 
 
 " 1805. 15th May. — To-day I am to set out with Mr. nAy on a journey 
 for my health. 
 
 "15th, Coventry. — Came team Long Meadow this mdming; I am much 
 better. 
 
 " 26th, Coventry. — Lord's Day, evening. I am more unwell to-day. 
 Dr. Hunt ia very kind to me. I went to meeting part of the day ; Mr. 
 Brookway preached from Genesis iv, 16, and Proverbs iii, 20. 
 
 "21th, TAompsoB.— Monday, from Coventry to-day. We called upon Mr. 
 Welch, of Mansfield, and found him not at home ; and fiom thence went 
 to Ashford, and dined there. 
 
 " 28th, Roxiury, Evening.— Ftom Thompson to-day ; I am more unwell. 
 Exceeding pain in my breast. Mr. Ely is very attentive and kind to me. 
 
 " 29th, Boston.— We rode six miles this morning, and took breakfast 
 here. After breakfast, rode out in a coach with several gentlemen— went 
 to the court-house, and from thence to the meeting-house. I was intro- 
 duced to several clergymen, and also to young gentlemen. I -was invited 
 to dine at Mr. T's., Boston. I went out to Eoxbury last evening, and 
 returned this morning. I din»d at Mr. D'g. •, and this aftarnoon I Went 
 
208 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Dver to Chai-lestown, agreeably to the request of the Rev. Dr. Morse, 
 and took tea with him. I was agreeably entertained while I stayed, 
 looking over his books. I am soniewhat better to-day. How thankful- 1 
 ought to feel to the Divine Providence that I am no worse than 1 am. 
 Praise ye the Lord, 0, ray soul. Since I have been in town, I have 
 been invited into company of some of the most respectable families. I 
 ought to be very humble, that so much notice is taken of me. I have 
 visited all the ministers as I was invited, and they treated me with utmost 
 respect, and gave me good advice. 
 
 " 3Ut, Boston. — Hode out to-day to Cambridge to see the college, and 
 took tea at Mr. Ps'. I am better, I trust the journey will do me good. 
 Let me always remember that I am in the hands of God, and trust him 
 at all times.'' 
 
 After visiting Roxbury and Providence tliey went to Newport, 
 and here attended the Protestant Episcopal Church, and the Bap- 
 tist meeting. The sermon preached at the latter is thus recorded : 
 
 " Mr. Emerson preached from Ecole. si. 9. The preacher pointed out 
 in the latter part of his discourse, that the thoughts of men, their actions 
 and conduct, God will bring to light in the day of judgment. He admo- 
 nished all to live in such a manner as that they may give a good account 
 of their conduct in that day, when God shall bring every secret thing to 
 light." 
 
 A few days after, occurs the following entry : — 
 
 " I had a bad turn to-day, bleeding at my breast, which I feel at this 
 very moment. I am in the hands of a wise and holy God. Oh, must I 
 die in ray younger days ? 0, ray God, out me not off in the days of my 
 youth, but spare me a little longer that I may do a little to thy honor and 
 glory. It is a solemn thing to die." 
 
 But, travelling about in various places, his spirits soon revived; 
 and in a day or two he writes : — 
 
 "I am much pleased with Mr. Smith; and my friend Storrs is very 
 attentive to his lovely daughter. This place (Montauk) is most delightful, 
 uid I »in entertained vary aEreaably, indeed." 
 
ADOPTION AND EDUCATION, 209 
 
 Again : — 
 
 " There are several ladies going with us to-morrow to New London. 
 The ladies requested me to sing French tunes." 
 
 The italics are my own. They went out on a sailing excursion, 
 and had a pleasant time; but the ladies were sea-sick, and called 
 on him for help though he was very feeble. " The ladies were 
 very thankful for my attention to them." 
 
 The journey was concluded on the 22d June, -when he writes : — 
 
 " I have seen a great many things since we have been gone. How 
 thankful I ought to be to Mr. Ely for bis Mnd attention to me. Surely 
 this is a very substantial evidence of his fi-iendship." 
 
 But although he had derived much pleasure and temporary 
 benefit fro'ii this ramble, his health still continued in a very feeble 
 state, and the light of life seemed flickering in its socket. The phy- 
 sician advised him to try a journey to the bracing air of the north, 
 and though this was much opposed by his friends, it was finally 
 determined he should go. Before setting out, he " thought much 
 about his eternal state," and prayed that God would make him 
 wise in the things which belonged to his everlasting peace." 
 Passing through Cambridge, Greenwich, Salem, and Albany, he 
 came to Lake Champlain, with the scenery of which he expresses 
 great delight: — " Lake Champlain is rolling under me. Here it is 
 fifteen or twenty miles wide, lined with mountains on both sides 
 of tlie shores, whose summits seem to touch the clouds. I thought 
 much upon the works of creation. I said to myself. Great and 
 marvellous are thy works. Lord God Almighty." Arriving at , 
 Montreal, he thus describes that city. "Montreal is pleasantly 
 situated on the north side of the river St. Lawrence, the streets are 
 Yi'ide and well paved, the houses generally built of stone, from two 
 to three stories high. I went to the market this morning about 
 fiuurise. I found it quite full. The market itself is a curiosity." 
 
 There must have been something about him at this period of life 
 remarkably attractive and captivating, for, it is easy to perceive, 
 
210 THE LOST PRINCB. 
 
 from the following brief and modest entries in Ha journal, that hi» 
 presence in Montreal occasioned a general sensation In the highest 
 circles, and called forth attentions not usually paid except to the 
 most distinguished persons, and which in the case of one by reputa- 
 tion an Indian youth, could not possibly have been drawn out had 
 there not been a personal fascination and superiority which cast in 
 the shade all other considerations. 
 
 Thomas 'Williams, alias Tehoraltwaneken, his reputed father, was 
 a wandering Indian hunter, and Mary Ann Konwatewenteta, his 
 reputed mother, a squaw in a blanket, not very distinguished per- 
 sonages in the eyes of the dignitaries and literati of Canada — but 
 all this in his presence was forgotten as absolutely inexistant. 
 
 " 1st October, St. Limis. — The Hon. Sir. J. Jarvis, .secretary of state, oame 
 to see me this afternoon, and I had a very agreeable interview with hjm. 
 
 " Zd October. — I rode out to-day to Chautagay, I spent my time very agree- 
 ably with several young French gentlemen and ladies — they were very 
 polite indeed. 
 
 " ith, October. — To-day, I visited Mr. Lorimier, the British agent of the 
 Indian department. 
 
 ''■5th October. — To-day, I visited and dined with the Rev. Mr. Van 
 Telson, Roman Catholic clergyman in this town. He treated me politely. 
 " \.2th October. — To-day, I had the honor to be admitted as a Titeubberof 
 the Historical Society . 
 
 " 1st Nov. — I have been to the Roman Catholic church to-day, the 
 annual festival of the dead. 
 
 " 2d November. — I have been to La Prairie to-day, and I attended the 
 Mass. Rev. Mr. Boucher preached, a Roman Catholic clergyman. 1 
 think he is the most eloquent orator I ever heard in my life, and has the 
 most graceful gestures. After meeting I went to Mr. Perault's, and 
 duied there— and there I saw Mr. Thomas — to be remembered, &c., &o., 
 &o. Yesterday several men came to see me, &o., &o. 
 " If I am honest I will speak the truth. 
 
 " 25«A December, St. Louis. — The commemoration of the bii-th of our 
 blessed Lord.— I have just returned from church. The altar was dressed 
 very fine. There were about 30 levites attended upon the High Priest." 
 
ELEAZ AP» WILLIAMS . 
 a n PUTNAM 8e ^% N ■-- 
 
 ■ ^1^ t.-c., uillOS. 
 
ADOPTION AND EDUCATION, 211 
 
 M"o evidence, -which it is possible to collect, at this distance of 
 time, from others, can equal in life-like and vi?id portraiture, the art- 
 less representation of himself which the poor youth here gives. I do 
 not wish to anticipate, but in the strange commixture of argament 
 and history I am writing, I wish to remind the reader that he has 
 before him the Indian boy, who, according to a certain forged 
 affidavit, was nine years of age in 1800, and who, on his return to 
 Oanada, was laid up at Caughnawaga with ulcers on his knees. 
 Notwithstanding all this, he was certainly sufBoiently active, had 
 attained a surprising maturity of mind, and exhibited an acute per- 
 ception of men and things, which would have done ci-edit even to 
 the best instructed lads. 
 
 No wonder he was looked upon in New England as a prodigy, 
 and his cousin, Thomas, felt proud of his kinsman. He writes in 
 the style of a young gentleman of finished education, on his travels 
 —demeans himself with well-bred courtesy and affability — attracts 
 the attention of distinguished foreigners, mingles with easy grace 
 in the society of ladies, and is the hero of their girlish festivity — 
 Dut, stranger than all, has the honors of a savan conferred upon 
 him, and is elected member of a historical society. A happy com- 
 pound, indeed, of "Indian shi-ewdness and "Welch ardor." 
 Providentially, a painting of him, at this period of life, has been 
 preserved. It is the rude daubing of some New England genius 
 left to invent for himself an art, in which he had no models to 
 guide him. The hair is a blotch, but the countenance is fair, with 
 «tn expression of great sweetness and innocence, combined with 
 thoughtful and almost Quaker gravity. It is one of those faces 
 which indicate a nature- to which integrity, honor, gentleness, and 
 love, are almost a necessity, and where the seeds of divine grace 
 fall upon a soil naturally prepared to receive them. Of all words 
 in the world, shrewdness, is the most inapplicable to such a being. 
 There is not the remotest sign of cunning on that countenance, but 
 a bland sincerity which thinks and wishes nothing but good for all 
 that breathes. It strongly resembles, allowing for the necessary 
 
212 THE LOST PRINCB. 
 
 advance of age, the pictures of the Dauphin, and exhibits in the 
 most marked manner the lineaments of the Bourbons. It is 
 scarcely possible, but that the Eomish priests and dignitarieswith 
 whom he was, at this period of life, so frequently in company, if 
 they had .the remotest/ intimation that the young Prince was among- 
 the Indians, must have detected the truth ; and his journal exhibits 
 traces of a mysterious chai-acter impressed upon his first inter- 
 course with them. 
 
 The beginning of 1806 found" him still in Canada, and the 
 journal of that year opens, as usual, with religious meditation. 
 
 " Oh, I wish I may live this year to the honor and glory of God. An I 
 live may I live in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God ; a faith which 
 purifleth the heart, worketh by love, and produceth obedience. May I be 
 humbled under a sense of my past vilenesa, and labor after that purity of 
 heart and holiness of life without which no man can see and enjoy God. 
 May I ever realize that here I have no continuing city and the vast 
 importance of religion to render me useful and comfortable while I live and 
 happy when I die." 
 
 He left Canada on the 23d January ; but to the last was in the 
 society of the British consul, surrounded by French ladies, and 
 receiving calls from gentlemen of Montreal. He took under his 
 charge in going to New England a boy named Eice, in order to 
 put him to school. All this was five years from the time when 
 he emerged from barbaric life. 
 
 There is nothing deserving notice in his journal for some time, 
 though crowded with the details of daily life, attendance on mis- 
 . sionary meetings, associations, and so forth. He was at this period 
 studying under Dr. Welch, at Mansfield. In May, 1806, he acoom- 
 panied a reputed relative, the Eev. Mr. Williaras, to Boston, and 
 was examined respecting his studies by several ministers. Mr. Ely, 
 who was at that period in the legislature, joined them. It was at 
 this time that the interview occurred between him and the Eev. 
 Mr.— afterwards bishop— Qhevreux. The only trace to be found of 
 
ADOPTION AND EDUCATION. 213 
 
 it npon the journal, which is here very brief arid fragmentary, i? 
 the following entry : — 
 
 " Soston, Saturday, June 3. — This week 1 have been to several lectures. 
 
 "Lord's Say, 4. Blessed be God for another of his holy days. To-day, 
 went in forenoon to Homan Church, and this afternoon over to Charlestown, 
 with Dr; Morse. June 5. I have been to the Roman Church to-day with 
 Mr. Ely. 
 
 " Boston, I5th, Lord's Day. — I have been here some time, but I have 
 not kept particular account since I have been, and I have seen a great deal 
 of wickedness." « 
 
 It is unfortunate that he did not record the conversation with 
 Ohevreux, as he did so many things of less importance ; but we 
 cannot foresee what is to have a bearing on the future. The inter- 
 view was brought about by an Irish Roman Catholic gentleman ; 
 and the ostensible cause of the somewhat mysterious visit of Ely, 
 a rigid Puritan, to a Eomish place of worship, was his passion for 
 music. He was introduced, to Chevreux, as an Indian youth, stu- 
 dying for the ministry — and the priest immediately questioned him 
 as to the practice of the Indians in adopting French children, and 
 also whether he had ever heard of a boy being brought from 
 France, and left among them. Chevreux could not fail to perceive 
 that he was of French extraction, and, probably, from his marked 
 lineaments, at once divined the secret, or may have known it be- 
 fore ; ar)d asked the» question to ascertain whether he had himself 
 any knowledge or suspicion on the subject. 
 
 I pass over pages crowded with religious reflections, prayers, con- 
 fessions of sin, reports of sermons, ordinations, conferences, visits, 
 journeys, and similar things incident to his character and posi- 
 tion, till on the 14th May, 180T, we find him at Hartford, Massa- 
 chusetts : — 
 
 " Here I was introduced to President Dwight. The good president took 
 me on one side, and said that, he had been wanting to see me this long 
 time, and had pleasure to see me now. He gave me very affecting advice. 
 ' If you are to have happiness in this world,' he said^ ' you must have reli- 
 
214 THE LOST PRlNCKi 
 
 gion. The happiness of the world consists in religion only ; and ftom no 
 other source can we hope to attain felicity, in another world.' He thus 
 conversed with me an hour ; at last, he took my hand and left me, saying, 
 ' It is my most earnest prayer to Almighty God, that he will raise you up 
 to be useful in the world, in the day of your generation. The blessing of 
 the Lord be with you always.' I had the pleasure to see many othei 
 ministers, and their advice to me was too much. It overcame my mmd, 
 so that I was obliged to retire to my lodgings until meetuig time, when 
 ray friend S. came to me and said, ' The president gave you good advice. 
 I would give anything to be regarded and noticed by so many venerable 
 men in New England.' I answered, ' This i.s my grief; I don't deserve 
 any notice to be taken of me.' " 
 
 President Dwight, in his travels in New England aod 'Sew 
 York, alludes to this interview in a manner which claims attention 
 in this place, as an additional conSrmation of the difficulty which 
 all observant persons had in reconciling the personal appearance of 
 the yonth with his imputed Indian parentage. After recoanting 
 the history of Eunice Williams, he continues : — 
 
 " One of her grandchildren" — [he should have placed the relationship a 
 remove farther] — " has been educated at Long Meadow, in a respectable 
 manner. I have seen this young man— he has a very good countenance, 
 pleasing manners, a good understanding, and apparently an excellent dis- 
 position, with scarcely a trace of the Indian character. He is destined to 
 the employ of a missionary."* 
 
 Until historical research and scientific examination proved the 
 contrary, there was necessarily an acquiescence, not, however, 
 without protest, in his extraction, as represented by his New 
 England relatives, but accompanied with curiosity, affectionate 
 interest, and a feeling that there was something behind which 
 required explanation. 
 
 On 2Tth May, 1807, an entry occurs which shows the soundness 
 of his mind, rising, by the force of its own constitution, above the 
 
 * Bwlgbt's Travels, vol. ii. p. 69. 
 
ADOPTION AND BDUOATIOK. 215 
 
 narrowness of the theological system, in the midst of which circum- 
 stances placed him : — 
 
 "Dr. Williams and I had an agreeable oonTersation upon different sub- 
 jects, and we disagree in some particular points of Christian doctrine — 
 such as total moral depravity, election, redemption through Christ, effec- 
 tual calling, adoption, justification through the righteousness of Christ, 
 and the saints' perseverance. The Protestant divines, m my opinion, go 
 too far in some particular points. I wish the doctrine of the great Captain 
 of salvation could be preached in its purity." 
 
 As all the mental phenomena exhibited by Mr. Wliliams, in 
 early life, are deserving of close and attentive stndy, since they 
 must either confirm or militate with the theory of his origin here 
 maintained, I would call the attention of the reader to the action of 
 his mind upon religious subjects, ftaken at the age of fourteen or fif- 
 teen from the bosom of Indian barbansm, and a religious atmosphere, 
 impregnated with the most ignorant superstitions and slavish sub- 
 serviency to Borne, in which, had he lived all his life in the enjoy- 
 ment of his senses, he must by that time have become, like Eunice 
 Williams, who did not go among the Indians and Jesuits until 
 she was seven years of age, a bigoted devotee to the system. But 
 he comes to New England in the strange condition of a youth with 
 his mental faculties in the fullest and most vigorous activity, as if 
 they had previously been matured, by almost excessive culture, and 
 yet absolutely without any prepossession whatever,*ither for In- 
 dian life or Bomish superstition, and cleaving to the past by no 
 links but those of the social affections. He falls at once, into tlie 
 kindly moral spirit of New Englandism, and twines his heart-strings 
 around its altars ; but his intellect acts independently, and refuses 
 to adopt the peculiar theological tenets of those whom he loves and 
 honors. The phenomenon here exhibited, is that of a mind with 
 its powers cultivated, and yet destitute of prepossession in favor 
 of any particular system. Whence could he obtain his early matu- 
 rity of judgment? and how ai-e we to account for the absence of 
 any leaning towards Bomanism ^ 
 
216 THE LOST PRINCB. 
 
 The journals afford so many indications of the nature of the man, 
 that the reader will not blame me for presenting him as I proceed, 
 with more copious extracts, than I have yet done. In Nov., 1807, 
 Eleazar set out on another journey for the benefit of his health. 
 He arrived at Hanover, and formed an acquaintance with the Pre- 
 sident of the College, and other gentlemen. " Hanover," he says, 
 " is a fine place. The College and other public buildings are ele- 
 gant. The village contains many handsome houses, surrounding a 
 spacious plain which, in summer, is always covered with verdure, 
 the whole appearance is charming, and the inhabitants are noted 
 for their hospitality and polite attention to strangers. I was intro- 
 duced to Kev. Dr. Smith, Professor of the learned languages. I 
 was agreeably entertained with several of the students. I have ex- 
 perienced that there are many temptations to which a young inan is 
 exposed, but if he is inclined to sustain a good character, he must 
 associate only with those who are virtuous. The young gentlemen 
 appear to be scholars, but I perceive that there is something wanting 
 in them to make them complete gentlemen. Modesty is the orna- 
 ment of a person." 
 
 In May, 1808, a friend named Dr. Lyman urged Eleazar to go as 
 a missionary to the heathen. He writes, " It is certainly an en- 
 couragement to me to go as a missionary when I hear that young 
 nobles and others in England are promoting the cause of the Blessed 
 Redeemer. iTeel perfectly willing to go and suffer for the sake of 
 advancing the glorious Gospel of Christ. God is doing wonders in 
 the world. I pray God to make me an instrument for prompting 
 His own cause." 
 
 In the month of June he became indisposed, with severe pain in 
 the head, and a renewal of his old disorder, which appears to have 
 been excruciating, and called forth earnest prayers for patience and 
 fortitude. 
 
 In the midst of these bodily sufferings he received the sad intelli- 
 gence from Mrs. Ely, of the de^th of her husband. " The intelli- 
 gence," he writes, " was overwhelming to me. Yes, my soul was 
 
ADOPTION AND EDtTCATION. 217 
 
 troubled, and with a throbbing heart, I exclaimed, ' O let me die 
 the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.' Al- 
 though my lamentations were in secret, yet the Lord, my heavenly 
 Father, heard my cry. The spirit of resignation was given me, and 
 I was enabled to say amen to what God had -done." 
 
 (The loss of Mr. Ely, his first friend and benefactor, who had been 
 theTrovidential instrument of withdrawing him from the sepulchre 
 of barbarism, in which he would otherwise have been entombed, 
 brought to a close the first scene of his life in civivilized society in 
 America./ But he had now made Mends for himself on all sides, 
 and was known far and near as a young man of mark and promise, 
 and yet around whom hung a mystery which no one was compe- 
 tent to solve. Who was he, this Indian youth, who yet was not an 
 Indian! 
 
 Of the current views of the most distinguished New England So- 
 ciety on the subject of his race, Mr. Theodore D wight has furnished . 
 me with a conclusive proof in the fact, that about this time he be- 
 came attached to a connection of his family, and although the 
 match was not effected, it was neither for want of esteem and admi- 
 ration of his character, nor any objections on the score of Indian 
 blood, because neither the lady herself, nor any other persons of 
 discernment' regarded him in reality as the descendant of Eunice 
 Williams, though, by the necessity of the case, he nominally passed 
 as such. 
 
 Eleazar rem^ed at Mansfield and Long Meadows, making occa- 
 sional visits to other places, until Deo. 22, 1809, when he was put 
 under the tuition of Eev. Enoch Hale, of West Hampton, Massachu- 
 setts, with whom he continued till the month of August, 1812, though 
 during a great portion of the time he was absent on journeys to 
 various places, which are minutely recorded in his journal, and was 
 also engaged, under the patronage of the American Board of Mis- 
 sions in a missionary visit to the St. Louis or Oaughnawaga Indians, 
 to ascertain what prospect there was of introducing Protestantism 
 among them. It is impossible to peruse the earnest and simple 
 
 10 
 
218 THE LOST r-nlNCE. 
 
 outpouring of his feelings in his journals, without perceiving the 
 entire devotion and dedication of his soul, mind, and powers to the 
 work of converting Ms Indian brethren. His residence among Euro- 
 peans, his instinctive delight in the refinements of social intercourse, 
 the attentions shown him by all classes of persons, had not, for one 
 moment, diverted his mind from the great pnrpose for which he con- 
 ceived himself created — that of carrying the Gospel to the heathen. 
 But his health continued very feeble, and severe pains in the head 
 and chest rendered it difficult for him to continue his studies unin- 
 torrupibdly. At times he seems almost to have despaired of life, 
 but the activity of his mind and body, rising superior to indisposi- 
 tion, soon dissipated the gloom. His friends and physician advised 
 him in April, 1810, to give up study, for a time, and travel south- 
 ward, which, after some delay, he did. It was on this occasion that 
 he first became acquainted with his future friend and Bishop, Dr. 
 Hobart, who even at that early day was attracted by him and 
 showed him much attention. 
 
 On his return to Massachusetts, his pains returned, and every few 
 pages some record of his sufferings occurs. In the beginning of 
 1811, it was again thought expedient for him to travel, and he went 
 to Canada, to see his family, taking every occasion of conversing 
 with the Indians upon religious subjects. The Komish priests 
 warned their people against listening to him, but the attention paid 
 to him encouraged him to enter on what he designed should be the 
 work of his life. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE BKOEET 0OEP8. 
 
 Thebe are few who do not find actual life unlike as possible 
 their youthful imaginings. Some happy beings, though the 
 number is -daily lessening, become what they purposed, and 
 resemble forest trees, whose roots cleave in age to the soil which 
 
THE SECRET CORPS. 219 
 
 notmshed their first fibres. But most of ns seem the sport of 
 oiroumstaiices, and, in the struggle of life, are bruised, battered, and 
 misshapen, till we emerge something, we can only recognise by 
 faith in continuity of remembrance. 
 
 " There's a destiny that shapes our ends. 
 Bough-hew them how we will." 
 
 In the beginning of 1812, Mr. Williams set out on another 
 journey to Canada, but this time as agent of the American Board 
 of Missions. His health did not permit prolonged application to 
 study, and, as it was deemed necessary he should survey his 
 proposed field of missionary labor, and, by mixing with the 
 Indians, perfect himself in the use of their language, he interrupted 
 his literary preparation for the Congregational ministry, in order 
 both to recruit his strength, and probe the sentiments of his 
 reputed countrymen. He arrived at the Sault St. Louis, near 
 Montreal, on Saturday, January 18th, and set to work zealously to 
 accomplish his design, visiting the Indians all along the northern 
 frontier, and discbnrsing wherever he went of " death, judgment, 
 and eternity." But, for the most part, those he addressed, " acted 
 as if they were possessed by the evil one." Addicted to intempe- 
 rance, laz in their morals, devotees to heathenism, or eqnally blind 
 adherents to Home, he found it, to the last degree, difficult to 
 produce any effect on them. EQs feeble condition and shortness 
 of breath were also very discouraging. He continued, however, 
 his missionary tour until March, 1812, when he received a token 
 that, although his religions exhortations might produce little result, 
 he had pCTSonally acquired the esteem and confidence of the 
 Indians. A message was sent him from the chiefs and counsellors 
 of the Iroquois, requesting his attendance, and on presenting him- 
 self at the council house, he was declared a chief of the nation. 
 The name given him was, Onwarenhiiaki, or Tree Cutter, the same 
 which had been applied to Sir William Johnson. A complimen- 
 
220 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 tary Bpeeoh was addressed to him on the occasion, to which he 
 replied in nearly the following terms : — 
 
 " Most honorable chiefs and counsellors of the Iroquois nation, I 
 rise to speak a few words to your ears. I give you, with peculiar 
 pleasure, many thanks. Tour choice is very honorable to me. I 
 am unfit for so high station in the nation. But as I desire to 
 render important circumstances, I accept with diffidence the seat, 
 which the chiefs and counsellors have pointed out to me, and shall 
 ever endeavor to promote the best interests of the nation. May 
 uhity and harmony ever prevail between me and the senior 
 -counsellors, and may the chiefs and counsellors of the Iroquois 
 nation, be ever interested in its welfare, and the people ever 
 respect and be guided by them." 
 
 When he ceased speaking, they thronged round and congratu- 
 lated him, and he took advant^e of the occasion, " to press upon 
 them with tenderness the things which belonged to their eternal 
 peace." They listened with courtesy and parted with expressions 
 of regret. 
 
 But, though there was much to encourage him, he found it 
 impossible to accomplish anything at that time. " When yon talk 
 on political matters," said a chief, "you talk like a wise Indian 
 counsellor — ^but, when you converse about religion, then you talk 
 like a Frenchman." " How deplorable," he writes, " is the situa- 
 tion of the Indians. When I consider that they are ignorant of 
 the character and perfections of that Being who made them, 
 and the way of salvation by Jesus Christ, then I am almost over- 
 whelmed with grief and sorrow. O Lord, I beseech thee to send 
 thy light and thy truth among the Ancients of America, and make 
 them know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou 
 has sent." 
 
 Such were his occupations, feelings, and aspirations, when the 
 war broke out between England and the United States. He had 
 returned to West Hampton, when, in July, his reputation for 
 ability, and for influence among the Indians, known in the highest 
 
THE SECB^T COBPS. 
 
 221 
 
 quarters, caused his immediate selection by government, as the 
 best person, to prevent his repnted countrymen from taking up 
 arms against the United States. The peaceful and devotional tenor 
 of his thoughts and hopes was, therefore, broken in upon by the 
 request that, he would repair immediately to the head-quarters of 
 General Dearborn, and receive instructions concerning the views 
 and objects of the General Government. Thomas Williams was at 
 the same time invited to enter into the service of the United 
 States— which invitation he finally accepted. The St. Eegis 
 Indians, who occupied so critical a position between the two belli- 
 gerent powers, and were undecided what course it was best for 
 their interest and safety to pursue, also applied to Eleazar for 
 advice in the emergency, and, thus, a variety of influences forced 
 him, at a moment's warning, to abandon the peaceful seclusion of 
 the parsonage, at "West Hampton, for the hot haste of military life. 
 " I am sent for," he writes, under the date of July 27, " to pre- 
 vent the Indians from taking the hatchet against the Americans. 
 I tremble, my situation is very critical. Indeed, I hope God will 
 direct me what to do." It was with great unwillingness that he 
 entered on his new avocations. The prudential committee of the 
 American Board of Foreign Missions, shortly after, spoke thus con- 
 cerning him, and his late missionary tour. 
 
 " Mr. Eleazar Williams, the Indian youth proposed for an Indian mia- 
 sion, and wlio is in a course of education for that pnrpoEe, made a visit 
 during last winter to his tribe, a journal of which has been seen by the 
 committee. It is an excellent journal, affords great evidence of the piety 
 and good- sense of Mr. Williams, details some facts highly favorable to his 
 reception among his red brethren, when the time shall come for him to be 
 sent to them. When that time will come, is known only to Him who has 
 all events under his sovereign direction. At present, the prospects regard- 
 ing the contemplated mission to the Caughnawaga Indians are darkened 
 by the war, but this darkness may be dissipated, and brighter scenes open 
 than man can foresee." 
 
 All immediate prospect of prosecuting his mission, being thus 
 
222 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 out off, and duty calling him to the scene of war, he set out for 
 Greenbnsh, where General Dearborn was then encamped, and 
 arrived there on the 8th August. But, before plunging into the 
 exciting scenes that followed, the reader will, I am sure, read with 
 pleasure the following reflections of Mr. Williams on war, which I 
 found among his papers, and which exhibit an amplitude of mind 
 which has not been attributed to him, and show how little we can 
 judge of the character and powers of men, when we see ,them 
 only in obscurity and depression : — 
 
 " Many of the citizens in this state were opposed to the war. When in 
 their company, the expediency or propriety of the war was often brought 
 into view. It has been contended that, the more any people are civilized and 
 Christianized, the greater is "their aversion to war ; and the more powerful 
 exertions are necessary to excite what is called the war-spirit. Were it not 
 for the influence of a few ambitious- or revengeful men, an offensive war 
 could not be undertaken with any prospect of success — except where the 
 mass of the people are either uncivilized or slaves. I^ then, as great exer- 
 tions should be made to excite a just abhorrence of war, as have often 
 been made to excite a war-spirit, we may be very certain that rulers would 
 find little encouragement to engs^ge in a war, which is not strictly defen- 
 sive. And, as soon as offensive wars shall cease, defensive wars will be, 
 of course, unknown. It is an affront to common sense to pretend that, 
 military oflSoers and soldiers have no right to inquire whether war be just 
 or unjust ; and that all they have to do is to obey the orders of the govern- 
 ment. Such doctrine is fit only to be taught to slaves without souls. If 
 a man is called to fight, he should be faithfully informed and fully satis- 
 fied that he is not to act the part of a murderer, that the blood of man 
 may not be required at his hands. Eveiy soldier ought to be impressed 
 with the idea that offensive war is murderous ; and that no government 
 on earth has any right to compel him to shed blood in a wanton and 
 aggressive war. Yet, in the present state of general delusion, the soldiers 
 and most of the citizens are treated as having no more right to judge of 
 the justice or injustice of a war, than the horses employed in military ser- 
 vice. On one side, a war is certainly unjust and murderous. Yet, on 
 both sides, it is considered the duty of soldiers to submit to the orders of 
 
THE SECEKT CORPS. 
 
 223 
 
 government, and fight, whether it be murder or not murder. With the 
 same propriety it might be considered as the duty of a citizen, to obey an 
 order of government for murdering an individual of his own nation." 
 
 Let the mind that conceived such sentiments have been on a 
 throne, and he would have been acconnted a model of political 
 'liberality. And yet this man has been the mark of obloquy and 
 scorn, maligned, abused, ridiculed, defamed, driven from one 
 place to another, cheated, reduced to poverty, and, because poor, 
 scarcely deemed worthy, by his own brethren in the church, who 
 had not discernment to understand his character, of common 
 civility. 
 
 On his arrival at the camp, Mr. Williams was treated courteously 
 by General Dearborn, and remained two days closeted in his 
 cabinet, with him and Gov. Tompkins, to learn what was required, 
 and express his views as to the best method of carrying the 
 objects into effect. Notwithstanding the religious tone of his 
 mind, and his devotion to the ministry, there was something in his 
 nature which was stirred by the pomp and circumstance of war, 
 and he was made captive, as he expresses it, by " plumes, epau- 
 lettes, red sashes, and glittering arms." In an instant he was in 
 the vortex, and, with a facility which belongs to some natures, of 
 adapting themselves to all circumstances, hasted to the north, to 
 accomplish a mission very different from that which had so 
 recently carried him there. With the excitement of his new 
 employment, his health revived, and we hear little more of indis- 
 position, except a great weakness in the eyes, and occasional head- 
 aches after fatigue. At first, he had no idea of permanently enter- 
 ing the service of the government; but, being entrusted with 
 military powers, and brought under military law, he was forced by 
 circumstances to continue in the path which had thus, fortuitously 
 opened before him, and was appointed Superintendent-General of 
 the Northern Indian Department, with the most ample powers, 
 having under his command the whole secret ooi-ps of Rangers and 
 scouts of the army, who spread themselves everywhere, and freely 
 
224 TUB LOST PEINCB. 
 
 entered in and out of the enemy's camp. There was an under- 
 standing that all oomraunioations between him and the government 
 shoakl be entirely secret, lest the lives or interests of individuals 
 should be cunipi-omised. But, as there was no prohibition against 
 keeping a journal, a thing which, probably, did riot enter into 
 the ideas of General Dearborn, or the War Department, he faith- 
 fully chronicled all his movements', though often without mention- 
 ing the special object he had in view. The body of men who 
 were placed at his command, were the most reckless, daring, and 
 unscrupulous in the army, and he frequently speaks of it as " the 
 terrible corps," and trembles at the accountability he assumed 
 in placing himself at their head. Spread out in every direction, 
 they reported to him every movement of the British forces, and 
 the manoeuvres of the American army were, in a great measure, 
 governed by the information received from him, as to the neces- 
 sity of despatching troops to particular positions. He was thus 
 the instrument of defeating the English, both by land and water, 
 in the north and west. 
 
 Parting from General Dearborn, who gave him letters to Colonel 
 Clarke, of Burlington, and Major-General Mooers, of Plattsburg, he 
 crossed the river about four o'clock, on Thursday, August 6, and, 
 the next morning, set out for Vermont. At Poultney he met a 
 British ofiScer, General Baynes, with a flag of truce, accompanied 
 by Major Clark, of the militia. On Sunday evening, August 9, 
 he reached Burlington, and had an interview with Colonel Clarke, 
 who kept him concealed, and, the following morning, crossed the 
 lake with Mm. On Monday evening they arrived at Plattsburg. 
 The necessities of war not permitting the strict observance of the 
 Lord's Day, almost every week brings its confession of sin, and 
 prayers that God would pardon the enforced violation of his law. 
 lie delivered his letter to Major-General Mooers ; and, in the after- 
 noon of the 11th, a council of war was held, consisting of the Gene- 
 ral, Colonel Clarke, Lieut-Colonel Bedell, and Major Warford, at 
 which, according to his discretional powers, he made a partial dis- 
 
THE SECRET CORPS. _ 225 
 
 closure of the objects of his mission. General Mooers despatched 
 him on his journey, with the following letter to Captain Tilden, o 
 Constable-: — 
 
 " Plaitsbueg, August 12, 1812. 
 
 "Sir: 
 
 " You are hereby requested to render any assistance in your power to the 
 bearer hereof— Mr. E. W., by giving him information relative to the 
 situation of the enemy, Indian tribes, &c., &c., and keep the same to your- 
 self relative to Mr. W., ho. What passes between you and him, let it be 
 kept in perfect seoresy. Mr. W. will keep this if he thinks proper. He 
 
 " will show it you. 
 
 " Benjamin Mooees, Major-General. 
 "Captain Eufas Tilden." 
 
 He was also provided with the following passport : — 
 
 " Platisburo, August 12, 1812. 
 " The. bearer hereof, Mr. E. Williams, is on business, and is going into 
 Fraciklin County. Being a stranger he mighfbe interrupted, and I have, 
 therefore, handed this for his protection. 
 
 "Benjamin Mooers." 
 
 It was raining hard, and the roads were horrible, but he conti- 
 nued on his journey, when, at an inn in the Chantegay Wood, he 
 met Colonel Lewis, who was in the secret of his mission ; and, after 
 consultation with him, found it necessary to return to Plattsbnrg 
 to meet some Indian chiefs who were expected there to receive 
 money. He found them friendly to the TJnUed States, and obtained 
 much information as to the condition of things at the north. The 
 officers paid great attention, from policy, to the Indians. He then 
 returned to Albany, which he reached on the 24th, and sat up 
 with General Dearborn all night, communicating intelligence and 
 arranging plans for the future. The excitement over, he fell sick, 
 and all the conscientious scruples, natural to one with his feelings 
 and position, began to torment him. " Oh, that God," he writes, 
 " would make all men peaceful, and live together in unity. I am 
 In distress for my sins^they are great. Oh, most gracious God, 
 
 10* 
 
226 ^ THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 for Christ's sake, pardon them, and assist me to manage the aflfairs 
 I am upon with integrity." 
 
 After forming acquaintance with General Bloomfleld, he again 
 set out for the north, on the 1st September, from 'Whitehall, in a 
 little sloop, and a storm coming on, was in great danger on the 
 lake. He reached Plattsburg on the 8th — the next day. General 
 Bloomfleld arrived, and was saluted by the gun-boats ; and, in the 
 evening, Mr. Williams laid before him the reports of the Rangers, 
 and had a long conference with him, " in relation to the Indians, 
 the force of the enemy, the state of his defences, the movements of 
 his troops, the strength of his navy, and the condition of the roads 
 from Champlain to the La Acadia plains." 
 
 The next day he set out from Plattsburg, with protection from 
 
 General Mooers, addressed to Major Young, in the following 
 
 terms : — 
 
 " Plattsbueb, September 9, 1812. 
 "Sir: 
 
 " The bearer, Mr. Williams, proceeds to your post and to the westward, 
 
 on business of an important nature, which entirely meets the approbation 
 
 of General Mooers ; you will, therefore, afibrdhun the protection necessary 
 
 and proper to facilitate his purpose. ' 
 
 " By order of the general, 
 
 " John Warfoed, Aide-de-camp. 
 " Major Young.'' 
 
 Having delivered this letter to the Major at Chautegay, he pro- 
 ceeded with a corresponding passport' from him to Turner's Inn, 
 where he met Captain Tilden, the commander of the station. He 
 was carefully concealed from the sight of the Indians, but at French 
 Mills, had a secret conference with the chiefs, whom he harangued, 
 distributed to them money, and obtained the promise of adherence 
 to the American cause. 
 
 Keturning through the woods, to Plattsburg, on the 16th, he 
 dispatched a confidential messenger to the Sault St. Louis, and 
 though now irretrievably engaged in the business of the wai-, was. 
 troubled with conscientious scruples as to the morality of attempt- 
 
THE 8ECKET CORPS. 227 
 
 ing to withdraw the British Indians from allegiance to their gov?' 
 eminent. He had a conference with Gen. Bloomfleld on this, ques- 
 tion, and says with great simplicity, " we agreed that if' we can 
 bring them over to the American side, it was propep^ and justifi- 
 able." Every day and hour brought its oconpsjtion, and he was 
 hurried hither and thither. On the 21st Sgigfrember, he received a 
 communication from the Oommander-irf^hief, to which he sent a 
 reply express, by way of Lake Gajwge, and immediately set out to 
 the lines, to meet his Rangjg^and receive their report. Hearing of 
 the capture of sevepdfidians by the British, he was fearful lest his 
 messenger,^giKJani, whom he had dispatched to St. Louis, was 
 agn^ja^fnem, and set out on Sunday, 27th, to Ohazy, to ascertain 
 the fact, but had the happiness to find him returned in safety, 
 - and spent the remainder of the day in conversing with him and 
 some Indians on religious subjects. Several chiefs now arrived 
 from the Sault St. Louis, and on Monday were presented to Gen. 
 Bloomfleld, to whom the General and Ool. Clarke presented their 
 swords. Ool. Clarke also gave his rifle to 'William the messenger, 
 who Mr. Williams despatched to St. Regis, and to the Indians of 
 the Lake of the two mountains, to inform them that powder -was 
 ready for them. He now returned to Albany, carrying two chiefe 
 with him to present to General Dearborn, who was highly delight- 
 ed with the success of the enterprise. A brilliant entertainment 
 was given, but in the midst of officers and ladies, and music and 
 general merriment, young Williams — the excitement of enterprise 
 being now over — was moody and melancholy, between the effects 
 of sickness and conscientious difficulties. But not much time could 
 be given to reflections of this kind. The next day after the enter- 
 tainment, Oct. 8th, the following entry occurs : — 
 
 "As the enemy have had in contemplation for some time past to send 
 troops to St. Hegis, to attack the Indians, and Captain Moutigny, the resi- 
 dent agent haa made great efforts to rouse the war spirit of the friendly 
 part of the tribe against the Americans, from self-preservation — which is 
 the first law of human nature — that post must be attaclied. I have re- 
 
228 
 
 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 i^y-ed orders to this effect from the Commander-in-chief, but am left in a 
 gr'^ttmeasure to ray discretion, and the necessity for such an attack. The 
 order wt issued upon Major Youngs, at Chautegay, to march with his corps, 
 attack and^arry the place, but have a care not to injure the friendly part 
 of the tribe. '"She Uangers are required to give a faithful account to the 
 Major, of the atrengib and position of the enemy. If the Major is true, he 
 will succeed. BraveryiSsiot wanting to him." 
 
 The attack proved suooesBfnl.-^, St. Kegis was carried — a number 
 of prisoners captured, and the first flag-feiken from the British during 
 the war. Mr. Williams again set out from Albany, on the 14th 
 October. From Plattsburg, -which he reached after, a variety of 
 adventures, on 3d November, he went to Cumberland's 'H«ad, to 
 issue orders to the Eangers, and on the 5th, by the invitation of 
 Gen. Bloomfield, attended a secret council of war, at which he pre- 
 sented his report, which he had written while lying in bed. The 
 result of the council was an order to prepare for the winter cam- 
 paign, and repair the boats and wagons for 'transportation. On 
 Vth November, he received an order from the Commander-in-chief, 
 to return to Albany, but, before starting, was able to communicate 
 to Gen. Bloomfield intelligence that the enerny were preparing for 
 an attack. The first artillery train arrived. In the evening, Gens. 
 Bloomfield and Mooers discussed with him the plans of the 
 ensuing campaign ; he sent out orders in different directions to the 
 Eangers, and information to the Indians, and the next morning was 
 on his way to Albany, express, issuing orders as he went, to some 
 of the posts. In the afternoon he heard a heavy cannonading in 
 the direction of the lines. Arriving at Albany on the 10th, he 
 dined with the Commander-in-chief, received from the war depart- 
 ment a complimentary communication, concerning the efficient 
 services of his corps, and further instructions in relation to his 
 department. He left for the north the next day, but snatched a 
 few moments to have a conversation with the Rev. Mr. Clowes, an 
 Episcopal clergyman, at Albany, and obtain some religions advice. 
 The troops were now moving in all directions for the lines— for 
 
THE SECRET COKPS. 229 
 
 which lie himself set out post, issuing orders to the whole 'corps of 
 observation. He returned from the lines to Plattsburg, on the 
 evening of the 18th Kovember, having performed all- the duties 
 assigned him, and sent his report to the Oommander-in-chief. 
 Under date of November 20, he writes : — 
 
 " A council of war was held to-day, in which I appeared somewhat con- 
 spicuous, as I was the only person who could give the information desired. 
 In this council disclosures were made, to a certain extent in relation to 
 the campaign, which were entirely contrary to my expectations, and far 
 from being honorable to the public service.. Still there is hope for a 
 revision of the decision of this council, and this must be upon certain cir- 
 cumstances in regard to the enemy, but in the meantime, every demon- 
 stration must be made by the American army of its intended invasion of 
 the British Province. By the reports of the Bangers, the enemy is not so 
 formidable in our front as to' give any fears of the unfavorable result if our 
 advaiice was made upon them. The Caaadians are still unwilling to bear 
 arms against the Americans, since they had a skirmish with the royal 
 troops at La Chine, in August last. They are forced into the service, and 
 no dependence can be placed upon them." 
 
 The season was too far advanced for much to be accomplished. 
 The corps of observation, under command of Mr. Williams, was, 
 however, incessantly active, and the slightest movement on either 
 side faithfully reported to him, and provision made for every 
 emergency as it arose. At the latter end of November the artil- 
 lery train moved towards Plattsburg for winter-quarters, and the 
 campaign being over, he returned to Charlotte in Vermont. The 
 troops were dying in great numbers. " I had an interview," thus 
 the journal for 1812 concludes, "this afternoon (Deo. 12) with 
 Gen. Mooers, and made arrangements with him in regard to the 
 movements of the Rangers. I have apprised them of my removal, 
 with orders to direct their reports accordingly. One is with me 
 now and takes my orders, and will issue them to others. God 
 bless them.'' 
 
230 THE LOST PRINCK. 
 
 ^n 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 THB WAB JOTJENAI.. 
 
 C^iTH the intuition pertaining only to the highest order of minds, 
 the divinity student had displayed the abilities of a military oflB- 
 cer, been admitted to the secret councils of those highest in com- 
 mand, and honorably and successfully performed some of the most 
 arduous duties which could be assigned to man — duties which a 
 Christian nation at war could only, with a just regard for its own 
 honor, consign to one who united rare ability with strict fidelity and 
 unassailable conscientiousness. But though he had thus proved 
 himself, intellectually, equal to any position in which Providence 
 might place him, and been engaged in occupations the hardest to 
 reconcile with devotional feeling, his humble and unfeigned spirit 
 of piety was unalteredj 
 
 The Joui-nal for'1813 opens thus : — 
 
 "Jwri'y 1. — A pleasant morning. I am permitted to see the be- 
 ginning of another year. What shall I render unto the Lord for 
 all his benefits ? May I live more to His glory. How ungrateful I 
 have been for the many and undeserved mercies I have received 
 from his benificent hand. I will endeavor, by the help of God, to 
 live more like a Christian. O ray God, give me grace to love thee 
 above all things, to live and walk in the ways of thy command- 
 ments, and preserve me from all the temptations witli which I am 
 surrounded. This has been a solemn day with me. My medita- 
 tions have been upon death, judgment, and eternity." 
 
 My intention was to have epitomized the following journal. But 
 it is sacred as an historical document, and though very long, I 
 transcribe it entire, since nothing can more thoroughly exhibit the 
 man, and show the claims he has on the esteem of all men, and 
 especially of the citizens of the United States, than the simple pages 
 
THE WAE JOUENAL. 231 
 
 in which he has jotted down, with careless hand, his actions and 
 feelings during these trying times. 
 
 " I am ordered by Ool. Lamed to repair to St. Regis. I am pre- 
 paring for the jaunt. 
 
 "Jra GhoMtegoA/ Woods, /a»'y 2.— Left Plattsbnrg this morning 
 early, in a sleigh. My waiter with me. Now, at Robert's Inn. It 
 has been a cold day. Here I learned the movements of the 
 enemy, at St. Johns and Ohamblee. I have sent an express to 
 Plattsburg. 
 
 " French Mills, Jam/. 3, 1813. — Arrived about 10 o'clock, this 
 evening — suffered much from the cold. I have sent out two faith- 
 ful Indians who I found here. Yesterday, a heavy detachment of 
 the enemy passed through Oornwall, for the Upper Country. I 
 met here one of our secret Rangers. His report will be useful for 
 the commanders of Sacketts Harbour and Plattsburg. 
 
 ''■French Mills, Jariy. 4, 1813. — I met in council, four of the 
 American chiefs. They are still firm to remain neutral in the pre- 
 sent contest. Capt. Peters delivered a lengthy speech, on the 
 occasion, the substance of which is intended to be communicated 
 to Major-General Dearborn, Gov. Tompkins, and G-en. Mooers. 
 I exhorted them to remain firm to their resolution, and continue to 
 be faithful to the Americans. We parted with many friendly 
 expressions. May God bless them, is the sincere desire of my heart. 
 I made some arrangements with the Commissary Hastings, to 
 continue to issue rations to them. 
 
 " Mvening. — I am informed that the enemy are making a great 
 preparation at Kingston, to attack Sacketts Harbour. I shall hear 
 more of this. 
 
 " Ghautegay, 4 Corners, Jany. 5, 1818. — ^From the French Mills, 
 this morning. I am greatly concerned for the St. Regis Indians. 
 The British governor threatens to annihilate them, but the Ameri- 
 can part are determined to resist him. Sir John Johnson is active in 
 persuading them to join the English forces. Col. Scott, the com- 
 mandant at Couteau du Lac, has issued an order for my arrest, if 
 possible. I have, this eveningj issued an order to the whole secret 
 corps of our Rangers — and that in positive terms, in case of my 
 arrest by the enemy, to take and make prisoners of as many as it 
 may be in their power, of the high officers of the British army, 
 and even Sir Geo. Provost. ■ The faithful and brave H., captain of 
 
232 THK LOST PRINCE. 
 
 the corps, accepted the order with joy, and promised it shall be 
 performed to the full extent. ' Now,' said he, ' life and death are 
 with us.' This is the first desperate order I have issued to the 
 corps, hut there is no alternative in the case. 
 
 "■PlatUlurg, Ja-rvy. 6, 1813.— Left Ohautegay early this morning, 
 hut not without fears that I may he waylaid and caught in some 
 extensive woods I had to pass. I apprised my waiter of this, who, 
 like a brave soldier, prepared his rifle for resistance, but reached 
 safe, and suffered no inconvenience hut the cold. The sun was 
 bright, the sky clear, but the air piercing. I have a heavy cough 
 upon me, and am somewhat feverish this evening. At Robinson's 
 Inn, I was informed by a person who came, yesterday, from the 
 lines, that the enemy were reinforcing the garrison at Isle Ava 
 Noix, and a party of Indians were stationed at La Cole. 
 
 " Plattsburg^ Jcmy. 7, 1813. — I sent my report to Col. Lamed, 
 this morning, at Burlington, as I am not able to go myself thither, 
 being much indisposed. The garrison physician is in attendance. 
 
 " Eoening. — Gen. Mooers called upon me, and I communicated to 
 him the substance of my report to Col.* Lamed. Eev. Mr. Weeks 
 also called, with whom I had an interesting conversation upon the 
 subject of religion. He is a pious and godly man. My religious 
 meditations have been gi-eatly interrupted from the many duties 
 which are just now pressing upon me. Oh, let me not forget my 
 duty to God, but may I walk more closly with him, and that daily, 
 as one who loves him with all the heart. Let me not forget thee, 
 O my God, in whom I live, move, alld have my being. O 
 Heavenly Father, have mercy on thy unworthy servant, forgive all 
 his sins for Christ's sake. Give him grace to love thee more- 
 make him by faith to he united to thee, and enable him by grace 
 to walk in the ways of thy commandments. 
 
 " January 10, Plattsburg^ 1813. — It is to be regretted that the 
 northern army is in a sick condition — ten or twelve men are daily 
 buried. Dysentery and diarrhoea are the principal diseases, which 
 are often combined with typhus fever. Colonel Pike, who com- 
 mands this post, is doing all in his power to assuage the sufferings 
 of his troops, by making the medical department do its duty — the 
 noted Dr. Mann being at its head. 
 
 " PlatUhurg, Janua/ry 29.— The order issued on the 4th instant 
 by me, at Chautegay, upon the whole corps of Eangers, I am happy 
 to say has been responded to with tlie greatest cheerfulness ; and 
 
THE WAR JOOBNAL. 233 
 
 they will exert themselves to the utmost, to fulfil the import of 
 the order. B. H. and L. have engaged to take the Governor-General 
 a prisoner, and bring him safely into the United States. 
 
 " February 3, 1813. — Information has been received that the 
 enemy has been concentrating his disposable force at Kingston, 
 Upper Canada, distant thirty miles from Sacketts Harbor, with a 
 view to attack that place, upon which I ordered the Kangers to be 
 on the alert. For farther information, one was despatched for 
 that place. Three days after, another was despatched to Ganon- 
 naque. 
 
 ^^ Burlington, (F*.), February 10, 1813. — ^I came here to have 
 an interview with Brigadier-General Chandler, and communicated 
 to him a certain intelligence ,which caused him to delay his former 
 intentions in regard to his military operations in this quarter. 
 Here I received farther information from the Eangers, that the 
 enemy were sending troops to Kingston, and that some troops have 
 been sent from Quebec to Montreal, and more are expected. 
 
 " Plattsburg, Februwry IT.— I am fully persuaded, by the infor- 
 mation of the Eangers, near Montreal, that the enemy is contem- 
 plating to attack Sacketts Harbor. T shall, at all events, apprise 
 General Dearborn this day. 
 
 " PUtUburg, Februa/ry, 1813.— We are informed that Major For- 
 sythe, from Ogdensburg, crossed the St. Lawrence, and surprised 
 the guard at Elizabethtown ; took fifty-two prisoners, one major 
 three captains, and two lieutenants. 
 
 " Plattsburg, February 20.— The preparation of the enemy, at 
 Kingston, is very certain. The Eangers have returned. Their 
 reports are corroborated from other respectable sources. My duty 
 requires me to make a formal communication to Major-General 
 Dearborn, at Albany, who will, I trust, duly appreciate the alarm- 
 ing intelligence. I have also ventured to apprize the commanding 
 ofBcer at Sacketts Harbor, of the intentions of the enemy upon that 
 post. 
 
 "■Plattsburg, Ma/rch 6, 1813.— We are informed that, on the 21st 
 ultimo, the enemy attacked Major Forsythe, at Ogdensburg, and 
 succeeded in expelling him from the town, after a short conflict. 
 
 " Plattsburg, Ma/reh 9, 1813.— General Dearborn has duly appre- 
 ciated the intelligence conveyed to him, in relation to the enemy's 
 movements and intentions on the port of Sacketts Harbor. He 
 will make, or has already made, a quick movement for that post. 
 
234 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Both sides appear to be preparing for some heavy stroke upon each 
 other, in the ensuing campaign. 
 
 " Plattsiurg, lith Ma/rch.—l am informed it is in contemplation 
 for Colonel Pike's regiment to repair to Saoketts Harbor, without 
 delay. 
 
 " Meniiig. — The colonel has called on me for information of the 
 route he intends to take on his way to the Harbor. I am ordered, 
 immediately, to repair to Malone, and French Mills. So I will pro- 
 ceed to-morrow morning ; my waiter will accompany me. 
 
 " Chautegay, Four Comers, March 15. — ^French news from 
 Canada by one of the Rangers. Sent on an express to Colonel 
 Pike, at eleven o'clock, with intelligence I have received. 
 
 " French Mills, Mwrch 17. — Heard much of the movements of 
 the enemy. Saw the Indian chiefs. Their future conduct was 
 explained to them. 
 
 " Plattsburg, Ma/rch 19. — I made my report to Colonel Pike. 
 He appeared to be satisfied. He has himself received his instrno- 
 tions to proceed with his regiment to Sacketts Harbor. I am 
 informed that General Dearborn has gone thither. 
 
 " I had a long conversation this evening with one of the officers 
 of artillery upon religion, who is to all appearance an infidel. 
 
 " Plattsburg, Ma/rch 27. — Colonel Pike has gone with his regi- 
 ment, bjLway of Malone. I regret much that this amiable and 
 accomplished officer is taken from this post. His whole regiment 
 were conveyed in sleighs. The inhabitants were pressed for their 
 teams. It was a strange sight to see so many of them together. 
 
 '■'■ Plattsburg, Ma/rch 30, 1813. — By the Hangers I have heard 
 that since the arrival of General Dearborn, at the Harbor, and the 
 movement of Colonel Pike, the enemy themselves are alarmed lest 
 they be invaded by the American force. 
 
 '■'■ Bv/rUngton (F*.), April 4, 1813. — I came here to confer with 
 Colonel Clarke, who commands this post, about some money con- 
 cerns. The Deputy-Paymaster, Mr. Hatch and Mr. Sheldon, are 
 concerned in the matter. The expenditures in my department are 
 rendered and settled. The secret service-money of the government 
 is wholly expended. Orders are made out, to the quarter-master- 
 general, for more. 
 
 " I had a pleasant interview with the Rev. Mr. Haskell, of this 
 place, who, with President Sanders, has directed my theological 
 studies. I have read Staokhouse's Body of Divinity — Hopkin's 
 
THE WAR JOURNAL, 235 
 
 System — ^Edward's on Eedemption, and other theological works 
 which they have placed before me. 1 have read much for this two 
 years past. The Eev. Mr. Weeks, -of Platfeburg, has assisted me in 
 obtaining books, &o. Indeed, all the Oongregationalist clergy in 
 this quarter seemed to be interested in my welfare. 
 
 ^^ OharhtU (F*.), April 12.— At the hotel of Colonel Wil- 
 liams, I have made my heii-quarters. It is my home. I have a 
 retired room, where I have spent many pleasant hours in reading 
 the Scriptures, and meditations upon that sacred volume. Prayer 
 and praise have been offered to my Creator and bountiful benefac- 
 tor. O, thanks be to God for those happy hours I have enjoyed in 
 communion with him. At the same time, many unhappy hours 
 have I passed, because my sins were set before me. I saw that I 
 was a sinner., I was made to see and feel that unless my heart was 
 sanctified by the Spirit of God, I was none of his. But, by prayer 
 and supplication, 1 was made joyful in the Lord. 
 
 " Charlotte, April 13, 1813. — ^My mind has been in a very com- 
 fortable state since my return to my solitary room — here I would 
 wish to he in communion with my God. 
 
 " The two great contending parties appear to be, for the present, 
 in a tranquil state ; preparing, however, for a severe and bloody 
 conflict. O, that God would be pleased to put an end to all wars, 
 and advance the spiritual kingdom of Christ upon earth. 
 
 " I am again called on by the war department to perform certain 
 duties which are delicate and dangerous in the extreme. I have 
 issued my orders to the whole corps of Bangers, to be in readiness 
 to perform the duties assigned to each of them. This is a terrible 
 and efficient corps in the service of the government. TSo move- 
 ment is made by the enemy but it is known to them. They are 
 constantly, as it were, within the enemy's camp, or on every side 
 of them. Thb corps was embodied by Col. Isaac Clark, of 11th 
 Eegt., in connection with the secretary of war. As to my position 
 with them, my order is final. No appeal can be made from it. 
 They are constantly exposed to martial-law and to death. Their 
 courage, bravery, and fidelity save them, the war department 
 often applauds their daring conduct, and rewards their services 
 with high wages. They are faithful to the government. My 
 orders they are always ready to obey, at which I have often been 
 surprised. When I am absent from the department, Major-Gen. 
 
236 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Mooers takes my place. He was an officer during the Revolution, 
 under his uncle, Ool. Hazen. 
 
 "■PlatWbwrg, April 16.— By the request of the deputy quarter- 
 master, I am, to-morrow, to proceed to Albany. 
 
 ^'■Albarvy, April 19. — 1 had an interview with Governor Tomp- 
 kins, who laid a certain communication before me from the war 
 department, to which I answered, -^th the assistance of Mr. 
 Vanderhayden. It is secret and confidential in its nature. 
 
 ^'Albcmy, April 20.— To-day, again, I had a long conference 
 with the governor, who committed to writing much of my commu- 
 nication, and was highly pleased with my management of certain 
 manoeuvres of the enemy. The quarter-master-general has once 
 more replenished the secret service money. I am to return 
 to-morrow. I called upon the Eev. Mr. Clowes, and had an 
 agreea.Uo interview with him. He presented me some books. 
 
 '■'■ PoultTiey, April 21. — I came to Troy yesterday afternoon, and 
 called upon the Eev. Mr. Butler, an Episcopal clergyman, who 
 labored with me to study the claims of the Episcopal church. It 
 was wholesome advice. I shall attend to his directions. 
 
 " Middleburg, April 22. — I was visited by several officei's, and 
 spent the evening pleasantly With them. Paymaster Sheldon 
 joined our oompanj'. He is an amiable young gentleman. 
 
 " Airlington, Vt., April 25. — The conference with the Eev. Mr. 
 Haskel and President Sanders was serious and affecting. O may I 
 improve them. 
 
 " Plattsburg, May 15. — "We have a melancholy intelligence 
 to-day, that on the attack upon Toronto, Upper Canada, Col. Pike 
 was slain, but that the place was carried and taken on the 27th 
 April. I lament the loss of the amiable and brave Col. Pike. 
 
 '■'■ Plattsburg, Ma/y 18. — ^I was called upon this afternoon by 
 Lieut. Montieth, of the navy, with a note from Commodore 
 McDonough, to meet him and other officers of his station, to-mor- 
 row, at 3 o'clock, in a council of war. Gen. Mooers is unwell. I 
 have had no reports from the Eangers, and I am somewhat con- 
 cerned. I have sent on an express to Champlain, to-day. There 
 are various reports in circulation of the movements of the enemy. 
 The duties assigned to me by the government are arduous and diffi- 
 cult — to the actors, dangerous in the extreme. May they escape 
 detection. If detected they are lost. One of the enemy's secret 
 
THE WAR JOtJBNAt. 
 
 237 
 
 agents is now confined and strongly gnarded. He must, I fear, suf- 
 fer death in accordance with martial-law. 
 
 "Plattshirg, May 19.— My commnnications in the council, yes- 
 terday, were received with attention. Gen. Smith was highly 
 gratified, and ordered something extra to the Bangers, to 
 encourage them in theii- fidelity to the government. The 
 extensive power invested in me, I have endeavored, constantly, to 
 exercise with the greatest' moderation. The great and glorious 
 principles of religion have governed all my acts, as I trust. Thus 
 fer the war department have approved my acts, and also the ofll- 
 oers, with whom I have been immediately connected in these 
 frontiers. Major-Gen. Mooers and Mr. Sailly, of the custcjm depart- 
 ment, have been very useful to me in my movements. 
 
 " Plattsbmg, May 21. — Eeceived communication from the west 
 to-day, which has the appearance that the enemy is meditating an 
 attack upon some posts on Laie Ontario — Oswego or Sacketts 
 Harbour perhaps. 
 
 " Plattsburg, May 23. — I learn, by the Rangers, that Sir George 
 Provost has passed Presoott for Kingston. I have, by express, 
 communicated this to proper officers at Ogdensburg and Sacketts 
 Harbour, and requested the latter to alarm the officer at Oswego. 
 
 " PtoJfoJurg', June 1. — As I expected, information has just 
 reached me, by the Bangers, that the enemy made an attack upon 
 Sacketts Harbour, on the 29th ulto., and wer» defeated by Gen. 
 Brown, with a considerable loss on our side. Cols. Backus and 
 Mills are among the slain. I believe the timely information from- 
 this department, has saved Sacketts Harbour. Would to God that 
 our officers were more vigilant, and the government active in its 
 operations on these frontiers. 
 
 " PlatUiwg, July 3. — ^A heavy cannonading is heard from the 
 north, about 10 o'clock this morning. . Lieut. Sidney Smith, with two 
 armed schooners (the Growler and Eagle), went yesterday to the 
 lines — ^he is undoubtedly attacked. 
 
 " Plattslwg, Juhj 4. — By the Bangers I am informed that at the 
 extreme end of this Lake, Smith met some of the enemy's gun- 
 boats, by whom he was attacked, and pursued so far into the Nar- 
 rows that he could not return with his vessels against the south wind, 
 other heavy gun-boats from the Isle awn Noix attacked him. After 
 a severe resistance, of three hours, against a superior force, he was 
 compelled to surrender. By this unfortunate catastrophe Commo- 
 
238 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 dore MoDonongh ia reduced to a single schooner and a few gun- 
 boats. Lieut. Smith" was imprudent to ventm-e into the Narrows- 
 he was undoubtedly decoyed by the enemy. He is a brave and 
 daring officer. The British are now masters of the Lake. They 
 will, no doubt, soon show this. I was requested by General Mooers 
 to call out the regular troops at Pike's encampment to make their 
 appearance on the Lake shore. They did so. 
 
 " Plattslurg, July 10.— I have information from the Deputy Quar- 
 ter Master, at Albany, that Gen. Wade Hampson is to assume the 
 command of the Northern Army. Strange that the government 
 should appoint southern men to such responsible stations at the 
 north. Gen. Mooers ought to have this appointment, Montreal 
 would be in his possession in a month. He is a brave, judicious, 
 and prudent officer,- and, withal, extremely popular with his feUow- 
 citizens. They would follow him with the gi-eatest cheerfulness. 
 
 " FlatUlurg, July 16. — Some of the St. Regis Indians came in to- 
 day. From them we received some interesting information of the 
 movements of the enemy. Col. Lewis, an influential chief of this 
 tribe is here. He was a confidential friend of Gens. Washington 
 and Schuyler during the Revolution. His friendship is firm to the 
 Americans. He says that the English will be beaten in this war. 
 
 " FlatUlurg, Jul/y 18. — ^I have received from the war department, 
 - through Gov. Tompkins, a communication which, to me, is somewhat 
 curious, and shows how little those great men are acquainted with 
 northern affairs. In my communication to the department I have 
 respectfully represented to the government that the reduction of 
 Montreal, if this is in their contemplation, is to be eflfected by con- 
 centrating its whole force on the Northern Frontiers, at Lake Oham- 
 plain, and force its way by removing the abbatis at the river La 
 Oole to the plains of La Arcadia, where, undoubtedly, in such a 
 case, the first battle would be fought, between the regular armies, 
 on the issue of which will depend the fate of that city, the fortress 
 of Isle Aux Noix, St. Johns, and Chambly, and when Montreal is 
 once occupied, by an American army, the communication between 
 the Upper and Lower Oanadas is out off, the British army, in the 
 upper province, must inevitably die. If it exist it must fight through 
 the American army at Montreal, to reach Quebec. All this, and 
 much more was respectfully submitted to the war department, as I 
 was requested to give my opinion and sentiments on this delicate 
 subject. I was happy to find that Gen. Mooers and the Hon. Judge 
 
THE WAR JOURNAL. 239 
 
 More, of Ohamplain, ooncun-ed fnlly with my opinion, and senti- 
 ments. 
 
 " Plattshurg, July 21. — I have heard several able discourses from 
 the Eev. Mr. Weeks, on the Decrees of God, concerning which I can- 
 not agree with him in every respect. Gen. Mooers seems to submit 
 to them as in accordance with the Scriptures. Gen. Skinner, my 
 particular friend, dissents from them. He pleads the agency of man. 
 He is well versed in the Scriptures, i.e., he retains much in memory. 
 Mr. Nichols, a lawyer, is greatly opposed, he is willing to hcai- the 
 subject discussed. 
 
 " Plattsbwg, July 24.— I am informed by the Eangera that the 
 enemy at St. Johns and Isle aux Noix appeared to be preparing for 
 an immediate expedition, but to what point, of course, it is not 
 known. 
 
 " PlatUiurg, July 25. — ^I received a note from General Hamp- 
 ton's aide-de-camp, last evening, in which I am requested to repair 
 to his camp, and report myself. I am to start to-day by way of 
 Essex. Captain Stevenson had informed me, who had an interview 
 with the General, that he was in a bad humor with my depart- 
 ment. This hastens me to have an interview with him. I under- 
 stand that he is by no means popular with the troops. This is most 
 unfortunate for him and the public service. 
 
 " Plattelurg, July 26. — I was unable to start yesterday on my 
 intended jaunt to Burlington, in consequence of my Teceiving 
 despatches from the War Department which required my iiyne- 
 diate reply. General Mooers has called on me, to inform me that 
 he had an interview to-day with several American merchants, who, 
 by permission, left the Canadian provinces; and learned from them 
 that the enemy were preparing for an expedition. This is only a 
 corroboration of what I knew before. I have apprized the Gene- 
 ral of my intended jaunt to Burlington. 
 
 '■^Burlington, July 30. — I arrived here, this morning, from Char- 
 lotte; and, at eleven o'clock, I had an interview with General 
 Hampton, who, at first, seemed very polite and flattering in his 
 language ; but, in the discussion in regard to his military opera- 
 tions against Canada, he was out of tune. He said, he knew the 
 course he intended to take to be successful in his campaign, that 
 he had fine troops under his command, and that they would do all 
 that he would ask them. But, he was reminded that they were 
 raw troops. Upon this he uttered tremendous oaths, and intimated 
 
240 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 that any man who would hint anything of the kind was not true 
 to the American cause. This hrought on an altercation between 
 the General and myself. I was aware he knew my position with 
 the General Government; and I, knowing at the same time that I 
 was beyond his reach, dared to confront him.' I frankly stated to 
 him that I knew my duty, and should faithfully perform it, 
 as required by the War Department ; and if he did not wish to 
 avail himself of the benefits which my department was capable of 
 rendering to the government, its armies, and generals, I should con- 
 tinue to do my duty. "When the General found I was firm, and 
 stood in no fear of him, he lowered his tone, and said, ' Well, I 
 suppose I must look to you for information.' ' That,' said I, ' you 
 may do as you please. But, you may expect to be attacked by the 
 enemy in a few days.' ' In a few days,' he said, and appeared to 
 be surprised. 'Yes, the enemy are certainly preparing for 
 some expedition. I cannot say to what point.' ' If so,' said he, 
 ' yon will prove to be a true prophet.' With this, I took my leave 
 of the most unpleasant commander of the American army I have 
 met with. 
 
 " Cha/rlotte, July 31. — This mprning I started to return to Platts- 
 burg, and went as far as Grand Isle, at the Bar; there I met, about 
 twelve o'clock, Mr. Myers, who informed me it would be danger- 
 ous to proceed, as the enemy were in force, advancing by water to 
 Plattsbnrg, and he presumed they were already in possession of the 
 placai I, therefore, returned to Burlington and Charlotte. 
 
 '■'■ Plattaburg, August 2. — I returned last evening to my post, and 
 fonnd that the enemy had been here, and no resistance was made 
 to their landing. Their force was twelve hundred men, under the 
 oftmmand of Colonels Murray and Williams, who destroyed all 
 public property, and then wantonly burnt store-houses and the 
 residences of several of the inhabitants. The same day the British 
 flotilla passed Burlington, and threw some shots into the town ; 
 and General Hampton had his five thousand men in battle array, 
 on the bank of the lake, as if he was to be attacked by land. He 
 ought to have had at least a part of his force at Plattsbnrg ; but 
 this is one of the many blunders he has already made in the com- 
 mand of the northern army. 
 
 " My report of this affair to the Department of War, and that of 
 Governor Tompkins, were drawn up in cautious language ; but yet 
 I spoke, somewhat plainly, of ray fears in regard to General Hamp- 
 
THE WAR JOCBNAL. 
 
 241 
 
 ton. I am informed that the Secretary of War will soon be at 
 Saoketts Harhor, to see, himself, the preparations of the grand 
 army, before its descent to the St. Lawrence. 
 
 "■ Flattiiurg, Augmt 10. — There is another important communi- 
 cation ; I say this, although I do not know precisely its language, yet 
 I know its import. I forwarded it to-day, by one of the confiden- 
 tial Rangers, to its destination. I am politely requested to pay no 
 1-egard to General Hampton's rough language — but to aid him to 
 the full extent which my department is capable, which may be of 
 great benefit to the public service. 
 
 " Plattshurg, Avgust 16.— An officer from General Hampton Las 
 been with me to-day, and I have received a certain requisition at 
 his hand. It is somewhat curious, but shall be performed as far as 
 this Department is able to execute it. 
 
 '■'Plattshurg, Augmt 22. — ^I have made out a communication for 
 General Hampton, which I have forwarded to him to-day. The 
 chiefs from St. Kegis have been here, and received their annuity 
 from the people of the State of Few York. "We received from 
 them some important intelligence, in corroboration of that received 
 from the Eangers. They have had a communication from the 
 Oatighnawaga chiefs, which is friendly in its import. The chiefs 
 eispressed to General Mooers their sincere attachment to the 
 American cause. 
 
 "PtofeSargr, September 6. — By communication from the Adjutant 
 General, I perceive General Hampton is soon to make a move from 
 Burlington, for the lines. I am requested by him to reconnoitre 
 the position at La Oule river, and examine the possibility of his 
 penetrating, with the army, from Chantegay Four Comers into 
 Canada. I shall consult with those who are best acquainted with 
 that section of the country, and send some of the Bangers thither. 
 Governor Tompkins has no confidence in General Hampton as a 
 general to command an army. 
 
 " Plattshurg, September 8. — General Mooers has had an interview 
 with General Hampton. Commodore McDonough's flotilla is on 
 the lake. Evening. — I understand that General Hampton is about 
 to move with his army from Bnrlington. I am ordered by him to 
 meet him on his arrival at Cumberland Head. 
 
 " November 9, 1813.— In consequence of a fall from my horse, I 
 have been unable to write until now. EeeapipiilaUon. — As requested, 
 I had an interview with General Hampton, at Cumberland Head. 
 
 11 
 
242 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Through him, I was requested by General Wilkinson, from Sacketts 
 Harbor, to advance within six miles of Ogdensburg, and there 
 remain until further orders — that is, till his arrival, with his army, 
 at that place. To this General Hampton made no objection, but 
 refused that, when there, I should be subjected to the orders of 
 General Wilkinson, and, finally, opposed my going at all. When 
 he saw that the public service required it, he gave me orders to 
 proceed, with positive instructions not to remain there two hours 
 after accomplishing the duty assigned me. In this interview I 
 learned from him the route he intended to take to enter into the 
 British Province — ^the difficulties of which, as well as the many 
 obstacles he would encounter, were he to attempt to reach Mon- 
 treal by that route, were pointed out to him. He was also, in 
 vain, told that the enemy were weak in his front, and that the 
 great road from the river La Oole to the La Acadia plains, and St. 
 Johns, was the only practicable route, at this time, for his army to 
 pass, and the abbatis might be removed by one hundred and fifty 
 axemen, protected by a sufficient corps. If he met any opposition 
 in these woods, it would only be by the Canadian militia and 
 Indians. After reaching the plains, he would contest only with 
 the regulars, which were few, while, by his cannons, he could keep 
 the militia and Indians at a respectful distance from him. By 
 taking this route, he would distract the enemy, and divide their 
 forces so as to favor the descent of the grand army down the St. 
 Lawrence, from Sacketts Harbor. I informed him that, according 
 to the reports of the Eangers, , there were, at this time, at Mon- 
 treal, about two hundred sailors, and three hundred and fifty 
 marines. The numbers of the militia were not known, and some 
 regulars were expected from Quebec. As for the Isle Anx Noix, 
 it might be left untouched, and kept in awe by a strong militia 
 force. It is contrary, indeed, to military rule, to leave an enemy 
 in the rear, yet its position, and the necessity of the case, may jus- 
 tify its infraction. The garrison would be cooped up in the 
 fortress, ofifer us no hinderance, and, if the attack on Montreal be 
 successful, must ultimately surrender. I also told him that great 
 effiarts were made to distract the Indians, and that they had been 
 informed by some of the Eangers, that Montreal is about to expe- 
 rience the fate which happened to it in 1760, when it surrendered 
 to two armies, under Generals Amherst and Haviland, one of which 
 advanced by way of the St. Lawrence, and the other by that of 
 
THE ■WAR JOURNAL. 243^ 
 
 Lake Champlain— that the Americans have no desire to shed their 
 blood, nor do they even ask them to esponse their cause ; but their 
 object is to save them, if they continue neutral, from the horrors 
 of war, educate their children, and make them, like themselves, 
 happy, through the influence of Christianity and civilization, -while 
 the British Government occupy their land, but give them no pay- 
 ment for the same. They were staggered by this intelligence, and 
 great dissension was produced, in the midst of which the Kangers 
 made a narrow escape. 
 
 "Having communicated all this to the General, I left Mm and 
 his army near Champlain, I proceeded to the place of my des- 
 tination. I called upon the Hon. Pliney Moore, and consulted 
 with him upon certain points. The information he gave was very 
 useful. He is one of the most honorable gentlemen in these parts, 
 although his political sentiments may be different from those of the 
 present administration, yet he is a true friend to his country, and 
 will do all in his power to maintain its honor. At Chantegay 4 
 Qorners, I was, for the first time, since my coming on these fron- 
 tiers, alarmed for my safety. By a confidential friend I received 
 information, that the enemy's scouts were frequently seen on the 
 lines in that quarter, and had occasionally approached the great 
 road from Plattsburg to Malone — ^the commander had also inadver- 
 tently hinted the object of his being in that neighborhood, and 
 actually employed one of the inhabitants to inform him, should I 
 again appear there — but the person being faithful to his country, to 
 prevent any mischief happening to me, communicated the intelli- 
 gence to one of the Rangers, and sent also the news to Plattsburg, 
 which I had not received. It was supposed, at the time, that the 
 scouts were then in my front, and to avoid coming in contact with 
 them, I lost no time in procuring a hunter or woodsman, as he 
 styled himself, for a guide. Vith him and my waiter I took a 
 pathless route through a dreary wilderness, and at night, like a 
 true son of the forest, made my lodging beside a log, with my 
 cloak for my covering, and my valise for a pUlow. Next day, by 
 ten o'clock, I was beyond reach of those who songht my life. 
 Prom the French Mills I sent a confidential agent to Prescott, to 
 obtain information of the movements of the enemy. I then 
 discovered, as I supposed, one of the enemy's emissaries, but on 
 examination I found he was, more or less, connected with one of 
 our Eangers. I exhorted him to be faithful or his life would be 
 
244 THE tOST PRINCE. 
 
 forfeited. I went to Malone and back to the French Mi)l9. The 
 British agents were temporizing with our Indians. Okpt. David 
 Irwin, who commands the post at the French Mills, does what he 
 can to keep the Indians faithful to the United States. They are 
 fed, and draw rations from the post, an arrangement which I had 
 much difficulty to effect in 1812, with the government, but finally 
 accomplished it, with the assistance of Gens. Dearborn, Mooers, 
 and Tompkins. 
 
 " On my return from the west, I found Gen. Hampton and 
 his army at Ohautegay. As the duty assigned me rendered it 
 necessary that I should be at Plattsburg, at a certain time, I left 
 him, having received orders to join him in four days. 
 
 " At Bobinson's Inn, within twelve miles from Plattsburg, one of 
 the Rangers reported to me that. Gen. Hampton had already made 
 demonstration of entering Canada, at Champlain, but that his 
 movements were yet a subject of mystery to the enemy, who 
 watched him, and that in anticipation of his entering somewhere 
 at the west into the province. Sir George Provost was throwing 
 his forces into St. Louis, on the south side of the St. Lawrence, 
 and that the Canadian militia were called out in mass, to oppose 
 the American army — that the Indians were not to be relied on by 
 the British, though Sir John Johnson had lately held a council 
 with them, and exhorted them to be faithful to His Majesty's 
 cause, and co-operate with their forces against the common 
 enemy. I have 'information as to the strength of the regular 
 troops at Montreal and La Prairie. I communicated the news to 
 Gen. Hampton. On account of duty I was not able to join him 
 till 10th October. The St. Eegis Indians were in his army on 
 20th August, had been ordered to be in readiness to serve the 
 government. On 26th, it was reported to him that they were 
 under arms, and ready to march to meet the enemy. 
 
 Capt. Irwin, of the F. Mills, opposed the requisition of the Gene- 
 ral, on the ground that the government did not wish them to inter- 
 fere in the contest, but was strong enough to handle the enemy 
 herself. She wished them to stay at home in peace, and protect 
 their wives and children, and she would feed them. But itjwas 
 overruled. The plea was retaliation. The British had employed 
 the Indians in the west, and their cruelties called for vengeance ; 
 besides, the friendly part of the St. Eegis Indians were anxious to 
 co-operate with the American army. When this subject was 
 
THE WAR JOUKNAt. 
 
 245 
 
 BrougM"beroi'e me; my Situation was delicate in the extreme, as I 
 knew the sentiments of the government in 1812, and had no inti- 
 mation of any change. Gen. Hampton had given me no informa- 
 tion of his intentions to arm the Indians. I immediately made 
 inquiry of Gov. Tomptins and the war department. The answers 
 put an end to my anxiety. The Indians were permitted to co- 
 operate with the American army, and did so as scouts. On the 
 mne day, 19 Oct., as hefore stated, I found the General. It was 
 reported there was a detachment of the enemy at Cornwall, ready 
 to fall upon his rear, which the enemy could do within thirty-six 
 hours. To ascertain the truth I was. despatched, on the 20th, 
 towards St. Regis, and an officer to another part. The General 
 intends to enter into Canada once more. T perceive he regrets that 
 he did not enter Canada hy way of La Cole and La Arcadia, as he 
 was recommended by this departipent. He little understands the 
 many difficulties he will encounter. He sees now the obstacles 
 which were formerly represented to him, by the route he is now 
 taking. He appears to have little reliance on the discipline and 
 perseverance of his troops. On my return to the Four Corners, on 
 the 26th, a note was handed me from the General, requesting me 
 to join him without delay ; so, after having obtained fresh horses, I 
 proceeded with all speed in search of him. On my arrival at head- 
 quarters, I found there had been a shai-p skirmish between his 
 advanced corps and the enemy. About this time a council of war 
 was held, where several communications were presented to the 
 council for their consideration, which eventuated in the falling back 
 of the army to its former position. The disclosures were somewhat 
 extraordinary,- from the tone and temper of the commanders towards 
 each other. There was great discord in their views with regard to 
 their military operations, which was highly detrimental to the pub- 
 lic service. In the close of the day succeeding that on which I 
 joined the armj-, I was informed that an express had just come in 
 from the west, and it was not long before I was requested to 
 appear hefore the General. After an hour's conference, I left him, 
 to meet Gen. Wilkinson, according to his orders, at Morristown and 
 ■■vOgdensburg. Tor this purpose, at 11 o'clock at night I left the 
 camp with a dragoon and my waiter. On the 6th Nov. I met Gen. 
 Wilkinson and his army above Ogdensburg, by whose orders I 
 I'eturned the same day down the river as far as St. Regis. Some of 
 those Indians who had put themselves tinder the protection of the 
 
246 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 United States, were employed by him to act aa pilots to his numerous 
 boats, on their passage down the Long Sault Eapids, and by whose 
 guidance not a single boat miscarried. Mr. W. Gray, the interpreter, 
 aided me in this mattof and came up with them. On the 10th 
 instant, at night, I returned to the Long Sault, and so on, and, early 
 the next morning, had an interview, with the General, who was at 
 this time confined to his barge, by indisposition. Just at the close 
 of the conference the cannonading commenced between the British 
 and American gun-boats, upon which, after receiving his instruction, 
 I retired. The battle of Ghrystlers Farm, as it is called, soon after 
 commenced on the opposite shore. The sight was grand as well as 
 terrific. The cannonading on the water, and the musketry on land 
 was kept up for a time- with great spirit and resolution on both 
 sides. 
 
 " Agreeably to my instruction I hastened to Plattsburg, and took 
 the French Mills on my way, where I remained time enough to 
 complete certain arrangements which were necessary to be made for 
 the benefit of the St. Eegis Indians. 
 
 " On my arrival at Plattsburg I found the place was already occu- 
 pied by a portion of the Northern army. 
 
 " Plattsburg, Nov. 29. — I have made an arrangement with Gen. 
 Mooers, in relation to my department, and I am preparing once 
 more to cross the Lake, for my old quarters at Charlotte. The 
 enemy is rejoicing to see that our armies are gcSing into winter-quar- 
 ters. Peace be with him. 
 
 " Ohwrlotte, Dee. 2. — I am informed by several officers to-day, from 
 Wilkinson's army, that Ool. IT. Pinkney was sent to arrest Gen. 
 Hampton, but timely information wiis given him by a confiden- 
 tial friend, at the French Mills, which enabled him to elude the 
 above officer. The moment, as it were, he received the intelligence, 
 he resolved to decamp, and, fortunately for him, a steamer had just 
 come into the port, which, without delay, he pressed into the public 
 service, and was soon on his way for Whitehall. Thus, he escaped 
 from being arrested, his sword taken from him, and the northern 
 climate which, it is said (as a southern man), he dreads more than 
 the enemy . 
 
 " The General is a gentleman of warm temperament, on account 
 of which, he may have sometimes given unnecessary ofience to those 
 who have a jaundiced eye upon his private acts and military opera- 
 tions. He has, undoubtedly, erred in the latter, and this, not from 
 
THE WAR JOrRNAL. 
 
 247 
 
 the heart, but in judgment, and for adhering too mndi to igno- 
 rant and evil advisers, but he is a brave and good oflSoer, who sin- 
 cerely wishes to sustain the honor of his country. May his noble 
 son (who is acting as his aide-de-camp), imitate his honored father, 
 in his patriotism.. 
 
 " Charlotte, Dee. 4-— The cold weather has commenced with all 
 its severity, in this northern climate. My health is extremely feeble 
 — ^this, I trust, is for my good — it reminds me of the uncertainty of 
 my existence here — and, oh, that I may improve my time in prepa- 
 ration for the world to come. merciful God, fit and p^repare me 
 for death and judgment. My father and brother are with me here 
 — Ool. Williams has just returned from his command, at the Lines, 
 several officers are with him. 
 
 " OJmrlotte, Dec. 8. — I have been at Buflington, and met with 
 one of our Gangers, and I have his report, which is so important 
 that I have communicated it to the war department, and partially to 
 the commanding officer at Burlington, who will communicate the 
 same to the officer at Plattsbnrg. I have received a letter from 
 Jri'dge Ford of Ogdensburgh, who makes certain inquiries of me, about 
 which I am unable, at present, to give him information. I have 
 received also a letter from Mr. Hastings at the French Mills, in rela- 
 tion to the rations issued by him. I shall write to the Commissary- 
 General. 
 
 *' OTiarlotte, Dec. 11. — I have written to Mr. Hastings to delay his 
 determination until I can hear from the commissariat department. 
 
 " GJiarlotte, Dec. 14. — 1 am requested by Gov. Tompkins to repair 
 to Albany, and shall go thither as soon as my present engagements 
 permit. Captain McNeil, of the 11th Regt., and Col. Fassett called 
 upon me, and had a pleasant interview. 
 
 " Oharhtte, Dec. 15.— I am requested by the commanding officer 
 at Plattsburg, and Gen. Mooers, to visit that post without delay. I 
 start to-day, altHbugh I am somewhat feeble, yet the urgency of the 
 request impels me to go. 
 
 ''Plattsburg, Dec. IT.— Had an interview with the commanding 
 officer, in presence of Gen. Mooers and Mr. Sailly. The object of my 
 call was arranged, and I hope it will be beneficial to the public 
 service. 
 
 " Cha/rlotte, Dee. 18.~Just returned from Plattsburg. I am 
 greatly fatigued, and- have suffered much from the oold, being on 
 horseback. My waiter is «ick. My father. Col ■Williams, and Major 
 
248 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Btone, are in high spirits — they haveheen out on a chase, and killed 
 two foxes. There is to be a ball this evening, I am invited to attend 
 — but no ! My Bible shall be my company this evening, and may 
 God give me a heart to understand His holy word. 
 
 " Charlotte^ Dec. 11— I intend to start for Albany to-morrow 
 morning in a stage. How many things at present come in my way, 
 which disturb my feelings, in my religious meditations. Much of 
 it is, perhaps, my own fault, that my communion with my Heavenly 
 Father is not so close as it might be. O, how sweet it is when I 
 am with Him by prayer and in reading His holy word. Come, thou 
 Holy Spirit, take possession of my soul, kindle there Thy sacred fire 
 — warm my cold heart — stir me up to devote my whole self, and all 
 my time and talents to the glory of my God and Saviour. Sanctify 
 my heart by Thy divine influence, and make me a true child of God. 
 
 my God I once more give up myself to Thee, and wilt thou accept 
 of me, unworthy as I am, but for Christ's sake have mercy upon me 
 and mine in the Saviour. 
 
 "I had a long conversation with my father upon religion, this 
 evening — it was pleasant to me. 
 
 "uiZJamy, December 23, 1813. — I arrived here greatly fatigued. 
 
 1 had a pleasant interview with the Rev. Mr. Clowes. Our con- 
 versation was much upon the church, its discipline, and govern- 
 ment. Lieutenant-Governor Taylor came in the course of the even- 
 ing, and was somewhat urgent upon me to attach myself to the 
 Episcopal Church. 
 
 '■'■ Alba/ny, December 24. — I had an interview with Governor 
 Tompkins, who had received communications from the War Depart- 
 ment, in relation to my corps, which were flattering to my depart- 
 ment, and urging its continuance. But this is uncertain, as the 
 corps complain for want of more pay, and I have not been able to 
 give them a satisfactory answer. It is a wonder thus far that they 
 have not been caught by the enemy — their life is in their own 
 hands. They know their fale, if taken. 
 
 '■'■Albany, December 25. — I heard a Christmas discourse from the 
 Kev. Mr. Clowes — it was an excellent sermon — took a Christmas 
 dinner with Lieutenant-Governor Taylor. In the evening went 
 to Mr. Walsh's, and spent the evening pleasantly with a small 
 party. 
 
 '■'■December 30. — ^I had an interview with the Commander-in- 
 chief, and several officers. 
 
THE WAE JOURKAL. 249 
 
 "•■December 31. — Made ray report as I received it from the Ban- 
 gers. In the evening, Governor. Tompkins revealed to me the 
 intentions of the government, either to attack Prescot or Montreal. 
 Tliere was along discussion on this delicate point. By the reports 
 of the Eangers, Prescot was a strong fortress, and to succeed in 
 taking it there must be a regular siege, perhaps, it will take ten or 
 fifteen days; whereas, Montreal was much weaker, and it being the 
 second city in the lower province, if conquered, would redound 
 . more to the honor of the American arras, than the conquest of 
 Prescot. It was left to the Coramander-in-ohief of the New York 
 forces to make his choice in regard to an attack. 
 " December 31.— I am to start for Plattsbnrg this afternoon. 
 •■•^ Burlington, January 3, 1814.— Reached here this evening, 
 greatly fatigued from the roughness of the roads and the cold I 
 experienced on the way. I have great reason to bless Grod that I 
 am still in the land of the living, and see the commencement of 
 another year. May I live a new year unto righteousness. 
 
 " January 4. — Had an interview with the commandant of the 
 post,'Who appeared to be alarmed at the movements of the enemy, 
 on the lines. But, by the reports of the Ranger, who met me here, 
 I learn that the detachment hovering on the lines is a corps of 
 observation. 
 
 " Plattsburg, January 6. — Several of the Rangers have come in, 
 whose reports are not worth observation. The enemy is strength- 
 ening his fortress at the Isle Aux Noix; forty-five Indians are 
 encamped in the neighborhood. 
 
 ''^Plattsburg, January 8. — The troops here are at their ease. 
 Tbey have now good quarters. Colonel Smith commands the post. 
 ^'■Plattsburg, Janiia/ry 13. — I had an interview with General 
 Mooers. I have received an important communication from the 
 Department of War, which impells me to repair to the French 
 Mills. 
 
 '■'■Fre/ruih Mills, January 15. — General Wilkinson's army have 
 occupied this post, a portion of which have already moved to 
 Malone, and others will soon follow them. This was an unfortu- 
 nate campaign. For a soathern man to be put at the head of the 
 northern army, is considered by the public prints to be one among 
 the many en-ors that the present administration have ocjmmitted. 
 To put this army, on the 1st liovember, in motion for a campaign, 
 was preposterous beyond calculation. The Secretary of War, on 
 
 n* 
 
250 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 his visit to Sacketts Harbor, was duly apprized of this — but no 
 attention was paid to the representations of my department. The 
 hints I have received, that the remarks made upon them were, that 
 government was determined to commence the campaign — as its 
 army was organized, and its transportation was ready— and more, 
 it must. In vain, the lateness of the season was represented, and 
 the difficulty of conveying such an army down the St. Lawrence, 
 on account of the many and dangerous rapids it had to pass. It 
 was apprehended that by these and the climate, more men 
 would be destroyed than by the sword of the enemy — as was the 
 case in Bonaparte's campaign to Russia. As was expected by 
 this department, the campaign ended without accomplishing its 
 object. 
 
 " Plattsbv/rg, Jam/g. 20. — By the request of Gen. Wilkinson, the 
 fortress at Isle Aux Noix, is more closely to be examined, and its 
 strength ascertained. In accordance with this, I have issued my 
 orders to the Rangers — also the Stone Mill, on the river La Oole, 
 which the enemy occupied as a guard-house, is to be examined. 
 
 " Plattsbvrg, Jany. 24. — Although I am in the midst of the din 
 of war, yet I do not forget my duty to my God. This day has 
 been consecrated by me as a day of humiliation, fasting, and 
 prayer, for my sins of omission and commission. It has been a 
 blessed day with me — what can be more happy to a sinful creature 
 than a close communion with God ? I have found one officer only 
 who can and does pray — he spent the evening with me in prayer 
 and praise to Almighty God, for his merciful care of us, and the 
 religious privileges that we eqjoyed. All sorts and conditions of 
 men were remembered. 
 
 " Plattsburg, Jany. 26. — Received a letter from Col. Brady, at 
 Sacketts Harbor, who distrusts the fidelity of the St. Regis 
 Indians to this government — I have referred him for his satisfac- 
 tion to the commandant of the post at French Mills. I am not 
 aware of the cause of his mistrust, but it shall be attended to, and 
 I have hinted it to the Commissary Hastings, at the place. 
 
 " Februa/ry 4.— By the orders of the General, I am to repair to 
 Burlington — thence to Swanton Falls, and approach Mississiquoi 
 Bay, as far as it may be practicable and safe to my person. 
 
 '■'■February 8, Orand Isle.— I have thus far returned fi-om a 
 jaunt of observation — passed last midnight at Aburgh, where we 
 were flred upon, but received no injury from it. Our horses 
 
THE WAR JOUBNAL. 251 
 
 suffered much, as they were pushed at a great rate on the ice, to 
 avoid our being overhauled by the enemy's dragoons. We were 
 too fleet for them, as we had the start. 
 
 " Plattsturg, F^uary 9. — Made my report to the General, who 
 was satisfied. I perceived, in this interview, he Intends to invade 
 Canada this winter. 
 
 " Plattsburg, February 13. — There was a council of war. Gen. 
 Mooers was requested to attend. I was called upon to make cer- 
 tain statements, which I did. The council were divided. Invasion 
 of Canada was the subject of this discussion. Three routes were 
 pointed out to the council. It was finally conclnded, to attack the 
 Stone Mill on river La Cole. 
 
 " Plattshwff, Febniary 2T. — I was called by the secretary of war 
 to state the strength of the fortress at Isle Aux Noix, and the 
 practicability of its being forced if an attack was made immediately, 
 and when the information is obtained to communicate the same to 
 General Wilkinson. The information desired was soon obtained — 
 although the strength of that fortress was well known before — yet 
 in ctsmpliance with the requisition of the war department, 
 re-examination was made, and further information gained as to the 
 force of the enemy at that place — St. Johns, Chambly, La Prairie, 
 and Montreal. On the occasion, one of the Bangers was taken 
 upon suspicion of the object of his visit, but, fortunately for 
 him, escaped. 
 
 " PlatUiurg, March 5. — A partial report was made to the 
 General. By this he was sure of his game. Many detachments 
 had been preparing for some days for an expedition. 
 
 " March the 6th. — The final report was made of the information 
 received of the Bangers. There was a discussion between the 
 General and myself, as to the expediency of the immediate attack 
 of the aforementioned fortress. The General was referred to the 
 reports, and, at the same time, reminded of the difficulties and 
 obstacles he and his army might encounter should he attempt it. 
 He contemplated an attack upon the Stone Mill, whose walls were 
 strong, and would resist the six pounders he intended to take — so, 
 to succeed, it would he necessary for him to take several pieces of 
 heavier calibre, say, eighteen and twenty-four pounders to batter 
 down the walls of the Mill, and those pieces of ordnance ought to 
 be mounted upon sleds, to make it easy for their transportation, 
 and to have their carriages accompanying them, and used when 
 
252 THE tOST PRINCE. 
 
 necessary. To this the General remarked, that he had ordered 
 one eighteen pounder on a carriage, and several field pieces to 
 accompany this detachment. He was again reminded, that if suc- 
 cessful in his intended attack upon the Stone Mill, as he would be 
 then in the neighborhood of Isle Aux Koix, it was presumed, his 
 next attack would be upon that fortress — and if so, it was of the 
 greatest importance to his success there, that his fire of artillery 
 should be superior to the enemy. The fort must be destroyed by 
 his artillery, as it would be preposterous to attempt to take it by 
 storming, since it was doubly fortified at present — as the fort 
 stands on tlie island, and care is taken every day that the ice is 
 broken, and moved for thirty feet all round the island, and this 
 must be surmounted before the ramparts of the fort can be reached 
 and attacked. Its ramparts are well protected by heavy guns and 
 three small batteries. The General appeared to be somewhat dis- 
 concerted with the first obstacle, viz. the water all round the fort. 
 
 "It was again represented, if a regular siege was intended upon 
 that fort, he would meet many difficulties — and that if the place 
 was not taken by the point of the bayonet, it must be by a heavy 
 cannonading — to raise redoubts, at present, for his heavy pieces, 
 would be a great labor, as the ground was then in a frozen state. 
 But the General could not see there were any hinderances to his 
 intended invasion. The honor of the army must be retrieved. - 
 
 " Plattaburg, Ma/rch ?■.— To-day I communicated to the War Depart- 
 ment the hints which were given to General Wilkinson, and one, in 
 short, to Governor Tompkins. I am happy to find that General 
 Mooers' sentiments coincide entirely with mine, in every point 
 which was suggested to General Wilkinson. If I am not mistaken, 
 the General will find there were some truths in the friendly sug- 
 gestions made to him. 
 
 '■'■ Plattsbv/rg, March 8. — I am indisposed to-day, and as this 
 indisposition has been increasing for more than two months,! have 
 concluded to visit Dr. Pomeroy, at Burlington. 
 
 " Bwrlington, 28. — I am now convalescent, my nerves have been 
 deeply affected by a cold I took at Plattsburg. My nervous system 
 is in a feeble state, and my eyes are so weak that I am unable to 
 read. Grant, merciful God, that this sickness may have the effect 
 of weaning me from the world, and bringing me in deep humility 
 and repentance to thee. Restore, O Lord, my health to me, and 
 may my future life be devoted to thy glory. My friends from 
 
THE WAR JOCRNAL. 253 
 
 Charlotte have been kind and attentive. The Kev. Mr. Haskell, of 
 that place, has been attentive as a good pastor. I bless God for 
 his goodness and loving-kindness to me, his unworthy creature. 
 
 ^^ Surlington, April 3.-I have, watched, with intense anxiety, 
 all the movements of General Wilkinson. He failed in his adven- 
 ture- of the Stone Mill, at the river La Cole. Without a military 
 eye, and due preparation in the artillery, &c., it could not be other- 
 wise than a defeat. They had a sufficient force in the field to have 
 taken the Mill, at least, but were discomfitted and compelled to 
 retreat before an inferior number of the enemy. Much praise is 
 due to Major Hancock, of the British, for his noble defence of the 
 post assigned him. This is the second disgrace General Wilkinson 
 has brought on the American arms. If court-marshalled, he wonld 
 not escape from being cashiered. The government may assist to 
 screen him from a public censure. 
 
 '^ PUttsburg, April 12.— General Izard, I nnderstand, is to 
 assume the opmmand of the northern army; a goodly number of 
 troops are here. Saw General Mooers bnt a few minutes. I am to 
 call upon him to-morrow. 
 
 " Plattsiurg, 29.— I have been on the lines, by the request of 
 the commandant of the post. I have been absent six days. I moved 
 
 much with the movements of the enemy. Sent despatches to , 
 
 confidential in their nature. 
 
 " PlaiUburg, May 4. — ^I have been indisposed for a considerable 
 time, yet I am able to perform my duties. 
 
 "Jfoy 13. — Had an interview with General Izard, and was 
 pleased to learn from him ttat he would rely on any information 
 that may be communicated to him from my department. The 
 Eanger was introduced to him, whom he exhorted to be faithfu 
 to his duty. 
 
 " Plattsiurg, May 16. — ^Dined with General Mooers, Judge More, 
 General Woolsey, and Mr. Sailly. There was a long discussion 
 among the gentlemen, of the past military operations on these 
 frontiers. 
 
 " These gentlemen are my confidential friends, and mnoh prwse 
 is due to them for their patriotism to their country. They were 
 of great service to me, on various occasions, aud in some instances 
 their advice was of the greatest importance to my department. 
 
 " Plattsburg, May 20. — ^The same gentlemen mentioned on the 
 16th, met me at the house of General Woolsey, and half the day 
 
254 THE LOST PEINCK. 
 
 was spent in discussion upon the future military operations on these 
 frontiers. With my approbation, a long document was produced 
 and read, showing the present commander of the northern army 
 his course, and the only one which was considered to be feasible for 
 him to pursue, in order to his success over the enemy. I must 
 confess the document was an admirable one, and well calculated to 
 call the attention of the General to many important points which 
 were suggested therein. I readily concluded it was the united opi- 
 nion' of the gentlemen present, as they highly recommended the 
 sentiments and suggestions expressed in the document ; I myself 
 joined with them in the propriety of adhering to it. It was 
 finally hinted, whether I did not think it would be for the good of 
 the public service, and the honor of the American arms, to present the 
 same to Gen. Izard, for his inspection and consideration. I replied, 
 ' Gentlemen, you are northern men. You have critically observed 
 the movements of the former disastrous campaigns. Tou have 
 seen with pain the great faults that were committed by those to 
 whom the American armies were intrusted. Your patriotism to 
 your country and anxiety to sustain her honor, has led you to sug- 
 gest many important points which may prove to be of great service 
 to the General. The document' not only reveals the errors that 
 were committed by the former commanders, but most judiciously 
 points out the course that may be pursued by the present commander, 
 in order to his success. I shall with pleasure present the paper to 
 General Izard, if I am permitted to do so. I presume, gentlemen, 
 he will duly appreciate its contents, and he may be benefited by 
 them.' 
 
 " The document was presented at a proper time. 
 
 " Mwy 26. — I was called upon by the General, in relation to the 
 paper which I had presented him, with which he was pleased. 
 
 " PlatUlurg, June 3. — There is a report that General Izard will 
 move a portion of his army to Ohazy or Champlain. I have no 
 intimation of the kind, as yet, from him. 
 
 " JtiTie 8.— I have forwarded a certain communication to the war 
 department, which is confidential .in its import. 
 
 '■'■June 12. — I have received a communication from Governor 
 Tompkins, asking for an information in relation to the St. Regis 
 Indians. I perceive an attempt is made to stop the rations which 
 have been issued to them by the General Government. The 
 Governor is friendly to them. I called upon Gen. Mooers and Mr. 
 
THE WAK JOUEKAL. 255 
 
 Sailly, to sustain me in this matter, and they have done it to my 
 satisfaction. 
 
 •' June 14. — Commissary Hastings, from the post at the French 
 Mills, called upon me this afternoon, who is somewhat alarmed lest 
 his issuing the rations to the Indians should be discontinued by the 
 government. He was informed, that an exertion was making for 
 its continuance. I advised him to repair to Albany, and have an 
 interview with the general of the commissariat department, whom 
 I addressed once more upon the subject. Mr. Hastings has gone 
 to Albany. 
 
 " June 21. — Some of the St. Eegis Indians came in yesterday. 
 The intelligence they have communicated is somewhat exaggerated. 
 The enemy is, no doubt, active in his preparation, either for the 
 invasion or self-defence. 
 
 " The gun-boat, on the Lake of St. Francis, is somewhat trouble- 
 some to the American inhabitants on the shores of the St. 
 Lawrence. This department has recommended its being taken or 
 destroyed. It is now, as I understand, in preparation of being 
 efeoted. The volunteers from the post at the French Mills, may be 
 drafted for this expedition. One of the lieutenants from the navy 
 of Lake Champlain, will be put at the head of the detachment. I 
 have had several interviews with the Commodore McDonough 
 upon the subject, who approves the plan. May the expedition be 
 as successful as Major Young was upon St. Eegis, in 1812. 
 
 '■^ PlattsJmrg, July 4. — This has been a festival day with the 
 citizens here. I dined with them ; Capt. Sperry, appeared conspicnons 
 on the occasion. Mr. Sailly, of the revenue department, delivered a 
 handsome and eloquent speech at the table, which was highly 
 applauded. He is a French gentleman of great i'espectability. 
 
 " July 10. — I am preparing to visit the lines. Three Indians are 
 to accompany me. 
 
 ^^ Evening.— I visited the American camp at Chazy, and was 
 treated politely by the officers— passed to Mooerstown, and am 
 now lodging in the woods or wilderness. Here I met a certain 
 messenger, and received from him despatches, and obtained from 
 him many particulars of the movements of the enemy, "&c., 
 among others, that they are daily expecting to receive reinforce- 
 ment from Europe, as Bonaparte has ceased to be a terror to the 
 European powers, so that the troops can now be spared from the 
 continental service. Thus we may now expect to contend with 
 
256 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 the Duke of Wellington's heroes— but the American army is now, 
 in a measure, organized, and they will meet them, as they did in 
 the Eevolutionary War. There will he hard battles fought this 
 season on these frontiers. The army is now in fine order, and 
 eager to meet the enemy. 
 
 '■'■July 20. — A commnnfpation has been presented to me from 
 Gen. Izard, which has greatly disturbed my feelings. I immedi- 
 ately sent to the General, requesting him, to have the goodness to 
 give me the name of the author, or he might be seized under the 
 martial-law, and have him sent to me for investigation of his 
 reports. I asked this favor of the General, as I considered the 
 subject came within my department. 
 
 " July 23. — Gen. Izard was pleased to send the person, under 
 the guard of two, dragoons. The paper was placed before him 
 which he had presented to the General. He was mute, and his 
 eyes fixed upon the paper. He was questioned, but no reply. He 
 was told that his life and death was in his own hands, as there was 
 a strong suspicion of what he was, and who employed him — that 
 although by the military law of this government, he was exposed 
 to death, if convicted of what is charged upon him, or what he 
 is supposed to be ; but if he would candidly confess and declare 
 his object in making such representations as he does in the paper 
 before him, he may hope for mercy. 
 
 " He saw his escape was hopeless, and to save himself, there were 
 disclosures made of the intrigues of the enemy with the American 
 citizens on the lines, which astonished this department. Certain 
 oflacers, in the Indian department, are seeking to seize my person, 
 &o. The disclosures made, just stated, are seasonable and important 
 at this period of the war. The plan of the enemy, had it been 
 effected, would have been most mischievous to the military opera- 
 tions of the northern army, but the discovery was so important, it 
 compelled me to have an interview with the General, which lasted 
 about two hours. It was a delicate and difScult subject — although 
 his case was remediless in the view of martial law — yet mercy pre- 
 vailed, for several important reasons it was concluded it would be 
 most politic and conducive to the American cause, to dismiss, as 
 easily and as silently as possible, the person in question. He was, 
 therefore, permitted to depart, after receiving from him a pledge to 
 be at peace — with a strong caution, from this department, to be ijuiet 
 and withhold his hands from the concerns of the war. Names were 
 
> THE WAR JOURNAL. 257 ' 
 
 obtained of the American citizens (some of these were smugglers 
 from Massachusetts), who were actually in league with the enemy 
 — conveying to them secret intelligence of our position and strength. 
 In consequence of the foregoing, I immediately issued an order to 
 the whole corps of the Rangers to have a watchful eye upon the 
 persons named in the order. Ndmes also were obtained of the 
 enemy's secret agents in Canada — they were to be looked after, and 
 taken if they were found within the American lines. 
 
 " July 25. — I am mnch indisposed In consequence of the warm 
 weather we now experience. Commodore Macdonough called upon 
 me for information (if in my power), of the naval force of the enemy 
 at Isle aux Noix, which I was not able to give him. 
 
 " I have been just informed that some troops have arrived at Que- 
 bec, from Europe, but the report, however, is somewhat vague. 
 
 '■'■July 30— Dr. Moore has been with me for this three days past, 
 being so much indisposed. I am, however, somewhat better to-day. 
 The General and some of his oflBcers have called upon me, and very 
 kindly tendered their services, for which they have my sincere 
 thanks. 
 
 " Plattsburg, August 3. — By the Bangers, the enemy's largest ship 
 is in a fair way to be soon completed. I have reported this to Com- 
 modore Macdonough. Mr. Macdonough is the only navy officer, I 
 have found who appears to be pious, and attends upon the divine 
 institutions. 
 
 " August 9. — There is a report that General Izard is soon to move 
 with a portion of the northern army to the Niagara frontier ; if so, 
 this will be another blunder of the present administration. I have 
 sent one of the Eangers to Gen. Izard according to his request. 
 
 ^^ Augu^t.liO. — ^I have ascertained to-day that a portion of the 
 northern army is to move to the Niagara frontier, to fill up the loss 
 which Gen. Brown had sustained atChippeway and Lundy's Lane. 
 
 "August IS. — I have received communication from the war 
 department through Governor Tompkins, in which I find that the 
 determination of the government in the removal of the northern 
 aiTny from this quarter, is a most extraordinary step in the-military 
 policy. It is well known that the enemy is receiving reinforcements 
 from Europe. Already it is believed there is a considerable force 
 in the vicinity of Montreal. If our army is withdrawn from this 
 post, the enemy may invade this section of the country and attack 
 Plattsburg. 
 
■ 258 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 " August 14. — The General has comniumcated to me, that it is 
 the final order of the government for his taking a line of march for 
 Sacketts Harbor— thence on board of the fleet for Niagara. 
 
 " Kow, this is most impolitic, as well as contrary to the military 
 tactics, to leave such an important post as Plattsburg, just at tliis 
 time, where the governihent has' everything here to sustain the cam- 
 paign. Artillery of various calibre, abundance of munition of war, 
 provisions and arms for ten thousand men, YOO batteaui complete 
 for use, and a navy ready for action. I am sornewhat disheartened 
 with the manoeuvres, and errors of the government. Commodore 
 Maodonough is greatly chagrined at the intentions of the government 
 in regard to this matter. 
 
 ^^ August 15. — In the warmth of my feelings to sustain the Ame- 
 rican flag, I have addressed the war department, through Governor 
 Tompkins, in which I respectfully remonstrated against the policy of 
 the government, in withdrawing the troops from this quarter, and 
 forewarned them that the enemy may besiege Plattsburg. 
 
 " August 16. — As I have anticipated, so I am informed that the 
 British are now assembling their troops at La Prairie and La Acadia 
 plains, and that their object is for the invasion of the State of New 
 York. 
 
 " August 18. — The northern army is now in motion to the place 
 of its destination. I remarked to the General, that I feared, that by 
 this move of the government, they were taking from him all the 
 glory of. beating the enemy — with this he appeared to be greatly 
 moved — and remarked, he was a soldier, and must obey his superiors ; 
 but he observed, with a placid smile on his countenance, ' Friend 
 "Williams, you ought to be at the head of the war department, instead 
 of those who now control the armyi' 
 
 " August 19. — General Macombe will be left with one thousand 
 five hundred men to protect and defend this important post. I had 
 a long interview with him. I did not wish to alarm him, but hinted 
 that his post may be in danger of an attack from the enemy. Ht 
 thought there was but little danger of this, especially when the enemy 
 shall be informed of General Izai-d's march for the west, and if they 
 had any troops to spare from Montreal, they will send them up to 
 oppose him on the Niagara frontier. 
 
 " Thu.s ended my first interview with him as a Commander-in-chief 
 of the post at Plattsburg. 
 
 "Augicst 21. — General Macombe called upon me this morning to 
 
THE WAR JOURNAL. 259 
 
 ascertain the truth of what he had learned from some of the Ame- 
 rican merchants, who were retiring from Canada, under the procla- 
 mation of the Governor-general, Sir George Provost. ' I wish to 
 know, sir,' said he, 'from your department, as to the truth of the 
 information which I, last evening, received from several Americans 
 from Canada — ^that the enemy is in force at La Prairie and La Acadia 
 plains.' I stated to the General that I was in possession of the same 
 information — as to their numbers, I was unable to say — but that from 
 the Kangers I was daily and hourly expecting to hear and learn on 
 this point, and when I did he would be informed ; with this he 
 retired.' 
 
 " August 22. — At 3 o'clock, P.M., a Ranger arrived, and the intel- 
 ligence he brought was immediately communicated to the General, 
 which was somewhat alarming in its import. 
 
 " August 23. — At 2 o'clock, P.M., General Macorabe called upon 
 me, and app.eared to be somewhat in agitation. ' I wish, sir,' said 
 he, ' to be informed more correctly as to the truth, which was com- 
 municated to me, yesterday, of the enemy's force at La Prairie and 
 La Acadia plains,' and with sti-ong emphasis, added, 'if your 
 department needs any money to obtain correct information required, 
 please to make your requisition for the sum upon the deputy-quar- 
 ter-master-general.' I took the hint of the General's expression. 
 I retorted upon him, ' General, the department does not require an 
 extra sum to obtain the information desired. The reports made by 
 this department have always been correct, so it shall be now. Espe- 
 cial order shall be issued, to-day, to the Rangers for more activity 
 and vigilance, and for a further information.' 
 
 '■^August 24. — This morning I had an interview with General 
 Macombe and Commodore Maodonough. I am to start for the lines, 
 this afternoon, to be accompanied by one of the officers of the navy, 
 in a citizen's dress. The General, as I understand, has ordered the 
 whole garrison to labor upon the forts for their completion. 
 
 '■'■August 25. — I have just returned from Champlain (now, two 
 o'clock at night), where I arrived last night at twelve o'clock, and 
 there met some of the Rangers, and the information received from 
 them, is in corroboration of that which had been received from other 
 sources, of the force of the enemy and their destination, viz. Platts- 
 burg. On my arrival I had an interview with the General, who, I 
 perceive, has decided to make an eflbrt to defend the post. To- 
 
260 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 morrow a council of war is to be holden, and General Mooera is 
 invited to attend. 
 
 " August 26. — A coTincil of war was held to-day. My depart- 
 ment was called upon for information of the stl-ength of the enemy 
 and its intentions, as far as it was known. The information being 
 given, the council was satisfied on this point, for it could not be 
 otherwise, that the enemy was gradually advancing towards the 
 lines, that his intentions were to invade the State of New York, 
 and that Plattsburgwas his object. General Mooers was requested 
 to call out the militia en masse, and to invite the Vermonters to assist 
 in the defence of Plattsburg, and the patriotic citizens to aid in com- 
 pleting the forts. There is, at present, a general alarm among the 
 citizens of the place, and the inhabitants in this vicinity, of, the 
 expected invasion of the enemy. Some have already began to leave 
 the village, taking their effects with them. It is not only melan- 
 choly, but distressing, to see the poor taking their all upon their 
 backs, and flying from their peaceful abodes, and seeking an asylum 
 in places where they are unknown. 
 
 " August 27. — The anxiety of the General is now so great at the 
 movements of the enemy, as to require me for a report once in ten 
 hours. -I sent one of the Rangers to the lines, who has just 
 returned. He took a view, as he said, of the enemy's fleet, and 
 ascertained, as near as it was possible, the calibre of his guns. 
 This requisition was made by Commodore McDonough's request. 
 He took one of the government horses, with permission to sell it to 
 the enemy, to cover his visit. 
 
 " .4f 4 o'clock, P. M. — A Banger has just arrived with-an impor- 
 tant information, with which I immediately repaired to the 
 General's quarters — who, I found was marching with his men, 
 with a heavy pine stick on his* shoulders, which had painted him 
 with its black coat, so that I could scarcely know him. Every 
 department is now all in activity. Several redoubts are raised as 
 batteries. The inhabitants are flying from their homes. 
 
 " August 28. — A great anxiety now prevails among us all. Gen. 
 Mooers and his staff are in the field. A Eanger has come in, who 
 has been in the enemy's camp for four days — he made a close 
 observation of his forces — viz. fourteen thousand regulars, most 
 of whom were lately from Europe ; two thousand Canadians and 
 two hundred Indians ; thirty-six guns, and about one thousand 
 
THE WAR JOURNAL. 
 
 261 
 
 carfa. Three thousand of the above troopa were thirty-six miles 
 above Montreal, on their way into the Upper province. When the 
 news reached Montreal that General Izard hafl left Plattsburg with 
 his army (excepting a heavy guard), on his way to the west, they 
 were recalled. 
 
 " Ihming, at Ohasy, 8 o'chch, P. if.— After an interview with 
 Generals Macomb, Mooers, an,d Commodore McDonongh, I placed 
 myself upon my horse, with my waiter, and in great haste came 
 hither. I saw Judge Treadwell on my way, from whom I 
 received a certain intelligence— and met here Judge More, from 
 Oharaplain, and ^.v. Eansom, of this place, with whom I consulted 
 in regard to our present peculiar and dangerous situation. From 
 these intelligent gentlemen I am relieved from the object of my 
 present jaunt toward the lines. It would appear that the enemy 
 are so confident of their strength and our weakness, they do not 
 hesitate to declare openly that Plattsburg was their object. 
 
 " The reports of the Eangers are now more frequent, as they are 
 now close to me, and they have nothing, else to do but to observe 
 the movements of the enemy ; daily, useful information is now 
 received from this brave, daring, and active corps. 
 
 '" August 29. — The enemy are advancing gradually towards the 
 line. Our forts, redoubts, and batteries are almost completed — 
 should the enemy attempt to appear before them, no doubt, but 
 that they will receive hard blows. 
 
 " As to the naval force of the enemy, we have ascertained it, 
 and the calibre of his guns, with which intelligence Commodore 
 McDonough is pleased, as he has been somewhat troubled in not 
 Ijnowing the metal of the enemy's naval guns. 
 
 " Plattsburg, Sept. 2 — ^A portion of the enemy have crossed the 
 great territorial line, and are encamped at Oharaplain. 
 
 "Sept. 3. — The enemy have crossed the Ohamplain river, and 
 are somewhat in advance of the village. The militia, under Gen. 
 Mooers, are assembling, and forming an encampment in the rear of 
 the forts and at Salmon river. 
 
 " Sept. 4. — The enemy's advance guard is within eighteen miles 
 from ns. Some of the bold and brave militia-men have exchanged 
 shots with them. 
 
 " Sept. 5. — A council of war was held last evening. My depart- 
 ment was again called upon to state the force of the enemy. 
 Every arrangement was made and settled how to receive him. All 
 
262 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 are in activity — every kind of instrument of death is in preparation, 
 and our fleet in the Bay are manceuvering — the gnn-boats are exer- 
 cising near the shores, in preparation to annoy the enemy -whenever 
 he may approach and attack the village. All are solemn — ^it cannot 
 he otherwise, knowing as we do our weakness, and the strength of 
 the enemy — hut resistance will he made, whether to effect or not. 
 Gen. Hull's surrender at Detroit, is in their minds, and spoken of by 
 the soldiers — they are determined that Plattshurg shall not be 
 attacked or surrendered, without the expense of British and Ameri- 
 can blood. The word Swratoga is in the mouth of many. 
 
 " Major Aplying, with his Rifle corps, will occupy the bridge, at 
 Dead Creek, near Gen. Mooers' house. This corps has already seen 
 hard service. 
 
 " At night, 12 o'clock. — ^I have just returned from Gen. Mooers' 
 encampment, at Oalwell's Hill. His position is well chosen to 
 receive the enemy, who are now at Douglas Place, at the separa- 
 tion of the Lake and the Back Eoad, as it is called. It is 
 presumed they will advance on both. A small detachment, headed 
 by my brother John, have gone to spy out the enemy's encamp- 
 ment. 
 
 " At Night, 5 d'clooh. — A Ranger has just come in, who left the 
 enemy's camp at two o'clock ; and, at that early hour, they were 
 in columns, ready to march. I presume they will be upon us to-day. 
 Although I am not strictly bound, according to my oflSce, to take 
 the carnal weapon into my hand ; yet, connected as I am with the 
 army, and all the secret intelligence of the formidable preparations 
 of the enemy, for the invasion of the State of New York, passing 
 through my hands — ^the feeble state of the American force — ^half a 
 million of property of the govei-nment at the place — the extensive 
 and unfinished works to defend" — the distress of the inhabitants, 
 who are now deserting their houses — the general excitement and 
 alarm on the northern frontiers — ^and the anxiety manifested by the 
 commanding officer, are such as to raise my war-spirit. I have been 
 even called upon several times during the day and night, for infor? 
 mation of the progress and movements of the enemy. I had put 
 the whole corps of observers in motion to watch him, who were so 
 faithful and daring as to give intelligence from the very centre of 
 the enemy's army, in less than thirty hours; the import was 
 frightful, that the enemy was fourteen thousand strong, with a for- 
 midable train of artillery — ^fearful odds against the American army 
 
THE WAR JOURNAL. 
 
 263 
 
 of fifteen hundred men. Under these exciting and distressing cir- 
 cumstanoea, and at the same time, with strong but respectful 
 request from General McComb and Mooers for my co-operation, I 
 am thus at length under the necessity of putting on my armor and 
 buckler, to sustain the honor of the American Government. 
 
 " To repel the invaders, who are now about twelve miles from 
 Plattsburg, General Mooers advanced this afternoon with seven 
 liundred men to Beokmantown, and, in the evening. Major Wool 
 followed, with two hundred and fifty of the regulars. 
 
 "■IkeniTvg, September 6, at 10 o'clock.— Tha enemy had been 
 makingvgradnal approaches upon Plattsburg, until this morning,, he 
 made a rapid advance in two columns upon two distinct points, and 
 an engagement immediately followed, between Major-General 
 Powers' brigade, supported by a demi-brigade of General Eobinson 
 and General Mooers, of the New York militia, supported by a 
 detachment, under Major Wool, who set the militia an example of 
 firmness, for the regulars disputed the road with great obstinacy ; 
 but the militia could not be prevailed on to stand for any length of 
 time, tfotwithstanding the exertions of their general and staff- 
 officers. The State Dragoons, of New York, wore red coats ; and 
 they, being on the heights to watch the enemy, gave considerable 
 alarm to the militia, who mistook them for the British, and feared 
 lest they would be getting in their rear. The field-pieces, how- 
 ever, did considerable execution among the enemy's column ; and 
 so undaunted were they, that they never deployed in their whole 
 march, but continued pressing in close column, with the exception of 
 a cloud of skirmishers on their right and left. The field-pieces were, 
 finally, ordered to retire across the bridge, and form a battery for 
 its protection, and to cover the retreat of the infantry, which was 
 accordingly done. It was here, for the first time, I was initiated 
 how to manage heavier guns than rifles. The cannonade was kept 
 up upon the enemy with great spirit until sunset. This had been 
 a day of anxiety and gloominess in the little American army. 
 There was no prospect of retaining their position against such 
 overwhelming force as that of the enemy. They had been com 
 pelled to recede about six miles before such a cloud of skirmishers 
 and a heavy column of the enemy, as to impress them with an idea 
 of their own weakness, and their inability to withstand the inva- 
 ders. This was not only extremely disheartening, but humiliating 
 to the American soldiery. General Macomb was silent and 
 
264 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 thouglitful— he saw too muob, no doubt, of his dangerous position 
 — ^but the garrisons were committed to him for safe keeping, and 
 he would defend them to the last extremity, or be buried under them. 
 In the council of war, which was held on the night of the 7th, at 
 their recommendation, I concluded to place myself at the head of the 
 artillery, with such volunteers as might be collected. The Ranger 
 I had sent to ascertain the strength of the enemy's fleet, returned 
 at two o'clock ; and I went with him immediately to our fleet. I 
 had an interview with Commodore Maodonough. He was pleased 
 with the communication, and, no '"doubt, he will make good use 
 of it, At intervals during the day, we have cannonaded at the 
 enemy's works, and had skirmishing at the bridge. 
 
 " General Mooers' division are bivouacked at Salmon river. His 
 advance-guard extends to Pike's encampment on the Saranac. His 
 scouts are vigilant and active ; and there is no corps more useful 
 and watchful than the one under the command of Captain Aikens 
 and Lieutenaiit Flagg. All the Rangers are in, excepting two, for 
 whose safety I am somewhat anxious. 
 
 " September 8. — The Vermont militia have began to come. Cap- 
 tain JFarsworth, of St. Albans, with his rifle company, ninety-six 
 strong, have just arrived. This is a fine and noble corps. 
 
 '■'■Evening. — Generals Macomb and Mooers, and Commodore 
 Macdonongh wBre together this evening, in consultation, the result 
 of which is, that I am once more compelled to put the whole corps 
 of Rangers in motion. 
 
 " September 9, FridoA/. — We again cannonaded at the enemy's 
 works. I am quite deaf this evening. A detachment of the 
 enemy attempted to cross at the upper-bridge, but were repulsed 
 by Captain Varighan's corps. This corps is one of the finest in 
 General Mooers' division. On the 6th, although compelled to 
 retreat, yet they did so in good order, and disputed the ground with 
 the enemy for five miles. 
 
 "The volunteers from Vermont are now arriving by companiep 
 and regiments. Col. 'AVilliams, of Charlotte, eight hundred strong, 
 landed, this afternoon, at Peru. Several of our men were killed 
 and wounded in a skirmish at the lower bridge. By the request 
 of Generals Macomb and Mooers, this Department was compelled 
 to issue an order to the Rangers, on the 8th inst., to take an officer 
 of the enemy. Accordingly, an oflicer of the artillery was taken, 
 and brought in this evening, and presented to the Generals. 
 
THE WAR JOtriSNAL. 265 
 
 " I have just received a note, in reply to mine, from Colonel 
 Fasset, oommandiDg at Burlington, in which it is proposed to play 
 a coup de main upon the British General. Preparations will be 
 made to carry this matter into effect. The same have been sub- 
 mitted to Generals Macomb and Mooers, which was approved. 
 The most active and bravest of the Bangers is selected to perform 
 this difficult and dangerous duty. He accepts, with cheerfulness, 
 the hazardous task. 
 
 " September 10. — ^Last night, a corps of the regular troops, under 
 Captain MacGlassin, about 11 o'clock, crossed the Saranac, and 
 stormed, at the point of the bayonet, a bomb-battery of the 
 enemy, near Weight's printing office. My brother John was the 
 leader of this detachment, and was the cause of the death of the 
 engineer of the battery. Having accomplished the duty assigned 
 them, they returned to the forts whence they had issued, with 
 honor and victory. 
 
 " A rifle company, under Captain Aikens and Lieutenant Flagg 
 (composed of the young gentlemen of Plattsburg), are not oidy 
 useful in watching our fi-ont line, but they are brave and daring in 
 skirmishing with the enemy. Yesterday, three of this noble 
 corps came nigh being taken or destroyed by the enemy, viz. 
 Allen, Traverse, and Williams. Jhe daring spirits of these young 
 warriors carried them beyond prudence. They crossed the river 
 Saranac to spy out the enemy, as well as to supply themselves 
 with certain ai-ticles which they knew were deposited in a barn, 
 and the house was not far from it which was occupied by the 
 guard of the enemy. Just at the moment they were supplying 
 themselves with such articles as they would take, volley after volley 
 of musketry was poured upon them, but they fortunately escaped 
 uninjured. But it is said that the enemy paid dear for this. The 
 youthful band had anticipated this opposition, and were prepared 
 to defend their comrades. The whole corps answered the enemy's 
 fire with such firmness and precision, as to compel the enemy soon 
 to retire. By the report of a Eanger from Grand Isle, we may 
 now daily expect to see the enemy's fleet in our bay. Both par- 
 tics are preparing for a conflict. The militia from Vermont are 
 still coming in. General Strong and Major Lyman have arrived. 
 Their division is encamped at Pike's cantonment. 
 
 "Plattahurg, Sept. 14.— The British General having made a dis- 
 position of his fleet and^land forces for a simultaneous attack 
 
 12 
 
266 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 upon tlie American position, the first gun on the 11th was the 
 signal for a general action. Sir George Provost instantly opened 
 his heavy batteries npon the works on the opposite bank of the 
 Saranao. A tremendous cannonade ensued — terrific was the 
 noise of more than two hundred pieces of cannon ; bomb-shells, 
 shaapnells, balls, and congreve rockets, were thrown into the 
 American lines during the whole day. 
 
 " Our position was in the range v?ith one of the enemy's bat- 
 teries, and was placed there to answer it, and to oppose them by 
 cannonading should they attempt to ford the river. As it was 
 expected, they made the attempt more than once, and at first, by 
 two heavy columns, and when they arrived at the brink of the 
 river they were saluted -with such a storm of shot and grape from 
 our battery, as to compel them to fall back, and make their way 
 into the houses, shops, barns, and ditches. Thence they kept up a 
 heavy fire and contended with our riflemen, who were in two mills 
 near the bridge. While the cannonading went on, we either 
 answered the enemy's fire, or poured shot into every body of their 
 troops, that presented a tolerable mark. Never, perhaps, were skir- 
 mishes, if such they deserved to be called, conducted with more 
 bravery on both sides. If our troops, in this quarter, lacked skill, 
 they more than made up by their daring. The result of the 
 engagement between the two naval armaments, which continued 
 upwards of two hours, ultimately determined the action upon land. 
 The plans of the British General were completely frustrated by its 
 issue ; the whole of his larger vessels having struck to the United 
 States flag; three of the row gallies being destroyed, and the 
 remainder escaping from the bay in a shattered condition. The 
 annihilation of his fleet being announced to Sir George, he immedi- 
 ately withdrew his forces from the assault of the American works. 
 From his batteries, however, he kept up a constant fire until the 
 dusk of evening, when, being silenced by the guns of the fort and 
 the batteries, he retired from the contest, and at nine o'clock at 
 night, sent off his artillery, and all the baggage, for which he 
 could obtain a transport. At midnight, he made a precipitate 
 and disgraceful retreat, leaving behind him all his sick and 
 wounded. Towards the close of the day, when the enemy 
 appeared to make his last eflfbrts to silence our batteries, I was, 
 wounded, though not to that degree as to compel me to leave the 
 corps. As soon as it was known, in the morning, that the enemy 
 
THE WAR JOURNAL. 
 
 267 
 
 had retreated, a general order was issued to several divisions and 
 detachments, to pursue the enemy. Our corps -was ordered to fol- 
 low them, and at seven o'clock, we coramsnced our route for tlie 
 north, under the equinoctial storm. TJie rain had heen pouring 
 down with such torrents during the night, as to put the road into 
 such a state as to heoome almost impassahle. It had been passed 
 over, during the night, by more than four hundred carts of the 
 enemy, besides his battering train of artillery, so that by twelve 
 o'clock, our progress had been but eight miles. The cavalry, 
 riflemen, and light infantry were several hours in advance, while 
 we were thus drudging in a road, with mud sometimes almost up 
 to our knees, gun after gun stuck and upset in the quagmires; and 
 the horses were staggering and reeling under their burdens. 
 
 " Happily for us, in the midst of these difiloulties, orders came for 
 us to retrace our steps ; and it was not until after dark that we 
 reached the place whence we took our departure in the morning. 
 On reaching my marquee, not a thread on me was dry — shivering 
 under the north-westerly wind, fatigued, and hungry. My wound 
 had now become quite painful, which no care had been taken of, 
 more than what had been done by my waiter, who occasionally 
 washed it with brandy. The wound was not dangerous in its 
 nature, and no inconvenience would have resulted from it, had I 
 not taken cold from the heavy showers of rain that fell upon us 
 during the night and the following day, to which I was exposed. 
 * ****** 
 
 " The cause for great anxiety had now passed^ — ^the enemy had 
 retreated — and, although victory was on our side, yet in sober and 
 serious reflections, there were grounds and reasons not only for 
 painful sensations, but sorrow. Many promising young men had 
 met an untimely death. Among them were our friends and 
 acquaintances, whom we loved and esteemed, whose exit we 
 greatly lamented, and whose dead bodies were still in an exposed 
 state. Is this the fate of war? Were they prepared to .die thus ? 
 And had I been one of them, whatAvould have been my destiny 
 in the future world ? In the midst of these inward interrogations, I 
 was interrupted by the appearance of General M'Comb and Major 
 M'Neil, who congratvllated me on my safe return, and sympathised 
 with me on account of the painful sensations which I was now 
 sniefering from my wound. After many jovial words, and hearty 
 laughs at certain transaotions, by some of his oflioers, during the 
 
268 THE lOST PRINCE. 
 
 siege, the General left me, with promise that I should be imme- 
 diately attended to by the medical gentlemen; but this was 
 objected to by my father, who would act on the occa.«ion as my 
 physician, under whose fostering hand I was carefully attended, 
 and in five weeks I was so far restored as to go abroad once 
 moi-e. 
 
 " It was in the hours of my confinement, that I have resolved 
 again and again, if God be willing, to carry to the Indians the 
 faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that ' Christ Jesus 
 came into the world, to save sinners.' How far I am actuated in 
 these from holy principles, may I say that as far as I know my own 
 heart, my aim is for the glory of God, and the advancement of the 
 Eedeemer's kingdom." 
 
 The military life of Mr. "Williams closed with its most brilliant, 
 if not its most arduous and trying hour. Entering the service of 
 the United States, in the first instance, merely from a sense of duty, 
 and without any desire for personal distinction, which allures so 
 many into the army, he had fulfilled the part of a noble-minded 
 commander and gallant soldier. The nature of his oflSce, though 
 responsible in the extreme, and demanding the highest qnalifica- 
 tions, mental and moral, kept him necessai-ily in the back ground. 
 Though he had the full confidence and esteem of the government 
 and high military oflSoers, who rightly estimated his worth, because ^ 
 they reaped the fruits of it in almost every important event of the 
 war, the public at large knew little of the wisdom, integrity, forti- 
 tude, courage, and moderation, which he had displayed. His 
 services were too deep and vital to be blazoned in newspapers or 
 recorded in despatches, and would never have come to light but 
 for his practice of keeping a journal, from the dawn of boyish 
 intelligence, in which, I think, so clearly the hand of Providence 
 may bo traced. If the war had continued, it is probable, he would 
 have been offered the command of a brigade, had he chosen to 
 remain in the service of his country, as an intimation to this effect 
 was given him by Governor Tompkins. 
 
 This discussion has had one benefit — that of introducing Ameri- 
 
THE WAR JOURNAL. 269 
 
 cans to one of the most noble, though hnmble-minded of their 
 fellow citizens, and who, if I rightly understand their character, 
 they will see has all which truth and honor can claim— fair pla/y. 
 No one, not deeply pi'ejudiced, or lost to discernment, can read the 
 simple war journal of Mr. Williams, unostentatiously truthful as a 
 dying confession, without feeling that here, in all the elements 
 which make man, he is a man. There are few tests of character 
 like that of military life. Whatever a man has of good. or evil in 
 him it calls out, and no preux chevalier of olden time, could more 
 modestly or stainlessly — I say nothing of courage, for that, apart 
 from other qualities, is animal — with more of the. spirit ■ of 
 Christian moderation and self-sacriflce, have played his part, than 
 Eleazar Williams. During the whole of the war he never reliu' 
 quished the idea of becoming an Indian missionary — but retired at 
 every opportunity to his quiet room for prayer, meditation, and 
 studji — having kindly thoughts even for his national enemies, and 
 in the spirit of one of the noblest hearts that bled during the civil 
 wars of England, supplicating God for peace, even on the field of 
 blood. 
 
 War was not his element, though his mind was for a time stirred 
 by its excitement, and carried away by its brilliancy. " As soon 
 as it was practicable," he says, in his memoranda for 1814, " I 
 closed my military concerns with the General Government, and 
 like a monk, entered into my cell for meditation and reflection." 
 He was confined several weeks by his wound, during which time 
 he was sedulously attended by his reputed father, Thomas 
 Williams, who restored him to health and strength by Indian 
 herbs. While feebly reposing on his sick bed, his thoughts and 
 aspirations rushed back to their original channel, and he deter- 
 mined to consecrate the remainder of his days to preaching the 
 Gospel. 
 
270 THE LOST PRINCB. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE I, AT MISSIONAET. 
 
 Mk. "Williams had peculiar qualifications for a missionary to 
 the Indians. He possessed that key to their understandings and 
 affections — without which no great success can attend any efforts 
 to convert the heathen — a perfect knowledge of their language, 
 customs, and modes of feeling and reasoning. His acquaintance 
 with the Mohawk tongue, deficient in childhood,. and impaired by 
 long residence in New England, had been revived and increased 
 during the war, and thus, his military life was a partial education 
 for the ministry. Regarding himself, also, as an Indian, he entered 
 on his task with a zest and fervor which can rarely attend the mis- 
 sionary to the heathen, who generally sacrifices to a sense of duty, 
 the love of country and the associations of home. Heart-rending 
 were the feelings of Martyn, when, from the jungles of India, he 
 thought what might have been his earthly lot, had he not violently 
 divorced himself from all he loved. In the case of Mr. Williams, 
 there was no such surrender. He was as much at home in the hut 
 of the Indian, as in the abodes of civilization, while he cai-ried to 
 his work European amplitude of mind and warmth of heart, accom- 
 panied with native grace and dignity of manners, sometimes mistaken 
 for pride, but, nevertheless, imposing and attractive to the savage. 
 
 An interview with some Oneidas, at Albany, in August, 1814, 
 led to a visit to Oneida Castle in the following November, when he 
 carried with him a wampum from Governor Taylor, of Albany. 
 Hejyas affectionately received by the chiefs, and addressed in a 
 formal speech by one of the orators of {he nation, who " arose,'' 
 he says, " like a Roman senator,*' and, perhaps, not less in dignity, 
 holding the wampum on high." He replied in the same strain. 
 
THE LAT MISSION AKT. 271 
 
 There were, at that time, ahont twelve hundred Indians at Oneida, 
 one half of whom were Christians of the Presbyterian persuasion, 
 and the remainder pagans and adherents of the Prophet Ejinyata- 
 riyo. This distinction had existed since 1766, when the Gospel was 
 first introduced among them by the Rer. Samuel Kirkland. 
 
 A minister of the Scotch Kirk, the Eev. Mr. Jenkins, was, at 
 the time of this visit, instructing the Christian party — but he was 
 jgnorant of their language, and the Indians complained of his frag- 
 mentary and disjointed mode of preaching through an interpreter. 
 The morals of the nation were at a very low ebb, and the Chris- 
 tians distinguishable from the pagans in little but in name. Before 
 leaving them, Mr. Williams addressed the whole nation, in council, 
 on the duty of believing and obeying Christ ; and, after his depar- 
 ture, both translated and composed simple works for their reli- 
 gions instruction. 
 
 Shortly after his return to the north, he writes : — 
 
 " The joyful intelligence reached us of the treaty of peace having been 
 concluded between the British and American CommissionerG. This event 
 was celebrated by illuminations and demonstrations of joy on these nor- 
 thern frontiers. Thus terminated an eventful and memorable war of two 
 years and six months — a war pregnant with important admonition to 
 Great Britain and to America. Both countries had to experience the mor- 
 tifying reflection that, all the blood and treasure expended in the contest 
 had been lavished in vain, scarcely any of the objects which were the 
 ostensible cause of the war having been obtained." 
 
 He now applied himself, more closely than ever, to Sis prepara- 
 tion for the ministry. During the war we have seen he had fre- 
 quent interviews with the clergy of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Chnrch, the solemnity of whose ritual, in the first place, attracted 
 his attention, and so devotionally impressed his heart that, in spite 
 of all the associations of his early years in Few England, and the 
 cherished and never to be forgotten kindness of his Congregational 
 friends, to whom the honor is dug of having first rescued him frotn 
 
2V2 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 barbarism, and supplied all his -wants with a lavish affection, he 
 attended the worship of the church, on all convenient occasion^ 
 
 A little incident which occurred during the war, when visiting 
 the Eev. Mr. Clowes, of Albany, and which has, I believe, been 
 published in a newspaper by the surviving brother of that gentle- 
 man, who informed me of the fact, is deserving of record. A bril- 
 liantly illuminated missal, of the character in use in cathedral 
 churches on the continent, lay on the study table of Mr. Clowes, at 
 the sight of which young Williams, who was remarkable for his 
 nsually quiet and self-possessed demeanor, became suddenly agi- 
 tated, to an astonishing degree, so as almost to give the impression 
 of temporary insanity, and in the most earnest manner, as if some 
 mysterious chord of feeling was touched, besought that it might be 
 given to him. The request was refused, not so much on account of 
 the value of the book, as, because, it was looked on as an act of 
 unaccountable eccentricity. 
 
 To his predilection for the Protestant Episcopal Church, was added 
 the belief that her ritual and discipline would be more serviceable 
 to the Indians than the extemporaneous worship of other denomina- 
 tions, and, accordingly, in the month of May, 1815, he made a journey 
 to New York, to lay his plans and feelings before Bishop Hobart, and 
 receive his advice. 
 
 " I wish to make known to the Bishop," he writes, " my feelings in regard 
 to the Episcopal Church. Her ministry, doctrines, government, discipline, 
 and mode of worship, I am fully persuaded, are in accordance with the word 
 of God. I have read much upon the claims of this church, and I now firmly 
 believe she is the true and sound part of the Church Militant, or the Church 
 of Christ. I pray God to enlighten me more on this most important and 
 interesting subject. Church history has been my companion for more than 
 one year. Five different authors I have read on this subject. 
 
 "Troy, May 11. — I have had several friendly interviews with the Rev. 
 Mr. Butler, who has labored most earnestly to make me see that the Epis- 
 copal Church of the United States is the sound part of Christ's Chmch 
 His arguments are more powerful with me than those offered in ray former 
 
THE LAY MI8SI0NAKT. 278 
 
 interviews. He was very aiSectionate to me, and how could I do other- 
 wise than love him, who takes such an interest in ray spiritual welfare. 
 By me, he will write to Bishop Hobart, to the Rev. Mr. Clowes, and Lieut.- 
 Governor Taylor, of Albany. Mr. Butler has warmed ray heart on the sub- 
 ject of religion. 
 
 " New York, May 14. Lord's Say livening. — I arrived here in safety, 
 to-day, about noon, went this afternoon to St. Paul's Church, and heard 
 Mr. Creighton, and, this evening, heard Br. B/oymaine. 
 
 " Thursday 18 — I called upon the Et. Rev. Bishop Hobart, and presented 
 the introductory letters I had received from my friends in the north. The 
 bishop received me with great cordiality, and appeared to be much gratified. 
 
 "New Tori, Monday, 22. — I took breakfast at Dr. Hosack's, with Mr. 
 Eddy, and the Rev. Mr. Steward. I was introduced to young Dr. Francis, 
 pupil of Dr. H., with whom I was highly pleased for his polite attention to 
 me. He is a young man of promise. I cannot be too gi-ateful to Dr. H. and 
 lady for his polite invitation. 
 
 "New Tori, May 29. — ^Bishop Hobart has requested me to take my board 
 with the Rev. Mr. Onderdonk, to-morrow I shall go there, with which Mr. 
 Ogden appears to be much gratified." 
 
 The bishop acknowledged the duty of the church to the Indians, 
 and promised his hearty co-operation in the designs of Mr. Williams. 
 In the record of their interviews the following scene occurs, equally 
 honorable to both. "We have seen, on various occasions, that the ex- 
 treme doctrines of Calvinism did not harmonize with Mr.Williams's 
 sentiments, but it was impossible to have mingled so much as he 
 had with those who entertained them, without being tinctured. 
 "When I touched," he says, "upon some controverted points of 
 theology, the bishop abruptly observed that I was straining too 
 much on those points which were considered, by some, to be in 
 close alliance with the Calviuists. " Et. Eev. Father," said I " it 
 is not my wish to know, on the present occasion, Calvin, Luther, 
 Arminius, or Wesley, but Christ and him crucified. I have no desire 
 to embrace the opinions of men, further than they follow Christ. 
 It is my wish always to appeal to the law, and to the testimony, and 
 
 la* 
 
2^4 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 if their religious opinions are not in accordance with the Holy Scrip.- 
 tures, I, of course, reject them." To this the bishop, with a placid 
 countenance, replied, "Eight, my son." I continued, "you see, 
 father, I am somewhat free and independent in my views, in regard 
 to the high doctrines of the Gospel. If I am to be a teacher in the 
 Episcopal Church, I trust I shall not be compelled to receive any- 
 thing as an article of faith, which I may view as repugnant to the 
 word of God. I acknowledge the Thirty-nine Articles are such as 
 to command the approbation of orthodox Christians, and contain 
 a vast amount of important truth, yet they were composed by falli- 
 ble men. I will cheerfully adhere to them as far as they agree with 
 the word of God." " This is all," said the bishop, " we can ask of 
 you," and then continued with a solemn voice, " My son, holding , 
 the mystery of faith in a pure conscience, let no man despise thy 
 youth, but be thou an example to the believers in word, in. conversa- 
 tion, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." 
 
 For the first time in his life, he received the communion in St. 
 John's church, on the 21st May, from the hands of the bishop and 
 the Eev. B. T. Onderdonk. Of the kindness of the latter he 
 speaks in terms of gratitude and affection. 
 
 It was determined by the Bishop to send him among the Indians 
 as a catechi3t, lay reader, and schoolmaster ; and in this humble 
 capacity he continued for many years, performing all the duties of 
 the ministry, except the administration of the sacraments. So 
 unobtrusive was he. In this respect, that although his labors were 
 crowned with the most ample success, and he enjoyed the full con- 
 fidence of Bishop Hobart, he was not ordained until the year 1826. 
 He had as little desire of self-aggrandisement in the church, as in the 
 army. Provided he did the work assigned, he was satisfied. 
 Other persons, with his endowments, would have despised the 
 wigwam of the Indian, and sought for popularity and station in 
 cities, and in the applause of the wealthy and intellectual. But 
 personal display was not in his nature. Almost instinctively he 
 seems to have attached himself everywhere to the highest aad " 
 
THE LAY MISSIOITART. 2^5 
 
 most gifted minds, and there are few men who have adorned the 
 annals of this country, from John Eandolph to Gen. Taylor, who 
 have not enjoyed his society and esteem. Bnt through all vicissi- 
 tudes, his affections reverted to the Indian huts, on which his eyes 
 had first opened in boyhood ; and to preach the glad-tidings of sal- 
 vation, in sounds, to others barbarous, but to him, most meaning: 
 and most musical, was the one absorbing desire of his heart. 
 
 He mentions, at this period, several interviews with the Key. E. 
 0. Steward, of St. Armand, Lower Canada, who was a son of 
 Lord Galway, and expresses delight that one of noble blood would 
 rather " be an humble messenger of the Lord of Hosts, than enjoy 
 the ease and luxuries which are to be found in palaces." " O how 
 powerful," he exclaims, " la that grace which gives divine life here, 
 and eternal glory in the coming world !" 
 
 Through the influence of Bishop Hobart, who, on. the 23d May, 
 1815, addressed an appeal to churchmen, for contributions for the 
 purpose, he undertook the revision of former translations of- the 
 Prayer Book into the Mohawk language, and also attempted to 
 establish a school for the Indians, at St. Eegis. In the latter 
 project he was disappointed, owing to the political feuds in the 
 tribe, and the opposition of many against him, in consequence of 
 the part he had taken in the war of 1812. He wrote, under date 
 of August 3, 1815, a full account of the difficulties under which he 
 labored, to the Eev. Mr. Onderdonk. The purest intentions, and 
 the most self-denying conduct, are not sufficient to ensure success, 
 and those who have no criterion for worth, but success, will often 
 be unjust to those most deserving commendation. The Eomish 
 priest, at St.- Eegis, backed by all the influence of the Brit- 
 ish government, used every effort, justifiable and unjustifiable, 
 to injure Mr. "Williams in the estimation of the Indians, and we 
 shall see, in the sequel, the lengths to which his successor has 
 dared to proceed. But truth and innocence have only to be 
 patient, and bide their time, and the moment of retribution will 
 come. 
 
276 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Baffled, for the time, by Romish influence and political prejudices, 
 in his eflEbrts at St. Regis, he turned his thoughts to Oneida, the 
 chiefs, warriors, and counsellors of the nation, having applied to 
 Bishop Hobart, that he might be sent to them as a religious 
 teacher. He arrived there, with a letter from the bishop, on 23d 
 March, 1816. The minister of the Presbyterian Kirk was recalled 
 at the request of the chief, by the Missionary Society who had 
 sent him, and Mr. 'Williams accepted by the whole nation. 
 
 It is not my purpose to enter into the endless details of his 
 labors among the Indians, which are ample enough to form a work 
 of absorbing interest, to those who can sympathize with the strug- 
 gles of the humble missionary, but simply to state results and 
 leading events. On his arrival among them, he found the 
 Christian part of the nation, in the most deplorable moral condi- 
 tion, and the heathen given up to idolatry, witchcraft, and 
 drunkenness, while all of them, though attached personally to him, 
 as one who could address them in their language, were indisposed 
 to receive the ritual of the Protestant Episcopal Church — but by 
 preaching and oral conferences, in which he explained their diffi- 
 culties, and met the various objections, infidel or sectarian, they 
 brought, with a quiet practical wisdom and simplicity which 
 might serve as a model for a missionary among the heathen in any 
 part of the world, he not only converted, in a brief space of time, 
 the whole of the heathen party; but united the whole nation, in 
 adherence to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Protest- 
 ant Episcopal Church, achieving a victqry over prejudice and 
 unbelief, absolutely unparalleled in our ecclesiastical annals, in this 
 country. 
 
 The following document, exhibits the result of his labors : — 
 
 " To His Excellency the Governor of the State of New York. 
 " Mav it please youR Exoellenct : 
 
 " We, the chiefs and principal men of that part of the Oneida nation of 
 Indians, heretofore known and distinguished as the " Pagan Party," in 
 
THE DAT MISSIONARY. 277 
 
 the name of the said party, beg leave to addiesie your Bxcellency on a 
 subject which, we hope, will be as pleasing to your Excellency as it is to us. 
 " We no longer own the name of pagans. We have abandoned our 
 idols and our sacrifices, and have fixed our hopes on our blessed Redeemer. 
 In evidence of this assertion, we here tender to your excellency, solemnly 
 and unequivocally, our abjuration of paganism and its rites, and have 
 taken the Christians' God to be our God, and our only hope of sal- 
 vation. We believe in God the Father, the Creator ani Preserver of all 
 things, as omniscient and omnipresent, most gracious and most merciful 
 We believe in Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God, the Saviour of the 
 world, the Mediator between God and man, and that all must believe in 
 Him, and embrace Him, in order to obtain salvation. We believe in God 
 the Sanctifier and Comforter of all the children of men. We believe in a 
 general Hesiurrection, and a future judgment in which all men shall be 
 judged, according to their works. We believe the Scriptures to be the 
 Word of God, and that in them are contained all things necessary to man's . 
 salvatioh. We present to your Excellency this abstract of our faith, in 
 order to demonstrate the impropriety of our retaining any longer the name 
 of pagans. We trust that, through the mercy of God, we have abandoned 
 the character of pagans. Let us also abandon the name. We, therefore, 
 .request your Excellency, that in all future transactions with this state, we 
 may be known and distinguished as the ' Second Christian party of the 
 Oneidanation of Indians;' and we pray that your Excellency will take such 
 means as may be necessary and proper to cause us to be known and recog- 
 nised in future by that name. And in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, 
 we do here sign ourselves your Excellency's most sincere friends. 
 
 "Done in General Council, at Oneida, this 25th day of January, 1817." 
 
 The following Indians subscribed to the above, each one making his 
 mark ; — 
 
 Corn. Othbasheat, Peter Santhecalobos, 
 
 Aeikixjs Tehoraniooo, Nichs. Garomsontie, 
 
 John. Cannelius, Moses Schttyt.er, 
 
 Jacob AioNI, Wm. TEGAREMTOTASHOir, 
 
 Wm. Toniateshes, Wm. Tehoiatatshe, 
 
 Peter Twaserashe.* 
 
 * Christian Journal, p. 62, vol. 1. 
 
278 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 " It was aU affecting sight," writes Mr. "Williams, speaking of the 
 council in which this document was drawn up, " to see the aged and 
 venerahle chiefs, counsellors, matrons,- and warriors, with uplifted 
 hands, and with countenances indicating that their minds were 
 deeply affected, unitedly, with a loud voice, renouncing the princi- 
 ples of paganism, and making their profession of the Christian 
 faith." 
 
 As a substantial token of their sincerity in the adoption of the 
 Christian religion, the chiefs gave Mr. Williams one hundred acres 
 of land, which, however, were used and expended for the benefit 
 of the nation — and they also contributed four thousand dollars 
 towards the erection of a chapel. 
 
 During all this time, with the exception of his salary from the 
 Missionary Society, of one hundred and twenty-five dollars per 
 annum, Mr. Williams received nothing from the church, and as, 
 from motives of delicacy he declined aid proffered him by his New 
 England friends, whose communion he had conscientiously left, 
 though, to their lasting honor be it said, this made no difference in 
 their affection for him, or their willingness to contribute to his 
 support, he continued, until he had expended all, in the service 
 of the church, to subsist on his hard-earned remuneration from the 
 United States Government. 
 
 The intimacy formed in 1816 by Mr. Williams with the Eev. 
 M. Stewart, of St. Armand, Canada, soon ripened into friend- 
 ship. Letters frequently passed between them respecting the 
 spiritual interests of the Indians and translations into Mohawk; 
 and after the elevation of Mr. Stewart to the Episcopate of 
 Quebec, his affection for Mr. Williams continued unabated. Be- 
 fore he left America, in later years, for ever, he wrote to Mr. 
 Williams to come and see him. " I went," says Mr. Williams, 
 "to the place appointed for the meeting, and there, after many 
 prayers by ourselves, I, with many tears and a bleeding heart, took 
 the hand of my most beloved and sinc,ere friend, for the last time. 
 I left him, with heavy and sorrowful heart, to return to my distant 
 abode in the west, and he to the eastward to lay his body yea, 
 
THE LAY MISSIONABT. 279 
 
 mingle his ashes, with his ancestors. O, my God ! what a meeting 
 and what a journey was this, mingled with joy and sorrow.'' 
 
 Hitherto, with the single check he had received in his efforts to 
 establish a school among the Indians at St. Regis, the coarse of Mr. 
 Williams had been a constant series of successes. A storm, which, 
 at first, was only like -a little cloud in the horizon, began now to 
 brew at a distance. 
 
 The Menominie and TFinnebago Indians, having ample territories 
 on the borders of Lake Michigan, which they were unable to occupy, 
 were desirous to share them with their eastern brethren of the Six 
 Nations, and made a generous proposition to surrender to the New 
 York Indians many thousand acres of land in the neighborhood of 
 Green Bay. A general conncil of the Six Nations was held in 1817, 
 at Fort Meigs, on the Maumee river, to which the young Missionary 
 Chief of the Oneidas was invited. De Witt Clinton, then Governor 
 of New York, knowing his influence among the Indians, was 
 anxious that he should attend, and wrote to Bishop Hobart asking 
 his permission, as Mr. Williams, with military fidelity, refused to 
 leave his, post without the consent of his superior. The Bishop 
 gave his consent, but Mr. Williams did not go to the councit. 
 Indeed he was at that time opposed to the project of removal, 
 though afterwards he got edtangled in this political measure of the 
 General and State Government, which created a dislike to him 
 in the minds of a portion of the Indians, which, fostered by other 
 causes, in which he was entirely innocent, has continued till the 
 present day. 
 
 Though merely a lay reader, from the necessities of the case, he 
 performed all the duties of an ordained minister, except the admi- 
 nistration of the sacraments, and it is curious, considering the 
 ardent nature of his Protestantism, and the influences under which 
 he had been educated, to read the following entry in his journal 
 for 1817, at a time the Episcopal Church iu this country was 
 quaker-like in the unadorned simplicity of its worship. " The joy- 
 ful festival of the Nativity was celebrated by the natives with 
 
280 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 peculiar solemnity. On Christmas evening our chapel was dressed 
 up with evergreens in beautiful order. In celebrating the Divine 
 Service and the august ceremonies of the Holy Church this night, 
 I chanted at the alta/r, Gloria in JSxcelsit, a/nd Te Dewm La/udarmis, 
 and other parts of the service, with which the congregation were 
 highly gratified." This event reminds one .of the anecdote of the 
 missal related by Mr. Clowes. There must, indeed, have been a 
 somewhat strange state of things at Oneida, although it was with 
 the full knowledge and approbation of Bishop Hobart. Though 
 merely a layman, Mr. Williams wore a surplice in performing 
 divine service, and, according to a practice of the times, had his 
 hair powdered ; and, worse yet, — I cannot forbear a smile at the 
 dismay the sight would have occasioned some of my friends — ^was 
 attended with a bevy of little Indian boys, similarly clad. But this 
 was only in accordance with the policy afterwards pursued by the 
 Congregational missionaries among the eastern churches; and 
 Bishop Hobart, who knew the Indians required ceremony and out- 
 ward display, like a man of common sense, who conld distinguish 
 a doctrine from a vestment, did not suspect the lay missionary of 
 ftomish tendencies, because he donned a white garment in the 
 sanctuary, and arrayed in snow a few copper-colored cherubs. 
 Controversy makes things odious and, I grant, pernicious, very 
 harmless in themselves. At the Bishop's visitation, the little sur- 
 plioed Oieidas, like choristers in English cathedrals, walked in 
 front of him. Honi soit qui mal y pense. 
 
 The bishop also permitted the zealous layman to preach his own 
 sermons. Indeed, he conld not have done otherwise, as there were 
 no hot-pressed Iroquois homilies to which he could resort. The 
 church, if she would be useful, must adapt herself to circumstances, 
 and eschew Proorusteanism in accidents. Cut and stretch according 
 to the creed, but allow latitude in the canon, arm-like action from 
 a fixed centre of principle — here is power. 
 
 Notwithstanding the ability Mr. "Williams manifested in every- 
 thing calling for the display of the highest endowments of mind, in 
 
THE LAY MISSIONAKT. 281 
 
 that pecnliar region where the moral faculties are required to aid 
 the intellectual, there was an absolute want in him, of that which, 
 in a mercantile community, is regarded as constituting the man — 
 viz. the power of keeping money when he had got it. He had 
 received $10,000 from the United States, for his services during the 
 war, but allowed it to get beyond his control, and would have lost 
 it, but for the friendly exertions of Chancellor Kent, Gov. Taylor, 
 the Hon. Kathan Williama, and Morris S. Miller, of Utica. He was 
 left, for a time, in almost entire destitution, with nothing to support 
 him but his $125. In a long communication to Bishop Hobart, 
 which, with the bishop's affecting answer, may be found in the 
 "Christian Journal," vol. ii. p. 268, the Oneida Indians ^say, "agi-ee- 
 ably to your request, we have treated our brother with that atten- 
 tion and kindness which you required of us : we have assisted him 
 all that was in our power, bnt' we cannot do a great deal. Though 
 our brother has lived very poor since he came among us, he is 
 patient and makes no complaint : we pity him, because we love him 
 as we do ourselves. We wish to do something for his support, but 
 this is impossible, as we have lately raised between 8 and 4,000 dol- 
 lars to enable ns to build a little chapel." 
 
 Burning with zeal for the advancement of Christ's cause, he 
 hoped that his unparalleled success among the Indians would stimulato 
 the church, into whose ranks he had entered, from conscientious 
 motives, to extend the mission among the rest of the New York 
 Indians, who were desirous, if he could be supported, to receive the 
 Gospel at his hands, bnt he could wrmg nothing from the treasury 
 but the munificent sum of $125. Thus reduced to despair, with a 
 generous self-sacrifice, which few can even understand, he solemnly 
 consecrated to God's service his $10,000 as soon as it was assured 
 him by the exertions of his friends. " All this," he writes, " I trust 
 was spent with the greatest economy,- as a faithful steward— as one 
 who must render an account of his stewardship." 
 
 In the summer of 1818, his health being very feeble, on account 
 of his many trials and arduous labors, Mr. "Williams undertook a 
 
282 THE LOST PEINCB. 
 
 journey to the north, accompanied by La Fort, a young Onondaga 
 chief of fine abilities, who embraced Christianity, and had for several 
 months been studying with him the English language. La Fort 
 afterwards received an excellent education, under the patronage of 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church, but finally relapsed into Heathen- 
 ism, in a great measure in consequence of depression' of spirits, 
 owing to his neglect by the church, and the unpopnlarity of Chris- 
 tianity among his Heathen brethren. At Morristown, on the St. 
 Lawrence, they were entertained by Judge Ford; and at Waddington, 
 by Hon. D. A. Ogden, at whose house they met the British and 
 American Commissioners, who were deciding the boundaries between 
 the British and American provinces.- 
 
 On their arrival at St. Regis, the Rev. Mr. Marcoux, the Romish 
 priest, put into his hand a letter of introduction to the Rev. Mr. 
 Dufresne, at Caughnawaga, who gave him another to the Rev. Mr. 
 Richards, formerly a Methodjst minister, but then residing at the 
 Seminary, at Montreal. He went to see this gentleman on ith 
 August. Richards was, at first, constrained ^in his manner, but at 
 last assumed a more cheerful appearance, and said, " I believe, sir, 
 you must be the gentleman, noticed in the public prints, as a mis- 
 sionary, who is doing much good among the Oneidas. I once 
 passed through, their settlement. You are connected, I believe, 
 with the Episcopal Church, and Dr. Hobart is your Bishop. I am 
 surprised that you have connected yourself with that false church, 
 a church that has no lawful ministry. The Church of Rome is the 
 most ancient church. The Church of England is of yesterday." 
 Mr. Williams hereupon reminded him of the reply of Queen 
 Elizabeth to-the Jesuits, when they petitioned her to restore the 
 " ancient Catholic faith," to the effect, that their own records made 
 them liars, and proved that Christianity existed in England 
 independent of Rome, long prior to the time of Austin. Richards 
 dropped the subject, showed him the library of the Seminary and 
 the parish church, and invited him back to his room, when the fol- 
 lowing conversation occurred. 
 
THE LAY MISSIONAKY. 283 
 
 " I believe, sir," said Richards, " that you are the gentlemaa of 
 whom the Abb6 de Calonne, of Three Eivers, has often spoken, as 
 a person whose history was hidden in the womb of mystery, in 
 regard to your descent, and the cause of your adoption among the 
 Indians of this province." " This excited my curiosity," writes 
 Mr. Williams, " to ask him what mystery it might be which the 
 Abb6 supposes to be about my birth and family ?" " He supposes," 
 said he, " yon are a foreigner by birth, and of high family." "If 
 this be the opioion of the Abb6," -said I, " he must have some evi- 
 dence of It." " He has, of course," he replied, " but as to the 
 extent of it, I cannot say." " I am, however, inclined to believe 
 that it is a mere conjecture with him, for when I have pressed 
 upon him to be more explicit, he would evade the question by say- 
 ing — 'It is in a great measure conjectural with me.' " 
 
 " I then observed to him, it would be highly gratifying to me, 
 were I to know my family, and the cause of their putting me 
 among the Indians." "This, I presume," he said, "the Abb6 
 would not say, so long as he himself is not fully satisfied on the 
 point. I am satisfied he has more information upon this subject 
 than he is willing to communicate. There are known circum- 
 stances, whicli are strong in their nature, and which would prove, 
 it seems, that you are not the son of an Iroquois chief. I would be 
 happy, if in my power to unveil this mystery to you. I will see 
 the Abbe again." He then gave me a pat on the shoulder, and 
 said, " You are, I suspect, of higher grade by blood than the son 
 of an Ii-oquois chief." 
 
 '' These extraordinary declarations produced some sensations in 
 my feelings," he writes, " although it was not the first time such 
 hints were thrown in my way. On reflection, however, my con- 
 viction was that I had been taken for one of those youths and 
 children who had been given to the Indians by the poor French 
 Canadians." 
 
 On his return to the Sault St. Louis, by the permission of the 
 missionary priest, he examined the parochial register, and found' 
 
284 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 that all the names of the children of Thomas 'Willianis were 
 registered excepting Eleazar, " at -which," says Mr. Williams, " the 
 priest appeared greatly surprised and vexed, as in my former inter-; 
 view he vyould make me appear as if I was the child of the 
 Eomish Church by baptism." 
 
 This was the first time that serious doubts were awakened in his 
 mind as to his belonging to the family of Thomas Williams, but 
 having nothing tangible to support them, they died away gradually. 
 While absorbingly occupied with present interests, duties,, and 
 trials, he referred the whole subject to Providence and fnturity-rrj 
 and having nothing before him but vague suspicion, for which there 
 seemed little foundation, continued in everything to act and feel 
 towards his reputed kinsmen, far and near, as he had always done. 
 
 On the 3d September, 1818, Bishop Hobart visited Oneida Castle, 
 and confirmed eighty-nine persons, who had been prepared for that 
 holy rite by Mr. Williams. The bishop produced a great efiect on 
 their minds, and months after, they told Mr. Williams that, whea 
 they thought upon the scene, they imagined they felt his hands 
 upon their heads, and heard his voice, saying, "Defend, Lordj 
 this thy servant." 
 
 In the ensuing Convention the bishop spoke in the highest terms 
 of applause of the zealous labors of the missionary. Indeed, it was 
 impossible to speak in terms of laudation too strong of the exertions 
 of Mr. Williams, at this time, in the cause of Christ. He was not 
 only laboring hard as a missionary, cateohist, and lay reader, and 
 performing the practical duties of a pastor, but was supporting and 
 educating, in a great measure, at his own expense, several young 
 Indians for the ministry. Besides which, extending his exertions 
 from the Oneidas to the Onondagas, he created such a sensation in 
 favor of Christianity, as to lead to the convening of a general council 
 of the Seneca, Cayuga, Tuscarora, Mohawk, Stockbridge, and St. 
 Eegis Indians, to take into consideration the duty of embracing the 
 Christian faith. The services of the Church were solemnly. per- 
 formed with chants and hymns, and a debate ensued which lasted 
 
THE I.AY MISSIONARY. 286 
 
 several days, but led to no results, owing to the fierce opposition of 
 the Pagan party. The subject was referred to a future council, to 
 meet at Buffalo Greek, on the 8th October, 1819. 
 
 Between the session of the two ooimcils, the chapel at Oneida was 
 coliseorated by Bishop Hobart, and the most devout feeling pre- 
 vailed among the Indians. 
 
 The discussion was resumed at the appointed time, and the sub- 
 stance of many of the speeches on both sides, presenting choice 
 specimens of eloquence, not unworthy the halls of a civilized legis- 
 lature, have been preserved by Mr. Williams, who, as an Oneida 
 chief, being a delegate to the council, on this occasion, and the 
 main pillar of the Christian cause, was opposed to the famous Eed 
 Jacket, and maintained with him, for three days, a fierce debate, in 
 which everthing that the malice and ingenuity of a strong minded 
 and eloquent idolater, sharpened by the necessities of forensic strife, 
 and mnged with sarcasm, could urge against the Gospel, or the 
 lives of its adherents, was brought forward on one hand, and on the 
 other the truth, the beauty, the divinity of the Christian religion, 
 and the folly, absurdity, superstition, and degrading tendency of 
 Heathenism. Wearied at last, and overpowered, though not con- 
 vinced by an eloquence, perseverance, wisdom, and resolution, 
 superior to his own, Eed Jacket abandoned the contest. "His 
 language," says Mr. Williams, " was certainly beautiful. His argu- 
 ments, as far as they went, were powerful, yet he was placed in 
 an unfortunate position, he was opposed to a subject with which he 
 was little acquainted. His position was studied and examined, his 
 arguments well weighed, but by his antagonist promptly met. 
 For he understood his language— it was, therefore, a fair combat. 
 Hitherto had he boasted, and his adherents with him, that he had 
 beaten all the missionaries who had attempted to meet him. When 
 he was excited, as he was at times in his declamations, then his elo- 
 quence was at its height. It was then, indeed, that the flow of 
 words and arguments, the music of his voice, the graceful gestures 
 of his arms, and the ease and majestic motions of his body, were 
 
286 THE LOST PKINCE. 
 
 exciting and animating in the extreme. He appeared to the best 
 advantage on the first day of his declamations, in which he occupied 
 the floor the greater part of the time. There was only tiriie for me 
 to make a few preliminary remarks upon the points which would 
 form the subject of my discussion on the following day, before the 
 council adjourned. One of the Pagan chiefs observed to another 
 that, ' Red Jacket, the King of the Orators of the Six Nations, has 
 just commenced his oratory, and before he finishes he will make the 
 young missionary feel the weight of his power.' " 
 
 A vote was obtained from the council more favorable than could 
 have been expected at so early a "period, in the death conflict 
 between the hereditary superstition and the newly introduced 
 Gospel, permitting the establishment of schools, though as yet they 
 -would not consent to the introduction of missionaries. It was 
 regarded as a victory by the Christians, for in the conflict of parties, 
 both on a small and great scale, that which wavers and declines 
 must ultimately faU, and every foothold of advance is a step 
 towards ultimate triumph. 
 
 It is sad to think that zeal so unbounded, self-sacrifices so noble, 
 and successes so great, should have passed out of the mind of the 
 church as if they had never been ; and sadder still, to think that 
 there was not suflicient missionary zeal in the ranks of the Epis- 
 copal Church to listen to the exhortations of Bishop Hobart, or 
 appreciate and sustain the efforts of Mr. Williams. 
 
 The reader will have noticed throughout Mr. Williams's history, 
 that while his mental powers were most vigorous, and his exertions 
 intense, every season of exertion was followed by a prostration of 
 health. It was so in the present instance. <Qe continued, however, 
 laboring unweariedly — for his duties were such as scarcely to admit 
 cessation — when at length, in the midst of his favorite Christmas 
 solemnities, his voice failed while chaunting, and bleeding of the 
 lungs ensued. He was, therefore, compelled to leave, and travel 
 for his health, the only remedy he had from boyhood found avail- 
 ableA 
 
THE LAY MISSIONARr. 287 
 
 i He was also summoned to Washington, at this time, on public 
 business of the highest importance to the Oneidas, and, as it even- 
 tually proved, of most disastrous consequences to himself. The 
 government of the United States had now determined to, attempt 
 the removal of the Few York Indians to the west, and, relying on 
 the ability of Mr. Williams, and his influence with the nation, sum- 
 moned him to its council 
 
 The subject of removal had engaged his attention for many years, 
 and he was at first much opposed to it, but observation, reflection, 
 and consultation with others, had all contributed to change his 
 views. 
 
 The Indians had no longer the ample territories and hunting- 
 grounds they once possessed. Encroached upon, on all sides, 
 by the rapid strides of civihzation, and dwindling, as barbarism 
 ever must, in power and numbers, when in contiguity with a great 
 oivihzed people, they had lost, piecemeal, a large portion of their 
 lands, and the prospect was, they would be entirely swallowed 
 by the swelling tide which hemmed them in on all sides. 
 Besides which, there were many claimants to the Indian lands in 
 the State of New York, foremost among whom were Messi-s. Ogden 
 & Co., who, as far back as 1796 or "T, had actually purchased large 
 portions of these lands from the colony of Massachusetts, which, in 
 the adjustment of boundary difficulties between it and New York 
 had obtained a pre-emption interest in the Indian country, with 
 right of extinguishing the Indian title, which passed over to the 
 purchasers, who had thus a joint interest with the General and 
 State Governments in causing the removal of the Indians. 
 
 In December, 1819, the Eev. Dr. Morse, on behalf of the United 
 States Government, visited Oneida, and Mr. Williams convened the 
 nation, in general' council, to hear his address, in which he urged 
 them, by such considerations as those above, and by showing the 
 impossibility of their continuing to lead a hunting life in the State 
 of New York, to consent to retire to the lands formerly occupied by 
 the Menominies and Winnebagoes, in the neighborhood of Green 
 
288 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Bay — negooiations oonceraing whioh with the Six Nations, began 
 even before the war of 18i2, but, interrupted by that event, had 
 been renewed. He also read the memorial of the Sachems and 
 chiefs of the Six Nations to the President of the United States, in 
 November, 1815, on the subject, with the answer of the President. 
 It was a subject too weighty to admit of immediate decision, as the 
 Oneidas were greatly divided in opinion ; but the visit of Dr. Morse 
 led to a correspondence between the government and Mr. Williams, 
 whioh ended by his being invited to Washington. On his way, he 
 called on Bishop Hobart, in New York, who gave him a letter of 
 introduction to President Monroe, and expressed the greatest sym- 
 pathy, both with his infirm condition of health and the business 
 on which he was engaged. The Bishop, who took an enlightened and 
 statesman-like view of the subject, had for several years regarded 
 emigration westward, as the only means of saving the Indians, and 
 had persuaded Mr. Williams to use his influence in furtherance of 
 the design. It is necessary to understand all this to perceive how 
 he was first withdrawn from strict missionary duty, and placed in 
 political opposition to a portion of the Oneidas. 
 
 (^■esident Monroe and Mr. Calhoun, Secretary of War, received 
 him kindly at Washington ; but though much attention was shown 
 him on all sides, his favorite appears to have been John Ean- 
 dolph, in whose society and conversation he took great delighv On 
 the arrival of Dr. Morse, an expedition to the west was determined, 
 and the War Department agreed to furnish means for prosecuting 
 it, according to plans furnished, at request of the Government, by 
 Mr. Williams. The party was to consist of Dr. Morse, Mr. Williams, 
 and eight Indians, delegates from the Six Nations. 
 
 The Secretary of War, under date of February 9, 1820, wrote to 
 Governor Oass and General McComb, stating that the expedition 
 was undertaken with the approbation of the President, and recom- 
 mending Mr. Williams to their care, besides sending fuller commu- 
 nications to them, and the commandants of the different posts in 
 the west. 
 
THB LAT MISSIONARY. 
 
 289 
 
 ■ "'Governor Clinton, also, charged ifr. Williams to obtain for him 
 extensive statistical information respecting the traditions, language, 
 customs, numbers, and government of the western Indians; which 
 he subsequently embodied in his discourses before the New York 
 Historical Society. And Bishop Hobart, likewise, wrote to him, 
 before his departure, giving him permission to leave his missionary 
 station for the purpose contemplated; " satisfied," he says, "as I 
 am, that it is your supreme desire to promote the temporal and spi- 
 ritual welfare of your countrymen, and, further, the benevolent 
 views of the government." , 
 
 On the arrival of Mr. Williams and the deputies at Detroit, July 
 11, 1820, they found General Cass absent at Maumee river, making 
 a treaty with the Potowatomies, and could obtain no aid from Lieut.- 
 Gov. Woodbridge, with whom they conferred, as he said he had no 
 authority to assist them. To their surprise, also, on the return of Dr. 
 Morse, who had preceded them westward to Green Bay, they learned 
 that the agent of the United States, Colonel Boyer, at that place, 
 had purchased by treaty, from the Indians, the very lands they had 
 gone out to survey — a transaction they imputed to General Cass, 
 who, as Governor of the territory, was at the head of the Indian 
 department — ^it being in no way probable, that a subordinate 
 would act in such a manner, at such a moment, without the know- 
 ledge and approbation of his superior. BafSed and disappointed in 
 their undertaking, the~deputies memorialized the government on 
 the subject, and expressed their chagrin at the transaction. They 
 then returned eastward from Detroit ; and Mr. Williams was com- 
 pelled to proceed to, and spend the winter at, Washington, to 
 oppose the ratification of the treaty, which he did successfully, with 
 the approbation and assistance of the President and the Secretary 
 of War. Permission was then given to the Six Nations to make 
 arrangements with the Menominies and Winnebagoes for the pur- 
 chase of the lands, and it became necessary for Mr. Williams to set 
 out again to the west. As the mission at Oneida had suflfered 
 greatly in consequence of his absence in 1820, he procured- imme- 
 
 18 
 
290 THE LOST PBIWCE. 
 
 diately on his return from the west, in the fall of that year, the 
 services of a young gentleman of the name of Ellis, to act as lay 
 reader. The health of Mr. Ellis was weak, and, in the spring of 
 1821, Mr. Williams determined to take him with him to the west 
 for the henefit of his health. "With the sanction of Bishop Hobart, 
 he entrusted the care of his mission, during the second absence, to 
 a poor young man, of pleasing manners and seeming piety, named 
 Solomon Davis, whom he furnished with clothes and other necessa- 
 ries, and left in care of his house and library. 
 
 Before the departure of Mr. Williams, the bishop, who was now 
 deeply interested in the project for the removal of the Indians to 
 the west, addressed the Oneidas in a long letter, from which I will 
 insert the following passages : — 
 
 " My Childeen. — I am fully fsatisfied that it is the benevolent wish of 
 the Government of the United States, In all their plans, to promote your 
 good. 
 
 " My Children. — ^Your iriend and brother and instructor, Eleazar 
 Williams, I am fully persuaded, has you constantly in his heart ; and it 
 is the object of his thoughts, and cares, and plans, and labors, to make you 
 good, and respectable, and happy. 
 
 " My Children. — It is expedient that he should go on a journey to the 
 west, to see if he can find some territory, where the Stockbridge Indians 
 and others, who are disposed to go, may reside ; and particularly to ascer- 
 tain whether your western brethren are inclined to embrace the Gospel of 
 our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, which is the great and only means of 
 making us good and happy, here and hereafter. 
 
 " My Children. — Let Mr. Williams go, and aid him all you can in the 
 important objects of his journey. 
 
 "John H. Hobabt." 
 
 To show the deep interest taken in this expedition, so rarfortn- 
 nate to Mr. Williams, I need only further insert the following tes- 
 timonial with which he was furnished, by the Governor of New 
 York:— 
 
THE LAY MI8SI0NART. 291 
 
 "De Witt Clinton, Cfovemor of the Stat, of New Yorh, to all to whom 
 these presents shall come, greeting ■■ 
 "Mr. Eleazar Williams, and several of the chiefs of the Six Nations resi- 
 dent in this state, being on an exploring tour to the west, on business of 
 importance, I do hereby recommend them to the protection and hospi- 
 tality of all persons to whom they may apply for the same. 
 
 " In witness whereof, I have hereunto affixed my hand and the privy 
 seal of the state, at the city of Albany, this 17th day of May, A.D., 1821. 
 
 " De Witt Clihton." 
 
 The deputation from the Six Nations, with Mr. WiUiams at their 
 head, arrived at Detroit, July 12, 1821. Governor Cass, being 
 absent, deputed Mr. Trowbridge to act as agent for the government, 
 and he accompanied the party to Green Bay. " "We are very for- 
 tunate," writes Mr. Williams, "that such a gentleman as Mr. Trow- 
 bridge was appointed to superintend, on the present occasion, the 
 concerns of the New York Indians." 
 
 On July 31, they left Detroit in the steamer, " Walk in Water." 
 The Eev. Dr. Yates, of the Reformed Dutch Church, and Eev. Dr. 
 Eiohard, of the Eomish Church, virere of the company. On 3d 
 August, they touched at the island of Michilimackinac and admired 
 "its beauty and majestic appearance," and passing through the 
 Straits of Lake Huron and Michigan, arrived August 5, at ten 
 o'clock, in the Fox Eiver, opposite Fort Howard. 
 
 Communication was immediately opened with the Menominies 
 and the Winnebagoes. At first, the latter were desiroas of making 
 a present of the land to the New York Indians; but, this was 
 declined, on account of the insecurity which would attend the 
 title, in fnture times. It was finally agreed the land should be 
 purchased, by treaty, which was accordingly done on August 
 IT, in a grand council — the terms being two thousand dollars, five 
 hundred of which were to be paid immediately and fifteen hundred 
 within one year. Having accomplished his mission for the govern- 
 ment and the Indians, Mr. Williams returned home, and arrived at 
 
292 THE LOST PBINCB. 
 
 Oneida Oastle, September 28, 1821. He received the thanks and 
 congratulations both of the General and State Governments, and 
 also of Bishop Hobart, for the ability with which he had 
 c ondu cted the affair. 
 
 ^congratulate you," wrote De "Witt Clinton, in transmitting him 
 a check for two hundred and fifty dollars, " on the success of your 
 mission." This, I may remark, being a mere payment of expenses, 
 was all which Mr. Williams has ever received for services by 
 which the State of New York has so largely benefitted in conse- 
 quence of the sales of land by emigrating tribes to her^ 
 
 But now, in earnest, began the troubles of his latter years. The 
 reader will remember that the Oneida Indians were divided into 
 two parties, formerly Christian and Pagan ; but, since the success- 
 ful missionary efforts of Mr. Williams, known as the First and 
 Second Christian parties. Of these, the First was favorable, and 
 the Second, opposed to emigration. Political prejudices, fostered 
 by certain religions teachers, for their own ends, alienated the 
 Second Christian party from the man to whom they were indebted 
 for the faith of Christ, and who had been laboring to the best of 
 his ability, and the neglect of his own interests, to promote their 
 welfare and that of the whole body of the Indians. 
 
 It was, at this time, that system of calumny began, so well con- 
 tinued and imitated by others up to the present time, and the 
 effects of which can only be counteracted by such an exposure to 
 the public eye as I am now making of the life, character, and 
 actions of the man. Happy for every one if their past lives would 
 bear scrutiny as well as that of Eleazar "Williams. The Second 
 Christian party of Indians, or rather a few individuals among them, 
 repudiated, in the name of the whole nation, any connection with 
 the recent delegation to the west, which they represented as a 
 fraudulent attempt, on the part of Mr. "Williams, to draw them 
 from the homes of their forefathers, and repeatedly wrote to 
 Bishop Hobart on the subject, requesting that he would withdraw 
 him from being their teacher, and appoint Mr. Solomon Davis in 
 
THE LAY MISSIONAKT. 293 
 
 his place. The bishop paid no attention to them, and did not even 
 deign to reply. They sent a delegation to Washington, who were 
 at once informed that the aflair had the sanction of the President, 
 and that Mr. Williams had in everything acted honorably and 
 uprightly. And the First Christian party, meeting in council, 
 declared that they had appointed the delegation which accompa- 
 nied Mr. Williams to represent them, exposed the influences by 
 which the opposition to him had been fomented, and expressed the 
 fullest affection for, and confidence in him. 
 
 Unable to injure Mr. Williams in the estimation of Bishop 
 Hobart, the party of opposition wrote to the Eev. Win. B. Lacy, 
 of Albany, requesting him to use his influence for the removal of 
 Mr. Williams, and the appointment of Mr. Solomon Davis. " Our 
 affeotiona for him," they say, "are changed. We cannot reverence 
 and respect him as we once did. He has tried by every means in 
 his power to draw us from our lands. While he continued faithful 
 to onr spiritual interests, and remained with us as a teacher of good 
 things, we loved him and endeavored to assist him, but when he 
 became discontented with his situation, neglected us, and often left 
 us, we became jealous of our rights. Ambition appears to be the 
 ruling passion in his breast. The humble cottages of the nativea ill 
 suit the dignity of his mind. We, however, forbear personal 
 reflections and solicit relief. Our wishes centre in Mr. Solomon 
 Davis." 
 
 As this gentleman was said to be the instigator of this communi- 
 cation, Mr. WUliams kindly wrote to inform him of the fact, at the 
 same time giving him some friendly advice respecting the prosecution 
 of his studies. Mr. Lacy enclosed the letter of the Indians to Bishop 
 Hobart, with the following remarks :—" Although I have a high 
 opinion of Mr. Williams's zeal and fidelity to the cause, I am afraid 
 he has lost his influence among the Oneidas. Prejudice, founded 
 on invincible ignorance, is often unconquerable, and the best way 
 to avoid its consequence, is generally, in the case of clergymen, to 
 flee from it. Under this impression I am inclined to think that the 
 
294 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 sooner Mr. Williams enters on his mission to Green Bay the better 
 it will be for him and the church." 
 
 "While difficulties, not of his own creation, were thus thickening 
 around him at Oneida, his missionary exertions for many years past 
 were justly appreciated by the more intelligent portion of the com- 
 munity, and he records in his journal an interesting correspondence, 
 in January, 1822, with Mrs. L. H. Sigourney, who wrote for informa- 
 tion respecting his "mission, and the condition and habits of the 
 Indians, in which both she and her husband took a lively interest. 
 
 Mr. Williams had now, though unordained, been laboring as a 
 missionary under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
 for seven years, and during that time he had received, according to 
 the account of Genit H. Van Wagenen, Esq., thfe treasurer of the 
 Missionary Society, of New York, now before me, $1,119 3, being 
 on an average, about $160 per annum. During this space of time 
 he had expended in behalf of the churdh, with the exception of 
 $4 or $500, all his little fortune received from the government. It 
 is not necessary to recapitulate the services he had rendered to the 
 church, or ask the reader, with this simple statement of facts before 
 him, whether, as a missionary, he seems to have been actuated by 
 worldly motives, or by a sincere love to God, and a desire to pro- 
 mote the temporal and spiritual welfare of the Indian race. If a 
 cloud rested on the latter part of his career at Oneida, it certainly was 
 not of his own creation. Poor as was his' compensation, he would 
 not have deserted his post, unnecessarily, even for an hour, had he 
 not been called from it by a sense of duty to the people to whom 
 he ministered, and who were too ignorant to appreciate his princi- 
 ples or feelings. 
 
 It seemed now necessary that he should seek another field of labor, 
 and precede his people into the promised land of the west. After 
 conference with Bishop Hobart, he resigned the station at Oneida, 
 and set out for Green Bay, in July, 1822, with the design of being 
 on the spot, when the portion of the Indians who were in favor of 
 emigration should arrive there. In doing this he depended solely 
 
MARRIAGE AND ORDINATION. 295 
 
 upon Providence. He went out without missionary station or sti- 
 pend, a Ghristicm layman, who had devoted his life to Ood, and 
 patiently awaited the time, when he might be deemed worthy of 
 serving his Divine master in the lowest ministry of his church. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 MARRIAGE AND ORDINATION. 
 
 Thb reader has now traced, step by step, and, almost, day by day, 
 the career of Mr. Williams, since his first arrival in Massachusetts. 
 He has seen the wonderful development of his intellect, accompa- 
 nied by every manifestation which man can afibrd, to his fellow- 
 men, of the purest piety ; he has been admitted, by his journals, 
 into the'inmost feelings of his heart; he has followed him through 
 the exciting scenes of his military life, and marked the success 
 which attended his missionary efforts — together with the influences 
 which broke in upon the simple and retired devotion of his life at 
 Oneida. 
 
 In the midst of a rich and cultivated country, surrounded by those 
 he had civilized and Christianized, he had hoped to spend his days, 
 ministering to his rustic flock, and worshipping in the beautiful lit- 
 tle church, whose spire he had taught to rise amid the wigwams 
 and hunting-grounds of the Indian, a centre of good influences, both 
 to his own nation, and to the church, who, by his example, might 
 be quickened in missionary zeal. 
 
 The advice of his venerated bishop, the urgent request of the Pre- 
 sident of the United States, the Secretary of War, and the Govenor 
 of the State of New York, Hobart, Monroe, Calhoun, De Witt Clin- 
 ton — compassion for the condition of the Indians, reliance on the 
 faith of treaties, and the most ample minded and philanthropic views 
 for the social regeneration of the aborigines, throughout the conti- 
 nent, had induced, or rather compelled him to lead the way, as at 
 
296 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 once a religious and a political pioneer, to the west, in order to 
 induce the New York Indians to follow him, to what was designed 
 as the perpetual seat and guarded haven of a down-trodden race. 
 
 To vindicate the character, and detail the history of Mr. "Williams, 
 as a man, and as a Christian, it is necessary to put the reader briefly 
 in possession of the transactions relative to Indian affairs, in which 
 he was engaged. 
 
 In the early part of the century, the Winnebagoes and the Meno- 
 minies were the possessors of several millions of acres of most 
 valuable land, on the borders of Lake Michigan. A general idea 
 may be formed of its nature and extent, by drawing a line on a map 
 from the mouth of the Milwaukee river westward to Fort Winne- 
 bago — from thence northward to the high lands bordering on Lake 
 Superior — and then south-eastward to Noquet Bay, opposite the 
 entrance to Green Bay. It was well watered, and richly wooded — 
 abpunding in game, and fish, adapted alike for agricultural and hunt- 
 ing purposes — but ample beyond the wants or desires of its uncivi- 
 lized inhabitants. With the generosity of the savage, they proposed 
 to share this noble territory with their eastern brethren. We have 
 seen how the General and State Governments approved of and fos- 
 tered this proposition; and how, at length, in 1821, in a treaty 
 between the Winnebagoes and the Menominies, on the one hand, 
 and the delegates of the Six Nations on the other, with the United 
 States, in the person of its agent, standing by as a paternal witness, 
 to afford its solemn sanction, and throw over the contracting par- 
 ties the mantle of its protection, the New York Indians had pur- 
 chased a certain portion of this territory. Beginning several miles 
 from the mouth of the Fox river, it ran back in breadth seven or 
 eight miles to a longitudinal extent of about seventy. This tract 
 of country, was not, however considered by the Six Nations suffi- 
 ciently large — and, with the sanction of government — application 
 was made for an extension of the cession, in the year 1822, and Mr. 
 Williams went to Green Bay, not only as a settler, but as a mem- 
 ber of a delegation commissioned for this purpose. 
 
MAEBIAOE AND ORDISAnOS. 297 
 
 He was requested by General Cass to act as United States agent, 
 on the occasion ; but, deeming the duties of this office inoojnpatible 
 with being a party to the transaction, he honorably declined it. A 
 treaty was entered into between the Kew York Indians and the 
 Menominies only, on the 23d September, by which, for certain 
 considerations— the latter admitted their eastern brethren to a full 
 joint ownership of the half of the whole territory, possessed, pre- 
 yionsly, in common by them and the Winnebagoes— with certaia 
 reservations, however, to guai-antee. individual rights, of which I 
 shall speak more fully hereafter. 
 
 Now, it is true, that, according to civilized yaluation, the amount 
 paid by the New York Indians was entirely inadeqaate for the just 
 purchase of land, which, at a small estimate, exceeded a million and 
 a half of acres. But, to view the negotiation in this light, is most 
 absurd. It was an arrangement, between Indian tribes, for their 
 mutual convenience and benefit, not only sanctioned, but encou- 
 raged by government, for its own ends. 
 
 The New York Indians, in purchasing this western territory, and 
 consenting to removal, sacrificed to the State of New York, and to 
 the pre-emption companies, their own valuable possessions in the 
 east, and exchanged an ample, cultivated domain, for a wilder- 
 ness, in the hope of obtaining an asylum for the red man, where, 
 geographically protected by the lakes, and defended by the arm of 
 government, he might remain for ever safe from Anglo Saxon 
 cupidity, and grow up in wealth, civilization, morality, and 
 religion. 
 
 The dream of Mr. Williams, which he indulged in common with 
 the excellent bishop, and the great statesmen who had encouraged 
 the project of removal, was, that all the remains of the Indian race 
 in the territories of the United States, should be there gathered into 
 one vast community, where the savage tribes might be won over to 
 civilization and Christianity, by intercourse with their already 
 civilized brethren. 
 He hoped, at some future day, to establish a great Indian col- 
 
 13* 
 
298 THB LOST PKINCB. 
 
 lege, in which the red man from Canada, as well as the inhabitant 
 of the States, might he instructed and trained in all things condu- 
 cive to happiness here and hereafter. With this unselfish hope, he 
 braved the hardships of the wilderness, poverty, and isolation, and 
 patiently awaited the hour when he should be repaid by the sight 
 of the prosperity of his people. 
 
 But, while negotiations were still in progress, difficulties began, 
 in consequence of the interference and chicanery of the whites, in 
 the neighborhood of Green Bay, who strove to sow dissensions 
 between the contracting pai-ties, and neutralize the benevolent 
 designs of President Monroe. They represented to the Menominies, 
 that the Kew Yorlj Indians, in consequence of their superior know- 
 ledge, had already overreached them, and were endeavoring to do 
 so again ; and that, if they had sold the land to the government, 
 they would have obtained far better conditions. But, notwith- 
 standing their efforts, the treaty was concluded to the full satisfac- 
 tion of the Menominies, who were most urgent with their eastern 
 brethren to take immediate possession, that, by occupying the 
 country, they might keep off of it the " long nails'' of the white 
 man. 
 
 At a subsequent period, the Menominies were induced, by inter- 
 ested persons, to deny their bargain with the Now York Indians, 
 on the plea that they had been overreached, and Mr. Williams was 
 compelled to spend his time and substance to maintain their rights, 
 against the efforts of knavish *raderp and intriguing statesmen. 
 But, for the present, the evil hour was postponed ; and, as soon as 
 he yas settled at Green Bay, he began to look round him and 
 examine the mixed elements of which society in the Indian terri- 
 tory was composed, and take measures for the establishment of 
 religious worship. 
 
 His old friend and comrade in the war of 1812, Ool. Pinkney, 
 was in command of the garrison at Green Bay, and, together with 
 his officers, received him with kindness. He had carried with him 
 Mr. Ellis, for the purpose of instituting a school foi- the religious 
 
MAHRIAOB AND OKDINATION. 299 
 
 education of the Indians. Still a layman, unmarried, with the world 
 before him, he was under no obligation but that of a oonsoientions 
 devotion to Christ, and affectionate regard for the Indians, to apply 
 himself to missionary work, or remain at Green Bay. Ha might 
 easily have gained wealth, had money been his object. He might 
 have acquired political importance, had ambition been his ruling 
 passion. But he was simply an enthusiast for the welfare of others. 
 Immediately on his arrival at Green Bay, he held public service in 
 the garrison, and, finding a respectable and increasing attendance 
 on divine worship, made an appeal in February, 1823, to the oflaoers 
 of the post and the citizens, to provide a place of worship, which 
 was promptly and cheerfully responded to. In a short time a neat 
 chapel was fitted up in the garrison. Mr. Williams had the honor 
 of being the first person who performed the service of the Protest- 
 ant Episcopal Church west of Lake Michigan. But the religious 
 instrjjction of the Indians was still uppermost in his mind. Only 
 a few families had yet arrived from the State of New York, but a 
 great many were expected, and he desired to be in readiness for their 
 arrival. He accordingly opened a correspondence with the Mission- 
 ary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church at Philadelphia. 
 His plan was to erect a mission house, in which he wonld place, as 
 Buperintendants, one of the most respectable Indian families, with 
 accommodation for the boarding, lodging, and schooling of 100 
 children, who were to be provided with gardens and fields for their 
 aninsement. He was, meanwhile, educating Mr. Ellis for the min- 
 istry, and while prosecuting his studies, proposed that he shonld 
 act as school-master, to the mission, which was to embrace children 
 of all the Indian tri]^es. At the same time exertions were made 
 by the officers and residents of Green Bay to effect the same object ; 
 and, with the sanction of Bishop Hobart, and the recommendation 
 of Gov. Cass, application was made at the east, by Mr. Ellis, for 
 funds to carry the design of Mr. Williams into effect, but owing to 
 
 the illness of that gentleman, very little money was collected. 
 
 ^^oU after his arrival at Green Bay, Mr. Williams had become 
 
300 THE LOST PEINCE. 
 
 acquainted at the garrison with a young lady of French and In- 
 dian extraction, named Magdeline Jourdan, of great personal attrac- 
 tions, considerable accomplishments, and prepossessing sweetness 
 of disposition. They were united in marriage at Green Bay, on 3d 
 March, 182&i By his marriage with this lady, Mr. Williams came 
 into possession of between 4 and 5,000 acres of land on the borders 
 of the Fox Kiver, a few miles distant from Green Bay. In explana- 
 tion of the manner in which Miss Jourdan became entitled to this 
 fine property, I may remark that, among the Menominies, while 
 in general the lands were common, certain tracts were held imme- 
 morially, as hunting-grounds in particular families ; and at the time 
 of the cession, by purchase, of a portion of their country to the New 
 York Indians, reservation was made of these, by express treaty 
 stipulation, for the benefit of the parties interested. The land in 
 question was one of these tracts, and had long been the hunting- 
 ground of the Jourdan family. To avoid all future doubt concern- 
 ing the title to this property, it was, on the 23d August, 1825, made 
 over to Mrs. Williams, by a deed from the chiefs, warriors, and 
 head men of the Menominie nation, in which they say that, "for, 
 and in consideration of their love and friendship for Magdeline 
 Williams, and her heirs of the Menominie nation, and in consider- 
 ation of the sum of fifty dollars, they gave, granted, bargained, sold, 
 and quit-claimed " the said property, to her and her heirs for ever. 
 In Article 9, of the treaty of 1838, between Eansom H. Gillet, Com- 
 missioner on the part of the United States and the chiefs of the 
 New York Indians, this property was guaranteed to Mr. Williams, 
 in fee simple, by patent from the President. Hereafter I shall have 
 occasion to speak more on this subject; but Jiiere, I shall only beg 
 the reader to remember that this property had no connection with 
 any remuneration of Mr. Williams for services rendered to the 
 Indians, but was his wife's estate, owned by her at the time of 
 their marriage. 
 
 In May, 1823, Mr. Williams wrote to Bishop Hobaft a report of 
 his proceedings and prospects of success, as a missionary at Green 
 
MARRIAOB AND ORDINATION. 301 
 
 Bay, and applied for deacon's orders, which, at Oneida, he had out 
 of modesty declined, though strongly urged to enter the ministry 
 by the Bishop. 
 
 In the fall of 1823, considerable alarm existed in the minds of 
 tlie New York Indians, respecting the validity of their claims on 
 the lands ceded them, in consequence of the efforts of some 
 government agents, at Green Bay, to create dissension between the 
 two Indian tribes; and it became necessary for Mr. Williams to 
 visit Washington, and confer with the President and the Secretary 
 of War, in relation to the affair. He left Green Bay for this pur- 
 pose, on November 1, and was entirely successful in his mission to 
 the seat of government. The parties were still in power under 
 whom the treaties had been made between the Indians, and 
 prompt measures were taken to redress the ills of which the New 
 York Indians complained. 
 
 Bishop Hobart was then absent in England, whither he had 
 repaired for the benefit of his health, not long after the application 
 of Mr. Williams for deacon's orders. During the bishop's absence, 
 Mr. Williams was subject to severe annoyance in consequence of 
 false, frivolous, and vexatious reports circulated to his discredit, 
 the purport or the author of which he could not, for a long time, 
 ascertain, but which, at length, were shown to emanate from a 
 young person whom he had formerly befriended. The whole 
 details of this affair have been preserved by Mr. Williams, and will 
 form a curious chapter, if ever published, in the natural history of 
 Blander. He spent " the whole winter of 1823, and the winter, 
 spring, and summer of 1824, in trying to ascertain the substance of 
 false reports," during which time he had to travel about three 
 thousand miles, and be at an expense of one thousand dollars, 
 merely to find out that he was charged with a leaning to Roman- 
 ism, and other things equally absurd and unfounded. Among 
 other means of defamation resorted to, was the circulation of a 
 hand-bill, which drew forth a reply from the chiefs of the First 
 Christian party, at Oneida, in which, after denying the truth. of 
 
302 THE LOST PEIN(5B. 
 
 everything alleged, they say, " Mr. Williams has been among us ever 
 since the year 1816, and his acts of kindness have been constant, 
 and he has gratuitously ever since been doing us many and various 
 services. We have looked to him as a friend and adviser, and he 
 has conducted hiraiself towards us, with the utmost fidelity and dis- ^ 
 interestedness, and yet these his acts, and this his conduct, is now 
 to be misconstrued." 
 
 Mr. Williams, during his residence at Green Bay, had oflaciated 
 regularly to the garrison and the inhabitants, and raised a numer- 
 ous and respectable congregation, who were strongly attached to 
 him. The attendance on divine service not unfrequently 
 amounted to three hundred persons; but his labors, with the 
 exception of occasional gratuities from the officers, were without 
 remuneration. He had no stipend, either from the congreation or 
 any missionary society. His health again became infirm, and the 
 weakness of his lungs increased, and as he had never designed to con- 
 tinue in a ministerial capacity at Green Bay, itself, and the Oneidas 
 were now rapidly arriving at the neighboring settlement of Duck 
 Creek, where he intended to plant a church, he applied to the soci- 
 ety, at Philadelphia, to send some clergyman to the station, who 
 might take his place, and raise a school and mission for the instruc- 
 tion of the Menominies. The Rev. Mr. Nash was accordingly 
 appointed. The failure of this gentleman at Green Bay is well 
 known to those acquainted with the history of the mission ; hut 
 everything was done by Mr. Williams, previous to his departure, for 
 the east, where he purposed to spend the winter of 1825-6, to render 
 him comfortable, and make his services eflnoient. In consequence of 
 sickness, Mr. Williams remained at Oneida until the spring of 1826, in 
 the midst of his friends, but at the same time exposed to the ungen- 
 erous assaults of his enemies. To bring the attacks against him to 
 immediate issue, he now applied for deacon's ordere. The 
 signatures to the canonical recommendations were of the most 
 respectable kind, and the bishop appointed Oneida as the scene of 
 his labors, and the residence of his enemies, for his ordination. 
 
MARRIAGE AND ORDINATION. 303 
 
 At Vernon, on the evening preceding the ordination, Mr. Solomon 
 Davis called, with several chiefs, on Bishop Hobart, and withdrew 
 the charges he had made against Mr. Williailis ; though I am sorry 
 to add, that this gentleman has not ceased to blacken the reputation 
 of a man every way his superior, and whose literary labors even he 
 has not hesitated to pass for his own. A translation of the Praj'er 
 Book, published some years since, aS the compilation of Mr. Solomon 
 Davis, is the work of Mr. Williams. The bishop, with the clergy 
 who accompanied him, the Rev. Mr. Anthon, of Utica, the Eev. Mr. 
 Bulkley, of Manilas, the Eev. Mr. Perry, of Borne, the Eev. Mr. 
 Holister, of Paris, the Eev. Mr. Young, of Perriville, the Rev. Mr. 
 Treadway, of New Hartford, the Eev. Mr. Griffin, of New York, and 
 the Eev. Mr. Burgess, of Connecticut, were met at Vernon by a 
 party of Oneida chiefs and others, and escorted to the church. Mr. 
 Solomon Davis, catechist and lay reader, said the morning prayer. 
 The biahop then made an address to the Indians, which was inter- 
 preted to them. It has been preserved, and is an admirable speci- 
 men of apostolic simplicity. At its conclusion, several of the chiefs 
 advanced, each one placing his hand in token of assent on the right 
 shoulder of the one who stood before him, and the foremost placing 
 his hand upon the shoulder of Mr. "Williams, who thus, as the repre- 
 sentative of all, addressed the bishop on behalf of that portion of 
 the Oneida nation who adhered to and designed to follow him to the 
 west, praying him still to extend his paternal care over them, in 
 spiritual things, after their departure to their distant and new home 
 at Green Bay, to which the bishop affectionately responded. The 
 address to the candidate for ordination was marked by all that 
 fervor which was characteristic pf the zealous bishop. " You are 
 now," he said, " to make very solemn vows. You are to make them 
 in the presence of Him who cannot be deceived, and who will not 
 be mocked. Yon are to seal the sincerity with which yon make, 
 and the fidelity with which yon mean to fulfil them, by partaking 
 of the symbols of the body and blood of the Lord. Need I say to 
 you— and what I say to you I say to my brethren and myself— how 
 
304 THE LOST PnlKCE. 
 
 tremendous the guilt, how horrible the punishment, if those vows 
 be not made in sincerity, if those vows be not faithfully fulfilled. 
 In an extensive regionto the west, the greater portion of your coun- 
 trymen will be gathered, advancing in all the arts of civilization 
 and social life, under the guidance of that religion which best per- 
 fects and secures every human blessing ; the time may come, when 
 the descendants of those who once roamed, scattered bands, wild as 
 the wilderness around them, which they now behold bright with 
 the fruitful fields, the populous villages, and the busy cities, of the 
 more powerful, because civilized race, who possess the soil of which 
 they once were lords, may take their stand, a compact, honored, 
 independent body of enlightened freemen^jii.-th^ighest ranks of 
 their white brethren, and participate in all the inestimable blessings 
 of those civil and religious institutions, which are the just pride of 
 our happy oountiy. You go forth to aid in this great, this glorious, 
 this most benevolent design. You go forth, the first Indian vested 
 by our church with that commission, without which no man can 
 minister in holy things. God grant I may have cause to thank Him 
 for making me the instrument of commissioning you to His service. 
 Duties and difficulties you will have of no ordinary kind. To dis- 
 charge those duties, and overcome those difficulties, exert all your 
 powers, and call forth that grace of God's Spirit, which you must' 
 constantly implore. Great your labors, great your difficulties, but 
 great also may be your reward. How great the reward in the view 
 of your scattered, and in too many respects, degraded countrymen, 
 rising to that rank in civil and in social life, for which God has 
 designed them — ^what a transoendant reward in the prospect of the 
 fulfilment to you of that gracious promise, 'they who turn many 
 to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.' " 
 
 With these words ringing in his ears, the Sachem knelt at 
 the feet of his friend and bishop, and received, in ordination, the 
 apostolic laying on of hands. The prospect seemed, once more, 
 bright before him, and, surrounded with the fruits and evidences 
 of past labor, and with a heart beating high with hope of convert- 
 
REVBKSES. 
 
 305 
 
 ing into a smiling garden the western wilderness, which was to be 
 the scene of his future toils, he rose to carry thither the cross and 
 Gospel. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 BEVEBBES. 
 
 a.EMED with the ministerial commission, Mr. Williams returned to 
 Green Bay, to spend his life in missionary labor, among the people 
 be loved, who were now crowding to their new homes in the w£sfcj 
 His position was peculiar. He was not merely the spiritual pastt* 
 of the Indians, but their secular champion. While a layman, he 
 performed the duties of a clergyman ; and, when in the ministry, 
 it was impossible for him, as the most intelligent person in the Six 
 Nations, who had, also, been engaged in all late transactions between 
 them and government, to cease defending the title to their newly 
 acquired possessions. He was bound, in honor and duty, to fight 
 for them, as he had been the chief instrument of government in 
 withdrawing them from their old habitations ; and they might well 
 have accused him of treachery, had he tamely permitted them to 
 be despoiled, by unprincipled politicians, of what was designed to 
 be the magnificent heritage of their children. 
 
 While the right of the Oneidas to the land purchased near Lake 
 Michigan was still unquestioned, Mr. Williams induced them to 
 erect a chapel at Duck Creek ; but, in the midst of their labors to 
 establish themselves as a civil and religious community, the intelli- 
 gence came that government was about to enter into a treaty with 
 the Menominies. They were at no loss to foresee the bearing of 
 such a treaty on themselves. On its face, it bore an attempt to 
 defraud them of their possessions, and deny the validity of the treaties 
 between them and the Menominies, entered into with the sanction, 
 and at the instigation of the United States Government. The then 
 existing administration was bound by the acts of its predeoessorfl ; 
 
306 THE tOST PBINCK. 
 
 and General Cass, who had superintended the negotiations between 
 the Indians of the east and west, was still governor of the north- 
 western territory, and fully cognizant of all the details of those 
 transactions, and of the integrity and good faith in which the New 
 York Indians had obtained their lands at Green Bay. ' From its 
 most incipient stage. General Oass had been, we may say, a party 
 to the cession. On the 10th July, 1817, lie wrote to E. Granger, 
 Esq., Indian agent at Buffalo, " The government is friendly to the 
 proposed cession. "Were it otherwise, I should not consider myself 
 at liberty to co-operate in the projected negotiation." In 1818, in 
 a long letter to the Hon. D. A. Ogden, he represented the removal 
 of the New York Indians to the west, as a change fraught with 
 benefit to the government, on account of their civilization and 
 proved fidelity, which would render them a barrier against the 
 incursions of the savage tribes, and be the means of reclaiming them 
 from barbarism. Mr. Trowbridge, who, by liis appointment, had 
 been present on behalf of the United States, at the treaty of 1821, 
 bad reported to him the whole proceedings, making mention, 
 among other things, "of the correct moral deportment, and 
 statesmanlike conduct of the deputies from the Six Nations, under 
 the direction of Mr. Williams, whose personal exertions," he added, 
 " have been very great." Mr. John Sergeant, jun., in making his 
 report, of October 16, 1822, to General Oass, concerning the second 
 treaty, in which an extension of the cession was obtained, says : — 
 " Some of the French people in this place have taken much pains 
 to create a party among the Menominies, to fribstrate tlie designs of 
 government, and the New Yorh Indians, in the aforesaid purchase, 
 and have been entirely unsuccessful in their attempts ; and I have 
 the pleasure, further to state, that the Menominies appear to be 
 much pleased with the bargain and their new neighbors." So that, 
 if ever there was a purchase made in good faith, it was that of the 
 New York Indians, and General Cass knew it. 
 
 " My fears in regard to the contemplated treaty with the Meno- 
 minies," writes Mr. Williams, in his journal, "were at length fully 
 
BEVEHSSS. 807 
 
 realized. By a comrannloation from government, I was informed 
 that an appropriation had been made by Congress to carry the 
 above into effect, and that General Oass and Colonel McKinney 
 were appointed as commissioners; the main object being to curtail 
 the land convoyed to the New York Indians, as all the tract of 
 country lying on the west side of Lake Michigan must now soon, 
 be erected into a territory." 
 
 Of all transactions in the history of the United States, 
 the treaty of Butte des Morts is the most dishonorable. The 
 commissioners, without asking the consent of the New York 
 Indians, purchased from the Menominies the most valuable portion, 
 including improved lands, of the tract, ceded by previous treaties 
 to them, shutting them out entirely from access to the Fox river, 
 from its mouth to the rapids of the Grand Kakalin. The Menomi- 
 nies and the Winnebagoes were summoned to the council, and the 
 New York Indians had to stand by and see their possessions 
 wrested from th^m by the strong hand of power. After the treaty 
 was opened. Governor Oass said, "We have observed for some 
 time the Menominies to be in a bad situation as to their chiefs. 
 There is no one we can talk to as head of the nation. If anything 
 should happen, we want some man who has authority in the 
 nation that we can look to. You appear like a flock of geese, with- 
 out a leader, some fly one way and some another. To-morrow, at 
 the openjng of the council, we shall appoint a principal chief of the 
 Menominies. We shall make inquiry this afternoon, and try to 
 select the proper man. We shall give him the medal, and shall 
 expect the Menominies to respect him." 
 
 On August T, two young men were called in front of the 
 commissioners (one was named Oiscoss, alias Claw, the other was 
 called Carron). Col. McKinney then addressed them, and put 
 medals round their necks. Oiscoss or Oskashe, as tho name is 
 spelled in the printed treaty, was made head chief, and the future 
 organ of communication with the commissioners — and thus, by his 
 
308 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 instrumentality, the property of the New York Indians was given 
 over to the Unitecl States. 
 
 A short story which Mr. Williams once told me in conversation, 
 ■will show who Oiscoss was, and what " a proper person " was 
 found in him. 
 
 One morning, at dawn of day, ahont a year previous to the 
 treaty of Butte des Morts, a young half-breed Indian, who was a 
 distant relative of Mrs. Jourdan, the mother-in-law of Mr. 
 "Williams, was paddling in his canoe down Hell Creek, a branch of 
 the Fox Elver. It was still dark, so that objects could not be 
 distinctly discerned. As he glided by the tall rushes growing near 
 the bank, he observed them move, as if some animal was among 
 them. Supposing it to be a deer, he fired at the spot where he 
 saw the motion, and then paddled through an opening in the reeds 
 to see the effect of his shot. To his inexpressible horror, he found 
 an Indian, in his canoe, which was half-drawn on shore, drooping 
 lifelessly over the side of his bark, with a shot through his head. 
 As the deed was accidental, he had no wish to conceal it, and put- 
 ting the body in his own canoe, paddled down to Green Bay, to 
 the encampment of Oiscoss, as the Indian killed belonged to his 
 party. On landing, he went strait to Oiscoss, and informed him of 
 what had happened, when Oiscoss, who was drunk at the time, 
 drew his knife, and plunging it repeatedly into his body, continued 
 stabbing him till he was dead. He was arrested for murder, but as 
 he was a man of great influence among the Indians, was acquitted. 
 But though he had escaped the law, there was another tribunal of 
 a diflferent kind to which he was still exposed. There is a tradi- 
 tional institution among the Indians, very similar to the avenger of 
 blood. Mrs. Jourdan, as the relative of the slain, and a medicine 
 wotnan, had only, according to the custom of the nation, to take a 
 pipe and a war-club, and lay them down at the feet of any of the 
 chiefs of Menominies, and pronounce the name, " Oiseoas," in 
 order to insure a just and immediate retribution. "When the day 
 
REVERSES. 
 
 309 
 
 appointed for the council at Butte des Morts drew near, fearing, 
 that unless he was reconciled with her, his life might be taken, he 
 proceeded to her house, acknowledged the murder, threw himself 
 on her mercy, and implored pardon. It was granted, and the only 
 punishment he received was the fierce invective which the eloquent 
 tongue of an indignant woman could bestow. "When he appeared 
 at Butte des Morts, he was taken by a half-breed (L. G.) to the 
 judge before whom he had been tried, and told, " There sits the 
 man who saved your life^-now do whatever he tells you." Such 
 was the head chief, the medal man, " the proper person," of Butte 
 des Morts, by whose influence, in a great measure, the lands of the 
 New York Indians were consigned by the Menominies to the com- 
 missioners. 
 
 Many of the speeches delivered by the Indians, at Bntte des 
 Morts, and that by Mr. Dean, who spoke on behalf of the Six 
 Nations, were taken down, at the time, by Mr. Polk, of Washing- 
 ton, and Mr. Williams, and are yet preserved by the latter 
 gentleman. The indignation and distress of the Oneida, Stock- 
 bridge, and Brothertown Indians, was extreme. "Before we left 
 the treaty ground," writes Mr. Williams, " it was proposed to me, 
 by the whole delegation, to proceed to Washington and meet the 
 treaty just concluded with the Menominies." An eloquent appeal 
 and petition, from the Six Nations, was drawn up, and Mr. 
 Williams set out for Washington, in the fall of 1827, to oppose the 
 ratification of the treaty. He had the good fortune to interest Mr. 
 Van Buren, Mr. Benton, Mr. Calhoun, and other distinguished gen- 
 tlemen, in the senate, in behalf of the New York Indians, and, by 
 Jheir kind exertions, the consummation of the proposed iniquity 
 was prevented. Nothing, however, was done that session. As 
 the hopes of the Six Nations depended on the efforts of Mr. 
 Williams, it was of the utmost importance to those who desired the 
 ratification of the treaty, to withdraw him from their cause, and a 
 politic but fruitless appeal appears to have been made to his 
 cupidity. He received the following letter from Gen. Oass : — 
 
310 THE LOST PEINCE. 
 
 "J>etrott, Jany. 29, 1828. 
 " Dear Sib, : — By the present mail I have written to the War Depart- 
 ment, recommending your appointment as sub-agent, at Green Bay. I 
 hope you will be appointed, 
 
 " I am, dear sir, sincerely yours, 
 
 " Lew. Cass. 
 " Rev. E. Williams." v 
 
 So much anxiety was shown that he should get this, that two 
 copies were sent, one to Washington, the other to the care of Ool. 
 MoKinney, hy whom it was forwarded to Bishop Hobart, that it 
 might reach him in New Torlc. He was confined in that city, after 
 the termination of the session, with a severe fit of sickness, and 
 was not able to leave until June, 1828. He then returned to 
 Washington, to inform the President, agreeably to a communica- 
 tion he had received, that the Six Nations would consent to the 
 ratification of the treaty, provided the claims of the New York 
 Indians were allowed. 
 
 In August, 1828, Mr. Williams was appointed, by the Missionary 
 Society at Philadelphia, missionary to Duck Creek. His salary 
 was $62,50 per quarter ; and for this munificent sum, he was not 
 only to perform all the ordinary duties of a clergyman, but " to 
 keep, or cause to be kept, without additional charge to the Society, 
 a permanent school for the instruction of the children of the Oneida 
 Indians, and such others as may desire it." He hired a teacher at a 
 salary of $150 or $200- per annum, and the surplus constituted his 
 own remuneration. (AH this time, and for years after, he had to 
 defend the rights of the New York Indians at his own expense. It 
 is necessary a,ll this should be exposed, that the discouragements 
 of every kind under which he labored may be seen. How many 
 are there who would have labored on such conditions? Since 
 his leaving Oneida, except occasional presents, at the option of the 
 ofBoers of the garrison at Green Bay, he had not received a farthing 
 in the shape of salary from the Ohurcliv 
 
 On the occasion of the appointment of Mr. Williams as mission- 
 
RBVEKBBS. 311 
 
 ary, the Indians at Duck Creek made an address to the Society, in 
 which they say : 
 
 " Fatheks akd Beothebs.— We have hitherto hanged our heads down, 
 and our hearts were sorrowful, because we were weak in our religious 
 affairs. Our brother, who was disposed to instruct us in the ways of God, 
 was weak also. No society encouraged him in his labor of love. We were 
 grieved to see him thus situated. We were not able to aid him ; we 
 were poor ourselves. We now raise our heads, and rejoice at the news that 
 you have taken pity on us and our brother, by giving him such assistance 
 as to enable him, in some measure, to preach the Gospel to us withorut 
 laioniig at the same time to maintain himself." 
 
 Mr. Williams, too, in reporting his kbors to the Society, returns 
 them thanks, and offers the prayer that " the name of Jesus may 
 he glorified, and all men may be blessed in Him, and all nations 
 call him blessed." His health, however, continued infirm, and 
 with diflSculty he performed his ministerial duties, until the spring 
 of 1830, when he began to amend. 
 
 With the return of health he was once more called into the excit- 
 ing and thankless scenes of political life. 
 
 A new commission was appointed to negotiate with the Indians, 
 and just prior to its meeting he received a visit from an old friend 
 and school-mate, at Long Meadow, the Eev. Mr. Oolton, who 
 records it in the first volume of his able work on the American 
 Lakes. The account of Mr. Colton is interesting, as it presents a 
 lively picture of the man in the scene of his labors and disappoint- 
 ments ; gives a just idea of the simple gi-andenr which attaches to 
 his person and character, and which no depression can efface ; and 
 exhibits his lofty views and extensive plans for the amelioration of 
 the condition of his supposed countrymen, which were all blighted 
 by political dishonesty. It is also curious on other accounts. To do 
 justice to it, the account of Prof. Colton should be read as a whole. 
 I can only furnish some brief extracts. Mr. Williams took his friend 
 in a canoe up the Fox Kiver, from his residence, and " as may be 
 
312 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Imagined," says Mr. Oolton, " we talked over and lived again the 
 scenes of childhood. 'And here we are, Mr. Williams. How- 
 strange I What a scene is this !' 
 
 '"Indeed, sir; and did we dream of it when we ran around the 
 brick scho6l-house in the street of Long Meadow, and played our 
 boyish pranks in that never-to-be-forgotten and delightful retreat?' 
 
 " ' And do you remember the dress you wore when first your 
 father brought you from Canada, and what infinite sport you and 
 your brother John made for the children of the school, by the 
 strangeness of your manners, and your Indian whims, before you had 
 learned to accommodate yourselves to such a state of discipline ?' 
 
 " ' My memory,' said Mr. Williams, tapping his forehead with his 
 finger, as much like a Frenehmam as an Indian, and winking a smile 
 of great significance, 'records those scenes as if they were the 
 occurrence of yesterday.' " 
 
 This shows how, apart from any theory to suggest the idea, Mr. 
 Williams bears the polite Frenchman in his very aspect and man- 
 ner. The friends landed. ''After being made acquainted," con- 
 tinues Mr. Oolton, " with Mrs. Williams, who set before us refresh- 
 ments, a walk was proposed and taken along the elevated brow of 
 a sort of amphitheatre, overlooking the river, and enclosing a 
 spacious and rich plain a little above the highest floods. It was 
 indeed a beautiful and commanding eminence, itself the margin of 
 another plain, stretching back under the sombre and apparently 
 boundless orchard of oaks. ' Here,' said Mr. Williams, ' on this 
 spot, and along this line, I had fondly indulged the dream, would one 
 ^day, not far distant, be founded and erected a literary and scientific 
 seminary for the education of Indian youth. Next to the removal 
 and establishment of our eastern tribes, in these delightful abodes 
 of the northwest and along Fox River, and such a confirmation of 
 our privileges as to aiford a security for future exemption from the 
 incursions of the white man, I had conceived and fondly cherished 
 the project of this institution. This wide and beautiful country 
 was to be our inheritance, in common with the ti'ibes of whom we 
 
RETSRSBS. 318 
 
 porobased, and with whom we entered into friendly alliance, under 
 the gaidance and auspices of the President and Government of the 
 United States. For the first time in the history of our public inju- 
 ries, and of the successive ejectments of our tribes, from the east to 
 the west, in the progress of two centuries, and of the gradual wast- 
 ing away, of whole nations, as_ well as the constant diminution of 
 these small remnants which still retain a name and existence — ^a 
 fixed and permanent position was here pledged to us, and seemed 
 to be gained without fear of disturbance. Here opened to our 
 imagination and to our hope, and, I might add, to our sober judg- 
 ment, a theatre for the regeneration of our race. And is there any 
 hope, think you ? The lamp of hope has long since expired. We 
 can never move again. We have no courage. Our tribes have no 
 courage. For where is the faith on which we can rely? You shall 
 see the state of things in the developments of the sittings of this 
 commission.' " ' '• 
 
 Well does Mr. Colton say, " These once hopeful instruments, and 
 this individual man will have labored in vain, except as the disclosure 
 and ascertainment of their injuries shall awaken a repentance and 
 a sympathy in the bosom of that community, which ought long ago 
 to have thrown in the shield of its protection, and saved the Indians 
 from these disasters, and even then, such a man as Mr. Williams ' 
 cannot be raised from the grave ; or if he should be among the living 
 (which- is not very probable), a state of health worn out, and a con-, 
 stitution broken down by these cares ; a mind originally mgorovg 
 and heroic, but the courage of which has been well nigh subdued by 
 this irresistible accumulation of calamity, over the heads of his race 
 —would require little less than a miracle to fit him to cherish again 
 the hopes, and again to wield the burden of such an enterprise, as 
 he must have the credit of having once conceived. ' May a Fhanitc 
 yettmaefrom, the ashes ofhix hopes eonsumed, amd wirigiu way to a 
 brighter destiny.'' To this I say amen." 
 
 To dispossess the Indians, and erect a new state upon the ashes 
 of theu" council-fires, was now the firm resolution of interested poli^ 
 
 14 
 
814 - THE LOST PBINCB. 
 
 ticians. All things seem to be considered fair in polities — concience 
 is a jest, and expediency the rule of action. Dissensions, ■which 
 never would have existed among the Indians, but for foreign inter- 
 ference, had been created, and since, if the poor people were left to 
 themselves, their differences would soon have died out, they were 
 diligently fomented. The treaty of Butte des Morts had been the en- 
 tering wedge. Something had been accomplished. A claim had been 
 set up to the effect that, even after the sanction of ti-eaties between 
 the Indians, by the President, they were capable of being set aside 
 by him ; and now, in August, 1830, a connnission, consisting of 
 Erastus Koot, John G. Mason, and James McCall, was sent to Green 
 Bay, on the plea of arbitrating between the Menominies, and the 
 Six Nations, which terminated in an invitation being extended to 
 the pretended disputants, to send representatives to "Washington, that 
 the President, out of his paternal love and wisdom, might compose 
 their differences. Mr. Williams was then dragged off again, by 
 political chicanery, from the scene of his ministerial labors. On 
 their way the representatives had an interview with Gov. Cass, at 
 Detroit, in which speeches were made by the Mpnominie chiefs,, com- 
 plimentary to their father the Governor, and their father Colonel 
 Stambough, the United States agent, and their great father the Pre- 
 sident. The New York Indians, with a better understanding of 
 their position, were as guarded in their compliments as courtesy 
 would permit. Mr. Williams merely acted as interpreter. On this 
 occasion Gen. Oass gave him the following letter, which I insert, as 
 an honorable testimony to the worth of Mr. Williams, by a person 
 who has recently made an anonymous attempt to injure his reputa- 
 tion, in the " New York Herald," and hold him up as an impostor 
 to the scorn and ridicule of Christendom. 
 
 " SetroU, December 6, 1830. 
 
 " Sib : — The Green Bay agency is the most important upon this frontier, 
 
 both with lespeot to t^e number and character of the Indians. It embraces 
 
 three distinct tribes, the Winnebagoes, the Menominies, and the New York 
 
 Indians, all speakmg languages radically different. Besides these, there are 
 
RETERSIS. 
 
 aiB 
 
 scattered bands of the Chippewas, Ottawas, and PottawatomieB, who reside 
 Within the Umifcs of the agency, and resort to the agent for aid and advice. 
 Col. Stambough is determined to revive the affairs of the agency, and leave 
 no means untried to place them in a situation commensurate with their 
 importance. He should have a Winnebago, a Uenominie, and an Oneida 
 intert)reter, together with one sub-agent at the Bay, and one up the Fox 
 Eiver. The latter i^ alre^y filled, but should any event render the appoint- 
 ment vacant I beg leave to reopmmeiid the. Rev. Eleazar WilliamB, as a 
 proper person to fill the vacancy. This gentleman is an Episcopal clergy- 
 man of very respectable standing, and partly descended firom the Iroquois 
 Indians. He rendered essential services, to the TTnited States during the late 
 war, in which he was actively engaged, and badly wounded ; the effects of 
 which will probably continue during life. I understand he enjoyed the con- 
 fidence of some of our highest and most distinguished officers, and bravely led 
 a heavy column at the battle of Flattsburg. He is a gentleman of educa- 
 tion and talents, and, from his po.sition and association, can render important 
 
 services to the government and the Indians. 
 
 ' f " "Lewis Cass. 
 
 ' " Hon. John H. Eaton, Secretary of War." > 
 
 The delega^s from the Indian tribes arrived at Washington, and 
 were quartered at one of the principal. hotels. And now began a 
 Scene of fresh political profligacy. "While the New York IndiaQs 
 ■were amused with the idea of submitting their differences with the 
 Menominies to the arbitration of the President, a treaty, without 
 their knowledge or consent, was actually entered into by John H. 
 Eaton, Secretary of War, and B. 0. Stambough, Indian agent, on 
 the part of the United States^ and the ignorant and savage Meno- 
 mlnie chiefs, in which the rights of th6 Six Nations from New 
 York, were entirely denied, and the Menominies, on the ground 
 that they had not yet disposed of any of their hndt, sold to the 
 United States two million five hundred thousand acres of land, con- . 
 senting, 04 a famr, that five hundred thousand acres should be 
 appropriated to the New York Indians, whose- delegates, with every 
 token of humiliation, as intruders and robbers, were called in to 
 witness this very cool disposition of their property, besides which, 
 
316 THE LOST PKINCE. 
 
 in token, that even the small tract allotted to them was held in suf- 
 ferance from the United States, the government were to pay the 
 Menominies tvifenty-flve thousand dollars for it, becoming thus 
 proprietors of tlie lands of the New York Indians, by purchase, 
 and having the power, on this plea, at any time, to dispossess them. 
 
 The contest of parties on this question ran high, for the New 
 York Indians were not without powerful and able friends, who 
 rightly appreciated the injustice" done to them. Mr. "Williams and 
 Mr. Quiney, delegate from the Stockbridge Indians, exerted them- 
 selves to the utmost, to cause the defeat of the treaty in the senate, 
 which they had the satisfaction of seeing accomplished. The 
 senate also refused to confirm the appointment of Col. Stambongli, 
 and the session of 1830-31 closed without anything having been 
 eflfeoted towards the settlement of the difficulties. 
 
 All this time, Mr. Williams was suffering from severe indisposi- 
 tion, which, after his leaving Washington, increased with such 
 violence as to detain him at Oneida during the summer, and here 
 his scanty means gave out, and he was under the humiliating 
 necessity of appealing to the clergy of the church for assistance to 
 enable him to return home. Bishop Onderdonk furnished him with 
 the following testimonial, which I insert as proof both of his mis- 
 fortunes and his sacrifices. 
 
 " Badaon, Jwne 18, 1831. 
 " The bearer, the Rev. Eleazar Williaras, having by various expendi- 
 tures, while in the spiritual service of his brethren, the aborigines of our 
 country, and in consequence of long and severe indisposition, become 
 seriously embarrassed in his circumstances, is hereby respectfully and 
 affectionately commended to the Christian beneficence of the members of 
 our communion. I also introduce him to my clerical brethren generally, 
 as a clergyman of respectable standing and attainments, and good, moral, 
 and religious character. 
 
 "Benj. T. Onderdonk. 
 "Bishop of the Diocese of New York.'' 
 
 The pecuniary benefit of this application was about sixty dollars. 
 
BEVERSES. 317 
 
 Unable to fulfil his engagements with the Missionary Society of 
 Philadelphia, in consequence of ill health, and enforced absence, he 
 resigned his station of missionary at Duck Creek. His old friend, 
 Mr. Solomon Davis, now contrived to prejudice the mind of Bishop 
 Onderdonk against him, by accusing him of officiating at Oneida, 
 ■without his permission, although he had eucpressly granted that 
 permission, and the bishop supposing, of course, that the represen- 
 tation was correct, rebuked Mr. Williams for violation of the 
 canons. 
 
 ^he pen almost grows weary with recording, even in the briefest 
 manner, the troubles, disappointments, injuries, and insults heaped 
 on this suffering man) From first to last, it is impo.ssibl6 to 
 discover any instance in which he departed from the strict course 
 of duty and honor. All who have aided to increase the burdens 
 of his life, have, at some period, borne witness to his worth. But 
 the complicated web of wrong, goes on steadily increasing to the 
 end, and some of the last developments of injustice are among the 
 strangest. 
 
 When the session of 1831-2 opened, it was necessary for him 
 again to repair to Washington, to advocate the cause of his coun- 
 trymen, in company with the other delegates of the Six Nations. 
 An able memorial was drawn up to the Senate of the United 
 States, setting forth the rights and grievances of the New Yoi-k 
 Indians ; but, though the hardships of their situation were felt, the 
 necessities of a tortuous policy were too compelling to permit full 
 justice to be done; and the treaty of 1831, with tlje Menominies, 
 was finally ratified, on June 25, with the addition of a saving 
 clause in favor of the New York Indians, which, though it did not 
 alter the amount of land assigned them by the treaty, gave them 
 somewhat more favorable terms in respect to location of lands, 
 payment for improvement*, and acknowledgment of individual 
 rights. During this session, worn down in health and spirits, and 
 reduced to poverty, Mr. Williams, having achieved all he could, was 
 compelled to abandon the long contest and retire from the dolega- 
 
SIS THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 tion. Efforts were, howeTer, made by his friends to create 
 sympathy in the church, in his behalf, and Bishop Onderdoak^ 
 ■with prompt kindness, summoned a missioijary meeting, at Christ 
 Church, New York, on Tth April, 1832, in which energetic appeals 
 were made to the benevolence of the church, to sustain the 
 mission, at Duck Creek — ^but, like most affairs of the kind, there 
 was more sound about it than substance, and the small collection 
 made on: the occasion, and the few dollars Mr. Williams obtained 
 in Connecticut and Western Kew York, were of little permanent 
 benefit to the mission. . Feeling his physical inability for exertion, 
 he was anxious to retire from the station, but agreed to contintie in 
 it for one year, at the request of the bishop. At this time, he was 
 to have been admitted to priest's orders, firom which, out of . diffi- 
 dence, he had hitherto abstained, but the approach of the cholera 
 hastened his return to the west, that he might be at his post 
 provided J;he pestilence attacked his people. 
 
 On hiL return to Green Bay, Mr. Williams found that, daring hia 
 absence, many evils had crept into the little flock he had been 
 compelled to leave untended, in spiritual things, while struggling 
 to preserve their temporal rigkts. Drunkenness, dissension, and 
 immorality prevailed ; parties had been raised, and everything was 
 in a state of disorder. It became, in his estimation, his indispen- 
 sable daty, with the consent of the religious portion of the congre- 
 gation, to subject the refractory and immoral members to disci- 
 pline, and among them, it was his painful task to include one who 
 had been united with him in the delegations to Washington, and in 
 the efforts of years to obtain justice for the Indians. I do not 
 understand the principle on which a deacon or a congregation 
 could excommunicate — but this, at the worst, was a failure in 
 judgment, although Bishop Hobart, in former years, knowing the 
 necessity of preserving order among i^ch a lawless class of people, 
 had permitted Mr. Williams to act in such matters at his discretion. 
 Bishop Onderdonk was informed of what had been done, and of 
 the crime by which the peace of two families had been broken 
 
nEVERSE8. 319 
 
 np-^whkjh had caused the excommnnication of the indiridnal 
 especially referred to. Much happened at this time, which I 
 refrain from chronicliDg, because it is not necessary for the vin- 
 dication of Mr. Williams, and the bare statement of facts might 
 seem to imply censure in quarters to which there is no antagonism, 
 as, doubtless, there was no design of committing injustice. 
 
 On the 8th September, 1833, Mr. Williams, finding the dissensions 
 among the congregation, growing out of the act of discipline, could 
 not be allayed, and having neither heart nor strength to contend 
 with those to whose service he had devoted his life, resigned his 
 charge, and preached his farewell discourse, which he concluded 
 thus : — " Brethren of the communicants of St. Thomas Church, I 
 now bid you farewell. Live in peace, and the God of peace be 
 with you. Remember that the eyes of Heaven and earth are npon 
 you. How holy is your calling — ^how solemn your profession — ^how 
 delightful your service — how rich your reward. Belaz not in any 
 duty. We must now separate, and yon hear my last words. If 
 you have discerned anything of the Saviour in me, imitate it. 
 What you have seen in me contrary to the spirit of the Gospel 
 reject it. I was set for your spiritual guide, hut now my work is 
 done. Though the cause of our separation be unpleasant, I shall 
 rejoice to see you walking in the truth. Discipline is the life of a 
 church. We have endeavored to reclaim offenders. It is to be 
 hoped that the delinquents will come to sober reflections and 
 repentance. What I have done, in this respect, I have done from 
 the purest motives. Let us pray for one another, and give all dili- 
 gence that we may arrive at our Father's home. AU is not lost, 
 though your friend and pastor is gone. God and His promises 
 remain to comfort you ; and beyond the grave is a state of peace 
 where Christian friends will part no more." 
 
 (if ever there was a man who had proved he had at heart the tem- 
 poral and spiritual welfare of his people, and his desire to spend and 
 be spent for them, it was Mr. Williams^ During his whole career, 
 as a religions teacher, both before and after his ordination, it is not 
 
320 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 too much to say, that he had labored without remuneration — ^for the 
 paltry sums he had received cannot be set in the balance against his 
 immense pecuniary sacrifices. It was his misfortune to be the pastor 
 of a semi-barbaric race, who, as a general thing, are not noted for 
 gratitude, nor truthfulness, and who were surrounded by those whose 
 interest it was to foment discontent, at a time when political con- 
 tentions, social disasters, and change of residence, rendered them 
 refractory, immoral, and restless. But, it is to his honor that, not- 
 withstanding all the ingratitude he has met with at the hands of 
 the Indians, he has never ceased to love, and desire to serve them, 
 feelings which continue unabated to the present hour, when in 
 advanced life he is still laboring for them as a missionary. 
 
 Me had now nothing left bat to retire to his farm on the Fox 
 Eiver, and in peace and solitude recruit his health, worn down 
 by fatigue, anxiety, and sorrow.^ He celebrated Christmas, 1833, 
 with a few Indians, at his farm, and his journal for that year closes 
 with an ascription of praise to God : " Blessed be the God and 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spi- 
 ritual blessings in Him, and granted us to enjoy the day which the 
 patriarchs foresaw, the prophets foretold, and the righteous men 
 of the earth desired. Hosanna to the Son of David, who comes in 
 the name of the Lord." 
 
 The winter, spring, and summer, passed rapidly away, when his 
 thoughts once more turned toward his brethren at St. Regis, and, 
 as he had not seen hia reputed parents for a long time, he bent his 
 steps thither. As his family and all his means of subsistence were 
 at Green Bay, he did not purpose a permanent residence in the 
 State of New York, but thought he might be instrumental in found- 
 ing an Indian Protestant school which others might conduct. 
 
 Jn October, 1834:, he left Green Bay, but being taken sick on his 
 journey, did not reach St. Eegis until December. The winter and 
 spring were spent at Albany, under the care of a ph3-sician ; and in 
 June, 1835, feeling himself stronger, he returned to St. Regis, with 
 the design of establishing his proposed school. He stated his views 
 
REVERSKS. 321 
 
 to some English and American gentlemen at St. Kegis, Ilogansburg, 
 and Oornvvall, and, with their oo-operation and encouragement, 
 undertook the task. He was, soon after, appointed, by Lord 
 Aylmer, Governor-General of Canada, one of the government 
 schoolmasters ; and, notwithstanding the opposition of the Romish 
 clergy, the school increased in numbers and prosperity. 
 
 But, his labors soon received an nnexpeoted check, in conse- 
 quence of receiving information from James Hughes, Esq., the 
 Indian agent, that as a government schoolmaster, it was his duty 
 "to tell the children that they were brought up in the Roman 
 Catholic faith, that they had a missionary to instruct them in their 
 religious dtities, and should listen to his advice in regard to reli- 
 gion." Mr. Williams, in consequence, at once resigned his situa- 
 tion under the British government. " Christian sincerity and 
 plainness of speech," he wrote to the Indian agent, " require me to 
 say that, I cannot exhort the pupils who may he committed to my 
 charge to attend the ministrations of a Popish priest. As a Pro- 
 testant clergyman, and that, too, under a Protestant government, 
 to be compelled to do this, I should regard as infringing upon the 
 liberty of conscience which I have hitherto enjoyed." Under these 
 circumstances, he wrote to inform Bishop Onderdonk, of his condi- 
 tion, praying for assistance that he might go on with the school, and 
 preach the Gospel to the Indians. " My circumstances," he said, 
 " have been this year exceedingly straightened, as I have been 
 putting all my resources in requisition to maintain the school. Be 
 assured, right reverend sir, that this request is made as a last resort, 
 after having done what I could." The bishop, however, was 
 unable to afford him any assistance. It is deplorable to reflect that 
 the American church was too poor to uphold a man so conscientious 
 and so desirous to perform his duty. 
 
 The Governor-General, in accepting the resignation o£ Mr. Wil- 
 liams, testified his sense " of the goodness and purity of the motives 
 which induced him to offer it." The Rev. Mr. Archibald, of Corn- 
 wall, who throughout had been his firm friend, wrote to him on 
 
 14* 
 
322 THE LOST PRlSjCE. 
 
 the occasion of his resignation. " I confess to you, my Rev. Brother, 
 that I am glad to be rid of the patronage of the Government here. 
 Whilst it continued you were in trammels. Now you are independ- 
 ent, and have only to look to the Lord Jesus as the Supreme Head, 
 and if we seek His glory success must inevitably attend our exertions. 
 God bless you." By the aid of Mr. Archibald, Mr. Ohesley, and 
 other friends, the school was kept in operation, and soon attained 
 a flourishing condition, when in June, 1836, his health broke down, 
 in consequence of confinement and want of exercise, and his domes* 
 tic concerns required his presence at Gi'een Bay. These causes, but 
 above all, the approach, of another government treaty with the 
 Indians for the sale Of their lands, compelled him to abandon his 
 new field of ■ labor and return to the west. His presence was 
 required; both by the Government and the Indians ; for, however a 
 portion of the latter might assail him in periods of quiet, they were 
 sure to call for his assistance in the hour of danger, and that assist- 
 ance was never withheld. 
 
 As much of the aflEliction of Mr. Williams in late years has grown 
 out of this treaty, I will briefly recount the whole series of involved 
 ti-ansactions up to the present time, referring the reader to the 
 Appendix for the documentary evidence. Mr. Williams wishes no 
 concealment, but desires to have all obscurity cleared away from his 
 dealings with the Indians, and his tre$itment by Governiiient and 
 individuals. He has not obtruded himself nor his concerns on the 
 public, but as events have taken the course they have, and even his 
 misfortunes and wrongs have- been tortured into evidence against 
 him, in some instances by those he deemed friends, tiiere is no 
 remedy but to lay bare the whole. If there be inaccuracy as to 
 facts, it is an easy matter for the parties concerned to point it out. 
 
 The final treaty between the Government of the United States 
 and the New York Indians, was begun on 16th Sept., 1836, at Duck 
 Creek, J. F.- Sohermerhorn acting as Commissioner on behalf of the 
 Government, and was continued, at Buffklo, on 15th Jan., 1838, the 
 name of Bansom H. Gillot being added to the Commission, which, 
 
REVERSKS. 823 
 
 in the treaty there made and concluded, adopted, as its basis, the 
 provisijons of the previous treaty at Duck Greek, which related 
 solely to the Oneidas and the St. Begis Indians, while the additional 
 ai'ticles then entered into, referred to the Senecas and other 
 "branches of the Six Nations. 
 
 When the treaty was -brought up for ratification in the Senate, in 
 1840, the name of J. F. Sohermerhorn, who had been the principal 
 and almost sole agent of the Government in the transaction, was 
 omitted or erased from the treaty, it is supposed, in consequence 
 of fears that his unpopularity with the Senate would defeat its 
 passage, and the name of Bansom H. Gillet left, as if he had been 
 the sole commissioner. 
 
 The first eight articles of the treaty consist of " general pro- 
 visions," respecting the cession, by the New York Indians, on certain 
 specified conditions, of the whole land possessed by them in the 
 neighborhood of Green Bay, with the exception of reserved tracts. 
 The remaining six articles of the treaty contain " special provisions" 
 for thedifferent branches of the Six Nations and Jhe St. Begis Indians. 
 
 The ninth article consists of special provisions for the St. Begis 
 Indians, and contains two clauses ; , the first, relative to the payment 
 and mode of distribution of certain moneys to the tribe, as, 1, a 
 remuneration for moneys laid out, and, 2, for services rendered by 
 their chiefs and agents in securing the title to the Green Bay lands, 
 the sole chief and agent who rendered such services being the Eev. 
 Eleazar Williams, who signed the treaty ; and the second clause, 
 securing to Mr. Williams a reservation of land on the bank of the 
 Fox Eiver, consisting of 4,800 acres, being his wife's estate previous 
 to marriage, and of which the chiefs of the Menominie nation gave 
 her a quit-claim deed in 1825, under which Mr. Williams claimed it 
 in the territorial adjustment between the United States and the 
 Indians. Before an acre of land had been gold by the Winnebagoes 
 or Menominies to the Six Nations, this estate was the peculium of 
 the Jourdan family, and had been held saered by all parties as 
 private property. Its introduction into the treaty of 1838, was only 
 
324 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 for the purpose of solemnly conflrming an individual right previously 
 existing ; and in no shape or manner can it be considered as a dona- 
 tion from Government to Mr. Williams, except that the Government 
 having, through its commissioner, the disposition of technicalities, 
 threw it into the form of a patent grant, thus, in appearance, giving 
 away what did not belong to it. Appendix K. 
 
 At the time, however, when the treaty was made, there was an 
 express nnderstanding that four out of five thousand dollars, cove- 
 nanted to be paid by Government to the St. Regis Indians, " on their 
 removal west, or at such other time as the President should appoint," 
 was to remunerate Mr. "Williams for his long and arduous services, 
 as agent for the St. Begis Indians ; and to avoid all dubiety on the 
 subject, either as to the fact or as to the amount, the commissioner, 
 J. F. Schermerhorn, certified the same to the President, under date 
 of July 10, 1838, and the paper is among the Indian oflBce files at 
 Washington, marked W. 572. Green Bay, 1838. Appendix L. - 
 
 In this paper it is candidly acknowledged, by Mr. Schermerhorn, 
 that to the persevering efibrts of Mr. Williams, the preservation of 
 the lands of the New York Indians was attributable. All the Six 
 Nations were thus indebted to him. But he had acted especially as 
 the agent of the two parties with whom he was most closely con- 
 nected, viz. the St. Regis and the Oneida Indians. For his services 
 and expenditures, in behalf of the former, provision was mad* to 
 remunerate him, in the treaties of Duck Creek and Buffalo. But 
 while the latter treaty was in progress, a certain portion of the 
 Oneidas became discontented with the course things were taking, 
 and went to Washington to make a separate agreement for them- 
 selves. Mr. Van Buren appointed Carey A. Harris, as commissioner, 
 to treat with them. By him, a treaty was made with the first 
 Christian and Orchard parties of the Oneida Indians, residing at 
 Green Bay, by which all their improvements, and 100 acres for 
 each individual, amounting in all, to 75,000 acres, were secured to 
 them out of the wreck. In this treaty, provision was made to remu- 
 nerate the chiefs and agents of the Oneidas, and five thousand dol- 
 
BEVSESES. 326 
 
 lars was apportioned to Mr. Williams, although his claim, admitted 
 to be just, by the commissioner, amounted to eight thousand dollars 
 more. What is observable in this case is, that the wording of this 
 treaty, under which Mr. Williams was allowed, and paid five thou- 
 sand dollars for his services to the Oneidas, is precisely the same 
 as that of Buffalo Creek, by which he was to receive four thou- 
 sand dollars for services to the St. Eegis Indians, with the additional 
 security, in the latter case, of a certificate of his right, according to 
 agreement, from the commissioner to the President. 
 
 One thousand dollars out of the five thousand dollars mentioned in 
 the ninth article of the Buffalo treaty, was, according to stipulation, 
 in a supplementary article of said treaty, paid over to the St. Eegis 
 Indians ; the remaining four thousand dollars, being, according to their 
 desire, at the time, reserved for Mr. Williams. Of this fact W. L. 
 Gray, the interpreter, has given two affidavits. " They refused," 
 he says, " to receive the whole of the five thousand dollars, because 
 tljey knew that four thousand dollars of that money had been pro- 
 mised to Mr. Eleazar Wilhams, but they accepted and received one 
 thousand dollars of the five thousand dollars, as may be seen in the 
 supplemental article of the treaty." 
 
 The money thus due to Mr. Williams, remained unpaid for a num- 
 ber of years, no appropriation for the purpose having been made by 
 Congress, when on June IT, 1850, the chiefs and warriors of the 
 American party of the St. Eegis Indians, addressed a petition to th? 
 President, in his behalf, stating that they had no claim whatever to 
 this . money, which was due to him as their agent, that he" had 
 expended a large sum in their behalf, and that the commissioner, Mr. 
 Sohermerhorn had certified his right. " Mr. Williams," they say, 
 " is entitled to receive the four thousand dollars, as he has honorably 
 fulfilled the stipulations of the treaty." " We have been remunerated 
 for the moneys expended by the tribe — ^bnt not so with our agent, 
 and we hope the four thousand dollars, as before stated, will be no 
 longer withheld from him. He is the only person of our tribe who 
 has rendered any service in procuring the Green Bay lands." 
 
826 THIE LOST PBINCE. 
 
 One ■would think if ever there was a clear case of right and jns- 
 tice it was this. But we shaU see here how the most . stainless . chih 
 racters may he assailed, at the very moment the foulest injury is 
 done to them. I shall not permit myself to utter a word of com- 
 ment on the following facts. That I leave to the puhlic. 
 
 In the month of January, 1851, the Hon. E. H. Gillet, wrote from 
 Washington the following letter to John L. Eldridge, Esq., of Hogana- 
 hurg. To avoid any charge of misrepresentation, or any temptation 
 to remark, I give it entire in the text 
 
 " Washington, January 5, 1851. 
 
 " Seak Sir : — I have just ascertained that Messrs. Bryon and Cochrane, 
 Indian Claim Agents of this city, have succeeded in obtaining from the 
 government of the United States certain moneys stipulated, by the treaty of 
 1838, to be paid to the Oneidas in New York. They are willing to make 
 an eifort to obtain payment of the $4,000 due the St. Eegis Indians, the 
 payment of which dependp upon the action of the President. An appro- 
 priation ha8,beeu made for the Oneidas, but none has been made for the 
 St. Uegis. 
 
 " The commission they propose, in thi8 case, is the same that they 
 received in that of the Oneidas, where it has been made, and the services 
 much less. Presuming that it would be for their interest to employ.agents 
 here, as skilful and as responsible as I know these men to be,^ I have 
 sketched the draught of a memorial and power of attorney &r the St. 
 Regis, which I forward to you, as their agent and ally, imder the laws of 
 the State of New York, presuming that you would, as such, or indivi- 
 dually, obtain their signatures, and forward them to these gentlemen, 
 to represent them. Seals should be attached to the power of attorney, 
 and both should be signed by all the chiefs of the American party, in 
 the presence of a. magistrate, who should take an acknowledgment as 
 of a deed of law, 'and his official capacity be certified by the couiity 
 clerk. Then there should be. an affidavit of yourself; as local agent, 
 that yon know that those who sign are the only chiefs living at the time. 
 It would be well for the trustees, as such, to approve the memorial and 
 power, and recommend the commissioner of Indian affairs to con 
 
EBVERSES. 
 
 327 
 
 firm the prayer of "the chiefs, and to oonflrra their doings. If the chiefs 
 have all died out, so that there are none to sign, then yon should make 
 affidavit of that fact, -and let the papers be modified so as to read truatets., 
 instead of chiefs. Great pains should be taken to make thom understand 
 the matter, so as to leave no chance of complaint, by them or any one 
 else. It is important that this be all attended to immediately, so that 
 proper steps may be taken to get an appropriation, which may be attended 
 with' some difficulty. Priest Williams is said to have a power of some 
 sort, but informal and insufficient. But, without prompt and decisive 
 movements, he will either get, and perhaps keep the money ; but, if he 
 cannot do so, he will be likely to try to defeat an appropriation, imtil he 
 thinks his chances better. Personally, I have no interest in this matter, but, 
 ovring to my relation to the treaty, and the friendly terms I am on with the 
 tribe, I will do what I can, fieely, for them. If the papers are properly 
 and correctly made, and forwarded to Messrs. Bryon and Cochrane, of this 
 city, and they collect the money, they will retain, say twenty dollars, to 
 reward you for your trouble and expenses, and remit it in any form you may 
 direct. You' had better engross the papers I send you, in a better hand- 
 writing than mine. If the papei-s are promptly sent to Messrs. B. and C, 
 I have no doubt that, before spring, the St. Regis vrill get their money, 
 which will greatly help them, and add to the circulating mediuTn in your 
 vicinity. I am here attending court, but return to New York soon. 
 Whenever I am here, I shall cheerfully lend d. hand, without reward, to 
 aid my St. Regis friends. Should you be unable to attend to this matter, 
 you had better employ some one on the proposed terms, and thus have it 
 speedily disposed of. Yours truly, 
 
 " R. H. GiLLET. 
 
 " John S. Eldeidge. 
 " P. S. The money for the Indiansj beyond the attorney's fees, will, pro- 
 bably be remitted by the IT. S. sub-agent. It does not usually go into 
 the hands of the attorney who prosecutes the claim. But if it does, B. 
 and C. are responsible and safe men. R. H. G." 
 
 The facts in the case, then, and I shall confine myself to evident 
 facts, are these, that after the St. Eegis Indians had solemnly 
 renounced all right and title to the $4,000 in favor of Mr. WillianiB, 
 
328 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 the Hon. R. H. Gillet, being aware of Mr. Williams's claim, made 
 efforts to induce those Indians to apply for the money, promised 
 Mr. Eldridge $20 on behalf of Messrs. Bryon and Cochrane, if he 
 would undertake the business, held out to him the further induce- 
 ment that the $4,000 would increase the circulating medium in his 
 vicinity, and made out with his own hands the necessary documents 
 for the Indians to sign. I do not say a word to impugn his per- 
 fect honor and disinterestedness. That is a question I will not touch. 
 My only aim is to vindicate the character of Mr. Williams ; but I 
 cannot help questioning whether Mr. Gillet. will ever write Mr. 
 . Eldridge a similar letter. Appropriation was made by Congress in 
 the session of 1851-2 for the payment of the $4,000 in question; 
 and, on the 27th January, 18P, Stephen Osborn, of Buffalo, was 
 appointed commissioner to appropriate the money to the several 
 claimants, according to the provisions of the treaty ; and, on the Sd 
 April, he reported to the office of Indian affairs, that he could " not 
 come to any conclusion with the chiefs, they insisting that the 
 entire amount should be paid to the American party of the Indians, 
 while it is very evident," he writes, " to me, that the Rev. Eleazar 
 Williams is entitled to the greater part, if not the whole of this 
 money, under the facts and upon a just construction of article nine 
 of the treaty." In this condition of affairs, the Indian bureau very 
 naturally referred to the Hon. R. H. Gillet, for information " rela- 
 tive to the nature of the Rev. E. Williams's claim," and "for such 
 facts connected with the subject within his remembrance, as would 
 enable the department to pay over the money as was intended when 
 the treaty was made." This honorable gentleman, therefore, the 
 writer of the letter to Mr. Eldridge, communicated to the office of 
 Indian affairs the information, that a "liberal if not extravagant 
 provision" of land, worth, at the time, $10,000, by government 
 valuation, was intended, at the time of making the treaty, " to 
 indemnify him for the past, if he had claims, and to secure such 
 action by him and the St. Regis tribe, as would vest in tlie govern- 
 ment their interest in the hr.lf million acres of very valuable land ;" 
 
REVERSES. 829 
 
 and concludes by saying, '' I cannot see that Mr. Williams has spe- 
 cial claims upon the fund, after receiving his valuable reservation, 
 which certainly was equal to the value of any services-rendered by 
 him. A commissioner may well assent to its being divided per 
 capita among those who constituted the American party of the 
 tribe." The hesitancy with which Mr. Gillet speaks ought to have 
 induced further inquiry. It was a question of aye or no. What 
 was the intention at the time of making the treaty? Either Mr. 
 Williams had claims or he had not claims. Mr. Gillet dare not 
 deny that he had claims, but he could not see that he had " special 
 claims,'' and thinks that a " commissioner may well assent,''' &c. 
 The private property of Mrs. Williams, previous to her marriage, 
 and which, according to the wording of the treaty of 1838, Mr. 
 Williams claimed in his own right and in that of his wife, is repre- 
 sented by Mr. Gillet as an extravagant remuneration for his ser- 
 vices. No wonder that 'the Government of the United States 
 should enjoy a reputation for economy, if it can always purchase 
 services like those of Mr. Williams, at the expense of the parties 
 who render them. The result of the affair was, that Mr. Osborn 
 was dismissed, another commissioner appointed, and the $4,000 
 belonging to Mr. Williams paid over by government to the 
 very Indians, who, previous to the interference of Mr. Gillet, had 
 renounced all right and title to it. The reader has, donbtless, 
 heard of pecuniary difficulties between Mr. Williams and the 
 Indians at St. Regis, and the great prejudices in their honest minds 
 against him. He is now in a position to judge whether anything 
 discreditable can be laid to his charge. If there be, he challenges 
 investigation. 
 
 There is another transaction, of a pecuniary nature to which I 
 should have made no allusion, had it not been officiously, offen- 
 sively, and incorrectly brought before the public by a soi-disant 
 friend of Mr. Williams, and for no reason, that I can see, except to 
 display his personal acquaintance with one who was then a topic 
 of general conversation, and whose character he took occasion iu a 
 
330 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 public lecture, for which he received payment, to traduce, while com- 
 pelled to confess that he kaew nothing of him but -what was favor- 
 able. I allude to Dr. Lothrop, an Unitarian minister of Boston. 
 I copy the, following passage from the appendix and notes to a 
 recent edition of the Redeemed Captive, by Dr. Stephen Williams, 
 whose remarks on the life:of Mr. Williams I shall have occasion, 
 hereafter, to criticise. It has been circulated extensively through 
 the country by the daily press. " The. Christian Register," of .Feb. 
 26, 1858, published at Bostop, says : " The Eev. Dr. Lothrop, of 
 this city, delivered a lecture ou Monday evening, before the Merpan- 
 tile Librai-y Association, on the lost Dauphin, in which he examined 
 the claims of the Rev. Eleazar Williams. The speaker had known 
 Mr. Williams for twelve years, visisted him in 1845 at his residence 
 in Wisconsin, and received two visits from him in Boston. , In his 
 opinion there is not a particle of evidence in Mr. W.'s favor, except 
 what depends upon his 'say so.' " The Transcript, from which we 
 take the statement, gives the following interesting report on one 
 portion of it. " It appears that Mr. Williams came to Boston with 
 his whole property, consisting of a considerable tract of land in 
 Wisconsin, encumbered by a bond and mortgage to the amount of 
 $1,800, which bond, in the course of trade, had fallen into the 
 hands of parties in this city who could not grant a renewal of 
 extension. In twenty-four hours from the time these facts became 
 known to Dr. Lothrop he was enabled, through the kindness of the 
 late Amos Lawrence, to hand Mr. Williams a check for the whole 
 amount, and to send hiih home with his bond in his possession 
 redeemed and cancelled." If this report represents fairly Dr. 
 Lothrop's statement, I am sorry to say that it is incorrect from 
 beginning to end. The truth of the affair is not calculated to 
 diminish the sympathy which the reverses and misfortunes of 
 Mr. WiUianas must occasion, and it is necessary it should bo 
 understood, as many have been unable to reconcile the asserted 
 poverty of Mr. Williams at the present time, with the statements of 
 Dr. Lothrop, which represent him as owner of a fins estate. Let 
 
REVERSES. 331 
 
 me apprise the reader at the outset, that the property of Mr. Wil- 
 liams has heen for years in the hands of Mr. Amos A. Lawrence, 
 of Boston, Tvho claims the whole. The history of the affair is as 
 follows. 
 
 During the whole period of his struggles for the recovery of the 
 Indian lan,ds, Mr. Williams had to make great outlays, considering 
 his limited means, and often to borrow money, so that by the time 
 of the final treaty settlement, he found himself burdened with debt. 
 His remuneration for defending the rights of the Oneidas fell greatly 
 short of what, in equity, it should have been, and the reader has 
 seen the fate of the $4,000 due him on behalf of the St. Kegis 
 Indians. Had the latter sum been promptly paid him, as it should 
 have been, he would have immediately recovered himself. Before 
 he obtained the patent for his wife's estat* from government, one 
 of his creditors, Daniel Whitney, of Green Bay, recovered judgment 
 against him in 1839, which judgment was assigned by Mr. Whitney 
 in June, 1840, to T. Eustis, of Boston. In April, 1842, his lands at 
 Green Bay were sold to satisfy the judgment, leaving him, how 
 ever, until the 25th April, 1844, the right of redemption. At the 
 earnest request of Mr. Williams, the time was extended from April 
 to the 2d of September, 1844. Just as the last period of grace 
 was expiring, Mr. Lothrop introduced him to the late Amos Law- 
 rence, who advanced the necessary sum, amounting to about $1600, 
 and secured Mmaelf by receiving from Mr. Eustis the judgment, &c., 
 on land worth, by government valuation, $10,000, it being under- 
 stood between Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Williams, that one half of the 
 tract, or about 2400 acres, was a bona^fide purchase by the former, in 
 order to save the remaining half for Mr. Williams and his family. 
 On the part of Mr. Lawrence the act was, doubtless, one of pure 
 benevolence, but still he received his equivalent, and purchased 
 2400 acres of land for $1600. Mr. Williams, instead of going home 
 with "his bond and moz-tgage in his possession, redeemed and 
 cancelled," left his whole property in the hands of Mr. Lawrence, 
 in the shape of the papers transferred to him, and without any 
 
832 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 written voucher to show the nature of the agreement between 
 them. 
 
 Mr. Eastman, of Green Bay, was, at that time, agent for Mr. 
 Lawrence. He found there were other liens upon the land, which 
 it was necessary to discharge in order to obtain a perfect title. 
 Further advances to a small amount were made, which were to 
 remain as a debt upon the portion of the land still belonging to 
 Mr. Williams. In December, 1844, Mr. "Williams and his wife con- 
 veyed to Mr. Amos A. Lawrence, at the suggestion of his agenV 
 the whole tract of four thousand eight hundred acres, with the 
 understanding that they did no more than constitute him conserva- 
 tor of the two thousand four hundred acres pertaining - to 
 themselves, until such time as Mr. Williams could recover from his 
 pecuniary embarrassments, and pay off his creditors, and among 
 them, Mr. Lawrence himself, for what had been advanced over and 
 above the first purchase money. That such was the nature of the 
 transaction, there are three decisive proofs. 1. If by the deed of 
 December, 1844, Mr. Lawrence obtained the bona-fide title to the 
 whole four thousand eight hundred acres, it must have been in 
 consequence of the gift to him, without consideration, of two 
 thousand four hundred acres from Mr. Williams, which is not snp- 
 posable. 2. On January 2, 1845, subsequent to the conveyance, 
 Mr. Amos A. Lawrence, wrote to Mr. Williams, making an offer to 
 purchase more of the land at the same price that had been paid 
 for the first portion, which he would not have done had the whole 
 belonged to him. 3. On the 2d August, 1845, Mr. Eastman, agent 
 of Mr. Lawrence, wrote to Mr. Williams in tho xtliowing terms: — 
 " This thing can be done if it meets your approbation. A friend 
 of ours will advance you |l,642TVTr on the tract of 2,190 acres (or 
 half the value, at $1 50 per acre), at 10 per cent, interest, per 
 annum, for five years — interest to be paid annually — the tract of 
 2,190 acres, the title of which is now in Mr. Amos A; Lawrence, 
 of Boston, to be held by him as security for the money to 
 be advanced, the taxes and assessments to be paid by yon, or 
 
RETESSE8. 833 
 
 if paid by him, to be charged over to yon, at 10 per cent, advance, 
 &o." All this shows clearly that Mr. Amos A. Lawrence was not 
 the owner as late as Angnst, 1845, of any more than one-half the 
 land, though he held the nominal title to the whole. Subsequently, 
 the sum mentioned by Mr. Eastman, was advanced to Mr. Williams 
 upon the terms specified. This, as far as I understand it, is the 
 whole of the matter. But there seems to have been a misconcep- 
 tion on the part of both Mr. Amos Lawrence and his son, the 
 cause of which, with the data before me, I cannot comprehend. 
 When, at the expiration of the five years, Mr. Williams, in 
 accordance with the agreement, offered to repay the snm bor- 
 rowed, which he was able to do by the kindness of a friend, and 
 redeem his land, Mr. Amos A. Lawrence refused to accept. 
 
 Occupied with the oversight of a princely commerce, Mr. Amos 
 Lawrence, seems to have bestowed scarcely a thought on the 
 transaction so important to the humble missionary. Even the 
 amount of land was a thing quite hazy in his mind. In writing to 
 Mrs. Williams on the subject, he speaks of the property, which in 
 all was only four thousand eight hundred acres, as consisting of 
 ten thousand, probably confounding the worth of the land with its 
 extent. "The purchase," he says, " was made in the first instance 
 to save the whole ten thousand acres passing out of Mr. Williams's 
 hand, as an act of proper liberality to secure for him a home, and. 
 of so small importance to me that I did not decide for a few days, 
 to whom the conveyance should be made, and then decided that it 
 should be made to my son. Since then he has purchased other 
 lands there, and paid for these ten thousand acres more than could 
 have been obtained in money for them from others, intending 
 always to secure a home for you both, and the money thus paid by 
 us lias not heen for investment, but for relief of yourselves." Mrs. 
 Williams, on her part, expressed to Mr. Lawrence her gratitude, 
 with a touching simplicity. "Respected sir," she writes, "a 
 stranger who is not accustomed to writing, and one who was 
 brought up among the Ifidians, on the borders of one of the great 
 
384 THE tOST PKINCE. 
 
 western lakea, woTild take the liberty to address you. I have been 
 induced to this in coBsequenoe of seeing your polite and friendly 
 note to my husband, on his departure from Boston, and a letter 
 lately from your son. Not only these, bat on account of your say- 
 ing a portion of his landed property, has moved me at this time, 
 from a deep sense of gratitude, to present you my sincere and 
 hearty thanks for this benevolent act of yours towards us." The 
 design of the transaction was, therefore, most benevolent on the 
 part of Mr. Lawrence, though the practical eflfeot has been to 
 throw into the hands of his son, by the agency of Mr. Eastman, 
 the whole property of Mr. Williams. 
 
 The value of land in the neighborhoocj, of Green Bay, is greatly 
 enhanced, and, perhaps, the two thousand four hundred acres o£ 
 Mr. Williams, might now sell for five dollars an acre; but, in con- 
 sequence of the transaction with Mr. Lawrence, so pompously set 
 forth by Dr. Lothrop as an act o£ pure charity and munificence, he 
 has lost his all. Mrs. Wijlifuns continues to live, by sufferance, on 
 their farm, but the title of it is rested in another. [Th« result, 
 then, of all the exertions, from boyhood, of Mr. Williams, for the 
 temporal and spiritual welfare of the Indians, has been the loss of 
 everything — every event in life has gone against him — 'health, pro- 
 perty, home, have been sacrificed, and reputation endangered, sim- 
 ply because he was unfortunate — and in mankind, as well as in some 
 races of animals, there seems, often; an instingtive desire to destroy, 
 utterly, those whom affliction has wonndgdJ I have endeavored 
 clearly to express, in few words, affairs sufficiently intricate ; and I 
 feel convinced that ^e most laborious examination of details, which 
 might be brought in to cloud these transactions, would not make 
 any alteration in the substantial result. In fact, in both cases, 
 events speak for themselves. 
 
 As I am not now writing a complete biography of Mr. Williams, 
 but merely presenting such facts, in his history, as may enable the 
 public to form some opinion of the character and trials of the man, 
 I shall pass, briefly, over the most uneventful period of his life, 
 
RBVXRSES. 335 
 
 reserving my remarks on the ooeurrencea of the years 1841 and 
 1848, until they are brought up in the narrative of my personal 
 acquaintance with him. After his resignation of the mission at 
 Duck Creek, and the Indian school at St. Begis, ho continued to 
 perform the duties of his ministerial office whenever opportunity 
 offered ; although, being dispirited and afflicted, he remained a great 
 portion of the time, at? his farm, on the Fox Eiver, where he 
 frequently gathered his. neighboi's for Divine service at his own 
 house. 
 
 Human nature can only endure a certain amount of hardship, dis- 
 appointment, and trouble, and then the energies of the strongest will 
 relax. His health was bad, his prospects clouded, his difficulties, of 
 all kinds, daily increasing, every hope he had entertained for the 
 regeneration of the_ Indian race, blighted Ijy political chicanery and 
 their own ingratitude; and, if he succumbed, in severe depression, 
 under the accumulated burden, it is only what other persons would 
 have done. Among churchmen he has been accused of neglecting 
 public worship. To this, his reply is, that, he was weak, oppressed, 
 lonely ; that, all his effi)rts had been despised and rejected ; that, he 
 had no one to sustain and advise him ; that, he was at a distance, in 
 the wilderness, from any place of worship ; and worn down with sor- 
 row and disappointment, could do little more than sustain his own 
 personal communion with God. He had consecrated his life to the 
 service of Christ, among the Indians. He was not fitted by feeling 
 or habit for, pastoral duty, in a different sphere. Unable, bv the 
 very constitution of his mind, to manage, with success, his pecu- 
 niary affairs, a martyr to his efforts for others, and enduring the 
 same kind of trials which have weighed heaviest on some of the 
 noblest spirits in the ministry, in this country, he saw his property 
 melt beneath his hands, without the power or the tact to save him- 
 self from ruin. And, then, in the very midst of afflictions calcu- 
 lated to depress the most; energetic, came the bewildering and 
 stunning intelligence that he was not of the name, nor race, nor 
 ^country, to which he had supposed himself to belong ; but that, 
 
338 THE LOST PMNCE. 
 
 severe as were his trials in late years, he had borne worse ills in 
 childhood, and was the exiled survivor of a family who had 
 endured mightier griefs and more terrible reverses. 
 
 How the tidings affected his spirits and harrowed his mind, the 
 reader will hereafter perceive ; and, instead of feeling suprised at hb 
 depression, every candid mind will rather be astonished that he 
 rallied his powers suflSoiently to become the cheerful, vigorous, and 
 intellectual man he still is. Within late years he has resumed his 
 missionary labors at St. Regis, and, having accomplished, by the 
 kind aid of the provisional bishop of New York, a work he has long 
 had at heart, the publication of a re-translation of the principal 
 portions of the Book of Common Prayer, adapted alike to the use of 
 the Indians both of the English and American church, he has now 
 every prospect of being actively and successfully occupied during the 
 remainder of his chequered life. Since the year 1848, the subject 
 of his foreign birth has frequently been mentioned and discussed in 
 the public prints. It was this which, in the first instance, led to my 
 acquaintance with him, which, with its results, will occupy the fol- 
 lowing pages. 
 
 OHAPTEE XVI. 
 
 OUR FIBST INTEEVIEW. 
 
 Mt first acquaintance with the Eev. Eleazar Williams, was in the 
 autumn of 1851. His name had been, for years, familiar to my eye, 
 from seeing it in the record of missionary proceedings, but beyond 
 this I had no knowledge of his history ; when, one day, my atten- 
 tion was arrested by a paragraph in a New York paper, I believe it 
 was the " Courier and Enquirer," containing the strange, and, at 
 first sight, most improbable announcement, that there were strong 
 reasons for supposing him to be the san of Louis XVI., and that he 
 was said to bear a very strong resemblance to the Bourbon family. 
 It struck me, at first, as being one of those idle stories we aee so 
 
OtTK FIRST INTERVIEW. 837 
 
 frequently in print, but it excited my curiosity, as I was at a loss to 
 imagine what could have given rise to a report so wUd and marvel- 
 lous. I was then residing at Waddington, on the banks of the St. 
 Lawrence, and did not even know there was any connection 
 between Mr. Williams and the Indians at St. Regis, in my imme- 
 diate neighborhood. It, however, occasioned me pleasure to learn, 
 from a friend, that Mr. 'WilUams had removed from Green Bay to 
 St. fiegis, and nothing but constant engagements prevented my 
 going to see him, and ascertain what he had to say on the subject, 
 though I had no idea but that he would contradict the story, and 
 explain the circumstances out of which it had arisen. This, I find 
 was the common feeling among his brethren of the clergy, who, not 
 unfrequently, alluded to it, for the first time, in a laughing way, 
 and were surprised to find he treated the matter seriously, and was 
 sometimes immediately affected to tears. 
 
 As I was about to leave St. Lawrence county, I regretted not 
 being able to see him, before my departure, when accident threw him 
 in my way. I have already, in another form, given an account of 
 our interview, and repeat here the substance of what I then said, 
 because it explains the interest I have since taken in him, gives a cor- 
 rect picture of his manners, and apparent character, and is an intro- 
 duction to the history of the last few months of his life. It also 
 exhibits the casual manner in which the present agitation of the 
 question has arisen, and exonerates him from the charge of having 
 thrust himself before the public. I found him busily engaged in 
 the sacred duties of his ministry, which he has ever since uninter- 
 ruptedly pursued, without allowing himself to be diverted from 
 them, by the excitement and investigation of which he was the 
 centre. "Verbal repetition, however unpleasant, is unavoidable, 
 because, as a matter of evidence, the subject has assumed a certain 
 definite form, from which it is impossible now to separate it. 
 
 Upon entering the cars, on the Ogdensburg railroad, on my way 
 to New York, in the autumn of 1851, 1 observed a somewhat stout 
 old gentleman, talking to two Indians in their own language, in a 
 
 15 
 
338 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 very animated manner, and was much interested in watching the 
 varied play of their countenances while Kstening to him. He 
 appeared to be very eloquent, used much gesticulation, and worked 
 his hearers into a state of excitement more remarkable, when com- 
 pared with the usual stolid expression of the Indian face. A gen- 
 tleman on the seat before me, who was also watching the singular 
 group, said, " He must be a half-breed," for we were all surprised at 
 the freedom with which one of evidently European figure and face, 
 spoke the Indian tongue. It then occurred to me that it was Wil- 
 liams, and on my saying so, and mentioning the mystery connected 
 with his name, the gentleman who had first spoken rose, and asked 
 the conductor, who confirmed my supposition. On hearing this, 
 I introduced myself to Mr. Williams as a brother clergyman, apolo- 
 gizing for not having paid him a visit. I found him friendly and 
 easy of access. He said he had been trying to convince his Indian 
 friends, who were members of the Romish communion, of their errors, 
 and that the poor fellows were much interested in what he had ad- 
 vanced. He was going to Burlington, Vermont, and from thence to 
 Boston, and as our route lay down Ohamplain, we took the steamer 
 together at Eonse's Point. While waiting on the dock for the 
 arrival of the vessel, I was prepossessed in his favor, from noticing 
 the unaffected kindness he showed the Indians, in directing them what 
 to do, and aiding them with their luggage. I was perfectly familiar 
 with the Indian lineaments and charcteristics, but was not sorry, 
 that at my interview with him, I had so good an opportunity of 
 attentively comparing his appearance with that of his reputed coun- 
 trymen, and, the closer my examination, the more my curiosity was 
 raised, for though his dress was not such as to show him to advan- 
 tage, he presented, in every respect, the marks of different race 
 and station from theirs, and my wonder was, that any attentive 
 observer should ever have imagined him to be an Indian. 
 
 When we were seated on the dock, I told him, I had seen a state- 
 ment in the newspapers, which had excited my curiosity, and 
 should feel obliged, if it was not intrusive, by being informed if he 
 
OUR FIRST IMTERVIETT. 339 
 
 believed the' story of his royftl origin, and upon what evidence the 
 extraordinary claim was based. He replied, the subject was painful 
 to him, nor could he speak of it unmoved, but would, with pleasure, 
 give me the required information. " There seems to me," I then 
 said, " one-simple and decisive test of the truth of your claim, I mean, 
 your memory of your childhood. If you have always lived among 
 the Indians, you cannot forget it, and if you are the lost Dauphin, 
 it seems scarcely credible that, being at the time of your mother's 
 death more than eight years of age, you could have passed through, 
 the fearful scenes of the revolution, without a strong impression of 
 the horrors attendant on your early years. Have you any memory 
 of what happened in Paris, or of your voyage to this country?" 
 
 " Therein," he replied, "lies the mystery of my life. I know 
 nothing about my infancy. Everything that occurred to me is 
 blotted out, entirely erased, irrecoverably gone. My mind is a blank 
 until thirteen or fourteen years of age. Ton must imagine a child 
 who, as far as he knows anything, was an idiot, destitute even of 
 consciousness that can be remembered until that period. He was 
 bathing on Lake George, among a group of Indian boys. He clam- 
 bered with the fearlessness of idiocy to the top of a high rock. He 
 plunged down head foremost into the water. He was taken up 
 insensible, and laid in an Indian hut. He was brought to life. There 
 was the blue sky, there were the mountains, there were the waters. 
 That was the first I knew of life." 
 
 " "When, then, and how," I continued, " did you come to entertain 
 the idea, you now do, oonoeming your birth ? What is there to con- 
 firm it!" 
 
 " I was under the impression," he replied, " that I was at least 
 partly of Indian extraction, until the time that the Prince de Join- 
 ville came to this country. One of the first questions he asked on 
 his arrival in New York was, whether there was such a person 
 known as Eleazar Williams, among the Indians of the northern part 
 of the State; and after some influiries in different quarters, he was 
 told there was such a person, who was at that time a Missionary of 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church, at Green Bay, Wisconsin, and was 
 
340 THE LOST FRIKCE. 
 
 advised to apply for farther information to some prominent mem- 
 bers of the church in this city. He accordingly applied to Mr. 
 Thomas Ludlow Ogden, who, at the Prince's request, wrote to me, 
 stating that the Prince was then in the country, and before his 
 return to France, would be happy to have an interview with me. 
 I replied to Mr. Ogden, that I should be exceedingly happy to seethe 
 Prince at any time. I was much surprised with his communication,; 
 but snppdsed, however, that as I had resided a long time in the 
 west, and had been chaplain to Gen. J'aylor, he might desire some 
 local information, which I could give him as readily as most men. 
 Some time elapsed, and I heard nothing more on the subject, which 
 was beginning to fade from my mind,* when one day, while on 
 board a steamer on Lake Michigan, I had an interview with the 
 Prince, who shortly after, at Green Bay, revealed the secret of my 
 birth." 
 
 Mr. Williams then proceeded to give me many of the incidents 
 connected with this memorable interview; but as I have, at a 
 later period, drawn from him an account, in every way more cir- 
 cumstantial, of all that occurred, I will postpone further particulars 
 until the subject recurs in the order of events. 
 
 To return again to our conversation. " Is your reputed mother," 
 I inquired, " living — the Indian woman who brought you up ? Is it 
 not easy to ascertain from her, whether or not you are her child f 
 What does she say upon the subject?" 
 
 " My reputed mother," he said, " is still living, at a very advanced 
 age. She is now at Caughnawaga. I ought, as soon as the Prince 
 told me the secret of my birth, to have returned to the east and 
 seen her. But I unfortunately neglected to do so for some time, find 
 when I did come, I found that the Romish Priests had been tamper- 
 ing with her, and that her month was hermetically sealed. Since I 
 have been at St. Regis, I have learned from the Indians, that the 
 
 • The above account of our conversation was written months after it occnred, and I 
 must, in the last sentence, have partially misrepresented what Mr. Williams said, as 
 there is doctimentary evidence that he went expressly to the west to meet the Prince 
 de JolDTllle. 
 
OUB FIRST INTERVIEW. 341 
 
 priests said to her, 'Suppose that this man should prove to be heir 
 to a throne on the other side of the Great Salt Lalce, what injury 
 may he not do to the Chnrch? He has been brought up a Pro- 
 testant, and if he obtained sovereign power it would be the ruin 
 of many souls. You must, therefore, say nothing one way or the 
 other, but keep entirely silent.' And so all my efforts to extract 
 anything from her were unavailing. Her immovable Indian ob- 
 stinacy has hitherto been proof against every effort I could make. 
 But I have not given up hope yet, and will try her again. When 
 asked the direct question. Is Eleazar Williams your son 1 she will 
 neither answer yes nor no — but keeps her mouth shut, and seems 
 indifferent to what is said. When hard pressed indeed on one occa- 
 sion„she has been known to say, ' Do you think that Eleazar is a 
 bastard ?' but that was all. If, however, the question is put to her 
 in an indirect form, she will begin, in the monotonous manner in 
 which ignorant people repeat a story, in which they have been 
 drilled by others, and have told for years in one way, to give a list 
 of her childi-en, and the dates of their birth, bringing in ray name 
 at a particular place. But we have had the baptismal register at 
 Oaughnawaga examined, and the priest was made to certify to it, 
 and though the names of all the rest of h6r children are recorded 
 there, together with the dates of their birth and baptism, mine does 
 not occur there ; and the births of the children follow so closely 
 upon each other, at regular intervals of two years between each, 
 that it does not seem naturally possible I could have been her child, 
 unless I was twin to some other child whose birth and baptism are 
 recorded while mine are not — a thing w'hich, when we take into 
 consideration the exactness and fidelity with which such affairs are ■ 
 transacted in the Chnrch of Eome, does not seem probable, and 
 scarcely possible. The silence of the baptismal register may, there- 
 fore, be deemed conclusive proof that this Indian woman is not my 
 mother. 
 
 " And then comes in," continued Williams, " evidence of a differ- 
 ent description. A French gentleman died at New Orleans, in 
 
342 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 3 849, named Belanger, who confessed on his death hed that he was 
 the person who brought the Dauphin to this country, and placed 
 him among the Indians in the northern part of the State of New 
 York.) It seems that Belanger had talcen a solemn oath of seoresy, 
 alike for the preservation of the Dauphin and the safety of those 
 who were instrumental in effecting his escape, but the near approach 
 of death, and the altered circumstances of the times, induced him to 
 break silence before his departure from the world. He died in 
 January, 1848. Now, the person who had charge of the Dauphin 
 after the death of Simon, stabbed a man in a poUtical quarrel in 
 France, and fled for safety.* He it was, I suppose, who, with the 
 assistance and connivance of others, carried the youth with him to 
 the Low Countries, and thence to England. He must have changed 
 his own name for greater security, crossed the Atlantic, and after 
 depositing him with the Indians, gone to Louisiana and there lived 
 and died. 
 
 " The next link in the evidence is yet more singular. A French 
 gentleman hearing my story, brought a printed account of the cap- 
 tivity of the Dauphin, and read me a note in which it was stated 
 that Simon the jailer, having become incensed with the Prince for 
 some childish offence, took a towel which was hanging on a nail, 
 and in snatching it hastily di'ew out the nail with it, and inflicted 
 two blows upon his face, one over the left eye and the other on 
 the right side of the nose. ' And now,' said he, ' let me look at your 
 face.' When he did so, and saw the soars on the spots indicated in 
 the memoirs, he exclaimed, ' Mon Dien ! what proof do I want more?' 
 
 " But that is not all," he continued. ('' In the same memoirs it 
 is said, that the Dauphin died of scrofula, and that the disease was 
 on his kneea. My knees are eaten up w ith scrofula, and there are 
 no other scrofulous marks on my body. ) Such are the main points 
 
 * The historic misstatements of Mr. Williams, in conversation, respecting events in 
 France, only show he had at this time paid little attention to the subject, and picked 
 up his Information from others. He was utterly Ignorant of the mass of historic evi- 
 dtnoe In support of his personal narrative. 
 
OUB FIRST INTEBVIEW. 348 
 
 of eviftencg on which my claim rests, and you may judge of their 
 strength-4ancl furtlier I can only refer you to the alleged resem- 
 blance between me and Louis XVIII., and the Bourbon family in 
 generaU I remember a gentleman put his Land over the name 
 attached to a picture of Louis XVIII., and asked a friend whose 
 portrait if was, ' That of Mr. Williams,' was the reply. I have 
 somewhat of a curiosity in my valise, and will show it yon if yon 
 would like to see it. It is a dress of Marie Antoinette. It was 
 given me by a person who bought it in France, and who hearing 
 my story, and considering me the rightful owner, made me a 
 present of it." 
 
 He then went forward, opened his valise, and returned with a 
 small bundle under his arm, which he carried into the upper saloon 
 for the sake of privacy. It is of course impossible to say whether 
 the dress which he showed me is what it is asserted to he, but from 
 its appearance it certainly may be so. It was a magnificent but some- 
 what faded brocade silk. It had been taken to pieces, and 
 consisted of a skirt, back piece, stomacher, and train ten or twelve 
 feet in length. The waist was very slender. There is pleasure in 
 believing in the truth of memorials of the past, and I cannot envy 
 the critical coldness of one who would ridicule me for surrendering 
 myself, under the influence of the scene, to the belief, that the 
 strange- old gentleman before me, whose very aspect is a problem, 
 was son to the fair being whose queenly form that faded dress had 
 once contained, as she moved noblest and loveliest in the Halls of 
 Versailles ; and that in childish beauty and innocence, the heir of 
 crowns, and the hope of kingdoms, the observed of all observers, 
 he had rested fondly £^gainst its silken folds when the living loveli- 
 ness of Marie Antoinette was within it.* However, I am not 
 
 * As the fact of this dress having belonged to Marie Antoinette has been quog- 
 tioned, I give the note with which the gift was accompanied : — 
 
 " Presented to the Rev. Gleazar Williams, with the respectful regards of Mrs. Edward 
 Clarke, of Northampton. Being in England some years since, I had an opportunity there 
 to purchase this dress, once worn by the Queen Marie Antoinette, of France. It bad 
 
344 THE LOST PRINCE, 
 
 ■writing romance, but a matter-of-fact account of an adventure on 
 a steamboat. 
 
 I now proceeded to scnitinize more closely the form, features, 
 and general appeamace of Mr. "Williams, and to re-ezamine the 
 scars on his face, tfie is an intelligent, noble-looking old man, 
 with no trace, howeser^iUgJitfoi the Indian about him except what 
 may be fairly accounted foj by his long residence among IndiansJ 
 He is far more familiar with their language than with English, 
 which he speaks correctly, and even eloquently, as far as style is 
 concerned, but pronounces imperfectly. His manner of talking 
 reminds yon of a Frenchman, and he shrugs his shoulders and 
 gesticulates like one. But he has the port and presence 
 of an European gentleman of high rank ; a nameless something 
 which I never saw but in persons accustomed to command; 
 a countenance bronzed by exposure below the eyebrows; a 
 fair, high, ample, intellectual, but receding forehead; a slightly 
 aquiline, but rather small nose ; a long Austrian lip, the expression 
 of which is of exceeding sweetness when in repose ; full fleshy 
 cheeks, but not high cheek bones ; dark, bright, merry eyes of 
 hazel hue; graceful, well-formed neck; strong muscular limbs, 
 indicating health and great activity ; small hands and feet, and 
 dark hair, sprinkled with gray, as fine in texture as silk. I should 
 never have taken him for an Indian. Some persons who saw him 
 several years ago, tell me, their impression is that he looked 
 partially like one, but admit, their opinion may have been 
 influenced by their having been previously told he was of 
 Indian extraction. I will here insert a description of him by 
 another hand, furnished me by Mr. Williams. "His complexion is 
 
 been bought at the court by a gentleman, attached, at that time, to our embassy. 1 
 vas informed that the dresses once worn by the queen, vere afterwards distributed 
 among the ladies of the court, who would sometimes dispose of them in this manner 
 at auction. 
 
 "ifoiOTd Sm, JSforthampUm, 
 " Jimy. 8, 1S51." 
 
OUB FIRST INTERVIEW. 345 
 
 rather dark, like that of one who had become bronzed by living 
 much in the open air, and he passes for a half-breed. But his fea- 
 tures are decidedly European, rather heavily moulded, and 
 strongly characterized by the full, protuberant Austrian lips 
 This, the experienced*Observer is well aware, is never found in the 
 aboriginal, and very rarely among the Americans themselves. His 
 head is well formed, and sits proudly on his shouldera. His eyes 
 are dark, but not black. His hair may be called black, is rich and 
 glossy, and interspersed with gray. His eyebrows are full, and of 
 the same color — upon the left is a soar. His beard is heavy, and 
 nose aquiline. The nostril is large and finely cut. His tempera- 
 ment is genial, with a dash of vivacity in his manners, he is fond 
 of good living, and inclines to embonpoint, which is the character- 
 istic of the Bourbon family." 
 
 While refolding the dress of the poor queen, I asked him if he 
 could account for the conduct of the Prince de Joinville in disclos- 
 ing so important a secret as that of his royal birth, and requesting 
 him t§ give up rights previously unknown to him, and which, 
 without information dei'ived from the Prince, he would have bad 
 no means of ascertaining. He replied, in substance, it might 
 indeed seem strange, but tlie only satisfactory explanation he 
 would suggest was, that although he waspersonally ignorant of his 
 origin, yet there were those both in Europe and this country who 
 were acquainted with it, and that Louis Phillippe being at that 
 time anxious to fortify his family in power by every possible 
 means, contracting alliances with other royal lines of Enrope, yet 
 knew that in him existed an obstacle which might possibly prevent 
 the accomplishment of all his designs, and had therefore, perhaps, 
 delegated his son to reveal the fact to him so as to escape the conse- 
 quences of its coming to light some other way. However, I may 
 add thaf, at this interview, Mr. Williams positively declined stating 
 all that passed between him and the Prince de Joinville. " I do 
 not trouble my mind, he eontinued, " much about the matter, other- 
 wise I might easily render myself unhappy by repining at the will 
 
346 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 of God. But I submit myself entirely to His will. My story is on 
 the winds of Heaven, and will work its way without me. They 
 have got it in France. Copies of my daguerreotype have been sent 
 to eminent men there. God in His providence must have some 
 mysteiious ends to answer, or He never woulcl have brought mo so 
 low from such a height. He has oast my lot among this poor 
 Indian people, and I have ministered and wiU minister to them, if it 
 please Him until death. I don't want a crown. I am convinced of 
 my royal descent; so are my family. The idea of royalty is in our 
 minds, and we will never relinquish it. Ton have been talking," 
 he concluded, smiling between jest and earnest, "with a king 
 to-night. Come, let us go down stairs, and I will show you some- 
 thing else." He then went again to his valise and took out some 
 miniatures and a daguerreotype. "There is the picture of 
 Madame," he said, putting into my hands the miniature of a very 
 beautiful young lady. " That was how my wife looked when I 
 married her. And there," giving mo another, " is my likeness at 
 the same time. I suppose you know who that is," he continued, 
 taking back the miniatures and giving me a daguerreotype. It was 
 his likeness such as he now is, but having a broad band fastened by 
 an ornamented cross passed over the shoulder as worn by European 
 princes. In the daguerreotype the hghts and shadows of his 
 marked and expressive face are brought fully out, and the sun's pen- 
 cil makes him look every inch a king. Strange, indeed, if a St. 
 Regis Indian could be the original of such a portrait, drawn by so 
 unfailing an artist. The steamboat by this time was drawing near 
 to Burlington, and Williams employed the few moments that 
 remained, in describing his situation at St. Regis. He said that 
 having left his wife in the west, he was living alone in a little hut, 
 almost destitute of the necessaries of life, without books, without 
 companions, except the Indians, and that he occupied his time in 
 teaching a few children. 
 
 The boat stopped — he hurried down, and I parted with him. 
 
fdtsam's maoazini. S47 
 
 OHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 PUTNAM'S MAaAZINB. 
 
 "Whsk our interview was over, I had little idea I should ever again 
 see Mr. Williams; but the strange story I had heard made a great 
 impression on my mind. It haunted me. I could not get rid of it, 
 and when I tried to thro'w it off, it would recur again. I had seen 
 something of men, and been a not inattentive observer. Mr. Wil- 
 liams was one of the most simple men I had ever met, and apart 
 from simplicity there is little excellence and questionable truth. I 
 saw clearly all the difficulties with which his story was surrounded, 
 but I reposed confidence in him ; and I am happy to say that, 
 although my confidence has often been put, in the course of discus- 
 sion, to the severest test, it remains unshaken. Though I saw him 
 under circumstances least favorable to impress the mind with 
 ideas of noble birth — among Indians, in plain, simple dress, in 
 poverty, in depression, in social isolation, and unfriended destitu- 
 tion — ^yet, there was nothing in his appearance or manner, his 
 bodily or mental characteristics, to jar with the idea excited by his 
 words. Everything was in keeping. Had any other person I ever 
 met told me such a story, I should have laughed him in the face. 
 He was evidently a man who had a history which did not lie on the 
 surface, because nature never placed such a man in such a position. 
 He was clearly an exotic. With no sign of the Indian, he bore 
 every mark of a mixture of French and German blood, and good 
 blood, too. But what chiefly led me to believe his statements 
 were true, was, that he, soberly and seriously, told improbabilities 
 as facts, without knowing what there was to sustain them. A pre- 
 tender would never have done this. He would have had all his 
 proofs cut, dried, and labelled, and his story, consistent or incon- 
 sistent, fully made out. With Mr. Williams it was entirely 
 different. He mentioned certain strange things- which had hap- 
 
■346 THE LOST PRINCE, 
 
 pened to him, and a few isolated hints of confirmation, merely 
 showing 'there might be evidence fuller and more explicit. With 
 nothing to gain, he risked, as the event has proved, everything. 
 
 I was sui-prised that no one had taken the trouble to probe 
 the mystery which hung about him, since, if it were a case of 
 deception, it was one of the most extraordinary the world has 
 seen, and deserved on that account to be chronicled; and, .if 
 his statements were, indeed, true, there could not be a richer pearl 
 of historic fact rescued, from oblivion. 
 
 I repeated what be had said, to many persons, and made all pos- 
 sible inquires concerning him. He had mentioned the Hon. J. 0. 
 Spencer, of Albany, as one to whom he had communicated the 
 facts I have detailed ; and, meeting that gentleman, in Convention, 
 I stated the impression his story had made on my mind, when Mr. 
 Spencer, with earnestness, exclaimed, " His story made a great 
 impression on my mind, too, sir — a very, very great impressigp;" 
 and, then, went on to mention several facts of which I was pre- 
 viously ignorant, and among them, the omission of the Dauphin's 
 name from the funeral solemnities. I had seen too much of the 
 ripe judgment and legal acumen of Mr. Spencer, not to feel certain 
 that there was something to be discovered in a historic question 
 which had riveted his attention ; and, though he concluded by say- 
 ing, that, he feared it was now too late to gain positive evidence, 
 and that the whole subject would, probably, remain a mystery like 
 the man in the iron mask ; the result of our conversation was to sti- 
 mulate my desire to clear away the obscurity. 
 
 Shortly after, I repeated Mr. Williams's story to the Eev. Dr. 
 Pawks, who was as much interested in it as I had been, and 
 requested me to put what I had said in writing, which I did in 
 the shape of a lettter addressed to him. He read my letter 
 to some friends, and this drew from Dr. J. "W. lYancis, who was 
 present, an account of a conversation with M. Genet, respecting 
 the Dauphin. He said that, in the year 1818, there was a social 
 party at the house of Dr. Hosack, in New York, at which there 
 
PnTNAMS MAGAZINE. 
 
 340 
 
 were present, beside himself, Dr. MacneveD, Counsellor Sampson, 
 Thomas Cooper, of Carlisle, Count Jean D'Angley, and M. Genet, 
 formerly ambassador from France. In the course of the conversar 
 tion, the subject of the Daaphin was introduced, and the inquiry 
 started as to his fate. At length. Genet distinctly said, " Gentle-- 
 men, the Dauphin of France is not dead, hut was brought to Ame- 
 rica." The conversation continued, for some time, and M. Genet 
 informed the company, among other things, that he believed the 
 Dauphin was in Western New York, and that Le Kay de Chaumont 
 knew all about it. 
 
 The issue here raised is a mere collateral one, and has no neces- 
 sary connection with the main argument; but as the names of 
 many highly respectable gentlemen are introduced, it may be as 
 well to consider it in this place. The facts are simply, that M. 
 Genet did make the statements referred to at the time, as Le did 
 also at many other times, and to many other persons, and, therefore, 
 had his own reasons for supposing the Dauphin to be then alive in 
 America, and that Le Bay was in the secret. In the latter he may 
 have^been mistaken. For many years, as I learn from members of 
 his family, he entertained hopes of discovering the Dauphin, but 
 seems to have relinquished expectations of success in his latter 
 years, and especially after conversing with Billaud Varennes, in 
 Philadelphia, who expressed the opinion that the Prince was dead. 
 Though an ambassador of the Republic, Genet was warmly and 
 affectionately attached to Louis XYI. and his family, and had him- 
 self been on the point of bringing, at the martyred king's request, 
 both his children to America, when he came out as' ambassador. 
 A carriage, with a false back, in which the children were to have 
 been concealed, was provided for their escape ; but on the eve of 
 the execution of the project, the carriage was seized and destroyed 
 by the mob. This fact, and other circumstances, which cannot now 
 be ascertained, may have induced him to believe the Prince was 
 bronght to his original destination by the intrigues of Louis XVIII., 
 whose character and designs he well knew, having himself seen a 
 
350 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 letter from the Ootint de Provence to the Arch-anarchist. Again, 
 pount Real and Count Jean D'Angley were in conference with Le 
 Ray de Ohaumont, in 181T, as stated by Dr. Francis, at a time when ' 
 the existence of Lonis XVII. was being agitated in Paris. 
 
 Apart from these circumstances, there is nothing to indicate that 
 Le Ray had any knowledge of the affair, except an allusion in his 
 conversation with* Mr. "Williams, in 1819 or 1820. Mr. Williams 
 was at that time residing at Oneida, in which place there also lived 
 a Col. de Ferri&re, who had fled from France during the Revolution; 
 and married an Indian woman, who is still living. Le Ray inquired 
 of Williams concerning the health and welfare, of De Ferriftre, 
 adding that he had been a great sufferer in the royal cause : that 
 the King's family had been widely scattered, but that, notwith- 
 standing all the misfortunes of De Ferri^re, he was no greater suf- 
 ferer than a member of the royal family, whom both Colonel de 
 FerriSre and he believed to be in this country. 
 
 Now, in 1816 or '17, De FerriSre went to France, and took 
 several Indians with him. Before starting, he obtained from Mr. 
 Williams three separate signatures to some legal document. One 
 of the Indians afterwards related that he had been introduced into 
 the presence of some person of distinction in Paris, and asked, 
 among other questions, who was then the religious teacher in Oneida, 
 when he replied Eleazar Williams ; he was again asked if he was 
 certain as to his being there, and on his replying in the afiBrmative, 
 was dismissed. It is a well known fact that De Ferrifire went to 
 Europe a poor man, that he returned a rich one, and that he was 
 afterwards in correspondence with the royal family of France. 
 
 In October, 1852, I wrote to Mr. Williams for additional infor- 
 mation, if he could afford me any, respecting the subject of our 
 conversation on the steamboat, and asked if he had any objection 
 to the publication of the facts he had mentioned, not knowing, at 
 the time, that any fuller accounts than I had seen had been prin- 
 ted. In his reply, dated Hogansburg, Nov. 4, 1852, he informed 
 me of the reception of a letter from Paris, purporting to proceed 
 
PUTNAM B MAGAZINE. 
 
 351 
 
 from the secretary of the President, makiag inquiries, in a respect- 
 ful manner, concerning the events of his life, and also of similar 
 communications from several eminent French ecclesiastics, but said 
 that he had not replied to them, as the subject was " very afllictive " 
 to him. " It has been, and is," he continued, " a very great annoy- 
 ance, from which I would gladly be delivered. You cannot be sur- 
 prised, reverend sir, when I say that my feelings have been such, 
 at times, as no pen can describe, nor tongue express. I am in 
 a state of exile among the Indians, and compelled, at times to beg 
 iny bread, although connected with a Christian Church, who has 
 means in abundance to sustain her humble and self-denying mis- 
 sionary honorably. It is true I am allowed a little pittance, which 
 is scarcely enough to clothe me ; yet I still continue to labor 
 patiently in the cause of my Divine Master, who suffered and died, 
 but is now my exalted Savionr. I seek not an earthly crown, 
 but heavenly, where we shall be made kings and priests unto God 
 —to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Nothing keeps 
 rae in my present position but that gracious promise of my blessed 
 Saviour, ' Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown 
 of life.'" 
 
 Hia letter only increased my sympathy in his behalf, and, though he 
 seemed quite indifferent to the publication of the strange story, it 
 seemed an evident duty to him, to the church of which he was a 
 minister, and to history, of which, provided his origin could be 
 ascertained, he would form a portion, to make some effort to clear 
 up the mystery. 
 
 I knew he must be in great want and destitution ; that, as far as I 
 eonld ascertain, he was laboring zealously among the Indians, and 
 deserved more consideration at the hands of the church than he had 
 received ; and, therefore, after consultation with Dr. Hawks, who 
 was deeply interested in his case, and strongly urged me to make 
 some effort to ascertain the truth in the matter, I determined to 
 visit the north and see him. 
 -I accordingly left New York for this purpose, on 17th November, 
 
352 THB LOST PRINCE. 
 
 and arrived at Morra, in the- neighborhood of his residenoe,"on the 
 following day; meeting an old resident -who had knpWn Mr. 
 Williams for many years, named Harrington, I asked him which he 
 thought the oldest, without intimating for what purpose I made the 
 inquiry. Without any hesitation he replied, that he was himself 
 •sixty-eight years of age, but had always considered himself younger 
 than Mr. Williams. He added, that Williams was, without doubt, 
 an European. His son, an intelligent and respectable man, who has 
 had every opportunity of knowing the truth in the matter, wrote, 
 at my request, the following certificate: — "I was brought up at 
 Hogansburg, and have served in the army as a private, under 
 General Worth. I have known Indians of various tribes, 
 especially the Seminoles and the Iroquois. I have" known Indians 
 as long as I have known white men. I am personally acquainted 
 with the Kev. Eleazar Williams, and have known him since my 
 childhood. I do not believe him to be an Indian. He is entirely 
 unlike the rest of his family. I knew some of his supposed 
 brothers, especially Jarvis Williams. They bore no resemblance to 
 Eleazar. He looks like a German or Frenchman; they were, 
 undoubtedly Indians. The general impression among intelligent 
 people, in this neighborhood, who know Mr. Williams, is, that he 
 is not an Indian. His reputed mother does not acknowledge him 
 to be her son. Mr. Williams bears an excellent character among 
 us, and is highly respected. I know an Indian as well as I know a 
 cow or a horse." 
 
 Every inquiry which I made in the neighborhood of Mr. Wil- 
 liams's residence, led to precisely the same conclusion. I found 
 there were certain facts to which every one I conversed with, in 
 Hogansburg and the neighborhood, was ready to testify, vlz.^at 
 there was no personal resemblance between Williams and any of 
 his nominal kindred, dead or living ; that he had no marks what- 
 ever of being an Indian, in the estimation of persons who see 
 Indians every moment of their lives ; that old Mary Ann Williams 
 preserved an unaccountably silence and mystery respecting him, and 
 
Putnam's magazine. S53 
 
 did not acknowledge Lim to be her son; that he was hated, 
 opposed, and thwarted in every possible manner by the Romish 
 priest and his people, but labored to do his duty faithfully under 
 these discouraging circumstance^ 
 
 /H^, landlady at Hogansburg, said, "I don't know whether he is 
 Indian or not. He does not look like one. If I had not heard 
 that he was one, I should not suppose that he was, any more than 
 you. He is not like any of his family. All the other childi-en are 
 dead." And I may add, they all died of consump tion^ I found the 
 absence of his name from the baptismal register was undoubted ; 
 the Bev. Francis Marcoux, Bomish priest, at St. Regis, having lately 
 acknowledged the omission to the Eon. Phineas Atwater, formerly 
 Indian agent, but endeavored to account for it by saying, that he 
 was privately baptized on account of sickness, which certainly is 
 no reason why his baptism should not have been registered. 
 
 His temporary absence on missionary service deprived me of the 
 pleasure of seeing him, but I obtained full insight into his position, 
 estimation in the neighborhood, and other things necessary to the 
 formation of a correct judgment. He is missionary at St. Regis 
 and .Hogansburg, both miserable, lonely plac^, receiving no pay- 
 ment from the Indians among whom he labors, and but a small 
 stipend from the Missionary Committee. The rigors of the 
 climate are excessive ; the thermometer in winter being frequently 
 thirty degrees below zero, and one can scarcely conceive a situation 
 for an mtelligent mind more lonely, more unfriended, more desti- 
 tute. His residence is on the Indian Reservation, a wild tract of 
 woodland, partially cleared, here and there, at the edges. At the 
 time of my visit, dead evergreen swamps, decayed vegetation, rudo 
 fences, half prostrate, surrounded the ricketty shed, admitting 
 the cold at a thousand crevices, in which resided poor 'Williams 
 and the old Indian woman, his' reputed mother, whom he heroi- 
 cally treats as if she were his parent, though believing himself to 
 be the son of the peerless Marie Antoinette, He had no church 
 building, but was trying to build a school-house on the Indian 
 
S54 
 
 THE LOST PEINCB. 
 
 Keservafcion, which stood roofless in the piercing cold, the piotare 
 of desolation. 
 
 Having failed to meet Mr. Williams at "Hogansburg, 1 went to 
 Oaughnawaga, in hopes of finding him, but was again disappointed. 
 I, however, inquired among the Indians, as to their impressions ^f 
 his race, and found the same opinion prevalent there, as in the 
 vicinity of his residence. 
 
 On my way home I had another interview with the Hon J. 0. 
 Spencer, in Albany, from whom I derived many additional items of 
 information. \£s2m him I learned, that Prpf. Day, on his retui-n 
 from Europe, in an interview with Mr. Williams, threw some litho- 
 graphs and engravings on the table ; at the sight of one of which, 
 and without seeing the name, Williams was greatly excited, and 
 cried, " Good God, I know that face. It has haunted me through 
 life," or words to that effect. On examination, it proved to be the 
 portrait of Simon the jailerj 
 
 I afterwards received a letter from Prof. Day, in answer to 
 inquiries made of him on the subject, in which he gave the com- 
 bined recollections of himself and family. The incident occurred at 
 Northampton, in the summer of 1850-51. Previous to seeing the 
 engraving, Mr. Williams had spoken of a hideous countenance which 
 had haunted him for years. At the time the portrait was shown to 
 him. Prof. Day's hand was over the name. " He was silent," writes 
 Prof. Day, " for a moment, and then said, ' that is the countenance,' 
 or words to that efeet — but added, that in one respect, it did not 
 agree with his recollections, for the man whose features had haunted 
 him all his life was bald. It was impossible to decide, from the 
 lithograph, whether such was the csise with Simon, or not, as he is 
 represented, with his hat on, but on looking at the jnscripMon, under 
 the print, it was evident that he might have been bald, as he was 
 fifty-eight years old when guillotined with Robespierre." Of course, 
 in this, and all similar oases of recognition, the proof can only be 
 conclusive to the indiyidual who is the subject of it. Mr. Spencer 
 likewise mentioned he had been informed by Mr. Williama, that 
 
POTNAMS MAGAZINE. 355 
 
 he had ascertained from his reputed mother, that two boxes of 
 clothing, and other articles had been left with him at the time of 
 his adoption. One of these boxes has been carried off by a daughter 
 of Thomas Williams, and cannot now be recovered. The other, 
 there is eve;y reason to suppose is still in Montreal, but efforts are 
 made in certain quarters to conceal it. In this box were three coins 
 or medals, one of gold, one of silver, and one of copper — fac-similes 
 of each other — being the medals struck at the coronation of Louis 
 XVI. and Marie Antoinette. The gold and silver medals being of 
 value, were sold by the Indians in Montreal. The copper one was 
 retained and is now in my possession. The gold medal has also 
 been seen in the possession of a Eomish bishop at Montreal or 
 Quebec. 
 
 The probability that these traces of the Dauphin are to be found in 
 Montreal is increased by the proximity of Caughnswaga to that city. 
 Oaughnawaga is a^ straggling Indian village on the St. Lawrence, 
 opposite Lachine, and within sight of Montreal. It consists, besides 
 a number of scattered huts, of two long narrow streets varying con- 
 siderably in width. The houses are low and shabby, most of them 
 of wood, but some of dark stone. The masonry is of the mdest 
 kind. A Roman Catholic church, a solid stone building, of some 
 slight pretensions to architecture, stands in the middle of one of the 
 sti'eets. In looking at the dingy houses, the narrow streets, the 
 crowd of little Indian children ; and considering the loneliness of the 
 spot in former years before railroads and steamboats had brought 
 it into connection with the busy world, one cannot help feeling how 
 secure a hiding-place for the poor scion of royalty this village pre- 
 sented. And the same remarks apply more strongly still to 8t. 
 Regis, which lies on the present boundary between Canada and the 
 U. S. But from these secluded spots the Indians, who partake 
 much of the character and roving habits of the gipsey, wander forth 
 over the surrounding country, selling baskets, and bartering what- 
 ever of value comes into their possession. Those who placed the 
 Dauphin among the Indians, might be sure that the tomb could 
 
S56 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 scarcely be a more secret shelter ; bnt at the same time if they 
 desired to identify him, as their leaving these relics would inti- 
 mate, they conld have had little hope that the habits of the Indians 
 would permit the retention of any traces of royalty. 
 
 Having obtained all the information I could without seeing Mr. 
 WiUiams, I returned to New York. On Dec. the "Tth, I received a 
 note from him, stating he was in the city. Upon calling at his 
 hotel, I found that, having heard of my journey to the north, he had 
 come to New York to see me. He accompanied me to the study of 
 Dr. Hawks, in whose presence he confirmed the statements be 
 had previously made to me. In the course of the conversation 
 which took place between us at my house, I drew from him a 
 detailed account of the interview between him and the Prince de 
 Joinville, alluded to in the early part of this narrative, to which I 
 will now proceed, merely premising that, although given in an 
 uninterrupted form, it was in a great measure elicited by dint of 
 questioning and cross-questioning, so as to obtain all the particulars 
 concerning the value of which Mr. Williams did not seem to be 
 sufficiently aware; but there is no thought or fact he did not 
 express, and the language, as near as a retentive memory can 
 give it, is in his own words, though somewhat condensed. After 
 describing the correspondence between him and Mr. Thomas L. 
 Ogden, and re-affirming strongly the fact that the Prince had made 
 inquiries' concerning him, immediately on his arrival in the countiy, 
 he said, in substance, as follows : — 
 
 " In Oct., 1841, I was on my way from Buffalo to Green Bay, 
 and took a steamer from the former place bound to Chicago, which 
 touched at Mackinac, and left me there, to await the arrival of the 
 steamer from Bnffiilo to Green Bay. Vessels which had recently 
 come in announced the speedy arrival of the Prince de Joinville ; 
 public expectation was on tiptoe, and crowds were on the wharves. 
 The steamer at length came in sight, salutes were fired and 
 answered, the colors run up, and she came into port in fine style. 
 Immediately she touched, the Prince and his retinue came on shore 
 
punrAM's MAoAzim. 357 
 
 and went out some little distance from the town, perhaps half a 
 mile, to visit some natural curiosities in the neighborhood — the 
 Sugar Loaf Bock and the Arch Bock. The steamer awaited their 
 return. During their absence I was standing on the wharf among 
 the crowd, when Captain John Shook, now at Huron, Ohio, who 
 will confirm my statement, came np to me and asked whether 
 I was going on to Green Bay, adding that the Prince de Joinville 
 had made inquiries of him concerning a Bev. Mr. Williams, and that 
 he had told the Prince he knew such a person, referring to me, 
 whom he supposed was the man he meant, though he could not 
 imagine what the Prince could want with or know of me. I 
 replied to the Captain in a laughing way, withont having any idea 
 what a deep meaning was attached to my words, ' Oh, I am a great 
 man, and great men will of course seek me ont.' Soon after, the 
 Prince and his suite arrived, and went oh board. I did the same, 
 and the steamer put to sea. It was, I think, about two o'clock 
 when we left Mackinac. When we were fairly out on the water, 
 the Captain came to me and said, 'The Prince, Mr. Williams, 
 requests me to say to you that he desires to have an Interview with 
 you, and wUl be happy either to have yon come to him, or allow 
 me to introduce him to you.' 'Present my compliments to the 
 Prince,' I said, 'and say, I put myself entirely at his disposal, 
 and will be proud to accede to whatever may be his wishes in the 
 matter.' The Captain again retired, and soon returned bringing 
 the Prince de Joinville with hhn. I was atting at the time on a 
 barrel. The Prince not only started with evident and involuntary 
 surprise when he saw me, but there was great agitation in his face 
 and manner— a slight paleness and a quivering of the lip— which I 
 could not help remarking at the time, but which struck me more 
 forcibly afterwards, in connection with the whole train of circum- 
 stances, and by contrast with his usual self-possessed manner. He 
 then shook me earnestly and respectfully by the hand, and drew me 
 tminediately into conversation. The attention he paid me seemed 
 to astonbh not only myself and the passengers, but also the Prince's 
 
358 THE LOST PEINCT. 
 
 retinue. At dinner time there was a separate table laid for the 
 Prince and his companionsi, and he invited me to sit with them, and 
 offered me the seat of honor. by his side. Bat I was a little abashed 
 by the attentions of the Prince, and there was an American officer 
 who had attached himself to the party, and behaved in an obtrusive 
 and unbecoming manner, which seemed to annoy them, and indeed 
 one of the Prince's companions had expressed to me his disgust at his 
 behavior. So I thought I would keep out of the circle, and begged 
 the Prince to excuse me, and permit me to dine at the ordinary table 
 with the passengers, which accordingly I did. After dinner the con- 
 versation turned, between us, on the first French settlements in Ame- 
 rica, the valor and enterprise of the early adventurers, and the loss 
 of Canada to France, at which the Prince expressed deep regret. 
 In the course of his remarks, though in what connection I cannot 
 now say, he told me he left his suite at Albany, took a private 
 conveyance, and went to the head of Lake George. He was very 
 copious and fluent in speech, and I was surprised at the good 
 English he spoke — a little broken indeed — like mine — but still 
 very intelligible. We continued talking late into the night, reclin- 
 ing in the cabin, on the cushions, in the stern of the boat. .When 
 wa retired to rest, the Prince lay on the locker and I in the first 
 berth next to it. The next day the steamer did not arrive at Green 
 Bay until about three o'clock, and during most of the time we were 
 in conversation. Looking back thoughtfully upon what was said, 
 I can now perceive, the Prince was gradually preparing my mind 
 for what was to come at last, although then the idifferent subjects 
 seemed to arise naturally enough. At first, he spoke of the con- 
 dition of affairs in the United States, and the American Eevolu- 
 tion. He expressed admiration for our, institutions, and spoke 
 at large of the assistance rendered to the Colonies in the struggle 
 with the mother country, by Louis the Sixteenth. He said he 
 did not think sufficient gratitude was evinced by Americans to 
 that monarch, and that, whenever his intervention was alluded to, 
 it Was attributed to selfish motives, and to a desu-e to humble- the 
 
Putnam's MASAzniB. 369 
 
 power of England on this continent, by depriving her of her fairest 
 colonial possessions, but, in his opinion, Louis XVI. felt a true 
 regard for America, and that on every return of the 4th of July, 
 ■when, throughout the United States, the nation was celebrating its 
 independence, there should be an especial salute flred to the 
 memory of the king who had contributed so much to the result. 
 Such was the substance of what was said by the Prince on that sub- 
 ject. He then turned to the French Revolution, and said, Louis 
 XVL was innocent of any tyrannical designs toward the people of 
 France, and nothing he did personally could justify or excuse the 
 excesses of tha Revolution; that the last foundations of that 
 event were laid in the preceding reign, and, the misconduct and 
 Biisgovernment of Louis XV. were chargeable with the sad events 
 which occurred, to a very great extent, although the storm had 
 been slowly brewing for centuries. The people of France, though 
 they had no jusit cause to complain of Louis XVL, yet had a right 
 to do so of the oppressive institutions then existing, of the tyranny 
 of the aristocracy, and the burdens laid on them by the church. He 
 then Inferred to the changes which had since taken place in the,form 
 of government, and to the present amelioration of the condition of 
 the French people under an elective monarchy. On our arrival 
 at Green Bay, the Prince said, I would oblige him by accom- 
 panying him to his hotel, and taking up my quarters at the 
 Astor House. I begged to be excused, as I wished to go to the 
 house of my father-in-law. He replied, he had some matters of 
 great importance to speak to me about, and as he could not stay 
 long at Green Bay, but would take his departure the next day, or 
 the day after, he wished I would comply with his request. As 
 there was some excitement consequent on the Prince's arrival, and 
 a gi-eat number of. persons were at the Astor House waiting to see 
 him, I thought I would take advantage of the confusion to go to 
 roy father-in-law's, and promised to return in the evening, when he 
 would be more private. I did so, and on my return found the 
 Prince alone, with the exception of one attendant, whom he 
 
360 THE LOST PBISCE. 
 
 dismissed. The, gentlemen of his party were in an adjoining room 
 laughing and carousing, and I could distinctly hear them during 
 my interview with the Prince. He opened the conversation 
 by saying, he had a communication to make to me of a very 
 serious nature as concerned himself, and of the last importance to 
 me, — that it was one in which no others were interested, and, 
 therefore, before proceeding further, he wished to obtain some 
 pledge of secresy, some promise that I would not reveal to any one 
 what he was going to say. I demurred to any such conditions 
 being imposed previous to my being made acquainted with the 
 nature of the subject, as there might be something in it, after all, 
 prejudicial and injurious to others, and it was at length, after some 
 altercation, agreed that I should pledge my honor not to reveal 
 what the Prince was going to say, provided there was nothing ia 
 it pr^udicial to any one, and I signed a promise to this effect on a 
 sheet of paper. It was vague and general, for I would not tie 
 myself down to absolute secresy, but left the matter conditional; 
 ■V^en this was done, the Prince spoke to this effect : — 
 
 (tJJTou have been accustomed, sir, to consider yourself a native of 
 this country; but you are not. You are of foreign descent ; you were 
 bcf n in Eurpoe, sir, and however incredible it may at first seem to 
 you, I have to tell you that you are the son of a kind There ought 
 to be much consolation to yon to know this fact. You have suf- 
 fered a great deal, and have been brought very low, but you have 
 not suffered more, or been more degraded than my fiither, who was 
 long in exile and poverty in this country ; but there is this differ- 
 ence between him and you, that he was all along aware of his high 
 birth, whereas you have been spared the knowledge of your origin." 
 When the Prince had said this, I was much overcome, and 
 thrown into a state of mind which you can easily imagine. In fact 
 I hardly knew what to do or say, and my feelings were so much 
 excited that I was like one in a dream, and much was said between 
 us of .which I can give but an indistinct account. However, I 
 remember, I told Mm, his oommunioation was so startling and nn- 
 
PUTNAM'S MAGAZINE. 
 
 S61 
 
 expected, that he must forgive me for being incredulons, and that 
 really I was "between two." 
 " What do you mean," he said, " by being ' between two ?' " 
 I replied that, on the one hand, it scarcely seemed to me, he 
 could believe what he said, and on the other, I feared he might be 
 tinder some mistake as to the person. He assured me, how- 
 ever, he would not trifle with my feelings on such a subject, but 
 spoke the simple truth, and that in regard to the identity of 
 the person, he had ample meaus in his possession to satisfy me 
 there was no mistake whatever^ I then requested him to pro- 
 ceed with the disclosure already partly made; and to inform 
 me in full of the secret of my birth. He replied that in doing so, 
 it was necessary that a certain process should be gone through, in 
 order to guard the interest of all parties concerned. I inquired 
 what kind of process he m6ant. /U'pon this the Prince rose and 
 went to his trank, which was in the room, and took from it a 
 • parchment which he laid on the table, and set before me, that I 
 might read and give him my determination in regard to it J There 
 were qjso on the table pen and ink and wax, and he pldced there 
 a governmental seal of France, the one, if I mistake not, used under 
 the old monarchy. It was of precious metal, but whether of gold 
 or silver, or a compound of both, I cannot say. I think, on reflec- 
 tion, the latter ; but I may be mistaken, for my mind was so bewil- 
 dered, and a^tated, and engrossed with one absorbing question, 
 that thinp which at another time would have made a strong 
 impression on me were scarcely noticed, although I must confess 
 that when I knew the whole, the sight of the seal put before me by 
 a member of the family of Orleans stirred my indignation. The 
 document which the Prince placed before me was very handsomely 
 written, in double parallel columns of French and English. I con- 
 tinued intently reading and considering it for a space of fbur or five 
 hours. During this time the Prince left me undisturbed, remaining 
 for the most part in the room, but he went out three or four times. 
 The purport of the document, which I read repeatedly word by 
 16 
 
368 THE L08T PJUNCB. 
 
 •word, comparing the French with the English, was thisi^was a 
 solemn abdication of the crown of France in favor of Louis 
 Philippe, by Charles Louis, the son of Louis XVI., who was styled 
 Louis XVIL, King of France and Navari'e, with all accompanyiDg 
 names and titles of honor, according to the custom of the old 
 French monarchy, together with a minute specification in legal 
 phraseology of the conditions, and considerations, and proviso^ 
 upon which the abdication was made. These conditions were, in 
 brief, that a princely establishment should be secured to me either 
 in this country or in France, at my option, and that Louis Philippe 
 would pledge himself on his part to secure the restoration, or an 
 equivalent for it, of all the private property of the royal family, 
 rightfully belonging to me, which had been confiscated in France 
 during the Bevolution, or in any way got into other handsj Il'ow 
 you may ask me why I did not retain, at all hazards, ^is. docu^L 
 ment, or, at any rate, take a copy of it; but it is very easy .for 
 you, sitting quietly there, to prescribe the course which prudence 
 and self-interest would dictate. A day or two afterwards all these 
 points, and the different lights in which the thing might be viewed, 
 came to my mind ; but at the moment I thought of nothing except 
 the question of acceptance or rejection. And then, remember, the 
 sudden manner in which the whole affair came upon, me, and the 
 natural timidity and bashfulness of one who had always considered 
 himself of such obscure rank, when called, without preparation, to 
 discuss such topics with a man of high position like the Prince. 
 Besides which, my word of honor had been so recently and, 
 solemnly pledged, and a sense of personal dignity excited by the 
 disclosures of the Prince, that I never so much as thought of taking 
 any advantage of the circumstances, but simply and solely whether 
 or not I should sign my name, and set my seal to a deliberate sur- 
 render of my rights and those of my family. It was a, deeply 
 painful and harrowing time, and I cannot tell you, and you cannot 
 imagine, how I felt when trying to decide this question. At 
 length. I made my decision, and rose, and told the Prince that I 
 
Putnam's uagaxiisb. 363 
 
 bad considered the matter fully in all its aspects, and was prepared 
 to give him my definite answer upon the subject ; and then went- 
 on to say, that whatever might be the personal consequences to 
 myself, I felt that I could not be the instrument of bartering away 
 with my own hand, the rights pertaining to me by my birth, and 
 sacrificing the interests of my family, and that I could only give to 
 him the answer which^e Provence gave to the ambassador of 
 Kapoleon at WarsaWjC^Though I am in poverty and exile I will 
 not sacrifice my honor^' 
 
 The Prince upon this assumed a loud tone, and accused me of 
 ingratitude in trampling on the overtures of the king, his father, 
 who, he said, was actuated, in making the proposition, more by 
 feelings of kindness- and pity towards me than by any other consi- 
 deration, since his claim to the French throne rested on an entirely 
 different basis to mine, viz. not that of hereditary descent, but of 
 popular election, i When he spoke in this strain I spoke loud also, 
 and said, that as he, by his disclosure, had put me in the position 
 of a superior, I must assume that position, and frankly say that my 
 indignation was stirred by the memory, that one of the family of 
 Orleans had imbrued his hands in my father's blood, and that 
 another now wished to obtain from me an abdication of the 
 throne. /When I spoke of superiority, the Prince immediately 
 assumed a respectful attitude, and remained silent for several min- 
 utes. It had now grown very late, and we parted, with a request 
 from him that I would reconsider the proposal of his father, and 
 not be too hasty in my deoisionT) I returned to my father-in-law's, 
 and the next day saw the Prince again, and on his renewal of the 
 sabjeot gave him a similar answer. Before he went away he said, 
 'Though we part, I hope we part friends.' For years I said little 
 on the subject, until I received a letter from Mr. Kimball, dated at 
 Baton Eouge, informing me of the dying statements of Belanger, 
 and then, when this report came from the south confirming what 
 the Prince had said, the thing assumed a different aspect. This let- 
 ter is, I think, among my papers at Green Bay, but for years I have 
 
364 THE LOST PKINCB. 
 
 kept a minute journal of everything which has occurred to me, 
 and have, no doubt, an abstract of it at Hogansburg. Our conver- 
 sation to-night will go down.'' 
 
 1 was much struck with the little value, in point of evidence, 
 which Mr. Williams seems to have attached to the Prince's asserted 
 disclosures. After giving me the above account, however, he 
 added — " I see more and more, that the matter rests between the 
 Prince and myself, and I am quite willing that it should. I have 
 been in hopes that some movement would be made in Europe in my 
 favor ; but, as you say, the affair must be begun here, and I will let 
 the world know all. The Prince cannot deny what I say, and my 
 impression is that he will keep entirely silent." 
 " Bat silence •will be equivalent to confession." 
 " It will be so." 
 
 At this time, I learned that Mr. Williams had kept a journal 
 during the greater portion of his life. He mentioned the circum- 
 stance casually, but seemed to have no idea that it could be of any 
 service as evidence. I inquired if he had preserved any contempo- 
 rary record of his interview and conversations with the Prince? 
 He replied, he believed he haS, but it was a long time since he had 
 examined his old papers, and a great portion of them were at Green 
 Bay — ^but, possibly, some of the journals might be at Hogansburg. 
 The next time he went to the north, he brought me the portions 
 of his journal relave to 1841 and 1848. The reader, who, by this 
 time, has had sufficient evidence of a fact which General Cass con- 
 siders apocryphal, is in a better condition than formerly to judge 
 of the importance to be attached to these documents. I wish much 
 that space would permit me to present the whole of the journal for 
 the year 1841. I will give some copious extracts, because it is 
 necessary to exhibit some picture of his mind and life at a time 
 when not occupied with any parochial charge. 
 
 JOURNAL FOR 1841. 
 " Green Bay, Jan. 1, 1841— Thanks be to God, I am permitted once 
 
potnam'b magazine. 365 
 
 move to see another year. How numerous have been the mercies of God 
 towards me in the year past, and what thanks have I returned to the God 
 of all mercies for the blessings he has conferred upon me ? Bless the Lord, 
 Omy soul, and give him thanks for aU his benefits. May I be humble for 
 my ingratitude to that blessed God who has sustained ray Ufe to' this time. 
 0, Holy Father, enable me, by thy heavenly grace, to devote all ray time 
 and talents to thy honor and glory, and at last, by thy great mercy and 
 the merits of ray Saviour, may I be admitted to thy Heavenly Kingdom. 
 
 " Liule Kakalin, Tan. 3.— It has been an unpleasant day. I read much 
 all day in the Holy Scriptures. Somewhat indisposed. 
 
 ♦ *'♦*♦*<* 
 
 "Jan. 17, Sunday Evening. — I had a pleasant interview with several 
 of the Oneidas, who are inquiring the way of salvation. I pointed out to 
 them the proper and only object of their faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. I 
 explained to them several passages of Scripture. 
 
 ' " Jo». 18 — I went down to Green Bay, called uponthe Rev. Mr. Potter, 
 dined with him. There was a discussion between us upon the doctrine of 
 the saints' perseverance. 
 
 "Jan. 22, Friday. — Went down to Green Bay to pay Judge A. $25, 
 and ha^ a long conversation about the Church. He is somewhat loose in 
 his principles, yet he would be a churchman. Sanctificati'on of the heart 
 was strongly held up to him. 
 
 "Jan, 23, Saturday. — I am preparing to-day to officiate to-morrow. 
 0, my Heavenly Father, prepare ray heart for the services. May I be 
 sincere and devout in' my attendance upon thee, and give me grace and 
 strength to proclaim thy Holy Gospel in a suitable manner. 
 
 ■** * * * * * * 
 
 " Green Bay, Feb. 4, 1841. — I came down in haste this morning to visit 
 a sick man — ^he is in a dangerous situation, both in soul and body. I have 
 administered to him all the consolation which the Christian religion affdtds, 
 and the prayers of the Church. ' 
 
 " Green Bay, Feb 5, Friday. — Called again upon the sick man ; he is 
 somewhat better. 1 again exhorted him to have a lively faith in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 **<»♦** * 
 
 " Feb. 15.— Our son is much tetter to-day, and I hope he vriU continue 
 
366 THE LOST PRINCB. 
 
 to amend. The weather is fine. I went to the sugar camp. The Indian 
 boy knocks the snow from the roof, and I arrange the sap dishes. The 
 Oneidas have been with us, and communicated to me many unpleasant 
 news in relation to their missionary. I exhorted them to live m peace 
 with hbn and adhere to his instructions. 
 
 ." Feb. 16. — ^1 have been at Duck Creek, and administered baptism to a 
 sick child. I believe it is now sick to death. May God receive it to eternal 
 glory. I saw many of my Oneida friends, and they wished me to come 
 back to them. 
 
 " Feb. 19, Friday. — ^Very cold, but the sky clear. Went out to the sugar 
 camp to see it was arranged and put in order. I saw several deer and 
 wolves. My horse and myself were in the water soiiie time, but we extri- 
 cated ourselves after a hard struggle, by the aid of a Frenchman and an 
 Indian, who had a hearty laugh at my misfortune. 
 
 *****■♦*♦ 
 
 " April 10. — ^Mrs. Williams returned from the sugar camp, where she 
 has been superintending, for three weeks past, the making of sugar. I 
 have been back and forth to see the men did their duty. We have made 
 at least 1000 lbs. of fine sugar. I have been left nearly for weeks alone. 
 I cooked myself and took care of the cattle. 
 
 *#**#♦ ft * 
 
 "Jlfay 20. — Went down to Green Bay, and had an interview with Mr. 
 Whitney in relation to our landed property ; but no good resulted from it. 
 It is hard upon us. 
 
 **♦#**** 
 
 " Jfay 30. — ^I am still in a feeble state of health, but recovering in a 
 gradual manner. The physician is doing what he can for me. 
 
 ******** 
 
 "JVtrae 11. — How many painful tasks I have to perform. To-day I 
 visited a, sick man who professes to be a churchman, from Mass., and 
 would have me visit him, as he understood I was a minister of the Protest- 
 ant Episcopal Church. I did all the church required of me, as one of its 
 ministers, towards the sick man. ' I exhorted him to have faith in Christ 
 and repentance towards God." 
 
 • ••*•••• 
 
 On June 22, 1841, Mr. Williams and bis son set out on board the 
 
Putnam's magazine. 867 
 
 De Witt Clinton, Capt. Squares, with tlie intention of going into 
 the State of New York, and on Tuesday, June 29, reached Oneida. 
 On his way to New Yorlc he was taken sick at Cahoes, and sent a 
 Mr. Wilkinson to the city with letters to Mr. Thomas L. Ogden. 
 His indisposition continued for several weeks. 
 On Tuesday, October 1, occurs the following entry : — 
 
 " We returned to-day from our journey to St. Begis j we went in ii 
 wagon all the way, and returned by the same route. We found jur 
 friends all well. We put up with Bowker, where I received all my Indian 
 friends who wished to see me. I had an interview with the American 
 chiefs, who were much troubled with the $500 which they received from 
 the State of New York. The British part of the tribe are claiming for a 
 portion of the same, but the American part are opposed to this claim. 
 There has been a great altercation between the two parties, in relation to 
 this affair. By the request of the two parties, the British and American 
 commissioners are appointed to adjust this matter. I am strongly urged 
 by ^e Americait party to remain and sustain their claim; but there are 
 certain circumstances which have come to my knowledge, which hasten me 
 to return as soon as possible to Green Bay. I am greatly disappointed in 
 regard to my business with Mr. Ogden, which was the principal object of 
 this journey. My time and expense are lost to me. We shall return to- 
 morrow.'* 
 
 The reader will here observe, there was important business tend- 
 ing to detain Mr. Williams at St. Begis ; but, simultaneously with 
 the reception of information from Thomas L. Ogden, concerning 
 his private affairs, he learnt something which obliged him to return 
 immediately homeward. Let him now read the following cer- 
 tificate: — 
 
 "I hereby certify, that, in the year 1841, the Rev. Eleazar Williams was 
 staying at my house, in Hogansburg, and left, abruptly, to go to the west, 
 without concluding his business ; and, in a letter received from him, shortly 
 afterwards, from Green Bay, he informed me that the cause of his abrupt 
 departure was an intimation which he had received of the visit of 
 the Prince de Joinville, to Green Bay. I have read a copy of the 
 
368 fHB LOST PEINOn. 
 
 letter then written me, contained in hi? letter-book, and reoogniae 
 it aa being correct. It ia poaaible that I may have the letter itaelf among 
 Xfiy papers, and I will aearch for it ; but, at any rate, there can be no donbt 
 as to the fact that he did write the passage in question, as I recol- 
 lect it perfectly. 
 
 'Eli AS BowEER. 
 " B-ogansburg, August 24, 1853." 
 
 The letter referred to by Mr. Bowker bears date December 27, 
 I84I ; and the passage with which we are concerned, is as follows : 
 
 " I am anxious to leam what maybe the decision of the American and Bri- 
 tish commissioners, who were about to meet and act aa judges over the $S00. 
 At the time I left Hoganaburg, Mr. Eldridge promised to write and inform 
 me the result of the above meeting of the commiasionera, but no commu- 
 nication have I received aa yet from that gentleman. Will you be pleased 
 to inform him that I should be happy to hear from him. It was my 
 intention to remain in Hogansburg, till after the meeting of the commis- 
 eioners, but I was hindered in consequence of the intimation of the Prince 
 de Joinville of visiting Green Bay, and I was just in time to meet him on 
 the route." 
 
 Thus, although, we have not, as yet, been so fortunate as to dis- 
 cover the letter of Mr. Thomas L. Ogden, circumstances come in to 
 supply, almost entirely, the deficiency ; and, if the reader could 
 form a proper judgment of the immense mass of Mr^ Williams's 
 papers, of all kinds, ^nd the condition that they are in, he would 
 only wonder that' anything could he found, and the measure of 
 exactness attained, which, I hope, has been arrived at. There are, 
 a^ the present moment, several large boxes of papers, &c., in 
 Ogdensburg, and it is possible that further light may be derived 
 from them. But, to continue the journal : — 
 
 " SyracTtae, October 4, Monday. — Went out and visited my Onondag 
 friends. I am' still feeble. 
 
 " Detroit, October 11, Monday. — ^Arrived here this morning, and expect 
 to go on this afternoon. My reflections to-day and yeaterday upon death, 
 judgment, and eternity, have been lively. 0, that they may lead 
 
pcxn-am's magazike. 369 
 
 me to live more in preparation for those solemn events. 0, merciful 
 Father, grant me true contrition, and unfeigned sorrow, for all I 
 have thought and done amiss j quicken me by Thy Holy Spirit, and enable 
 me to live to Thee, and to glorify Thee in my body and my spirit, which 
 are thine. I trust the sickness with which I have been afflicted has a ten- 
 dency to drive me to think more upon God. 
 
 " October 14. — On board of the steamer. — I have written to Mr. Ogden, 
 General Potter, 'and Mr. Le Fort, the Onondaga chief. 
 
 " October 15, Friday Evening. — On Lake Huron, the day has been very 
 plea.sant. By the request of the passengers, I officiated this evening — 
 preached from Luke vi. 12. The audience were very attentive. I am 
 again afflicted with a severe pain in my loft side. May I feel that I am 
 in the midst of death, and so number my days that I may apply ray heart 
 unto wisdom. My son is somewhat unwell." 
 
 ****** 
 
 MacHnac, Oct. 16, Saturday. — The steamer arrived here at two o'clock, 
 p. M. My son is somewhat indisposed, and on that account I am more 
 willing to remain here, until the Green Bay boat comes. 
 
 I have had a pleasant interview with the B.ev. Mr. Coit, of the Congre- 
 .igationalist Church. Mr. C. has spent his time much among the Chippe- 
 way Indians. In his labors of love he has been successful. I trust many 
 souls have been converted under his ministry. Evening. — It is proposed 
 to have the Divine Service to-morrow at the Presbyterian Meeting-house. 
 In the morning I am to officiate. 
 
 MacHnac^ Oct. 17, Sunday Evening. — I performed the service this 
 morning — all the gentlemen of the garrison, the soldiers and the citizens 
 of the place were in attendance. My subject was upon Apostasy, which 
 
 gave great offence to Mr. . I find he has been excommunicated for his 
 
 apostasy. Truth vrill have its own weight upon the guilty conscience. 
 Uev. Mr. Coit preached this afternoon to the same congregation ; his dis- 
 course was well adapted to the oocaaion, and was heard with much atten- 
 tion. Several gentlemen of the place called upon me this evening, and I 
 had ». pleasant interview with them. I am invited to administer holy 
 Baptism to-morrow morning. 
 
 Two soldiers called and asked for Prayer-books. I was only ablo to give 
 them one, which was accompanied with some tracts. 
 
 16* 
 
370 
 
 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 My son ia much better — still complains of pain in the head. May God 
 give him grace to be submissive to his Divine vi^jll. 
 
 Oji Lake Michigan^ Oct. 18, Monday. — The regular steamer for Green 
 Bay (for which we have been waiting), arrived in the port of Mackinac 
 to-day, at twelve o'clock. His royal highness, Prince de Joinville, and 
 his suite, were among the passengers. On landing, the Prince and his 
 parly went immediately to visit the Arch Rock. In the meantime I had 
 an interview, with Captain Shook, of the steamer, who stated that the 
 Prince had made inquiries of him, two or three times since leaving Buffalo^ 
 about Mr. Williams, the missionary to the Indians at Green Bay, and that 
 as he knew no other gentleman in that capacity excepting myself, I must 
 be the person, the object of his inquiry. I replied, ' that cannot be, Cap- 
 tain. He must mean another person, as I have no acquaintance with the 
 Prince.'* 
 
 I shall now inform the Prince, said the .Captain, that there is a gentle- 
 man on board, of the same name as that of his inquiry, who is a mission^ 
 
 * An obvious difficulty here presents itself, which was commented on upon the first 
 publication of the affair, in February, and which the production of the fresh evidence, 
 showing that he went out west expressly to meet the Prince de Joinville renders more 
 etartling. In reply to the captain's information that the Prince had inquired after him, 
 he immediately says, " That cannot be, captain. He must mean another person, as I 
 have no acquaintance with the Prince." Now, in explanation of the apparent dis- 
 crepancy, I would remark — 1. That it is true Mr. Williams went to the West to meet 
 the Prince de Joinville, because the letter to Mr. Bowker, and the testimony of that 
 gentleman, taken in conjunction with his journal, prove he did so, and that it is also 
 true, the conversation recorded above occurred, because Captain Shook, as will here- 
 after be shown, confirms the statement of the journaL Both facts then stand, and 
 there is nothing to prcy'udice the entire veracity of Mr. Williams's statements. The 
 only question is, what was his meaning in his reply to the captain. I answer, simply 
 to express the idea he afterwards advanced to the Prince, viz. that-he imagined De 
 Joinville himself mistook him for some other person. Though he had hastened bis 
 return to Green Bay, in consequence of the intimation from Mr.<Ogden, he yet was 
 unable to account for the anxiety of the Prince to see him, and, naturally enough, 
 supposed it was foupded on misconception, as he had no acquaintance with him. To 
 this expression of doubt was added, as appears from his other account, a jocose 
 remark, which shows bow unsuspicious he was of what was coming — " Oh, I am a 
 great man, aud great men will seek me out." 
 
ftjtnam's haoazinx. 371 
 
 ary to the Indians at Green Bay. Upon this, the Captain left me, and in 
 about half an hour, he returned, and was followed by a gentleman, to 
 whom I was introduced as the Prince de Joinville. I was struck at the 
 manner of his salutation. He appeared to be surprised and amazed, as 
 he grasped my hand in both of his, which was accompanied by strong 
 and cheering gratulations of his having had an opportunity to meet me, 
 and that upon the surface of one of the inland seas in the Western world, 
 " Amazing sight !" he continued, " it is what I have wished to see for 
 this long time. I trust I shall not be intruding too much on your feelings 
 and patience, were I to ask some questions in relation to your past and 
 present life among the Indians. We, the Europeans, to satisfy curiosity are 
 sometimes too inquisitive. But I presume, Eev. sir, it will be a pleasure 
 to you to satisfy the curiosity of the stranger now before you, who is tra- 
 velling over the country and lakes which were first discovered by our fore- 
 fathers." His eyes were intently fixed upon me— eyeing my person firom 
 the crown of mj head to the sole of my feet. 
 
 The Prince in his cursory remarks upon the first adventures of the French 
 in these western wilds was interesting. He spoke of La Salle, Fathers 
 Hennepin, and Marquette (the latter, the first discoverer of the river 
 ■ Mississippi) in strains of commendation, as men of great courage, and pos- 
 sessing the spirit of enterprise in an unparalleled degree. 
 
 He spoke also with regret of the loss of Canada to France. He would 
 attribute this to the want of energy and foresight in the ministry ; that 
 France could have easily, at that period, sent twenty thousand men into 
 Canada, to maintain her possessions in that quarter, as her naval force was 
 then nearly equal to that of England. 
 
 October 19, Tiusday. — This morning the Prince resumed his observations 
 upon the French Revolution — its rise, its progress, and its effects upon 
 France, and more particularly to the United States, which were affecting 
 and touching in the extreme. The awful catastrophe that feU upon France, 
 the dissolution of the royal family, and the destruction of the king, ha 
 strongly asserted originated from the AAierican revolution, and that the 
 people in the United States can never be too grateful to the unfortunate 
 Louis XVI. for his powerful interposition in their behalf. "It is very 
 evident," said he, " they do not duly appreciate the aid he afforded them in 
 
872 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 the day of distress. It is very evident also, that, from the very day wheij 
 the Court of Versailles formed an alliance virith America, the operations of 
 the British against them were paralyzed ; the naval force of France ren- 
 dered more essential service to their cause than her land force. The At- 
 lantic sea was soon covered with ships-of-war and privateers ; these were 
 a formidable barrier against England in sending her troops and munitions 
 of war to America. In this war France lost thirty-five thousand men and 
 twenty-five ships of the line. But, for these powerful aids, no monuments 
 are raised to perpetuate their memory. Louis XVI. ought to be placed 
 next to General Washington as a liberator of the American people. His 
 interference m their behalf is attributed altogether to his political finesse 
 and his hatred against England ; hence he is not entitled to thoir praise or 
 thanks. But, Eev. sir, were the American people duly to consider the im- 
 portant aid he gave them in their struggle with the mother country, its 
 happy result, and the dreadful catastrophe that fell upon his government, 
 his family, and himself; he would truly and justly be considered as a mar- 
 tyr to American independence. The king encountered an opposition from 
 the Count de Vergetmes and the Court, when he took the suffering cause 
 of the Americans in hand. He was moved by the representations of the 
 American commissioners, and the Queen was no less urgent to save the 
 sinking cause of the American people. My grandfather and father were 
 present when the last struggle took place between the King and the minis- 
 try upon the article of alliance with the United Colonies of America. That 
 day — it was a happy day for Americans — ^but for the King, jt was the day 
 of his death ! Yes, Eev. sir, on that day, when the King put his name 
 to the instrument, he sealed his death-warrant. The ingratitude of the 
 American people towards the King's memory is one of the darkest stains 
 upon the stars and stripes of the American flag and independence." 
 
 This afternoon the Prince expressed his wish to take my son with him to 
 France for an education. In connection with this he was informed that 
 we had an infant who had not yet received baptism. He readily consented 
 to stand as a godfather, and would give the name of his mother to the 
 child. But, alas ! on my first landing I received the melancholy intelli- 
 gence that the lovely babe was in her grave — buried on the preceding Sun- 
 day, service performed by the Rev. Mr. Porter, of the Congregationalist 
 
POTNAMS MAGAZINE. 
 
 373 
 
 Churcb. When the news was communicated to the Prince, he appeared to 
 sympathise with me, and remarked, taking me by the hand, " Descendant 
 of a sufTering race, may you be supported in tliis affliction." 
 
 About ten o'clock, the Prince was pleased to enter into his remarks more 
 particularly, upon the family of the unfortunate king, which were, at first 
 with me, somewhat curious and interesting; but as he proceeded in his 
 narration, my feelings were greatly excited, as it filled my inward soul with 
 poignant grief and sorrow, which were inexpressible. The intelligence was 
 not only new but awful in its nature To learn, for the first time, that I 
 am connected by consanguinity with those whose history 1 had read with 
 so much interest ; and for whose sufferings in prison, and the manner of 
 their deaths, I had moistened my cheeks with sympathetic tears. Is it so ? 
 Is it true, that I am among the number,'who are thus destined to such de- 
 gradation — from a mighty power to a helpless prisoner of the state — ^from a 
 palace to a prison and dungeon — to be exiled from one of the finest empires 
 in Europe, and to be a wanderer in the wilds of America — from the society 
 of the most polite and accomplished courtiers, to be associated with the 
 ignorant and degraded Indians ? Degraded as they are, as to civilization 
 and polite arts, yet I am consoled at the idea, that I am among tl;e lords 
 of the soil of this western continent, who are are as precious in the sight of 
 Heaven as the usurpers of their territories ! my God, am I thus des- 
 tined ! " Thy will be done." To be informed that I had rights in Europe, 
 and one of these was to be the first over a mighty kingdom ; and this right 
 is demanded of me, to surrender, for an ample and splendid establishment. 
 The intelligence was so unexpected, my mind was paralyzed for a moment ; 
 it was overwhelming to my feelings. There was ■■•■ tremor in my whole 
 system, accompanied with a cold perspiration. The Prince saw my agita- 
 tion, and left the room, with an excuse, for ten or fifteen minutes. 
 
 A splendid parchment was spread before me for signature, to be aflfcced 
 with the stamp and seal of Louis XVI. After consideration of several 
 hours, weighing the subject, with much and cool deliberation, it was res- 
 pectfully refused. In those awful and momentous moments, it was happy 
 that my mind was carried to the similar proposition and ofiers made to 
 Louis XVIII., by Napoleon, hi 1802. Being impelled from a sense of duty 
 to sustain the honor of kings for centuries, the same answer was given 
 
374 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 — " Though I am in poverty, sorrow, and exile, I shall not sacrifice my 
 honor." 
 
 Gracious God ! What scene am I passing through this night ? Is it 
 in reality, or a dream ? My refusal to the demand made of fne, I am 
 sure can be no earthly good to me, but I save my honor, and it may be for 
 -the benefit of the generations yet unborn. It is the will of Heaven. I am 
 in a state of obscurity. So shall 1 remain while in this pilgrimage state. 
 I will endeavor, with all humility, to serve the King of Heaven, and to ad- 
 vance his holy cause among the ignorant and benighted people, which has 
 been my delight. 
 
 Although the unexpected intelligence is a new source of trouble, which 
 is already working in my inward soul with inexpressible sorrow, which 
 will accompany me to my grave ; yet I trust, that Almighty arm, which 
 has hitherto " preserved me, will now sustain me. To the God of my sal- 
 vation I fly for comfort and consolation, in this hour of distress. Let Christ 
 be all, and in all. Saviour of the world, have mercy upon thy unworthy 
 servant," and for the glory of thy name, turn from him all those evils that 
 he most justly has deserved ; and grantj that in all his troubles, he may put 
 his whole trust and confidence in thy mercy, and ever more serve thee in 
 holiness and pureness of living, to thy honor and glory. " For with God 
 nothing is impossible." All that I have heard I will lay up in my heart, 
 with the greatest seateny. 
 
 October 21, Thursday. — The Prince and suite left Green Bay yesterday, 
 at twelve o'clock, and lodged last night at Capt. John McCarty's on the 
 opposite side of the river to my residence. It rained all the afternoon. 
 
 The adieus between the Prince and myself were affectionate ; he pro- 
 mised to write me, on his arrival at New York. The gentlemen officers 
 presented me with their cards ; were urgent to give them a call, should I 
 ever visit France. May the best blessing of Heaven rest upon the whole 
 party. 
 
 It is-impossible to know how other persons are affected by this 
 jonrnal, but, under the proved circumstances of his having kept 
 such a record, with more or less regularity, all his life, and the 
 important entry, concerning his interview with the Prince de 
 Joinville, occurring in the very midst of the yearly chronicle, and 
 fortified, both as to character and authenticity, by all that precedes, 
 
PtJTKAMS MAGAZINE. 
 
 375 
 
 and, as we shall see, by all that follows, it appears to me a testi- 
 mony, which a reasonable person cannot lightly set aside. There 
 is, it is true, much about the whole affair, passing strange, but, 
 as regards the conduct of Mr. Williams, it Is characteristically con- 
 gruous, even in the midst of the eccentricity it exhibits. The 
 conduct, throughout, is of a piece with the man. There is a 
 singular mixture of simplicity, nobility, good feeling, absence of 
 worldly tact and cunning, and a mode of viewing things, natural in 
 one accustomed to the councils of the children of the forest ; in 
 which, when unpolluted by the intrusion of Anglo-Saxon chicanery, 
 abstract right and justice are the fundamental considerations. He 
 was, also, evidently bewildered by the strangeness of the event, and 
 had no idea of turning it to his pecuniary advantage, which, in 
 some minds, would have been the principal consideration. Even 
 the manner in which he dismisses the whole party, with a blessing, 
 is in keeping with the habit, which may be observed throughout 
 the journals of Mr. Williams, of bestowing a benediction on every 
 one, friend or foe, and as Mr. John Jay has well remarked, in a 
 letter on the subject, is also in accordance with the forgiving dis- 
 position, history attributes to Louis XVII. 
 
 To regard this document as a forgery, you must suppose a noble 
 and pious mind guilty of an amount of deception, absolutely unpar- 
 alleled, and that, too, without any object; for it has evidently been 
 written many years, and would never have been produced to the 
 world but for me. Mr. Williams considered it a thing of no 
 moment, and never dreamt of exhibiting it as evidence, and, in fact, 
 ridiculed the idea, that anything which came from him, would be 
 received by the public, in proof of his assertions. He looked upon 
 his journal merely as repetition of his stateinent, whereas, under 
 the circumstances, and especially the fortuitous manner in which 
 the whole subject has been brought up, without any agency on his 
 part, it hag all the force of distinct, separate testimony. This will be 
 exhibited more strongly als we proceed. 
 
 " Oetober 23, Satuiday. — I hava commenead to collect materials for 
 
3V6 
 
 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 letter to be sent to the Prince de Joinville, in compliance with his request. 
 My mind has been agitated since his departure, in consequence of the intel- 
 ligence he communicated to me, which is startling in its nature. May God 
 support me in these trying times, and keep my mind in a proper frame. 
 
 '■ Little Kakalin, Oct. 26. — Went down the bay ; dined with Mr. Quin- 
 dre. His lady (a Boman Catholic) informed me that the priest, Rev. Mr. 
 Eondual, stated to her that the Prince was much pleased and highly grati- 
 iied with his interview with me, and that the information I had communi- 
 cated to him of the first visits of the French traders into this section of the 
 country, was of great value to him, &c. 1 heard &om the Prince this 
 afternoon. I find he and his party had lodged at Gate's (a black man), in 
 Stockbridge woods. This has created much laughter among some, as I 
 understand. He was compelled to this as there was no other house near, 
 it being already dark and in the midst of a heavy rain. 
 
 ******** 
 
 " Oct. 31, Sujiday Evening. — This has been a solenm day with me, on 
 several accounts. My reflections have been upon my short-comings to the 
 great duties enjoined upon me by that holy religion which I profess. Why 
 is it I am so much troubled with my spiritual state? As to my foreign 
 birth, it is not only new to me, but it is awful. This has changed my 
 feelings materially^ I am an unhappy man ; and in my sorrow and mourn- 
 ful state I would often, with a sigh, cry out. my father ! my mother ! 
 It is done — it is past ; and, my God, I would humbly submit to thy holy 
 will in that which thou hast done towards us. Thou hast dealt towards 
 us as thou didst towards Nebuchadnezzar in the days of old. We are 
 afflicted, 'and in a situation of degradation and poverty. Shall we remain 
 thus till we know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and 
 giveth it to whomsoever he wilt ? Holy Father, remember not our offences, 
 nor the offences of our forefathers, neither take thou vengeance of our sins. 
 Spare us, Good Lord, whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood, 
 and be not angry with us for ever. grant me grace to consecrate myself 
 entirely to thy service, and whatever painful trials I may be called on to 
 sustain, wilt Thou support me under them and at length deliver me from 
 them for Christ's sake. 
 
 ******•♦ 
 
 "iVov. 18—1 have jnat returned from the Bay, and saw Mr. Ellis, who 
 
Putnam's magazine. 311 
 
 informed me Mr. Whitney has threatened to go againet us in a suit. I 
 have engaged Mr. ¥. to attend to this. 
 
 ******** 
 "Nov. 30. — From some circumstances which have transpired within two 
 days past connected with the intelligence I have received from the Prince 
 de Joinville, my mind has been, and is now, greatly exercised. Why 
 should I think on this subject, which is so unpleasant, or rather so afflictive? 
 Yet it obtrudes itself^ as it were into ray mind in spite of my resistance. 
 0, the fate of my dearest friends ! My soul is troubled within me, at 
 times, on account of them. I seek comfort and rest, but I find none. The 
 awful intelligence has made me wretched, to which no language, no con- 
 ception, can be true. Hours have I spent in the solitary wilderness, 
 mourning over my fate and the fate of my family. Why was it permitted 
 that I should know this ? But to God, the Judge of all, I leave it. 
 
 ******** 
 
 "Dec. 16. — Although I have had it in my head that I would read the 
 history of the French Revolution, I have been afraid to read anything of 
 the kind ; but at lengf^ I have been induced to read a certain author, but 
 my mind has been too much excited by the work, so that I have returned 
 it to the owner. 
 
 ******** 
 
 "Dec. 24. — I am preparing to go down to the Bay to attend the Christ- 
 mass service at the Episcopal church. Pleasant day. Somewhat indis- 
 posed. 
 
 Dec. 25, Saturday. — This has been a good day to me for my religious 
 exercises. blessed Jesus, I praise thee that thou wert manifested in the 
 flesh to be the Saviour of the world. Save me from my sins I humbly 
 beseech thee." 
 
 Those who have objected to the truth of the statement of Mr. 
 Williams, on aeoount of the absence of pecuniary tact, in his deal- 
 ings with the Prince, by which he failed to secure the tempting 
 worldly advantages presented to him, may, when they read these 
 extracts from his journal, acknowledge that, possibly, there may be 
 moments and straits in existence, when_the soul cannot turn its 
 
378 
 
 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 regards to dollars and cents, and when the weight of son-ow 
 descends with a crnshii^ and stupefying power, permitting only 
 the appalling darkness of life's tragedy to be felt and seen. It may be 
 lack of worldly wisdom, but, I own, I cannot sympathize with those 
 who conceive, it would have been more natural for Mr. Williams, 
 instead of acting in the high-spirited and unselfish manner, he 
 describes, to have regarded the information of the Prince, merely in 
 the light of a pecuniary God-send, and endeavored to see how much 
 he could make of it. On the contrary, it was just the intelligence 
 to drive the thought of money from the mind. It was like a thun- 
 derbolt, an avalanche, or anything that is most sudden and most 
 terrible. 
 
 The necessities of space compel me now to pass on, without far- 
 ther comment, to the journal for 1848, when he received informa- 
 tion of the dying disclosures of Bellanger, in New Orleans. The 
 reader must remember that seven years have elapsed since first the 
 tidings of his origin were communicated to him. 
 
 " Green Bay, March 10. — In the letter I have received from Mr. Thos. 
 Kiitiball, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, my curiosity is somewhat excited, 
 and it may be a novel news. 
 
 " He states that the information he received &om a respectable gentleman 
 was such a startling news with him, as to induce him to communicate the 
 intelligence to the person who was the subject of it, and with whom he was 
 acquainted. He states by the death (in January last) of an aged and 
 respectable French gentleman, either in New Orleans or Helena, that he 
 made disclosures at the last hours of his life, that he was the person who 
 aided in the escape of the Dauphin, or the son of Louis XVI., King of 
 France, from the temple in 1795 ; his transportation to North America, 
 and his adoption among the Indians ; all this that he may Uve and be hidden, 
 and live beyon^the reach of his enemies, who had been murderers of his 
 royal parentsn^and that the person alluded to as the I)auphin is no other 
 than the Rev. Eleazar Williams, the Missionaiy to the Oneida Indians^ 
 and that the gentleman who had the principal agency in the escape of the 
 Bauphin, was strictly and solemnly bound by the sacramental oath of the 
 
PDTNAm's MAaAZINE. 379 
 
 Koman Catholic Church never to disclose, particularly in Europe, of the 
 descent or family of the royal youth whom he was about to convey to North 
 America ; and that it was not until he saw himself drawing near to a close of ' 
 his earthly career, that he would disclose the secret which had been locked 
 up in his bosom for half a century ; and that he would do this the more 
 cheerfully now, without infringing his conscience, because he was in 
 America, and that it may be a benefit to his most dear, beloved, but unfor- 
 tunate Mend, the Banphin ; in uttering the last his whole frame was 
 agitated, and shed abundance of tears ; and that near one of his last excla- 
 mations was, ^0 ! the Dauphin ! may he be happy and restored !' 
 
 " The intelligence is so improbable, it had no weight nor consideration 
 with me ; and thinking at the same time there may be mistake as to the 
 person, I shall wait patiently the meaning of all this, for a further informa- 
 tion from Mr. Kimball upon this new and mysterious subject. 
 
 "March 13. — Went to Green Bay, and dined with the Rev. Mr. Porter, 
 and had a long conference with Judge Aindt respecting the Oneidas, vrith 
 whom he is at war in relation to some lumber which he had purchased. 
 
 "March 15. — Went to the Sugar Camp with Mr. Wartmen to make some 
 inquiries. This is a beautiful day, and it was delightful to be among the 
 lofty pines. 
 
 "March 16. — ^Received some letters from my friends in Oneida, in one of 
 which I am informed that my father is in a feeble state of health. 
 
 " March 18. — I wrote to-day to the Rev. Joshua Leavitt, of Boston, in 
 which I recapitulated the intelligence I had received from Mr. Ermball, in 
 relation to the Dauphin of France. On mature reflection upon the subject, 
 ' I must confess the news is becoming more startling with me. It is true 
 that I have no reooUectiop of my existence in the world until at the age 
 of thirteen or fourteen : what passed with me previous I am unable to 
 decipher. Since my recollection is perfect, there are some incidents con- 
 nected with my life, I must confess, which are strange, and which I am 
 unable to reconcile with each other. The suspicion in the minds of some 
 that I am not the son of Thomas Williams may be mistaken, and the story 
 of Van Derheyden of Albany, in 1814, has created in my mind an idea 
 that I may be an adopted child, as I find the Iroquois have adopted more 
 than sixteen persons of both sexes of the Canadian origin. 
 
 "March 24.— I have vnritten to Mr. L. of Boston, and sent .the letter 
 
380 THE LOST PEINCE. 
 
 containing the mysterious news in relation to ray origin. Although this 
 melancholy subject was communicated to me in 1841J and now again, it is 
 renewed and brought before rae from another quarter, I may truly say, that 
 as often as the subject is brou^t to the mind the eyes of the afilicted man 
 are filled with tears. 
 
 " Yes, in 1841, when the awful intelligence was communicated to me, 
 my blood seemed to chill and my heart to rush into my throat, and I became 
 affected in a manner which I now find it difficult to describe. May I 
 humbly submit to the will of Heai^en. for more grace and Christian 
 resignation ! 
 
 " March 27. — Last evening there were several of the Oneidaa lodged at 
 my house, who made great inquiries after the history of the j)rimitive 
 church. They were referred to the day of Pentecost, and I dwelt largely 
 upon it. They were very thankful for the instruction. 
 
 " March 28. — Went to Grand Eakalin, called upon Mr. Grignor, and 
 dined with him, and soon Governor Doty joined with us. 
 
 " This evening I am invited to go to the Oneida settlement, to attend the 
 funeral of one of the warrior chiefs. He was a communicant. Afril 3. 
 Went to Green Bay, and was at the Fort, and had a long conversation 
 
 with . He is an infidel. May the Lord show him the error of his 
 
 ways. 
 
 " I have had many such people to deal with.'' 
 
 In the foregoing journal, Mr. Williams alludes to having written 
 twice to the Rev. Joshua Leavitt, of Boston, in relation to the 
 coramunioation from the South. Learning that Mr. Leavitt is now 
 a resident in New York, I called on him, and inquired what he 
 remembered on the subject. He kindly gave me the required 
 information, and wrote me two letters, from which I extract the 
 fojlowing : — 
 
 " During my residence in Boston, from 1842 to 1848 inclusive, I was in 
 correspondence with Mr. Eleazar Williams, and was visited by him several 
 times, partly for relationship and partly on a matter of business, in which 
 he wished my assistance. In the spring of the year 1848, I received from 
 Mr. Williams one or two letters, in one of which was contained a state- 
 ment concerning the decease of an old Frenchman, who declared that the 
 
Putnam's magazine. 381 
 
 Danphin of Trance was still living and in this country. This statement I 
 procured to be printed in a smair daily paper in Boston called the ' Chrono- 
 type,' where it appeared on the 12th April, 1848. In the autumn of tho 
 same year, Kr. Williams called on me, and greatly astonished me by 
 saying that he himself was the supposed Dauphin. He seemed much 
 disturbed and distressed about the matter, and even terrified at the possible 
 consequences of the disclosure, and I thought wished not to have any 
 further publication on the subject if it could be avoided. Se alto 
 expressed the regret he should feel in losing his cherished relationship to the 
 Williams family, and declared thatjie should always feel towards them an 
 unabated affectUm." 
 
 In the other letter, Mr. Leavitt, speakiiig of the disclosures 
 made to him in the antunm of 1848, says that Mr. Williams "re- 
 marked, with sadness, on the disqniet the af&ir had caused him, 
 interfering with his chosen work of the ministry, and even filling 
 him with alarm for his personal safety." In his distress of mind, it 
 was natural for Toobx to apply to Mr. Leavitt, as this gentleman is 
 connected by marriage with the Williams family, and had shown 
 him mnch kindness in his troubles. A slip from the Chronotype, 
 of April 13, 1848, is before me, containing the statement referred to, 
 which is nearly literal in its agreement with the journal of Mr. Wil- 
 liams, except that the portion relating to himself is omitted, and 
 the Island of Cuba is referred to in Connection with Bellanger, which 
 may probably have arisen from confounding the word Helena with 
 Havana. This journal throws a curious light on the workings of 
 Mr. Williams's mind. Deeply affepted at first by the revelation of 
 the Prince, he seems, in course of time, to have learned to treat the 
 subject with indiflFerence. It appeared to him entirely improbable. 
 But the same tale comes from another quarter; and the first 
 impression having faded away, it is looked upon as a novelty, and 
 has no weight with him. Slowly his mind gathers itself up ; 
 awakens its recollections ; renews its impressions ; combines things 
 widely separated, whose connection it did not at first perceive ; and 
 then anxiety begins, and he has recourse to a friend for advice ; 
 
382 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 timidly unfolds to him his griefs and his apprehensions, and wishes 
 to hush the aflfair up lest it should injure him. 
 
 Having obtained from the Eev. Mr. Williams, and other available 
 sources, most of the information and documents contained in this 
 and the preceding chapter, I embodied the vrhole in an article 
 which was pjiblished in " Putnam's Magazine," for February, 1853, 
 the design of which was simply to awaken inquiry and investiga- 
 tion, and discover, if possible, what there was to substantiate the 
 conclusion, to which the representations made to me seemed to 
 lead, but which were, as yet, in too crude and unconnected a form 
 to base upon them any other than a hypothetical inference. Fully 
 conscious of all the difficulties with which the subject was 
 envirpned, I carefully abstained from expressing any positive 
 opinion, except my conviction, that Mr. Williams was mentally and 
 morally incapable of inventing the story he had told me. Having 
 recapitulated the main points of asserted testimony, which I left 
 for the future to prove or disprove, I went on to say : — 
 
 Kow there can be no question, that if all these points could be 
 proved, the irresistible conclusion would be, that Louis XVH. and 
 the Rev. Eleazar Williams are identical." Even in the imperfect 
 degree in which I know and have stated them, they would carry 
 conviction with them ; much more, if brought out in detail, with 
 all attendant circumstances. 
 
 Questions of identity are among the most difficult and interest- 
 ing with which law is conversant. The settlement of them 
 requires varied and peculiar evidence. The negative and the 
 affirmative have both to be clearly shown. Two apparently 
 different things must be demonstrated to be one. Eesemblanees 
 must be proved to be not accidental, but inherent to the degree of 
 sameness. 
 
 Where the utmost stret6h of human ingenuity has been used for 
 concealment ; where more than half a century has passed since the 
 supposed divergence of a life from its natural line; where 
 evidence, scanty at the best, has been destroyed, both purposely 
 
FUTNAMS MAGAZIKE. 
 
 383 
 
 and negligently, absolate detnonstratioD, perhaps, cannot be 
 attained ; but we may reach, even under such oirourastanoes, a 
 degree of moral certainty, second only to demonstration, and 
 amply sufficient to enable a sonnd mind to render a decisive 
 verdict, satisfactory to the intellect and the conscience. 
 • ' (Now prove to me the truth of all that I have alleged as asserted 
 and probable, and no course would be left but to pronounce such a 
 judgment in favor of identity ; for the evidence before us goes to 
 show, I apprehend, exactly what it is requisite to have shown. 
 
 1st. That Louis XVII. did not die in 1795. 
 
 2d. That he was carried to the region in which Mr. Williams 
 spent his yonth. 
 
 3d. That Mr. Williams is not an Indian; and, 
 
 4th. That Mr. Williams is Louis XVIL 
 
 These are the four propositions which the case presents for proof 
 — a negative and an affirmative one, with reference to each cha- 
 racter, under which one and the same individual has at different 
 times and places appeared. 
 
 The testimony is multiform, direct, indirect, documentary^ 
 circumstantial ; but notwithstanding its exceedingly varied nature, 
 it is wonderfully consistent. It would require extreme ability to 
 fabricate it out of nothing — the utmost mendacity and hardihood, 
 to build it up on a -baseless foundation. 
 
 The history involves many, most curious inquiries into human 
 motive among persons in the most widely different positions in 
 life. It would be impossible, without writing a volume, to do 
 jg^jce to these. I will just indicate one or two. 
 ''t^r. Williams asserts that the Prince de Joinville told him in the 
 manner I have described, that he is the son of Louis XVI. Now 
 here is the direct testimony of a responsible person to a simple fact. 
 The assertion is either true or false. If false, it involves the 
 degradation of Mr. Williams from the ministry. If true, it settles 
 the whole question of identity, unless we can imagine it possible 
 that the Prince de Joinville took the trouble of travelling from 
 
384 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Paris to Green Bay to speak at random, or to tell a falsehood on a 
 subject of paramount importance to himself and to France. It is 
 not supposable that such a person would say and do what he is 
 asserted by Mr. Williams to have said and done, without having 
 previously attained to the last degree of conviction pertaining to 
 the possibility of human convictions, and, moreover, without being 
 vested with authority from Louis Philippe himself to make the 
 disclosure ; and thus his words issued fi-om the innermost arcana 
 of France, proving that not a day elapsed from June, 1795, in 
 which some watchful eye did not keep knowledge of the exiled 
 Prince/ On the other hand, what possible inducement can there 
 be for Mr. Williams to say what is untrue on this subject ? The 
 clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church value their commission 
 too highly to throw it away by telling unmeaning falsehoods tend- 
 ing to nothing but disgrace and ruin. Mr. Williams is, I know, a 
 sane, sober-minded, practical man, who has had all his life to deal 
 with the sternest realities, and I believe he speaks words of truth 
 and soberness. He has not the capacity to invent such a dramatic 
 scene as that between him and the Prince, and if he has, he might 
 long ago have turned it to account. What conceivable motive can 
 such a man have to fabricate an airy and vain fiction, that he, the 
 poor Indian missionary, is the descendant of long lines of Euro- 
 pean kings, and that a prince royal of France, now living, and who 
 can be brought face to face with him, told him so. Again, if Mr. 
 Williams's statement be correct, the motives of Louis Philippe in 
 making the disclosure are a problem. I am inclined to believe 
 that pity and commiseration entered largely into them. At the 
 same time Bellanger was living, and De FerriSre, and Le Eay. The 
 secret was known in Canada, and the citizen-king may, as Mr. 
 Williams writes me, have "seen an object in that quarter, who 
 might sooner or later be an obstacle to his ambitious views, and 
 defeat the permanency of his throne, and the securing of the same 
 to his family." As to the improbability that a poor man like Wil- 
 liams would reject, on a point of honor, offers so splendid and 
 
ectnam's magazine. 386 
 
 liberal, I own, it is great ; but his own explanation of his feelings 
 is before the reader, and nothing but the regally proad and 
 romantic heroism it displays, so rare in this age, renders it 
 imsredible. 
 
 /ifot only the physical but the mental characteristics of Mr. 'Wil- 
 liams, curiously correspond with what the Dauphin would probably 
 be if alive, and in such a position after such a complicated career. He 
 possesses a great amount of native talent ; an easy grace and dignity 
 of manner when in polite society, which seems innate ; a winning 
 sweetnftss of disposition, and much simplicity; apparently warm 
 religious feelings ; but his judgment in matters of self-interest is not 
 of the strongest ; fluent and eloquent in diction, his ideas are not 
 always well-assorted — a mystery to himself as well as to others, 
 subject to perpetual questionings, he is sometimes abrapt — accus- 
 tomed to Indian life, there is semi-barbarism mingled with courtly 
 grace, atfd roving habits with warm affections — ^in a word, he seems 
 like one jumbled out of place by destiny, a partial wreck, shattered, 
 but not brokra^ And the peculiarity of his character must be 
 ' taken into account, in forming an estimate of his conduct, the sin- 
 gularity of which will create in many minds a prejudice against his 
 veracity, since they will be nnable to understand how a poor man 
 could reject offers so splendid, or a man of the world neglect the 
 opportunity of establishing his regal birth, which the communica- 
 tion of De Joinville afforded. In his situation they would have 
 acted differently. True, but he and they are very different per- 
 sons. It is but justice to say that, whatever may prove the ulti- 
 mate truth of his claims, the origination of them does not rest with 
 him ; unsought evidence has found him out, and new proofs are 
 rising from unexpected quarters. He has never tried to* make capi- 
 tal of his story. The present publication does not proceed in any 
 way from his suggestion, though he has given his consent to it. 
 
 Nearly equal in importance with any point in the evidence, is the 
 early idiocy of Mr. Williams corresponding with the condition in 
 which the Dauphin is known to have been. It goes far to snbstan- 
 
 ir 
 
386 
 
 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 tiate the truth of the story, for since Williams could not have been 
 born nn idiot, there must have been some fearful acts lying at the 
 basis of his history to reduce him to such a condition. In all 
 recorded cases in ■which the memory has been destroyed by sudden 
 injury to the brain, the whole chain of lost knowledge has been 
 brought back as by an electric shock. But, in this case, the 
 destruction of memory was not sudden, but owing to the benumb- 
 ing process of a long series of sufferings, mental and bodily, which 
 took away the power of perception, and weakened that of reten- 
 tion. The soul fell into a merciful sleep, and when it again 
 awakened, there was nothing to recall except a few vague ideas 
 and one terrible image -of the past,- which was burnt into his soul. 
 A draught of Lethe gave to one man two lives. Born the second 
 time without birth, he who died a prince was regenerated a beggar, 
 and the heir of kings surviving his own death, and the, overthrow 
 of his race, is metamorphosed into a red man, and having been bap- 
 tized by a Bomish bishop amid the pageantries of a European court, 
 lives to preach the Gospel in America fifty-seven years after his 
 ezile. Eepublics, constitutions, kingdoms, and an empire, have, 
 during that space, been overthrown. They who moved and ruled 
 them have passed away, and the present occupant of Versailles and 
 the Tnileries may follow them, while the veteran missionary is still 
 in possession of his wigwam on the St. Lawrence. 
 
 Complicated and mysterious as this matter is, it has a fearful 
 simplicity when brought to a direct issue between Mr. Williams and 
 the Prince de Joinville. The latter has the reputation of being a 
 high-minded and honorable gentleman, and I trust wiU act openly 
 and candidly on a question of so much importance. 
 
TOKENS OF PEKSONAL IDENHTT. 387 
 
 OHAPTEE XVin. 
 
 TOKENS OF PERSONAL IDENTITY. 
 
 ^T seems necessary, briefly, to oonsider, in a separate chapter, the 
 tokens of personal identity between Louis XVII. and the Eev. 
 Eleazar Williamsy; and I will do this without interrupting the 
 thread of my narrative. This is a portion of our subject of the 
 highest importance — because, were there a failure here, all other 
 arguments and evidence would be of no avail. If there were cer- 
 tain known, unchangeable peculiarities, in the person of the youth- 
 ful king, all or a/my of which were absent from the person of Mr. 
 ■ffilliams, it would be impossible to make out a case of identity: 
 but, if it can be clearly shown, that etery ascertainable peculiarity 
 in the person of Louis XVIF., both natural and accidental, exists in 
 the person of Mr. Williams, I have established the iine qua non, and 
 laid a firm foundation on which every other portion of the evidence 
 can rest. 
 
 The publication of my article, in Putnam's Magazine, drew forth 
 the almost universal criticism of the press, which was favorable, 
 beyond the deserts, in a literary point of view, of a piece hastily writ- 
 ten, and whose main object was to excite discussion and elicit truth. 
 By many writers, it was regarded as a final argoment, in a contro- 
 versy it merely opened ; and thus, by some, the strength of the 
 evidence, as it then stood, was much overrated ; and, by others, great 
 injastioe was done to me and to the historic question; and "what 
 was strictly tentative, was regarded as an exhibition of credulity. 
 
 The Eev. Mr. "Williams was then staying in !l^ew York, to pre- 
 pare, and simultaneously print, his translation of the prayer-book 
 into Mohawk, and soon became thfe^object of general curiosity and 
 remark. Many gentlemen, and especially Frenchmen, and others 
 familiar with the lineaments and peculiarities of the Bourbon family. 
 
388 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 called on Mm, to test, by persoual examination, the truth of the 
 asserted resemblance. It was a severe ordeal, and one I was 
 curious to see how he would pass. A person playing a part must 
 almost inevitably have failed, and exhibited some sign, by over or 
 under-acting, of insincerity. But, Mr. Williams had no part to play, 
 and his simplicity of character, quiet, dignified, good nature, and 
 the freedom from all apprehension, attending an honest heart, with 
 nothing to conceal and nothing to pretend to, carried him safely 
 through. 
 
 I do not remember a single instance of a person leaving his pre- 
 sence with an unfavorable impression — not one who did not seem 
 to feel — and, in many cases, this feeling was warmly expressed — 
 that, whatever might be the ultimate issue of the investigation, the 
 idea of deception, on his part, was out of the question.* 
 
 * A published account of one of these interviews is so graphic and honorable to aU 
 parties, that I perpetuate it in a note. It is from the pen of M. Arpin, then editor of 
 tht Courrier des Mate Uwis. "In a modest chamber of an unpretending hotel, we 
 found a man, possessed of a very simple exterior, his face quite good-looking and pre- 
 possessing. He received us with cordial courtesy. Mr. Williams is the type of the 
 missionary whom religion sends out among the uncivilized. He has nothing of that 
 dry austerity we too frequently find among those who have the cure of soula in large 
 cities. His affable manner, impressing us at once with his good nature, and his eye 
 so readily assuming a look of gentle cheerfulness, are in harmony with the work he is 
 called to fulfil. It is obvious that persuasion rather than authority is his means of 
 drawing the Indian listeners within the Christian church. He is an apostle of the 
 primitive style. If we were less profoundly struck than his partizans with his resem- 
 blance to the Bourbons — if we do not discover in him th^ most cJiaracteristic trail <^ 
 the race^ the Bourbon nose, we must, nevertheless, confess, that the brow and lower 
 portion of the face, offer striking analogies with certain physiognomies of the family. 
 Thus Mr. Williams instantly reminded us of Louis XVIII., whose features are strongly 
 impressed on our memory. The sight of the respectable missionary, certainly, does 
 not carry entire conviction, but it is very far from forbidding it. It only remains to 
 add, that Mr. Williams has an air of perfectly good faith, and that, while our conver- 
 sation with him, and deliberate scrutiny of his person have not wholly converted ua, 
 we are compeUed to pursue the inquiry of which he is the object further— for, under- 
 neath this outside, upon which candor and bonhommie are so strongly imprinted, we 
 cannot realize that either a dupe or an^impostor is concealed. 
 
 To show the impression made on M, Arpin's mind at the time, I may add to his nar- 
 rative, that as he was bidding adieu, he said to Mr. Williams, in a tone of respectful 
 
TOKENS OF PERSONAL IDENTITY. 389 
 
 The result of the personal scrutiny, to which he ■was subjected, 
 was no less favorable. /The marked resemblance of person and 
 physiognomy to the BourBbn family was universally admitted] He ) 
 might differ from this or that individual of the race, in particular 
 features, but the impress of blood and descent was on the man. 
 
 /But, there is one point of femily resemblance so strongly marked 
 that, it cannot fail to strike every attentive observer, who is 
 acqtiainted with the Bourbon lineaments. I allude to the forma- 
 tion of the lower jaw and ear) You may go back for centuries in 
 the royal family, and in all their portraits, where the arrangement 
 of the dress and hair permits, you will find the same marked con- 
 formation, which that of Mr. 'Williams exhibits. The ear, large and 
 full at top, lessens almost to a point at tfie lower extremity, and, 
 without any indentation at the bottom, joins the rounded sweep of 
 the jaw. The same peculiar curve might be interchangeably used 
 in the portraits of Louis XVI., Louis XVIIL, Charles X., the 
 Duchess D'Angoul6me, the Duo de Bordeaux, and the Rev. Eleazar 
 Williams; and a skilful artist might amuse himself by successively 
 ^oducing the six heads on the same bas6 line. /But, the likeness is 
 not merely that of feature, but also of bodily foriiM There is befoi-e me 
 a full length portrait of Louis XVIIL, in the dress so well described 
 by Lamartine. Making allowance for its immense obesity and fan- 
 tastical attire, it is the image of my friend, from top to toe ; the 
 same lines in the face are there-f-the same shaped head, growing, 
 as it were, without neck, out ot the broad shoulders — the same 
 length and squareness of body to the hips— rthe same short legs— 
 and the hand and fingers » the same attitude most familiar in con- 
 versation with Mr. Willianji. 
 The closer the investigation was pushed, the clearer it was seen 
 
 that, peculiarities which, at first, excited doubt, tended more 
 
 strongly to identification. 
 
 but manly candoi*, " Were you seated on the throne of France, sir, I should deem it 
 my duty to oppose you, as a Republican ; but, in your present position, and for the - 
 truth of history, I will gladly do anythinf I can to aid in the Inveatigation." 
 
390 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Thus the Bourbon nose, as it is called, which all the pretenders 
 possessed to a marvel, was found wanting in all the portraits of the 
 young Prince, whose nose corresponded, as much as that of a child 
 could with a grown person's, with the nose of Mr. Williams. 
 Whoever will take the trouble of examining, will perceive, the 
 Dauphin could, at no period of life, have had a strongly-marked 
 acquiline nose ; and,-however, such a feature is connected in most 
 minds with the Bourbons, the possession of it by Mr. Williams 
 would have been fatal to his identity with the Prince. In all but 
 profile, however, there is no discernible difference between his nose 
 and that of Louis XVIII. ; the general size, shape, and position 
 of both being the same, and the central protuberance being alike, 
 but more faintly indicated in one than in the otlier. 
 
 So also with the color of the eyes. Those who took their 
 impressions from popular histories, found difficulty in the hazel 
 hue of Mr. Williams's eyes, which they expected, as those of a 
 Bourbon would be blue. A member of the New York press told 
 me that, meeting Williams at the house of a friend, his impres- 
 sions, otherwise favorable, "were against him on this account ; but 
 added, he soon found he was, himself, in error, and called my 
 attention to the portrait of the Dauphin, in the Bi^n Gallery, in 
 which the eyes are identical with those of Mr. Williams. I went 
 to the Gallery, when Mr. Bryan said, he could pledge himself for 
 the alithentioity of the portrait, having purchased it at the sale of 
 the collection of M. Prousteau de Mont Louis, in Paris, in 1851. 
 This gentleman was a royalist, and enjoyed a high reputation as a 
 connoiseur and collector; and his name is a sufficient guarantee 
 that whatever came from his collection is genuine. In this 
 portrait, hot only the eyes, but the lower part of the face, jaw, 
 and lips, might even now serve as a representation of Mr. 
 Williams. It was evidently taken during his imprisonment in the 
 Temple, as it bears tokens, in the emaciation of the form, and the 
 pinched and painful expression of the features, of disease and suf- 
 fering. The accompanying outline drawing gives a faithful repre- 
 
LOUIS XVII. 
 
 7^ro»i tlie -uichui-e in tJ^e Biya.iL Gaileiy. Jfey^yoi-h 
 
 G.P. PUTNAM & C° N.Y. 
 
TOKENS OF PERSONAL IDENTITY. 391 
 
 sentaf ion of it, which the reader can compare with the portraitB of 
 Mr. Williams in 1806 and 1853. 
 
 While speaking of pictures I will introduce the testimony of the 
 Chevalier Fagnani and M. B. H. Mnller, both eminent portrait 
 jjaiiiters in this city. 
 
 /m. Fagnani has had every means of forming a correct judgment 
 on the subject, having lived, since childhood, in intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the families of the Sicilian and Spanish Bourbons, of 
 whom he has painted no less than ten portraits. The eyes of a 
 skilful artist are not likely to be deceived by faint resemblances, nor 
 to overlook indications of identity of blood, which escape an ordi- 
 nary observer. Ho met Mr. Williams, for the first time, in a 
 crowded room, and I was curious to observe his conduct on the 
 occasion. Standing at some little distance at the outside of a group, 
 he eyed him from head to foot with the calm, critical gaze with 
 which he would have scrutinized a statne or a picture ; dwelt on 
 the contour of his face, the play of his features, and the manner of 
 his address and conversation ; and then, as if satisfied, turned quietly 
 aside. A friend, who was much interested in ascertaining his 
 opinion, inquired, " Well, Fagnani, what do you think as to his 
 being ai Bourbon?" "I don't think at all," was the reply, "/ 
 
 The following letter, which is of historic interest, was written 
 after !•[. Fagnani had repeated interviews with Mr. Williams, and 
 painted the portrait from which the engraving in the frontispiece 
 is taken : 
 
 "New York, February 14, 1853. 
 '' Rev. John H. Hanson : 
 
 " My Deae. Sie. — In complying with your request to inform you of my 
 
 impressions with regard to the identity of the Eev. Mr. Williams and 
 
 Louis XVII., the Dauphin of France, and what acquaintance I have of the 
 
 peculiar lineaments of the Bourbon race, I must premise by informing you 
 
 that of the immediate family of Louis XVI. I know nothing, beyond having 
 
 seen the original portraits of them at Versailles ; but with the features of 
 
392 THE LOST PKINCB. 
 
 the Sicilian and Spanish Bourbons, who are closely allied by intermarriage 
 aa well as blood, with those of Prance, and strongly resemble them, I have 
 been familiar from childhood. To enumerate those whose portraits I have 
 painted, besides having seen and known many others, I may mention the 
 Dowager Queen of Naples, mother of the present King Ferdinand II. ; the 
 Prince of Capua, and Count of Trapuna, brothers of the King, and grand- 
 sons of Caroline, sister of Marie Antoinette ; Queen Christina of Spain, 
 widow of Ferdinand VII. ; Isabella II., the reigning Queen of Spain ; and 
 her sister, the Duchess of Montpensier ; and two daughters of the Infant 
 Don Francis de Paul, Uncle to Queen Isabella. Of the House of Hapsburg 
 I have painted the portraits of the Arch-Duke Charles, brother of the 
 Emperor Francis II. ; and the Arch-Duchess Augusta, daughter of Leopold, 
 the present Grand Duke of Tuscany. From the particular examination an 
 artist must necessarily make of his sitters, many points strike him which 
 would escape a more superficial observer. In painting the portrait of Mr. 
 Williams, I noticed many of the peculiar characteristics which are devel- 
 oped in a greater or less degree in most of the princes of the House of 
 Bourbon whose portraits I have taken. When I first saw Mr. Williams, I 
 was more particularly impressed with his resemblance to the portraits of 
 Louis XVI. and XVIII. ; and the general Bourbonic outline of his face and 
 head. As I conversed with him, I noticed several physiognomical details, 
 which rendered the resemblance to the family more striking. The upper 
 part of the face is decidedly of a Bourbon oast, while the mouth and lower 
 part resemble the House of Hapsburg. I also observed, to my sui-prise, 
 that many of his gestures were similar to those peculiar to the Bourbon 
 race. 
 
 " Had I met Mr. Williams, unconscious that he was in any way other 
 than his name would indicate, I should immediately have spoken of his like- 
 ness to the Bourbon family ; and although a resemblance of the kind might 
 possibly be an accidental fireak of nature, still, taken in connection with 
 the facts you have brought before the public, and the quantity of corrobo- 
 rative testimony adduced, it leaves no doubt in my mind of the very great 
 probability that Mr. Williams and the Dauphin are the same person. 
 Hoping that this interesting historical problem may be speedily and satis- 
 factorily solved, I remain, my dear sir, very truly yours, 
 
 " GuiSIPPE Faghani." 
 
TOKENS OF PERSONAL IDENTITY. 393 
 
 M. B. H. MuUer, residing in Howard street, New York, was a 
 pupil of the celebrated revolutionist David, and also of Gros. He 
 was employed to take, after death, the picture of Louis XVIII., of 
 whom he still preserves an admirable crayon sketch. The features, 
 in tlieir deep repose, are the very image of Mr. Williams, when 
 asleep. I called on M. Muller, in company vi^ith Mr. Williams and 
 Mr. A. Fleming. It was in the evening, and the room, at first, but 
 dimly lighted ; yet his recognition of the likeness to the Bourbon 
 family was immediate, and his expression of it intense. As soon as 
 he saw him, and almost without explanation of the cause of our 
 visit, he declared the resemblance would have struck him anywhere, 
 and, with characteristic nervous rapidity of action, proceeded to 
 indicate the many points of marked and minute similarity. " The 
 eyes, the eyes, too !" he exclaimed. " He has the eyes of the Dau- 
 phin.'' I asked him how he knew. He replied, from seeing por- 
 traits of him in France. By a strange coincidence Muller was weU 
 acquainted with the present Emperor "while in New York, vpho, he 
 said, had frequently sat on the old hair sofa on which Mr. Williams 
 was then seated. I have elsewhere spoken of the testimony of M. 
 Muller respecting the body exhibited as that of Louis XVII. in the 
 Temple. 
 
 (6a another occasion, a French officer, who had been in the body 
 guard of Louis XVIII., calling on Mr. Williams, said, the longer he 
 looked at him, the more ho recalled the image of the king, not only 
 in feature, but in familiar indefinable gesture^/ 
 
 A gentleman of high rank, on the eontinertt, who happened to see 
 him in the pulpit, Immediately touched a friend who was sitting 
 beside him, and said, " There, that is the Bourbon they have found, 
 if there be any truth in physiognomy," and expressed his full con- 
 viction, afterwards, from what he had heard in Legitimate cu-oles, 
 in Europe, that Louis XVII. was alive, and his belief, from the pub- 
 lished statements, that Mr. Williams must be the man. 
 
 It was often a matter of amusement to me to watch the effect of 
 introduction, on some ardent, impressible Frenchman, who, previous 
 
 17* 
 
894 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 to seeing him, had ridiculed the affair with a " Bah, hah," but who, 
 after looking on him, for a minute, and interchanging a few hurried 
 words, would begin to speculate on the probable political conse- 
 quences of the affair, and could hardly be made to understand that 
 Mr. Williams was a clergyman, and made no political pretensions. 
 
 It has not unfrequently happened, that persons meeting him 
 casually in the streets, for tTie first time, have, without any other 
 clue, but the resemblance, at once addressed him by name.* 
 
 The Count de Balbi, an illegitimate son of Lonis XVIII., who was 
 in this country, is said to have been remk-kably like Mr. Williams, 
 and many persons have recognised the one, from having seeing the 
 other. I have accumulated evidence on this point, because, I wish 
 to place it historically above the reach of contradiction, and to 
 show the remarkable character of the resemblance, bearing the 
 test of rigid artistic scrutiny, as well as obvious to every one 
 who has an eye for proportions and form. All this gives it an 
 importance not due to the generality of resemblances, which are 
 partly the work of forgetfulness, and part of fancy, and disappear 
 when subjected to rigid comparison. Were France, and not the 
 western wilderness the scene, the wonder would be less. It may 
 be easy to find persons with Bourbon physiognomy in Paris, and as 
 easy to account for it ; but, by itself, it is a startling phenomenon 
 to find, among the Mohawks, a man exhibiting the physiognomical 
 traits of the House of Bourbon, and, notwithstanding such a life as 
 that of Eleazar Williams, retaining, also, their familiar gestures, and 
 not only so, but presenting precisely those modifications of the 
 
 • Several instances of this have fallen under my own observation. The following 
 is deserving of preservation : — " As to the personal likeness of Mr. Williams to the 
 Bourbon family, we are glad to put on record this faot, that the writer of these lines 
 having heard that likeness spoken of, recognised Mr. Williams long after, when he 
 saw liim for the first time, simply from the Bourbon cast of his complexion and'fea- 
 tures, and, without Introduction, saluted him by name. We venture the assertion, 
 that Mr. Willia.ra3 would not appear in any room filled with persons acquainted with 
 the portraits of the Bourbon family, without that resemblance being at once generally 
 ncogaiaei.Soston Daily AdMrtiner, February IT, 1858. 
 
TOKENS OF PERSONAL IDBNTITr. 895 
 
 Bourbon features, which characterized the unfortunate Louis XVII. 
 But there was a still closer scrutiny through which it was neces- 
 sary Mr. Williams should pass. If, of Indian descent, it was not 
 probable that, however his European aspect might deceive the 
 unscientific observer, the eyes of professional men would discover 
 no trace of Indian blood, when his person was subjected to rigid, 
 medical examination. 
 
 There are certain characteristics of the Indian race which are all 
 but indellible, and appear, after the lapse of centuries, even on the 
 cheek of beauty. When the fact of origin has died into a tradition, 
 you can mark the red blood coursing with a duskier hue beneath 
 the mantling blush brought from other climes, and imparting fixity 
 and palor to its softness. Skin, hair, craniological formation in 
 the closer degrees of aflBnity, present ready and infallible tests. 
 
 It was also requisite that the various marks on the body of Mr. 
 Williams should be examined and certified. Observing scars on his 
 knees, Mr. Williams had supposed them to be sorofulons, and I so 
 stated them to be, on his authority. 
 
 On referring to the work of M. De Beauchesne, I found it neces- 
 sary, for the identity, that there should be the soars of tumors, 
 also, on the wrists and elbows ; and, on examination, found them 
 on the arms of Mr. Williams, in the spots indicated, though he 
 had not observed them. I then obtained a formal examination 
 of his person, by Drs. Francis, Kissam, and Gerondelo, who, after 
 consultation, and without knowing Desault's opinion that Louis 
 XVII. was not affected with scrofula, came to the conclusion of the 
 non-scrofulous character of the soars on the person of Mr. Williams, 
 which fact, while otherwise favorably impressed, they considered 
 fatal, though, as it turned out, it is exactly confirmatory of the 
 identity. I give their certificates below : 
 
 " New Yoke, February 12, 1853. 
 'Eev. Mr. Hansom : 
 
 " Dear Sir. — ^We respectfully inclose to you the following statement, as 
 the result of an examination made at your request. The physical develop- 
 ment of Mr. Eleazav Williams, is that of a vobust Europsan, accustomed 
 
396 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 to exercise, exposure to the open air, and indicative of the benefit of generous 
 diet, and a healthy state of the digestive organs. He might readily be 
 pronounced of French blood. His general appearance and bearing are of a 
 superior order : his countenance in repose is calm and benignant : his eyes 
 hazel, expressive and brilliant, and his whole contour, vrhen animated, 
 indicates a sensitive and impressible organization. His cerebral develop- 
 ment is nowise noticeable, and his mental manifestations are in harmony 
 therewith. If any peculiarity is predominant, it is his apparent indiffer- 
 ence to the pretensions or claims of his advocates. There are no traces of 
 the aboriginal or Indian in him. Ethnology gives no countenance to such a 
 conclusion. This fact is verified by anatomical examination, and no 
 unsoundness of mind or monomania has been manifested, by an^ circum- 
 stance evinced in communion vrith him. His age might be estimated as 
 approaching seventy years. After a careful examination of the several 
 cicatrices which are to be seen in various parts of the surface of his body, 
 more especially those discernible about the articulations of the knees, we 
 are fully convinced that the joints themselves are iti a perfectly normal con- 
 dition, and that they have never been affected by scrofula or any deep- 
 seated inflammation. The scars, which are more numerous on the right 
 than the left leg, are colorless and superficial, indicating an ulcerative 
 process of the integuments at an eajrly period of life ;- these marks show no 
 strumous diathesis, but might eqaaXiy be the result of early bodily severities 
 inflicted by, or consequent upon, a, protracted confinement in impure or 
 deteriorated air, restricted or bad diet, and other deprivations, or by the 
 habits of a wandering and imbecile youth amidst the wilds of nature. The 
 remnants of diseased action found on the arms, above the elbows, and about 
 the wrists, though less conspicuous, are of a like character. The face, in 
 the vicinity of the brows both of the right and left eye, exhibits proofs of 
 wounds. These manifestations of injury cannot so easily be traced to a 
 definite period of life, inasmuch as they are in some measure masked by 
 the eyebrows themselves ; but they partake of the character of incised or 
 lacerated wounds. The cicatrix on the superior part of the right side of 
 the forehead, being somewhat more than an inch in extent, would appear 
 to have originated from a simple incised wound. 
 
 With all consideration, your most obedient friends, 
 
 " John W. Fbanois, M.D. 
 "UicHAKn S. KissAM, M.B." 
 
TOKENS OP PERSONAI. IDENTITY. 397 
 
 'NewYokk, February 12, 1853. 
 " Rev J. H. Hanson : 
 
 " Ue V. AND Dear Sis.. — ^You have requested me, as the medical adviser 
 of the Rev. Eleazar Williams, to render an account of his personal charac- 
 teristics, and the marks of former disease visible on his body. He has a 
 lofty aspect, strongly marked outline of figure, obviously European com- 
 plexion, and a slight tinge of scrofulous diathesis. His age seems to 
 border on seventy — his share of native intellect is above mediocrity, and his 
 mind, sound in its integrity and pertinent in judgment, is as unaspiring as 
 his heart is cordial and afiectionate. The limit of his ambition appears to 
 be faithfully to fulfil his mission as a minister of Christ. The scars I have 
 examined are located on both keees, particularly on the right — ^both elbows 
 corresponding in character with those on the lower articulations — and both 
 arms, near the wrists, more obscure than the former. They must all have 
 occurred in childhood — and, particularly those about the knees and elbows, 
 are such as would be left by ulcers, produced by a morbid condition of the 
 system, brought on by unwholesome diet, exposure to damp foul air, and 
 great depression of mind. They are in no sense scrofulous, but might have 
 been accelerated, perhaps slightly aggravated^ by a superficial taint of that 
 particular diathesis. With a sincere hope you may succeed in settling the 
 question which the most palpable facts have propounded, 
 
 " I remain, very respectfully, yours truly, 
 
 "B. Gerondelo, M.D." 
 
 V^fter the publication of these letters in the April pumber of Put- 
 nanrs Magazine, my attention was called, by Mr. A. Fleming, to the 
 letter of Madame de Kamband to the Duohesse D'AngoulSme, in 
 which she states that the Dauphin had on his arm inoculation 
 marks, of which one was in the shape of a cresceijt. Upon this, we 
 we went together to Mr. Williams, and requested permission to 
 examine his arm, when we found precisely the scars indicate^. To 
 place the fact historically beyond reach of doubt, I requested Dr. 
 J. W. Francis to re-examine him. He did so, and made the follow- 
 ing addition to the certificate : 
 
 " It deserves to be stated that there are two disthict marks of inoculation 
 
398 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 on the upper part of the left arm, one of which is of a Bemi-circnlar or 
 crescent shape on the outer margin. 
 
 At) 
 
 "John "W. Fran-cis, M.D." 
 
 [It is but very recently tliat inoculation or vaccination has been 
 inttpduced among tbe Indians; it was unknown by them in the 
 childhood of Mr. Williams ; the soars have every appearance of age ; 
 and he has not been inoculated withili his memory. That he 
 should have the marks of inoculation is, therefore, remarkable — 
 that they should coincide in shape with those on the arm of Louia 
 XVIL, is still more sOj) In addition, I would call attention to the 
 further coincidence of the scar on the eyebrow oori-esponding with 
 a hlpw given the Prince, by Simon, by which he nearly cut his eye 
 out.y 
 To the foregoing medical certificates, I now add the following ; 
 
 "Uev. J. H. Hanson: 
 
 " Dear Sir. — You have requested rae, as a physician, living in the 
 immediate vicinity of the St. Regis Indians, and in habits of close pro- 
 fessional intercourse with them, to state my opinion as to the race of the 
 B.ev. Eleazar Williams. I beg, therefore, to state, briefly, that, in my opinion, 
 he has no ethnological connection with the St. Kegis Indians, nor with any 
 other Indians I have e*er known, and that my opinion is based on profes- 
 sional examination of the persons of the Bev. Eleazar Williams, and of seve- 
 ral Indians, as well as a minute knowledge of the particular characteristics 
 of the Indian race. If Mr. Williams be an Indian, it is in the absence of all 
 those ethnological signs discernible in form, feature, texture of the skin, 
 hair, and other similar tokens well-known to the profession, which, as far 
 as ray observation and information extend, are considered decisive. 
 " Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 "H. N. Walker, M.D. 
 
 '^ Hogansiurg, New Tori, August 85, 1853." 
 
 It is, then, I conceive, satisfactorily established, that, while the 
 Rev. Eleazar Williams is, infallibly, not of Indian origin, every per- 
 sonal token, natural and accidental, necessary to establish identity 
 
 Hu£. 
 
TOKENS OF F'EJtSONAL IDENTITY. 399 
 
 between him and Louis XVII., exists ; that he has not only the 
 strongest indications of being a member of the Bourbon family, but 
 also the known individual jjeouliarities of the Danphin, and scars 
 upon his body in character, location, and shape, such as would be 
 on the body of the unfortunate Prince, if alive. But, for the sake 
 of clearness, let me present the subject in a tabular form : — 
 
 ^ Louis XVn. resembled the rest The Eev. E. Williams resem- 
 
 of the Bourbon iamily in form and bles the Bourbon family in form 
 
 feature, with the exception of the and feature, with the exception of 
 
 absence, in him, of an a«^uiline the absence, in him, of an aquiline 
 
 nose. He had hazel eyes, tumors nose. He has hazel eyes, the scars 
 
 on both wrists, both elbows, and of tumors or sores in early life on 
 
 both knees, a scar on the eyebrow, both wrists, both elbows, and both 
 
 and inoculation marks on the arm, knees, a scar on the eyebrow, and 
 
 one of which was of a crescent inoculation marks on the arm, one 
 
 shape. of which is of a crescent shape. 
 
 Remarkable as these coincidences are, I beg to inform that 
 . class of candid critics, who, when at loss for argument, can ridi- 
 cule, without that which gives to ridicule all its force — adherence 
 to truth — and, in the absence of which, it is like the cackle of .the 
 bird that saved the capitol, without its accidental utility, that I 
 only attach to thein, in my argument, the force of a nine qua non. 
 I do not say Mr. Williams, on account of these things, is Louis XVII., 
 but, simply, that he may be. May, however, is a word of very gra- 
 duated significance, and I wish some arithmetician wonld calcniate 
 the probabilities of finding in the person of an Iroquois chief, every- 
 thing physically necessary to identification with an European 
 monarch, natural and accidental. And, if to this calculation he 
 wonld add another, and decipher the further probabilities that, in 
 the Indian chief, presenting all the above physical coincidences 
 with the king, there should centre all the other tokens of identity, 
 derived from circumstantial evidence which this volume contains, I 
 should be glad to learn the number of figures composing his arith- 
 metic. 
 
400 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE PEINOB DE JOISfTILLB AND M. A. DE BBATTOHESUE. 
 
 f Immediately on the publication of the Febrnaiy number of 
 " Putnam's Magazine," copies of it were sent to the Prince de 
 Joinville, by various person^ and 1 awaited with some curiosity, 
 but no apprehension, the response that gentleman would give to 
 the appeal made to him. Desiring to ascertain the truth, I had so 
 worded my article as to insure a reply of some sort, which I 
 thought would materially aid the investigation. Sincerity has its 
 own expression, which it is as difficult to feign, as it is easy to 
 discern. 
 
 /\ felt convinced if the Prince had been wrongly accused, the 
 fa(St would appear on the surface of his reply ; and if rightly, he 
 must either make a candid acknowledgment, and spare me the 
 trouble of further investigation, or involve himself in some palpa- 
 ble contradiction, leading, by a more circuitous route, to an 
 - equally satisfactory resnlK It is triie, I ran one risk. It was the 
 policy of the Prince, if he desired to conceal the truth, to make a 
 line of himself, and present the smallest amount of surface to the 
 shot of an opponent. Prudence might thus ape the semblance of 
 dignity, and hypocrisy adopt the language of sincerity. It was 
 possible, therefore, he might reply: — "The Prince de Joinville 
 denies having made the disclosures asserted by M. Williams." 
 
 This was all the public required, and had he said, merely, this, it 
 would have been almost impossible to bring the charge home to 
 him, however true — ridicule would have been cast, by his cool indif- 
 ference on the affair — the investigation would, probably, have 
 stopped, and if further evidence relative to the interview, came to 
 light, room would have been open for explanation adapted to the 
 requirements of circumstance. But I was playing a game of chess, 
 
DK JOINVILLE AND DE BBA0CHESNK. 401 
 
 in which, acting alike with candor, and boldness, I had to calcu- 
 late the probabilities of oversight on the other side. The Bourbon 
 family had never exhibited much practical acuteness, to say 
 nothing of wisdom ; and indeed, I am afraid, certain critics, when 
 at a loss for other alignments, will say, Mr. Williams has too much 
 sense to come of the stock. I did not, therefore, anticipate the 
 wisest management. Human nature is the same in prince and 
 plebeian, and every one who has not the perverse genius of a 
 Talleyrand, which I knew De Joinville had not — if conscience tells 
 him he is in a dangerous position — Will become nervous and throw 
 in unnecessary explanations, defences, and palliatives, which will 
 make against him if the case be of sufficient importance to demand 
 critical scrutiny. I looked, in case an insincere course was 
 adopted, for a reply extra-prudentially long, and I was not mistaken. 
 
 The acknowledgment of the interview, by the Prince, was all 
 impoPtant, because even this fact was considered apocryphal by 
 many. This was natural in England, where distance^ gives a 
 shadowy character to events in America, and I was not astonished 
 to read in the "London Morning Chronicle," the following pas- 
 sage : — " We are aware that the success of certain fantastic literary 
 impostures by the gifted Edgar Poe, may have tempted other 
 writers to try their hands at hoaxing the public, and that this 
 article may be a specimen of vraisemblable inventions. But, at 
 any rate, this would leave it the merit of much ingenuity and 
 readableness, while it would be open to condemnation for the 
 impertinent use of the names of living persons, amongst others of 
 the Prince de Joinville." 
 
 In this country, where characters were capable of being easily 
 ascertained, the case was different. But ridicule was thrown on 
 the affair, while in process of investigation, and when brought for- 
 ward by respectable and responsible names, simply as a historic 
 problem, in a manner not creditable to the press of a free country. 
 There were many and noble exceptions. But let this pass. 
 
 One article alone I am compelled to notice. A writeir in the 
 
402 
 
 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Romish papers, the " Phare de New York," and the " Freeman's 
 Journal," above the initials, " H. D. 0.," which were understood to 
 he those of Mr. H. De Oouroey, represented me as being instigated 
 in the publication, which he entitled, " Un Roman d'imagination," 
 while he politely called me the Romancer of Putnam — by hostility 
 to the Church of Rome. He further alleged, that three Protestant 
 ministers had put their heads together to concoct a drama. I am 
 not aware that Protestants, with all their faults, and they are 
 legion, ever resorted, for quasi religious purposes, to falsification of 
 histoi'y and forgery of pretended testimony to injure the Roman 
 communion. This would be a work of supererogation. We need 
 not resort to fiction when we have a storehouse of facts, endless 
 as the meritorial treasury of the saints. Men are very apt to 
 suspect others of practices which lie nearer home. We shall see 
 hereafter. 
 
 (The expected reply of the Prince came at lengthy It was in the 
 shape of a-letter, addressed, by M. Trognon, his secretary, to the 
 London agent of Mr. Putnam, and showed the nature of the 
 ground on which he had determined to take his stand. As this 
 document is of the highest importance, I give it both in the origi- 
 nal and in a translation. 
 
 Claremo7itj Surrey, 9, Fevrier, 1853. 
 
 Monsieur. — Le Prince de Joinville, a re^u le num^ro du Monthly Maga~ 
 ziiie de New York, que vous avez bien voulu lui transmettre, et a lii 
 1' article sur lequel vous avez appele son attention. Sa premiere pensee 
 ^tait de traiter aveo I'indiiference qu'elle merite, 1'ab.surde invention qui 
 fait le fond de oet article : mais en refl^chissant qu'un peu de vrai s'y trouve 
 mel6 abeauooup de faux, le Prince a oru qu'il 6tait bon que je vous rfipon- 
 ' disse en son nom quelques lignes destinies a faire, au milieu de cet ama? 
 de fables, la part exacte de la v^rit^. Vous ferez, monsieur, de oette 
 reponse I'usage qui vous paraitra le plus oonvenable. 
 
 li est trfes vrai que, dans un voyage qu'il fit aux Etats Unis vers la fin 
 de I'ann^e 1841, le Prince se tvouvant a Mackinac, reticontra sur le bateau a 
 vapeur un passager dont il oroit reconnititre la figure dans le portrait donne 
 par le Mcmthly Magazine, mais dont le noni avait enti^remcnt fui de sa 
 
DE JOINVILLE AND DE BEACOHESNE. 403 
 
 m£moire. Ce passager semblait fort au oourant dcs ev^nements qui se 
 sont accomplis dans I'Amerique du Nord pendant le siecle dernier. 11 
 racontait une foule d'anecdotes et de partlcularit^s interessantea sur les 
 Franfais qui prlrent part a oes ev^nementa et s'y distinguerent. Sa mere 
 ^tait, disait II, une Indienne, appartenant a la grande peuplade des Iroquois, 
 fidele alli^e de la France j il ajoutait que du cot^ paternel son origine 6tait 
 Pranoaise, et allait jusqu'a citer un nom que le Prince s'abstient de rap- 
 porter. C'etait la ce qui I'avait mis en possession de tant de details ourieux 
 a entendre. Un de oes recits les plus attachantt^ etaitcelui qu'il fasaitdes 
 demiers moments du Marquis de Montcalm, mort entre les bras d'un Iro- 
 quois, sou parent, a qui le vaillant capitaine avait laiss^ son £pee. Ces 
 details nepurent manquer d'interesser viv.ement le Prince, dont le voyage a 
 Mackinac, a Green Bay, et sur le Haut Mississippi, avait pour objet surtout 
 de rechercher la trace glorieuse des Fran^ais, qui lea premiers ouvrirent a la 
 civilization ces belles contrees. 
 
 Le Prince pria M. Williams (puisque tel etait le nom de aon interlocuteur) 
 de lui Taire parvenir, sous forme de notes, tous les rensiegnments qu'il serait 
 en mesure de se procurer, et qui pourraient Jeter ^uelque jour sur I'Mstoire 
 des etablissements Fran9ais dans I'Amerique du Nord. De son cote M 
 Williams, qui ne paraissait moins curieux de connaitre a fond cette meme 
 histoire, demanda au Prince de lui transmettre tous les documents qui y 
 etaientrelatifs, et qui devaient se trouver dans les archives du gouvemeraent 
 Fran(;ais. 
 
 Arrive a Green Bay, le Prince y fut retenu pendant une demi joumee par 
 le dif&culte de se procurer le nombre de chevaux necessaire au voyage qu'il 
 allait entreprendre, M. Williams le presser vivement de I'aocorapagner dans 
 un settlement d'Indiens Iroquois etablis prfes de Green Bay, chez qui disait 
 il se conservait encore le souvenir de leurs Peres d' Orient, et qui accueille- 
 raient avec bonheur le fils du Grand Chef de la France. Le Prince deolina 
 cette offre, et poursuivit aon voyage. 
 
 Bepuis lors, quelques lettres ont ete echangees entre M. Williams et les 
 personnes attajchees au Prince, au sujet des documents dont il vient d'etre 
 question. Ainsi la lettre de M. Toucbard citee dans I'article du Monthly 
 Magazine doit etre authentique, M. Williams aurait pu egalement en pro- 
 duire ime que je me souvienne de lui avoir eerite pour le meme objet. 
 
 Mais la finit ce que I'article contient de vrai sur les relations du Prince 
 
404 
 
 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 aveo M. WUliams. Tout le reste, tout oe que a trait a la revelation que le 
 Prince aurait faite 4 M. Williams, du mystfere de sa naissance, tout oe qui 
 conoevne le pretendu personage de Louis XVII. est d'nne bout a I'autre une 
 osuvre d'imagination, une fable grossifevements tissue, une speculation sur la 
 credulite publique faite on ne salt a quel propos et dans quel but. Si par 
 hazard, quelques uns des leoteurs du MonthlyMagazine etaient disposes a y 
 avoner creance il faudrait les engager a faire venir de Paris un livre qui Tient 
 d'y etre tout r^cemment publie par M. de Beauchesne ils y trouveraient, sur 
 la vie et la mort de I'infortun^ Dauphin, du vrai Louis XVII. les details les 
 plus circonstanci^s et les plus positifs. II me reste a vous repeter. Mon- 
 sieur, que vous pouvez faire que vous jujerez convenaWe, offrir en meme 
 temps, I'aasurance de ma consideration distirigu^. 
 
 Aug. Teognon, ancien precepteur 
 et secretaire des oommanderaents du Prince de Joinville. 
 
 " Claremomt, Suheey, February 9, 1853. 
 >^SiR. — The Prince de Joinville, has received the number of the Monthly 
 Magazine, of Newf York, which you have kindly thought fit to tran.smit 
 to him, and has read the article to Vfhich you have called his attention. 
 His first thought vfas, to treat Vfith tlfe indifierenoe which it deserves, the 
 absurd invention on which this article is founded — ^but on reflecting that a 
 little truth is there mixed with much falsehood, the Prince has deemed it 
 right that I should, in his name, give a few lines in reply, to show the 
 exact portion of truth there is in this mass of fables. 
 
 " Tou can make, sir, of this reply, the use which you think proper. 
 
 " It is very true, that in a voyage which he made to the United States, 
 towards the end of the year 1841, the Prince, finding himself at Mackinac, 
 met on board the steamboat, a passenger whose face he thinks he recog- 
 nises in the portrait given in the Monthly Magazine, but whose name 
 had entirely escaped his memory. 
 
 " This passenger seemed well-informed concerning the history of North 
 America during the last century. He related many anecdotes, and inte- 
 resting particulars concerning the French who took part, and distinguished 
 themselves in these events. His mother, he said, was an Indian woman, 
 of the great tribe of the Iroquois, faithful allies of France. He added, that 
 on his father's side, his origin was French, and went so far as to cite 
 
DE JOINVILLB AND DB BBAUCHKSNB. 405 
 
 a, name which the Prince abstains from repeating. It was by this means 
 that he had come in possession of so many details curious to hear. One 
 of the most interesting of these recitals was that which he gave of the last 
 moments of the Marquis of Montcalm, who died in the arms of an Iroquois, 
 who was his relative, and to whom the great captain had left his sword. 
 These details could not fail vividly to interest the Prince, whose voyage to 
 Hackinac, Green Bay, and the Upper Mississippi, had for its object 
 to retrace the glorious path of the French, who had first opened to civiliza- 
 tion these fine countries. The Prince asked Mr. Williams, since such was 
 the name of his interlocutor, to send to him in the form of notes, all the 
 information which he could procure, and which could iirow light upon the 
 history of the French establishments in North America. On his side Mr. 
 Williams, who did not appear less curious to imderstand thoroughly 
 this same history, asked the Prince to transmit to him all the documents 
 which related to it, and which could be found in the archives of the French 
 government. 
 
 "On his arrival at Green Bay, the Prince was detained during half a 
 day, by the difficulty of procuring the number of horses necessary for the 
 journey, which he was about to undertake. Mr. Williams pressed him 
 eame.stly to accompany him to a settlement of Iroquois Indians, estab- 
 lished near Green Bay, among whom, he said, were still many who 
 remembered their Eastern fathers, and who would receive with delight, the 
 son of the Great Chief of France. The Prince declined this oflfer, and pur- 
 sued his journey. 
 
 " Since then, some letters have been exchanged between Mr. Williams 
 and the persons attached to the Prince, on the subject of the documents in 
 question. Thus the letter of M. Touchard, cited in the article of the 
 Monthly Magazine, must he authentic- Mr. Williams could also equally 
 have produced one which I remember to have written to him upon the 
 same subject. 
 
 \But, there ends all which the article contains of truth, concerning the 
 relations of the Prince with Mr. Williams. All the rest, all which treats 
 of the revelation which the Prince made to Mr. Williams, of the mystery 
 of his birth, all which concerns the pretended personage of Louis XVII., is 
 from one end to the other a work of the imagination, a-fable woven whole- 
 sale, a speculation upon the public creduli^ li, by chance, any o£ 
 
406 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 the reader^ of the Monthly Magazine should be disposed to avow belief in 
 it, they should procure from Paris a book which has been veiy recently 
 published by M. Beauchesne. They will there find, conceniing the life and 
 death of the unfortunate Dauphin, the most circumstantial and positive 
 details. It remains for me to repeat to you, air, that you can make of this 
 letter such use as you may judge proper, and to offer to you, at the same 
 time, the assurance of my distinguished consideration. 
 
 " Signed, Aug. Trognon. 
 
 Former preceptor, and secretary for the commands 
 of the Prince de Joinville." 
 
 After re-examining this document carefully, with the advantage 
 of having before ine a letter from the Prince himself, addressed to 
 a gentleman in this country, in which he goes over, almost verbally, 
 the course travelled by his secretary, showing that the words of the 
 latter are the production of De Joinville's mind, I can arrive at no 
 other conclusion than that expressed in Putnam's Magazine, in 
 ■which I do not find a word to alter, and therefore insert it in a 
 note ;* v^^hile, in confirmation of the view then taken, I will again 
 
 * The Prince de Joinville vepreaents himself, not only forgetful of the. name of Mr. 
 Williams, but aaoribes to chance Ma vneetdng with h/rni " Finding himself at Macki- 
 nac, he met on a steamer a passenger." The suppressio veri is the suffgeatio falsi. 
 And from the ground which he has taken, I cannot permit him to move. The Prince 
 deJbin/oUlef it can easily be proved^ aoiight the ittterviewtoith Mr. Williams. T^tere 
 %oas no accident in the meeUng. He was rather young at the time as a diplomatist, 
 and permitted the world to know too much of his errand. The following testimony, 
 from respectable American gentlemen, is decisive : — 
 
 The editors of the Buffalo Courier and of the iiTortt-erTt Light show that, long before 
 the Prince got into the neighborhood of Mackinac, he was inquiring about Mr. Wil- 
 liams. Capt. Shook confirms entirely all the statements of Mr. Williams in which he is 
 concerned. It is then a fact that not once, but several times, during the journey from 
 New York to Green Bay, he had inquired of a variety of persons concerning Mr. Wil- 
 liams, and that, when he saw him, he showed surprise and agitation, and paid him 
 such unusual attention, that it is remembered vividly by eye-witnesses, after a lapse 
 of twelve years. 
 
 And yet the Prince, who knew his name so well before he ever saw him, and whose 
 memory is so very faithful concerning everything which he thinks will make against 
 him, now declares that the meeting was iiccfdeDtal, ^n^ thn.t. his name h^s escaped 
 
DE JOINVILLB AND DE BEAUCHESNB. 407 
 
 bneflj consider the Prince's letter, in connection with the testi- 
 mony of other gentlemen, in order to answer objections made to , 
 my position. 
 
 "When the Prince read my article he was evidently at a loss what 
 to do. ''Say nothing," whispered prudence. "It is only a maga- 
 zine article — stand on your dignity — ^call it, if questioned, an absurd 
 
 his memory. But, in many respects, his statements are important. The Prince says 
 he acknowledged himself the son of an Indian woman. This shows hoTr erroneous are 
 the misrepresentations in many circles, which have charged him with having had a 
 monomania of twenty years' standing, that he was the Dauphin, and confirms, by the 
 authority of the Prince, the statement of Mr. Williams, that up to this time he con- 
 sidered himself of Indian parentage. As to hia being of French extraction on the 
 father's side, Mr. Williams never could have said that, unless he intended to accuse 
 his supposed mother of infidelity, which it is not likely he would have done to a 
 stranger. The Williams family are of English origin. There was a surmise that his 
 mother bad French blood in her veins, but yb was some generations back. Again : 
 The nature of a great part of the conversation between Mr. Williams and the Prince, 
 on the steamer, is, in substance, confirmed ; and thus all which Mr. Williams has 
 stated is authenticated, on one hand or the other, except what occurred in the private 
 interview. Here no one but themselves and God are witnesses. But, inasmuch as 
 the letter from the Prince proves him not to be trustworthy in matters open and evi- 
 dent, there is no reason why we should give him credence in those which are secret. 
 The reference to Beauchesne is unfortunate, and proves, to my mind, that there was 
 a special necessity for the publication of such a work. It is curious that the very 
 copy which I have reviewed, was left, by some person unknown, in the room of Mr. 
 Williams, at Washington, with an anon^Hnous note, begging his acceptance of it, 
 " though the perusal might give him pain." 
 
 Let any one trace on a map the route of the Prince, and ask himself whether his- 
 torical researches would be likely to take any man to a place like Green Bay, lying 
 off the direct line of travel, leading nowhere, and having in its neighborhood no 
 important memorials of the French. His natural course when at Mackinac, would 
 have been either to go through the Saut Ste. Marie, to Lake Superior, the shores of 
 which are crowded with mementoes of his countrymen, or to follow the track of La 
 Salle and Hennepin down Lake Michigan to Chicago. Green Bay is a small tow ^ in 
 the wilderness, having a palisade fort, and surrounded by a few Indian settlements. 
 There is no historical attraction about it, and the Prince confesses as much by saying 
 that a delay in procuring horses was the sole cause of his staying there even half a 
 day, and declining an opportunity of meeting the neighboring Indians. It is true 
 that Marquette was at Green Bay, but if the Prince had desired to follow his footsteps, 
 he should have pursued the Fos River westerly, and not gone directly south to Galena. 
 
408 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 invention, and there let it end." " Nay, but there is. truth in it," 
 suggested conscience, *-and silence will be accounted equivalent to 
 confession. I must say something." And then came the rub- 
 puzzling as the horns of Hamlet's dilemma — " What shall I say ?" 
 
 On the sixth of the next month he was at St. Louis, so that his historical researches 
 on the Upper Mississippi could not hare been very laborious or profound. 
 
 Again, the whole of his account is made to tally with the fundamental misrepresen- 
 tation that the meeting with Mr. Williams was accidental. Now we know that it was 
 not accidental; that it is an established fact that he went to Green Bay to see him, 
 that he repeatedly and earnestly inquired after him, and can have no reasonable 
 doubt that had Mr. Williams resided in any other place than Green Bay, he would 
 equally have sought him out. But the account of the Prince contains nothing to 
 meet the requirements of that fact. That fact demands that Be JoinviUe should have 
 had some object in seeking an interview with Mr. Williams. It is impossible to evade 
 this. Now, no such object is apparent in the Prince's statement ; nay, is studiously 
 kept out of sight ; and, though he solemnly declares that he states the whole truth, 
 yet it is undeniable that he omits the most important portion of the history of the 
 interview — and not only omits it, but precludes himself by the coloring which he has 
 put on the transaction, from framing any substitute for the simple truth hereafter. 
 But from Mr. Williams we learn why the Prince so particularly inquired after him, 
 and 80 earnestly sought him out ; and I assert and will maintain it, that herein he is 
 entitled to the benefit of all the probabilities, physical, historical, and circumstantial, 
 which tend to confirm the truth of his account. In other words, if there were no 
 such evidence to sustain him, his cause would be by so much the weaker ; but every 
 iota of testimony which makes it probable that he is the Dauphin, increases the pro- 
 bability that he tells the truth concerning the facts of his interview with Be Join- 
 viUe; and yet some will say, the Prince denies the revelation asserted, and tMrefore 
 Mr. Williams spoke untruly. I say there is no ^erefore about it, and defy any one to 
 prove that there is. Why should there be? Because Be JoinviUe is a prince^the 
 descendant of the Regent Orleans, and of Philip Egalite ? The opinion of the New 
 York DwU/y Times is 'far more sensible; it predicted the course which the Prince 
 would take, and the reasons which would actuate him. " If the story be true," it 
 says, " neither the Bourbon nor the Orleans family have any justification before the 
 world for the cruelty of suppressing the truth, always weU known to them, for more 
 than half a century, in order to enjoy the inheritance of the legitimate, but exiled 
 king. Xhey wiU be considered as usurpers, not of the property of a stranger, or of an 
 enemy, but of one of their own household ; one whose misfortunes, if not his rights, 
 entitled blm to consideration. ItwiU prove to have been a conspiracy of a race 
 against one of Its members; a royal conspiracy to defraud. And it ia scarcely likely 
 that De JoinviUe will readily corroborate a tale which must sentence the Bourbons 
 of either branch to infamy." 
 
DE JOIHTILLE AND DE BEAtTCEESNS. 409 
 
 "Confess what yon can't avoid," said tlie spirit of Maohiavelli, 
 " and call it the exact truth." Unfortunately, the execution of this 
 project was left to the intellect of De Joinville, and the pen of M. 
 Trognon. 
 
 To form a judgment of the Prince's letter, the reader must hare 
 the following testimony before him : 
 
 LETTER FROM OAFTAIN SHOOK. 
 
 " HiTBON, Fehruary 9, 1853. 
 " To THE Eev. J. H. Hanson : 
 
 "Rev. and Dear Sis. — ^Yours of the 4th inst., together with the Feb- 
 roary number of ' Putnam's Monthly,' came duly to hand. It gives me 
 great pleasure to communicate anything, and all I know, of what took 
 place between the Prince de Joinville and the Kev. Eleazai Williamsj upon 
 the steamer Columbus, from Mackinac to Green Bay. I have carefully 
 read your article in the Monthly, and so far as matters relating to me go, 
 the Kev. gentleman has stated things truly. \Ihave a very vivid and dis- 
 tinct recollection of the introduction of the Prince to the Uev. Mr. Williams, 
 and of the apparent smrrise manifested by the Prince on the occasion ; 
 and, furthermore, could not but wonder myself, why he should pay to the 
 humble and unpretending Indian missionary such pointed and polite atten- 
 tion^ I have long known the Rev. Mr. Williams, and seen much of him 
 in onr voyages up and down the Lakes, and have always found him an 
 amiable, upright, and gentlemanly man, and to he relied upon in any state- 
 ment he may make. I would again repeat, that what he has stated in 
 relation to me is literally true. If I have not met your mind in this reply, 
 please to write again, and put the matter to me in the form of questions. 
 You say, ' I believe that the Prince gave to you a gold snuff-box upon the 
 occasion.' He did, and I prize it highly. 
 
 " If you need an affidavit on the subject,' I am willing and ready to 
 give it. 
 
 " With sentiments of high regard I am yours, 
 
 " John Shook-'J 
 18 
 
410 THE LOST PBINCE. 
 
 The following is an extract from a letter of 1^. George 8. Ray- 
 mond—editor of the " Northern Light," Hallowell, Mai'n^— dated 
 March 1, 1853, and addressed to Mr. Putnam : ^ 
 
 " I am acquainted with many of the circumstances connected with the 
 Prince de Joinville's visit to Green Bay, his meeting with Mr. Williams, 
 &c., having been myself a fellow-passenger with the Prince during the 
 whole of his Laiie tour. At that time I was an officer in the Brazilian 
 service, and came home to the TJnited States to visit a brother, then a resi- 
 dent at Fort Howatd, near Green Bay. Qjoined the JolnvlUe party in New 
 York, travelled with it to Green Bay, and, during several conversations 
 with the Prince, heard him express a most particular anxiety to find out 
 this Mr. WilliBms, and have an interview with him. V 
 
 The testimony of Mr. James O. Brayman, one of the Editors of 
 the " Buffalo Courier." In an editorial he made the following state- 
 ment : 
 
 " We remember the time of the visit of the Prince de Joinville well, 
 having passed from Cleveland to Detroit on the same steamboat with him. 
 He, in publio conversation, spoke of the general object of his visit, and 
 made inquiries in relation to the whereabouts of Mr. Williams. We recol- 
 lect listening to a conversation between him and a Mr. Beaubien, of De- 
 troit, in which the latter stated that it was understood that Mr. Williams 
 was of Indiam, blood. The Prince, however, did not commit himself upon 
 any point in regard to the specific purpose for which he sought Mr. Wil- 
 liams, but confined himself to generalities." 
 
 On seeing this, I addressed a letter of inquiry to the editors, and 
 received, from Mr. Brayman, the following reply, dated, Buffalo, 
 March 4, 1853 : 
 
 " In the fall of 1841, I took steamboat at Cleveland for Detroit. The 
 Prince de Joinville and company were on board, having come up from 
 Buffalo. There were also several gentlemen of French descent from'De- 
 troit, aboard. In the evening, while sitting in the cabin, the Prince con- 
 versed fireely — part of the time in French, and part in English. While con- 
 versing with the late Col. Beaubien, he made the inquiries concerning Mr 
 
DE JOINVItLE ANB DE BEAUCHESNE. 411 
 
 Williams, and apoke of his intention of visiting him at Green Bay. Col. 
 B., who had, I believe, been an Indian trader, knevir Mr. W. well, personally 
 or by reputation, and replied to the Prince as to his whereabout and hia 
 oooupation. The Prince iiiqumd as to his personal bearing, and asked 
 various general questions concerning him, and had the appearance of con- 
 siderable earnestness in his inquiries. The conversation continued some 
 minutes, and concluded by the Prince remarking, ' I shall see him before I 
 return.' This matter has slept in my memory, and having been called up 
 by the late discussions, is not very distinct as to particulars; the general 
 features, however, are as fresh in my mind as an occurrence of yesterday. 
 I have ii relative who was some years a teacher in the Indian Mission 
 School at Green Bay. I have heard her relate the circumstance of the 
 visit of the Prince de Joinville to Mr. Williams as something involving 
 much of mystery, and that it, for a while, produced a marked and observ- 
 able change in Mr. W.'s conduct. He appeared abstracted at times, and 
 excited as by some great emotion. She.remarked that the Prince treated 
 him with more than ordinary deference and consideration, for which she 
 could not account at the time." 
 
 In a subsequent editorial, Mr. Brayman added : 
 
 " In regard to the matters that came under our own cognizance, in the 
 fall of 1841, we derived no further impression from the conversation of the 
 Prince de Joinville, which was public, than that the person for whom he 
 inquired had been recommended to him as one who, firom his familiarity 
 with the west, was qualified to aid him in researches which he was prose* 
 cuting. Since the question of the Bauphinage has been raised, it is easy 
 to connect the inquiries with it, although such a, connection may never 
 have entered the mind of the Prince." 
 
 Now let us lay out the facts before us for examination. 
 
 1. At the time of writing, the Prince Had the narrative and 
 journal of the Eev. Eleazar Williams before him. The letter of 
 his secretary is a thoughtful and well considered reply to the state- 
 ments contained therein — ^in proof of which the Prince has 
 himself repeated almost verbally what M. Trognon has said. He 
 
412 THE lOST PRINCB. 
 
 takes, then, his ground deliberately, and no one else has the right 
 or power to change it for him, or to suggest modes of defence or 
 explanation which he has not himself seen fit to adopt. 
 
 What then, let me ask, is the ground occupied hy the Prince ? 
 Let him answer for himself. " Eeflecting that a little truth is there 
 mixed with much falsehood, the Prince has deemed right that I 
 should, in his name, give a few lines in reply to show the exact 
 portion of truth there is in this mass of fables " — and, lest there 
 should be any mistake, M. Trognon adds, in conclusion, after 
 having given the Piince's explanation in full, "There ends all 
 which the article contains of truth." 
 
 Now, be it remembered, Mr. Williams had stated that the Prince 
 had made inquiries for him almost from the time of arriving in 
 this country, and had continued them up to the period of their 
 meeting at Mackinac. And since, whatever does not fall within the 
 scope of the Prince's admissions, is purposely excluded as false, it 
 follows that this particular statement of Mr. Williams, must be 
 ranked among them, and that the secretary's declaration is 
 emphatic when he says, "It is very true, that in a voyage which 
 he made towards the end of the year 1841, the Prince finding him- 
 self at Mackinac, met on board the steamboat a passenger whose 
 face he thinks he recognises, but whose name has entirely escaped 
 his memory." The design was evidently, to represent this meeting 
 as the beginning of his acquaintance not only with the person but 
 the existence of the man, and to discard aafdbulous all pretences of 
 having known his name, expressed an interest in him, sought him,, 
 followed him. The language of the letter bears the expression of 
 accident upon its face ; but, in the connexion in which it stands, 
 accident is its essence. There is not the remotest hint given of 
 anything lying back of the casual rencontre at Mackinac, and the 
 secretary states the " exact" truth. 
 
 If, now, from the nature of the meeting, thus precisely stated by 
 M. Trognon, we pass on to that of the conversation which arose 
 between them, we find the same feature of accident. As fellow 
 
DB JOINVILLE AND DE BBAUCHESNE. 413 
 
 passengers on a steamboat, they began conversing, Mr. "Williams 
 related a crowd of anecdotes — told the Prince all about his family 
 —the Prince got interested — asked him to pat down in writing 
 some details concerning the death of Montcalm ; and promised in 
 return to send him some historical docnments; parted from him, 
 and pursued his journey. Now, this is all which human ingenuity 
 can make out of M. Trognon's letter. Beyond this must be " nne 
 oeuvre d'imagination." Whoever attempts to make more of it, 
 must supply it from another source, in direct contradiction to the 
 repeated assurance that here is the " exact " Pruth and " all " the 
 truth. You cannot by any process known to onticism, by any law 
 or mode of interpretation, wring from the guarded and measured 
 sentences anything which indicates or permits previous knowledge 
 or set purpose. This constrnction of the letter is further required 
 by the manner in which M. Trognon speaks of their detention at 
 Green Bay, at which place they did not pause to visit unexistent 
 liistorical sites, or inquire for information, but to get horses. I 
 affirm, then, that the Prince does represent this meeting as aeei- 
 dmtal and unsought. 
 
 2. Now, then, compare with this, certain indubitable facts. Mr. 
 Raymond, whose testimony was given unsolicited, accompanied the 
 party of the Prince de Joinville, all the way from New York to 
 Green Bay, conversed with the Prince, and heard him " express a 
 most particular aiadety to find out this Mr. Williams, and have an 
 intenieia with him.'''' I have seen another letter of Mr. Raymond's, 
 in which he stated that these inquiries began almost from the time 
 of leaving New York. 
 
 Captain Shook, also, heard the Prince make repeated inquiries for 
 Mr. jVilliams, was employed by him to obtain a formal interview, 
 introduced the gentlemen to each other, has "a most vivid and 
 distinct recollection of the apparent surprise manifested by the 
 Prince, on the occasion, and could not but wonder why be should 
 pay to the humble missionary such pointed and polite attention''^ — 
 attention not resolvable into common French politeness, because 
 
414 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 paid to no one else with whom the Prince conversed, but some- 
 thing marked and peculiar in its deference. 
 
 We now come to the testimony of Mr. Brayman, from a portion 
 of which a meaning has been attempted to be wrested, which it 
 cannot bear. A distinction must always be made between the 
 /■'cis stated by a witness, and his impressions concerning those 
 facts. Once confound these, and you may shut up your courts of 
 justice. 
 
 C^he facts stated by Mr. Brayman are these ; that the Prince 
 made inquiries concerning — 1. The whereabouts. 2. The occupa- 
 tion. 3. The personal bearing of Mr. Williams, and that, besides, 
 he ^sted various general questions concerning him, and had the 
 appearance of considerable earnestness ; that he remarked, " I shall 
 see him before I return ;" that Colonel Beaubien stated (doubtless, 
 in reply to some questibns of the Prince, as to his race), that it was 
 understood Mr. Williams was of Indian blood, that the Prince did 
 not commit himself upon any pointy in respect to the specific purpose 
 for which he sought Mr. Williams, and, consequently, did not say 
 he wished to obtain aid from him in his historic investigations^) 
 
 The impressions of Mr. Brayman, at the time, were natural 
 enough, he heard the Prince speaking of the general objects of his 
 mission, and inferred from thence that his inquiries respecting Mr. 
 Williams, had some relation to his ostensible purpose, in going 
 w6st, but it was only an inference, and one, too, which, however, 
 superficially plausible, at the moment, would not, even then, have 
 borne the test of comparison with the facts, for, if the Prince's 
 design had been only what Mr. B. imagined, why be so earnest and 
 particular about personal team,ng, race, occupation^ In all these 
 repeated qqestionings of various persons, and in many places — ques- 
 tionings which would not be satisfied with an answei- — ^there is 
 clearly traceable the straining forward of the mind, towards an 
 object which it was impatient to reach, and concerning which there 
 was excited an insatiable curiosity. 
 
 Now, let any candid mind bring in juxta position, M. Trognon's 
 
DB JOINVILLB AND DE BEAUCHESNB. 415 
 
 letter, on the one hand, with its accidental meeting, and the state- 
 ments of eye witnesses, as to what preceded, and what happened at 
 that meeting, and there can be but one sound opinion, that the 
 Piinoe is guilty of deliberate falsification. 
 
 But, look further at the internal evidence the letter bears against 
 itself. The "name" of Mr. Williams "had entirely escaped his 
 memory," says M. Ti-ognon, and, in a subsequent place, not without 
 affectation, he adds, " the Prince asked Mr. Williams, since such 
 was the name of his interlocutor." 
 
 The memories of princes may be more treacherous than those of 
 ordinary men ; but that of the Prince de Joinville has something in 
 it peculiar, an eclectic obliviousness truly extraordinary. He remem- 
 bered a great deal about Mr. Williams, his appearance, his anecdotes, 
 and many little circumstances connected with the interview, but 
 entirely forgot his name. Now, let us see whether this was at all 
 probaMe, or I may say possible. It is entirely in keeping with 
 the theory of an accidental meeting, bnt how does it taUy with the 
 contrary, and with other facts ? 
 
 There was an understanding between the gentlemen, at parting, 
 that they should mutually interchange civilities, and Mr. Williams, a 
 few days after, sent the Prince some historical memoranda, consist- 
 ing, for the most part, of extracts from Hennepin and Charlevoix, 
 which the Prince could have obtained without going to Green Bay 
 for them, and in a brief accompanying note, he said he shonld be 
 happy to transmit any similar information, adding, as a reason, " I 
 am desirous to sustain the honor of the French name, in -these ends 
 of the earth.'' Now, what possible motive an American Indian 
 should have to sustain the honor of the French name, I cannot 
 understand. Explain this passage, by the facts related in the jour- 
 nal of Mr. Williams, and the whole is consistent. He received, in 
 reply, the following letter from M. Touchai-d. 
 
 " Aide de Carap de Service, ■. 
 
 "Anpres de Mar. le Prince de Joinville. \ 
 
 " Frigate la Belle Pmile a New Tori, 
 
 "21 9bre (Noverabre), 1841. 
 
 " MoKsiEUR. — Je me suis empiesse de raettre sous lea yeux de Monseigneur 
 
416 THE LOST PRINCB. 
 
 le Prince de Joinville, votre lettre datee du 25 8bre, avec les notes qui 
 I'accompagnaient rut les premiers etablissements Fran9aiB au bord das 
 grand lacs. 
 
 " Son Altesse Boyale me charge de vous reraercier en son nom de votre 
 obligeant et de votre aunable empressenient. II lira ces notes avec tout 
 I'interet qui s'attache a vos recherches hietoriques, faites But le theatre 
 meme ou nos Franfais ont laiese tant et d'honorable souvenirs. 
 
 " Je Buis heureu::, Monsieur, d' avoir a vous transmettre les remercimens de 
 son Altesse Boyale. Si jamais vous venez viaiter notre Prance veuiUez 
 vous souvenir que S. A. K. vous reverrait avec plaisir. 
 
 " Becevez, Monsieur, toutes les assurances de mon consideration la plus 
 distinguee, 
 
 " Lieut, de Vaisseau V. TorcHAED." 
 
 The hint here given, concerning the possibility of Mr. Williams 
 visiting France, deserves notice. Some may explain it on the 
 ground of compliment, but if so, it was empty to the verge of insult, 
 as there was little probability that the poor Indian missionary 
 would ever think of going as a guest to the French court, and 
 nothing, certainly, had happened, according to the statement of the 
 Prince, at the brief accidental interview, likely to turn his thoughts 
 to Versailles and the Tuileries. But, taking Mr. Williams's version 
 of the affair, and the invitation of the Prince, though couched in 
 the phrase of ordinary civility has a meaning. The Prince, if he 
 made such disclosures as Mr. Williams asserts, could scarcely 
 think the latter would allow the matter to rest where it did, and 
 he would seem here to intimate that the door of negotiation was still 
 open. 
 
 After his return to France, the Prince, in accordance with his 
 promise, sent Mr. Williams various books and documents. 
 
 In the spring of 1843, Mr. Williams was requested by an Iroquois 
 chief, in the neighborhood of Green Bay, to forward to Louis 
 Philippe, through the Prince de Joinville, a petition, which, as an 
 act of neighborly kindness, he did, although the chief belonged to 
 the Boman communion. In writing to the Prince, on the occasion, 
 he alluded courteously to their interview. In this letter, it is 
 
DE JOINVILLS AND VE BEAUCBBSNE. 
 
 417 
 
 remarkable that he speaks of himself to De Joinville, as a French- 
 man, which would have been perfectly absurd in one who had 
 confessed to the Prince he was an Indian, and had learned nothing 
 to change his opinion. "To travel over the western lakes and 
 conntry, as you did, which were formerly traversed iy the enter- 
 pridng spirits of mtr forefathers, whose names are celebrated in 
 America to this day, must have been highly ^atifiying." Explain 
 this allusion, also, by the journal of Mr. Williams, and all is con- 
 sistent. M. Trognon, by the command of the Prince, replied to 
 Mr. Williams in. the following terras : — 
 
 " Tvileries, Oct. 14, 1848. 
 ** Secretariat des Commandementa 
 "de S. A. B. Mgr. le Prince de Joinville. 
 
 " Sir : — His Eoyal Highness the Prince de Joinville, who was abroad 
 when you wrote to him, on the 31st March, has just now ordered me to 
 answer you, that he has received with the greatest pleasure yonr letter, so 
 full of a friendly remembrance. Receive then the hearty thanks of his 
 Eoyal Higlmess, though expressed by me, so little acquainted as I am 
 with the English language. According to your desire, the Prince has pre- 
 sented the petition enclosed in your letter to his father, the King of the 
 French, and earnestly recommended it to the benevolence of his majesty. 
 The good chief of the Iroquois and his people will be certainly satisfied to 
 bear that our king, desirous to gratify their wishes, sends them a, set of 
 French books, the best appropriated to spread among them the religious 
 principles of the Eoman Catholic Church. These books, sir, I am ordered 
 to send you, that they may be transmitted by your care to John Banda- 
 tontye. 
 
 " I hope, when they are arrived at Green Bay, you will honor me, sir, 
 with your answer, and meanwhile, T pray you to believe me, 
 " Your very humble and obt. sert., 
 " Aug, Tbognon, Secretary for 
 
 " The commands of His Eoyal Highness, 
 " The Prince de Joinville." 
 
 From this letter, it appears, that De Joinville had the oppor- 
 
418 THK LOST PRINCE. 
 
 tnnity to refresh his memory, fully in regard to the name of Mr. 
 Williams, spoke to his father respecting him, presented the petition, 
 and had the whole circumstances of their interview recalled, in a 
 manner which could not fail to imprint them with the name of Mr. 
 Williams on any memory of ordinary tenacity. The books were 
 sent, and accompanying them was n letter from Louis Philippe to 
 Mr. Williams. This letter has unfortunately been destroyed, and 
 its contents can only be collected from the statement of Mr. 
 Williams, who says that, the king thanked him for the civilities he 
 had shown to his son during hjs visit to the United States. The 
 fact of the former existence of the^letter is proved from the 
 accompanying note from M. de La Forest, the French consul in 
 New York. 
 
 '' The Consul General of France, owing to the interruption of the com- 
 munication between New York and Wisconsin Territory, was unable before 
 to present to Mr. Eleazar Williams the enclosed letter, and the box of 
 books sent by the King of the French. Mr. WilUams will oblige M. de 
 la Forest, by acknowledging reception of the whole, and accept his respect- 
 ful comiits. 
 
 " NevB Yorji, im April, 1844." 
 
 ^ow, one would think that after having Mr. Williams's name on 
 his lips all the way from New York to Green Bay, and making such 
 repeated and particular inquiries about him ; after all that is known 
 to have transpired between them, and after the means for refresh- 
 ing his memory which correspondence for years after afforded, the 
 Prince would, at least, have remembered his naine-^but no it had 
 " entifirement fui de sa mfemoire," a thing, I repeat, consistent 
 with a perfectly accidental meeting, but not harmonizing at all 
 with facts which are incontrovertible. M. Trognon remembered 
 him very well, and he certainly had not so much cause to do so as 
 the Prince. 
 
 Taking all these facts together, the pretence of forgetfnlness 
 seems to be as untrue as the pretence of accident. The Prince 
 could not liave forgotten the name of Eleazar Williams. He 
 
DE JOINVILLB AND DE BEAUCHESNB. 419 
 
 Started and trembled when he saw him. He recognized, in every 
 lineament of his features, in every gesture of his hand, in every 
 proportion of his form, the tokens of his race. . Those who saw 
 them meet, can swear to his agitation. But this, also, according 
 to his statement, must be excluded from the exact truth. How 
 would he wish the world to account for a fact which, though he 
 may deny it, is proved. Again, a well-known gentleman, of the 
 highest respectability in this country, Mr. George Sumner, brother 
 to Mr. Charles Sumner, United States Senator from Massachusetts, 
 met, in the year 1846, at Brest, one of the oflScers who accompa- 
 nied the Prince to Green Bay, and, in the cabin of his vessel, 
 looking cautiously round before he spoke, he said to Mr. Sumner, 
 that there was something very singular in the American trip of the 
 Prince, who went out of his way to meet an old man among the 
 Indiana, who had very much of a Bourhon aspect, and who was 
 spoTce/ti of as the son of Louis XVI. Are we to exclude this also 
 from the exact truth ? Mr. Williams, at the time of the meeting 
 with the Prince, at Mackinac, considered himself the son of an 
 Indian woman. He conld not, therefore, have spoken of himself 
 as the son of Louis XYI. There was no such report concerning 
 him current, to the knowledge of his most iiitimate friends, and the 
 story must therefore have originated in the party of the Prince. 
 Ibis fact not only shows which way the thoughts of the Prince 
 were tending, but establishes clearly that the meeting was not 
 accidental', and that he went out of his way to see Mr. Williams, 
 and thus confirms the statement of the latter, while it throws addi- 
 tional discredit on the account given by M. Trognon. 
 
 The whole subject, then, narrows itself to a single, simple, but 
 stem issue— that of veracity between the only two witnesses who 
 can testify concerning a contested fact. Dismiss from the mind the 
 comparative rank of these two individuals : look at them merely as 
 men. An interview has taken place between them. One asserts 
 that it was purely accidental and unsought, and gave rise to no 
 
420 THB LOST PRINCE. 
 
 gecret communication of a startling fact, and his. account of the 
 interview is made to correspond with the hypothesis of a pwreVy 
 accidental meeting. The other person affirms that the interview 
 was not accidental, but was sought by the first individual, who 
 communicated to him a sta/rtling fact, up to that moment unknown 
 to him. Which shall we believe ? The rule of law is, fahum in 
 uno, falav/m in omnibus. The first asserts an accidental meeting, 
 and an unimportant conversation, its necessary consequence. The 
 accidental meeting is positimely disproved. The foundation goes and 
 the superstructure goes with it. A sought intervimo requires a spe- 
 cijic object. The second person, who has a fair character, and in 
 whose story no misrepresentation can be proved, relates a.fact com- 
 municated at the interview, adequate to explain the proved solici- 
 tude of the first person m seeking him, but which communication 
 that person has ^ the highest earthly interest in denying. If you 
 believ6 the first, you must do so in the face of a falsehood and an 
 junexplainedfact. If you believe the second, the fact is etcplmned, 
 and 710 falsehood on his part can be shown. I leave the world to 
 decide on which side probability inclines. 
 
 In defending, before the American people, the assailed reputation 
 of an American citizen, I need scarcely ask whether, in this question 
 of veracity, they will believe a person, who, out of his own mouth, 
 stands convicted of the most glaring inconsistencies and misstate- 
 ments, or one for whose truth there are so many vouchere, and who, 
 as a minister of the Gospel, has labored, all his life, to do good to the 
 most down-trodden and unbefriended denizens of this continent ; 
 and, I can scarcely doubt, that, should the subject of this volume 
 attract attention to it in the country under whose flag I was born, 
 the generous spirit of Englishmen will not allow mere nominal rank 
 to outweigh the asseverations of manly worth. 
 
 Not content with charging Mr. Williams with falsehood, in the 
 same breath that he furnished data to convict himself of the crime, 
 the Prince, evidently afraid the world would not believe him, 
 must bolster up his aaaertions with the corpulent volumes of M. de 
 
DE JOINVILLB AND DE BEAUCHESNK. 421 
 
 Beauohesne. This very undignified proceeding, so entirely alien to 
 the habits of men in his position, who generally affect to think their 
 own word sufficient to ensure public credence, goes far in Itself to 
 discredit his assertions. Just imagine Prince Albert accused by 
 some person in the wilds of Africa, of having made certain state- 
 ments affecting his personal honor, writing a long, disingenuous, 
 explanatory letter, and concluding by saying, " If the world won't 
 believe me, I refer them to Mr. Macaulay's History." I beg the 
 pardon, of his royal highness for the supposition, but it illustrates 
 the position of Ferdinand D'Orleans. (Beauchesne, Beauohesne — 
 here is the infallible specific, let everybody read Beauohesne. He 
 will anathematize his own soul to convince them, and show them 
 his album. It is of no avail — those lying volumes will never go 
 down to posterity as history .J But, those curious in the weakness 
 and wickedness of deception, may deposit them on the same shelf 
 with the memoirs of Naundorff, the Latin epitaph- to the memory 
 and ashes of Louis XVIL, the letter of M. Trognon, and the forged 
 affidavit of the Eev. M. Marcoux, of St. Begis, of which I shall 
 shortly speak. If all were bound together, they would form what 
 M. H. de Couroey calls " un Roman d'imagination."* 
 
 * The following items of unconnected information I here insert in a note, as they 
 may at some time be of service. 
 
 I am informed by tlie Rev. Mr. Van Rensselaer, of Mount Morris, that he was 
 acquainted with Mrs. Catherine Mancius, the daughter of Jacob Vanderheyden, the 
 Indian trader, who, the reader of my previous article will remember, was present at 
 the time that Mr. Williams was left among the Indians at the head of Lake George, 
 and who, afterwards, in conversation with Thos. Williams, seemed anxious to pry 
 Into the subject. Mrs. Mancius mentioned to Mr. Van Rensselaer, that when Talley- 
 rand was in this country, he made her father a visit. It is certainly singular to find 
 Talleyrand in contact with old Jacob Vanderheyden. Again, Mr. Treadway, of 
 Malone, informs me that on mentioning this subject to Mr. Brockway, a gentleman 
 whose statements are to be relied on, he told him that in 1852 he was at the Sanlt 
 Ste. Marie, when two Frenchmen, fresh from Prance, arrived there, and made earnest 
 and particular inquiry for Mr. Williams, supposing that he was there, or in the 
 neighborhood. Both were unable to speak English, and one was a Bamieh Frieat 
 On being informed where he lived, they immediately employed some Indians to p.iddl. 
 themtoa canoe, through the Uke to Mackinac, with a vl.w to Uk. . .team« for 
 
422 THE LOST PRINCK. 
 
 On one point I must touch before dismissing consideration of the 
 Prince de Joinville and his mission — viz. the motives of Louis 
 Philippe in revealing to Mr. Williams the secret of his birth. The 
 olua to these will be found in his political position. The i-6ginie of 
 the citizen king had on it the stain, not only of illegitimacy, in the 
 eyes of the royalists, but of treachery, ingratitude, and liypoqrisy : 
 " Ces D'Orleans sont de si honnfetes gens," was a compliment of 
 contraries after the days of July. The world regarded Louis 
 Philippe simply as a clever rogue, who could make good pen and 
 ink sketches, and the problem concerning whom was whether he 
 would die in his bed. Between Bonapartists, legitimists and ultra 
 liberals, his chances of extreme unction were slender. Whatever 
 would enable him to gain the confidence and affection of the world, 
 to conciliate or crush opposing parties, while he united in himself 
 the souvenirs of the past, would be esteemed by him a master-stroke 
 of policy. Could he persuade France that he -loved the memory of 
 Louis XVI., and revered the Emperor, while himself the incarna- 
 tion of liberalism, and thus twine his republican crown with wreaths 
 from St. Helena and the Madeleine, that so the eagle, and the tri- 
 color, and the drapeau blanc, might, in combination, ornament and 
 defend his throne, he might yet have a sepulchre in St. Denis, and 
 a list of successors like Hugh Capet. 
 
 From those who have been well termed " courtiers of all times, 
 all dynastic^, and all powers," he had doubtless learned those secrets 
 which pursue a throne, and among them the existence of Louis 
 XVII., a fact more clearly evinced by the Naundorff discussion. 
 With a genius which would have shone in the neighborhood of the 
 Astor,he seems to have designed converting France into a museum 
 for monarchical and imperial relics, dead and living, and astonishing 
 the world with the si^ht of the lusty embonpoint of the captive of 
 
 Green Bay. Here my information ends. But Mr. Williams has frequently told me 
 that strangers from abroad have inquired for him, but seemed quite unsuspicious that 
 their visits were of any meaning or moment, and has no particular recollection of tho 
 Incident referred to. 
 
DE JOISViLLE AND DE BEACCHESNB. 423 
 
 the Temple, side by side with that of the sai-copliagns of the 
 mighty Napoleon. At the command of his father, De Joinville 
 
 tironght to Paris the coffined earthquake of St. Helena, and 
 Louis Philippe reverently deposited it under his throne, while 
 he despatched his son across the Atlantic, to bring over, with his 
 •ibdication signed, the living monarch, whose quiescent simplicity 
 alight nentralize the explosive properties of the imperial corpse. 
 With Williams in his hands, how boldly could he have confronted 
 the Legitimists, and said, " You accuse me of plotting against 
 Oharles X., and usurping the throne of Henry V. Look at your 
 3wn work and your own position. The wrongs of this man at once 
 !ake from you all pretence of right, and consign yon to historic 
 damnation, as the blackest and foulest intriguers who ever swindled 
 \hemselves into empire. I act a great, a noble, a generous part. I 
 vestore to France the consecrated dust of her heroic chief, and bring 
 uaok from exile, to wealth, honoi-, and happiness, all that remains 
 to the nation of her ancient kings. Between my royal cousin and 
 myself there is no rivalry. My throne is based on the election of 
 
 » the people, bat if he he deemed by any to have right, he surrenders 
 to me. His religion, his profession, his language, his habits, his 
 iraining, unfit him for political life in France. All parties are thus 
 Bxtingnished. I have shown I trust the nation ; let the nation trust 
 m?. In me Bonapartist, Eoyalist, Liberal, find no opponent, but a 
 (riend and father." 
 
 Such, in brief, is my explanation of the conduct of Louis Philippe, 
 and I deem it sufficient. Ton cannot say, there was any improba- 
 bility he would reveal to Mr. Williams the secret of his birth, after 
 bringing to France the ashes of Napoleon. The one is but the 
 counterpoise of the other, requisite to prevent the other from being 
 misehievous, while both together were calculated to extinguish 
 parties, and make ' all souvenirs, all interests, all anticipations, 
 centre in Louis Philippe. 
 
424 THB LOST FRINGE. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THB BATTLE OF THE AFFIDAVITS. 
 
 Mt principal reason for urging Mr. Williams to consent to the 
 publication of his story, in the imperfect form it was first 
 presented, was to elicit evidence, I doubted not must exist, in 
 various quarters. I was not mistaken. While General Cass was 
 the only person who had attempted anything lilce argument 
 against Mr. Williams, with a result certainly not unfavorable to 
 the latter, confirmation of his statements grew up in all directions. 
 Appendix M. 
 
 About the end of March, the Rev. Dr. Hawks received infor- 
 mation from a friend in New Orleans, that a lady residing there 
 was in possession of important facts relative to the preservation of 
 the Dauphin, and I immediately determined to go there. The day 
 before I left New York, I was introduced by a friend to M. H. 
 De Courcey who had written several letters in the " Phare de New 
 York," and more recently in the " Oourrier des Etats Unis," in 
 opposition to me. I consented to this introduction, because, I 
 supposed Mr. De Courcey misapprehended my motives, and I 
 wished to assure him, the investigation was conducted with the 
 simple desire of obtaining historic truth. He replied, he had the 
 same feelings ; that the death of the Dauphin was a fact no well- 
 informed Frenchman denied ; admitted, however, there were some 
 singular points in the evidence ; said, the next day he was going to 
 France ; and, as he was well acquainted with M. de Beauohesne, 
 would confer with him on the subject ; and, in conclusion, assured 
 me, as aLegitimist, Louis XVII., if alive, would have all his sym- 
 pathies, notwithstanding any differences of religious faith, and 
 expressed his firm conviction, the truth could not be hidden. Mr. 
 A. Fleming, who introduced me to him, was present at our inter- 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE AFTIDAVITS. 425 
 
 view. The next day we set out for onr respective destinations. 
 M. de Conrcey by the French, and I by the Charleston steamer. I 
 left New York, April 9, arrived at Charleston in two days, and 
 following the mail route across South Carolina, Georgia, and Ala- 
 bama, reached New Orleans on the 18th of that month. 
 
 By the kindness of friends, I soon obtained an interview with 
 the lady in question, and, after several conversations, in the pre- 
 sence of witnesses of the highest respectability, ascertained the 
 exact amount of information she had, or was willing to communi- 
 cate. I found her in a little wooden house in the Faubourg. It is 
 a part of the town where everything remains as it was in old 
 French times, and it seemed strange to make inquiries in such a spot 
 respecting events which happened in Europe more than half a 
 century ago. Mrs. Brown had resided in New Orleans since 1820. 
 She bore the marks of extreme age, though only seventy-five years, 
 and gave me the impression of one who had seen gi-eat vicissitudes. 
 Her health was very infirm, as she was afiBioted with a cancel- in 
 the breast, which threatened soon to put an end to her life ; but 
 her mind was clear and intelligent, and there was often much terse 
 vigor in her language. She had read nothing which had been 
 written in relation to Mr. Williams, did not even know there was 
 any such person now living, and was entirely ignorant of the 
 recent questions at issue. As the best means of arriving at the 
 facts of the case, I requested her to tell me the story of her life. 
 It was in substance, as follows : She was educated in Edinburgh, 
 where she became acquainted with and married a man named 
 Benjamin Oliver, a French republican, who took her to the conti- 
 nent. She obtained a divorce from' him, and returned to 
 Edinburgh; where, in 1804, she again married Joseph Deboit, 
 secretary to the Count D'Artois, who then resided in Holyrood 
 House. Deboit had previously been in the service of Louis XVI., 
 and handed the Dauphin into the carriage on the night of the 
 flight to Varennea, when the young Prince said they were going 
 to the play. Soon after her marriage, the Count D'Artois left 
 
426 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Edinburgh, and went to the continent, she believed to Enssia, to 
 see the king, but at this distance of time could not speak with cer- 
 tainty concerning a thing in which she had no part. She remained 
 in the palace at Holyrood, until after his return to England. In 
 ISOV, she joined her husband in London. Here, she first became 
 acquainted with the Count de Lisle, as Louis XVIII. was then 
 called, and with the Duke and Duchess D'Angoulferae. As her 
 husband occupied a oonfldential position in the royal family, she 
 became very intimate with them, and especially with the Duchess 
 D'Augoulfeme. There was much conversation among them at that 
 time respecting the Dauphin, and Joseph Deboit told her, he was 
 not dead, but carried away for safety. Being one day alone with 
 tlie duchess, she mentioned what Deboit had said, and asked her if 
 it was true, and if she knew what had become of him. The duchess 
 replied, without any hesitation, and with an expression of pleasui-e, 
 that she had assurance her brother was in America) Here, the 
 conversation dropped, as the duchess did not seem inclined to 
 enter into particulars. In the same year, however, she remembers 
 having heard, either from the Duchess D'Angoulfeme, or from 
 Deboit, but cannot, after so long a time, say which, that a royal- 
 ist named Bellanger, was the chief agent in removing the Prince. 
 As everything said to her was confidential, she spoke to no one. 
 except her husband of what she heard. " All the members of the 
 royal family,'' she said, were well acquainted with the fact of the 
 Dauphin's preservation," and, smiling at the idea of their ignorance, 
 she continued, " they all knew it, sir, they all knew it." 
 
 She returned to Holyrood House with her husband, who died 
 there in 1810, but, after his decease, she still continued her intimacy 
 with the Bourbon family, and was employed by them, in various 
 ways, until the Eestoration. 
 
 Mrs. Brown, I heard, had for years mentioned to Mrs. Reid, of 
 New Orleans, and others, that she had been employed to put into 
 a convent some young woman connected, in some way, with the 
 royal family, and I questioned her particularly about this, but could 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE AFFIDAVITS. 427 
 
 obtain no information. She did not think it had anything to do 
 with the matter in hand, of which she would state all she knew, 
 but she added, " there are some things, about which history had 
 better be silent." This girl passed for her daughter, and is now 
 living at a convent in France. This subject seemed to irritate 
 her, and, being urged by those with whom she had previously, in 
 unguarded moments, conversed, I often recurred to it, but could get 
 no fuller information. 
 
 In 1809 she again went to France, and there, at a place called 
 Moriey, married an American gentleman, named George Brown, 
 who led a wandering sea-faring life, in privateers and merchantmen. 
 In 1812, Brown was sailing master, on board a privateer, called the 
 True Blooded Yankee, which was bought by Mr. Henry Preble, a 
 London merchant, brother to Commodore Preble. The vessel 
 was commanded by Thomas Oxnard. She showed me Brown's 
 portrait, which was that of a handsome, gentlemanly man. 
 
 In 1813, De Vaux, aide-de-camp to General Moreau, came to the 
 convent, at Moriey, in France, where she was staying, and said 
 there was a crisis coining on, and she must cross the channel imme- 
 diately, and carry despatches to the Count D'Artois, and the Count 
 de Lisle, these, he sewed between the ticking and leather of her 
 trunk. A badge, ornamented with fleurs de lis, which she still 
 retains, was given her on the occasion, and she was told it would 
 be useful to her, at several points she had to pass. Meeting a body 
 of troops in one of these places, according to her instructions, she 
 drew aside the folds of her dress, and exhibited the token, when 
 every mark of respect was shown, and she was expedited on her 
 journey. She arrived safely in England, and delivered the package 
 into the hands of the Count D'Artois, in South Audley street, 
 Grosvenor square, in the presence of M. de Belleville. 
 
 Before she relinquished her connection with the royal family, the 
 Due JTAngouUme came to her, examined her papers, and removed 
 etery thing relating to the prioate affairs of the Bourbons. 
 
 Having executed her commission, she returned to France, and 
 
428 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 went to sea with her husband ; narrowly escaped death by wreck 
 and mutiny, but, at least, arrived safely in the Brazils, and kept 
 school in St. Salyador. Owing to misfortunes they were very poor, 
 but, as soon as Brown could collect means, they embarked for New 
 York, in the Tom Bowling, or Bolyn, but he died at sea on June 7, 
 1815, on the 4th July of which year, she arrived a widow in America. 
 Her wanderings were yet far from being ended. A few months 
 found her in the Havanna, where she was housekeeper to Grey and 
 Fernandez. 
 
 Business once more drew her to Europe, and here she again 
 became conversant with facts that bear upon the case. Thrown 
 back among her old associates, she resided in Edinburgh, with Mrs. 
 Charaberlaw, whose husband had been secretary to the Count de 
 Coigny, one of the intimates, as weU as the Prince de Conde, of 
 the Count D'Artois, while at Holyrood. Mrs. Chamberlaw liad 
 accompanied the royal family to Paris, and was then fresh from the 
 Tuileries. She told her she had recently heard in the palace, that 
 the Dauphin was alive, and had been carried to America by one 
 Bellanger, who took him to Philadelphia. " This,'' she said, " was 
 no news to me, as I had heard the same years before, but Mrs. 
 Charaberlaw added, the Prince was still living there, and was known 
 as Williams, an Indian missionary." 
 
 The examination of Mrs. Brown, was conducted in the presence 
 of an able and highly .respectable lawyer, Mr. Bradford, and other 
 persons. (Having ascertained that she knew nothing of what had 
 transpired a? the north, and had not heard of the Rev. Eleazar 
 Williams, she was asked, " Do you recollect whether Mrs. Chamber- 
 law mentioned the Christian name of the Indian missionary, said 
 to be the Prince, by Mrs. Chamberlaw ?" " It is so long ago, that 
 I forget it now, but should probably recognise it, if I heard it." 
 " Was it any Scripture name ?" " I can't say." " Was it Joseph ?" 
 "No." "Was it Aaron!" "No." " Was it Eleazar ?" "That 
 was it, to the best of my recollection?^ Mr. Bradford smiled, as 
 he wrote down the answer, perceiving, evidently, from her man- 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE AITlDAVrrS. 429 
 
 ner, that her recognition of the name was gennine. Mrs. Brown 
 went on to say, that, according to Mrs. Ohamberlaw's statement, the 
 subject had been mach discussed in the palace, and that the royal 
 family said, Williams was incompetent to reign, and his elevation 
 to the throne would only increase the difficulties of the times — that, 
 a man had come out from America to confer with them on the 
 subject, ^nd she had seen him. When he first came to the palace, 
 there was a report that Louis XYII. was himself there. Money 
 was given to this man, and he returned to America. Over and 
 over again, I questioned Mrs. Brown, in the presence of many of 
 the most respectable persons in New Orleans, if she was certain of 
 these facts, and was assured, on the word of a dying Christian, that 
 what she said was true. After this, I gave her my articles, in Put- 
 nam, to read, of which she previously knew nothing, and showed 
 her a faithful crayon sketch of Mr. Williams, by Fagnani, in which 
 she immediately recognised the Bourbon lineaments. When she 
 bad read the articles, she said, " I only wish I was as certain of 
 salvation, as I am that he must be the man." 
 
 To test, in every possible way, Mrs. Brown's declarations, 
 I applied to a lady who had known her intimately for many years, 
 Mrs. Beid, sister-in-law of Commodore Patterson. She said she had 
 known her for seventeen years, and was introduced to her as 
 a person who had been intimate with the royal family of France, 
 and that in conversation upon the events of her life, as long ago as 
 twehe or thirteen years, she had told her all the particulars con- 
 tained in her present affidavit, and especially that the Danphin, 
 supposed to have died in the Temple, had heen carried to Philadel- 
 phia, ly a man named Bellanger, and was an I-ndiam, missionary, 
 named Williams. Up to a few weeks, Mrs. Keid had never heard 
 of the existence of Eleazar Williams, and had iot as yet seen my 
 articles. All she knew on the subject was derived, simply, from 
 conversations with Mrs. Brown, in former years. "But," she 
 added, " that you may have more than my word for this, and that 
 I may feel more secure in making an affidavit, inquire of the Rev. 
 
'i30 THE LOST PRWCE. 
 
 Mr. WhitaJl. He knows -well what I have said to him, for years, on 
 the subject." I accordingly. went to Mr. Whifcall, a laborious and 
 faithful missionary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and applied 
 to him for information. " All that Mrs. Reid states," he said, '* is 
 correct, and you can depend upon it. I have heard the story from 
 her for seven or eight years or more. But, to be on the safe side, 
 I can swear to five. I never paid much attention to the subject, 
 but I am ready to attest to the facts." 
 
 This triple chain of testimony, thus standing secure, was drawn 
 up, deliberately weighed, and sworn to by Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Eeid, 
 and Mr. Whitall, before G. Lugenbuhl, Esq., who himself added his 
 testimony to the private worth and reliability of the witnesses. 
 But, the city of New Orleans will stand voucher for that. Appen- 
 dix N. 
 
 Besides obtaining this testimony, I endeavored to gain some 
 information of Bellanger. One fact was testified to on all hands, 
 by persons of highest respectability, that, in 1848, a paragraph did 
 appear in the papers there, to the effect that, a person of that name, 
 on his death-bed, had declared he brought the Dauphin to Ame- 
 rica. I diligently examined the files of the " Delta," " Picayune," 
 " Bee," " Commercial," and other papers, but without success. 
 Those who have ever attempted a similar research, can appreciate 
 the difSculty it entails, and the time and patience it requires. In 
 cases where the recovery of property depended on information, 
 thps to be obtained, it has taken years to effect the object. In none 
 of the papers were the files complete. The " Bee" was that which 
 approached nearest to it. Sometimes half a paper was missing, just 
 at the time most likely for the information to occur. I also 
 examined the recoi'ds of the courts, hoping to find some clue in the 
 lists of successions, and also the registers of burials. The law 
 respecting the registry of deaths is practically a dead letter. 
 Scarcely one in a dozen is recorded, and, in times of epidemic, the 
 dead are fortunate if they are numbered. In one of the courts, I 
 found the papers of a person named Bellanger, a native of Paris, 
 
THE BATTLa OF THB AFFIDAVITS. 431 
 
 who married at St. Louis, in 1806 or 7, returned to France in 1816, 
 and stayed there for several years — but, of him, whether dead or 
 living, I conld get no clue. The fact is, there have been Bellan- 
 gers innumerable in New Orleans. Bellanger, a jeweller, Bellan- 
 ger, a gambler, Bellanger, a cooper, Bellanger de Bouill6, a noble- 
 man, and friend of Le Bay de Chaumont, and Colonel de Ferri^re ; 
 and, to mention no more, one whose father was minister of Louis 
 XVL He died several years ago. I had an interview with his 
 son, who said he expired in his arms, and made no such confession. 
 
 It has occurred to me, the report ciixulated in New Orleans, in 
 1848, and which reached Mr. Williams, through Mr. Kimball, may 
 have originated in some distorted account of Mrs. Brown's conver- 
 sations ; and it may ultimately turn out, Bellanger was not in New 
 Orleans so late as 1848, and may have died, if he is dead, which 
 some reports deny, at some far distant place or time. This may be 
 so; but, when I bear in mind, the efforts made to conceal and 
 falsify testimony, in every shape and way, it is just as probable, 
 means have been found to hush the matter up. The account which 
 Mr. Williams received, is too particular to be altogether a dream. 
 Meanwhile, thus much is certain that, years before Mr. Williams 
 knew that Bellanger was a historic personage, or had any connec- 
 tion with the events in the Temple, he was informed that he was 
 the chief agent in bringing him to this country, though, from his 
 ignorance of events, he imagined the name must be an assumed 
 one — that so long ago as 1807, a living witness heard in the royal 
 household, the same fact respecting Bellanger, and that M. Beau- 
 chesne historically demonstrates, this agent of Louis XVIII. must 
 have been the individual who removed the Prince. That he had 
 his appropriate assistants is every way probable, and none seem 
 more adapted to the purpose than those which Naundorffs state- 
 ment, and Mrs. Dudley's letter, alike indicate, a girl to amuse the 
 Prince, and a lady of the queen's household to take charge of them 
 both. 
 
 My duties called me home, and I was compelled to relinquish the 
 
432 THE LOST PRINC8. 
 
 investigation. I came back by way of the Mississippi and the laKea, 
 and as I was approaching New York, I read in a newspaper the 
 following paragraph : 
 
 " The ' Conrrier des Etats Unis ' publishes the following affidavit of Mary 
 Ann Williams, mother of the Rev. Eleazar Williams : 
 
 " State of New Tori, FranMin County, ss. 
 
 "Personally appeared before me, the undersigned, one of the Justices of 
 the Peace in and for the Said county, Mary Ann Williams, and being duly 
 sworn deposeth and says, that she is upwards of eighty years of age, but 
 does not know her exact age ; that she is the widow of Thomas Williams, 
 and that she is the natural mother of Eev. Eleazar Williams, and that she 
 is aware of his pretensions to be the son of Louis XTI., and knows them 
 to be false ; that he was her fourth child, and born at Caughnawaga ; that 
 at the time of his birth her sister took him to the priest to be baptized, and 
 that her sister gave the priest the name of the child's godfather, which was 
 Lazar, &om which the child took his name ; that he was bom in the spring, 
 thinks in the month of June ; says that when he was about nine years old 
 some of his father's friends from the States came to Caughnawaga and 
 took him and a younger brother away, to send them to school ; that some 
 time after he returned home and had a sore leg, which made him lame ; 
 that they doctored his leg ; the sore was on his knee ; that sometimes it 
 would heal up and break out again, and that they were sometimes fearful 
 it would never get well ; that she has no recollection how the scar came 
 on his face; that she never knew of his having any trunk or medals 
 in his possession ; and that her son Eleazar very strongly resembles his 
 father, Thomas Williams ; and says that no persons whatever, either clergy- 
 men or others, ever advised or influenced her in any manner to say that 
 he was her son ; that the first intimation she ever had of his pretensions to 
 a royal birth, was from one William Woodman, an Oneida Indian, who 
 came to her, about three years ago, and asked her if she would not be 
 willing to go before a magistrate and swear that Eleazar was not her son, 
 but was given her to bring up ; she told him she would do no such thing, 
 as she knew him to be her son; that Eleazar has since mentioned to her 
 that some of his Mends thought he was not an Indian, but descended from 
 
THE BATTLE OF THK AFFIDAVITS. 433 
 
 royal parentage ; she told hiiu it was no such thing, that he was her owa 
 son. jiej 
 
 " Maey Ann + Williams. 
 mark 
 " Subscribed and sworn before rae this 28th day of March, 1853. 
 
 "Alfred Fdltoh, Justice of the Peace." 
 
 As I folded the paper, I oonld but smile at the folly of an act, 
 which, I felt sure, would recoil on its contrirers. On my arrival 
 in the city I learned something of the history of the aflSdavit. It 
 travelled a long distance before it saw the light. M. de Oonroey, 
 with whom I parted on the eve of going to New Orleans, took the 
 document with him to France, and thence transmitted it to 
 America, for publication in the " Oourrier des Etats Unis." 
 
 I felt sorrow fdr M. de Oourcey, because I could not allow myself 
 to imagine he was a party to this transparent forgery. 
 
 I felt sorry for M. de Oourcey, because it is unpleasant, under any 
 eircnifistauoes, to be made, however innocently, an instrument in 
 assailing the reputation, and seeking to destroy the usefulness of 
 another. 
 
 Though M. de Oourcey has styled me a romancer, using the 
 word in its most offensive sense, I will not retaliate. 
 
 The matter was assuming a serious form, and it was necessary to 
 proceed with caution. In a western paper, the Eev. Mr. Marconz, 
 of St. Ee^s, was openly spoken of as the author of the aflSdavit, 
 and I knew of no one excepting him, in St. Eegis or Hogansburg, 
 likely to correspond with M. de Oourcey, whose initials only had 
 been appended to his articles. But as the Eoman priesthood have 
 the reputation of being astute, it seemed difficult to imagine he 
 would lend himself to the transaction, which, according to the 
 maxims of Talleyrandic morality, was worse than a crime — a blun- 
 der. At my request, the Hon. Phineas Atwater, formerly Indian 
 agent, undertook to discover the truth. He -went to Hogansburg 
 and inade inquiries of Mr. A. Fulton, the magistrate before whom 
 
 the affidavit was taken, and obtained the following certificate. 
 
 19 
 
484 THE LOST PKINOE. 
 
 " I certify that the affidavit sworn to before me in March laat, by Mrs. 
 Mary Ann Williams, was in the English language. She came to ray office, 
 in Hogansburgh, either in company with, or met there, the Ercv. Francis 
 Marcoux, Roman Catholic priest at St. Regis. Two Indians were also 
 present. Mr. Marcoux acted as interpreter, and put the i^uestions to her in 
 the Indian language, and interpreted them in English. 
 
 " Hoganshurg, July 8, 1853." "A. Fulton, J. P. 
 
 Having learned the ciroumstanoes under wMclr the affidavit was 
 made, Mr. Atwater had an interview with Mr. Marcoux, and told 
 him the ohjeet he had in view, when Mr. Marcoux acknowledged - 
 he had been agent in the matter, but said he was solicited, by 
 letter, from Mr. de Oonroey, to obtain the affidavit. How far he 
 followed or outran the solicitations or instructions of M. de Oouroey, 
 he did not say, and this is a point these gentlemen must settle 
 between themselves. I can only state facts. Mr. Atwater then 
 proceeded to the residence of Mrs. Williams, whom he found two 
 miles from Hogansbnrg, on the Eacket river. He informed her of 
 the object of his visit, when she consented to go to Hogansbnrg, 
 and declare the truth. He had, however, great embarrassments to 
 contend with, as there was no interpreter then in the village, with 
 the exception of one entirely in the interest of Mr. Marcoux. But 
 he had to make the best of circumstances, though, as Mrs. Williams 
 was surrounded with Koman Catholic Indians, who have a bitter 
 hostility to Mr. Williams, he could not obtain from her general and 
 full statements. They thronged around her, and embarrassed the 
 examination, and it was impossible to keep them from her. How- 
 ever, the old woman having heard the previous affidavit, to which 
 she had put her mark, read to her, in Indian, determined to dispense 
 with an interpreter, and express what she had to say, in her own 
 language and manner, from which it was impossible to make her 
 vary. Her declaration was taken down in Mohawk by an Indian, 
 and fahely translated by Antoine Barron, the Eomish interpreter, 
 under cover of a written oath of fidelity. I give it in both languages 
 as follows, having corrected the translation : — 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE AFPIDAVITS. 435 
 
 li Mary Ann Williams, ne teiakeniterontakwe ne Thomas Williams, 
 etho wakeriwaniraton tsi wakatati raonhake ne A. Fulton, Esq., etho 
 Hogansburg, ^h nonwe siwennitare ne March tkenne, tsi nikaririhoten 
 wakatati, ne wahakeriwaneken tsinakiere ne Francis Marcoiuc, Akwesasne 
 Katsihenstatsi, nok raonha wahatewennakaratate, nok wahakeriwaaonton- 
 nionse, ne katl tsi onen wahonkewennanotonse, etho wakeriwatshenri tsi 
 lah ne tewaken nok iah oni tokenske teken tsini kaieren. Ne kati tevra- 
 katonwentsioni nonsaktakwarisionko tsi nonwe nisewatewatanion. Een 
 kati kaien enkeriwanirate ne tokenske tsi nenkiere, tsiuiiore keiare; nok 
 tninikewennoten en'wat-iaton, nok iah onka taiontewennakaratate ; — waki- 
 ron kati, iah tokenske teken tsi waton ne kaiatonsera ia-onka ne ietsiens- 
 tatsi, nok oni ne oiashonha nonkwe teionkenikonaraten ; tsi wakerop riienha 
 ne Bleazer, nok tsi wakatatsennaren ne kaiatonserake raonha-se ne Mr. 
 Marcoux, ne Akwesasne ratsienstatsi wahakenaskwaien, nok oni, uoiasou 
 nonkwe tsionatouwisen akatatscnnaren nok raonha wahatewennakaratate. 
 Ja-tokenske teken, tsi waton ne kaiatonsera rosinanonwakskwe ne riienha 
 tehotkohen tiotierenten sonsasonkwaiatorenne neto tontahaientakwe tsi 
 nonwe iehateweienstakwe. Keiare tsi roientakwe ne iontwistaniakta ne 
 poseroimi iakeniterontakwe ; raonha ne rokstenha wahariwisa tsi wahatka- 
 raientakwe ne roienha, oh-ki ok nahoten tehonekon tsi iontenninontha, 
 sarokeuha nok Tsiawiskenha. 
 
 "£entho iesennaronnion ne keienhokonha, Peter, Catharine, Ignatius, 
 Thomas [Eleazer tehotkonken,) Louisa, John, Feter, Hannah, Ehoda, 
 Charles, Jarvis; ok enskat wakewirense, onen tokat tsi wakateweton. 
 Keiare tsi iakenenonne ne oseronni teiakeniterontakwe toha ioserake 
 teinae tsi tekiatonniarikon konwaiats ; nok tsi keiaten hawe keienhokonha 
 ne Kleazer, nok oni oiasonha, rakwanenne, nok oni tsi toha iateioserake 
 etho ratqratskwe ne Oseronni teiakeniterontakwe. 
 
 her 
 "Makt Ann + Williams. 
 mark. 
 
 " Subscrihed and sworn before me, this 8th day of July, 1853, 
 
 " A. Fulton, Justice of Peace." 
 
 TB.ANSLATION. 
 
 "I, Mary Ann Williams, widow of the late Thomas Williams, of 
 Caughnawaga, made a, deolaiation on oath, before A. Fulton, Ebij., at 
 
436 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 Hogansburg, in the montK of March last, at the request of the KeV. 
 Francis Marcoiix, Priest of St. Regis, he acting as interpreter and putting 
 the questions to me, which being read and explained to me, I foimd to con- 
 tain what I did not intend to say and which is not true. I now wish to 
 correct those errors, so far as my memory will allow, in my native 
 language, without the intervention of any interpreter — that is to say — it 
 is not true as stated in the affidavit, that no person, priest, or others, ever 
 advised or influenced me to say, that Eleazar is my mim son. It was Mr. 
 Marcoux the priest, at St. Regis, who urged me with others, some women, 
 to make the affidavit, and he acted as an interpreter on the occasion, 
 as before stated. It is not true also, as stated in the affidavit, that my 
 adopted son had a sore leg when he returned from school the first time to us. 
 ^ remember that my husband had a medal which he ordered Charles and 
 " Jarvis to pawn to a merchant for him.' ^he names of my children were 
 Peter, Catherine, Ignatius, Thomas (Eleazar _a d:qited), Louisa, John, 
 Peter, Hannah, Rhoda, Charles, and Jarvis yl lost one child by miscar- 
 riage after the birth of several that lived. I recollect going with my hus- 
 band to Lake George, a great many years ago, and took with me Eleazar 
 and another older boy, and that my husband was in the habit of going 
 
 there almost every year.* 
 
 her 
 "Signed, Mart Ann + Williams. 
 mark. 
 
 " Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 8th day of July, 1853, 
 
 " A. Fulton, Justice of the Peace." 
 
 Even without the afiSdavit, the facts recounted in the foregoing 
 pages would be sufficient to show the utter falsehood of the state- 
 
 * The force of thia document lies in the twice used word " tebotkonen," " adopted," 
 the meaning of which Mr. Marcoux has acknowledged to Mr. Fulton. But Barron, 
 the interpreter, at the time pretended he did not understand the word — and, where 
 Mrs. Williams denies the statement concerning the sore leg, contrary to his oath of 
 fidelity, substituted " Eleazar " for adopted son — " riienha tehotkonen " in order to 
 render the translation of a most precise document, as indefinite as possible. He 
 trusted to our failure in minute observation, and nearly succeeded, as his breach of 
 faith, was only discovered in correcting the proofs. Twice, then, in thia affidavit, 
 Mary Ann Williams acknowledges that Eleazar is not her son. He is "riienha 
 tehotkonen," " adopted son " in opposition to " riienha," which by itself, has the 
 force of " own son." " Tehotkonen " is only applied to adopted persons of foreign 
 
THE BATTLE OP THE AFFIDAVITS. 437 
 
 mentg fabricated by Mr. Maroonx. That Eleazar Williams was nine 
 years of age when he went to Massachusetts, that he was laid np 
 on his return to Canada, with sores on his Isnees and ankles ; that 
 he resembled Thomas Williams in appearance, are stories so 
 apocryphal that they could never have been hazarded, except 
 under the idea that no farther inquiiy would ever be made, but a 
 lying affidavit be permitted to over ride the facts of history. But 
 if such be the instrumentalities made nse of against Mr. Williams, 
 they will do him little injury. For does it require the confession 
 of Mary Ann Williams to prove that Eleazar is only her adopted 
 child. That he is her son may well be accounted a physical impos- 
 sibility, and the mental characteristics, developed in the course of 
 his history, ai'e equally at variance with the supposition that he is 
 an Indian, to say nothing of the testimony of Skenondogh. 
 But the affidavit supplies the confirmation which some minds 
 require. 
 
 That effijrts may be again made to tamper with her, and frighten 
 or force tier to unsay what she has said, I have no doubt. Indeed, 
 Marcoux had the impertinence, when he heard the nature of the 
 affidavit she had voluntarily made, to carry her a second time to 
 Mr. Fulton, who very properly declined, as he, doubtless, would 
 have done in the fli-st instance, if he could possibly have had the 
 remotest conception of the iniquity intended to be perpetrated, 
 to have anything to do with the affair. There stands the affidavit 
 of Mrs. Williams. For once she has spoken freely, and were she 
 now to make a thousand affidavits to the contrary, it could only be 
 imputed to dark acts which shun the light. 
 
 The conduct of the Rev. Mr. Marcoux, of St. Regis, in this 
 
 blood. The worij " iontatewerawi " is used in cases of adoption from one Indian 
 family to another. To crown his rascality, Barron wished to make an affadavit in 
 English implying by indirect language that the-intention of Mrs. Williams was to 
 assert that Eleazar is her own son. What are you to do with such men ? Happily 
 Qieir deception recoils upon themselves. 
 
438 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 transaction, is of such a nature, that I cannot trust myself to cha- 
 racterize it as it deserves. The simplest statement of the truth 
 seems to savor of exaggeration. A Christian minister enters a 
 foreign country, bringing with him an aged, and, I may say, dying 
 woman, who stands to him in the sacred relation of a member of 
 his flock-^lie carries her before a magistrate of that country, 
 places in her hand the word of God, and voluntarily undertakes to 
 act as interpreter of her sentiments, in a matter affecting vitally 
 the reputation and welfare of a citizen of that country, who is, at 
 the same time, her adopted child. It seems impossible to conceive 
 a case in which more solemn demands could be made on a man for 
 fidelity, or more pledges tacitly given by him of adherence to the 
 truth. The office of the ministry, the pastoral relation, the 
 Tesponsible duty of interpreter, the saci'ed bond subsisting between 
 the maker and the subject of the affidavit, and the delicate 
 position of the citizen of one country availing himself of the 
 magisti'acy of another, all seem so many guarantees, that if truth 
 could be found anywhere, it would be here. Now, it must be 
 remembered, this clergyman has previously tried in vain to induce 
 this woman to make a certain statement, which she has perempto- 
 rily refused to make. She now appears before the magistrate, 
 supposing that she is about to testify to the truth. Taking 
 advantage of her ignorance of all languages but Indian, and 
 relying upon the obscurity of a barbaric tongue to hide from the 
 world his impostui-e, this clergyman falsely interprets her answers 
 to the magistrate, substitutes wholesale statements, adapted to his 
 own ends, for tliose which she, in reality makes, then, falsely 
 interprets his interpretation to her, procures her oath to his fabri- 
 cation, poisons the fountains of truth and justice at their primal 
 and most sacred source, and seeks to send the poor woman into the 
 grave with a sworn lie upon her lips, against the child of her 
 adoption, tliat he might at once destroy his reputation, and deceive 
 the whole world upon a grave question of history. I think all 
 
KIN AND KIND. 439 
 
 must admit that this is one of the most high-handed and gratni- 
 tous acts of imposition ever practised. 
 
 America, a free country ! What is there left ns of freedom, if 
 foreignex's may come into the United States, and, by the lips of 
 others, swear away the characters of our most estimable citizens ? 
 There are noble and honorable men and women in the Boman com- 
 munion. They are infinitely above treachery like this, and will as 
 severely reprobate it as I can do. ITor do I think there will be want- 
 ing many persons who will consider the crime perpetrated by this 
 priest, as too great and daring to have been undertaken on indivi- 
 dual responsibility, and who will ask what is the natural inference 
 from an act so strangely revolting? No persons would, to gain any 
 ordinary point, run such risks, and the only cause to which it is 
 reasnnable to attribute so perfidious a transaction is, that it was 
 felt necessary, at all hazards, to put a stop to investigation, and 
 prevent the truth from flashing on the world. But in this case, as 
 well as in every other in Which attempts have been made to conoel 
 or pervert facts, the result has been precisely contrary to what was 
 anticipated, and may serve as an additional confirmation of one 
 of the homeliest maxims of proverbial philosophy. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 KIN AND KIND. 
 
 Thbee remains for me only one unpleasant task, which is, briefly 
 to criticise the remarks upon the history of Mr. "Williams, in the 
 Appendix and Notes to a recent edition of the "Eedeemed 
 Captive," edited by Dr. Stephen W. 'Williams. The authority of 
 this gentleman has, by many, been deemed decisive, because a 
 member of the Williams family, and, therefore, ex naturd, 
 acquainted with the subject on which he writes, and competent to 
 
440 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 give an authoritative opinion upon it. " In the year 1846," he says, 
 " I prepared and wrote a ' Genealogy and History of the Williams 
 Family in America,' which was published in a large-sized duodecimo 
 volume, with plates, in the year 1847." Now, it appears 
 that, in this volume, there is no mention made of the singular 
 incidents relative to Mr. Williams's disputed parentage ; although, 
 while compiling it. Dr. Williams saw, conversed, and corresponded 
 with, his supposed kinsman. He did not make, he complains, " the 
 most distant allusion to his royal descent, or to his ever having had 
 an interview with De Joinville. The reader can judge whether, if 
 he believed himself of royal descent, he would not have alluded to 
 the fact." 
 
 This is strange resisoning. Does a person always converse with 
 strangers upon subjects nearest to his heart? It is not characteris- 
 tic of Mr. Williams to obtrude his private concerns on others, and 
 hundreds, within the last year, might have used the same argument, 
 and said Mr. Williams never spoke on the subject — ergo, he has 
 no faith in it. But the reader wUl say, Dr. Williams and Mr. Wil- 
 liams were not strangers, for, says the Dr., " I have known him 
 since he was quite young,"— from which it is fair to infer an 
 intimate acquaintance. The first time Mr. Williams remembers 
 having seen Dr. Williams was in 1826, when he was not quite a 
 child, and they have met four or five times since. The Dr. himself 
 says, "I had but little knowledge [i. e. hearsay knowledge] of 
 Eleazar's family, beyond his descent from Eunice Williams;" so 
 that unless there be some mystic intuition in blood, I cannot see Dr. 
 Williams has had any more pei'sonal advantages than others. But 
 the Dr. is a man of observation, and " he has seen " the skin of Mr. 
 Williams, and therefore " ought to know." " He showed me a soar 
 on his side, which he said was in consequence of a wound he 
 received in the late war with Great Britain. He requested mo to 
 examine that scar, for the purpose ot^jtermining whether I thought 
 such a wound would be sufficient to entitle him to a pension from 
 
KIN AND KIND. ' 441 
 
 Oongress. I do not know how much the color of his skin may have 
 altered since then, under his dress, but at that time it was more the 
 color of an Indian than a white man.'' Now, inasmuch as the tex- 
 ture and color of the skin cannot change, I am compelleS to say 
 that, in this last assertion, Di-. 'Williams speaks untruly in fact, and 
 refer the reader, who hasTiot himself had an opportunity of personal 
 examination, to the medical certificates. The opinion of a man is 
 worth nothing whose mind is so warped by prejudice as to make 
 such an assertion. The skin of Mr. Williams is peculiarly soft, deli- 
 cate, and feminine. To the doctor's statement, on this head, I can 
 only oppose a flat denial. But let aU'lhis pass. 
 
 Mr. Williams made, it seems, certain oral statements to Dr. Wil- 
 liams, which are entirely inconsistent with what he has since said ; 
 among them, that his mother was a Frenchwoman. This is an 
 absurdity into which even Mr. Marcoux would not fall. It is well 
 known that Mrs. Williams is almost entirely of Indian blood. Her 
 descent is as follows. , Her gi-eat-grandmother was a half-breed, and 
 married a Frenchman ; their daughter married an Onondaga Indian 
 of full blood, and their child, her mother, did the same. Mr. 
 Williams never could have said, on such a subject, what is here 
 imputed to him. The doctor's memory is as much at fault as his 
 observation. 
 
 We have, then, the foUowing peculiarly strange statement, as 
 coming from Mr. Williams : " He married Miss Mary Jourdan, a 
 distant relative of the King of France, from whom he has been 
 honored with many splendid gifts, among the rest a golden cross 
 and star. He has one son by the name of John." All this, the 
 reader must remember, was inserted by the Dr. in the genealogy of 
 the Williams family, as having been told him, in conversation, by 
 Mr. Williams. But there was another remarkable piece of intelli- 
 gence, which, in the original text, follows the word John, and 
 which our author had the prudence to omit in the Appendix and 
 Notes, lest it should reveal the worth and character of his other 
 
 reminiscences — " He has a son John, born , now (1846) on a 
 
 19* 
 
442 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 visit to the King of Fi-ance, by his request." Most veraoious his- 
 torian, and faithful chronicler of table-talk! And Mr. Williams 
 told you, actually, his son was, in the year 1846, in France, on a 
 visit to Louis Philippe ? Yes, sir, he told it you in the same breath 
 he told you his wife was a relative of the King of France, and the 
 King had sent him a cross and star, but that breath never proceeded 
 from his lips. John Williams has never been out of America. 
 You knew so little of Mr. Williams's personal history, you could 
 not tell when his son was born, but you were very sure that, then, 
 when you were writing, 1846, he was in France. 
 
 But Dr. Williams contradicts himself in a manner which shows 
 how little reliance can be placed on any of his recollections. On 
 p. 174, we are told by him, Mr. Williams never made the " most 
 distant alliision " to " his ever having had an interview with the 
 Prince de Joinville ;" and lo ! on p. 177 we read, " Se frequently 
 told me and my family that this visit from the Prince was in conse- 
 quence of his relationship to his wife, and that he received his pres- 
 ents from the same cause. His stories here were much at variance 
 with those in the magazine." I wonder with what Dr. Williams's 
 stories are'at variance. 
 
 Still there remains another difficulty. Mr. Williams wrote to 
 the Doctor several times, speaking of members of the Williams 
 family as his relatives, and this, we are told, is conclusive evidence 
 of the falsehood of all his statements respecting the Prince de 
 Joinville. Here, I will let Mr. Williams speak for himself, in words 
 with which yon are already familiar. 
 
 "New York, Septemier 12, 1853. 
 "ToDr. S.W.Williams. 
 
 " Sir :— Your recent edition of the Redeemed Captive was only yes- 
 terday put into my hands, by a friend. In it I perceive a note in especial 
 relation to myself. I must express my astonishment, that before you took 
 the liberty of thus using my name, you did not inform me of your intention. 
 
KIN AND KIND. 448 
 
 or, at any rate, that you did not have the courtesy to send me a copy of 
 the work, on its publication, that I might have an opportunity of imme- 
 diately defending myself against your assault on ray reputation, and -which 
 1 am constrained to say, exhibits as little of the feeling of a kinsman, as 
 it does of the candor and truthfulness of a gentleman. Nothing on my 
 part, that I am aware of, in our intercourse, can justify the malicious 
 spirit displayed by you. You are pleased to call me " a distinguished 
 gentleman," at the same time you stoop to every artifice which meaimesa 
 can dictate to injure me in the public estimation. ^ It ia most true that in 
 letters, as well as in conversation, I spoke of myself to you, as well as to 
 others, after my interview with the Prince de Joinville, as a member of the 
 Williams family — ^for the habits and feelings of a lifetime are not to be 
 shaken off in an hour. I did so precisely in the same manner that I still 
 continue to call myself Eleazar Williams, and to speak of Mrs. Mary Arm 
 Williains, of St. Begis, as my mother, though she has giveii n solemn 
 affidavit to the contrary. Besides which, at the time of which you speak, I 
 had not had the opportunity of giving the subject the attention which I have 
 since done. I had nothing but the revelation of the Prince de Joinville to 
 depend on, an(l, as I had no intention of assuming the public position, in 
 this affair, into which I have been forced through circumstances, I did not 
 consider it necessary to thrust the question of my foreign extraction into a 
 genealogical account of the Williams family. There were also feelings of 
 delicacy towards that family, and an unwillingness to rupture ties which 
 to me were so endearing, which kept me longer silent than I should other- 
 wise have been. All generous and candid minds vrill, I think, appreciate 
 the diiiioulties of my position, and not impute to deception what was the 
 result of the uncertainty respecting my own history, and feelings of affec- 
 tion for those who had treated me so kindly, and for whom I can never 
 cease to entertain the regard of a kinsman. In respect to other matters, 
 you have grossly misunderstood and misrepresented me. The thought of 
 my wife's being a relative of the King of France never entered into my 
 mind. As her name indicates, I spoke of her, to you, as a supposed mem- 
 ber of the family of Marshal Jourdan, which I believe to be the case. As 
 to my mother, or rather, if I must be precise, Mrs. Mary Ann WilliarrB, 
 being a French woman, that I never could have said, for she is more, at 
 least, than three-fourths an Indian, in blood, and has every outward indi- 
 
444 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 cation of her'iace. She can speak no language but the Hohawk. As to 
 the cross and star, there are such things in my possession, but I received 
 them fiom the Indian family of which I supposed myself a member. You 
 have, in these and other respects, utterly misconstrued what passed between 
 us in conversation, and imputed your misconception to me. Unless I am 
 greatly mistaken, you make me say, in your genealogical work, that my 
 son had gone to France for an education, which is an absurdity of which I 
 never could have been guilty. In short, my dear sir, it is not every person 
 who is competent to report, truthfully, the substance of a familiar conver- 
 sation, and you seem to be among those who cannot. What I have writ- 
 ten, I am ready to acknowledge, but you must pardon me if I demur 
 against pleading guilty to your confused recollections and misstatements. 
 It is with deep regret that I have felt compelled to speak thus to one whom 
 I formerly respected and esteemed, but you have, by your own misconduct, 
 forced me to it. 
 
 " I am, sir, you obedient servant, 
 
 "Eleazab Williams. 
 " De. Stephen W. Williams, 
 
 "Deerfleld." 
 
 The statement of Dr. Lothrop I have elsewhere disposed of. 
 The opinion of the late Gov. Williams, of Vermont, as to Mr. Wil- 
 liams's age, is to be estimated by his own account, " although I 
 cannot fix upon any particular data, yet my impression is the same 
 as yours, that he was born in 1790." The reader has had "particular 
 data" enough to arrive at a very different opinion. Gov. Williams, 
 in fact, knew nothing about the subject, he had not examined into 
 it, nor thought upon it; and I cannot understand that the mere fact 
 of a person's name being Williams renders him any more competent 
 a judge on this point than others. 
 
 " Such," says Dr. Williams, " is some of the evidence to show 
 that the Dauphin, if living, cannot be Eleazar Williams." I should 
 rather say, such is some of the evidence to show that Dr. Stephen 
 W. Williams has been writing on a subject he does not understand. 
 
 But the doctor next favors us with some of his historical 
 
KIN AND KIND. 445 
 
 learning, and proceeds to show " hy direct and potitiee evidence," 
 that the Dauphin is actually dead. The italics are his own, and 
 his idea of direct and positive evidence is illustrated by this list 
 of authorities, which is as follows: "Thiers, Alison, Scott, the 
 ' Debats,' a French Journal, devoted to the interest of the Orleans 
 dynasty,' the ' Encyclopedia Americana,' ' Abbot's History of Marie 
 Antoniette,' and Putnam's Moffozine." Though in justice I will 
 add, that he also brings in the ' Memoirs of the Dnchess D'An- 
 goul^me,' which speaks of " three respeotablp surgeons testifying 
 to his death." I trust the reader will not suppose that I have so 
 long allowed "The Notes and Appendix" of Dr. Williams, to 
 wander about the world, and be quoted, in discerning journals, as 
 conclusive authority, because I felt any difficulty in answering his 
 random assertions and inconclusive reasoning, but simply because 
 I did not deem what he said deserving of notice, and was quite 
 williifg to bide the time when I could exhibit his facts and argu- 
 ments in their proper light.' If I have spoken with severity, it is 
 because there is an evident desire throughout the whole of Dr. 
 ■Williams's remarks, to injure his former acquaintance, and the 
 manifestation, in a more unkind shape, of the feeling which 
 prompted another member of the family to say he would never 
 have shown him the attention he did, had he imagined he was 
 not the descendant of Eunice Williams, but only the son of Louis 
 XVI. Family pride and affection are things to be honored, but 
 they become despicable, when they make us spiteful and unjust. 
 Those members of the Williams family, who have known most of 
 ib, Williams, confide in, respect, and love him. 
 
446 THE LOST FBIHCK. 
 
 OHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 • CONOLTJSION, 
 
 I HAVE now gone over the proposed ground, and presented 
 everything in my possession, that can aid in the formation of 
 opinion on the point discussed. It remains, briefly, to indicate the 
 general bearing of facts and probabilities. But I have endeavored 
 so to arrange my materials, that the reader, who has accompanied 
 me through the preceding pages, will scarcely need any formal 
 summing up of evidence. 
 
 There are before us two great bodies of fact and testimony — one 
 proceeding from Europe, and, in a great measure, long since familiar 
 to the public, who were, however, destitute of that clue to its 
 meaning and connection, which a single fact alone can give — the 
 other, recently rising to view, in this country. \ 
 
 The first proves that -Louis XVII. did not die in the Temple, in 
 the year 1795. \ 
 
 The second proves the exceedingly high probability, atoroaching, 
 if it does not attain to moral certainty, that Louis XVII. ^now lives 
 in the person of the Eev. Eleazar Williams. \ 
 
 I purposely assume a moderate position, in respect to my c6nolu- 
 sion. My own belief in the identity is firm. But knowing the 
 fallibility of human testimony and circumstantial evidence, I place 
 myself on strong, because safe ground, and say, what all reasonable 
 persons will, I think, concede, that the evidence adduced carries 
 probability to nearly its highest extent. If any one shall say it 
 makes the fapt certain, he will find no opponent in me. I believe 
 it does. 
 
 As the subject at first stood, there was a balance of probabilities 
 against the identity. I met an entire stranger, who told me a mar- 
 
coNCLcrsioN. 447 
 
 vellous story, hovering on the shadowy verge of possibility. He 
 had the appearance of simple, unpretending sincerity, but had no 
 means of substantiating his statements. He declared certain facts, 
 of which he had been an eye and ear witness, but how these 
 would tally with history he had no idea, or a vague one. Accord- 
 ing to the sage maxims of some, I should have dismissed my new 
 acquaintance as a monomaniac or a fabricator. But I had been 
 taught, since infancy, to regard faith in testimony as the principle 
 of power, to prove all things, and to hold fast that which is good. 
 Eeservirig in suspense, my ultimate judgment, I was willing to 
 trust one who seemed trustworthy, till he proved himself the con- 
 trary ; because, although it was more improbable that a person 
 regarded by the world, for more than fifty years, as an Indian, 
 should, in childhood, have been king of France, than that a cler- 
 gyman should invent, there was a redeeming moral probability, in 
 favor' of his ti-nthfulness, not lightly to be set aside. I remembered 
 who had told me to judge not by the appearance, but to judge 
 righteous judgment, and who was rejected by those who trans- 
 gressed the rnle. The very improbability of what Mr. Williams 
 said, was, in one point of view a primA facie argument in his favor, 
 since it was not likely that a sane and sensible man, the member 
 of an honorable pi-ofession, a minister of the Church of Christ, 
 would risk all, in this life and the next, on untruths which would 
 not bear a moment's serious examination. I believed in the power 
 of a fact to vindicate its own truth, and reasoned, if this were a 
 fact, it must have left a pathway all along, which, though obscured 
 ■ by ten thousand cross tracks, would become evident, on examina- 
 tion; and that opposition and discussion would only aid in the 
 development of truth. The result is before the reader. I claim, 
 in this volume, to have adduced evidence, which reverses the first 
 position of things, and to have thrown the overwhelming balance 
 of probabilities in favor of the identity of Louis XVII. and the 
 Eev. Eleazar Williams. 
 How far these probabilities fall short of historic certainty, a brief 
 
448 . THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 summary of the evidence will show. To repeat conclusiona, in 
 conjunction, which have already been stated separately is here 
 inevitable. 
 
 I. The great fundamental fact that, Louis XVII. did not die in the 
 Temple, on the 8th June, 1795, has been proved by an accumulation 
 of evidence, which would compel the assent of any impartial jury. 
 Those who assert the fact of death, deprive themselves of the 
 benefit of any alternative. Their position is the strongest possible, 
 if sustained, because it expresses no uncertainty; and, indeed, 
 nothing short of this would have availed them. They say, he died 
 at a particular time and place, and, pointing to a certain dead body, 
 declare it was his. Disprove the last assertion — and they have 
 nothing more to produce. The witnesses they cite, are, 1, four 
 physicians, and, 2, two jailers. Th.e physicians testify they know 
 nothing' about the matter. They saw a dead body, but were 
 entirely ignorant whose it was. The jailers stand convicted of 
 gross falsehood, in regard to an asserted fact necessary to the 
 truth of their testimony, and no jury would, therefore, believe 
 them on oath. There is, thus, no evidence to prove the death of 
 Louis XVII., but that of two men convicted of falsehood. 
 
 On the other hand, it has been shown, 
 
 1. That it is physically impossible the body, described in the 
 proems verbal, could be that of Louis XVII. : and, 
 
 2. That the police records of June, 1795, prove he was removed 
 • from prison before the 8th of that month. 
 
 So far the naked fact. In explanation of it, the history of 
 France shows that, prior to the French Kevolution, the Count de" 
 Provence was plotting to obtain the throne, and anxious to 
 supplant his unfortunate brother; that to obtain this end, he 
 fomented the troubles in the kingdom with the hope of forcing 
 Louis XVI. to abdication ; that, the king and queen distrusted him, 
 on account of his unprincipled ambition, and abstained, at their 
 death, from committing their children to his care; that, after 
 usurping the nominal regency of the kingdom, the Count de 
 
CONCLUSION. 449 
 
 Provence attempted, by means of intriguing agents, to obtain the 
 sovereign power, and corresponded with the most extreme of the 
 revolutionary leaders ; that having pledged himself, in a proclama- 
 tion, to release Louis XVII. from the Temple, there is evidence he 
 found means, through his agents, to surround the imprisoned 
 Prince with persons devoted to his own interests, who, with the 
 probable connivance of members of the Bepiiblican Government, 
 took advantage of a treaty made by the Convention with Charette, 
 the Vend6ean leader, in which it was stipulated, Louis XVII. 
 should be delivered to him, on the 13th June, 17^5, to remove him 
 from the Temple, and circulate the report of his death, having 
 adroitly substituted a dying child in his stead. 
 
 II. The series of facts next in order are those which intimate, or 
 prove, that the royal family of France were cognisant of the exi|t- 
 ence of the youthful king, viz. : — 
 
 1. The confession of the Duchess D'AngonlSme, to the wife of 
 the secretary of the Count D'Artois, in 1807, that she knew her 
 brother was alive, and in America. 
 
 2. The contradictions and inconsistencies attending the funeral 
 solemnities for the departed Bourbons, on the Restoration; the 
 omission of any respect to the memory of Louis XVII., made only 
 more glaringly evident by the decree to erect a monument to him, 
 and the actual preparation of an epitaph, under the orders of Lonia 
 XVIII ; and, also, the rejection by the royal family, of the asserted 
 heart of Louis XVII., in the possession of Peletan. 
 
 3. The strange conduct of the Duchess D'Angoul^me, in respect 
 to the pretenders, and especially Herr Naundorff. 
 
 The list might be extended, but these are here suflScient. 
 
 III. We come, now, to the circumstances which, historically, pro- 
 ject from the transactions in Europe to serve as means of future 
 identification. These are often very trivial and minute, when 
 viewed separately, but, in combination, they acquire an irresistible 
 cogency, if it be found they all centre on some one individual, no 
 matter in what part of the world he may be found. 
 
460 THB LOST PRIKCK. 
 
 1. The individual last known to have heen with Louis XVII. in 
 the Temple was named Bellanger, and was a confidant and creature 
 of Louis XVIII. ; and, it seems evident that, if the Prince were 
 removed from the Temple, as it is proved he was, Bellanger, from 
 his oflSoial position as acting commissary, which gave him, for the 
 time being, supreme command in the prison, mast have been the 
 chief agent in the affair. 
 
 2. Louis XVII., at the time of his removal from the Tower, was 
 in a state of imbecility, bordering on idiocy. 
 
 3. He had on hi^ person the following marks, 1. A scar over the 
 eyebrow, from a blow inflicted by Simon. 2. Tumors on both 
 elbows. 3. .Tumors on both wrists. 4. Tumors on both knees. 
 5. Inoculation marks on his arm, one of which was in the form of a 
 ore,scent. Besides which, there were natural peculiarities not to be 
 overlooked. 1. He strongly resembled the rest of his family in the 
 general formation of the head, ear, jaw, chin, and mouth, but had 
 hazel eyes, and a nose appi'oaching to what is called the nez 
 retrouss6, which, as life advanced, would, probably, develope into 
 a straighter shape, but could never acquire the aquiline form 
 observable in the features of the Regent Orleans, Louis XVI., or 
 even Louis XVIII. 
 
 4. It was intimated by Herr Naundorff that, besides Mr. B., pro-, 
 bably M. Bellanger, there was engaged in the removal of the Prince 
 from France, a lady of the court, formerly in the service of Marie 
 Antoinette, and also that the destination of the Prince was 
 America. 
 
 6. The time of action was 1795, when the Dauphin was ten years 
 of age. 
 
 IV. And, now, let us examine the corresponding circumstances 
 ■v^hich tend to identify the Eev. Eleazar Williams with the royal 
 child. 
 
 1. In the year 1796, a French lady and gentleman, the former of 
 whom had been in the service of Marie Antoinette, came to Albany, 
 having lately arrived from France, bringing with them a girl and a 
 
coNCLtrsioN, 451 
 
 little boy, the latter of whom was called Monsieur Louis, was about 
 ten years of age, and was characterized by the same listlessness and 
 lack of observation recorded of Louis XVII., and resembled, in the 
 form of his head and face, the Rev. Eleazar Williams, and concern- 
 ing whom much mystery was observed. The party suddenly dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 2. In the year 1795, two Frenchmen, one of whom appeared to 
 be a Romish priest, carried an imbecile French boy to Lake 
 George, and left him with Thomas Williams, which boy, on the 
 oath of a credible witness, present at tlie time, and who has known 
 him in after life, is the Eleazar Williams. 
 
 3. His reputed mother acknowledges she adopted him. 
 
 4. Eleazar Williams recovered his mind by a fall into Lako 
 George, since which his memory is perfect — but the images which 
 come to him from his previous life, tally with the events of the 
 Dauphin's history. His condition of mind, his absence of distinct 
 memory of his childhood, are proved on respectable testimony; 
 
 5. He has all the natural characteristics, and all the accidental 
 marks, necessary to identity with Louis XVIL 
 
 6. Money was sent from France to a merchant in Albany, and 
 was expended on his behalf. 
 
 7. Nathaniel Ely, who had charge of his education, was acquainted 
 with the fact, that he was of noble birth. 
 
 8. The rapid development of his mind indicates previous culture. 
 
 9. His condition of health, from boyhood to the present time, 
 constantly wavering between robust vigor and excessive prostration, 
 accompanied with pains in the head and side, indicate that a con- 
 stitution originally strong, received, at some time, a great shock, 
 but which is anterior to anything which happened to him in this 
 country. 
 
 10. The mental and moral characteristics exhibited by him 
 throughout life, the fertility of resource and military genius, which 
 developed without culture and seemed innate, the generous ardor 
 of his disposition, his religious, feelings, his untiring labors for the 
 
452 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 benefit of others, his absence of pecuniary tact and management, 
 his ignorance even of his own powers, his gentle and forgiving char- 
 acter, and tke very want of balance and symmetry in his mind, aU 
 agree, in combination with the best characteristics of the Bourbons, 
 witk what we know from history of the natural disposition of the 
 Prince, and with what it is natural to expect would be the charac- 
 ter, the power, and the weakness of one whose birth, suflferings, 
 and entire history are such as those, of Louis XVII. and Eleazar 
 Williams in continuous unity of existence.- 
 
 11. The wife of the secretary of the Count D'Artois, not only 
 heard the confession of the Duchess D'Angoulfeme that her brother 
 was alive in America, bat also learned, in the Koyal family, that 
 Bellanger brought him to this country, and that he was known in 
 America as Eleazar Williams, an Indian missionary ; and it is on 
 oath that she made, in substance these statements, in New Orleans, 
 prior to the visit of the Prince de Joinville to this country in 1841. 
 
 12. The Eev. Eleazar Williams did become acquainted, in 1848, 
 with the fact that BeUanger brought the Dauphin to this country, 
 and that he was asserted by Bellanger to be the Dauphin four years 
 before he, or any other man on the continent of America, not in the 
 secret, knew there was an historic personage named Bellanger, 
 who could be suspected of kidnapping the Dauphin, or was in any 
 way connected with him in the Temple. 
 
 To these I might add other particulars, but those enumerated 
 suffice for my purpose. 
 
 V. I proceed now to the series of facts connected with the inter- 
 course between thePrince de Joinville and the Eev. Eleazar Williams. 
 
 1. The Prince de Joinville came to the United States in 1838, 
 and leaving his ships at Newport, went on a secret expedition into 
 the interior of the country. 
 
 2. Immediately after the return of the Prince to France, inquiries 
 were made of the Fi-ench vice-consul in Newport, concerning two 
 servants of Marie Antoinette, who came to America during the 
 French revolution. 
 
CONCLUSION. 453 
 
 8. The Prince dei Joinville, on his return to America in 1841, 
 inquired earnestly of many persons, and in divers places, concern- 
 ing the Bey. Eleazar Williams, asking questions about him which 
 cannot be resolved into anxiety to find one who could give him 
 historic information, with which there is nothing in their inter- 
 course that tallies, except what bears on its face the appearance of 
 deception, a covert and blind to other designs; he caused word to 
 be transmitted to him that he desired to see him ; on meeting him 
 he manifested agitation and surprise, and exhibited, in public, 
 excessive deference beyond the requirements and the practice of 
 ordinary politeness— even French politeness ; he corresponded with 
 him by name through his secretaries for several years, personally 
 recommended to Louis Philippe a petition transmitted by Mr. Wil- 
 liams, from a Boman Catholic chief, and thus, long ie/ore and long 
 after their interview, was well acquained with his name. 
 
 4. In the &ce of these facts, the Prince de Joinville represents 
 his meeting with Mr. Williams to have been accidental, and denies 
 he even remembered his name. 
 
 5. Mr. Williams, on the other hand, asserts that, at the interview, 
 sought and solicited by the Prince, the latter communicated to him 
 the secret of hjs birth, and demanded a resignation of right to the 
 French throne in favor of Louis Philippe. In respect to this asser- 
 tion, every syllable in this volume which renders it probable that he 
 is Louis XVII., supports his credibility, while at the same time it 
 discredits the afBrmation of the Prince. 
 
 6. One of the ofScers of the Prince de Joinville confessed to Mr. 
 Geo. Sumner the mystery attending the expedition to Green Bay, 
 and that Mr. Williams was spoken of as the son of Louis XVI. 
 
 7. There is in the political circumstances of the times, the relative 
 position of Louis Philippe to the Boyalists and other parties in 
 France, and his suicidal, albeit, compulsory folly in bringing the 
 remains of Napoleon to France, everything to render it not impro- 
 bable that, on the discovery of the secret of the existence of Louis 
 XVII., he would adopt the course which Mr. Williams asserts he did. 
 
454 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 VI. In the next place, let me group together some few of the, 
 reasons for confiding in the statements of Mr. "Williams. 
 
 1. It is proved, that since the year 1803, or at the latest, 1804, 
 he has been in the habit, with more or less I'egnlarity, of keeping a 
 journal. 
 
 2. In his journal for 1841, occurs a full and minute account, 
 which bears every mark of having been written at the time, of his 
 interview with the Prince together with all that led to, and fol- 
 lowed it — which account has not been made public by his instru- 
 mentality, although with his consent — and, in fact, has only been 
 brought to light by a series of seeming accidents. 
 
 3. The history of his life exhibits him, as a man whose word can 
 be depended on, if we are to depend on the word of any one. It 
 will take much, I think, to make the world believe that the gallant 
 soldier, and the laborious self-denying missionary, could, without 
 aim or purpose, have contrived a story so foul and dishonorable, if 
 false, and in the absence, too, of any knowledge how it could be 
 sustained. 
 
 VII. A strong argument may also be drawn, in his favor, from 
 the signal failure which has attended every effort to disoi-edit his 
 assertions. It matters not from what quarter the opposition has 
 proceeded, or what have been the authorities cited. It is not diffi- 
 cult, we think, to dispose alike of Beauchesne, Lasne, Gomin, 
 Naundorff, Biohemont, the Prince de Joinville, General Cass, the 
 Kev. Mr. Marcoux, and Dr. Stephen "Williams, while there has not 
 been, in all the pages of argument, ridicule, and abuse, heaped 
 on Mr. "Williams and his friends, one single word which has not 
 fallen to the ground harmless, as it respects the issue really in- 
 volved. 
 
 VIII. Nor is it unworthy of remark, in this brief resum6 of the 
 evidence, that the agency of some, at least, of the Eomish priest- 
 hood, which may be traced from the beginning in this affair, comes 
 in at last, with a puerile effort in the shape of forgery, to prevent 
 the truth from coming to light, and thus, providentially, affords the 
 
CONCLUSIOK. 455 
 
 crowning confirmation. I have spolcen severely of this act of 
 wickedness, but not one half as severely as it deserves, for if 
 snch things are tolerated in this country, religion is dishonored, law 
 is a farce, liberty a name, and reputation the prey of every de- 
 famer. 
 
 ISo ontline of the evidence, in this case, can do jastice to it, as it 
 -stands in its living force and freshness, and if any one shall chance 
 to open the volume at its termination, to see what has been accom- 
 plished, I must refer him to the foregoing pages for information. 
 But rapid as has been the accumulation of evidence on this subject, 
 I should not be surprised to find that it increases in every direction. 
 The stores of Europe remain yet untouched. It is not too late to 
 recover everything which relates to this transaction. I am much 
 inclined to think that Talleyrand was fuUy conversant with the 
 whole. We have seen that, when in this country, he was in oom- 
 mnnication with old Jacob Vanderheyden, an Indian trader, who 
 was present at the time that Mr. Williams was left among the 
 Indians; and it is not too much to hope that, when the period 
 comes, for the opening of his Memoirs, the whole facts relative to 
 the removal of Louis XVII. may come to light. 
 
 The saddest tiionght, to my mind, connected- with the whole of 
 this dark historic drama, which convicts of crime and perfidy so 
 many who have stood high in name and power, is that the sister 
 knew the brother's doom. And yet, I would not speak or think 
 harshly of the Duchess of Angoul&me. . She was the victim of 
 the unnatural and abhorrent villainy of Louis XVIII, and was 
 entrapped, ere she was aware, in the meshes of a dark web of sub- 
 tle fraud, from which she could not, throughont life, escape. At 
 first, she was taught to believe her brother dead, and, before she 
 knew the contrary, found herself the wife of him to whom the 
 crown would, in all human probability, ultimately fall, in conse- 
 quence of the removal of Louis XVII. from France. And when 
 the fact did come to her knowledge, she, doubtless, had no idea of 
 the ultimate designs of her nncle, but regarded the exiled child 
 
4S6 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 as placed in security till the political storm was entirely over. In 
 this frame of mind she could speak to one who enjoyed her confi- 
 dence with pleasure of her conviction of his safety, and cherish 
 the hope that in brighter days they would be again united. It is 
 not difiacnlt to picture the conflict of feeling which would rise in 
 her mind, when the overthrow of Napoleon brought again the 
 crown of France within reach of the House of Bourbon, nor the sub- 
 tle arguments used by the uncle, who had the 'authority of a 
 father, to prove how expedient it was for the welfare of all, for 
 the happiness of France, for the repose of Europe, for the preven- 
 tion of such scenes of blood as 1793 exhibited, that the Gallic 
 crown should be placed on the brow of one competent to govern. 
 "What a contrast could be drawn between the mature statesman, 
 educated in the midst of courts, acquainted with every avenue of 
 diplomacy, and all the reciprocally balancing powers of which 
 Europe is composed, and the half-barbaric boy; ignorant of French 
 language and habits, ignorant of political life, ministering to savages 
 in a western wilderness, and above all, a Protestant. It would be 
 said, and said, too, with much appearance of reason, that to place 
 such an individual on the throne of France, in 1814, would bo to 
 ensure a relapse into anarchy ; that he could only be a mere tool of 
 others ; that he could, for a long time, have no opinion of his own ; 
 and, in the old cant phrase of the proclamation, of 1795, "France 
 needed a father," and not a monarch in leading-strings. The heir 
 presumptive to the thronestood by her side as a husband ; and could she 
 for so dubious a benefit as a crown, which had proved to her father 
 an instrument of death, recall from rustic happiness and security, one 
 who suffered no wrong, because not conscious of any, while she 
 endangered the welfare, and sacrificed the interests of all she 
 loved, and prepared for France and Europe, just resting after their 
 long convulsion, an endless succession of those evils which accom- 
 pany weakness and misrule? All this she could understand and 
 submit to — but conceive her feelings and her indignation when 
 requested to receive the dried heart of her wronged and ezUed 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 4S7 
 
 brother ; or admire the chaste harmony of the epitaph, which, in 
 strains of Angustan elegance, spoke of the forlorn boy as travelling 
 starlike in the heavens, and from his pathway of eternal light, 
 gazing with calm eye of angel love, on the affectionate uncle who 
 had swindled him out of empire, and, in return, would exalt, while 
 living, into the paper paradise of Rome, the Protestant who would 
 certainly be excluded from it vphen dead. 
 
 It is said, the duchess never smiled, but went through life and to 
 the tomb, bowed down by some deep-seated and mysterious sorrow. 
 Many a night may she have spent, like that so graphically described 
 by the Viscountess Chateaubriand, pacing her apartment in restless 
 agony, unable to lay her perturbed spirit, and writhing, amid the 
 splendors of royalty, in inward humiliation and self-upbraiding sor- 
 row. Yes, the sister was the victim of the ambition of others 
 and more to be pitied in her titled desolation than the hardy man, 
 toiliag on a far strand in the dusty thoroughfare of common life, but 
 still able to breast with honest heart the crush and variation of the 
 crowd, and lift to heaven a trusting eye. As for those whose 
 ambition demanded of a weak woman's heart this costly sacrifice, 
 verily they had their reward. On no page of history are the 
 stern retributive workings of Providence more legibly inscribed 
 than on that which chronicles the history of the Bourbons since 
 ^ the first French Revolution. The curse of impotence has rested on 
 all'they essayed to do. ITo sooner were they lifted, on the tide of 
 events, io wards an apparently stable ihrone, than they were 
 dashed back again, and engulfed in the abyss from which they had 
 emerged. Reiterated exiles, agitations, assassinations, tracked 
 their career. Life, with them, was all unreal. In their proudest 
 days they were but crowned brigands. Distrust, suspicion, felon 
 fear, pursued them till the last. In vain was the cry of legitimacy 
 raised to support that which was illegitimate. In vain did monar- 
 chical Europe rally, to ensure to them a throne, which they had 
 neither wisdom to preserve, nor courage to defend. Their's was 
 "a barren sceptre," 
 
458 THE LOST PRINCE. 
 
 " Wrenched from their grasp by an unlineal hand 
 No son of theirs succeeding," 
 
 and be it fiction or be it fact, the prophecy of the letter read by 
 the midnight lamp, shall be fulfilled to its final punctuation, and on 
 their dynasty, their name, their lineage, and their memory shall be 
 stamped with livid hand — " Death ! ! !" 
 
 A word before I conclude, with respect to the position of Mr. 
 "Williams. On his part there is no claiin and no pretension. The 
 last thought in his mind is that of political elevation. Educated in 
 a reptiblican country, he is himself a republican in sentiment and 
 feeling. A minister of the Protestant Episcopal Ohurch, he has no 
 wish but to labor in her fold and worship at her altar until death. 
 Devoted to the regeneration of the Indian, his chief earthly hope 
 is to rear among those formerly r6pnted his countrymen, a temple 
 to the name of the Almighty God, which shall be at once a means 
 in future years of recalling them from their ignorance and vice, 
 and a monument of his love and sacrifices for them. He is now 
 rapidly approaching that period of life when the ambitions and the 
 interests of earth are of little avail. Had he known all he now 
 does, thirty or even twenty years earlier, the case might have been 
 different. If at times thoughts and aspirations of a different cha- 
 racter have entered his mind, he has now dismissed them ; and to 
 go down to a Christian's grave in peace, usefulness, and honor, is . 
 all he wishes for himself, and all his friends wish for him. 
 
 His late years have been embittered by many sorrows, and espe- 
 cially by the knowledge of his early history, and having been 
 myself the means of dragging him into an unpleasant notoi-iety, I 
 have deemed it my duty to do what lay within the power of an 
 unpractised pen, to vindicate him from assaults. 
 
 To the eye of a cold philosophy, kings and the sons of 
 kings, are much like other men — but few of us are philosophers, 
 and God forbid we should be, if it would deprive of sympathy for 
 the fallen. If I read any truth in history it is, that the hand of 
 God is there, guiding the motions of the vast machine of human 
 
coNCi-nsioN. 459 
 
 destiny, and making kings and rulei-s, and great m«D, statesmen, 
 orators and poets, the agents for accomplishing his all-wise designs, 
 nor can I, from the loop-holes of republican retreat, gaze -with 
 cynical eye upon the centuries that are fled, nor on the realms that 
 are afar. The blood of- a Bourbon or a Guelphmay be composed 
 of much the same ingredients as my own — but I recognise in it a 
 something which the Providence of God has sanctified through 
 many generations, and I confess to the weakness of dropping a 
 tear at the thought of the forlorn descendant of European kings, 
 ministering, on the desolate outskirts of civilization, to the scanty 
 remrfant of a race, once the barbaric sovereigns of this continent. 
 But God, who deals equally with all, has, doubtless, granted to 
 him as much happiness in the toils of missionary life, as to those 
 who have successively occupied the throne of his fathers. 
 
 " Stemmata (juid faciunt ? ^uid prodest, Fonlice, longo 
 Sanguine censeri, pictosque ostehdere vultus 
 Majorum, et stantea in curribos ^milianos, 
 
 * * * * Nulla aconita bibuntnr 
 Fictilibus : tunc ilia time, qunm pocula sumes 
 Gemmata et lato Setinum ardebit in auio.' 
 
 What boots it to be deemed of regal birth 
 
 And reckon ancestors in endless line. 
 
 Warriors enthroned, bright dames and steel clad knights ? 
 
 ♦ ****« 
 
 No aconite is drank in cups of earth ; 
 Then may yon fear it when your fingers clasp, 
 A jewelled goblet and the Setine wine, 
 Sparkles in ample gold. , 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 [Appendix A. — Page 31.] 
 
 Asserted Correspondence of the Count de Provence. 
 
 Note by the Hon. and Ker. G. C. Ferciva.!, accompanying the asserted let- 
 ters of Louis XVIII. to the Sake Fitz-James, and the Count B'Artois. 
 
 The letters professedly written hy the Count de Provence, afterwards 
 Louis XVIIL, are of so atrociously wicked a, character, so calculated to 
 blacken his memory for ever, and, what is more startling, that of Charles 
 X., that the editor would gladly have avoided being the instrument of 
 increasing their publicity. The French editor is not only perfectly satis- 
 fied of their authenticity, but maintains that he could prove it incontestibly 
 in a court of justice. Unfortunately, there was a time when the princes 
 of the blood royal were not the best friends of Louis XVI. and his queen ; 
 and the Count de Provence, at the beginning of the Revolution, proved 
 himself anytCing but what he ought to have been. 
 
 LEIIEBS FBOM THE COUNT DE FKOVENCE. 
 
 To the Duke Fitz-Jwmes. 
 
 Vebsaillks, May 13, 1787. 
 Here is, my dear duke, the Assembly of Notables drawing to its close, 
 and yet the great qiieslion has not been touched upon. Tou cannot 
 doubt that the Notables will not hesitate to believe, from the documents 
 which you sent them, more than six weeks ago, that the king's children 
 are not his own. These papers give the clearest proofs of iiie queen's 
 guilty conduct. Tou are a subject too much attached to the blood of your 
 sovereign, not to blush at bowing before these adulterous fruits. I shall 
 be absent, but my brother, D'Artois, whose committee does not hold its 
 sitting, will preside in my place. The fact in question once averred, it is 
 easy to infer the consequences. The parliament, which dislikes the queen. 
 
462 ArPENDix. 
 
 will not make any great difficulty ; but, if it Bhould have the fancy to 
 raise any, we have the means of bringing it to reason. In short, we must 
 attempt the blow. 
 
 Louis Stanislaus Xavieb. 
 
 To the Count D'Artoia. 
 
 It is done, my brother, the blow is struck. I hold in my hand the oiHcial 
 news of the death of (he unfortunate Louis XVI., and have only time to 
 forward it to you. I am informed, also, that his son is dying. You will 
 not forget how useful to the state their death will be. Let this reflection 
 console you, and remember that the Grand Prior, your son;. is, after me, 
 the hope and heir of the monarchy. 
 
 Louis Stanislaus Xavieb. — 
 Ferdval, page 147. 
 
 [Appendix B. — Page 120.] 
 
 A new and most extraordinary interest has begun to invest his tragical 
 story in this very month of April, 1853 ; at least, it is now first brought 
 "before universal Christendom. In the monthly journal of Putnam (pub- 
 lished in New York), the number for April contains a most interesting 
 inemoir upon the subject, signed J. H. Hanson. Naturally, it indisposed 
 most readers to put faith in any fresh pretensions of this nature, that, at 
 least, one false Dauphin had been pronounced such, by so undeniable a 
 judge as the Suchesse S'Angouleme. Meantime, it is made probable 
 enough, by Mr. Hanson, that the true Dauphin did not die, in the year 
 1795, at the Temple, but was personated by a boy unknown ; that two 
 separate parties had an equal interest in sustaining this fraud, and did 
 sustain it ; but one would hesitate to believe whether, at the price of mur- 
 dering a celebrated physician ; that they had the Prince conveyed secretly 
 to an Indian settlement in Lower Canada, as a situation in which Prench, 
 being the prevftiling language, would attract no attention, as it must have 
 done in most parts of North America j that the boy was educated and 
 trained as a missionary clergyman ; and, finally, that he is now acting 
 in that capacity, under the name of Eleazar Williams, perfectly aware of 
 the royal pretensions put forward on his behalf, but equally, through age 
 "(being about sixty-nine) and through absorption in spiritual views, indif- 
 ferent to these pretensions. It is admitted, on all hands, that the Prince 
 de Joinville had an interview with Eleazar Williams, a dozen years since ; 
 the Prince alleges, through mere accident, but this seems irnprbbable ; and 
 Mr. Hanson is likely to be right in supposing this visit to have been a pre- 
 
APPENDIX. 463 
 
 concerted one, growing out of some anxiety to test the reports current, so 
 far as they were grounded upon resemblances in Mr. Williams's features to 
 those of the Bourbon and Austiian families. The most pathetic fact is 
 that of the idiocy conomon to the Dauphin and Mr. Eleazar Williams. It 
 tS clear, from all the most authentic accounts of the young prince, that 
 idiocy was, in reality, stealing over him ; due, doubtless, to the atuniivng 
 nature of the calamities that overwhelmed his family ; to the removal from 
 him, by tragical deaths, m so rapid a succession, of the Princess de Lam- 
 balle, of his aunt, of his father, of his mother, and others whom he most 
 bad loved ; to his cruel separation &om his sister ; and to the astounding (for 
 him naturally incomprehensible) change that had come over the demeanor 
 and the language of nearly all the people placed about the persons of him- 
 self and his family. An idiocy resulting from what must have seemed a 
 causeless and demoniac conspiracy, would be more likely to melt away 
 under the sudden transfer to kindness, and the gaiety of forest life, than 
 any idiocy belonging to original organic imbecility. Mr. Williams 
 describes his own confusion of mind as continuing up to his fourteenth 
 year, and all things which had happened, in earlier years, as gleaming 
 through clouds of oblivion, and as painfully perplexing; but, otherwise, 
 he shows no desire to strengthen the pretensions made for himself, by any 
 reminiscences piercing these clouds, that could point specialTy to France, 
 or to royal experiences. — TJiothos de Qaineey's AutoMographieal Sketches^ 
 vol. i. p. 330. 
 
 [Appendix C. — Page 120.] 
 
 Declaration of the Death of Loitis XVII, 
 
 Section of the Temple, year 3 of the French Bepublic, 22d Frairial, 
 decease of Louis Charles CapQt, aged ten years and two months, profes- 
 sion , resident at Paris, in the Tower of the Temple, son of Louis 
 
 Capet, last King of the French, and of Marie Antoinette, of Austria. The 
 deceased was born at Versailles, and died the day before yesterday, at 
 three o'clock in the afternoon. On the requisition made to us, within the 
 
 twenty-four hours, by Etienne Lasne, aged thirty-nine, profession , 
 
 resident at Paris, Rue et Maison des Droits de I'homme, No. 41, such 
 declarant calling himself keeper of the children of Capet, and by Baptiste 
 Gomin, thirty-five, profession, French citizen, resident at Paris, Eue de la 
 Fraternite, No. 39, such declarant calling himself Commissary of the Con- 
 vention for the Guard of the Temple, the present declaration has been 
 received in presence of the citizens Nicola Lawrence Amoult, and Domi- 
 nique Goddet, Civic Commissaries of the Section du Temple, in terms of 
 
464 APPENDIX. 
 
 the decree of the Committee of General Safety, and who have signed 
 with us. 
 
 Laske, Arnoult, 
 
 GoDDET, GOMIN, 
 
 Qmmissariea. 
 
 Verified according to the Law of the 10th December, by me, commissary 
 of police of the- said section. Dttsser. 
 
 As Eeauchesne has produced nothing more pertinent in the way of 
 proof than this, he might have spared himself the trouble of twenty years 
 composition, and printed the original certificate of Lasne and Gomin on a 
 thousand consecutive pages. 
 
 Appendix D. — Page 176. 
 
 Albamy, 7 Oct., 1853. 
 
 SiE. — If the following remarks are considered of importance in the inves- 
 tigation you are prosecuting respecting the history of Monsieur Eleazar 
 Williams, you are at perfect liberty to make use of them as you please. 
 
 Among the reminiscences of early days, I have always recollected with 
 much interest being taken by my mother to visit a family who arrived here 
 in.l795, direct from France, consisting of four individuals. There was a 
 gentleman and lady, called Monsieur and Madame de Jardin. They had 
 with them two children, a girl and a boy — the girl was the eldest — the boy 
 about nine or ten. He apparently did not notice us. 
 
 Their arrival caused considerable excitement in our city, and those ladies 
 who could converse in the French language felt it their duty to call on 
 Madame. They were but few in number, and as far as I can recollect are 
 now registered as inhabitants of that world where the events and cares of 
 this cannot interest us any more. 
 
 On my first visit I was much struck with the appearance of the family. 
 A gentleman was in the hall. He showed us into the parlor, but did not 
 enter with us. His dress was very plain, and as I never saw him except 
 at that time, I could never realize how he was connected with the family. 
 
 We were received with politeness by Madame. She was imposing and 
 agreeable in her language and appearance, had large dark-colored eyes, and 
 every way evinced a great desire to welcome us. After a short interview, 
 she took me to a room up-stairs with shelves on one side of the wall, and 
 containing a number of handsome books, many of which had elegant prints. 
 On a table were jointed cards and other articles for amusement, and there 
 were in the room two pussey cats full of frolic. 
 
 I was here introduced to Mademoiselle Louisa and Monsieur Louis. 
 
AP?;BNDIX. 465 
 
 Mademoise e and I plajred together, but Monsiour Louis did not join na. 
 He was dressed in shorts, and amused himself, at some distance from us, in 
 balancing himself over a cane or something in that way. Madame told 
 my mother that she was maid of honor to the Queen Marie Antoinette, 
 and was separated from her on the terrace at the palace. She appeared 
 very much agitated, and mentioned many things which I was too young 
 to undersfiand, but all in allusion to the difficulties then agitating France, 
 and her friends. She played with great skill on the piano forte, and was 
 much excited singing the Marseilles "Hymn, floods of tears chasing each 
 other down her cheeks. My mother thought the children were those 
 belonging to the crown, but I do not now recollect that she said Madame 
 told her so. After some time, Madame called and said they were obliged 
 to leave us, and had many useful and handsome articles to dilJ)ose of, and 
 wished my mother to have the first choice out of them. 
 
 There were several large plates of mirror glass, a time-piece, a pair of 
 gilt andirons representing lions, and a bowl, said to be gold, on which were 
 engraven the arms of France. I have heard it spoken of some time after; 
 and it was said to belong to some gentleman near Albany, and was recog- 
 nised at a dinner party, with celery on the table. 
 
 The andirons were purchased by Gen. Peter G-ansevoort's lady, and are 
 still belonging to a member of that family. 
 
 We never heard of this family after they left Albany. In looking at the 
 features of Eleazar Williams I think I can discover considerable likeness to 
 those of the young Monsieur Louis in charge of Madame de Jardin. 
 
 Elendusia Dudley. 
 BiEv. J. H. Hamson. 
 
 [Appemdix E. No. 1. — Page 177.] 
 
 Affidavit of John CPBnen,. 
 
 John O'Brien, hj half-breed Indian, otherwise known as Skenondough, 
 deposes and says, that he resides in the town of Salina, Onondaga county, 
 State of New York, that he is known to the Hon. P. Sken Smith, of Phila- 
 delphia, and to Gerrit Smith, Squire .lohnson. Mayor Baldwin, and Lawyer 
 Wood, of Syracuse ; that he is now directly fi-om Philadelphia, where he was 
 taken sick, on his way to Washington, and is returnuig to Salina ; that he 
 is now very aged, having been born in Stockbridge, Mass., in 1752 ; that 
 his father was an Irishman, of the name of WiHiam O'Brien, and his mother 
 an Indian woman, of the Oneida tribe, rmmed Mary Skenondough ; that, 
 at the age of twelve years, he was sent from America to France, for hia 
 education, and remained there until daring the War of the Bevolution, 
 
 20* 
 
466 APPENDIX. 
 
 when he returned, in the same ship with Lafayette, to America. After 
 his retmn, this deponent went among the Oneida Indians in the State of 
 New York, and, in the year 1795, was at Ticonderoga, on Lake George. 
 At that time two Trenchmen came to the Indians on Lake George, and 
 this deponent oonversed with them in their own language. Their names 
 deponent does not remember. They had with them a boy, which this 
 deponent supposed to be between ten and twelve years of age. This boy 
 the deponent talked with in the Trench language. The two Frenchmen 
 told this deponent that the boy was French, by birth. The boy seemed 
 weak and sickly, and his mind Was wandering, so that he seemed rather 
 silly. This child, after the Frenchmen had departed, this deponent saw in 
 the family of Thomas Williams, an Indian, where the child lived. This 
 deponent further recollects that he was at Lake George some time after 
 this, when this boy, playing with the other children, fell, or threw himself 
 from a rock into the lake, and was taken out with a wound, he thinks 
 upon the head, and was carried into the hut of Thomas Williams. After 
 this he, from time to time, saw the boy, and that boy is the person now 
 knovni as,the Rev. Eleazar Williams. Deponent further declares that, in 
 1815, when Mr. Williams first came to Oneida Castle, to preach to the 
 Indians, deponent was th^re, and asked Mr. Williams if he remembered 
 his fall into the lake, which he did not. Deponent also further declares, 
 that one of the two Frenchmen who brought the child to Lake George 
 seemed to have the appearance of a priest of the church of Home. Depo- 
 nent recollects Colonel Lewis, Captain Peters, Captain Jacob Francis, chiefs 
 of the St. Regis tribe, who always believed Mr. Williams to be a French- 
 man. This deponent also declares that he was acquainted with Thomas 
 Williams, and Mary Ann, his wife, and that there is no resemblance 
 between the Rev. Eleazar Williams and the said Thomas Williams or 
 his wife, or any of the children of the said Thomas Williams and his wife 
 Mary Ann, who were known also to this deponent. This deponent also 
 further declares -that Captain Jasper Parish, of Canandaigua, was appointed 
 by the General or State Government, agent for the Six Nations, some time 
 before the war of 1812, and after the war was over, in the year 1815, he 
 took the census of each family, for the purpose of distributing the presents 
 from the government. Eleazar Williams was set down by Captain Parish 
 on the record as a Frenchman, adopted by the St. Regis tribe, and trans- 
 ferred to the Oneidas. This deponent was, at the time, a member of the 
 general council of the nation, serving in the capacity of Marshal, and 
 gave, himself, the returns to Captain Parish ; and this deponent has seen 
 the record of the census, which record may probably be found at Canan- 
 daigua, by virriting to Mr. Edward Parish aforesaid. This deponent 
 further says, that he remembers the spot at which the child now known as 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 467 
 
 Eleazar fell into the water, and that it waa at the south etid ef Lake 
 George, on the west side, not far from the Old Fort. 
 
 John O'Eeieh. 
 Sworn before me, this 14th day of June, 1853. ■ 
 
 KlCHABD EuSTBSn, 
 
 CoTmnissioner of Deeds^ 
 
 45 William Street, New York. 
 
 At. ray request, the Eev. Francis Vinton, D.D., of Brooklyn, who was 
 present at the examination of O'Brien, and aided to take down his state- 
 ment, wrote to the Hon. B. Sken Smith, of Philadelphia, brother of 
 Gerrit Smith, and obtained the following answer : 
 
 "Mt Deae Sie, 
 " I have been much indisposed, and not able to answer your letter of 
 the ISth ult. till now, and am still "weak. I have known John O'Brien 
 Skenondough, a half-breed Indian of the Oneida tribe, for thirty years and 
 upwards. I suspect the ' important testimony' from him, which you refer 
 to, relates to the Bev. Mr. Williams. I hesitate not to say, Skenondough 
 ■can be relied on. I also know much of Mr. Williams. 
 
 " In much haste, very truly and respectfully yours, 
 
 "B. Seen Smith." 
 
 I opened, myself, a correspondence with the Eev. Mr. Ashley, of Syra- 
 cuse, in order to obtain information from the other gentlemen referred to 
 by Skenondough, but the letters in reply, of that gentleman, never reached 
 me, like many others, which appear to have been intercepted. I would 
 say that Skenondough is nephew"bf the old war chief Skenondough, who 
 died some years ago, at, the age of 113, and also that, as assistant sur- 
 geon, he dressed the wounds of Lafayette, at the battle of Erandywine. 
 
 [Appendix E. No. 2,— Page 177.] 
 
 Writing of E. Williami, while insane, preserved. 
 
 t will mention here a fact, which, however interesting, I have not stated 
 in the text, because the evidence on which it rests is, unfortunately, only* 
 that of the testimony of Mr. Williams ; and, though I believe' his word is 
 as good as that of any dne in the world, certain persona are perpetually 
 harphig on the chord, " Oh, Mr. Williams says so." There is now before 
 me an. Indian mass book, in MS., which, from the color of the paper, the faded, 
 
468 APPENDIX. 
 
 Wilting, a,nd its dilapidated condition, seems at least two centuries old. It 
 was given Mr. WilUams in 1836, by an Indian woman, now dead, who 
 told him that, while in an insane condition, he one day snatched a pen, 
 and wrote in it a number of figures and letters. There is, on one of the 
 covers, on the inside, in French characters, the numerals from 1 to 30, and 
 from 1 to 19 ; a letter c, precisely like that element in the handvraiting of 
 the Dauphin while under the care of Simon ; and, in a less distinct form, 
 but still quite legible, the word due, and the letters Loui. One thing is 
 evident, the numerals and letters are the random scribbling of a child, and 
 they are many years old. 
 
 [Appendix F. — Fage 183.] 
 
 Saptismal Remrd, 
 
 Extracts des registres de la Mission 4u Sault St. Louis. 
 
 1779, du 7 Janvier, Thomas Tehora Ewanekeu a Spouse Marie Anne^ 
 fille de Haronhumanen. Lenrs enfants sont 
 
 Jean Baptiste, 
 
 ne le 
 
 7 Sept. 
 
 1780. 
 
 Catherine, 
 
 nee le 
 
 4 Sept. 
 
 1781. 
 
 Thomas, 
 
 ne le 
 
 28Avr. 
 
 1786. 
 
 Louise, 
 
 neele 
 
 IS Mai, 
 
 1791. 
 
 Jeanne Baptiste, 
 
 (1 
 
 21 Avr. 
 
 1793. 
 
 Pierre, 
 
 ne le 
 
 25 Aout, 
 
 1795. 
 
 Pierre, 
 
 it 
 
 4 Sept. 
 
 1796. 
 
 Anne, 
 
 neele 
 
 30 Janv. 
 
 1799. 
 
 Dorothee, 
 
 u 
 
 2 Aout, 
 
 1801. 
 
 Charles, 
 
 ne 
 
 8 Sept. 
 
 1804. 
 
 Jervais, 
 
 u 
 
 22 Juil. 
 
 1807. 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 Murcoux, Frett. 
 
 [Appendix G. — Fage 189.] 
 My MSS. 
 These MSS. were obtained in 18S1, from Col. Mack, of Amherst, Mass., 
 who married the eldest daghter of Beacon Ely. 
 
 [Appendix H Page 190.] 
 
 First coming to Long Meadow. 
 Wa are assured by one of their schoolmates, who remembers their 
 
APPENDIX. 469 
 
 entrance into the village, in their Indian costume, that a distinction was at 
 once perceived between Eleazar and John. John was evidently of Indian' 
 blood. He showed no fondness for study, always kept his bows and arrows 
 hid away, and on any excuse or occasion would make use of them. Elea- 
 zar although entirely illiterate when he came there, soon became fond of 
 his books. John learned little or nothing, and soon returned home. 
 Eleazar made satisfactory progress and remained. His affable manners 
 were such as to excite unusual attention in a quiet village, not much used 
 to exaggerations of the graces of life, so that he was always called a plausi- 
 ble boy. & was thought by his schoolmates somewhat haughty, despised 
 the Indian games of his supposed brother, and yet was led by those who 
 had learned his character, without much difficulty. These peculiarities 
 we have heard spoken of quite independently of any presumption that Mr. 
 Williams was other than a son of Thomas Williams. 
 
 The only considerations of importance which those who knew Mr. Wil- 
 liams at West Hampton can contribute to the inquiry respecting his birth 
 is the fact that he showed none qf the traits of the Indian race^ wnd although 
 ipoJcen of as an Xtidian^ was not really regarded as of Indian blood.~-Boston 
 Daily Advertiser, February 17, 1853. 
 
 [Appendix I. — No 1. — Po^« 190.] 
 
 A^idavit of Urania Smith. 
 
 Beclaration of Urania Smith, Point Washington, Ozaukee County, Wis- 
 consin. 
 
 I, Urania Smith, do hereby declare that my maiden name was TTrania 
 Stebbings, tbat I was bom on March 22d, in the year 1786, in Long Mea- 
 dow, Massachusetts, that I was deprived of my parents when young, and 
 was brought up by Ethan Ely, of Long Meadow, Massachusetts, who was 
 my uncle, and lived next door to Beacon Nathaniel Ely. In the beginning 
 of the year 1800, two boys were brought from Canada to Long Meadow, to 
 receive an education, and lived with Nathaniel Ely, who had charge of 
 them. • They were said by the said Nathaniel Ely to be called Eleazar or 
 Lazau Williams and John Williams, and were represented as the descend- 
 ants of the Eev. John William^, who was captured by the Indians in the 
 year 1704, at Beerfield. They were entu'ely unlike each other in complex- 
 ' ion, appearance, form and disposition, John having the look of an Indian, 
 and Eleazar that of an European. I distinctly remember that when the 
 said Nathaniel Ely was remonstrated with for calling Eleazar and John 
 brothers, as there was no similarity between them, he said there was some- 
 thing about it which he should probably never reveal ; that Eleazar Wil- 
 
470 APPENDIX. 
 
 liajns was born for a. great man, and that he intended to gire him an 
 education to prepare him for the station. Eleazar was very rapid in his 
 acquisitions of learning, and wrote at an early period. Much notice was 
 taken of him by everybedy, and Mr. Ely was very fond of exhibiting him 
 to strangers. 
 
 UnANtA Smith. 
 Sworn to and subscribed before me, October 8, 
 1853, at Point Washington. 
 
 Lafayette Foksley, I. P. 
 
 Clerh Ozaukee District QyUrt, 
 
 [Appendix I. — No 2. — Page 190.] 
 
 Expenses of Mleazar Williams paid from France. FroTti the AXbanyMorti- 
 ing Epxress, Oct. 10. 1853. 
 
 As we remarked the other day, there are strong circumstances in favor 
 of the assumption set up by Mr. Hanson. One of the strongest to our mind 
 is the fact, that certain gentlemen of this city for many years received regu- 
 larly a sum of money from France, to be applied to the clothing and educa- 
 tion of this same Williams. How is this fact to be accounted for, except 
 apon the supposition that Williams is indeed the Dauphin. 
 
 [Appendix 'K.—Fage 324.— Pag-e 190.] 
 
 Title Deed of Mrs. Williams's Estate. 
 
 Know all men by these presents, that we, the chiefs, warriors, and head 
 men of the Menominie nation of Indians, living and residing on the 
 banks of Fox River and Green Bay, for and in consideration of the 
 love and friendship we entertain for Magdeline Williams, and her heirs, of 
 the Menominie Nation, and, also, in consideration of the sum of iifty dol- 
 lars, to us in hand paid, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, 
 have given, granted, bargained, "sold, and quit claimed to the said Magde- 
 line Williams and her heirs for ever, all that certain piece or parcel of 
 land situated, lying, and being on the north-west side of Fox River, at a 
 place usually called Little Cacalin, bounded and described as follows : — 
 Commencing at low water mark on Fox River, opposite to the lower end 
 of "Black Bird Island," so called, and running thence up said river three 
 hundred and fifty chains, thence north-west, two hundred and fifty chains, 
 thenca noith-ssat, three hundred and fifty chains, thence south east, two 
 
APPENDIX. 471 
 
 hundred and fifty chains, to the place of beginning, be the Bame more or 
 less, together with all, and singular, the appurtenances and hereditaments 
 in any manner thereto appertaining or belonging to her, the said Magde- 
 line Williams and her heirs, for ever, provided, nevertheless, that the said 
 Magdeline Williams shall not, in any manner hereafter, for ever sell or 
 dispose of the same, or any part thereof. In testimony whereof, we here- 
 unto put our hands and seals, this 22d day of August, eighteen hundred 
 and twenty-five. 
 
 his 
 Sabestoe, t- [Seal.] 
 
 mark. 
 
 his 
 FiNONTo-OH, alias Elanded, + [Seal.] 
 
 mark, 
 his 
 Sho-min, + [Seal.] 
 
 mark. 
 
 his 
 Matsi ki Neaoh, + [Seal.] 
 
 mark. 
 Ms 
 Kesha Shie, + [Seal.] 
 
 mark. 
 
 his 
 Ota tsi a Kiaoh, + [Seal.] 
 
 mark 
 Signed, sealed, and delivered in 
 presence of A. S. Ellis. 
 
 [Appendix L JPage 324.] 
 
 Certificate of Mr. J. F. Schermerhom. 
 
 [copy.] 
 
 I hereby certify that the following provision, in the 3d Article of the 
 Treaty concluded by me with the New York Indians, in Council at Duck 
 Creek, on 16th day of September, 1836, in behalf of the St. Regis Indians, 
 in the following words, viz : " Out of the above sum of $340,000, shall 
 be allowed and paid the sura of $5000 to the St. Regis tribe, as a remu- 
 neration for the money laid out and expended by the said tribe and par- 
 ties, and for services rendered by their chiefs and agents, in securing the 
 title to these lands (viz. Green Bay, W. T.) and removal to the same, to be 
 apportioned and paid out to the several claimants, by the chiefs and com- 
 missioaera of the United States, as may be deemed by them equitable and 
 
472 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 just," and which said provision was inserted and made in the treaty 
 finally concluded at the Buffalo Creek Reservation, January 15, 1838, in 
 the language as above recited, understood when the treaty was made and 
 concluded to be $1000, if paid to the St.. Regis Tribe for their claims for 
 advances made by them, and the balance, being $4000, was intended to 
 remunerate the Rev. Eleazar Williams, as one of the Chiefs of the St. 
 Regis Indians, and their agent, for his services for years, for securing the 
 title to the Green Bay land, and for removing thither, and by whose exer- 
 tions and persevering efforts these lands were finally attained for the New 
 York Indians from the Menominies and "Winnebago Indians, as is evident 
 from the document on this subject, on file at the Indian Department at 
 Washington. These facts being known to me personally, I deem it aiy 
 duty, in justice to Mr. Williams, to make the above statement. 
 
 J. P. S0HERMEEHOE.N, 
 Commissioner to treat with New York Indjans, 1837. 
 W'tishington City^ June 21, 1838. 
 
 The foregoing, enclosed to the President, July 10, 1838. Package of 
 papers, &c., marked W. 572, Indian Office Files, Green Bay, 1836. 
 
 [Appendix M. — Fage 424.] 
 General Cass. 
 The following is the pith of General Cass's letter, and of my reply : — 
 St. Clair. 
 
 His color, his features, and the There are no traces of the abo- 
 
 conformation ef his (Mr. Williams) riginal or Indian in him. Ethno- 
 face testify to his origin. They logy gives no countenance to such 
 present the very appearance which a conclusion. This fact is verified 
 eveiTwhere marks the half-breed hf anotomical examination by Brs. 
 Indian. Francis and Kissam. 
 
 I have seen persons partaking of In painting the portrait of Mr. 
 
 the Bourbon blood, and I endeavor Williams, I noticed many of the 
 in vain to recall any decisive traits peculiar characteristics which are 
 of resemblance between them and developed, in a greater or less de- 
 Mr. Williams. gree in most of the Princes of the 
 
 House of Bourbon, whose portraits 
 I have taken. I was particularly 
 impressed with his resemblance to 
 the portraits of Louis XYI. and 
 
AFFENSIS. 
 
 473 
 
 Glair. 
 
 The death of the Dauphin is a, 
 fact as well established as any inci- 
 dent of that kind can be. 
 
 If I am not in error, there was a 
 proems verbal, a kind of IFrench 
 legal narrative, which recorded the 
 circumstances of his illness and his 
 decease. 
 
 The Dauphin was attended, to- 
 wards the close of his life, by De- 
 sault, a physician of the highest 
 personal professional character, and 
 who could neither be guilty of im- 
 position, nor suffer it in relation to 
 the true condition of his interest- 
 ing patient. 
 
 I have no belief that such a dia- 
 ry as that which purports to re- 
 count the interview between the 
 French Prince and the French pre- 
 tender was ever kept by Williams. 
 1 can see no reason for it. His 
 usual uneventful life furnished 
 neither motive nor material for 
 such a daily recurring labor. 
 
 XVIII., and the general Bourbonio 
 outline of his face. Had I met 
 Mr. Williams, unconscious that he 
 was in any way other than his 
 name would indicate, I should im- 
 mediately have spoken of his like- 
 ness to the Eonrbon family. — ^Vide 
 letter of Chevalier Fagnani, in 
 " Putnam," for April. 
 
 I have myself shown, I consider, 
 conclusively, that the fact is not 
 and cannot be established. It is 
 mere ignorance to assert that it is. 
 
 St. Clair's historic knowledge is 
 of that peculiar kind which is pro- 
 verbially dangerous. 
 
 True, but the close of Desault's 
 life was prior to the asserted close 
 of the Dauphin's, and the high 
 moral and professional character of 
 this eminent physician ibrms an 
 adamantine link in the evidence 
 which disproves tho death of the 
 royal child. 
 
 It is vain to theorize against 
 facts. Mr. Williams has kept a, 
 journal, and if St. Clair wishes, he 
 can read in it the record of certain 
 proceedings between General Cass 
 and the Indiana at Butte des Morts, 
 in 1827, together with other not 
 uneventful occurrences, with which 
 St. Clair may be familial, and to 
 the publication even of which Mr. 
 Williams can have no objection, 
 provided St. Cladr can obtain the 
 consent of "the distinguished 
 western statesman," above men- 
 tioned. 
 
474 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 St. Clair. 
 
 The Connt de Chambord, the son 
 of Charles X. the youngest brother 
 of Louis XVI. 
 
 It is further stated that Mr. Wil- 
 liams received letters from Louis 
 Philippe and from the private Sec- 
 retary of Louis Napoleon, &c. 
 These were all burned, says the 
 memoir. They never existed, says 
 common sense. 
 
 The Prince de Joinville inquired 
 after Mr. Williams. So says Mr. 
 ■Williams. 
 
 Louis Philippe vfrote him a, let- 
 ter. So says Mr. Williams. 
 
 £ellanger confessed that he 
 brought the Dauphin to this coun- 
 try. So says Mr. Williams. 
 
 I am sorry to be obliged to con- 
 sider as apocryphal, the atscount of 
 the magnificent brocade dress 
 "against who.se silken folds Mr. 
 Williams had fondly rested, When 
 the living loveliness of Marie An- 
 toinette was within it," and it 
 taxes ray imagination beyond its 
 capacity, when I am asked to pic- 
 ture to myself my old Indian 
 acquaintance fondled in the arms 
 of that beautiful queen. 
 
 Another proof of the accuracy 
 of St. Clair's historic knowledge. 
 The Count de Chambord is son to 
 the Due de Berri. . 
 '^ No such statement was made. 
 It is stated that Mr. Williams re- 
 ceived a letter from Louis Philippe, 
 and another purporting to be from 
 the secretary of Louis Napoleon. 
 As I mentioned that the note of 
 the French consul-general, stating 
 that it enclosed the letter of the 
 French king, was before me at the 
 time of writing, it is to be hoped 
 that St. Clair alludes to his own 
 common sense. 
 
 And so also say Captain Shook, 
 Mr. £rayman, and Mr. Raymond. 
 
 And so says M. de la Forest, the 
 then consul-general. 
 
 And so said the southern news- 
 papers of the time, fi:om which 
 Mr. Kimball, the informant of Mr. 
 Williams, derived his knowledge. 
 Respectable living gentlemen re- 
 member reading those newspaper 
 statements. 
 
 That a tride may tax the imagi- 
 nation, or any other mental quali- 
 ty of St. Clair, I can readily con- 
 ceive. The dress was not adduced 
 as evidence ; but the following 
 note from the donor may explain 
 the position of Mr. Williams in re- 
 gard to it, and the probabilities 
 that it is what it is said to be : — ; 
 
 "Presented to the Rev. Mr. Wil- 
 liams, with the respectful regards 
 of Mrs. Edward Clarke, of North- 
 
APFKNDIX. 
 
 475 
 
 St. Clair. 
 
 That Mr. Williams is a respecta- 
 ble clergyman. Mr. Williams has 
 voluntarily placed himself in no 
 enviable position. He must stand 
 or fall not by his character, but by 
 his proofs. The Bjomans said of 
 the departed, " He has lived." I 
 am afraid we shall have to say of 
 Mr. Williams, " He has been a re- 
 spectable clergyman." 
 
 ampton. Being in England some 
 years since, I had an opportunity 
 there to purchase this dress, once 
 yrota by Marie Antoinette, of 
 France. It had been bought at the 
 court by a gentlemen attached, at 
 that time, to our embassy. — Round 
 Hill, Northampton, Jan. 3, 1801." 
 That St. Clair is a distinguished 
 statesman. St. Clair has volunta- 
 rily placed himself in no enviable 
 position. He must fall or stand, 
 not by his character but by his 
 proofs. The Romans said of the 
 departed, " He has lived." I am 
 a&aid, if the letter of St. Clair be 
 the criterion of his claim to the 
 title of a distinguished statesman, 
 we shall have tu say, "He has 
 been distinguished." 
 
 [Appehdix N. — -Page 430.] 
 
 Affidavit of Margaret Brown, of New Orleans. 
 
 My name is Margaret Brown. I live in the city of New Orleans. I was 
 born in the year 1779, but whether in Scotland or France is uncertain. I 
 was educated in Scotland. The name of my first husband was Benjamm Oli- 
 vier. He was a French Republican. I was married to him in Edinburgh 
 and went with him to France. After the birth of my first child, I accom- 
 panied him to Normandy. I was married a second time in 1804, to Joseph 
 Deboit, then Secretary to the Count D'Artois, who was at that period 
 residing at Holyrood House, in Edinburgh. The Count d'Artois left Soot- 
 land shortly after my marriage with Deboit, who accompanied him. During 
 the absence of the Count d'Artois from Edinbuigh, I lived in the vicinity 
 of the palace, except a portion of the time when I joined my husband in 
 London. The Count de Provence and the Duchesse d'Angouleme arrived 
 in England, and I first saw them with the Count d'Artois in South Audley 
 street, Grdsvenor Square. In oonsecjuence of the situation held by my 
 husband, I became very intimate with the Duchesse d'Angouleme aoA. the 
 
476 APPENDIX. 
 
 rest of the royal family, with whom I resided. Shortly after the arrival of 
 the Duohesse d'Angouleme in England, In 1806 or 7, my curiosity having 
 been excited by my husband, who had told me that the Dauphin was not 
 dead, I asked the Duchesse her opinion respecting her brother's fate. The 
 Duchesse d'Angouleme replied to me, that she knew he was alive and safe 
 in America. At this period I first heard that a man named Eellanger, had 
 carried the Dauphin to America, but whether it was from the Duchesse 
 d'AngoulSme or from Joseph Deboit I cannot now certainly say. But it 
 was from one of the two, and my impression is that it was from the 
 Duchesse. I distinctly remember that I heard the fact at that time from 
 one of them, aa they were the only persons with whom I spoke on the sub- 
 ject, and also that the Duchesse d'Angouleme told me ihat she knew the 
 Dauphin was then safe in America. Joseph Deboit died in 1810. ITntil 
 his death I resided with him in Solyrood, in intimate acquaintance with 
 the royal family. I went to France in 1811, to look after some property. 
 I there married George Brown, an American, at Morley in France. Brown 
 was sailing master to the True Blooded Yankee, under Commodore Preble's 
 brother. In 1813, the aide-de-camp of General Moreau gave me dispatches 
 to carry to the Bourbon family in England. His name was, I think, De 
 Vaux. He put them between the ticking and the leather of the trunk. I 
 took them in this way across the channel, and gave therrt into the hands of 
 the Count d'Artois, in South Audley street, in the ]iresenoe of M. de Belle- 
 ville. Shortly after this I again went to France, and. after remaining there 
 a short time went to sea. with my husband. There was a. dangerous mu- 
 tiny on board. We arrived in the Brazils, and I kept school in St. Salvador. 
 From St. Salvador I set out for New York with my husband in the Tom 
 Bowling, Capt. Carleton. 
 
 Mr. Brown died 'at sea on the 7th June, 1815. The Tom Bowling ar- 
 rived in New York on or about July 4th, 1815. From New York I went to 
 the Havana, and was housekeeper to Grey and Fernandez. I then returned 
 to Scotland. In the year 1817, I was living in the same house with Mrs. 
 Chamberlaw, wife to the SeeretaTry of the Count de Coigny, who had lived 
 vyith the Count de Provence during his residence in Ediifburgh. I was 
 familiar both with the Count and Mrs. Chamberlaw while I liveji with 
 Deboit in the palace of Holyrood. Mrs. Chamberlaw told me, that some 
 time before, she had heard in the Tuileries that the Dauphin was alive, 
 that a man named Bellanger had carried him to Philadelphia, and that he 
 was then known by the name of Williams. She mentioned his christian 
 name, and I think I should remember it if I heard it. It was not Joseph. 
 It was not Aaron. It seems to me that it was Eleazar. She said that 
 Williams was a missionary among the Indians, and that the royal family 
 said he was incompetent to reign. She also told me that a person came 
 
APPENDIX. 4'!'! 
 
 over from America to France on this business, who was supposed in i^e 
 palace to be Williams himself. She saw him — money was given to him, 
 and he returned to America. Such was Mrs Chamberlaw's statement to 
 me in 1817. I have the most distinct remembrance of it. The name of 
 Bellanger has been kept in my memory by seeing it on shops. That of 
 Williams, the Indian Missionary, who was said by Mrs. Chamberlaw to be 
 the Dauphin, was impressed on my mind of itself and I have never forgot- 
 ten it. I again came to New York in 1819. I settled in Louisiana in 
 1820, where I have since lived in great retirement. I have spoken to sev- 
 eral people on this subject for many years, and especially to Mrs. Catherine 
 Head. I do not^ expect to live long, and have no wish in this matter to 
 say one word, but what I have always said, and which as a person soon 
 to appear before God, I solemnly declare to be true. 
 
 Signed Margaret Brown. 
 
 Sworn to and subscribed before me the 28th day of April, 1853, at the 
 city of New Orleans. 
 
 Signed G. Luqehbahi., 
 
 ^ 5th Justice of the Peace. 
 
 I 
 ' Affidavit of Mrs. Catherine Read, made in New Orleans. 
 
 My name is Catherine Read. I am a native of the state of New York. 
 I have resided in New Orleans since 1805. I have knowii Mrs. Margaret 
 Brown for many years, and I believe her to be a person whose veracity can 
 be depended on. She is poor, but a religious, conscientious woman. My 
 attention was &st called to her about sixteen or seventeen years ago, by 
 the Rev. Mr. Fox, a minister of the Episcopal church in this city. He 
 told me that she was a person who had seen great vicissitudes, and had 
 been intimately acquainted vrith the royal fomily of France. I have for 
 years been in the habit of conversing with Mrs. Brown respecting the events 
 of her life and have repeated to others and especially to the Bev. Mr. 
 WhitaU much that she had said, in the hope of exciting sympathy for 
 her reverses. She mentioned to me long before 1 heard anything of the pub- 
 Ucations which I am now informed have been made in late years respecting 
 ,the identity of the Rev. Eleazar Williams with the Sgiuphin, and before 
 she could have heard anything on the subject derived from American 
 sources, and evidently without any object but to communicate facts of 
 interest, or any idea that the information was of importance, or that I 
 should repeat it, that her second husbatid was named Joseph Deboit, and was 
 Secretaiy to the Count D'Artois, that she had been personally acquainted 
 with the Count de Provence and the Duohesse d'Angouleme, and had been 
 employed previous to the accession of Louis XVIIL to carry dispatches to 
 members of the royal family of France, then resident in England, in proof 
 
478 APPENDIX. 
 
 of which she showed me the secret badge, ornamented with fleur-de-lis, which 
 slie had used on the occasion. She also stated that when she was living 
 in Edinburgh she had been informed that a person named Bellanger had. 
 carried the Dauphin, Louis Charles, son of Louis XVL and Marie Antoi- 
 nette, from Prance to America, and had taken him at first to Philadelphia, 
 and that he was a missionary among the Indians, and was known by the 
 name of Williams. She also mentioned that a man went from Americato 
 France on this business about 1815. She has been in the habit to my cer- 
 tain remembrance of telling this story for twelve or thirteen years pa.st, but 
 few persons would pay any attention to her, and imagined her to be insane, 
 and I have listened to her out respect to her character, and because what 
 she said amused rae, but without any idea that the information she gave 
 me could ever be of any practical importance. It is just to add that Mrs. 
 Brown is not only a good and conscientious woman, but that she is in all 
 human probability very near the hour of death from cancer in the breast, 
 and that I can conceive no possible reason why she should state anything 
 but the simple truth. She never spoke to me respecting the Dauphin, ex- 
 cept when questioned concerning her history, and then mentioned these cir- 
 cumstances as forming part of the events of her life. 
 
 Signed, C. Read. 
 
 Sworn to, atid subscribed before me, on the 28th day of April, 1853, 
 at the city of New Orleans. 
 
 Signed G. Lusenbahi,, 
 
 5th J'ustice of the Peace. 
 
 Affidamt of the Rev. Charles Whitall^ of New Orleans. 
 
 I am a native of New Jersey, and have resided eleven years in the city 
 of New Orleans, as a minister of the gospel. Mrs. Catherine Bead is a 
 lady of the highest respectability, and is a communicant of my parish, 
 and a person in whose statements the most implicit confidence can be 
 placed. I am also acquainted with Mrs. Margaret Brown, and know her 
 to be a very respectable, pious old lady, of whom nothing but what is cre- 
 ditable can be spoken. I first became acquainted with her through Mrs. 
 Bead. I have read both their afSdavits, and am perfectly familiar 
 with the statements made in them, from hearing Mrs. Read .speak of them 
 for many years past. With Mrs. Brown I have never conversed in refer- 
 ence to the Dauphin, because I did not think the matter of any moment, 
 and felt rather inclined to ridicule the affair — ^but for five or six years past, 
 I have heard Mrs Bead say, that she had been acquainted with the royal 
 family of France, and that a man named Bellanger, brought the Danpliin 
 to this country. I can add my testimony not only to the good character 
 
APPENDIX. 4T9 
 
 but to the Infirm health of Mrs. Margaret Brown, and regard it as to the 
 last degree improbable that she should state anything but the truth, 
 Signed Chaeles Whitall. 
 
 Sworn and subscribed before me, this 28th day of April, 1853, at the 
 city of New Orleans. 
 
 Signed G. Lwgenbahl. 
 
 I am myself personally acquainted with the parties whose affidavits are 
 before given, and can cheerfully vouch for their respectability, and the 
 entire reliability of- their testimony. I have known Mrs. Margaret Brovm 
 for thirteen years, and believe her to be a religious, good woman. 
 
 Signed G. Lugenbahi., 5th JtisHce, 
 
 [Appendix 0. — Page 436.] 
 
 Names of the CJiildren of ThoTnas Williams 
 
 There are some striking discrepancies between the list of names, as given 
 by Strs. Williams, and the baptismal register at Caughnawaga. 1 do not 
 pretend to account for this, except it can be ascribed to failure or confu- 
 sion of memory on the part of the old woman, who appears to know 
 little about Eleazar, except that he was " adopted," and brought to her 
 by Thomas "Williams. One great reason, I learn, why she has been 
 hitherto unwilling to acknowledge boldly that Eleazar was her adopted 
 child, was, that the idea was hinted to her that, being now without 
 husband or children, and only Eleazar left, if she confessed he was not 
 her child, he would think himself no more bound to take care of her. 
 
 THB END.