cemetery of the parish of St Margaret; so that, at the restoration of
the Bourbons in 1815, when Louis XVIII. desired that the remains of
his predecessor should be disentombed, they could not be
distinguished.

The equivocal wording of the medical report, aided by other
suspicions, caused an idea to gain extensive currency that a dead
child had been substituted for the royal infant; and that he had
escaped from his jailers by a well-laid plan, carried out by his
partisans. This notion was so prevalent, that we find, amongst the
records of the Convention, a decree dated June 14, 1795--only six
days after the date fixed as that of the young king's death--ordering
him to be sought for along all the roads of the kingdom. However, the
better-informed part of the community were firmly convinced that
Louis XVII. was dead and buried; and from that time till 1832, the
belief was never effectually disturbed. Taking advantage of the
doubt, several impostors made their appearance, claiming to be the
prince. The first of these was one Hervagaut, who, when discovered to
be a tailor's son, was condemned in 1802 to four years' imprisonment.
In 1818, Mathurin Bruneau, a shoemaker, tried the same trick; but
failing, was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. In short, no
fewer than fifteen impostors have been enumerated; all of whom
pretended to be the wretched young prince, returned from exile after
escaping from the Temple. The latest claimant is the subject of the
present notice; and so startlingly do some of the circumstances of
his career coincide with the short history of the son of Louis XVI.,
that many well-informed persons really believe he was the person he
represented himself to be.

Between the termination of Charles-Louis's imprisonment by death or
otherwise, and the appearance of this individual on the scene, it may
be necessary to remind the reader that several revolutions and
counter-revolutions had swept over France. Napoleon's career had
begun and ended; the allies had seated the Bourbons on the throne in
the person of Louis XVIII., brother to Louis XVI., and uncle to his
latest predecessor; Charles X. had succeeded, and was driven from the
throne by the revolution of 1830, which seated Louis-Philippe on it
in his stead. All these events had taken place when the story of the
so-called Duke of Normandy commences.

On an unusually hot evening for the season--an early day in the May
of 1832--a man covered with dust, a