ver, was it a coincidence that on the very day on which
the Colonel at Michele's with one of the alleged children, it was
proved that a "foreign gentleman," exactly answering his description,
had purchased, for three gold louis, a fortnight-old baby from its
peasant-parents, called Mignon, in a Paris slum?

To add further to the confusion, both Colonel Stewart and Mrs Hewit, in
later years, declared in the most positive manner, first that the
children had been born at Michele's, and secondly at Madame la Brune's,
in defiance of the facts that on the 10th of July, the alleged date of
birth, the mother was beyond any doubt staying at Godefroi's hotel, that
no such person as Madame la Brune apparently existed, and that the only
visible child at Michele's was a fortnight old.

On the 7th of August Lady Jean wrote to inform her brother, the Duke,
that she had been blessed with "two boys," one of which she begged his
permission to call by his name--a letter which only had the effect of
rousing His Grace's "high passion and displeasure," with a threat to
stop her annuity. For sixteen months the second and more delicate infant
was left with his country nurse, the mother never once taking the
trouble to visit it; and then the Colonel and his wife made a mysterious
journey to Paris, returning with another child, who, they alleged, was
the weakling of the twins. Was it again a coincidence that, at the very
time when the second child made his appearance, another infant was
purchased from its parents in Paris by a "strange monsieur" who, if not
the Colonel, was at least his double? And was it not strange that this
late arrival should appear to be several months older than his more
robust brother, as the purchased child was?

At last, provided with two children, and having exhausted their credit
on the Continent, Lady Jean and her husband turned their faces homeward,
prepared to carry the war into the enemy's camp. Arrived in London they
set to work to win as many influential friends and supporters as
possible; and this Lady Jean, with her plausible tongue, succeeded in
doing. Ladies Shaw and Eglinton, the Duke of Queensberry, Lord Lindores,
Solicitor-General Murray (later, Lord Mansfield), and many another
high-placed personage vowed that they believed her story and pledged
their support. Mr Pelham proved such a good friend to her that he
procured from the King a pension of L300 a year, which she sorely
needed; for, at the time, h