was of absorbing interest.

He said that after the fall of Robespierre and his myrmidons, he
received much more lenient treatment, and was permitted to see his
sister daily, to play with her, and to take his meals in her company.
Still his health did not improve, and the compassion of his nurse
having been excited, she informed his friends without of his
condition, and it was resolved to effect his release. An arrangement
was made, and the real dauphin was placed in the midst of a bundle of
foul linen, and was then carried past the unsuspecting guards, while
a child who had been purchased for the occasion from his unnatural
parents was substituted in his place. The laundress' cart containing
the prince was driven to Passy, and there three individuals received
him, and were so certain of his identity that they at once fell on
their knees and did him homage. From their care he was transferred to
Belleville, the head-quarters of the Vendean army, where with strange
inconsistency he was compelled to observe an incognito! Here he passed
two months disguised as a lady; and, although known to the chiefs,
concealed from the loyal army.

Meantime the poor child who had been foisted upon the republicans was
drugged and died, and Dessault, his medical attendant, died also--the
suspicion being that both were poisoned. This miserable child, who had
thus paid the death penalty for his king was none other, the pretender
said, than the son of a rascally tailor, named Hervagault, who lived
at St. Lo!

He further stated that, while the royalist cause was wavering,
instructions arrived from some mysterious source to send him to
England to secure his safety, and that thither he was despatched. The
Count d'Artois, he admitted, refused to acknowledge him as his nephew;
but simple George III. was more easily imposed upon, and received the
_pseudo_-dauphin with much kindness, and after encouraging him to be
of good cheer, despatched him in an English man-of-war to Ostia. At
Rome he had an interview with the Pope, and presented to him a
confidential letter which had been given to him by the English
monarch. Moreover, the pontiff prophesied the future greatness of his
illustrious visitor; and, in order to confirm his identity, stamped
two stigmata on his limbs with a red-hot iron--one on the right leg,
representing the royal shield of France, with the initial letter of
his name; and the other, on his left arm, with the inscription of
"_Viv