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being allowed a decent provision, becoming a prince. But I was
arrested, and handed over to the Austrian government. During eight
months I have been here buried alive, and God knows when I shall
regain my freedom."
I begged him to give me a brief sketch of his life. He told me very
minutely what I already knew relating to Louis XVII. and the cruel
Simon, and of the infamous calumnies that wretch was induced to
utter respecting the unfortunate queen, &c. Finally he said, that
while in prison, some persons came with an idiot boy of the name of
Mathurin, who was substituted for him, while he himself was carried
off. A coach and four was in readiness; one of the horses was
merely a wooden-machine, in the interior of which he was concealed.
Fortunately, they reached the confines, and the General (he gave me
the name, which has escaped me) who effected his release, educated
him for some time with the attention of a father, and subsequently
sent, or accompanied him, to America. There the young king, without
a sceptre, had room to indulge his wandering disposition; he was
half famished in the forests; became at length a soldier, and
resided some time, in good credit, at the court of the Brazils.
There, too, he was pursued and persecuted, till compelled to make
his escape. He returned to Europe towards the close of Napoleon's
career, was kept a close prisoner at Naples by Murat; and, at last,
when he was liberated, and in full preparation to reclaim the throne
of France, he was seized with that unlucky illness at Bologna,
during which Louis XVIII. was permitted to assume his nephew's
crown.
CHAPTER XX.
All this he related with an air of remarkable frankness and truth.
Although not justified in believing him, I nevertheless was
astonished at his knowledge of the most minute facts connected with
the revolution. He spoke with much natural fluency, and his
conversation abounded with a variety of curious anecdotes. There
was something also of the soldier in his expression, without showing
any want of that sort of elegance resulting from an intercourse with
the best society.
"Will it be permitted me," I inquired, "to converse with you on
equal terms, without making use of any titles?"
"That is what I myself wish you to do," was the reply. "I have at
least reaped one advantage from adversity; I have learnt to smile at
all these vanities. I assure you that I value myself more upon
being a man, than having been born a prince."
We were in the habit of conversing together both night and morning,
for a considerable time; and, in spite of what I considered the
comic part of his character, he appeared to be of a good
disposition, frank, affable, and interested in the virtue and
happiness of mankind. More than once I was on the point of saying,
"Pardon me; I wish I could believe you were Louis XVII., but I
frankly confess I cannot prevail on myself to believe it; be equally
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