FOREWORD AND POSTSCRIPT 



AUDUBON AND THE DAUPHIN 



Was John James Audubon Louis Charles, Dauphin and 

 Duke of Normandy, who by hereditary right became titular 

 King of France at the moment the head of his father, Louis 

 XVI, fell under the guillotine in Paris, January 21, 1793? 

 Was he the little boy prince who was "in the way" and "not 

 wanted" by his uncles and many of his countrymen, his poten- 

 tial subjects? Was he that unfortunate child who, orphaned 

 by regicides, was held a close prisoner for nearly three im- 

 pressionable years of his young life? Was he the boy who, 

 in consequence of such treatment, according to some reports, 

 developed a tendency to scrofula which we should now call 

 tuberculosis? Finally, was he the ten-year-old child who was 

 officially declared to have died in the Temple prison, June 7, 

 1795, a conclusion which many historians accepted, although 

 some have maintained that the true prince was spirited out of 

 the Tower, but when or how, or where or how long he may 

 have lived, are questions which have never been answered with 

 complete certainty. 



When we consider the fierce partisanship engendered dur- 

 ing the Revolution, and the wide breach between what con- 

 temporaries spoke or wrote and what they really thought or 

 believed, the testimony of eye-witnesses to events in or about 

 the Temple must be considered very untrustworthy. Moreover, 

 the failure of one hundred and forty years of hot debate to 

 throw any clear light on the ultimate fate of the Dauphin tends 

 more and more to convince us that he was "lost" only in the 

 sense that he had died. If this be the hard truth, what more 

 vain than refuting the claims of pretenders or their descend- 

 ants ? 



Iv 



