CHAPTER XVII 



THE ENIGMA OF AUDUBON'S LIFE AND THE HISTORY 

 OF HIS FAMILY IN FRANCE 



Death of Lieutenant Audubon — Contest over his will — Disposition of his 

 estate — The fictitious $17,000 — Unsettled claims of Formon and Ross — 

 Illusions of biographers — Gabriel Loyen du Puigaudeau — Audubon's 

 relations with the family in France broken — Death of the naturalist's 

 stepmother — The du Puigaudeaus — Sources of "enigma." 



Lieutenant Jean Audubon, as already recorded, died 

 at Nantes in 1818, at a time when his son's financial 

 troubles in America were culminating, and left an estate, 

 then none too large, for the sole enjoyment of his widow 

 during her lifetime. The naturalist, so far as is known, 

 never received a penny in payment of bequests made by 

 either his father or stepmother, but the reasons for this 

 fact were far different from those which his biographers 

 have assigned. 



We have referred to the curious wording which 

 appears in the six different wills that were executed by 

 Lieutenant Jean Audubon and Anne Moynet, his wife, 

 between the years 1812 and 1821. x The first four of 

 these documents 2 were of a mutual nature, and were 

 so drawn that the survivor should enjoy the entire 

 property of the other during his or her lifetime, but this 

 eventually was to be divided between their two children, 

 or heirs of the latter should any exist. In Jean Audu- 

 bon's last will, made at Coueron on the 15th of March, 



1 See Chapter IX, p. 63. 



2 For complete text of these wills, in the original, See Appendix I, 

 Documents 13-18. 



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