772 



ANNUAL REGISTER. 



created an appetite, let us quickly 

 throw ourselves into ajiacre (hack- 

 ney-coach), and drive to the Restau- 

 rateur. 



Narrative of a late extraordinary 

 Imposture, the pretended Dau- 

 phin. From the same. 



This singular story, which, as far 

 as I know, has not acquired much 

 publicity, will create the more asto- 

 nishment, if I assure my readers, 

 that there is a great number of peo- 

 ple in France, who do not only 

 iirmly and implicitly believe that 

 Louis XVII. is still alive, but even 

 assign very plausible reasons for the 

 assertion. If some palpable false- 

 hoods did not intervene, we might 

 at least confess that the matter is 

 possible. I shall first relate the 

 story, as it has been placed on the 

 records of the government and their 

 tribunals, and afterwards as the hero 

 and his partisans have w ished to re- 

 present it. 



Jean Marie Hervagault is the son 

 of a tailor at St. Lo, of a prepos- 

 sessing figure, features bearing great 

 resemblance to those of Louis 

 XVI. fair, slender, lively, commu- 

 nicative, w ithout suspicion, quickly 

 penetrating, and feigning innocence 

 in a masterly manner ; of course a 

 person of great endowments, but of 

 no education. He is supposed to be 

 a natural son of the duke of Valen- 

 tinois, who possessed estates in Nor- 

 mandy. The strange events of the 

 revolution disordered his senses ; he 

 saw that many had raised themselves 

 from obscurity, and he wished to do 

 the same. In September, 1796, he 

 left his father's house, and strolled 

 as a vagabond about the country, 

 declaring himself to be the son of a 



family of rank, reduced to distrcsfl 

 by the revolution. His youth, his 

 innocent appearance, and the plausi- 

 bility of his story, every where pro- 

 cured him a favourable reception 

 and relief. He had no passport, 

 but was never asked for one. He 

 became bolder, and attempted like- 

 wise to carry on his trade in the 

 towns. He came to Cherbourg, but 

 was soon taken up as a vagrant. 

 His father, the tailor, being appriz- 

 ed of this, hastened to fetch him, 

 and was not a little surprised to 

 find him richly provided with mo- 

 ney and jewels. He brought him 

 back to St. Lo, where the brisk 

 young blade did not, however, stay 

 long, but soon ran away a second 

 time, strolled through the depart- 

 ment of Calvados; and having im- 

 proved both in body and in mind, he 

 became more ingeniously inventive 

 in his stories than at first. He some- 

 times passed for a son of the prince 

 of Monaco, and sometimes for the 

 heir of the duke d'Urselles in the 

 Netherlands. He thus raised himself 

 step by step, and ere long made 

 himself a relation of Lewis XVI. of 

 the emperor Joseph II. and of the 

 king of Prussia. For the sake of 

 his safety, Avhich was threatened, he 

 travelled in women's clothes, pre- 

 tending that he was just arrived 

 from England, whither he had been 

 taking some money to his emigrant 

 father. 



Many, very many people of rank 

 and education were deceived, for he 

 flattered their former prejudices ; 

 the ladies in particular shewed a de- 

 cided partiality for him, because he 

 addressed their hearts. His adven- 

 tures began to attraft some notice, 

 and he was arrested a second time in 

 female attire, and conducted to pri- 

 son at BayeuXj at the distance of 

 3 onl/ 



