Hervagault’s next appearance was in an entirely new character.  He entered on board a man-of-war at Brest, under the name of Louis-Charles, and distinguished himself both for good conduct and courage.  But he could not remain content with the praises which he acquired by his bravery, and once more confided the wonderful story of his birth and misfortunes to his shipmates, many of whom listened and believed.  But the monotony of life at sea was too great for his sensitive nerves, and he deserted, and again took to a wandering life, trying his fortunes, on this occasion, among the royalists of Lower Brittany.  Intelligence of his whereabouts soon reached the government, and he was arrested and again conveyed to the Bicetre, with the intimation that his captivity would only terminate with his life.

By this time it was well known in France that Bonaparte’s word, once passed, would not be broken; and Hervagault, losing all hope, abandoned himself to drunkenness and the wildest excesses.  His constitution gave way, and in a very short time he lay at the gates of death.  A priest was summoned to administer the last consolations of religion to the dying pretender, and urged him to think on God and confess the truth.  He gazed steadily into the eyes of the confessor, and said—­“I shall not appear as a vile impostor in the eyes of the Great Judge of the universe.  Before His tribunal I shall stand, revealed and acknowledged, the son of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette of Austria.  A Bourbon, descendant of a line of kings, my portion will be among the blessed.  There I shall meet with my august and unfortunate family, and with them I shall partake of the common eternal rest.”  Two days afterwards he died, as he had lived, with a lie on his lips.

MATURIN BRUNEAU—­SOI-DISANT LOUIS XVII.  OF FRANCE.

Maturin Bruneau, the next pretender to the honours of the deceased son of Louis XVI., was quite as great a rascal as Hervagault, but he lacked his cleverness.  Bruneau was the son of a maker of wooden shoes, who resided at the little village of Vezin, in the department of the Maine and Loire.  He was born in 1784, and having been early left an orphan, was adopted by a married sister, who kept him until she discovered that he was incorrigibly vicious, and was compelled to turn him into the streets to earn his livelihood in the best way he could.  Although Maturin was only eleven years old at the time, he found no difficulty in providing for himself.  He strayed a little distance from home, into regions where he was personally unknown, and there accosted a farmer whom he met, asking him for alms, and stating at the same time that he was a little “De Vezin.”  The farmer’s curiosity was excited, for the Baron de Vezin was a well-known nobleman, who had suffered sorely in the civil war of 1795, whose chateau had been burnt, and whose estates had been devastated by the republican soldiery; and that his son should be compelled to beg was more than the honest agriculturist could bear.  So he took the little waif home with him, and kept him until the Viscountess de Turpin de Crisse heard of his whereabouts, and carried him off to her own chateau at Angrie.