Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 391 pages of information about Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton.

Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 391 pages of information about Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton.
the impudent and ungrateful scamp turned to her with an air of mock majesty and exclaimed, “Madame, I accept counsel from no one.  I give it as I do commands.  I am a sovereign!” The members of his family were next brought from Vezin to identify him, and had no hesitation in doing so.  He denied ever having seen them before, but frequently betrayed himself by addressing them by their pet household names, and by contradicting them with regard to trivial occurrences.  The imposture was plain; and Bruneau, his forger-secretary Tourly, Branzon the author of the “Memoirs,” the Abbe Matouillet, and Madame Dumont, were committed for trial as swindlers, as the government did not deem them of sufficient importance to charge them with high treason.

The Abbe contrived to effect his escape from the jail, but the others were placed in the dock, Bruneau was received with some faint cries of “Vive Louis XVII.!” but the scamp knew that his game was played out, and did not care to conceal his knowledge of the fact.  He had made no effort to make himself presentable; but appeared in court ill-dressed, unshaven, and wearing a cotton night-cap on his head.  It was with difficulty that he could be compelled to respect the forms of the court, or to preserve ordinary decency.  He interrupted the opening speech of the government prosecutor by noisy ejaculations, oaths, filthy expletives, and immodest and insulting gestures, and when rebuked by the judges showered down upon them all the abusive and abominable epithets of his extensive vocabulary.

The trial lasted for ten days, and the career of Bruneau was clearly traced from his very childhood.  As revelation after revelation was made, and the history of crime after crime was disclosed, his interruptions became more and more frequent and violent, until his very accomplices shrank from him in horror, protesting that it he had presented himself to them in the same guise when he first proclaimed his pretensions, they would not have been seduced by him.  Their advocates pleaded on their behalf that they were dupes and not confederates, and the plea served to exculpate the Abbe, Madame Dumont, and Tourly.  The impostor himself was condemned to five years’ imprisonment, three thousand francs fine, and a further imprisonment of two years for his offences against the dignity of justice and the public morality committed in open court.  He was further condemned to remain at the after-disposal of the government, and to pay three-fourths of the expenses of the trial.  Branzon, his literary friend, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, and to pay a fourth of the expenses.  When that part of the sentence was pronounced, which referred to the cost of the proceedings, Bruneau burst into an insulting laugh, and informed the judges that he would take care to defray the heavy responsibility laid upon him as soon as he was able.  But, as the saying is, he laughed without his host.  The subscriptions of his dupes were lying at the Bank of France, were confiscated by the state, and, amply served to pay the pecuniary penalty.  After his imprisonment had expired Bruneau disappeared from public view.

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Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.