The Abbe de l’Epee, astounded by the striking similarity between the facts and Joseph’s account of himself, at once came to the conclusion that Providence had chosen him as the instrument for righting a great wrong, and set himself to supply the missing links in the chain of evidence, and to restore his ward to what he doubted not was his rightful inheritance.  He maintained that young Solar’s mother, either wearied with the care of a child who was deprived of speech and hearing, or to secure his estates for herself or her daughter, had given her son to Cazeaux to be exposed, and that that ruffian had made tolerably certain of his work, by carrying the lad 600 miles from home, to the vicinity of Peronne, and there abandoning him in a dense wood, from which the chances were he would never be able to extricate himself, but in the mazes of which he would wander till he died.  God alone, the Abbe declared, guided the helpless and hungry lad within the reach of human assistance, and sent the traveller to rescue him, opened the woman’s heart to give him shelter, and brought him to Paris, so that he might be instructed and enabled to tell his doleful tale.

Fired by enthusiasm, the Abbe succeeded in engaging the co-operation of persons of the highest eminence.  The Duc de Penthievre, a prince of the blood, espoused the cause of the wronged noble, and provided for his support as became his supposed rank.  From the same princely source, also, funds were forthcoming to obtain legal redress for his hardships, and to prosecute his claims before the courts.  Proceedings were instituted against Cazeaux, who was still alive, and a formal demand was made for the reinstatement of the foundling of Peronne in the hereditary honours of Solar.  The boy was taken to Clermont, his reputed birthplace, at which he was said to have passed the first four years of his life in the company of his mother.  It could scarcely be supposed that those who knew the young heir, aged four, would be able to trace much similarity to him in the claimant of seventeen.  But there was far more recognition than might have been anticipated.  Madame de Solar’s father fancied that Joseph resembled his grandson, and he was the more thoroughly convinced of his identity, because he felt an affection for the youth which he believed to be instinctive.  The brother of the countess was convinced that Joseph was his nephew, because he had the large knees and round shoulders of the deceased count.  The mistress of the dame-school at Clermont recognised in the Abbe’s protege her former pupil.  Several witnesses also, who could not be positive as to the identity of the two persons, remembered that the youthful count had a peculiar lentil-shaped mole on his back, and a similar mole was found on the back of the claimant.  As it afterwards proved, Joseph was not completely deaf, but was shrewd enough to conceal the fact.  Consequently he succeeded in acquiring a good deal of useful information with respect to the Solar family, and re-produced it as the result of his own recollection when the proper time came.