en of the long robe. There would
seem now to be no doubt upon the subject, as one of the most eminent
solicitors in this country has received instructions to take the
necessary steps preliminary to a new action at law. The newly discovered
facts are sufficiently curious to deserve mention. The late Walter
Carew, Esq., was reputed to have married a French lady, who, although
believed to have been of high and distinguished rank, was no longer
traceable to any family, nor indeed to any locality in France" There
were many mysterious circumstances attending this alleged union, which
made the fact of a marriage very doubtful. Nothing certainly could
be discovered amongst Carew's papers, or little to authenticate the
circumstances, nor was there a single allusion to be found to it in his
handwriting. A singular accident has at length brought this document
to light; and although the individual whose fortune it most nearly
concerned has ceased to exist,--he died, it is believed, in the affair
of the Sections at Paris,--the result will, in all probability, affect
the possession of the vast property in question.
"The discovery to which we allude is as follows: A mass of papers and
family documents were deposited by the late Duke of Montpensier in the
hands of certain bankers in Philadelphia, in whose possession they have
remained, undisturbed and unexplored, up to within a few weeks back,
when the Duke of Orleans, desiring to know if a particular document that
he sought for was amongst the number, addressed himself to the firm for
this purpose. Whether success attended the search in question we know
not, but it certainly elicited another and most curious discovery:
no less than that the late Madame de Carew was a natural daughter
of Philippe, Duke of Orleans, the celebrated 'Egalite,' and that her
marriage had been the result of a wager lost by the Duke to Carew. We
are not at liberty to divulge any more of the singular circumstances of
this strange compact, though we may add, what in the present is the more
important element of the case, no less than this marriage certificate
of Walter Carew and Josephine de Courtois, forwarded to the Duke in a
letter from the Duchesse de Sargance, who had accompanied them.
"The letter of the Duchess herself is not one of the least singular
parts of this most strange history, since it mentions the marriage in
a style of apology, and consoles the Duke for the _mesalliance_ by the
assurance that
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