It was a Royalist sheet, subsidized by the Count de Chambord and
published in the interest of the Bourbons. Until 1888 Harden-Hickey was
its editor, and even by his enemies it must be said that he served his
employers with zeal. During the seven years in which the paper amused
Paris and annoyed the republican government, as its editor Harden-Hickey
was involved in forty-two lawsuits, for different editorial
indiscretions, fined three hundred thousand francs, and was a principal
in countless duels.

To his brother editors his standing interrogation was: "Would you prefer
to meet me upon the editorial page, or in the Bois de Boulogne?" Among
those who met him in the Bois were Aurelien Scholl, H. Lavenbryon, M.
Taine, M. de Cyon, Philippe Du Bois, Jean Moreas.

In 1888, either because, his patron the Count de Chambord having died,
there was no more money to pay the fines, or because the patience of
the government was exhausted, _Triboulet_ ceased to exist, and
Harden-Hickey, claiming the paper had been suppressed and he himself
exiled, crossed to London.

From there he embarked upon a voyage around the world, which lasted two
years, and in the course of which he discovered the island kingdom of
which he was to be the first and last king. Previous to his departure,
having been divorced from the Countess de Saint-Pery, he placed his boy
and girl in the care of a fellow-journalist and very dear friend, the
Count de la Boissiere, of whom later we shall hear more.

Harden-Hickey started around the world on the _Astoria_, a British
merchant vessel bound for India by way of Cape Horn, Captain Jackson
commanding.

When off the coast of Brazil the ship touched at the uninhabited island
of Trinidad. Historians of James the First say that it was through
stress of weather that the _Astoria_ was driven to seek refuge there,
but as, for six months of the year, to make a landing on the island is
almost impossible, and as at any time, under stress of weather, Trinidad
would be a place to avoid, it is more likely Jackson put in to replenish
his water-casks, or to obtain a supply of turtle meat.

Or it may have been that, having told Harden-Hickey of the derelict
island, the latter persuaded the captain to allow him to land and
explore it. Of this, at least, we are certain, a boat was sent ashore,
Harden-Hickey went ashore in it, and before he left the island, as a
piece of no man's land, belonging to no country, he claimed it in h