his rights, and
claimed before the Cour du Chatelet, in Paris, the name and honours of
Count Solar; and orders were given by the court for the arrest of
Cazeaux as his abductor and exposer. The unfortunate lawyer was seized
and hurried to the Misericorde, a loathsome dungeon below the Hotel de
Ville, at Toulouse. Next day, heavily ironed, he was thrown into a
cart, and thus set out on a journey of 500 miles to Paris. While the
cart was in motion he was chained to it; when they halted he was
chained to the inn table; at night he was chained to his bed. At
length, after seventeen wearisome days, the capital was reached, and
the prisoner was taken from his cart and cast into the vaults of the
Chatelet. After considerable and unnecessary delay, the supposed
abductor was brought to trial; and not only were the charges against
him easily disproved, but the whole of the Abbe's grand hypothesis was
destroyed beyond reconstruction. A host of witnesses came forward to
testify that the young count did not leave Toulouse under the
guardianship of Cazeaux, until the 4th of September 1773, whereas
Joseph was found at Peronne on the 1st of August. Moreover, the
contemporary history of the two youths was clearly traced, it being
shown that in November 1773, the Count Solar was at Bagneres de
Bigorre while Joseph was an inmate of the Bicetre; and finally it was
conclusively proved that on the 28th of January 1774, the real Count
Solar died at Charlas, near Bagneres, of small-pox, having outlived
his father about a year.

The acquittal of Cazeaux followed as a matter of course, and he was
dismissed from the bar of the Chatelet with unblemished reputation,
but broken in health and ruined in fortune. Happily for him, a M.
Avril, a rich judge of the Chatelet, who had been active against him
during his trial, repented of the evil he had done him, sought his
acquaintance, and bequeathed him a large fortune. Thus raised to
wealth, and aided by the revolution, which levelled all social
distinctions, he aspired to the hand of the widowed Countess Solar who
had lost her estates. Success crowned his suit, and his former
patroness became his wife. After their marriage the pair settled on an
estate a few leagues from Paris, where Cazeaux died in 1831 and his
wife in 1835. Joseph, who was undoubtedly the son of a gentleman, soon
ceased to interest the public, and, his pretensions having failed,
retired into comparative obscurity, accepting service i