dressed a letter to the Duchess of Angouleme and to the
principal courts of Europe. He also took a journey to Berlin to claim
from the authorities the seal which Nauendorff said had been taken from
him by the Brandenburg police--the same seal which Louis XVI., as he
was passing to execution, had handed to Clery with his dying
injunction to deliver it to his son. The government very sharply
ordered their subordinate back to his post, telling him that they knew
nothing of Nauendorff, but that they were well aware that Clery had
handed the jewel which he mentioned to Louis XVIII., who had rewarded
him with the riband of St. Louis. The syndic left Berlin in haste, and
arrived at home full of chagrin. He concealed himself from public
view, and shortly afterwards sickened and died. Nauendorff declared he
had been poisoned.

The discomfited impostor, finding that he was not likely to be able to
move the world from his retirement at Crossen, quietly disappeared
from that humble town, and was lost to the public gaze for a
considerable period. His movements about this time were very
mysterious; but it is proved with tolerable certainty that he repaired
to Paris, and his visit to the French capital may have had something
to do with the visions of Martin of Gallardon. This man was an
ignorant peasant, and, being a sort of _clairvoyant_, pretended that,
as the result of a vision, he knew that the son of Louis XVI. was
still alive. He said that, in the year 1818, while he was at mass in
the village church at Gallardon, an angel interrupted his devotions by
whispering in his ear that the dauphin of the Temple was alive, and
that he (Martin) was celestially appointed on a mission to Louis
XVIII. to inform him of the fact, and to announce to him that if he
ever dared to be formally crowned the roof of the cathedral would fall
in and make a very speedy ending of him and his court. The king was
prevailed upon to grant an interview to this impostor, and made no
secret of his message. Therefore, when year after year passed without
a formal coronation, the superstitious whispered that Louis knew
better than tempt the Divine vengeance, and, although he sat upon the
throne, was well aware that he had stolen another man's birthright,
and that the dauphin of the Temple was still alive.

But people were beginning to forget the existence of the watchmaker of
Crossen, when one evening, in the autumn of 1831, a traveller entered
one of the best fr