ROYAL MYSTERIES

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 132, 7 June 1930, Page 20

ROYAL MYSTERIES

There aro many who believe that Charles 1., the so-called '' Boyal Martyr," never laid his head on the executioner's block —that a substitute paid the penalty for him, and that he survived as Elias Ashmole and founded the famous museum of that name at Oxford. Ashmole's portrait in the museum is a duplicate of that of the martyred King, by the side of which it hangs; After the Restoration he was appointed Windsor Herald, was housed in the Boyal Palace, and was in constant contact with the King. He bore a name never before borne by man, and he had for crest a caduceus, a sign of mystery. Was it Napoleon or his double who died in St. Helena? It is said that the man who, after Waterloo, surrendered to Captain Maitland, of the Bellerophou, and was taken to St. Helena was Napoleon's double and substitute, and that Napoleon himself made his escape to Florence, where for some years ho earned his living as an optician.

The writer of the article in the "Cape Argus," from which these extracts are taken, mentions that to this day, too, there are many who maintain that the coffin which \was exposed in Kazan Cathedral for seven days did not contain the body of Alexander I. of Eussia, who actually died 40 years later

V£AS CHARLES BEHEADED?

as Feodor Konsmitsh, a hermit famed for his saintliness and good works. Even Joan of Arc is said to have survived her martyrdom many a year, and to have ended her days a happy wife and mother of two children. Five years after she was supposed to have perished in the flames a young woman of Metz, her exaet double, proclaimed herself to the world as Joan of Arc. She was recognised at sight by hundreds, including her two brothers. She was hailed everywhere .as tho "Maid of France" strangely come to life again; and it is said that she saw visions aud worked miracles just as Joan had done. .

A great mystery surrounds the fate of the Prince of Orange, who 50 years ago died in Paris after an orgy of dis- y sipation which shocked the world. Only a year earlier this heir to a throne had left Holland never to return; and to this day none can say definitely why he turned his back on the splendour of palaces to close his life. in disgrace. The story, as told,.is that'it was the result of a fieree quarrel with King William, who in his rage at the young man's insolent defiance told him that he was "no son of his"—that he was actually the son of a lodgekeepor who, for reasons of State, had been exchanged at birth for the infant daughter of Queen Sophia.