Scipio Le Brun, of Castellane, a Provençal gentleman, and lord of the
manors of Caille and of Rougon, in 1655 married a young lady called
Judith le Gouche. As is common in France, and also in certain parts of
Britain, this local squire was best known by the name of his estates,
and was commonly termed the Sieur de Caille. Both he and his wife
belonged to the strictest sect of the Calvinists, who were by no means
favourites in the country. Their usual residence was at Manosque, a
little village in Provence, and there five children were born to them,
of whom three were sons and two were daughters. The two youngest sons
died at an early age, and Isaac, the eldest, after living to the age
of thirty-two, died also.
When this Isaac, who has just been mentioned, was a lad of fifteen,
his mother died, and in her will constituted him her heir, at the same
time bequeathing legacies to her daughters, and granting the life
interest of all her property to her husband. The King having revoked
the Edict of Nantes in 1685, the Sieur de Caille quitted the kingdom
with his family, which then consisted of his mother, his son Isaac,
and his two daughters. The fugitives made their home in Lausanne, in
Switzerland. In 1689 the French king, in the zeal of his Catholicism,
issued a decree, by which he bestowed the property of the Calvinist
fugitives upon their relations. The possessions of the Sieur de Caille
were therefore divided between Anne de Gouche, his wife's sister, who
had married M. Rolland, the _Avocat-Général_ of the Supreme Court of
Dauphiné, and Madame Tardivi, a relation on his own side.
Meantime Isaac, the son of the Sieur de Caille, who was by courtesy
styled the Sieur de Rougon, assiduously applied himself to his
studies, and, as the result of over-work, fell into a consumption, of
which he died at Vevay on the 15th of February 1696.
In March 1699, Pierre Mêge, a marine, presented himself before M. de
Vauvray, the intendant of marines at Toulon, and informed him that he
was the son of M. de Caille, at the same time telling the following
story. He said that he had had the misfortune to be an object of
aversion to his father because of his dislike to study, and because of
his ill-concealed attachment to the Catholic religion; that his father
had always exhibited his antipathy to him, and, while he was at
Lausanne, had frequently maltreated him; that rather than submit to
the paternal violence he had often run away from home, but had been
brought back again by officious friends, who met him in his flight;
that he had at last succeeded in making his escape, by the aid of a
servant, in December 1690; that, in order to avoid recapture, and to
satisfy his own desire to become a member of the Catholic Church, he
had formed the design of returning into Provence; that on his homeward
way he had been stopped by the Savoyard troops, who compelled him to
enlist in their ranks; and that he had subsequently been captured by
some French soldiers. He added that M. de Catinat, who commanded this
part of the French army, and to whom he had presented himself as the
son of M. de Caille, had given him a free pass; that he had arrived at
Nice, and had enlisted in the Provençal militia; and that having been
on duty one day at the residence of the governor, he had seen a silver
goblet carried past him which bore arms of his family, and which he
recognised as a portion of the plate which his father had sold in
order to procure the means to fly into Switzerland. The sight of this
vessel stirred up old recollections, and he burst into such a violent
paroxysm of grief that the attention of his comrades was attracted,
and they demanded the cause of his tears, whereupon he told them his
story, and pointed out the same arms impressed on his _cachet_. This
tale came to the ears of the Chevalier de la Fare, who then commanded
at Nice, and after a hasty investigation he treated his subordinate
with excessive courtesy, evidently believing him to be the man whom he
represented himself to be.
The militia having been disbanded, the claimant to manorial rights
and broad estates repaired to Marseilles, where he fell in with a
woman called Honorade Venelle, who was residing with her mother and
two sisters-in-law. The morality of these females seems to have been
of the slightest description; and Henriade Venelle had no hesitation
in yielding to a proposal of this infamous soldier that he should
represent her husband, who was at the time serving his king and
country in the ranks of the army. The easy spouse drew no distinctions
between the real and the supposititious husband, and the latter not
only assumed the name of Pierre Mêge, but collected such debts as were
due to him, and gave receipts which purported to bear his signature.
In 1695 he enlisted under the name of Mêge, on board the galley "La
Fidèle"--a ship in which the veritable Mêge was known to have been a
marine from 1676--and served for nearly three years, when he was again
dismissed. In order to eke out a temporary livelihood he sold a
balsam, the recipe for which he declared had been given him by his
grandmother Madame de Caille. He made little by this move, and was
compelled once more to enlist at Toulon; and here it was that he met
M. de Vauvray, and told him his wonderful story.
The intendant of marines listened to the tale with open ears, and
recommended his subordinate to make an open profession of his adhesion
to the Romish Church as a first step towards the restitution of his
rights. The soldier was nothing loth to accept this advice, and after
being three weeks under the tutelage of the Jesuits, he publicly
abjured the Calvinistic creed in the Cathedral of Toulon, on the 10th
of June 1699.
In his act of abjuration he took the name of André d'Entrevergues, the
son of Scipio d'Entrevergues, Sieur de Caille, and of Madame Susanne
de Caille, his wife. He stated that he was twenty-three years of age,
and that he did not know how to write. The falsehood of his story was,
therefore, plainly apparent from the beginning. The eldest son of the
Sieur de Caille was called Isaac and not André; the soldier took the
name of d'Entrevergues, and gave it to the father, while the family
name was Brun de Castellane; he called his mother Susanne de Caille,
whereas her maiden name was Judith le Gouche. He said that he was
twenty-three years of age, while the real son of the Sieur de Caille
ought to have been thirty-five; and he did not know how to write,
while numerous documents were in existence signed by the veritable
Isaac, who was distinguished for his accomplishments.
News of this abjuration having spread abroad, it reached Sieur de
Caille, at Lausanne, who promptly forwarded the certificate of his
son's death, dated February 15, 1696, to M. de Vauvray, who at once
caused the soldier to be arrested. M. d'Infreville, who commanded the
troops at Toulon, however, pretended that de Vauvray had no authority
to place soldiers under arrest, and the question thus raised was
referred from one to another, until it came to the ears of the king.
The following answer was at once sent:--
"The King approves the action of M. de Vauvray in arresting
and in placing in the arsenal the soldier of the company of
Ligondés, who calls himself the son of the Sieur de Caille.
His Majesty's commands are, that he be handed over to the
civil authorities, who shall take proceedings against him,
and punish him as his imposture deserves, and that the
affidavits of the real de Caille shall be sent to them."
The soldier was accordingly conveyed to the common prison of Toulon,
and was subsequently interrogated by the magistrates. In answer to
their inquiries, he said that he had never known his real name; that
his father had been in the habit of calling him d'Entrevergues de
Rougon de Caille; that he believed he really was twenty-five years
old, although two months previously he had stated his age to be
twenty-three; that he had never known his godfather or his godmother;
that only ten years had elapsed since he left Manosque; that he did
not know the name of the street nor the quarter of the town in which
his father's house was situated; that he could not tell the number of
rooms it contained; and that even if he were to see it again he could
not recognise it. In his replies he embodied the greater part of his
original story, with the exception of the episode with regard to
Honorade Venelle, respecting which he was prudently silent. He said
that he neither recollected the appearance nor the height of his
sister Lisette, nor the colour of her hair; but that his father had
black hair and a black beard, and a dark complexion, and that he was
short and stout. (The Sieur de Caille had brown hair and a reddish
beard, and was pale complexioned.) He did not know the height nor the
colour of the hair of his aunt, nor her features, although she had
lived at Lausanne with the son of the Sieur de Caille. He could not
remember the colour of the hair, nor the appearance, nor the
peculiarities of his grandmother, who had accompanied the family in
its flight into Switzerland; and could not mention a single friend
with whom he had been intimate, either at Manosque, or Lausanne, or
Geneva.
One would have supposed that this remarkable display of ignorance
would have sufficed to convince all reasonable men of the falsity of
the story, but it was far otherwise. The relatives of de Caille were
called upon either to yield to his demands or disprove his identity;
and M. Rolland, whose wife, it will be remembered, had obtained a
large portion of the property, appeared against him. Twenty witnesses
were called, of whom several swore that the accused was Pierre Mêge,
the son of a galley-slave, and that they had known him for twenty
years; while the others deposed that he was not the son of the Sieur
de Caille, in whose studies they had shared. The soldier was very
firm, however, and very brazen-faced, and demanded to be taken to the
places where the real de Caille had lived, so that the people might
have an opportunity of recognising him. Moreover, he deliberately
asserted that while he was in prison M. Rolland had made two attempts
against his life. He was conducted, according to his request, to
Manosque, Caille, and Rougon, and upwards of a hundred witnesses swore
that he was the man he represented himself to be. The court was
divided; but, after eight hours' consideration, twelve out of the
twenty-one judges of the Supreme Court of Provence pronounced in his
favour, and several of M. Rolland's witnesses were ordered into
custody to take their trial for perjury.
Three weeks after this decision the soldier married the daughter of
the Sieur Serri, a physician, who had privately supplied the funds for
carrying on the case. This girl's mother was a cousin of one of the
judges, and it soon came to be more than hinted that fair play had not
been done. However, the soldier took possession of the Caille
property, and drove out the poor persons who had been placed in the
mansion by Madame Rolland.
Honorade Venelle, the wife of Pierre Mêge, who had preserved silence
during the proceedings, now appeared on the scene, all her fury being
roused by the marriage. She made a declaration before a notary at Aix,
in which she stated that she had unexpectedly heard that Pierre Mêge
had been recognised as the son of the Sieur de Caille, and had
contracted a second marriage; and affirmed upon oath, "for the ease of
her conscience and the maintenance of her honour," that he was her
real husband, that he had been married to her in 1685, and that he had
cohabited with her till 1699; therefore she demanded that the second
marriage should be declared void. The judges, zealous of their own
honour, and provoked that their decision should be called in question,
gave immediate orders to cast her into prison, which was accordingly
done.
The authorities at Berne meantime, believing that the decision of the
Provençal Court, which had paid no attention to the documents which
they had forwarded from Lausanne and Vevay, to prove the residence and
death of the son of the Sieur de Caille in Switzerland was insulting,
addressed a letter to the King, and the whole affair was considered by
his Majesty in council at Fontainebleau. After the commissioners, to
whom the matter was referred, had sat nearly forty times, they
pronounced judgment. The decision of the court below was upset; the
soldier was deprived of his ill-acquired wealth, was ordered to pay
damages, was handed over to the criminal authorities for punishment,
while the former holders were restored to possession of the property.