“I can perfectly well remember, about forty-three years ago, hearing
some one say to my father, who was Governor of Brisighella, that some
years earlier a prince in disguise, who was stopping in that part of the
country, had exchanged his daughter for the son of a constable, and that
this had taken place in the neighbourhood of Brisighella, though I can’t
remember the name of the place itself. My father often told this story at
table, and in the presence of my mother, Angela Forchini; and then they
would inveigh against the cruelty of so changing a girl of high rank for
a boy of low condition.”
Finally, let us hear the Signore Marco Maresta, chief custom-house
officer in that same town of Ravenna—
“It is a long time ago, and I couldn’t swear to the exact date, that
several people told me that at Faenza, or, as they said later, at
Modigliana, there had taken place an exchange of the daughter of a
great nobleman for a boy of low condition whose father had received a
large sum, and that this exchange had been arranged beforehand when the
two wives were about to be confined. I can’t remember the name of the
nobleman nor that of the base man who accepted his offer, nor even that
of the people who told me about it; but I did hear that the first was a
Frenchman.”
With so many proofs at my command, I thought the time had come to push
on my case. To procure greater expedition, I thought of another innocent
stratagem.
From Ravenna, whither I had gone so that I could not be suspected of
complicity with my judges, I wrote a letter to the Count Borghi, in which
I pretended to have been informed that, my friends having discovered my
true family in France, not one of my relations was left but a nun living
at Bordeaux, who would welcome me with the greatest delight if I could
succeed in proving to her the truth of the exchange, etc.
Quite beside himself, that gentleman hastened to announce this piece of
good news to the Bishop of Faenza, came to Ravenna to congratulate me,
and added to what he had already told me that the Count and Countess
Borghi, his informants, though held in the highest esteem, were both of a
very giddy and thoughtless disposition; that the last-named used to remit
to the former doorkeeper an annual pension sent by the Comte Joinville
for my education, and that the Grand Duke Leopold had shown me great
favour.
“Do you suppose,” he said, “that except for that, that Prince would have
been so deeply interested in you? Do you suppose he would have taken so
much trouble or done so much for such a miserable wretch as Chiappini,
etc.?”
Having promised me that he would mention all this in his deposition, he
started for home, where he set everything going. His great eagerness made
me alter my opinion of him; I could not believe that he still wished to
conceal from me any helpful letters he might possess, and thenceforth my
belief was that he had originally handed them all over to my supposed
brother, with whom I knew he had had some communication.
Not to be behindhand with his fervour, I made haste to engage as my
lawyer the Signore Jérôme Bellenghi, in order to obtain from the
Episcopal Tribunal sitting at Faenza the proper rectification of my
baptismal certificate; and this tribunal, on its side, nominated the
Count Carlo Bandini to fill the office of proxy as representative of the
Comte and Comtesse de Joinville, not present.
My so-called brother, Tomaso Chiappini, was assigned me as my
representative, but, though twice summoned, refused to appear.
After the aforesaid witnesses had made their attestations, they were
cross-examined, and their answers were in strict accordance with their
original accounts.
My counsel having argued his case, his opponent argued his and raised
every difficulty possible.
The Tribunal, having, after mature consideration, come to the conclusion
that the attestation of the deceased jailer, far from being improbable,
had been confirmed and verified by a large number of other evidence,
presumptions and conjectures, gave, on the 29th of May, 1824, a verdict
entirely in my favour; and when the proper time for appealing against
it was over, no objection having been raised, the Registrar, under this
warrant, proceeded to carry out the definitive rectification of my birth
certificate, and declared me to be the _daughter of the husband and wife,
M. le Comte Louis, and Madame la Comtesse N. de Joinville_. (French.)[5]