Since, in respect
to your name and rank, you have answered with an untruth, I will
tell you who and what you are. Your father was a poor peasant in the
village of Auteuil. He called himself Valois, and the clergyman of
the village one day told the wife of the proprietor of Auteuil,
Madame de Boulainvillier, that the peasant of Valois was in
possession of family papers, according to which it was
unquestionable that he was an illegitimate descendant of the old
royal family.
The good priest at the same time recommended the poor, hungry
children of the day-laborer Valois to the kindness of Madame de
Boulainvillier, and the old lady hastened to comply with this
recommendation. She had the daughter of Valois called to her to ask
her how she could assist her in her misery."
"Say rather to gain for herself the credit that she had shown
kindnesses to the descendants of the Kings of France," interrupted
the countess, quickly.
"This would have been a sorry credit," replied President L'Aigre.
"The Valois family had for a long time been extinct, and the last
man of that name who is known, was detected in counterfeiting,
sentenced, and executed. Your grandfather was an illegitimate son of
the counterfeiter Valois. That is the sum total of your relation to
the royal family of France. It is possible that upon this very chair
on which you now sit, accused of this act of deception, your natural
great-grandfather once sat, accused like you of an act of deception,
in order, after conviction of his crime, to be punished according to
the laws of France.
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