Famous Imposters 1

Famous Imposters 1

Famous Imposters

Author: Bram Stoker

 

PREFACE

The subject of imposture is always an interesting one, and impostors

in one shape or another are likely to flourish as long as human nature

remains what it is, and society shows itself ready to be gulled.

The histories of famous cases of imposture in this book have been

grouped together to show that the art has been practised in many

forms--impersonators, pretenders, swindlers, and humbugs of all kinds;

those who have masqueraded in order to acquire wealth, position, or

fame, and those who have done so merely for the love of the art.

So numerous are instances, indeed, that the book cannot profess to

exhaust a theme which might easily fill a dozen volumes; its purpose is

simply to collect and record a number of the best known instances. The

author, nevertheless, whose largest experience has lain in the field of

fiction, has aimed at dealing with his material as with the material

for a novel, except that all the facts given are real and authentic. He

has made no attempt to treat the subject ethically; yet from a study of

these impostors, the objects they had in view, the means they adopted,

the risks they ran, and the punishments which attended exposure, any

reader can draw his own conclusions.

 

Impostors of royalty are placed first on account of the fascinating

glamour of the throne which has allured so many to the attempt. Perkin

Warbeck began a life of royal imposture at the age of seventeen and

yet got an army round him and dared to make war on Harry Hotspur

before ending his short and stormy life on the gallows. With a crown

for stake, it is not surprising that men have been found willing to

run even such risks as those taken by the impostors of Sebastian

of Portugal and Louis XVII of France. That imposture, even if

unsuccessful, may be very difficult to detect, is shown in the cases of

Princess Olive and Cagliostro, and in those of Hannah Snell, Mary East,

and the many women who in military and naval, as well as in civil, life

assumed and maintained even in the din of battle the simulation of men.

 

One of the most extraordinary and notorious impostures ever known was

that of Arthur Orton, the Tichborne Claimant, whose ultimate exposure

necessitated the employment, at great public expense of time and

money, of the best judicial and forensic wits in a legal process of

unprecedented length.

 

The belief in witches, though not extinct in our country even to-day,

affords examples of the converse of imposture, for in the majority of

cases it was the superstitions of society which attributed powers of

evil to innocent persons whose subsequent mock-trials and butchery

made a public holiday for their so-called judges.

 

The long-continued doubt as to the true sex of the Chevalier D’Eon

shows how a belief, no matter how groundless, may persist. Many cases

of recent years may also be called in witness as to the initial

credulity of the public, and to show how obstinacy maintains a belief

so begun. The Humbert case--too fresh in the public memory to demand

treatment here--the Lemoine case, and the long roll of other fraudulent

efforts to turn the credulity of others to private gain, show how

widespread is the criminal net, and how daring and persevering are its

manipulators.

 

The portion of the book which deals with the tradition of the “Bisley

Boy” has had, as it demanded, more full and detailed treatment than

any other one subject in the volume. Needless to say, the author

was at first glance inclined to put the whole story aside as almost

unworthy of serious attention, or as one of those fanciful matters

which imagination has elaborated out of the records of the past. The

work which he had undertaken had, however, to be done, and almost from

the very start of earnest enquiry it became manifest that here was

a subject which could not be altogether put aside or made light of.

There were too many circumstances--matters of exact record, striking

in themselves and full of some strange mystery, all pointing to a

conclusion which one almost feared to grasp as a possibility--to allow

the question to be relegated to the region of accepted myth. A little

preliminary work amongst books and maps seemed to indicate that so far

from the matter, vague and inchoate as it was, being chimerical, it was

one for the most patient examination. It looked, indeed, as if those

concerned in making public the local tradition, which had been buried

or kept in hiding somewhere for three centuries, were on the verge of

a discovery of more than national importance. Accordingly, the author,

with the aid of some friends at Bisley and its neighbourhood, went over

the ground, and, using his eyes and ears, came to his own conclusions.

Further study being thus necessitated, the subject seemed to open

out in a natural way. One after another the initial difficulties

appeared to find their own solutions and to vanish; a more searching

investigation of the time and circumstances showed that there was

little if any difficulty in the way of the story being true in essence

if not in detail. Then, as point after point arising from others

already examined, assisted the story, probability began to take the

place of possibility; until the whole gradually took shape as a chain,

link resting in the strength of link and forming a cohesive whole. That

this story impugns the identity--and more than the identity--of Queen

Elizabeth, one of the most famous and glorious rulers whom the world

has seen, and hints at an explanation of circumstances in the life of

that monarch which have long puzzled historians, will entitle it to the

most serious consideration. In short, if it be true, its investigation

will tend to disclose the greatest imposture known to history; and to

this end no honest means should be neglected.

 

B. S.

 

 

 

 

CONTENTS

 

 

CHAPTER PAGE

I. PRETENDERS 1

A. Perkin Warbeck 3

B. The Hidden King 17

C. Stephan Mali 31

D. The False Dauphins 36

E. Princess Olive 49

 

II. PRACTITIONERS OF MAGIC 69

A. Paracelsus 71

B. Cagliostro 80

C. Mesmer 95

 

III. THE WANDERING JEW 107

 

IV. JOHN LAW 123

 

V. WITCHCRAFT AND CLAIRVOYANCE 145

A. Witches 147

B. Doctor Dee 155

C. La Voisin 164

D. Sir Edward Kelley 175

E. Mother Damnable 182

F. Matthew Hopkins 190

 

VI. ARTHUR ORTON (Tichborne claimant) 201

 

VII. WOMEN AS MEN 227

A. The Motive for Disguise 227

B. Hannah Snell 231

C. La Maupin 235

D. Mary East 241

 

VIII. HOAXES, ETC. 249

A. Two London Hoaxes 249

B. The Cat Hoax 255

C. The Military Review 256

D. The Toll-Gate 256

E. The Marriage Hoax 257

F. Buried Treasure 258

G. Dean Swift’s Hoax 259

H. Hoaxed Burglars 260

I. Bogus Sausages 260

J. The Moon Hoax 262

 

IX. CHEVALIER D’EON 269

 

X. THE BISLEY BOY 283

 

 

 

 

ILLUSTRATIONS

 

 

Queen Elizabeth as a Young Woman _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

Perkin Warbeck 4

 

Edward IV as a Young Man 12

 

Olivia Serres 50

 

Cagliostro 80

 

John Law 124

 

Arthur Orton 202

 

The Chevalier D’Eon 270

 

The Duke of Richmond 326

 

The Duchess of Richmond 334

 

 

 

 

I. PRETENDERS

 

 

 

 

FAMOUS IMPOSTORS