Famous Imposters 5

Famous Imposters 5

THE FALSE CZAR

 

 

Stefan Mali (Stephen the Little) was an impostor who passed himself

off in Montenegro as the Czar Peter III of Russia, who was supposed

to have been murdered in 1762. He appeared in the Bocche di Cattaro

in 1767. No one seemed to know him or to doubt him; indeed after he

had put forth his story he did not escape identification. One witness

who had accompanied a state visit to Russia averred that he recognized

the features of the Czar whom he had seen in St. Petersburg. Like all

adventurers Stefan Mali had good personal resources. An adventurer,

and especially an adventurer who is also an impostor, must be an

opportunist; and an opportunist must be able to move in any direction

at any time; therefore he must be always ready for any emergency. The

time, the place, and the circumstances largely favoured the impostor

in this case. It is perhaps but fair to credit him with foreknowledge,

intention, and understanding of all that he did. In after years he

justified himself in this respect and showed distinctly that he was a

man of brains and capable of using them. He was no doubt not only able

to sustain at the start his alleged personality, but also to act under

new conditions and in new circumstances as they developed themselves,

as a man of Czar Peter’s character and acquired knowledge might have

done. Cesare Augusto Levi, who is the authority on this subject, says,

in his work “_Venezia e il Montenegro_”: “He was of fine presence and

well proportioned form and of noble ways. He was so eloquent that he

exercised with mere words a power not only on the multitude but also on

the higher classes.... He must certainly have been in St. Petersburg

before he scaled Montenegro; and have known the true Peter III, for

he imitated his voice and his gestures--to the illusionment of the

Montenegrins. There is no certainty of such a thing, but he must,

in the belief of the Vladika Sava have been a descendant of Stefano

Czernovich who reigned after Giorgio IV.”

 

At that time Montenegro was ruled by Vladika Sava, who having spent

some twenty years in monastic life, was unfitted for the government of

a turbulent nation always harassed by the Turks and always engaged in

a struggle for bare existence. The people of such a nation naturally

wanted a strong ruler, and as they were discontented under the sway of

Sava the recognition of Stefan Mali was almost a foregone conclusion.

He told a wonderful story of his adventures since his reported death--a

story naturally interesting to such an adventurous people; and as he

stated his intention of never returning to Russia, they were glad to

add such a new ally to their fighting force for the maintenance of

their independence. As the will of the people was for the new-comer,

the Vladika readily consented to confine himself to his spiritual

functions and to allow Stefan to govern. The Vladika of Montenegro

held a strange office--one which combined the functions of priest and

generalissimo--so that the new division of the labour of ruling was

rather welcome than otherwise to the people of a nation where no man

ever goes without arms. Stephen--as he now was--governed well. He

devoted himself fearlessly to the punishment of ill-doing, and early

in his reign had men shot for theft. He established Courts of Justice

and tried to further means of communication throughout the little

kingdom, which, is, after all, little more than a bare rock. He even

so far impinged on Sava’s sacred office as to prohibit Sunday labour.

In fact his labours so much improved the outlook of the Montenegrins

that the result brought trouble on himself as well as on the nation in

general. Hitherto, whatever foreign nations may have believed as to the

authenticity of Stephen’s claim, they had deliberately closed their

eyes to his new existence, so long as under his rule the little nation

of Montenegro did not become a more dangerous enemy to all or any of

them.

 

But the nations interested grew anxious at the forward movement in

Montenegro. Venice, then the possessor of Dalmatia, was alarmed,

and Turkey regarded the new ruler as an indirect agent of Russia.

Together they declared war. This was the moment when Fate declared

that the Pretender should show his latent weakness of character. The

Montenegrins are naturally so brave that cowardice is unknown amongst

them; but Stephen did not dare to face the Turkish army, which attacked

Montenegro on all the land sides. But the Montenegrins fought on till

a chance came to them after many months of waiting in the shape of a

fearful storm which desolated their enemies’ Camp. By a sudden swoop

on the camp they seized much ammunition of which they were sadly in

want and by the aid of which they gained delivery from their foes.

The Russian government seemed then to wake up to the importance of

the situation, and, after sending the Montenegrins much help in the

shape of war material, asked them to join again in the war against the

Turks. The Empress Catherine in addition to this request, sent another

letter denouncing Stephen as an impostor. He admitted the charge and

was put in prison. But in the impending war a strong man was wanted

at the head of affairs; and Sava, who now had the mundane side of

his dual office once more thrust again upon him, was a weak one. The

situation was saved by Prince George Dolgourouki, the representative

of the Empress Catherine, who, with statesmanlike acumen, saw that

such a desperate need required an exceptional remedy. He recognized the

false Czar as Regent. Stephen Mali, thus restored to power under such

powerful auspices, once more governed Montenegro until 1774, when he

was murdered by the Greek player Casamugna--by order, it is said, of

the Pasha of Scutari, Kara Mahmound.

 

By the irony of Fate this was exactly the way in which the real Czar,

whose personality he had assumed, had died some dozen years before.

 

This impostor was perhaps the only one who in the history of nations

prospered finally in his fraud. But as may be seen he was possessed of

higher gifts than most of his kind; he was equal to the emergencies

which presented themselves--and circumstances favoured him, rarely.

 

 

 

 

D. THE FALSE DAUPHINS

 

 

On 21 January, 1793, Louis XVI of France was beheaded in the Place de

la Revolution, formerly Place de Louis Quinze. From the moment his head

fell, his only son the Dauphin became by all constitutional usage, his

successor, Louis XVII. True the child-king was in the hands of his

enemies; but what mattered that to believers in the “Divine Right.”

What mattered it either that he was at that moment in the prison of

the Temple, where he had languished since August 13, 1792, already

consecrated to destruction, in one form or another. He was then under

eight years of age, and so an easy victim. His gaoler, one Simon, had

already been instructed to bring him up as a “sansculotte.” In the

furtherance of this dreadful ordinance he was taught to drink and swear

and to take a part in the unrighteous songs and ceremonies of the Reign

of Terror. Under such conditions no one can be sorry that death came to

his relief. This was in June, 1795--he being then in his eleventh year.

In the stress and turmoil of such an overwhelming cataclysm as the

Revolution, but little notice was taken of a death which, under other

circumstances, would undoubtedly have been of international interest

if not of importance. But by this time the death of any one, so long as

it was by violence, was too common a matter to cause concern to others.

The Terror had practically glutted the lust for blood. Under such

conditions but little weight was placed on the accuracy of records; and

to this day there survive practical inconveniences and difficulties

in daily life from the then disruption of ordered ways. The origin of

such frauds or means of fraud as are now before us is in uncertainty.

Shakespeare says:

 

“How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds

Makes ill deeds done.”

 

The true or natural criminal is essentially an opportunist. The

intention of crime, even if it be only a desire to follow the line

of least resistance, is a permanent factor in such lives, but the

direction, the mechanism, and the scope of the crime are largely the

result of the possibilities which open and develop themselves from a

fore-ordered condition of things.

 

[Illustration: EDWARD IV AS A YOUNG MAN]

 

Here then was the opening which presented itself at the end of the

eighteenth century. France was in a state of social chaos. The

fountains of the deep were stirred, and no human intelligence could

do more than guess at what might result from any individual effort of

self-advancement. The public conscience was debauched, and for all

practical purposes the end justified the means. It was an age of

desperate adventure, of reckless enterprise, of unscrupulous methods.

The Royalty of France was overthrown--in abeyance till at least such

a time as some Colossus of brains or energy, or good fortune, should

set it up again. The hopes of a great nation of return to a settled

order of things through constitutional and historical channels were

centred in the succession to the Crown. And through the violence of the

upheaval any issue was possible. The state of affairs just before the

death of Louis XVII gave a chance of success to any desperate fraud.

The old King was dead, the new King was a child and in the hands of his

bitterest enemies. Even if anyone had cared to vindicate his rights

there seemed at present no way of accomplishing this object. To any

reckless and unscrupulous adventurer here was an unique chance. Here

was a kingship going: a daring hand might grasp the crown which rested

in so perilous a manner on the head of a baby. Moreover the events of

the last fifteen years of the century had not only begotten daring

which depended on promptness, but had taught and fostered desperation.

It is a wonder to us who look back on that time through the

safety-giving mist of a century, not that there was any attempt to get

a crown, if only by theft, but that there were not a hundred attempts

made for each one that history has recorded.

 

As a matter of fact, there were seven attempts made to personate the

dead Dauphin, son of Louis XVI, that “son of St. Louis,” who, in

obedience to Abbé Edgworth’s direction to “ascend to heaven,” went

somewhere where it is difficult--or perhaps inexpedient--to follow him.

 

The first pretender appears to have been one Jean Marie Hervagault, son

of a tailor. His qualification for the pretence appears to have been

but a slender one, that of having been born in 1781, only about three

years before the Dauphin. This, taken by itself, would seem to be but

a poor equipment for such a crime; but in comparison with some of the

later claimants it was not without reason of approximate possibility as

far as date was concerned. It was not this criminal’s first attempt at

imposture, for he had already pretended to be a son of la Vaucelle of

Longueville and of the Duc d’Ursef. Having been arrested at Hottot as a

vagabond, he was taken to Cherburg, where he was claimed by his father.

When claiming to be, like the old man in Mark Twain’s inimitable