Lascelles Wraxall, Once a Week (1863)
“ I call the Westphalian Adventurer a king, because since his day, history has given a kingly title to adventurers who had much less claim to it than Theodore von Neuhoff. A brave nation fighting for its liberty had given him the crown, while others were invested with it at the caprice of a mighty despot. The Westphalian adventurer, at any rate, was King of Corsica, just as fairly as, some fifty years later, a Corsican adventurer was King of Westphalia. ”
Lascelles Wraxall, Once a Week (1863)
“ The adventurer had become a real king, the king of a nation struggling to free itself from foreign domination, and he would have had an opportunity to play a great and noble part—had he been more than an adventurer. ”
Lascelles Wraxall, Once a Week (1863)
“ The purveyors of arms and ammunition locked him up, and Government, on whom he fancied he had claims, would not help him: it denied in toto any negotiations with him. From this moment the poor monarch was a ruined man. He was removed to the King’s Bench, and spent nearly the whole of his days there. It was a terrible change for a man accustomed from his earliest youth to restless and incessant activity. The courage and noble resignation with which he accepted his fall at the outset, soon gave way, and he showed that he was not a true hero, but only an adventurer. ”
