FROM CASTLE TO

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2740, 19 February 1910, Page 3 (Supplement)

FROM CASTLE TO

COTTAGE.

BOY SMUGGLED INTO NOBLE FAMILY.

T.! 0 ragedy of little Count Kwileclu • would be a suitable title for a romance in real life, which is now, after many years of legal contests, nearing its conclusion. On December 20th, tho High Court at Posen adjudged the boy, who is the central figure of this thrilling story, and who has been brought up as Count Ignacios Kwilecki, to be in reality the son of an Austrian peasant woman nam. ed Cecilia Meyer, the widow of a railway navvy.

After giving judgment to this effect the court made an order directing Count Ignacius Kwilecki to hand over the hoy. who is now thirteen years of age, to his rightful mother, the peasant woman Cecilia Meyer. Neither the ver diet nor the order of the court came into force immediately, because Count Ignacius Kwilecki lias already given notice of appeal, and the ease'will, in due course, come before the Supreme Court of the Empire of Leipzig. Tbe Supreme. Court of the Empire, however, can only revise the formalities of this trial, and, if necessary, order a new trial by the High Court if it be found that irregularities have occurred in this one. If this happened the great legal contest- might drag on for several years more, but if the Supreme Court of the- Empire- confirms the judgment of the High Court of Posen it- toll bo sealed within a few months.

It would’ be a- veritable tragedy, for the boy, who has beon brought up in the magnificence of a wealthy Polish nobleman’s castle, would be compelled, by law, to exchange his feudal home for the miserable hut of a povertystricken, uneducated and coarse peasant woman. The little Count, now the heir to great- estates and vast wealth, would he face to face with the necessity of earning his own living after the manlier of his plebeian fore-fathers, the hold laborers of darkest Galicia.

Count Ignacius Ivwilccki and ihis wife, Countess Isabella, were the parents of three daughters, but the long-ed-for son was not born to them, much to their distress, because the lack of a male heir meant that the family estates, which are entailed, would pass to a distant cousin, Count Hector Kwilecki, on the death of Count Ignacius, who i.s the. head of the family. The loss of the family estates meant more to the Countess Isabella, who had squandered the rich dowry she brought her husband in extravagant living, and would have become practically penniless on her husband’s death unless she had a son who would become the next possessor of the property. On January 27th, 1897, Countess Isabella Kwilec'ki, then fifty-one years of age, gave birth to a son —at least an announcement to this effect was issued to all the newspapers and to all the members of the Kwilecki family. Soon, however, rumors of foul play became current, and the Conn teas Isabella was accused of having procured the baby from some other mother in order to falsely pass it off as her own soil. Those members of the Kwilecki family who would he disinherited bv the birth of this heir took the matter up and investigated all the strange circumstances of the alleged birth. It was pointed out that the Countess, instead of remaining in the ancestral castle for the happy event, travelled to Berlin, and rented 1 an apartment, whore slio declined, medical aid, and was tended only by 'several old Polish servants'. The alleged father, Count Ignacius, wag absent ini' the south of Europe, and there were other strange circumstances which gave ground for the suspicions entertained by tlie relaof the Count brought the ease in court, and financed the peasant mother, who has now obtained a verdict for tlie return of the boy.