Let’s take a few moments and revisit “A Royal Tragedy – When Kings and Savages Ruled,” the melodramatic novel set in Wiscasset during the Victorian era as told by Nat Wilder Jr. and issued by Fireside Publishing Company of New York in 1910. The story chronicles the exciting adventures of a young woman, Sally, the daughter of a Wiscasset sea captain who confronts danger, intrigue and betrayal to eventually find romance and happiness. The final chapters concern a legendary failed attempt to rescue Queen Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution and smuggle her to Maine. Copies of Wilder’s book aren’t easy to find. I’m certain only one edition was printed. Wiscasset Public Library has a copy or two tucked away in its archives room. I found my copy at Twice Sold Tales, a secondhand bookstore in Farmington that has a fine collection of books by Maine authors.

Wilder’s book contains 20 full-page pen and ink illustrations by artist J. Hodson Redman along with smaller pictures at the conclusion of each chapter. Included are two depictions of the Marie Antoinette House on Eddy Road in Edgecomb. One shows the home from its side facing the river; the other picture is said to be the parlor fireplace, the caption beneath it reading, “where peace and rest awaited the unhappy French queen.” Marie Antoinette’s story was the subject of a recent BBC television mini-series. She was the last queen of France, being executed by her subjects at age 37 by the guillotine on October 16, 1793.

Late in the 18th century when all of these events were taking place the Marie Antoinette House was located near the northern shore of Westport Island, known in those bygone days as “Jeremy Squam.” The house which overlooked the river was built by Captain Joseph Decker in 1774. Following his death it came into possession of his son-in-law Stephen Clough, himself a sea captain. It was Captain Clough who in 1838 or thereabouts had the home with its distinctive hip-roof and center chimney moved by water over the river to Edgecomb. All of this is well-documented and mentioned in Wilder’s novel.

Captain Stephen Clough was the owner of the brig Sally, a merchant ship berthed at Wiscasset harbor. As the story goes he was in Paris, France at the time of Queen Marie Antoinette’s death. Following his return to Wiscasset, Captain Clough’s cargo included a collection of the Queen's belongings, some of which he kept. These facts too are woven into Wilder’s story. His main characters are somewhat based on real people and include Captain Nathaniel Cloud, a wealthy Wiscasset shipowner, his daughter Sally Cloud, the heroine of the novel, and her suitor, the handsome Frank Swan of Boston. The villains include Father Ralle, an evil missionary, a mysterious French spy, the Marquis de St. Pry; the novel includes tribes of Native Americans making up the Abenaki nation. Father Ralle is loosely based on Sebastian Rale, a French Jesuit missionary who aided the Abenaki people in resisting the encroachment of English settlers.

True to Victorian tradition, Sally is beautiful, intelligent and resourceful. Wilder describing her as “a picture of frontier womanhood, glowing in health, bubbling with youthful spirits. The bright sun wove golden glories in her wealth of auburn hair.” The story begins with Father Ralle stirring up trouble among the Natives provoking them to go on the warpath. The uprising begins when a stagecoach is ambushed by a war party as it crosses the Wiscasset bridge on its way to nearby Damariscotta. (Actually, the first bridge linking Wiscasset to Edgecomb wasn’t completed until 1847; up until then travelers crossed the river by boat.) During the attack, Frank Swan, Sally’s beau, is a passenger on the stagecoach and is thrown into the river. He’s rescued by the sharp-eyed Sally who witnesses the nighttime ambush from the Wiscasset shore. Sally jumps into a small boat, paddles out into the river and pulls Frank Swan from the water. They then make their way to the Edgecomb shore seeking safety in the old blockhouse on Davis Island. The Indians soon surround the fort, but Sally and Frank escape by means of a secret underground tunnel leading to the river. In the meantime, the Indians overrun the blockhouse and massacre all of the settlers who refuse to surrender. (None of this ever happened. Construction of the blockhouse on Davis Island didn’t start until 1808. The fort was never attacked by Indians, the British, or anyone else; and although the myth persists there was never an escape tunnel dug beneath the blockhouse to the river.)

Sally is next captured by the Chief Bomaseen’s warriors. On the way to the Indian encampment she leaps into the river from a canoe, swims to shore and miraculously escapes when a pursuing warrior is struck by lightning. Soon after, Sally is caught again, this time by the evil Marquis de St. Pry. She spurns his advances, escapes and winds up back in the clutches of Chief Bomaseen. The Chief confides to Father Ralle that he wants Sally as his wife because his “wigwam is lonely.” The Natives are whooping it up and about to burn Frank and Captain Cloud at the stake when the militia comes to their rescue. Yankee reinforcements from Boston eventually arrive and bring the Native uprising to an end. Sally and Frank Swan are then married at the church overlooking Wiscasset village. They decide to spend their honeymoon onboard the brig Sally with Captain Cloud who’s sailing to England with a cargo of lumber. Midway across the Atlantic the Sally is seized by a warship flying the French colors and commanded by none other than the evil Marquis de St. Pry who forces them to sail to France. They arrive just as tensions are reaching a breaking point between the aristocracy and the commoners. It’s here that Wilder shifts gears and tells the reader of the failed plot to save Marie Antoinette introducing still more characters including American patriot Thomas Paine.

Captain Cloud in the novel is based to some degree on the adventures of aforementioned Captain Stephen Clough. Captain Clough commanded a merchant ship, named coincidently enough the Sally, which sailed to France during the time of the queen’s imprisonment. Capt. Clough was said to have been an eyewitness to the unfortunate’s queen’s execution, and it’s true some articles belonging to the royal family, including clothing, tapestries and other home furnishings eventually made their way to America smuggled aboard the Sally. Captain Clough was thought to be about 30 or so years old when the King and Queen of France met their end at the guillotine; much younger than the mythical Captain Cloud in the novel. Captain Clough did have one daughter named Sarah, although she was just an infant at the time of the French Revolution.

Another legend associated with Captain Clough is that he’s the one responsible for introducing the so-called “Maine Coon Cat” to America. Following a voyage to the South China Seas, Captain Clough returned home with a rather unusual South Asian cat. This long-haired feline soon mated with one of its American cousins. The resulting litter produced a new breed of house cat with long silky hair and a bushy tail resembling, of all things, a raccoon. True or not, the legend persists and today the Coon Cat is recognized as the “official cat” of the state of Maine. I found this last tidbit in a book titled, “Maine – A Guide Downeast” and a part of a series compiled by the Depression-era Federal Writer’s Project, published in 1937.

There is one more thing of interest found within “A Royal Tragedy – When Kings and Savages Ruled.” The day before her marriage to Frank Swan, Sally is busy in the kitchen helping her mother and the neighbors prepare the wedding feast. Naturally, Sally is making her own wedding cake. Mixing fresh cream with churned butter, sugar, and the yokes of a dozen eggs, she then adds a gold ring, a bright coin and a silver thimble into the bowl of batter. “The one who gets the ring in her piece of cake will be married before the end of the year. Whoever gets the coin will marry a fortune, and the dear girl who gets the thimble will be an old Maid!” she declares.

My wife Marjorie never heard of this tradition and she’s made plenty of wedding cakes! She made ours when we got married; a New England carrot cake as I recall, three layers with cream cheese frosting.

Phil Di Vece earned a B.A. in journalism studies from Colorado State University and an M.A. in journalism at the University of South Florida. He is the author of three Wiscasset books and is a frequent news contributor to the Boothbay Register/Wiscasset Newspaper. He resides in Wiscasset. Contact him at pdivece@roadrunner.com