“The diary, suddenly stopped and renewed ten days later, described the wreck of the Falcon, and the distribution of the crew and passengers into three boats; commanded respectively by the captain, the first mate and the second mate. The Marquis of —— found a place in the captain’s boat, the Señor Zuniga, with his wife and child, in the third boat.
“The diary went on to describe the sufferings of the party in the last boat, and the subsequent death of the señor and señora, and the rescue of the only survivors, Zebedee Wyvil and the Spanish infant.
“This record, begun in a small pocket volume, was continued in similar books, and kept up to the end of the writer’s life. And it contained a true record of the Spanish boy’s adoption and education.
“Mr. Alfred Ancillon, thinking that he had the best right to this, took possession of it, without saying anything about it to his daughter. His silence on the subject was not premeditated, however, but the mere result of having so many more interesting things to talk of.
“When, however, Mr. Ancillon went to Washington to play at the Varieties he happened to hear that the Marquis of —— was minister from the Court of P—— to that capital. Subsequently he saw the minister in a public place, and certainly recognized a family likeness to himself.
“Then he laid his little plan. When his engagement at the Varieties ended, he did not go on to San Francisco as he was advertised to go, but sent a young man of his troupe, made up to personate him, while he stayed in the city and made himself up in his true, his only true, character, that of the Señor Zuniga, and so presented himself to the Marquis of —— as his nephew, the son of his deceased sister.
“The hidalgo was startled, amazed, incredulous.
“But the señor had his proofs, and these were corroborated by a strong family likeness.
“There was much cross-questioning, and close investigation. The marquis learned all the facts of the wreck of the Falcon, which, by the way, his own memory confirmed.
“He heard all about the death of his sister and brother-in-law, and the survival and rescue of Mate Zebedee Wyvil and the infant, Zuniga, by the Polly Ann.