D'Aubert finally fell ill, and they returned to his native France, where his recovery was her reward.
They were in the habit of walking in the gardens of the Tuileries. One day, sitting there conversing in German, chance led the celebrated Marshal Moritz von Saxony past them. Surprised to hear his mother tongue so purely spoken by Americans, as he imagined, he approached them, addressed the lady, started, and instantly recognized the Princess Charlotte of Blankenburg, whom he had long years reckoned among the dead.
Madame d'Aubert conjured him not to betray her secret, told him her story, and how it had been chiefly through his mother she had succeeded in escaping from Russia.
Delighted at the double discovery, Moritz promised to keep the secret three months, at the expiration of which time he declared it to be his duty to communicate the fact to the King of France, Louis XV.
D'Aubert being recovered, they sailed for l'ile Bourbon. At the end of three months Moritz revealed the secret to the French sovereign, and the governor of the island of Bourbon received forthwith the command to treat Madame d'Aubert with royal honours. The King wrote to Maria Theresa, acquainting her with the fabulous history of her cousin. The Empress wrote to Madame d'Aubert, beseeching her to leave her husband and repair to the Austrian Court. This the Princess refused to do, and remained on the island till d'Aubert's death, in 1754. After the death of both husband and daughter, she returned to Paris, settled the affairs of her husband, and retired to Brussels, where she received an annual pension from the Austrian Empress. Charlotte lived a retired life, no one but the now aged waiting-woman who had fled with her having the remotest idea of her high rank and astounding fate. Charlotte died in 1770.
The portraits of the three sisters and the great Maria Theresa hang in Blankenburg Schloss.
The Grave under the Lindens near Blankenburg.
"Sie ruhen bei einander kühl,
Waldvöglein sangen droben,
Grün Laub herunter fiel."
Many hundred years ago there lived a rich Earl in the Unterharz, who was once seized with a severe illness; he made a vow that if he should recover, he would consecrate his daughter to a convent life.