Premier Duke & Jackson

The Premier Duke of France, 23-year-old Prince Louis de la Tremoille, was cremated alive last week in the fiercely blazing ruins of what had been a pleasant Hampshire manor house, "The Heronry."

Splendrous "Sun King" Louis XIV created the de la Tremoilles hereditary princes and of these Prince Louis was the last. Gay and handsome, he had crossed the channel to hunt with Chicago Harvester Scion Leander James McCormick whose beauteous wife was the Comtesse de Fleurieu. Also at the McCormick's "Heronry" were Captain and Mrs. J. H. B. Rodney, he a younger brother of the 8th Baron Rodney, she of Seattle. In the middle of the night Jackson, the McCormicks' chauffeur, heard his master and mistress begin to shout "Fire!" In their night clothes they walked safely out of "The Heronry's" front door.

Jackson rang up three nearby fire departments, Whitchurch, Andover and Winchester.

A buxom German housemaid, trapped by the flames, was coaxed by Jackson to slide precariously down a drain pipe.

Trapped, Captain Rodney knocked out a window pane with his bare hands, gashing the arteries in his wrists. He handed Mrs. Rodney out to a 20-ft. jump which nearly broke her back. He then jumped himself and lay weltering in his blood until rushed to a hospital, where he died.

To Jackson it occurred that the British thing to do was to hold a roll call. Only when this was done did anyone notice that the Premier Duke of France was missing.

Jackson got a ladder and climbed up to the Duke's window, calling "Where is Your Grace?" There was no answer, much smoke and belching flame. Hours later a policeman found burned to a crisp in "The Heronry's" pantry all that was left of Prince Louis. Said Mr. McCormick to newsmen: "I think the Duke, blinded by smoke, missed his way to the stairs, blundered into a corner room and was overcome. When the floor was burned through the body must have fallen into the pantry below."

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