Charles de Choiseul, Duke of Praslin

[1][4] At five o'clock in the morning, servants were alerted by noises coming from the duchess' room, and discovered that she had been brutally attacked, and had struggled with the assailant while being prevented from screaming.

[3] The duke was the last person to answer calls by the household staff, and raised suspicion almost immediately because, despite the uproar, the windows of his room had remained shut.

[4][5] After being held under house arrest, the duke was transferred to the Luxembourg Palace pending trial by the Court of Peers (which was called upon by royal ordinance and reserved judgment for members of the nobility).

[4] In conjunction with this, a controversy arose over the authorities' alleged corruption and the common perception that Peerage went against the equality of treatment in justice; it was speculated that the Peers had allowed Choiseul-Praslin to commit suicide, or even poisoned him, as a means to avoid an uncomfortable verdict for one of their own.

[1] According to Nicaraguan researcher Eddy Kühl, Choiseul-Praslin survived and made his way to Matagalpa, where he fathered two sons, known locally as Jorge and Benjamín, and three daughters; Margarita, Eva and Gertrudis.

[6] Kühl's investigation, first published in 2000, reportedly raised interest from the Choiseul-Praslin descendants living in France, who are said to have made known their wish to meet with the Nicaraguan claimants.

The novel became a 1940 film of the same name starring Charles Boyer as the Duc, Barbara O'Neil as the Duchess, Montagu Love as Horace Sébastiani, and Bette Davis as Henriette Deluzy-Desportes.

[citation needed] The affair was also the basis for a historical novel by the English writer Marjorie Bowen called Forget-Me-Not, although the characters' names are changed.

[9] In 2018, Nicaraguan novelist Gioconda Belli published Las fiebres de la memoria (2018), following the theory of Choiseul's life in Nicaragua.