Make Hay

Louisa was elegant and sophisticated in her nature. Though she was destitute, she didn't look at and everyone who met her encouraged her to stay within their homes instead of in the fields, but she refused. Louisa was quoted saying trouble and misery dwelt in houses, and that there was no happiness but in liberty and fresh air. Although the townsfolk did their best to help her, she didn't let them in beyond arms reach. She never told them her real name, which led to the assumption that she must

have been of noble birth. Why else would someone hide their true identity from the people offering her food and shelter. Without knowing what to call her, the people referred to her as Louisa. They were able to discern several things about this mysterious woman from their interactions with her. First, she spoke English, but not natively. Her pronunciations and the way she phrased her sentences gave the impression that she had not been born and raised in England. One man

tried communicating with her in several European languages. She cringed at most of them, but when he talked to her in German, Louisa wept. Secondly, she loved children. When the little ones in town came up to her, she would smile and play with them. Louisa also rejected the finer gifts that she was offered, such as nice clothes or jewelry. She would take them and then toss them into the bushes, either because she thought they weren't good enough or because

she had no need for them. However, she gladly accepted milk and tea, simple things to sustain her throughout the day, and when that day was over, Louisa went right back to her haystacks to sleep. Exposure to the elements had effected her health, and she endured a brief stay in a hospital due to an episode of temporary insanity. But the people of Burton wanted better for her. They liked her, so they had her committed to a private asylum run

by a man named Mr Henderson in Gloucestershire. Louisa didn't want to leave the town she loved, but her stay there did wonders for her physical health. Sadly, her mental health continued to decline, and her neighbors knew that they had to act fast if they were going to figure out where she had originally come from. So while Louisa was confined to Henderson's facility, the people of the village pooled their information about her and had articles published in

papers across Europe. Maybe someone out there knew who she was. Louisa stayed at the asylum for years, as the villagers please for more information went unanswered until one day when a pamphlet arrived. It had come from France, written by an anonymous author entitled The Stranger, A True History. Its story started in seventeen sixty eight in the Austrian Netherlands, where a letter was delivered to Count Cobenzel, a diplomat

serving the Holy Roman Empress. The letter had been written by a woman calling herself Mademoiselle La Frolin, a fake name, asking for some money. Another letter arrived a short time later, this one signed by Count Weisendorff of Prague, encouraging Cobenzel to send the La fruelle And woman the money that she requested and hinting that he would be wise to do so. Then a third letter from Count dietrich Stein of Vienna instructed Cobenzel to send La fruell And some

money as well. So Cobenzel wrote back and promised to help, but only if La fruel And share her real name with him. Soon, another woman from Bordeaux showed up on the count's doorstep. She explained how the La Fruelen woman was a reputable person, but she could not disclose her true identity, as she bore a striking resemblance to the late founder of the Habsburg Lorraine dynasty, Holy Roman Emperor Francis the First. Still, La frue Ellen didn't want to

leave Cobenzel empty handed. She promised to tell him everything eventually and sent him a portrait of herself so that he could get an idea of the person receiving his letters. Cobenzel brought it to Prince Charles Lo Lorraine for his assessment, and the answer was clear. La Fruellen did look a lot like the deceased emperor, and Charles would know because

the dead emperor was his brother. La frue Ellen kept sending over portraits of herself, while others continued to send him letters of thanks for helping this woman, as well as keeping her identity under wraps. Then, at the start of seventeen sixty nine, cobon Zel received a much more menacing communication. La Fruelen was being arrested and extraditeedto Brussels, where he was supposed to question her. Apparently, the King of Spain had found himself in a similar situation to

Count Cobenzel. He'd also received letters about La Fruelen and had discovered that she was an impostor. Cobenzel interrogated her, noting her elegant features and dark hair. She spoke French but with the German accent, and although she didn't know where she was born, she knew that she had been

educated in Bohemia. She was placed in the care of several individuals, including a priest, who promised that she would be taken care of for the rest of her life as long as she moved to a convent and became a nun. La Faruelen didn't want that life for herself, so she ran away and was taken care of by a farmer until she was able to travel far from her old home. She went to Sweden and made friends with a variety of travelers and locals who took her

in and provided her with food and shelter. Eventually, though, La Fruelen found herself without any money. To try and make some fast cash, she started writing letters to people like Count Cobenzel and the King of Spain, begging for help, hinting that she was the daughter of Emperor Francis the First. Unfortunately, Cobenzel passed away from a fatal illness and Lafruellen was arrested for her debts. After a short time in prison, she was released and provided with just enough money to

help her find a place to live. She went to England, where she became Louisa, the Lady of the Haystack the strange but affable woman who was beloved by the townsfolk. She never told them her name or anything else about her past, and by the time the pamphlet came out, her mind was too far gone to answer any of their questions. She passed away in the care of Mr Henderson in eighteen o one, leaving everyone wondering was she really an emperor's daughter or was she a grifter looking

for some easy cash. No one knows, and so Louisa continues to be one of histories most baffling mysteries, A curious tale. Indeed, the early nineteen sixties were a tumultuous time for America and Cuban relations. Fidel Castro had come into power after taking control of the country in nineteen fifty nine. Two years later, he faced new problems from both the counter revolutionaries within his borders and the United

States intervention on the outside. President John F. Kennedy tried to overthrow Castro using a plan originally developed by his predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower, with the help of the CIA, had wanted to replace the communist regime with one more cooperative with the United States, but to make it look like the Cuban people were responsible for the sea change and not the American government. This was to be done

through the use of propaganda and international paramilitary forces. The idea was to turn the Cuban p against Castro, with the help from the United States, providing them with enough firepower to take him down for good. But the plan was tough to execute. Guerilla troops weren't able to make any headway against Castro's forces, and c i A supplies weren't doing any good. So Eisenhower approved a new plan. The U S would train Cuban exiles and prepared them

to invade their own homeland. Camps were built in Guatemala by the CIA, and by November of nineteen sixty a number of troops were ready for battle. Unfortunately, the secret plan got out to other Cuban exiles in Miami and soon made it back to Castro. The press also got wind of the invasion and began reporting on it to the public. In February of nineteen sixty one, newly inaugurated

President John F. Kennedy was ready to go with the invasion. However, he decided to change the landing location to the Bay of Pigs along Cuba's southern coast. It was fairly remote and his forces would face little resistance. That also meant that they'd be left wide open to assault. Though. The attacks started on April fifteenth of nineteen sixty one, and we're almost immediately considered a failure. The World War Two bombers the CIA had painted to look like Cuban Air

Force planes missed their targets. The actual Cuban Air Force planes they were supposed to hit were left untouched. On top of that, the press printed photos of the bombers and outed them as American planes. As a result, Kennedy didn't order a second airstrike. As for the Cuban exiles, they landed on the shore of the Bay of Pigs two days after the failed bombing and found themselves under heavy attack from both land and sky. Another failed air assault from the U S and April nineteenth all but

sealed the fate of the mission. The attempted coup was over. Exiles who hadn't been killed were captured and put in prison. Castro had won, and several months later the CIA tried again. They called their plan Operation Mongoose, and it was headed by US Air Force. General Edward Lansdale from the Department of Defense, Operation and Mongoose had thirty three separate phases, all with the same end goal to get Castro out. As part of his plan, however, Lansdale wanted to take

a different tack than before. Rather than use bombers or guerrilla forces, the United States turned to the Almighty instead. Their idea was to convince the Cuban people that the second Coming of Jesus Christ had finally arrived. Using similar propaganda techniques as before. Lansdale wanted to let the people of Cuban know that Christ was coming on a specific day and that he was staunchly anti Castro. In fact,

Jesus believed Fidel Castro to be the Antichrist. Then, on that predetermined day, US forces would fire star shells into the air, lighting up the sky, while a U. S. Navy submarine projected images of Jesus Christ onto clouds off the coast of Havana. As that was going on, a plane hidden by the clouds and flying with a quieter specially designed engine, would play Spanish language messages from Jesus

Christ through loudspeakers to the Cuban people below. Those messages told by the voice of God himself would command them to overthrow Castro and take back the country in the name of democracy. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, Kennedy never gave Lansdale's plan the green light. There was a palpable fear, based on previous experiences, that their efforts would be found out ahead of time and American lives would be put at great risk. It's a

shame they didn't at least try it, though. If the United States government couldn't beat Castro's forces using firepower, it could have at least put the fear of God into them. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership

with How Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Ye