ILLNESS OF ROYALTY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 684, 8 December 1909, Page 7

ILLNESS OF ROYALTY.

THE TSARINA. (By Telegraph-Press Assoclatlon-OopyrißOt 1 St. Petersburg! December 0. Fresh reports regarding the health of the Tsarina (nee Princess Alix of Hesse) aro increasingly serious. She is suffering from nervous breakdown and hypochondria of long standing. THE .KING OF SPAIN TO UNDERGO AN OPERATION. London, December 6. Qpeen Ena of Spain, who recently visited London on account of the illness there of her brother. Prince Leopold of Bnttenberg, has returned to Madrid, where the doctors have recommended King Alfonso tq undergo an operation for ,a thrqat and ear affection. A SHADOWED LIFE, THE ANXIETIES OF THE TSARINA. Some time ago, before the Tsarina's nervous affection took the serious turn which led to her being sent to Llvadia, in the Crimea, a, writer in a London magazine wrote as follows of the marked diilerence that exists between the one-time Princess Alix of Hesse, and the present Empress of All the Russias:— "When the Princess Alix of Hesse married the Czar Nicholas 11, she was one of the prettiest and most attractive of the minor royalties of Europe. She wa3 a graceful girl of twentytwo, possessed of winning manners, a charming, sense of humour, and tastes that were quiet and domestic On being admitted to the Greek Churoh, as was required by Russian custom, her name was ohanged to Alexander Foodorovna, so that she is now tha Empress Alexandra. "She was wedded at a timo when the Russian qourt was touohed with gloom. v The late imvperor, Alexander 111, had died only a few weeks before. Tho now Czar Nicholas wto entering upon his vast responsibilities with a sort of fatalistic feeling. There have since been many thingi to cast a shadow over her ljfe. Her husband has. been the object of fre, quont plots, On one occasion, as will be remembered, a Ranting battery bred shell instead of blank qhargra, and the projectiles crashed through the pavilion where the imperial family Were Beatod. The great empire itself has been humiliated in war by a natiqn which the Russians, .had despised. Jt has been often hinted, also, that the relations, of the Tsarina with the empress dQwager arp the reverse qf cqrdiali though of late years the latter, who was once the Princess Dagmar pf Denmark, has Jived in seclusion at Gatschina, so that she and her daughter-in-law have had but few occasions for I meeting. t "All these and many other circumstances have made the married life of the onc ß beautiful Princess Alix a life of seriousness. They have left their mark upon her face, whioh is to-day the countenance pf a woman worn with care, anxious, and yet courageous. She has lost the rounded and graceful outlines which she had as a young girl, and her easy, careless,look hhs given placo to one of watchfulness. Nevertheless, she has found much comfort in her private life. Every one Snows that she is a devqted mother. Her first four children were girls-a fact that caused much snaking of heads among the superstitious Rusman populace j but since the httlp Grand Duke Alexis was born, four years ago, there has been i°«ii nDro ta v k of wI T nt flrst like a spell upon her marriage."