THE DEFIANT DUCHESS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2504, 3 July 1915, Page 11

THE DEFIANT DUCHESS

PRISONER IN: HER OWN PAI/ACE. A very brief cablo message which appeared in yesterday's issue of .The Dominion stated : that Mario' Adelaide, Grand; Duchess of Luxembourg, was defiant towards the Germans, and thijt' slio ordered/her bodyguard not to salute the' German officers. Possibly there is no more romantio figure among the Royal houses of Europe than this young sovereign, who is a prisoner ,of war in the power of the German Emperor, and who is mocked with guards of honour who are really her gaolers. . According to the German papere, this statement is untrue, for the young Duchess, an'independent and reigning sovereign of a neutral nation, is one of the allies of the King of Prussia, devoted to the cause of the Fatherland.. As a matter, of.fact the Duchess .allowed the German army to . traverse her kingdom when on its way to invade 1 but since /then her. feelings have changed in regard to tho German nation. ' : Finding herself a prisoner of war, the interview that followed with the German Emperor was, according to London and Paris dailies, brief. and tempestuous. The hauteur of her manner to the Kaiserwas, extreme, and. she' declined to be seated during'the interview,'.thus forcing the Emperor to: stand during the .colloquy, since eveii a Holienzollern may not 'be seated iii the palace of' an independent sovereign until'ho is invited. The wildest rumours have been circulated -as to whether; she is married-, or not. ,Months prior to tho' war her betrothal to Henry, of Bavaria delighted the -Pontifical court, since both : these.'royalties : are fervent Roman Catholics, : and Luxembourg has been ravaged by ariti-olericalism. Now the query is: What has happened to this romance? flTiat has become of the Bavarian consort, if he; is -, a consort' at all? Some of: the rumours 'state 'that the German Emperor is acting the. part iof the heavy villain of the piece, men- 1 acing the Duchess with his displeasure unless she married .one. of his' : sons. Secret marriage, compulsory divorce, solemn'partings,; and grief and tears are only: .some of : the pictures that have been conjured up in the minds of people'. As a .Catholic, liowever,. she could not secure divorce. ; The morganatic- son of her uncle, the Count 'of Marienbiirg,. has no: love for. the : DucKess; and: calls her an . interloper, claiming himself to -be'the'rightful sovereign of Luxembourg, and both ho'and his sister, the Countess Torby, who became the'morganatic wife of tho Grand'Duke 1 Michael of Russia, _. have spent large sums of.money in litigation having forits object the ousting' of Marie Adelaide from a throne' 'whioli is now- so /precariously held. The functionaries have'been removed: from her palace arid have, been replaced by the Berlin Government -with Prussians, with whonv she will hokl 110 communication whatever. One Paris report state's' tliat she may not receive or send letters, -even; to ' the .Pope, without having .her : correspondeiice : censored. 1