A PROCESS'S OWN STORY.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 April 1921, Page 4

A PROCESS'S OWN STORY.

WEDDING NIGHT FLIGHT. BULGAK CZAR’S ’’DEVIL WORSHIP.” “I have survived the European tempest, and I have seen.all thoso who disowned and crushed me beaten and punished.” In this triumphant tone Princess Louise of Belgium, the eldest daughter of Leopold 11, gives her version—“My Own Affairs”—of all those adventures and vicissitudes, her divorce and detention in an asylum, which have been the lively topic of gossip for a generation. Trouble began with her early marriage to Prince Philip of Saxe-Coburg:

1 am not, i am sure, the first woman who, after having lived in the clouds during her engagement, has been as suddenly hurled to the ground on her marriage night, and who, bruised and mangled in Her soul, has fled from humanity in tears. I am not the first woman who has been the victim of falso modesty and excessive reserve, attiibutable perhaps to the hope that the delicacy of a husband, combined with natural instincts, would arrange all for her, but who was told nothing by her mother of what happens when the lover’s hour has struck. However, the

fact remains that on the evening of my marriage at the Chateau ol Laeken,

while all Brussels was dancing amid a blaze of lights and illuminations, I fell from my heaven of love to wlui-t was for me a bed of rock and a mattress of thorns. Psyche, who was more to blame, was better treated than myself. The day was scarcely breaking wnen, taking advantage of a moment when 1 was alone in the nuptial chamber, I

lied across the park with my bare feet thrust into slippers, and, wrapped in a cloak thrown over my nightgown, I went —to hide my shame in fiie Orangery. T found sanctuary in the midst of the camellias. I was scarcely 17 years old; my husband had completed his .'list year. I had become his ‘goods and chattels. One can see, alas ! how he lias treated me. RUDOLPH’S ••SUICIDE.” Unhappily married to Princess Louise’s sister. Stephanie, the Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria confided to his sister-in-law his obsessing passion for Mary Vetscra which ended in the "bloody enigma” of Moverling: Let us, once and for all, linish with the legends of Meyerling (where at the Crown Prince’s hunting-box Rudolph and Mary were found dead), and as far as if is possible have done with the lies connected with it. Rudolph ol Hapsburg committed suicide 1

There was in lhe love ol the hereditary Archduke for Mary Vetscra either a lurid fatality or a sinister influence. Impetuous but enslaved, he could not endure a liaison which paralysed his intrigues, but which lie lacked the strength to break, so great was the bold which Mary had obtained over him.

"She is there,” the Crown Prince whispered to his confidante at a soiree. "All, if somebody would only deliver me I rum her! ’ An instant later be returned and murmured: "I simply canno! tear myself away from her.” After tin' tragedy the Princess t says she found her widowed sister "holding in her hand a letter whose secret must now he given to history.” It was from Rudolph. It announced his death and showed that he had already resolved on this course before leaving Vienna for Meyerling “Rudolph died of sheer disgust.” "INCREDIBLE” FERDINAND. Of her husband's brother, the exCzar Ferdinand of Bulgaria. Princess Louise says "everything both in the public and private life of Ferdinand of ('oburg was incredible : lie must have been possessed hv a power beyond this earth. But he did not believe in God; he believed in the Devil. I am only going to relate that of which I am sure. I am only going to sav what 1 have seen.

lii our palace at Vienna Ferdinand would sometimes ask me to play for him when we were alone in the evening. Ho insisted upon the room being only dimly lit. lie would then come near to the piano and listen in silence. At midnight lie would stand up solemnly, his features drawn and contracted.” As the clock struck twelve lie would

“Flay the inarch from ‘Aida.’ ” Then withdrawing to the middle of the room, be would strike a ceremonial attitude and refloat incomprehensible words which frightened me. . . . Alter these seances I questioned him. because while they were proceeding I bail to bo silent and play the inarch from "Aida.”

He invariably answered: "The Devi exists. I (-all on him and lie comes.”

Although Ferdinand was married (to Marie Louise of Parma) lie laid strong siege to his sister-in-law. At one dinner, which 1 remember as it were yesterday, lie said in low tone* so that mv husband could not near:

"Von see everything here. Al l , well! All is my kingdom; I lay it, m.vse’f included, at your feet.” I tried to reply as if I treated the remark as a joke. The same evening he came to me a>’d, taking me away from the dancers, led me to another room, where a f< rmicli window was open to the Oriental night and the stillness.of the little park, ami inquired if I had understood wha* h" had said. llis tone was harsh and his look stern. There was something lin periods and fascinating about him. I was much disturbed.

He insisted brusquely: “It is the last time I shall offer what I have offer oil. Do you understand?” My eyes wandered to the salon. 1 saw beside- me the Prince of Bulgaria, so different from his brother (her husband), still young, handsome, and full of power. But the image of ALmo Louise (his wife) passed before my eyes, and also the vision of the Queen (Inn' mother) ! shook my heal and murmured a frightened “No.”