A PEASANT GIRL WHO BECAME AN EMPRESS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 32, 6 February 1878, Page 4

A PEASANT GIRL WHO BECAME AN EMPRESS.

The announcement, says a contemporary, that the Czar crossed the Danube, and thai the Empresß is to join him at Tir'nova, the ancient capital of Bulgaria, brings to mind one of the most romantic incidents in the career of the Romanoffs. During one of his campaigns against Charles XII., the soldiers of Peter the Great captured the town of Marienburg, after a short defence by the gerrisoD. AmoDg th? prisoners of war was a Livonian girl, seventeen years old, graceful, rather than pretty. She was weeping bitterly, for the eoidisr whom she had married only the day before had perishei in the battle. This youDg girl became the Empress of Russia. She could neither read nor write, but her temper was so smooth that she could control the most ungovernable of ruler?, even in those bursts of passion which almost ma.le him a madman. She followed him to his camp, and shared with him th? dangers of the wnr. When his army was starving on the banks of the Pruth and disaster wns staring him in the faco, ehe brought salvation to th" camp by bribing the Turkish cornmmder with her jewel?. "N"-t !on« afr.iwards the Emperor went ?o B rlin, accompanied by his peagsnt wife, ar d the ladies of the Prussian Court said that her clothes were so bedecked wi h silver tinsel that she mu3t huve 1 ou^ht them io a doll-shop. She wore h-w jewelß, but eh« was decorated wiih portraits of sr.inta anl relics which raale a great cUt!t-r uln-n .-h-. wniknf. 'A p*infe ! notions, pi ; )Ui nu; cons " was the ver«ii t <:f \U» princeas-s b'h. the Czar wns not jieliiim; j rl o f in r. She Lad tuvßd the camp. A fV-r l?«i ci the Greit cuuih i i lios«i warrior q iapn j Ann and Calhuritif, who neHtly dtov« the Turks out of Europe, They di 1 not themselves lead ihair Brinies, lur their commanders, Munich, Romanz ./F, Potemkln, and Suwarrow fait the pressure of an iron-handed mistress at St. Petersburg. Tin discipline which Manieh eaforoed in the army was unreasonable and hard-hearted as tba caprice as the Empress. When the aoßjpitalß were full he iesuei an order

prohibiting any soldiers to be sick under the penalty of being buried alive ; and when his troops wfre uuwilliog to storm a town he turned his own batteries upon them and forced them to advance. "You will t>,kelstnaii,ooßt what it may,' were the ordn-a' which 1 Suw'arrow received, and 30,000 Turks perished in the spige and massacre before the despatch was sent to Catherine, " Mother, Ismail ia at your feet." The determination of the Semiramia of the north was as 'invincible as the courage of Suwarrow: The wives of Alexander and Nicholas were gentler souls. When Alexander was heir to the throne, he went from court to court in queßt .of a wife. The Grand Duke Louis of Hesse Darmstadt had seven daughters, but only one of them' pleased the 1 Rußsia'n prince. While her sisters were arrayed in jewels and' silks, the ybung'eefc'sat apart in a simple white dress. It was Mary Alexandrbvno, the' present Empress of Russia. She has always been in hearty accord with the Czir's policy towards his people, and her place is by hia side at the cabinet if not at camp. She may not have the genius for a jewel bargain which (he wife of PYter' the Great displayed on the banks of the Pruth, but Bhe lean at least play the part of Cornelia, and point to her jewels in the oamp — five eons fighting under the Greek cross.