CHOICE EXTRACTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 248, 7 February 1877, Page 2

CHOICE EXTRACTS.

A RUSSIAN ROMANCE. The young wife of the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, son of the Czar (says Galignani's Messenger), has just been divorced by the tribunal of St. Petersburg. She was a Hessian, and in that quality had been accepted by the Empress Maria Alexandrowna as maid of honor. Her Majesty was rapidly captivated by her young countrywoman, who speedily became her favorite. Another conquest of still greater importance, awaited the young lady in the Muscovite empire. Not absolutely pretty, but endowed with that i grace which bewitches more than beauty, possessing a charming figure and an inparable elegance, she inspired the young Dnke with irresistible passion. One evening the Empress saw enter her apartment, the maid of honor bathed in tears, who\> throwing herself at Her Majesty's feet, avowed her love, and besought the Czarina's consent to the marriage.. That same night the young lady was put into a railway carriage, and, under good escort, conducted to the frontier, while the Grand. Duke Alexis received orders to rejoin his ship. But the Czar had reckoned without the determination of the two lovers. The. Prince escaped, rejoined his fiancee beyond the Rhine, and married her in German territory, notwithstanding the paternal fulminations ; and then left with her for America. The romance lasted two years, and nothing could bend the determination of the Emperor, nor restore the son to his favor, when the influence of the Empress being brought to bear on the son, determined the latter to accept his father's conditions. It was decided that the Grand Duke should consent to a divorce,, resume his situation in the Russian navy* and that an annuity should be settled on the heroine of the romance. It was immediately after that the Priace was in London with the Czar. The formalities of the divorce were completed last week.

A SCENE ON THE BATTLE FIELD. A correspondent of the London Standard writes from Nissa, as follows : " We come upon a number of Servian corpses, most of them in that early stag© of decomposition when the bodies swell to. an unnatural size. Some, however, could only have been dead a short time, fop... their bodies were still warm and unstiff-y*; ened. We had not dreamed what havoc our two batteries and the -firy attack had made. The defeat of the ~*''>v~

\fr£* nmat have been much more severe lutm imagined, as the enemy had left ht» ttaart umt wounded behind, close to the rivtjrs bank. The poor wounded : What terrible torments they mu.it have endured tying among corpses and deprived of all consolation, alt help. fi<>w many groans and sighs mast have passed the Slivering lips and been tost in the empty air. Kear an, adjutant lay two photographs, which mn.it have slipped from hi.-* (tying hand; imo represented the dyad man, but in the uniform of a Russian Major or Colonet, and the other a young woman with fair fcresaea, a prominent none, and tight-eotored eyes. The photographs had been taken in iVlnacow ; on the back of the man'* stood in pencil ' Meofay Komotf.' I know not in, what relation the woman stood to the officer ; but whether wife, sister, or betrothed, it js certain his last thoughts were of her. Kot far front, him fay the body of an officer, his right hand, pressed on his breast, where the splinter of a shell had struck him, and grasping a piece of paper. A strong man,, he appeared to have struggled lung with death, his face, which had the unmistakeable Russian type, being distorted from, pain, tt was withditucutiy that the paper was removed from his hand. It was a tetter,, without any date, eyrline writing, and evidently from a child's hand. Colonel iVlehmed, who was once n tlie Russian service (he is a Circassian from Daghesban, subjected by Russia more than fifty years ago), and understands Russiann, translated the tetter into Turkish,, and then one of the Cossacks, a Pole, who had been brought up in franco,, gave rue the contents in French, as follows :—' Dearest Father, —lie good enough, dearest father, to come back from the war. Since you have been away mother weeps continually, and she | dreams every night that thou Heat dead under a tree. Come to us, dear father, for mother has been so pale, and is always crying. lam very good, so-that she may not cry still more, and when thou contest back will remain good, and nevir be niiirdiftv again. But thou muse come an : ! ' :-. ; ' . ust kiss mother, that s | ■ i,, ~ ,- - , I again, and also kiss ti : ■;■ "' - -*— ■ •i• - ■ F FAST LIFE. ,i i :, - ■ table Viscount has bid \,. ■ i■■■• ■ I kI night. lie had the most splendid, turu-oufc in Paris, ;u.id which turned the heads of va.uvy ladies. Mo lodged in a spleudidiyt'iiruwhe I palace, and lived by pawning the artistic articles of li cit fumitiuv, replacing them by " dttiumies," and paying u > ! <ody. 'I lie | hu'>M> l»ur..t, and, the tirsfc tiling the police did was to seir.o tie wardrohes an I Jewell -y of his s :vcral mistresses, and wliich form a large pde that may go to view, ;u the spec'-acta costs nothing. S >me letters were discovered from a w t altt;y and respectable lady who lovvd the swindler, and advanced him money, but at whom he laughed. !She was asked it she was now convinced., and she replied " Yes, more than ever to tove and marry j him." I