ROUMANIA'S KING.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 138, 28 January 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

ROUMANIA'S KING.

A ROMANCE OF THI HOHEXZOLLERNS.

King Ferdinand of Rumania, who seems destined to play a conspicuous part in the terrible war which is ravaging Europe, owes his crown to a series of romantic accidents. There are, indeed, few more romantic stories in the annals of Royalty than that which tells how Prince Charles of Hohenzollern, lieutenant in the Prussian army, emerged dramatieal'y from h : s obscurity to become first Lord, and then King, of Rumania. When, one day in 1860, the young officer presented himself before Bismarck with the startling news that the Rumanian Boyars had offered him their sovereignty", Bismarck answered, with a smile of"amusement: "That is goon promoton for a Prussian lieutenant, and there is no reason why you should not give it a trial. If you see that you can do no good there, you can at least come back."

And thus it was that the Hohenzollern prince set out one day to take the proffered crown. The journey was a perilous one, for the war clouds wore gathering thickly in the sky: and it was disguised as a merchant, his face hidden under a huge hat and screened by blue goggles. that he made lis breathless dash across Austria, bearing a passport inscribed " Karl Hettingen, travelling on business to Odessa."

As luck would have it, on arriving at the Austrian frontier he forgot his name, and the Customs officer, his suspicions aroused, was about to order his sircet, when a ready-witted companion ostentatiously insisted on paying duty on all the cigars in iiis baggage, thus giving the Prince time to glance furtively at h : s passport and re-learn his name. But for this presence of mind there would have been no King Charles of Rumania, and his nephew. King Ferdinand, would not have been Rumania's ruler to-day.

CTRKH'S POSSIBILITIES

But for another romantic- happening he might, moreover, have boon father of a King of Greece, through his marriage to Process Marie, daughter of the late Duke of Edinburgh; for, four years before Prince Charles raced across Europe for hi.s throne, the crown of Greece had boon offered to the English duke, who, for reasons of state, refused it. Had the Duke accepted it, as Queen Victoria wished, it is probable that Prince Carol, the twenty-two year old Hon of K'ng Ferdinand and his wife, would to-day Wear the Grecian crown.

Nor does the chapter of ace dents end here; for. as the late Rumanian Eipg had no son to succeed him, tho heirship of the throne fell to bus oldebrother, Prince Leopold. Leopold, however, renounced bis rights in favour of his son William, and he in turn retired in favour of his brother Fc.-dm-and, who thus strangely found hinisel' nt seventeen, the adopted .0.1 o! his uncle King Charles—Crown Prince of Ruman'a and heir to the Iron Crown, fashioned from cannon captured from the enemies of the country,won by his uncle on the bloody field of l'levna. King Ferdinand, who was cradled in ISGS, with such small prospect of the throne wlreh was to be kin nearly fifty years later, was, as a child, noted for his beauty and a singular .sweetness of character. "He is," writes Carmen Sylva, his Queen-aunt, now Dowager Queen of Rumania, to a friend, "the dearest; little bov you can imagine, so gentle, so affectionate, and so tender-hearted. How 1 wish he were my son; but. even <-o I could not love him more tnan ! do." Of his goodness of heart at this tune the following story is told. His father was discussing with a fr end the poveriy of a certain district in Rumania, iii a room in which the child was play;ng with his toys. H e listened eagerly for a few moments, then left the game and ran acres sthe room. "Don't lie sad, papa," said the little fellow. _ "I have a- gold pTeee in my purse which mamma gave me. I will send the poor people that." Prince Leopold, with a proud smile and a kiss, took the com from the boy, and sent it to the mayor of the distrct. From him an army captain purchased tiie com, framed it, and hung it in the barracks. Thus the future King of Rumania grew up to young manhood in the .-<mp'e environment of the home life, boloved bv all who know bun. a clever scholar 'and poet, sk : lled in all mamv accomplishments, and strikingly hardsome. During these years of Ins boyhood and youth he was tiie almost inseparable companion of his gifted and gracious aunt, Carmen Sylva.. Rumania's Queen, who treated bun as a beloved son. and whose studies and pur-

..-•ts ho shared. In the Uusso-Turkish war, although h,> was nnlv twe've joaivs old at the time, ho was indefatigable in tending the Rumanian wounded, spending long days hy the bedside of the suffering and soothing the last hours of the dying. "I cannot tell you." the Queen wrote, when at last her hnslmnd returned in triumph to Bucharest as the hero of Plevna, "how splendid Ferdinand lias been. He always insisted on accompanying me to my hospital, and on .staying there as long as 1 stayed. The poor, stricken soldiers simply worshipped him, and many a hero has ded with the words, 'God bio* tiic little Prince!' on his lips."

ENTER ROMANCE

Romance first came into the Prince's life in the guise of Helen Vacurcsco, the most lovely of the Queen's Maids of Honour and her chef favourite. And, indeed, a much lis-; susceptible young man than Ferdinand would have found it difficult to resist such a combination of loveliness, sweetness, and rare gifts of mind and heart as was the dower of the beautiful girl in all Rumania. At their fir-t meeting, it is said, the Crown Prince completely lost his heart to Helen ; and each later meeting only served to forge fri-sh 'inks in the golden chain that hound them together, for she loved her handsome Prince sis he loved her. "I have never known anything so beautiful as the r devotion to each other,"' Carmen Sylvn wrote. "It is love, pure and ideal. They seem made for one another; find thev have all my sympathy. But 1 fear their union is impossible." And so it proved to be. King Charles would not hear of the future King of Rumania marrying lis wife's Maid of Honour, however charming: and to his inexorable will thi young lovers had to submit. Pint. although this romance was thus with seeming cruelty, irjmed in the bud. happiness was not to be denied to Ferdinand; and it ctime to him in the guise nf the sweet-faced Princess Marie, daughter of the Duke of Edinburgh, whom, after si brief and happv woo'iiir. he led to the a'tar one .lanunvv jav in 1893. The Queen was at Newied, recovering from a dangerous illness, when she received nnouneoment of the betrothal ; and was there visited I y her