ROMANCE OF AN EMPEROR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 156, 30 December 1911, Page 9 (Supplement)

ROMANCE OF AN EMPEROR.

STOKV OF THE FIRST LOVE OF WILLIAM 1. OF GERMANY. • The touching story of the romantic attachment of the Emperor William 1. to Princess Eliza Radziwill when he was a young man and siie a girl and of the obstacles that arose to prevent their union is related in detail in a book just written by Dr. Bruno lieimig. The stern necessities of politics cast a cloud over these two young Royal lovers, and compelled Prince William—as he then was —to desert the girl he loved to contract a union based on prudence instead of on personal inclination. Toward the end of the eighteenth century Prussia had absorbed a portion of the ancient kingdom of Poland and ivas, engaged in the difficult task—still only imperfectly accomplished—of assimilating the conquered Poles, who regarded their German masters with repugnance. The hopes of Russia in those days were largely centred in Prince Anthony Radziwill, one of the Polish magnates, who accepted Prussian supremacy over his native land in a friendly spirit and married Princess Louise, a niece of Frederick the Great, after which he was appointed Viceroy of Prussian Poland, with his seat of Government at Posen. His real home, however, was in Berlin, and it was here' that his daughter, Princess Eliza, who as a Hohenzollern on the maternal side associated freely with the Prussian Royal family, met Prince William, the second son of the reigning King, Frederick William 111. Prince William and Princess Eliza grew up from childhood together, and it was not until 1820, when he was 23 and she three years younger, that their friendship ripened into love. The first words of love were spoken at a picnic in the forests round Berlin.

During the next two years the young couple saw one another constantly, but a shadow had fallen across their happiness owing to the degree of difference in their respective ranks, which constituted a bar to their marriage. When Princess Eliza's mother—a Hohenzollern princess—married Prince Radziwill, her inferior in birthright, she descended to his rank, and their children were not Royal princes, but merely the descendants of a Polish noble family with Royal blood in their veins.

A marriage between Prince William and Princess Eliza would thus have been a morganatic union, and the right of their children to inherit the Prussian throne would, according to the "House Laws" of the Hohenzollern dynasty, have been open to doubt. The question was raised whether Prlincess Eliza could not be raised to the rank of "Royal Highness" either by the King of Prussia or by the Czar, and the two lovers went through an anxious time, which extended into several years, while this matter remained undecided. There were long periods of separation, due to Prince William's duties* in different parts of the country, and after a reunion, following one of them, Princess Eliza wrote to her friend:

"It was a sad and sorrowful time, but we found consolation in our love. We understand each other perfectly; there is no doubt, no uncertainty. On the evening before his departure for Teplitz, William' spent the evening at our house. We sat in the garden till midnight, and we/o able to talk alone there without attracting any attention. We talked only as brother and. sister, but he spoke to mo so earnestly, so beautifully, without any hint of selfish love, 'that I could not repress my tears. In this short time he has become far dearer to me than ever before, and I am determined that whatever may happen I will remain faithful to him'and keep the love for him in my heart." After this the young lovers' hopes again ran high. The question of Princess Eliza's elevation to Roval rank was being investigated, and in Berlin an engagement was already being discussed. Then, however, the blow fell. One day the King visited Princess Eliza's ramify in Silesia. "My knees trembled beneath me," she wrote to her friend, "as the King approached me, gave me his band, and embraced me as usual." The dav passed, the evening meal was eaten, and still the King spoke no word on the subject. Finally the King took his dep'artue after kissing Eliza and pressing her hand in silence."

As the King left the room, Princess Eliza burst into tears. The Crown Prince and Prince Carl, who were both present, pressed her hand in silent sympathy' and there is no doubt that the whole Royal family felt keenly for the young Princess. Then followed three years of total separation.

Finally, Prince William, in 1825, found another opportunity to visit Princess •IMiza. He was commissioned to accompany a Russian grand ducal pair as far as the frontier, and his mission accomplished, he hastened headlong to his sweetheart's home in Pose-n. His first words as he burst impetuously into the room were, "After three years—the proof!' Then followed a week of unalloyed bliss for the young lovers. The same year, however, which witnessed the high tide of their joy also saw its ebb. The scheme of elevating Princess Eliza to Royal rank was declared impossible, and another match was proposed for Prince William. Still the faith of the young couple in each other appeared unbroken, when in 1826 Prince William again visited his sweetheart while on his way to Russia.

"Yesterday." wrote the Princess, "William was here, and we lived short' ,sweet hours together. To-day theVo are already many inile9 between us" This was in January. In the summer of the same year Prince William and his ■father, the King, wrote to the Radziwill family to explain the impossibility of the marriage. (i The Princess wrote to her friends: "What moments of joy I have lived in these five years, despite the hitter hours which they brought me! What sorrow is there in this life that I have not tasted ? It is enough." Prince William had been obliged bv what he considered his duty to the State to desert the girl of his heart, and m February, 1829, his engagement to trmcess Augusta of Weimar was announced. Yet once more, however the Prince visited Princess Eliza. Her mother thus describes the scene: "He arrived at 12 o'clock on June 3. 1 went to meet him. His emotion was so visible and so intense that!, too, lost Tin-self-control, and it was with feelings of the greatest distress that I took him to my room where Eliza was waiting T was sorely afraid of the effect which the meeting would have upon them both. Yet as God willed it, so it happened. His love strengthened Eliza's heart She is no* convinced that William fulfilled the King's wish out of his strict sense ot duly. She is quieter than before, and her sorrow has been softened. She knows that it was stem necessity, and his fathers will which intervened, and not a.ny inconsistency of heart on his part" Princess Eliza did not live long after the marriage of William to Princess \u"usta of Weimar. One night as she sat at djrarer with the Royal pair she was attacked by internal hemmorhage and never recovered. She was taken bv her fcimaly to those same forests where" William years before had first declared his love. ;nul there she died. ■■ it