A LIFE'S ROMANCE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 248, 30 March 1880, Page 3

A LIFE'S ROMANCE.

The romantic vicissitudes of the early life of the Countess Sorange de Kramer have once more become the talk of the Paris salons, and £they are, indeed, so extraordinary that, used as materials for a novel they would spoil the book by their lack of verisimilitude. One niglit in 1801 a little girl about one year was deposited in the Drawer of the Foundling Hospital at Brest. She was dressed with much finery and a note attached to her skV. told that her name Was Solmge, and that she would be reclaimed by her father. The claim was made, however, aud in due time the child was transferred to the Orphan Asylum to be educated there. As she grew up she developed a most eslraO binary beauty, but her intellect appeared to be very weak, and she suffered from frequent nervous fits. When she was twelve years old she was sent oat into tue streets to sell flowers, and her b auty and modesty attracted manv people’s goodwill, but she grew weaker and weaker, and at last apparently died. According .to French custom, she was buried in an open casket, and, as it was winter and the soil was frozen, she was • laid into the grave only covered by thin ; layer of sand; During the night she • awoke and, pushing the sand away, crept ■‘hirffltirdin:“tiii.s;graYei Not exactly understanding what had taken pice, she was not bo very much frightened, but in crossing the glen between, the cemetery arid the fortifications she was suddenly Stopped by the outcry “ Qu' Vive,” and as she did not answer, the sentinel filed, and she tell to the ground. Brought, into the guardhouse, the wound was found to be very slight, and she soon ■ recovered, but'her singular, history and also her great beauty had made so dee]) an impression, on'a young lieutenant of the garrison (Kramer), that he determined to be her protector and sent her to one of the mostfa hionable institutionshr Paris... ■■-During the next ten years Kvafner was greatly tossed about by the • war, but when, iii 1818, ho returned to Paris, and found Solange a full-grown woman, not only beautiful, but accom']>lished and r spi.ii,ed, with no more trace, of intellectual weakness or nervous fits, lie married her, and for- several years the couple lived happily in Paris. Meanwhile investiga; ions wore made concerning the girl left in 1801 in the Foundling Hospital at Brest ; aud as these investigations were made by the Swedish Ambassador, and a ■ somewhat official manner, they attracted some attention. Captain Kramer heard about the affair, wrote to the' Ambassador, and a month later the Ambassador himself came in state to bring Mme. Kramer a formal acknowledgment from her father, the former General Bornadotto, afterwards King Charles XIV. of Sweden. Captain Kramer and his wife went immediately to Stockholm. They were ennobled, &e., and their son has just now been appointed Attache to the Swedish Legation in Paris.