THREE HEROINES OF ROMANCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1043, 8 April 1882, Page 2 (Supplement)

THREE HEROINES OF ROMANCE.

hardly. be a stranger story than . Lady Elienborough's, Among her ancestors were the famous Sir Kenelm Digbyi and his ' wire'ih"e .whose. portrait jff,,,.,,. . Vandyke, painted in the first pale freshness'ot :" - youthful death, is so startling to the beholderi . -Theit: beautiful : descejadflnt was married first to a Cabinet Minister* and Gbverhof;General of India, .from whom she was separated on ac* count of a love affair with the Austrian ambaif' sador,-Prince one of the splendid ~ scandalsjof high life half a century ago!'dnd " 'after'an extraordinary erratic career she' ap« peered ih' : Athensas'lahthe;'in which-phasen - ihe Was About -• r ;; ■, •(La-Grec'e'Cdnt^rii por&itie);' afterwards disap-. ! intb the'dfcselrt'as the wife > • . isheik*.} . ~ , t . ; 6ji ty continent Of Europe there arewoftien'• fit'tii Be pained with the heroines Of the L|gue > : and, the Fronde, The most conspicuous of our ■ •• 'day isthe ;lalfe.Princess; Cristine Beigioioso, .•••,_ 'daughter of Matquis'di Trivnlzio, one of the : oldest,,and nobUsf'names'in Milan.' ' She maViieiiit 16, a man of her own rank : .i-. and. of'grciit'Hvealthy wlio possessed also a 'person," attd an' cridhariting- tenor n • voice!,. V.jEhey, left Italy on accojint of thoir • ; 'political: rnpathiesj s and' lived.jin Paris for • * 1 irikny'years)' 'wtiero'h'er beauty, .'intellect,' and ■ .peculiar) tastes drew , about. her -a'-'peculi&r • > •. ■ qf ; peo|i'le, from the nibst frivolous Id the most grave anil learned, : ' Victor Cousin, • .Migriet, Thierry! were'among' her I most asiiduous|ilests,'minglirig wjth poets, music*. • ia'ns,' painters,"' sculptors, diplomatists of the ■ • highest eminence,; theologians; arid^men and -\Vprrieh offa!stioii; !, ;The princess waa the idol .1 . ofthK'crowcl,'a tali,'|pale, : Blender figure, with classic features, 'hair and dyes as dark as night,- . . and a stranffe, msctuitable expression;; "Her ■ > '.ivays. werfe'eqhally inscrutable:' one'day startling society by ari escapide,- on the mor« ;•! * ■ .j row by the publication of a treatjse on: Catholic Dogma,- or Rcflectiohs on' the Present : and .■ ' ( :> i. Future ofltaly. In 1848 she raised a battalion ;* ; at her own expense to fight for the liberty :of i-- > . her country, atiii i 'it 'is i said that she vvore the 'unirorm and' went into battle'with it herself. ■ : The success of the Austrian'arms forced her to fly/ and her'properly was'confiscated,. She ■ - ■resumed her place in' thegrtat world,' publish* - . i--; ed sketches jit travel;• essays on history,' several .. •. novels, and a'iiisto.ry'of the House of Savoy. ■ • ! She was believed : t6'be the original of the:- ' ■ DuclWsic'iTe San Severinb in Stendahl's novel, -• . and there is certainly •,:« 1 a-suggestion of.her, 'thoughso differently presented, in-TheodoraJ' th'e' heroine Disraeli's • : Lolhairj The course of public events at length . 1 . 'allowed 1 her to return to Milan, where'.her estates were restored to heH' and' where she :-ii'.| :m died ten y'eark ago, Iu two Or three generations; those who find'her'name in the, verses of : .the poets and'on the title-pages--of-the composers,. ; of. this century. inay feel a curiosity to know ~. y mofe' of, this : lady,' with her high-sounding.,,, - name; Kvliisii.-tliey ■ learn lier lineage,- rank,'! t-ilent, beauty, and patriotism, she will seem 1 to' belong lo the sisterhood ol Adelaide de :Siluzzo, Beatrice de Montferrat, and th&flther, . lives of the troubadors; even more than to that, of the lair 'Lbngueville and Chevreuse,. ■ By: way of contrast to her- there is Amelie Lasauix, '' Sister Augtistinej an Old Catholic," a worthy successor of the Mere Angelique and the hojy . heroines of PoitKoyal, 1

Madame Sand, partly from a vein of honesty and homeliness of thought which runs through • her dispositions and writings, partly from her self.suffictency'arid lack of humour, is seen in a crude, coarse light by us who stand so nearher. But we miy be.sure that posterity will look with diiEerertt' eyes'on this woman'of''' genius, whose grand, sphinx-like countenance remains in marble and oh'canvasin witness of" ■ the'lonfj enigma she offered, lo every'mari t)f " genius !wI)Q crossed,her path; wliose ; niefnory '■ would live in the lives 'of Chopin; Liszt, Mus* • • : sot. Merimee, Delacroix, Lamennais, Michael de Bourges, cvoli if siie had hot left works'>• whicn will.outlast some of theirs,