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Show i ""VAMPS" WHO I MADE HISTORY I By JAMES C. YOUNG. g ( by McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) THE CINDERELLA OF VAMPIRES. IN 1653 Cardinal Mazarin was the most powerful man of France, its principal minister, the lover and perhaps per-haps husband of the Queen Dowager, and recognized guardian of the young king, Louis XIV. In his success he remembered a poor sister, struggling to raise five daughters on a little estate In Italy. One ay the post brought to this sister a command from her great brother that she should come to Paris and bring the five girls. Happiness reigned in the family circle, cir-cle, eJy marred by the thought that one of the daughters was as homely as the others were handsome. The four beauties wanted to leave her at home, but she resisted and they finally took this ugly duckling with them. When Mazarin saw his ungainly niece he consigned her to a convent. The other oth-er four became celebrated over night for their beauty and took a prominent place at court. But the poor Cinderella Cinder-ella of the family remained In her convent. Mazarin happened to remember re-member the girl and sent for her. He found that in two years she had become wonderfully beautiful, more bewitching than her sisters. And It was not long until Marie Mancini was one of the most sought after of the court beauties. The young king saw her, became Infatuated, and Marie barely missed being queen of France by the intervention of the cardinal and the king's mother. But Louis finally proved fickle, as kings have had a way of croing, and Marie found her castles tumbled to pieces. The car- j dinal determined that she should mar ry and match was arranged wlti, Prince Colonna, grand constable of Naples. Marie consented, caring little lit-tle whom she married, and went to the altar with i last despairing look ai Louis. Unhappiness soon forced her to leave the prince and she returned to France. Then began a series of wanderings In which the beautiful Marie did as her fancy bid with half the princelings of Europe. Her own heart broken by Louis' desertion, she cared little for the afflictions she caused others. In France, Spain and Italy, Marie left behind her a train of aching hearts, and there were many stories of her cruelty. Policies of state were shaped according ac-cording to her wish and a toss of her handsome head settled many matters of International consequence. But Marie never really vas happy. Death came to her in Pisa, where she wrote this hurried and tragic epitaph, "Marie Mancini Colonna Dust and Ashes." |