OCR Text |
Show I . -r- QUEEN NATALIE OF SEBVIA. Queen Xatalie of Servia seems fated to remain one of the stormy pctrrds of European politics, and i to continue until her dying day a source of trouble A and of discord in the southeastern portion of Europe. Eu-rope. The Servian courts having decided that King Alexander succumbed to his mortal wounds a few minutes after the murder of his consort, it was hi mother. Queen Xatalie, rather than the sisters of the ill-fated Draga, who was the legal heir to ln-property, ln-property, consisting chiefly in landed estates, and valued at about a million dollars, and she was placed in possession thereof. Unwilling to make use of ir herself, as she is rich in her own right, and firmly resolved never to set foot again in Servia, wherf she has been subjected to so much contumely, she i has presented the entire inheritance of her 'mur- ' dered son to Prince Mirko of Montenegro, second son of the ruler of the black mountain, and married to the daughter of Colonel Constantinovitch. I do not believe that Xatalie was moved by any idea of making trouble in thus disposing of th property, but rather by an idea of repairing th wrong which she had done Colonel Constantinovitch many years ago, says Marquis de Lafayette, in Chicago Tribune. The latter, passionately in love with her, had in 1875 secured the promise of her hand, and the marriage was about to take place at Florence, where the beautiful daughter of the mulfi- " ' millionaire Russian colonel Kechko of the commissariat commis-sariat department of the czar's army had been brought up. at a well known school, with many-American many-American girls among her schoolmates. Constantinovitch, whose mother, an Obreno-vitch, Obreno-vitch, had been murdered along with her kinsman, Michael III. of Servia, by the Karageorgeovitches at Belgrade in 1868, had asked Milan of Servia, that is to say, his first cousin, to act as his witness and best man at his wedding. Milan readily consented, con-sented, but fell in love with Xatalie himself and found but little difficulty in persuading her to ji Ir-her Ir-her betrothed on the eve of the da- appointed for her wedding than to accept the share of his throne which he offered her instead. Everyone knows how wretchedly the marriage of Milan and Xatalie turned out. Milan was a dis- reputable, though genial, scoundrel, with whom living liv-ing was intolerable, and Xatalie would certainly have been infinitely happier with Colonel Constantinovitch, Constan-tinovitch, a man of means and of honor, who enjoys to this day a degree of respect .never accorded the late King Milan. In spite of the treachery to which Constantinovitch Constantino-vitch had been subjected by Milan and Xatalie. h- always remained the friend of both one and the other, even when Milan prevented the marriage which would otherwise have taken place between his son. King Alexander, and Colonel Constantino-vitch's Constantino-vitch's lovely daughter, and it was the colonel who was the chief mourner at Milan's funeral. Mile.-Constantinovitch has now become the consort con-sort of Prince Mirko of Montenegro, and those who in Servia retain their hereditary aversion to the Ivarageorgeovitches on account of past injuries, and who prefer to them the Obrenoviteh dynasty, are disposed to regard Princess Mirko as a candidate candi-date for the throne of Servia, in consequence of her being the granddaughter of the murdered Princess Prin-cess Anka Obrenoviteh. and a groat-great-granddaughter of the swineherd founder of the house of Obrenoviteh. Prince and Princess Mirko have ever since Kin? Peter ascended the throne of Set via been regarded by reason of the popularity which they enjoy in Servia as constituting a source o"f danger to his crown, and the action of Queen Xatalie in presenting present-ing them with all the landed estates of her nitir- flercd son not only serves to emphasize the fact th ir she regards Princess Mirko as heiress to the dynastic dy-nastic rights of the late king, but likewise givi s them a foothold in Servia which they have not until now enjoyed. Prince Mirko's aspirations to tho crown of Servia. warmly supported by his father, the Prince of Montenegro, are said to be viewed with good will at. St. Petersburg aud at Rome, where Mirko is well known as the one member of the house of Montenegro with whom his sister. Queen Helena, and her husband. King Yictor Emmanuel, Em-manuel, are most intimate. Curiously enough, nobody seems to regard the only son of Colonel Constantinovitch as possessing any rights to the throne of Servia, although, "t course, he stands in the same relation to the late King Alexander and to the founder of the Obreiio- . . j vitch dynasty as his sister, Princess Mirko. rf then she is, through her marriage, a full-fledged princess of one of the reigning houses of Europe. y i and a scion of royalty, whereas her brother is a mere commoner, having no right, whatever to the title of "prince," which he and his American wife. f who was Miss Anne Cutting of Xew York (the I . divorced wife of the Belgian, Baron de Yriere), j have assumed since taking up their residence at - Paris. Colonel Constantinovitch. himself the son j of an untitled Servian father, never dreamt ot using any nobilitary title, -or of being knowu by any other predicate than that of "colcttef"; and un- i der the circumstances the assumption n.v his son . Vladimir of the title of "prince" is as ridiculous as j it is unwarranted. : s. |