Show Pi P i l r dIc I f 4 x k Heartbreaking Price the Once x t Of all the many beautiful women Uzi for whom King Leopold found r Madcap Beauty Is Having to room heart there in hi hi het wu was none ous of cap whom om oa he e was Wal any fonder than charming tr for Her Scornful Def Cleo de Merode the French dan dan- da dae Pay ranee r car and she he i is believed to have havee e e z reaped from her association with withe zb e 9 m a the wicked monarch an even evenY Y f Society s Conventions t greater financial profit than the r 1 k did 9 Baroness Vaughan later e 4 y S r y 4 i Lr J f ft t s y t J d e eN ei exL N i Y ot 1 Y n a Yd W Wn Y N d I t S r 6 I a f ry e I a t ix 1 v w Y j i Y 6 w i 4 a Y o or oRye r Rye e i ei r ry y 1 y x P f f I 1 na T R r y Y r J 3 f 4 dW P a ax vs i d dA Cleo de Merode andorn andon and orn on r p a avs A the right the late King a a e r rn n w r Leopold who so 10 long lone yx aY lavished on her both love b pad d wealth r aw i a t r rv v m f fr fr fr ft faw r r s t it 1 b by 65 a 4 A 9 r t s el y y 9 HE HEa wages of sin Bin Is to y i 1 X f c w d SS's k THE T death So says Bays the Bible and so 10 It has a e t t Innumerable merable proved In the coin caso of Innumerable c r d 4 3 a merable sinners since the be- be be ginning of time pct brt Y ui rr a r c s y A At Aw At t w t S Mir I But even many of those who think L the manifold u sins sms n A and wickedness of Princesse Princess y e g her richly Louise of Belgium make richly desen deserting mg of severe punishment are inclined to feel that the tragic ft wages ages Bhe a she Is paying are aro in many manya w ways Bays far or worse e than death t- t tp p She has been forced to i humble her pride and seek Jg refuge with her sister Princess Prin- Prin cess cess Lonyay at the latter's estates in She has had to de- de deBert do Bert dc-Bert Aus Aus- Austrian Aus- Aus Austrian Austrian the and handsome Bert once young oung trian arm army officer for whoso whose v hose sake in tho days when she was vas known n as Europe's madcap princess she eho risked everything honor honor wealth her fathers father's love social prestIge and life Itself Worst of aJ a aS f perhaps for a woman as high spirited as Princess Louise she at last has to bow her head to the cons com conten contentions en- en at which she so long snapped her pretty fingers in scornful defiance And only the other day Count von who loved Princess Louise so 50 much that he braved the wrath of Eu- Eu Europe's Eu Iu Europe's ropes rope's royalty in order to rescue be rot her from froman froman froman an insane asylum died In n the tre greatest poverty in an obscure Paris Pans hotel months before his de death th he had been a miserable paralytic who ho sat strapped all day dllY in a B wheel chair Princess Louise was as one of three daughters born to King Leopold and Queen Henriette Henrietta of Belgium One of her sisters Princess Lonyay is quite hapPily married to a Hungarian nobleman and fortunately has money enough left to keep Louise independent of royalty's charity chanty The other sister Princess Stephanie married Crown Prince Ru- Ru Rudolph Rudolph Ru Rudolph dolph of Austria whose hose death at Meyer Meer Sicker ling ling some years jears vears ago remains to this day one of the worlds world's greatest mysteries With all his capabilities ss as an or- or organizer organizer or organizer and leader which made him lum so successful in to the tho exploitation of the Congo and other great mercy making morey enterprises Leopold was one of the most dissolute men that ever sat Silt upon a throne And his daughter Louise seems to have inherited from him much of the scorn of the conventions con and public opinion that made his name a synonym for wickedness What the tho relentless forces of heredity had done for her wa was made all the tho worse by the tact fact that the impressionable Im- Im ImpressIOnable im impressionable years of her girlhood er passed in the courts of Belgium and Austria at the tho period of their most shock shock- shocking shocking ing decadence Even Iven a girl with no eVil strain in her blood could hardly ha has hav e escaped harm hatm through living lI where virtue was laughed at and vice extolled as they were ere in m Brussels and Vienna The first of the tragedies that have havel made such a miserable wreck of Princess l I LoUises LoUise's life came ClIme when she sho was marrIed to Prince Philip of Saxe-Coburg Saxe She ho as then barely years jears old and he was a man of thirty The girl brides bride's disillusionment came quickly and she sho reacted to It as such a madcap princess would would-by would by fleeing from her husbands husband's arms almost before o the tho marriage bells bella had stopped ringing I expected to find in marri marriage ge said Princess Louise Louiso in the amazingly frank franl memoirs the she published later the joys I f I F rY W that a husband and child can give I Iam Iam Iam am not I am sure the first woman ho a ho after having lived in the clouds during her engagement has been as suddenly hurled to the ground on her marrIage night and who ho bruised and mangled in her soul has fled from humanity in tears I c o the On the evening of my marriage atthe at the Chateau of Laeken while all Brussels was nas liS dancing amid a blaze of lights I fell from my heaven of love loveI loveto I 1 to what hat was for me a bed of rock and anda a mattress of thorns The day was as scarcely break break- breaking breaking ing when hen taking advantage ofa of a moment when hen Iwas I was as alone alono in the j nuptial chamber I fled across t the e park in ID my bare feet a cloak ss about my nightgown I I found sanctuary amid the flowers and andI andI I whispered my grief my despair and my tOI torture ture in the silent night II In the years ears that followed follo the Princess Indulged in such wild extravagances and gave vent to such bitter protests at what she termed her husbands husband's shameful treat treat- treatment treatment ment of her that even many of her friends thought she sho was nas as out of her mind At last she slip was WIlS taken to an insane asylum asylum lum near Dresden and virtually imprisoned imprisoned there In some way that has not yet et been full fully explained Gem von then a lieutenant in the Austrian army became deeply interested in the tho fate of the lovely losely Princess and entered into a plot to free her from the asylum where he believed she was unjustly and cruelly held lie Ile finally succeeded but the tho effort cost him years in m prison and the saCrIfice sacrifice sacrifice fice of what might has have ha e been a n brilliant mIlitary career In his bold plans Von had the assistance of Dr Albert a distinguished German physician ho only lately was as mentioned d as a possible possible ble ambassador from Germany to the United States After weeks of plotting and the discouraging dis- dis dis discouraging failure of ses several oral attempts to rescue the Princess she was sas as finally abducted one night hurried across the border and taken talen to Paris Pans There a number of famous alienists who were en- en engaged engaged en engaged to submit her to a searching g ex- ex ex examination atlon pronounced her absolutely sane ane But even esen the verdict of ot the tho and tho the love and devotion which her he- he herOIC heroic he heroic savior gale gae ga e her could not bring tho unfortunate Princess any lasting peace or happiness Members of her family and friends of the husband she rhe had de- de dc moved hea heaven and ell irth e-irth to sepa sepa- separate separate rate he her from the dashing g young lieuten lieuten- lieutenant lieutenant ant who ho had rescued her from the mad mad- madhouse house i r A-r pr- pr t i ir s r m It i aY aYi j 4 t F A e x Y i iroe roe T The present King and Queen of the Belgians who are doing their best to live down their court courts court's reputation reputation reputation tation for wickedness In the end they accomplished theIr purpose for a B time by trumping up charges of forgery against Von Matta- Matta chich and having him arrested and sen sen- sen- sen sentenced sentenced sentenced to four years in prison Among those who ho did their best to separate Princess Louise fr from m her de- de de devoted voted lover was her cou cousin couin m who Ferdinand-who who later became King of Bulgaria In her memoirs she charges that ho ha made love to her and urged her to take a positIon positron position tion tron in his has court that would have been for any ml minded decent ded woman I have seen she wrote rote and I still see in Ferdinand a kl kind d of modern necromancer necromancer necromancer mancer a fin de magician Ho He must have been possessed by a power be beyond ond this earth But he ho did not be- be behe be believe he lieve liese e in God he God he believed in m the devil I asked myself to what hilt fanatical sect to what satanic brotherhood he belonged In his early days doubtless with pith ith the idea of furthering furthering g his ambitions and his extraordinary ex- ex ex extraordinary dreams of the tho future Ferdinand used to articulate caba caba- cabaliStic cabalistic h listic formulas stretching out his arms wIth his body bent his head n backs back backard ard Among these mysterious phrases was wasa wa a word ord which sounded like or which ho he often repeated One day I asked him to write it down denim do n lie IIo b traced aced letters of which I could make nothing except that I seemed to r recognize cog cog- nize some sonic Greek characters After these thew I questioned him be because ause while they were proceeding g I had to be bo silent and play the march from Aida Ho JIo answered invariably The deVIl exists I call upon him bim and ho he comes 1 I II Prom From the tho time of her dramatic 05 os- os capo cs-capo capo from tho the a asylum the tho life lite of Prin Prin- Princess Princess cess coss Louise Louisa was as crowded with un Ill fated Princess Prince Louise daughter Louise the daughter who who inherited 0 soft many of her father fathers father's I pj evil qualities and isnow isnow is t a now paying the penalty penalty pen- pen 1 alty Y Ya Yi a i 9 happiness as her fathers father's was with with almost every kind oft of t wickedness Many of her trou trou- troubles troubles bles were due to the extras a a- a gant tastes which she Bho seemed entirely unable to curb and her financial situation became stillmore stillmore still Imore more desperate when old Leopold practically practically disowned her and cut cutoff cutoff cutoff off the large income he had settled on on her Pl H Curiously enough although King Leopold was continually sharing this capacious heart and his im- im menso fortune with dancers bar barmaids bar bar- barmaids maids and servant girls he made a great show of virtuous In In- In Indignation S in-S m ls over Louises Louise's love i iy y affair with Ith Von and declared he wanted anted noth noth- nothing nothing ing more to do with Ith her Unless she would leave her lover He Ho also became estranged from his Ills other two daugh daugh- daughters daughters ten when they sided with their fated ill ill sIster Soon after King Leopolds Leopold's long ong and notorious affair with Cleo de Merode the tho French dancer his amorous fancy as taken by a pretty little former bar bar- barmaid maid named Claire Delacroix lie He liked her all the better when he found what a fiery temper she sho had and how profanely Insulting she could be even esen to a I fling Ing ng when he did something that displeased her The King made the former barmaid the Baroness Vaughan and a few days before his death he shocked by marrying her IIer An angry mob of dIs- dIs dIsgusted disgusted dis disgusted gusted Belgians drove the Baroness from Brussels but she could well afford to laugh at their rage rago for she carried with her of the dead Kings King's for for- fortune for fortune tune Princess Louise and her sisters at once began suit t to su recover reco this money under the Belgian h law w w which forbids tile the King to bequeath such a B tremendous stint slim to anybody outsIde his Ilia immediate fam fam- famIly family ily But after years of costly litigation they found that their shrewd old father had outwitted them diem He lIe had found a 11 away away way to evade the law by organizing his estate into a n stock company and giving the controlling interest in tins t to the for for- former for former mer barmaid whom ho he loved whether hether she bhe kissed or cursed him Out of the tho huge fortune King Leopold had the daughters whom horn he had learned to hate shared only and Louises Louise's part of this was WIlS not enough to begin to pay vay her pre pressing debts She and Von l bravely tried to live down the ostracism of fashionable fashionable ble society in Vienna and the other Truro Iuro- European peon penn capitals but they thoy never succeeded The is war ar swept away the last remnant ot of theIr slender means and then ill III health made their ruin still more mora complete completo by sending Von to a II hospital charIty ward and forcing Princess Louis Louise 4 i CN CNa s a C Cy y r i tl d t tt t 9 b 3 r l NJ y S l t as asaka aka a to depend on the bounty of her moro more prosperous sister The Tho miserable death of von Mat Mat- two weeks ago in a shabby room m in a Pans Paris hotel was the closing scene in 10 the tha Princess's 10 love lose e tragedy After weeks of misery in the Ule charity ward where ho he spent his last days ho he was sins re- re removed removed re removed moved to the cheap hotel and there thero Princess Louise closed his eyes and made the arrangements for his funeral stub Ith the aid lid of a sympathetic friend This Thus was sins the death of former Captain son on once dashing young oung captain who ho dared to elope dope Ith ss ith beautiful Louise in spite of Pope Leo XII's XU's II's thunders and former formel KaIser Franz Josephs Joseph's threats of per per- perpetual per perpetual imprisonment I While the Princess sat at bedside during his last hours in the tho dingy room where deaths death's curtain fell across the last scene of her h tragedy a Hungarian Hung friend who was sins sen sers ant to tho assassinated Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria her law in entered qUietly and arranged for the burial for K r d dr r tr 4 M y l lt t y t 0 t tt tM ja jar r R Wf r B x y e eta ta t a a y lie he Ie knew she could not pay Does this sad 1 reaping leaping in m sorrow of off the seeds she sow sost ed ip i in her headstrong girlhood mark the last of the wages of sin Princess Louise must pay or orare orare are there still more snore terrible penalties to tobe tobe tobe be imposed upon her before the reckon reckon- reckoning reckoning ing mg can be bo called complete and her ac- ac account account ac account count closed The world wonders even evenso evenso evenso so soon after the miserable death of Von in a delirium from morphine hen 5 hen she must ha has have e a drunk deeply enough J f of the bitter cup of sorrow and regret JI The unbroken spirit of the tha madcap princess throughout all her ber troubles has hils always amazed her friends While While they are making arrangements for tiding her over ver her present troubles the still charming charming and penniless Princess holds her head up proudly and remains apparently Ul l What can I say she exclaimed e man man- in an- an anester an answer ser ester to all queries only that I halo o lost him v who ho was the I whole thole hole world orld to tome tome me i Thus Titus she has faced for a score of years the crl criticism tlc sm of emperors emperor kings and so- so social social so social cial traditions wItha with a calm composed and queenly bearing and those who has hav watched her lor 1 1 paying cr er wages of sun sin are wondering how much more moro the pride and courage of Princess Louise can bear 1 J |