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Show Women of Royal Rank Who Have Become Nuns I F the rumor is true that the dethroned Grand I Duchess of Luxemburg intends to seek a refuge from the world in the cloister, she will only be following in the steps of many another roal lady who has turned her back on tho pomp of palaces and the vanity of life to seek the peace of the convent. The Russian Empress Eudoxia spent twenty years in the nunnery of the "Intercession of the Blessed Virgin," thankful to scrub floors, and to fare as poorly as the meanest of her sister-nuns, to escape from the brutalities of her husband, Peter the Great. And many a Princess of Russia, Rus-sia, according to London Answers, followed Eudoxia Eu-doxia ' behind the veil" before the Grand Duchess Elizabeth entered a Moscow nunnery a few years ago, after the assassination of her husband, tho Grand Duke Sergius. The widow of the ex-King Miguel, who reigned six years over Portugal, became a Benedictine Bene-dictine nun at Solcsmcs a score of years ago; and when the community was banished from France she came with the rest of the Sisters to a convent in the Isle of Wight, where, among other Royal companions, she has one of her sisters, a princess of the House of Lowenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg. It is said that there are today in various Eu ropean convents more than thirty princesses. 1 member-- of many of the great ruling houses of j Europe, who are wearing the veils of nuns, and! are spending their lives in prayer and fasting. And it is not only prince-sea who thus find an I escape from the burden of their royalty. In tb very heart of the Black Forest, in an environ- A ment of mountains and woods, far remote from jH the haunts of men, is the Abbey of Seckau, every fl inmate of w hich is of royal or noble birth Amon? Wk them are Princes Philip and Constantine of Hohenlohe, who a few years ago were cuttinf I splendid figures at the Courts of Europe. Men jH of brilliant gifts and achievements, they seemed I to be the spoiled children of fortune when, to the amazement of the world, they vanished rays- II tenously to the seclusion of the Black Fore.:, X one to act as cook, and the other as a porter. Among others who are engaged in the most menial offices of the brotherhood arc Prince Ed- 1 ward Schonburg-Hartenstein, once famous as sol-dier sol-dier and courtier; Count de Afemptinne, Baron I , von Oer, one of the chief ornaments of the Court M of Saxony; Baron von Drais, one of the wealthi- Uj est and most high-bom of Baden nobles, ar.d many another noble and prince who have tacn- S? ficed rank and riches and luxury to lead Spartas M lives, completely shut off from, the wcrld. 1 |