The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-09-18 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY DELUSION.

The utmost 'Wrest Ilse been experienced In the fashionable
circles all over the ecOniirient by the publication of the brochure of
the Princess de S., which, printed, at first in small numbers, and
for private circulation only, has graddend spread itself throughout
the aristocratic and religious coteries of Europe.' It is now exactly
a year since the young Princess Eleanore de S., In the prime of her
'smith aled beauty, a young wife, adored by her husband, and tench
beloved by her fattaily, died suddenly at the Hotel de F., in Paris, and
was befeed veith great pomp at Pere La Chaise, where a splendid
monument, by Leclien°, recording her age, her lineage, and virtue!,
has just been put tip by Her ditiConeolete husband. In spite of the
high position held by the Princes& air/ Hone her great wealth and
beauty having become the observed of all tersereers, there has
already existed an extraordinary feeling of mystery in the public
) mind with regard to the circumstrnces of her death. The sudden
I determination, taken immediately after the event, by her mother-
in-law, of retiring to a convent, greatly increased the doubt and
wonder spread around the whole a fLir ; and now this pamphlet (issued
to the world with the sanction of one of the greatest names of any
Country, from one on the eve of taking the black veil, and who
expresses the sense awe of this position as that of her death bed, a• d
appeals therefrom for belief in the strange statemeets made in the
work) comes to fill us with a deeper amazement than we can yea
bear. The pamphlet is printed in Gerniati, the natiye language of
t .e writer, who, as mother-in-law of the heroine of the wondrous
story it contains, declares it to be in fulfilment of the tow made to
her son's +fife that it is now made public. The whole life of the going
Print-ss is hefe set forth. A child of immense imagination and
power. left at ati early age an Orphan with the consciousness of
beauty and the command of houndleiss wealth, finding herself sud-
denly transported to her guardian's old castle in the Hartz, was not
likely to enjoy,eithcr content or heppieess ; and here bee temper and
disposition grew so wild and untractable that, after repeated efforts
at home education, it was, deemed advisable to send her to be trained
into rule and discipline by seclusion in a convent. Just then her
guardian being appointed ambassador to Paris from the Court of
W., it was thought the heat opportnnity, for placing. the child
beneath the surveillance of the superior of the Stic.e Ccear, in the
Rue de Varennes, where she could be better trained to habits of
obedience than elsewhere. But, alas! this first experiment proved
totally abortive. Three unsuccessful efforts at esraee were folidwed
by a decided a' tempt to set fire to the furniture of her room where
she was confined; and the governess, fearful et' the efiart of such
exampieeon other pupils, and weary of the task of taming this
wild, v. hement sp'rit, reluctantly restore.' the young lady to the
care of her guardian. The position of the la to had now become
most dßicult. To have her In the haute was imnossihle, as Prince
eon de ii., his only son, n yeuth scarcely o'cicr than the refractory
Eleanore, resided with him, and to throw the pair torrethsr at that
early age would have heed considered by continental decorum q rite
out of the question. So a Conseil de fumille was held, and it was
resolved to send the celprit,nnw no longer a mere child, hut a fine,
high spirited girl of fifteen, to England, to complete her eddention,
with the hope that the conviction of being thus alone in a foreign
country, dependent on her good behaviour to .ensure tile kindnees
of those about her, might have the desired effect. The young lady
was accordingly placed at --, at Hamme smith, and for a time
the hoped for change seemed to have taken place in her temper.
Bu', after a while, it appears that the Wiest! of violence to Which
she gave way, and the fits of depression which steceeeded, became so
alarming es to cause serious fears for her health. Leiter after
letter wad eleina'eherl to her guardian by the young lady herself,
begging to be taked into faeour, declaring that the chmete of Eng-
land was weighing her to tlie eaeth, asd the discipline of Hammer-
smith breaking her heart. For sonic tims the guardian, acting with
th- prudence he judged necessary, suffered these complains and
suppleations to go on; but at length, moved by one of the letters
more heart-rending than the others, he allowed his sneer to be
melted, and determined on fetching his ward from the place, where
she declared, in the st-ong language she was wont to use, she was
" damaging both soul and body, and hurrying both to everlasting
perdition." The Prince de S. arrived at Hammersmith upon
a Sunday ntoenitig. He had returned no answer to the last letter
despateeel by his Ward, and she nraa, therefore, not aware of his in.
tendon of arriving. The lady conrinalssinned telee the bearer of the
news repor ed to have found her on her knees alone id Tv r own room
praying, with ,a most fearful expression of countenance, and, on
being informed of her guardian's' arrival, she had dtter, d a most un-
earth'y shriek, and rudhed down the statra like one possessed. The
guardian was much pleased With her nregress and Improvement, and
brought her bark to Paris triumphantly, as a sre. imen of the good
training of the ladies of Hammersmith. There Was, indeed, no token
of the old indomitab'e spirit left within her. File Was 'Silent
and subdued, submissive to all, and only urgent loiter supplicetiens
never to Ire be left alone or in the dark. She to whom religion had
hitherto been a subject of derision changed suddenly to practices of
the East r zageerated piety, but always persis'ed in maintaining that
it was useless to lay any plans for her welfare, fur that she should
die before she acts 211 "Ail a mother neili do," says the Princess,
in the extraordinary brochure which discloses the story, " was done
by me to eradicate this idea from the rabid of our beloved Eleanore,
but the answers she alWays trade *ere so fall of terrible meaning
that they filled my sod' with arch deep alarm that I dared not to
dwell upon the 'subject. Even When she became the bride of my
son Leon, she would insist upon every arragemeut being made
with a Vie* to this early death, which seebied to prey on her
mind for ever. It gas not till the young couple had been
married for some time that, by dint of maternal care and so-
licitude, I managed to wring from her the confidence of her
direful anticipations', and Judge of trig dismay' when she coolly
to d me that she had sold herself to the Evil One, and that she
would be claimed before she had reached the age of el. She con-
fessed that her despair had been so great at being exiled, that,
wearied with incessant prayers to heaven and the saints for de-
Lverance without effect, she had at length addressed her vo S to
the powers of darkness on the very Sunday niorning when her
guardiee had arrived, and the announcement of lee preeeeee was
evidently the token of the acceptance of that fe +ea vow." It seems
that, in spite of every care and counsel—despite of the constant
watching and wise teaching of the Abbe Dupauloux. nothing could
turn aside this fix from the mind of the Princess Eleanore; and,
although every ettreme of dissipation and excitement was tried to
divert her the tights, the gave Way to a settled melancholy, and died
two days before the completion of her twenty-first year. suddenly,
and in her chair, full dre•sed for a ball at the Ministere crg tat. The
idea had evidently done its work in silence, and none can tell the
agony which mu t have Irene endured during the last few Month%
of that sad existence, in the midst of splendour and riches, yet
nursing the canker warm within, from which neither the lofty
position in which she stood nor the homage she received, could
divert her for one inetaht. The pamphlet has caused the deepest
impression on the minds of all who have peruied it, and she reti e-
ment from the world of the Dowager Princess de S., for the avowed
purpose of praying for the soul of the Princess Eleanore, has added
to tire terrible effect of the tale, which seems more nee a dark
legend of the midde ages, than an incident of yesterday; tut he
nevertheless, true for all that.