Connecticut western news., 1872-02-16
A Romance in Real Life.

last century, came an old German emi-
 grant, with his only daughter and settled
 there. She was young and very beauti-
 full, and attracted much attention, es-
 pecially that of one Dauband, an of
 ficer of the colony, who so ingratiated
 himself with her father that, after time,
 they kept house together. This officer
 had been in Russia; and what first struck
 him, upon seeing the young lady, was
 the very remarkable resemblance which
 she bore to the late wife of the Czarowitz
 Alexis, son of Peter the Great. The his-
 tory of this Princess had been very bad
 one. Though a high born lady, and sis
 ter-in-law to the Emperor Charles VI.,
 she had been treated by her husband
 with as much brutality as though she
 had been his slave. He had attempted
 on more than one occasion to make
 away with her by poison and at last he
 had struck her with such violence, when
 far gone with child, that he had caused
 the death of both herself and infant. All
 the courts of Europe had gone into
 mourning for her, and everybody but her
 husband pitied her unhappy fate. After
 great lapse of time, the Czarowitz died; :;
 and to Dauband's watchful eyes it seemed
 that the intelligence of that Princes de-
 cease was received by his fair fellow
 lodger with such suspicious interest and
 excitement, that he taxed her with be-
 ing in truth that exaltant but unhappy lady, whom all the world held to be dead and buried. If such were the case, he
 declared himself devoted to: her service, and prepared to at once sacrifice his prospects in the colony, in order to es- cort her to Russia.
 Then Charlotte Christina Sophia de Woolfenbuttel (for such had been her maiden name) narrated her pitiful story. She was indeed the parsonage he had imagined her to be, and had made use of pious fraud to escape from the cruelties of her late husband. The blow that had been given to her had almost caused her death, (as it undoubtedly did that of the heir of All the Russias, whom she carried within her, but she had in truth recovered from it. By help of the Countess Konigsmark mother of Marshal Saxe, she even gained the women of her bed-chamber, so that 1t was given out she was no more, and funeral was arranged accordingly. Then, being conveyed to secret place, she was carefully tended, when strong enough, removed in the guise ofa servant girl, to Paris, under the guardianship of a trusty German servant, who passed as her father; and finally from France to Louisiana. Having heard her story, Dauband renewed his devoted offer to furnish the means of her return to that sphere from which she had fled under such pitiable circumstances but the young widow thanked him and said the only service she required of him was, that he should maintain an absolute se- crecy, regarding her past, and conduct himself toward her exactly as he had hitherto done for the future. He en- devored to obey her in both respects, but his affection for her was stronger than his loyalty <; he was young and hand some, as we'll as impressionable and perhaps the ex-Princess, on her part, was not sorry when, her pretended fa- ther dying, and it becoming no longer possible for Dauband and herself to be under the same roof without reproach, he offered himself to her as husband. If she had really renounced all thoughts of resuming her rank, she argued, why should she not wed an honest man, who loved her?
 Though nota a queen, in him she should ever have devoted subject. She con- sented; and in so doing afforded one of the strangest examples of vicissitude of fortune that history has recorded-the with humble officer of infan- try of one who had been destined for the throne of Russia, and whose sister was actually occupying that of Austria. The marriage was happy one, and bore fruit in an only daughter. After ten years, Dauband being troubled with some dis order which the practitioners in Louis jana could not cure, removed with h1s wife and child to Paris, to get the best medical advice, and, on his recovery, so- licited and obtained from Government an appointment in the Isle of Bourbon. | While in Paris, the wife and daughter went to walk in the Tuileries, and by in German, were overheard | by Marshal Sake, who stopped to con sider them. Mime. Dauband's embarrass- ment confirmed his suspicious, and his recognition of her was complete. She drew him aside, and persuaded him to promise secrecy. He called on her, however, the next day, and often after ward :; and when she had departed from Bourbon, informed the King, his mas- ter, of what he had discovered. Orders were sent off to the island that the great est respect should be paid to her and the King of Hungary was also made ac- painted with the position of his aunt. He sent her letter inviting her to his Court, but on the condition that she should quit her husband, which she re- used to do. In 1747, Dauband died, having being preceded to the grave y his daughter and the widow came o France, with the intention of taking ID her residence in 8 convent in place 'f doing so, however, she lived in great retirement at Virtri, about league from Paris, where she died in 1772.-Chons- 'er's Journal