Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-01-04
THE GEROLT ROMANCE.
why the PFussian BarOn's Daughter
Entered a Convent.

Entered a Convent.
One Of the romances of Washington City
was recently enacted in the Diplomatic
Corps. For nearly thirty years Baron Ge-
rolf served the interests of Prussia at Wash.
ington City, he lived long enough to rear
native-born American children under the
shadow of our Capitol, one of whom mar
ried Mr. Rangabe, Greek Minister. Gerolt
owed his appointment to this country to
Baron Humboldt, who had been enter
tanned by him while Charge in Mexico,
and who recommended him to the King of
Prussia. GerOlt was an affable, republican
sort of man in society, fond of the Ameri-
can people, and in his social assOci-
ates were men like Charles Sumner and
others, who inclined him toward the Fed
eral side in the war of the rebel
lion. He probably got considerable credit
for original principle during the war, when
he was really subordinate to acquaintances
of stronger will, who impressed the claims
of the North upon him. 1t is charged that
at home he was somewhat tyrannical with
his family, as is the German custom, and
that he and his wife wished to assert too
much authority over their children, who had
inhaled the breath of the Western hemis-
phere. Whatever the interior side of his
life might have been, Gerolt is remembered
enthusiastically by some of the best people
in Washington, Republicans and Democrats
alike. He resides at Linz, near Bonn, in
Rhenish Prussia, and is permanently out Of
the diplomatic service of North Germany.
The Gerolts, although Prussians, are
Catholics, and the girls were strictly
brought up under the tuition of the priests
at Georgetown. Bertha. the youngest
daughter of the Baron, now twenty-three
years of age, and a very rich and handsome
type of the young German girl, fell in love
three or four years ago with her fathers
Secretary of Legation-a tall, handsome,
dashing and somewhat reckless Prussian,
and connection or relative of Bismarck.
This young Secretary belonged to a fine old
Brandenburg Protestant family, which had
decided notions against forming Catholic
alliances. The young gentleman would
have fallen heir, in time, to large estates in
North Prussia; but these were, in some
manner, as it is stated, made conditional
upon his keeping up the ancestral Lutheran
faith. This young PrussiaD chap you may
recollect as being the adversary of one Of
our MinisterS-LawTence, of Central
America-some two or three years ago,
when the two met on what is called the
field of honor, exchanged shots, and then
patched up the fight without blOodshed. He
paid court to Bertha Gerolt, and she was
intensely enamOred Of him. In order to make
the nuptiais easy on both sides, Gerolt ap-
piled 10 the Catholic Church authorities for
an indulgence, or something, warTanting
the marriage of this hereditary Protestant
with his Catholic daughter; but, as it was
a. Al
such marriage were to be brought up Pro-
testants, the Roman dignitaries refused.
| Gerolt, who appears sincerely to have
wished to please his child, had also
| intentions upon the Pope; but, While
these ecclesiastical efforts were being made,
the domestic correspondence between the
Secretary and his mother in Germany, and
! some ensuing letters from Madam Gerolt
| TO the other family, growing warmer and
| more indignant from time to time, had the
effect of rackng the poor girls feelings; and,
| in the end, the handsome PruSsian went off
! home. This is tbg end 70 the I,.-,ter up to
| the present. Bertha Geroit refused to ac-
company either her father or mother to
| Germany, and has retired to the George
town Convent, where, some say,
she will take the last veil; and
othe that she viii repent after
awhne, and reappear in the world.
Opinion is divided in this city as to why
Ger0lt was renauded to his own country.
Some say that he suffered certain indignities
at the hands of our State Department.
Others allege that he was inefficient, par
ticularly about the time that American arms
we're shipped to France to be used against
| the Prussians. 1t is said that, on that oc-
casion, Bismarck asked Mr.. Bancroft why
our government permitted such things, and
Bancroft, to make it easy for him
| self, retOrted that there was Baron Gerolt
in Washington, and, if he had been attend
| ing to his business. the arms would have
been detained. Others say that Catacazy
drew Gerolt iEto an intrigue, and got him to
work against the late treaty which We made
| about the Alabama claims. Whatever the
| facts, the Baron has gone for good, and his
admirers here are preparing to forward him
an elaborate service Of silver to show that
what he did for the country in its crisis is
remembered at least by its private citizens