The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-01-12
A ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE.
The True Story OF Charlotte of Woolfen,
buttel.
From Chambers's Journal

/
To Louisiana, In the beginning of the last
I only duSrEkter, nnd seetfgd there.-Shc wa
young and very beautiful, aud attracted much
attention, especially that Of one Dauband, an
officer Of the colony, who so ingratiated him
kept house together. The officer had been In
Russia; and what first struck him, upon see-
| ing the young lady, was the very remarkable
resemblance which she bore to the late wife
Of the Czsrowltz Alexis, son of Peter the Great.
The history of this princess had been very
| sad one. Though high-born lady, and sister.
| in-law to the Emperor Charles vi, she
much brutality as though she had been
bis 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 both of herself and
her infant. All the courts of Europe had gone
Into mourning for her, and everybody but her
husband had pltied her unhappy fate After
q great lapse of time the Czarowitz himself
seemed that the intelligence Of that Princes
decease was received by his fair fellow lodger
with such suspicious interest and excitement
that he taxed her with being In truth that ex.
alted but unhappy lady, whom all the world
held to be dead and buried. If such were the
case, he declared himself devoted to her ser
vice, and prepared to at once sacrifice his
Then Charlotte Christina Sophia de Wool.
fenbuttel (for such had been her maiden
name,) narrated her pitiful story. She was
indeed the parsonage he bad imagined her to
be, and had made use Of pious fraud to es.
cape from the cruelties of her late husband.
The blow that had been given to her had
olr or har
did that of the heir Jf all the Russias, whom she
carried within her, but she had 10 truth re-
covered from it. BY help. of the Countess
Konlgsmark, mother of Marshal SAKE, she
gained over 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
removed In the gulse of servant girl to
Paris, under the guardianship of a trusty Ger
man servant, who passed as her father; and
| finally from France 10 Louisiana. Having
| heard her story, Dauband renewed his de-
voted offer to furnish the means OF her return
| to that sphere from which she had fed
! under such pittable circumstances; but the
young widow thanked him, and said that the
/ only service she required OF him was that be
i should maintain an absolute secrecy regard
| ing her past, and conduct himself toward her
| exactly as he had hitherto done for the future.
| He endeavored to obey her In both respects,
b t his affection for her was stronger than his
loyalty. He was young and handsome, as well
as impressonable, and perhaps the ex-prin-
| cess. on her part, was not sorry when, her
! pretended father dying, and 1t becoming nc
| longer possible for Dauband and herself to be
| under the same roof without reprQach, he
offered himself to her as husband: If she
ing her rank, he argued, why should she moi
wed an honest man who loved her? Though
not queen, in him she should ever have 8
devoted subject. She consented, and, ir
SO doing, afforded one of the strangest ex
ampes of vicssltude Of fortune that hls
tory has recorded-the marriage with {
humble officer Of infantry Of one who had beer
destined for The throne of Russia, and whose
sister was actually occupying that of Austria
The marriage was happy one, and bore irui
in an only daughter. After ten years Dau
band, being troubled with some disorders
which the practitioners In Louisiana could no
cure, removed with bis wife and child to Paris
to get the best medical advice, and on his re
covery solicited and obtained from the gov
ernment an appointment in the Isle of Bour
bon. While in Paris the wife and daughter
went to walk in the Tuilerles, and, converslnl
In German, were overheard by Marsha
SAKE, who stopped 10 consider them. Nine
Daubands embarrassment confirmed nj
suspicious, and his recognition OF he
persuaded him to promise secrecy. 81
called on her, however, the next day, Ant
often afterward; and, when she had departed
for Bourbon, informed the King his master
of what he had discovered. Orders were sen
of to the Island that the greatest respec
should be paid to her; and the King OF Hun
gary was also made acquainted with the posi-
, tlon OF his aunt. he sent her letter inviting
her to his court, but on the condition that sh
should quit her husband, which she refused t