, 1876-01-22
The Wife of Two Husbands.

The Empress Eugenie, the match.
maker of two hemispheres, persuaded
Countess Valentine dc Chimay, beautiful,
good and rich, to marry the Prince de
BeauffremOnt, handsome, bad and poor.
The only points on which the two agreed
were good looks and youth. These proved
insufficient to keep them together. The
prince went on the Mexican expedition; /;
the princess stayed at home, led spot
less life, and wrote him long letters, which
he did not take the trouble to answer
When he returned, she went to Brest to
meet him. But he had already started to
Paris. She pursued him there only to
find that he had left for his chateau. He
wrote thence his first letter to her, after
an absence of two years. It was COM
posed of these touching words: "Mad-
anne: What have you done with my shirtsl
| don't find them in the armoire." When
the two finally met in Paris, it was only
to separate. The prince began scan
dalOus life. The princess sued for a sep
aratiOn. 1t took her seven years to gain
it. The French law does not recognize
divorce, so that neither party could
legally marry again, even after the seDa-
ration de corps had been decreed. But
meanwhile the princess had fallen in love
with Prince George Bibosco of Moldavia-
Wallachia, and was bound to marry him.
Having the will, she found the way. A
very devious way it was. She moved to
Dresden and had herself naturalized as a
Saxon. Then she got absolute divorce
from Dresden court. There was now
no obstacle to her civil marriage, outside
of France. But religious difficulty re-
mained. The Catholic church repudiates
divorce. The Pope would not sanctiona
re-marriage. The princess de Beauffre-
mont received the news calmly, abiured
Romanism forthwith, and became mem
Der of the Greek church. The Greek
priest at Dresden, native Russian, bap-
tized her and said he would perform the
marriage service for her, provided the
emperor or the Russias would give his
consent. That potentate had the case
laid before him, and made no objection.
Everything wes legal, as far as Russian
laws and Greek Catholic rules were con-
cerned. The religious marriage was
promptly performed in Dresden, and the
civil marriage followed it at the Walla-
chan legation in Paris. The Russian
minister attended the ceremony and
signed the contract. And yet the Prin-
cess Bibesco is still the Princess Beauff-
remont in France. French law and
Catholic law give her one husband; the
Greek church and the rest of Europe give
her another. She is the wife of two men.
Her position in France is unique. She
is liable to prosecution for bigamy, and
can be, it is said, extradited from any
other civilized country to which she may
hee. Her first husband can take posses
sion of their two children, even if the lat
ter should wash to remain with their
mother. If she has any children by her
second husband, they will be legally
known by the name of BeauffremOnt, not
Bibesco. If the courts should grant them
the latter name, it would make them
illegitimate and incapable of inheriting
any of their mothers immense fortune.
Finally, if Madame BIB should ever de-
eide to go back to the first B., the second
would be helpless. So this wife has the
choice, in France, of her two husbands.
Possibly pOlygamy is introduced upon
the soil Of Europe.