The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1877-09-07
RoMANcEs OF THE RoMANoTTs.
A Peasant Girl Who Became an Empress
Warrior Queens Tho Car at
the Front.

The announcement that the Gear is to
cross the Danube, and that the Empress is
| to join him at Tirnova, the ancient capital
of Bulgaria, brings to mind one of the most
romantic incidents in the career of the Ro-
| manoffs. During one of his campaigns
| against Charles XII, the soldiers of Peter
| the Great captured the town of Marien-
burg after short defense by the garrison.
| Among the prisoners of war was Livonian
peasant, graceful rather than pretty. She
was weeping bitterly, for the soldier whom
she had married only the day before had
perished in the battle. This young girl
became the Empress OF Russia. She could
| neither read nor write, but her temper was
SO smooth that she could control the most
ungovernable rulers, even in those bursts
of passion which made him almost a mad
man. She followed him to his camp and
| shared with him the dangers. When his
army was starving on the banks of the
Pruth. and disaster was staring him in the
fpce, she brought salvation to the camp by
bribiug the Turkish commander with her
jewels. Not long afterwards the Emperor
went to Berlin accompanied by his peasant
wife, and the ladies Of the Prussian said her
clothes were SO bedecked with silver tinsel
that she must have bought them in a doll
shop. She wore few jewels, but was deco
rated with pictures oi saints and relics
Ia ole Afor ru1,oYe cha 1lr-
ed. "a painted actress, pious but coarse, !"
was the verdict of the Empress. But the
Gear was not ashamed of her. She had
saved his camp. After Peter the Great
came those warrior, queens, Anna had
Catherine, who nearly drove the Turks
out of Europe. They did not themselves
head their armies, but their commanders,
Munich, Romanofs, Potemkin and Suwar-
row felt the pressure of an iron handed mis-
tress at St. Petersburg. The discipline
| which Munich enforced in his army was
| unreasonable and hard-hearted as the Ca
price of the Empress. When the hospitals
were full he issued an order prohibiting
any soldier to be sick under penalty of be-
ing burned alive, and when his troops were
unwilling to storm a town he turned his
own batteries upon them and forced them
to advance. You will take Ismail, cost
what it may" were the orders Suwarrow
re ,eived, and go 900 Turks perished IN the
siege and massacre before the dispatch
had reached Suwarrow. Mother, Ismail
is at your feet" The determination Of the
Semiramis of the north was as invincible
as the courage of Suwarrow. When Alex
ander was heir to the throne he went from
court TO court in quest of a wife. The
Grand Duke of Hesse Darmstadt had sew
eral daus hters, but only one of them
pleased the Russian prince. While her
sisters were tsrsayed in jewels and silks,
the youngest one sat apart in a simple
white dress. It was Mary Alexandrova;
the present empress Of Russia. She has
always been in hearty accord with the
Emperor's policy toward his people, and
her place is by his side at the Cabinet if not
in camp. She may not have the genius
for jewel bargain which the wife of Pc
ter the Great displayed ON the banks of
the Pruth, but she can at least play the
part of Cornelia, and point to her Jewels in
camp-five sons fighting under the Greek
cross.-N. Y. Tri6nne.