The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-09-03
Romance.

royal houses which figure year by year in
the pages of the Almanac de Gotha" are
those of Anhalt Dessau of HesseHom-
burg, though they have both Of them
been lately swallowed up, thanks to
Prince Bismarck, in the new German
Empire, It will be remembered by our
readers that the Langravine Louise of
Anhalt-D Dessau, widow of the Langraye
Gustav, some time reigning Prince of
Hesse-H -Homburg, and sister-in-law of his
successor, the Langrave Ferdinand, died
in the summer of 1858, at the age of
nearly sixty years, at the Schloss of HON.
burg, near Frankfort-on- -the-Main. And
as some of the details of her early are SO
romantic that they would seem to belong
to the realms of fiction rather than those
of reality, will give here a short sketch
of her life, presuming only that the facts
advanced are not imaginary, but literally
and strictly happened as they are told in
these columns.
The Princess Louise Frederick, daugh-
ter of the hereditary Prince of Anhalt
Dessau, was born on March I, 1913, and
was little more than child, certainly
not s'out of her teens" when the Prince
Ferdinand above mentioned. happening
to pay visit to her fathers court, was
struck with her extreme beauty and fell
violently in love with her. Unfortunate
ly, however, he was not an elder son, and
the young lady had even before this
though unknown to himself-been prom
ised in marriage to Ferdinand's elder
brother, Prince Gustav; and, although
the ardent lover tried every means of
changing this prior. engagement to an ar
rangement in his own favor, he was not
able to persuade the young lady's parents
or to gain his end. A lingering illness,
during which Prince Ferdinands reason
was for some time despaired of, was the
| immediate consequence of the marriage
of the Princess, which was solemnized on
the 18th of February, 1913. At last he
recovered from the shock, and reason
having returned, he entered the army of
his fatherland, and both on other battle
fields and also at Waterloo, threw him
self into the thickest of the fray, as if he
wished to rid himself of the burden of
| life. But death-as often happens in
such cases-did not come at the moment
when he was wanted. At all events, he
did not take fancy to his voluntary, or
| rather would-be victim; and so the Prince
returned home from his campaigns un-
| hurt in body, and probably better in
mind also. In order to while away the
time which hung heavy on his hands, he
now set out on a long course of travels,
| during which he visited almost all of the
| Courts of Europe, and not few of Asia
also, and did not return to Homburg un-
! til the death of his brother had already
called him to the throne.
This happened at the end of 1848.
Prince Ferdinand was now sixty-fve;
| the Princess Louise, his brothers
widow, had seen her fiftieth birthday,
| and was the mother of married daugh- :
| ters, who, of course, were his own
neices. Nevertheless, though SO many
years had passed by since he had first
sought her youthful affections, she was
| still the beloved of his heart; though it
was, of course, impossible for him to OBJ
tain the consent eff the Church, or, per-
haps, of the State either, to marriage
within the prohibited degrees. Accord
ingiy he resolved, to lay down most ex-
traordinary line of conduct for himself.
He was naturally reluctant, for her sake
| and for the avoidance of scandal, to live
| under the same roof with his early love;
| but, as there was only one royal resi-
dence within his small dominions, he
saw himself obliged, very soon after his
| accession, to install himself as inmate of
the Palace of Hamburg on the noun
tains There he lived henceforth in the
| strictest possible retirement, inhabiting
only few rooms in one wing of the
| building, and leaving the rest of the pal
ace to his widowed sister-in-law. Long
ranges of apartments separated their
suites of rooms, and during the week the
two royal personages never set eyes on
each other, but every succeeding Sunday
was a fete day to Prince Ferdinand, for
upon that day he would regularly ira
verse, along with his courtiers, the
emtpy saloons which separated him from
his beloved Princess, and would enter
most soberly and solemnly, yet with
glowing eyes and beating heart. the
boudoir of his old love, and respectfully
kiss her hand. After conversing
with her for about an hour-se1dom
much more or much less-he would take
up his hat, and solemnly, and with al
| most gloom on his countenance, retrace
his steps to his own lonely apartments.
The faithful subjects of the Landgrave
SO well knew the mood of The Prince,
and SO thoroughly respected his feelings,
that they seldom handed him any Pc
titions except on the morning of Sunday,
when his face was always radiant with
Joy, and he would have smile, and al
most welcome, even for beggars
LILO = 4AASOoo OA40o, 90 SAiOohy ou0VOd,
in the year 1858; and from that time
down to the day of his death the poor
Landgrave remained inconsolable. At
all events, he became thenceforth COM
plete hermit, and lived in the strictest
seclusion, wandering by day and night
through the chambers of his lonely pal
ace. An English traveller who visited
the neighborhood of Hesse-Homburg in
1859 or 1860, writes thus concerning him:
"His subjects, as well as the numerous
tourists. chiefly Englishmen. who every
year visit the baths of Homburg, never
get sight of him who formerly was so
admirable; and he is supposed to be de-
termined to end his days in small pri-
vate chapel, before statue of Princess
Louise, his old never-forgotten lady
love-" 1t only remains to add that the
Landgraye Ferdinand died on the eve of
our Ladyday, in 1856, and that he was
the last of his royal race. His small ter
ritory was in the same year Incorporated
with Prussia, and now forms portion OF
the Empire of Germany. But for the
var it would have fallen to Hesse-Darm-
stadt.-Ine Queen.
The tightness of lady's dress the
other day at garden party won
from me such surprise and admira-
tion that an old dowager, whom /