Morning journal and courier., 1884-05-28
Three Lovely Princesses.


 The late Empress Mary Anne of Austria appeared to the world, in the early part of her welded life. to be singularly blessed by the fates. She was the eldest of the three beautiful daughters of Victor Emanuel I. of Sardinia and of that Princess of Naples who was called 'la Bella, to distinguish her from her sister, ''la Dotta, ]" first wife of Ferdinand VII of Spain, and.M Marie Amelie, ''la Santa who was afterward Queen of the French. A medal was struck at Turin in 1918, represent ing the three daughters of Victor Emmanuel as the mythelogieal graces. Mary Anns was the central figure. She and Christina and Maria Theresa, who were then quite juvenile, were olad in thin but decent classical dra peries, and laying wreaths before the bust of their royal mother, who was 'la Bella" was supposed to stand in lieu of Venus. The Empress Mary Anne had seen enough of sd- versity in youth to value the gifts of fortune which were crowded upon her in her mature age If they had not been utterly spoiled by the imbecility of her husband and the malady which reduced him to his low mental state Each of the three Sardinian Prineesses was doomed to be married to 0 most puisRant high, mighty, and ilIustrious prince who, in his mental and moral faculties, was below the meanest of his subjects. Maria Theresa who was the first to leave her fathers house e bride, married a Bourbon-the Duke of Lucca, Parma, and Placentia-who was forced to abdicste in 1849, and died few winter ago at Nice. He was the idiotic boy who visited the Consular Court of Napoleon as Prince of Etruria with his mother, and with her was keenly ridiculed by the Duchess of Abrantes in her memoirs The next ease of Beauty and the Beast'' in she family was presented in the marriage of Christina to nRN Me- L-sn her before she was a full year his wife. Why he should have ill-used princess so beauti- full and gentle still remains mystery. He was an absurdIy uxorious husband to his second wife, who was of small stature and of mean presence The ''martyrdom" of Chris tina was adduced by Count Cayour as 6 req son why Victor Emmanuel II. should over come rancid prejudices'' when he hesitated to accept the grandson of briefiess Oorsican advocate a suitor for the Princess Clotilde Mary Anne was 28 before she could make up her mind to accept the Grown Prince Ferdi- nand of Austria, whom she had seen and Ioathed when she was more than 20, at Flor enee. As her father had abdicated, and & very distant cousin of her uncle, Charles Fe- lix, was air to the Sardinisn crown, she was urged to put away romantic ideas and accept 6 brilliant position; so the tall, finely built Mary Anne took the driveling and epileptio Ferdinand, and was married to him by proxy
 
 on the 27th of the same month. On the 18th of February he had nine fits. ''What suf tered," wrote the bride to her ex-governess it is impossible to express" Soon after the death of the Emperor Francis her father in-law, there was @ rnmor that an heir in the direct line to the crown might be expected Iu alludiHg to 1t the empress said: God for bid that should ever perpetuate the suffer- ing of which am 8 constant witness. What rerders 1t so awful Is that 1t deRrades instead of exalting I am unable to respect martyr dom of this sort, although from my inmost heart pity it. should have been happier as poor, obscure woman, with husband that could love and rosy children around me, than the wife of Kaiser who is afflicted with disease that units him for all public or private duties' The Empress Mary Anne put herself forward not so much because anl- bilious to govern, as to conceal the infirmity of the Emperor. The cause of her interfer- snce not being generally known, it wGs as~ cribed to masterly disposition. She was refined and very notable lady of an old school, and had been taught from infancy to hate the French revolution. In 1S48 abdication became inevitable. Tho tidings of riots and hard-fought battles between im- perlal troops and insurgents in Vienna and Hungary were too much for Ferdinand The Empress attempted to put him forward, but he was so contemptible and then so vio- iently attacked by his malady that she had to join with those who urged abdioation in favor of his nephew, who had the advantage of no antecedents and good health. The re- tiring Kaiser went out with 8 large civil list pension and 8 fortune of about g, ,OOO, ,OOO. which more than doubled itself between 1848 and 1875, when he died. He had taste for gardening and agriculture, and nothing short of 2 genius for making money in speculations. Lstterly she was bent and shriveled as a sithered apple, wore a close coif and loose dress resembling a nuns robe. No trace of former grace and beauty remained.