Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1886-07-02
I Hi. SEN TIN + l.,
THE VANITY OF ROYAL POMP.


The suicide of the mad King of Bavaria
was dramatic in the sense that the mystery
surrounding it and the consequences which
il may entail upon the kingdom lend to it
an importance which it would not other
wise possess, but it was wholly wanting in
these heroic features which royal violators
of the canon against self-slaughter have
usually sought to give their deaths. Byron
puts in the mouth of Sardanapalus, the AS
syrian King, who, with wives about him,
fired his palace and persisted with them in
the flames, this prophecy:
"Time shall quench many
A peoples records and hero's acts;
Sweep empire after empire, like this first
OF empires, into nothing; but even then
Shall spare this deed of mine, and hold 1t up
A problem few dare initiate and none de-
spise."
But it has been initiated by many king
and by the weakest and most vicious, as
we'll as by some of the most heroic of kings
ard queens. Nero, the last Of the Caesars,
whose crimes appalled, the world, persisted
by his own hand, assisted by a slave, the
wretch who for pleasure and revenge had
condemned thousands to bloody graves
lacking the courage to drive home to his
own cowardly heart the knife which he
held with closed eyes so that a servant
might perform the Office for him. Thus
dying
amidst the roar of liberated Rome,
or nations freed and the world over1oyd.'
Even this craven murderer was a hero in
the eyes Of a few and though Rome rang with
the rejoicings of the multitudes at his death
his grave was regularly decorated by I'M
known hands.
Boadicea, the warrior Queen OF the ancient
Britons. died by her own hand on the field
of battle, after desperate resistance to the
invading Romans, her army was literally
annihilated. Dido, the Tyrian Princess who
founded Carthage, also by her heroism put
to shame many puny prince who prated
Of courage as q knightly attribute. Being a
widow as the result OF her brothers murder
of her husband, she was sought in marriage
by the King ofthe Maunrianians,w who threat
ened Carthage with destruction if she re-
fused. Her subjects urged the alliance upon
her and she, finding that the marriage was
regarded by them as the only effective way
OF saving the city, mounted her funeral pyrt
in their presence, and, swearing eternal fl
deity 10 her dead husband, lighted with hel
own hands the fire which soon envelopeC
her.
Like the ancient British queen, Cleopatrt
preferred death to Roman captivity withou
the sustaining arm of Antony, and learn
ing of his death and the inevitable fate which
awaited her, she placed the asp To- her bosom
and died SO quickly and so peacefully tina
imperial C@rar, viewing her body, not ye
cold, and overcome by her marvellous beau
ty, exclaimed that, in her death, death wa
but sleep as if "she would catch anothe
Antony in her strong toll of grace"
Charles VII of France and Richard ii o
England were in many respects like TIL
weak prince whom Bavaria now mourns
starved himself TO death. The latter, lik
Louis of Bavaria, was shut up in castl
and deposed. His enemies declared tina
he committed suicide, but his friends wer
equally positive that he was murdered
Well might the Bavarian Louis, in view o
his misfortunes~Rnd financial STRAITS, hav
said Win fiiiit1iard ~