Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-27
A ROYAL ROMANCE.
The Discarded Daughter of the Late
Duke of Cumberland
FIGHTING FOR HER HERITAGE.
Monarch's Nocturnal Marriage With
Beautiful Girl.
THE DIAMOND DUKES GOLDEN HoARDs
ICoRRFspoNnrNcr on TEE n1sp.r

PARIS, October live are all hopiny
the Countess de Civry will win her sui
against the Duke of Cumberland and tn
town OF Geneva. 1t will be decided by th
supreme Court of Brunswick shortly. Th
Countess, who is known here in Paris, il
trying to gain a decision that she is really
the daughter of the late Duke of Brunswick
Ii she does she will come in for a goodly
portion of the many millions that that miser
able man left behind him. The Diamond
Duke, as the French used to call him. wa,
Gueiph, and once stood at the head of the
most lllustrious royal house in the world
why, when he was born, in 1904, he had II
godfathers and godmothers, the representa-.
tives of all the non Catholic States oi
Europe.
Let me relate you the story, for it is very
interesting. Not long after Prince Meter.
mich had put young Duke Charles where he
belonged, that is to say, ON the throne OF
Brunswick as an independent sovereign, he
got strange notions about reforms into his
head, and so the man who made and re-made
kings, advised him to travel, to 60 to Ber-
I'm, vienna, Paris, to pay visit to that old
tat uncle of his. who wore four waistcoats
and ruled over Great Britain.
Ihey made much ado of Duke Charles
over in London, and his chief companions
were the Dukes of Clarence and Sussex.
One day he confded a secret to the last
named. He was in love with a young girl,
beautiful and well-born, Miss Charlotte
Colvllle, and intended to make her his wife
Believing that the King would prevent
his carrying out his wishes, he took Sussex
for ally, and there was
A NOCTURNAL MARRIAGE.
Postchaises hurried them to Dover in the
dead of night, and they came in disguise to
Paris to spend a short honeymoon. In a
few months he took her to Brunswick and
installed her in the Castle of Wendessen.
She had q chamberlain and ladies of honor.
and lived life of luxury like some Pompa.
dour or Maintenon. But the union was
never officially proclaimed by the Duke,
and whether they were really married is
something the courts have not yet decided.
However that may be, an infant daughter
was born to them, which was baptized by
the Bishop of the Court with regal cere-
mony, all the grand officers of the Crown
being present, and the Dukes brother stood
as godfather. The onyx ever used at the
coronation OF the kings of Jerusalem,
was brought out for the little child,
and to her was given the title of Countess
of Colmar. Still he did not recognize
her officially, and, although he showed
affection and soiicitude in her cause,
and authorized that she should bear the
ducal arms, he refused ali further recogni-
ton. Nevertheless the Baron d'Andlau,
his Chancellor, used to affirm that letters
patent were disposed at the chancellory,
fully establishing the Countess right to be
called his daughter, but, unfortunately,
none of these documents have ever been
found. II is supposed that they were burnt
in the fire that destroyed the palace in Sep
tember, 1880.
Apropos of Andlau he was originally an
underIing in the War Office The mans
name was Bitter; he married the daughter
of Miss Colville's cook, and gained the
Dukes good graces by his mimic talents and
an ability to play the piano. These gifts
rapidly earned him profits and dignities,
and in a few months he was a baron and the
Dukes chief and only adviser.
RENoUNCED HIS DAUGHTER.
Less than two years after the birth of the
little Countess of Colmar, Duke Charles.
who was then in Vienna, sent her mother a |
message SO hopeless, so definite in its denial |
OF all matrimonial rights, that she left |
carrying her daughter with her. |
but leaving behind everything that she and |
the child owed to the Dukes munifcence, |
They never saw each other afterward, and |
the Duke, so his family assert, refused al |
ways to admit that Charlotte Colville had
ever been his wife. Those, however, who |
are fighting to establish the Dukes paterni-
ty in this case state that when the child |
made her first communion he had her in
scribed as his daughter on the registry of
the Oratoire, Protestant church near the
Louvre here in Paris. Well, about 1874
when the Countess was 16 or IL wears
of age, she attended the elo-
quent conferences of Pere Lacordaire
and soon abjured the Protestant religion to
become a Roman Catholic. From that ne.
riod the Duke closed to her his purse as he
had long before closed his heart to her
mother. Notwithstanding this rupture.
however, he, three or four years later. gave
his formal consent to the marriage which
the young Countess was about to contract
with M. de Clvry, whose mother had cared
tor the orphan at her chateau at Reynel.
Indeed, the Duke was represented at the
nuptial ceremony by one of his chamber
aims, who signed the marriage act, and sent
out the letters Of invitation to the sovereign
houses
Political events, as well as carelessuess on
MS own part, enabled Count de Ciyrv to
lose his fortune in few years, and it was
hen that the Countess, who had meanwhile
given birth to six children, applied to her
iucal father for assistance. He refused her
my share whatever in his millions. where
1pon she decided on making an appeal to
he courts. The Duke wrote to Berryer. the
llustrious French lawyer, asking him to
undertake his defense. and forwarding with |
he commission a retaining fee of 30. .O00f:
,ut the famous advocate wrote back at once
aging that if he had defended his Rovai
dighness against the Kingof England and
ther powerful Princes it was because he
believed the Duke was right; shut I re-
use, said he, ''to defend you TODAY against
he Countess de Civry, your daughter. be-
ause you are 100 times wrong" and he re-
urned the 30, O,000f with this letter.
SUING FOR HER BIRTHR1eHr.
chen the Prince was dying at Geneva in
S71, he still refused to recognize his daupb-
er, nor would he see her; and everybody
nows how, in his will, he dislnherited all {
is natural heirs, and bequeathed his i'm. {
,ense' fortune to the city of Geneva. It /
-as then that Countess de Civry, in her
wn name and that of her children, recon- I
lenced series of lawsuits which will SO
BON be finished forever. She only claims '
nat part of the heritage which the French
nd Swiss laws always reserve for heirs in a
irect line, and it will be impossible to re-
use her this portion if she can legally estab- A
sh that she is the daughter of the Duke of
brunswick. The case, as il now stands. r
cached the Supreme Court the 9th of last
Ionth. The suit this time was brought
gainst the King of Saxony, Duke of Cum h
erland, and the city of Geneva. During v