St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-07-26
It Realizes That There Is No
Fury Like That Of a
Il Woman Seorned.
King Pedro Makes Love to
One Woman, But Finally
Marries Another.
Four Deaths Occur--The Sus-
pected Prisoner Is Made
an AbbeSS.

| on the occasion, cannot fail to have le-
vived in the minds of those present
memories of one of the most terrible
dramas in the history of modern roy
atty, says the Marquis de Fontenoy in
the New York Recorder.
1t was on Sept. 16, 1855, that King
Pedro ", having attained his majority,
assumed the reins of power, which dur
| ing his minority had remained in the
hands of his father. the widowed King
| Consort Fernando. The latter subse-
| Quently became known to many persons
in America as the husband of Miss Elise
| Hensler, of Boston. whom he married
morganatically in 1869, and on whom he
caused the title of Countess Edla to be
| conferred.
In 1S57-that is, two years after his
| assumption of power young King
| PedrO became deeply infatuated with
the charms of the only daughter of one
| of the most powerful mobiles of the king
dom. The duke in question. who is at
the present moment almost eighty years
of aye. was himself the son of a prin-
cess OF the blood royal, and the pride
and arrogance of both father and daugh-
ter were only equaled by their eXtraor-
binary ambition. 1t was the latter Senti-
ment alone, and not any feeling CT
more lander nature, which led the
raven-haired beauty to respond to the
advances of the young monarch.
King Pedro at one moment was on the
point of making her an offer to share
his throne. But having consulted his
father. Dom Fernando. on the subject,
he was warned by that SagaciOuS prince
to pause before taking a step fraught
with so vital consequence to the nation
intrusted to his guidance. For some
reason or other, possibly because he had
become aware of the true nature of the
marquise's sentiments, the king in 1859
grew more and more distant in his attn
tude toward the lady, and finally put
an end to her aspirations of becoming
the partner of his throne by contracting
a marriage with Princess Stephanie Of
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
The duke and his daughter. the mar
ouiSe, who were unable to conceal
their chagrin and disappointment, left
LISBON few days after the announce
mentof the kings betrothal, and did
not return TO the capital until three
months after the nuptials had been cele-
brated. Within Il couple of weeks after
their temperance at court the young
queen was suddenly sliced with a mys-
terious malady, and expired a few days
subsequently, of atrOphy of the heart.
Of course, as in the case of all person.
ages of royal rank, an autopsy took
place. But either the insidiOus poison
had left no trace, or else it did not oc-
cur to the physician to look for it. and
the death was believed at the time to be
due to natural causes.
In the summer OF the following year
Dom Luiss and Dom Joao paid visit
to England and were most hospitality
entertained by their relatives, Queen
Victoria and Prince Albert. who both
became warmly attached to them. While
i'll London the chief commissioner of
the metropolitan police repeatedly
urged the Portuguese envoy to hasten
the departure from the metropolis of
the two princes. stating significantly
that he was terrified least all accident
of doubtful nature" should happen to
them while there, and that he dreaded
the responsibility imposed upon him
by their presence.
Curiously enough. it was at the BAH
Quet at which the prince cOnSOrt Occu-
pied the place which had been intended
| for Dom Luis that the former was seized
with the first symptoms of that "fever-
| ish cold" which two months later de-
prived Queen Victoria of the wisest,
| husbands.
The visit of the Portuguese princes to
| to the English court was suddenly cut
| short by an urgent summons for their
| immediate return to Lisbon in cOnse-
| uuence of the sudden illness of their
| brother, King Pedro. Almost before
| they had sailed from Portsmouth the
n Jews arrived of his demise.
The ceremonies in connection with
| the sovereign'S funeral were not en-
tirely terminated when the sOrrowing
father was summoned in all haste from
| Lisbon to Belem by the news that the
| third son, Don Joao, the most popular
and most talented of all the Portuguese
! princes, had been seized by the same
| malady which had carried off the king
| and queen.
On the following day, and before any
| steps had been taken to obtain the key
| to this terrible mystery, the father was
called from Belem to the palace of the
| Necessdades by the news that his son
| Augustus, Duke of Coimbra, and the
| sixteen-year-old Dom Fernando. both of
whom had left in good health the day
| before, had been stricken down by the
| same mysterious malady. Half-craZed
| with grief, he was pacing the
| floor of his library, when his confidential
ade-de-camp entered his presence and
! besought him to receive gentleman
who had that very morning arrived at
| Lisbon from London. The visitor, he
believed. was physician or chemist
| of some kind or other, and demanded, so
| the officer added, to see the king consOrt
! on matter of life or death. He had
mentioned the fact that he had the
| pleasure of making the acquaintance of
| the duke and his daughter, the mar
| uuise mentioned at the beginning of
| this letter, during their stay in London
| in 1860.
The mention of the dukes name, and
| in particular that of his daughter, caused
| the king conSOrt to give violent start
| and to become as pale as death.
| ''Show the Englishman it at once" he
| exclaimed.
| For almost an hour the king consort
| and. the stranger remained cloSeted
| together. On the termination of the
| Interview they betook themselves to the
| bedside of the sick prince, whose treat
| ment was entirely changed. The medi-
| cines administered to the royal patient
| by the English doctor were such as
| would be used as antidOtes to the
Javanese tlente poison and to that
of the euphorbia heptagOna, which is
found and prepared III Abyesinia. The
malady, however, had already obtained
too deadly a hold on the system of the
young Prince Fernando, whose consti-
tuition had not been particularly strong,
and he succumbed on the folloWidg day.
Dom Augustus, the duke of Coimbra,
partially recovered at the time, as did
also mis- brother, Dom Luis, the late
king, who had been less severely at
tackled by the poison than the other
princes. But they both remained in
valids from the effects thereof until
their death, two ycaas ago. Indeed,
their death may be said to have been
due to the poison.
| A dramatic scene took place a few
nights later in the privy council cham
Der of the palace. At the head Of the
table stood the king, just convalescent
from the malady which had proved Sc
fatal to his family By his side stooc
his father, the king consort, one of tht
4 40 n nd mr. a