The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-01-02
MYSTERY UNSOLVED
The Weird and Half-FOrgOtten
Story OfGrafin Kielmansegge.
Thirty Years with a Hangman's Rope
Around Her Neck-A Strange Tale
Matching That of the Iron Mask.
Providence Journal.

Providence Journal.
Circumstances have of late renewed inter-
est i'm the celebrated story of the Man in
the Iron Mask No less strange and still
nearer TO our own day is the story of the
life which went out in Germany in the
spring of 1863. A weird and sombre tale 1t
is. and little known, and. perhaps, for that
reason, some portions Of it may be worth
the retelling.
The river Weisseritz runs through the
pretty little valley of Plauensche Grund,
within easy walking distance of Dresden.
At one end of the valley. on marshy ground,
its garden walls running close to the river
and ever along its front, there stood at the
time mentioned a house of remarkable as
pect and still more remarkable associations.
1t was of dingy ochre color, with roof of
murky red. For thirty years no ray of light
had entered it. Heavy black shutters. elab-
crately barred, closed every window. Black.
too, were the bars, the doors, the holdings
and the cornices, and black, also, were the
high walls about the grounds, although they
had been allowed to be overgrown with a
wild tangle of brambles and creeping vines.
The garden had grown to a forest of oaks
and other trees and underbrush. The whole
aspect of the place, indeed, was one of long
neglect and desertion. The villagers told
queer tales of it's haunted chambers, of
course. but these were no more incredible
than the stories of simple fact which they
were able to narrate.
For sounds of life were heard within the
grounds of the Plauen Palais, and through
a small door in the wall between the gar
den and grounds to an adjacent restaurant
it was seen that the house was guarded by
men Of repelling mien, who patrolled the
D,.,d hy niubt u-hi1n ,auroarOiTC 1nrNp-
looking hounds hung about the doors and
made their home in the lower p-assageway.
In the upper fioor OF this grues9m me- sfrue true
for thirty years. Even in her old age (the
Grain Kielmansegge was eighty-six when
she diedD she preserved the remnants of a
once dazzling beauty, but her face was hard
and the eyes bright, restless, unpleaSantly
acute, though speaking of a mind still alert
white muslin cap of old age. with volu-
minous frill in front, and her dress of black
and gray loosely wrapped her form and
completely concealed its proportions.
Regularly once a week the door OF her
room opened quietly and a man with face
bowed low before her and without speaking
a word advanced close to her chair, lightly
moved the wrappings about her neck, looked
silently withdrew. What he saw was a
hangnan's rope fastened around her neck,
its ends carefully concealed within her
dress. and the man was the public execu-
toner from Dresden.
HER SECRET UNKNOWN.
This is the mystery of the Grain Kielman-
segge. Whether the moose and the execu-
toner were a self-imposed penance, inflicted
in the vain hope of atoning for some crime
committed long ago, or whether in refine
ment of cruelty she had been constrained
by her judges thus to live on bearing the
badge Of infamy can only be surmised. Nor
can we tell with certainty what the crime
thus terribly punished was. But whatever
the explanation, the picture thus presented
to the mind of a brilliant woman, doomed
to eternal night, with the clutch of the glib
bet about her neck, sleeping or waking, an
ignominious death always before her eyes.
and the murmur of a ribald throng in her
ears. is one from which the stoutest heart
nuSt shrink In terror. Whatever ingenuity
of deviltry conceived this punishment, its
effect must have been to i>pose upon it's
wretched victim a thG>-and deaths.
Inc room in which she lived was bare and
cherries. No daylight had penetrated to
1t since she entered ii in 1922. Its furniture
was poor and meager. Blu piles of manu-
script, written In French, were scattered
about, and on the table near which she sat
and upon which she gazed long and pas.
Slonateiy, were two miniatures, beautifully
painted upon ivory and richly framed. The
one revealed the delicate features of Ma
poleon Ropaparte, as he was at the height
of his glory; the other was that Of his
young child, the Inflated King of Rome
and a lock of his fair, bright hair was care
fully braided into it's back. She was won't
SO it is said, to gaze on these pictures and
TO repeat over and over again to herself
the words, F"Etoile de ma VIE"
And whatever the secret of the Grafir
Kielmansegge may be, it is inextricably in.
ram. of Austerlitz and of Waterloo. There
is much that is unknown about her, but
this is surely Known, that Napoleon haC
been not only the star of her life," but its
bane. A woman, like him, of restless en-.
sitgys s sfrnnr IN a inteI1ect and al re enstrs;SuI pas,
she had conceived for him an overmaster
ing passion, and lived only In him and fol
him.
She was born In 1777 of a landed family
and, as has peen said, was gifted in youth
with extraordinary beauty and equally re
markable intellectual attributes. At nine
teen she was married to a young man o.
her own rank, and ii is believed that to hin
she bore a son. Within two years she wa:
a widow. There is a story current. at leas
in her later years. that the young Ora.
ate of a cherry cake which she herself haC
prepared for him, and Immediately aftel
died. AT any rate his death occurred in tn,
summer OF 1900 and a few years later sh,
was the wife of Count Kielmansegge. 4
silent woman, Of elegant bearing and al
most c~onventual severity in dress, who sud
denly appeared in the Plauen Palais dur
ing the aged Grafin's last illness and quiet
ly watched by her bedside, was poularl,
supposed to have been the offspring of thi
second marriage.
save that she plunged headlong into a lif
or ~eXtraVagant pleasure. Her ambition wa
lnnllieSS, ana 10 gratlfy IL she even sold III
estates beuueathed her by her father. Sh
appears then, conspicuous even amid tn
brilliancv of the court at st. Cloud. daz
zling alike in beauty, in talents. in jewel
and attire. The miniatures which sh
worshiped in the uncanny room In tn
Plauensche Grund were given to her then
There was a peculiar kinship between he
nature and the Intellectual moral un
scrupulousness and magnificent audacity o
Napoleon Bonaparte. How far he wa
really fascinated with her can never b
told, but she seems TO have yielded TO a
i~nfatuation for him which never lessene
till her life's close. 1t drove from he
heart all other thoughts, stifled even tn
mother love for her own children. if sh
had ever felt it, and her whole subsequeu
life was a lament and a tear for him. Eve
in her dying hours her only talk with tn
neglected daughter who came to her hel
is said to have been Of the man who ha
been in his grave for nearly forty years.
The inevitable soon came, and not Ion
before the time of the fateful Russian in
vasiop p divorce separated her from tn
Count KielmanSegge.
RESEMBLED NAPOLEON.
At this time a baby boy made his az