The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-27
n HYPNOTIZED PRINCESS.
Donna Elvira's ElOpement Ex-
planned by Count Nicholas BethIen
From the New York Sun.


From the New York Sun.
Count Nicholas Bethlen has been telling
the newspaper readers of Budapest what
he knows about the romance and fight of
Donna Elvira, daughter of the Spanish
pretender, Don Carlos. He processes to
know the whole secret history of this
young woman's elopement, and he gives
dashes here and there from this history
in impressionist style. AS princesses do
not elope with married men every ten
years, and as they seldom have counts to
report their love affairs for the daily
newspapers. Count Bethlen's story seems
worth reproducing, even though the elope-
ment and the parental disinheritance are
four weeks old. Here is the counts story,
told in his own hysterical style, even to
the paragraphing and punctuating:
A young lady goes walking and stops
to look at a shop window. gentleman
stands in front of the same window. He
starts away and accidentally steps. on the
young ladyS gown. He begs pardon.
The young lady looks up. The two look
at each other and are motionless, as il
turned to stone. They have hypnotizeG
each other with their gaze. Nothing in
the world can separate them now; they
determined in an instant to live and die
together, no matter if the one is a royal
princess and the other son of the bour-
geo.sie.
we call that Blitzschlag; the French cali
it lie coup de foudre.
So it was with Donna Elvira de Bour-
bon, daughter of Don Carlos, pretender
to the Spanish throne. Don Carlos invited
a young painter, web Known in Italy, to
come and restore his picture gallery; The
painter accepted the invitation, all the
more readily because he wished to leave
his native city, Bologna. He was married,
and had lived with his wife in uninter
rupted misery. The divorce proceedings
had been begun, and, as first step toward
the final decree, the separation of bed and
board had been declared. The mother
had obtained possession of the two little
children, and the painter went to Venice.
The young man did his work to the sat
isfaction of Don Carlos The prince took
a fancy to him and introduced him into
his family circle.
When the painter was introduced TO
Donna Elvira, they gaZed at each other
without uttering a word. The forgot the
rules of court etiquette, the prescribed
bowling, and the conventional smiling.
Donna Elvira grasped the painters
hand and stared intensely into his face.
ishment among all present. The head
court marshal stepped forward eventually
separated the two, and led the painter
away. The Princess left the drawing
room at once and withdrew to her apart
ments. When questioned as to the strange
happening, she answered merely, in a
This man will be my husband"
She did not have the slightest doubt of
her future marriage. 1t can be imagined
what efforts the old courtiers and dry-as-
dust court ladies made to keep the lovers
apart. One evening, in a small company
In Don Carlos salon, an old Duchess re-
lated the most terrible stories possible re-
garding the character of the painter. She
represented him to be a demoralized. in
triguing, ambitious Don Juan, VINO already
had ruined the. happiness of many wo,
men and had driven several to suicide. As
the duchess closed her narrative a dead
silence fell on the company. All waited
in suspense for Donna Elvira's reply, but
s,nk fAr1 ma .
though she had been animated and tall<a
tive when the narrative began.
The old duchess approached the princess
to judge from her face the effect of the
narrative, but behold! Donna Elvira SAT
in her chair with eyes closed. She was in
a trancelike sleep, so deep that she ould
hardly be aroused 'N
Is not that hypnotsm?
Here are few bits of information about
Donna Elvira which have leaked ont
slowly from less weird sources than
her own right. so whatever Folchi. the
painter, may do or may not do toward
earning a living by his art, she need NOT
be limited to love in a cottage She 10
neither hysterical nor consumptive h,t
healthy, active and usually cheerful In
Italy 1t Is current report that she and her
painter have come or are on their Wav fo
the United States. She has remarEsbiv
keen mind, her friends in Venice saw ana
could make her own way and earn her
own liVtn oy,e anywhere IN the civilized
pope contemplates multiplying the Folehi
marriage, which was a purely religions
ceremony, and thus leaving the painter
free TO make Donna Elvira his wife
Somebody has written a romance Of sew.
eral hundred pages about Elvira and her
loYer ana somebody Else has written other
tnlnss that are neither mantle nor .veiy
about the delicate condition Of affairs that
led her to hasten her flight. and
a little love play regarding her
elOpement is in Dreparafion IN
Rome, and novelette, and a trag.
edy are promised for the late winter. ana
nnaiy twenty-seven long poems depicting
the sacrinces or her heart to Folchi have
been published in South European news
papers. This census of Evira literature
y now two weeks old, 80 Il Is likely that
or three TO give the totals Of literary ef-
Ioft excited by the elopement of the
princess and her painter lover.
Deep Cut Glass.
All LihbeV glassware "a ct,t 1o,.. -rh...