The times., 1897-04-12
A Russian Royal Princess Lone
ly Tomb in Alabama.
LOVE BROUGHT HER OVER SEAS
Like Juliet She Feigned Death,
Fled After n Supposed Funeral
and Followed Her Soldier Lover
to America-A Romance of the
Long Ago Now First Told.

has come from the lazy ola Stdte Oh AK"
barna a story which reaches back into
the age Of silks, satins, swords and small
and beautiful women who shone in the
court of Peter the Great, aud for an ending
g. lonely an d un known grave in the quiet Of
a Southern churchyard.
There is in the course of this story,
which bristIes with such Incidents as made
that age Il great and thrilling drama of
war and spiendor, one passage which re-
Sembies i'll conception and almost parallels
in intensity the burial in Romeo and
Juliet
The woman who figures as the heroine
of this wonder-story was princess CT
the Russian imperial family, daughter
in-law of that towering giant in history,
Peter the Great. Scarcely would The 'oicer-
ers about the Russian court have thorght
200 years ago that plain little grave
stone, in one of the quietest porfI ms OF
this Western world, would ever marx the
last resting place Of one whose offspring,
they thought, would sit through centuries
upon the autocratic throne of all the
Russias.
But there that almost forgotten grave is.
There that strange story of love, insanity
intrigue, adventure and death has FOUND
it's ending Peter the Great had in the
early part OF the eighteenth century, when
this tale has its beginning, just removed
his court to the new capital or ST refers
burg. There, upon the long levels which
reach back from the Neva he had built
his palaces and bade Lis people set up
their dwellings around about him. In the
piIded court which was established there
the French government was represented by
a brilliant young nobleman, the Cheyaher
D'Aubout.
Most beautiful of all the lovely women of
that conpanv was the czaritza, girl wife
of the czarewitz, Alexis Petrowitz. When
D'Aubont went back to Paris he bore with
him the memory of this woman, and left
behind him a love which was destined 10
change the whole course Of royal life,
and, perhaps, in way, the whole future
of the Russian throne
bccElcss e!eSpoBpenU, the young fIench-
man plunged into the Partisan follies of
his time, and a the fruit Of them he was
sent by way Of punishment to cOninhnd
s.,i,,Uauy of troops in tie French poSSs--
sions on the north shore OF the Mexican
Gulf There, living along in the grim
routine OF u pioneer soldiers me- ne
dreamed over again the gay days IN ST
Petersburg, and out of his dun surround
ings summoned, day after dag, the face
OF the woman who, amid the haii-harba-
rian glories of the Russian court, was still
taeakiug her heart for him She was not
a happy woman.
In tj,osc days Russian nobility, if books
may he believed, was none too kindly
toward it's women folk. and royalty was
worse is it was greater. The husband OF
the Czarina, to put it very mildly, was a
brute He was savage, gIlded ana be
crowned In his royal noddIe were SPIN
ming n multitude Of those disconcertng
wheels which find their dearest abiding
ulares. somehow in cIowned heads. That
same mad tendency it was which had
caused his ancestor, Car Ivan, 10 rnur-
der his own SON 1t set this Czarewitz
To abusing his beautiful wife. and under
the III treatment she pined away and died
Here comes the almost incredible part Of
the history, the part which makes 1T all
like a noveior play. There was funeral
sia. from time immemorial. has been the
worlds most proficient master. The body
OF the unhappy princess so latter-day his
tory says, was laid in the imperial VaiIGs'
and with the accordance ofunly such mourn
ing as Russian royal decency demanded, Jhe
great court of a great, half barbarian mon
arch went on i is splendid way. Her own
generation of Russians never dreamed but
that for all time the princess shohid rest
in that royal crypt. to be wakened only by
the Judgment trump.
They didn't know the first thing about
true love or the requirements of a truly
fine story And they didn't know, further
more. what has since been discovered by
means OF old, time-stained letters tha'
the CzaritZsi, like that greatest OF all love
lorn mai dens, Juliet, had friend at Court
in the wigged person Of the court physi'
clan, who, like Father Lawrence, kept by
him a poticn which would counterfeit grim
death.
But all that was the case. Her deati
was a manufactured death, and LASTED
but a day That very night, under cover
of darkness, the physician and one Other
invaded the shadows of the vault, Weakened
| the sleeping woman from her trance, ana
| hpIped her to flee to the frontier. From
| that point she was lost. Not even thI
kindly old man who had helped her u
escape through such a seeming tragic
gateway from the miseries OF narftet
| life ever had word OF her again.
| A Scotchman, named John Law, WHIT
| had been driven from his own country
had at that period of history all ten q
| his long Scotch fingers deep In the II
| nances Of France With enormous grant
| of American lands from the French govern
meut, he was preparing to found in th'
| Valley of the Mississippi mighty KING
| dom. whose ruler he himself should be
| In the cities of the old world he con
| scripted coloniSts to go and people III
| new land.
| liz the spring Of 1T21 q vessel VIII
| 900 souls aboard set sail from Havre loi
! the Gulf port of Mobile. For the MOS
| part these voyagers were OF the lowe
| classes, the rag-tag and bob-tah OIL
European population. There were peas
| ants. crowded out from their little acre
age; paupers, roues aud gamblers 10
whom the cities of the continent held n'
remaining opportunity. They were al
| neoDle who had everything to gain AM
nothing to lose, and who looked forward
| to new fortunes and new characters II
! this new, wild. rich world
In this motley crowd two women jour
neyed: one tall and beautiful, with queen
lv reserve and dignity and the seal OF
great sorrow on her face; the other
servant, as all the world might see, bu
a decorous one, who served and held he
peace
That mistress was the czaritza, wife
| Alaxis Petrowitz In the early fall tn