The times., 1898-04-18
PRINCE GEORGES WIFE.
She Is the Daughter of nn Admipa
in the Royal Navy.

circle. But it is written in documents
which, when they are once brought to-
gether in their proper sequence are as
fatal to pretense as figures which can
not lie, and in the diaries and private
letters Of those who know.
Not so very many years ago the
young Duke of Clarence was a live, and
although he was a weak young man
with a tendency to see how far young
girls just introduced into society would
let him go in their awe of being fiirted
with by a prince of the blood, he was
supposed by everybody to be the future
king of England. They hunted up a
strong young woman for him to marry,
one who would have many lusty sons.
And the choice fell on the Princess May
of Teck. She was a ruddy-faced young
woman whom the papers called "a
beauty in their good-natured toady-
ism. She was glad enough TO get the
chance to be queen, although she and
the Duke of Clarence hated each other
They were second cousins and had been
playmates, and the story went that up
on one awful occasion the big, strong
girl had put the weak boy across her
knee and administered a maternal pun
ishment to his knickerbockers, but that
was overlooked.
Her father was brought back from a
holiday he was spending on the coast
of France with the family governess
and told to behave as befitted the father
of future queen, and the English pa
pers had spasms of delight over Loves
young dream as exemplified in the be-
trothal Of Clarence and May.
All this time young Prince George
was a sailor, skylarking around the
earth, and he presently put in at Glib
raltar, where Sir Michael Culme- Sey-
mour admiral of the English navy. was
stationed. Gibraltar is a quiet, quaint
place, and Admiral Seymour had
pretty daughter. What more natural
than that two young people, both made
of flesh and blood, should find that ma
ture had laid a heavy hand on them,
and that the mysterious attraction be-
tween man and woman which knows
nothing of rank and law should draw
them together.
The right of the lord (droit de seig-
y
land hade it a law that no maiden
should so to a husband until the noble
man who owned the land she lived on
had paid her such attention as he chose,
appears to be still in force in the minds
of kings.
But Miss Seymour was a young wom-
an Of spirit. She told Prince George
that she loved him, but that she could
not marry him, as his rank divided
them. She would be no mans mistress.
Then the Sailor Prince went to Admira4
Seymour with a paper in his hand, and
this paper that officer in the queens
service still holds. 1t reads: Il, George
Frederick Ernest Albert Of Wales, here
by renounce all my claim to the throne
of England for myself and my heirs
forever and become a simple English
gentleman, amenable to all laws as are
made for citizens of Great Britain.
GEORGE FREDERICK ERNEST
ALBERT
Other men have done the same for
love-" the young man pleaded No girl
could be insenSible to such a sacrifice,
in which she thoroughly believed.
Admiral Seymour looed at the paper
and then at the ardent young lovers.
The queen could repudiate this paper
with your consent" he said.
But l am gentleman, the son of
the Prince of Wales answered. few
days later there was a little wedding
party in the chapel, and the English
clergyman married the Admirars beau
tiful daughter to the young sailor in
the presence of his family and his COM
rades They believed in him.
1t was not many months after this
the Duke of Clarence died, and Prince
George was the heir, except for his
promise, his wife and that paper. 1t is
one thing to give UP the throne of Eng
land when there is no chance of it's
belonging to you, quite another when
you are on it's steps. And the honey
moon was over.
But there is evidence of a struggle
Maids of honor know some secrets and
they have cOnfidantes, and a broken
hearted wife whose husband is slipping
away from her must speak to some
one. and friends are not always dis
Greet.
The Duke of Clarence was not cold
in his grave before the Princess May
was complacently smiling on the new
heir The story goes that Prince
George found that wherever he was,
there was the supposedly disconsolate
Princess May also, and it irritated him.
He was only waiting for "a chance to
get away, for his wife needed him. and
news of his marriage TO his family
One day he and his father were walk
ing through the grounds at SandTing-
ham, when he expressed some of his
irritation at his cousin.
The Prince is cynic. MY son." he
said, Mays qualifications for being
the mother of kings is not altered Her
husband is changed, that is all. There
is no need to say anything" as his
son started to speak. You will ac-
custom yourself to the idea And he
left him.
But this is what Prince George could
not do. Day by day dragged by and
he was put more and more TO the front
as the heir, and it grew harder and
harder to give up the throne. Little
by little the idea grew upon him that
the Princess May was in love with
him, and was glad that she had had
change of husbands. That hatters
almost any man, and his wife was not
particularly pleasant just now. for an
awful fear was taking hold of her.
Then one day Admiral Seymour call
ed upon the Prince of Wales with that
bit of paper, and the explosion came.
Albert Edward has his faults, but he
is not a liar to women, and he he'd
the hardest task of his life. He took
copy to the Queen. That pattern of
virtue, Queen Victoria, who had mar
ried one daughter to a man with a
morgantic wife and six children, rose
to the occasion.
DO you mean to say that you expect
me to recognize the claims of this ad-
ventures, and let the throne go to
the child of the Duke of Fife? A man
whose sister eloped with a servant?"
''WeII " returned the Prince there