The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-06-04

GETS THE CURSED JEWEL
glow Of her loneliness and power during
the reign Of Napoleon IL the emperor
being her abject slave and arousing the
most violent jealousy on the part Of Eu-
genie.
This dazzling always was pres
emit at all great functions at the Tuileffes
and displayed her superb shoulders and
bust in bewildering relief by the lowness
Of her corsages. Every diplomat and
statesman in France was at her feet, and
among the most ardent admirers was Al
fonso XII, then an o~utcast, a prstender-
The bewitching cemtesse did not spend
much of her time en- him at first, but when
she found his chances for becoming king
of Spain were good she smiled on him,
and his head was completely turned. When
he went to his throne, the oomtesse was to
follow later, according to agreement, and
the King promised her a high position ali
court and his exclusive royal favor. :
In the meantime the king had fallen
sincerely and deeply in owe with of
his WI royal blood. and his marriage took
place amid much pomp and circumstance,
and the beautiful comtesse in Paris wal
forgotten.
A few months after the kings marriage
he received a package from the comtesse
containing a beautiful opal ring Of rare
coloring. It was called q wedding gift
and a memento Of the friendship the king
had held for the contesse.
The king showed it to his wife, Queen
Mercedes, who was charmed with its
beauty and begged to keep it. Alfonso
gave it to her readily, and she slipped it
on her finger. From that moment b
En;po1 oxzov ord In q farr months diod
The ring fell from her dead hand, and
the king, who could not bear to see it,
gave it to his grandmother, Queen Chris
tina, who died a few months later.
Next the ring was given to Alfonso's
sister, the Infanta Maria del Pillar, Who
wore it but a few days before she died of a
mysterious Illness. The king then gave
the fatal jewel to his sister-in-law, the
youngest daughter Of the Due and Du-
cheese do Montpenser, and in three months
the young princess was dead.
After this series of fatalities the king
determined to keep the ring himself, and
he slipped it on his little finger. From
that moment his health commenced to
fail, and in "a hours he was dead, and the
doctors pronounced his case one of the
~strangest on record, his whole physical
system seeming to have crumbled arYay.i
every vital organ Of his body having sud-
denly succumbed to the most marked
seniie decay. Physicians could never
quite account for it, and the matter was
hushed up.
Queen Christina, who is not in any wise
superstitious, took possession Of the ring
after her husbands death, but the other
members of the family, with dark Spanish
superstition, begged her to destroy it.
This she refused to do, but to prevent ii
doing other damage she hung it about the
neck of the patron saint, where it Is today.
The Spaniards, however, are not satis-
fed yet, for they declare that the fatal ring
influences the saint to evil things, and
nothing but a series of misfortunes has
come to the lot Of Spain since the ring
was hung on to the statue. Theyscredis
this war trouble with Cuba, the Philip
pines and the United States all to the ring,
and the queen regent has been begged to
destroy it or send it out of the country.