The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-12-03


| peen entertained of a continental union
| against England. Truly, Prussia has I'M
oefgone many and amazing Vicissitudes
during the period that mas interviewed
| between King Frederick Williams visit
! 10 windsor in 1872 and the stay there last
week by his grandFuepbew.
NAPOLEON'S VISIT.
A very important state visit and GER
ta1nly one pregnant with great political
| consequences was that of Emperor Ma
poleon III. and Empress Eugenie to
| Queen Victoria, atjWinisor castle, at the
time of the Crimeanswar Il may be said
TO have constituted the first actual recog-
milton of the emperor and, above all, of
the empress, by anysof the reigning fam
lilies of Europe. Napoleon had until that
time been regarded as a mere successful
conspirator, who prior to bis seizure OF
the French throne had been disrep-
utable cheValier adindustrie; while the
empress was looked upon as an adj
ventures, concerning whose antecedents
the most Scandalous stories were current.
I1deed, the wars Of 1855 and of 1859,
which resulted so disastrouSly to both
Russia and Austria, were largely brought
about by the contemptuous manner In
which the courts of st: Petersburg and of
Vienna rejected all advances made to
them by Napoleon and Empress Eugene.
queen Victoria was then as now, re-
noWned for her strictness on the score of
the character of all the women whom she
consented to admit to her presence, and
her action therefore in inviting not mere
| ly Napoleon but likewise his consort, to
| Windsor, where she treated them with
the utmost distinction and regard, went
sc far to improve the status and prestige
of the imperial couple both in the con-
tinental courts and even In France, that.
neither of them ever forgot the kindness
of Victoria in the matter. Indeed as
long as he remained on the throne, the
emperor continued the warm and loyal
friend of the English people. -
Napoleon was not the only French m IN
arch whom the quCe had the opportunity
OF welcoming a Windsor In her visitor
books is likewise to be found the name of
King Louis Philippe, who stayed with her
once while still ruler of France, and then
several times after he had been dethronej
and was in exile.
F(PE AND -FOUR GLARS
The names Of the present pope, while
still papal nuncie to the Brussels court.
AZ we'll as of no less than four cZarS of
Russia, are to be found in Victoria's
autograph book. The first is that of En-
peror Nicholas l., who suddenly arrived
without warning in England to visit the
queer in 1874. To this day the object Of
his trip remains more or less of q state
secret. But 1t IS generally believed that
he came for the purpose OF discovering
how the ground lay in connection with his
| designs upon ConstaHtinople and that he
! quilted Windsor more or less diSappoint-
cd by the failure of his mission. The I'M
preston that he created upon the queen
| does not seem to have been altogether
| agreeable. At any rate, her published
! Giary leads 10 that inference. His son
| and successor c;;me to Windsor thirty
| years later shortly after the marriage of
| his only daughter to Queen VictOlia's
| second son. Alexander III. was a fire.
Quent visitor to Windsor and likewise to
| Osborne before he assembled the throne,
while the present Aut0crat of Russia, a
grandson by marriage of the queen, has
visited he. once al Balmoral since he be-
! came emperor, but spent whole months
at Windsor while ne was counting the
lovely princess, now his wife. 1t is to the
afYectionate relations then established Le-
| tween young Nicholas and. the venerable
queen that is laIgely-due the maintenance
of peace between Russia and Great Brit
ain--tWo countries which find themselves
III rivalry ami opposition in nearly every
quarter of the globe.
MEMORIES OF TRAGEDIES.
One of the most dramatic things about
this book of the queens is the fact that
SO many Of the personages who have
signed their names therein have met their
deaths through violence. Indeed, many
are the grim tragedies that are called to
mind when one peruses it's pages. TAX
ing them at hapha zArd, there Is that to
the queen, least welcome of all the guests
whom she ever entertained at Windsor,
namely, Nasr-E ddeen-Sh the ruler of
Persia, who was shot down only few
years ago by a religious fanatic. Then
there was the late sultan Abdul AziZ,
who stayed at the castle in 1857 and who
was done to death nine years later In his
palace at COnStantinople with pair of
long, sharp, -bladed Oriental scis-
sors. Gar Alexander H. had the entire
lower portion of his body blown to pieces
by Nihilist bombs in 1881, while Empress
Eliza beth of Austria was stabbed to the
heart at Geneva but little more than
year ago She had often visited the queen,
and In spite of everything asserted to the
contrary, WIS on terms of warm friend
ship and continuous correspondence with
her. The young Prince Imperial Of
France was killed by the Zulus In South
Africa while wearing the queens livery
one of the officers Of her army. He was
one of her special favorites and might
have become her ,Son-in law had he lived
King Pedro of Portugal succumbed to
poison so shortly after returning to Lis
bon from a visit to Windsor castle that a
doubt always remained as to whether the
poison was not actually administered to
him while still in England by some Portu-
guese conspirators. King Louis of Bava-
ria, whose death by drowning has never
been satisfactorily explained to this day
figures in the book, and so does his cousin
the Inflated Crown Prince Rudolph of
Austria, who blew out his brains at Nav
erling on discovering that Baroness Marie
Vetsera had poisoned herself He had
visited Windsor only two years preyl-
ouSly, at the time of the queens Jubilee
His uncle, Archduke Macmillan, who
suffered death by shooting at Queretaro.
after re1gning as emperor of Mexico, spent
a week in Windsor in 1857, and in her
diary the queen speaks most highly OF
him, saying: I'VE have become great
friends His consort, who is the queens
first cousin, has for thirty years been
under restraint lunatic. The Duchess
of Alencon, of whom the queen was
particularly fond. and who, when STAYING
at Bush Park, loaned to her father-in-
law the Duke of Nemours, by her mai
esty, used often to go over to Windsor
W rs burnt to death in the terrible Cha ritv
Bazaar conflagration at Paris Prince
Baldwin of Belgium, another near kins-
man of her majesty and a signer of the
book, lost his life by a revolver bullet
In an adventure of a questionable char
acter In mansion of the Avenue Louise
at Brussels, while at least two of the
queens former guests at Windsor. name
ly, Archduke John of Austria and the late
Landgrave of Hesse have vanished at
sea without leaving any clue as to their
fate
Many more names could be cited that
call forth equally tragic memories. but
these will suffice to explain why the