The times., 1901-04-21

a childhood frightened by the devotion
of her mother and at least the love of
her father was practically sold in mar
riage TO her cousin, George Louis of Han
over. when she was sixteen and he
heavy-natured. loutish young man of the
world. who already had love affairs more
suitable to his nature than agreeable to
contemplate 1t was at the court ruled
by the clever, INSCRIPTIONS, and cold
hearted EIectress Sophia that she met the
brilliant Swede, Gount Won konlssmark'
whom she had known well when ne was
a handsome boy of sixteen and she ut
tie girl his pet and playmate. And II
was among people who had despised and
prosecuted her mother, from whom she
was totally separated, despite the tact
that Celle was only twenty miles away
that the tragic love affair began which
ended in her lovers death and her own
exile to Ahlden, which lasted for thirty
long years The story is as tragic ana as
dramatic as anything in history.
The author is as frank as any truthful
historian must be, concerning the inner
history of what somebody has called the
comfortable dirty little Hanoverian
Court-a court where there We're some
men! Apparently the morals of that court
were no more spotless than its linen; GER
tainlv there is no odor of sanctity about
either the husband or the son of the
EIectress Sophia That remarkable wo-
man one of whose chief friends was
I,eibnitz. seems to have had the philoso-
phy to endure calmly what she could not
prevent, and she advised the sensitive
little Sophie Dorothea to do the same
Devoid of the whitewashing which dec
orous English historians have given 10
the private life of the Georges, the sur
roundngs of the young bride seem so bad
that it is rather d matter of wonder that
she was not utterly corrupt. The iHnor-
ality of the Hanoverian Georges was not
picturesque and fascinating, like that OF
the Stuarts it was squalid and unpieas-
ant No wonder that the Scotch Jacoblte'
in entire disgust at the heavy-featured
German sovereign imported to fill the
throne of England sang in his daredevil
fashion:
wha the dell hae we gotten for King,
But wee, wee German lairdie!
When we gaed Ger to bring him hame
He was delvin' in his kali yardie
And he's clappit down in our gudeman's chair
The wee German lairdie;
And he's brought forth his foreign trash
And dibbled them in his yardie
Hes pu'd the rose OF English looms,
And broken the harp o Irish clowns,
But our Scotch thistle will jag his thumbs,
This wee wee German lairdle.
The whole history of George / reeks of
ga hhage and ale and muck The history
of the dainty, winsome, sensitive little
creature whom fate turned over to him
for a wife, and whom he never pretended
to love is one of the saddest tragedies
ever written. There was not even lndlf-
ference on her part she heartily loathed
and hated him, and from the account OF
his behaviors here given it would appear
that any decent woman could hardly fall
to do the same.
As for Konigsmark, the cavalier in the
case. he is a brilliant adventurer, ana
remarkable mixture of good and pad
there is nothing Indifferent about hlm
anywhere, in any sense of the word
THAT he was brave there is no question
That he was chivalrous there is much
nroof That he was true to Sophie Doro-
thea there seems to be every reason 10
beIieve: and. on the whole, that is fairly
good record for man of his day ana
generation. and dubious surroundings
There is about him none of the weakness
and lack of manliness which marked poor
Rizzio. and though, like Rizzio, he was as
sassinated almost at the feet of his mis-
tress. he died braveiy, sword in hand
and his last breath protested her inno-
cence He never tried to shield himself;
his thought throughout seems TO have
been of her.
The story of this Inflated love affair
is told not only in the letters but in the
hiograpbv: the letters are not eXtraor-
dinary. but very characteristic of the
writer's. The book, as a whole, win be
worth anyone's buying and reading
Chicago: Herbert S. Stone & Co. S.V0J