The Washington times., 1903-07-05

quiet llte. enjoying the Kings conf
dence. satisfied to act as his adviser.
King Alexander saw Madame Maschin
every day. ana spoke to her openly about
all his troubles. AS time went on. he
felt that he could not live without her
A queen was necessary for Servia. and
from all those princesses Of royal houses
who had been selected for him by his
parents from time to time. he had re-
ceived unqualified refusals. Madame
Maschin came from a Russian family,
and he knew that the match would-be
welcomed by the Czar. Therefors, nc
| figured that he could afford 20 ignore
| the disapprovai OF other potentates. The
marriage was contracted without
thought of his parents wishes.
Never Returned to Belgrade.
Queen Natalie never again returned to
! Belgrade. nor did she cease to believe
/ that the marriage of her son would re-
suit in misfortune. This is not to be
wondered at. as she was constantly re-
! ceiving reports to the effect that the nov
Queen was poisoning Alexander's mirI
against her. Many institutions founded
by Natalie and which had been given her
name, were later called the Queen
Draga" institutions. The Queen Natalie
Regiment was made the Queen Draga
Regiment" all Of which embittered Ma
| tales life.
II was through a series of these Incl
dents that Natalie. robbed of her sons
! love- banished from her beloved Servia,
and forced TO see her worst enemy on
the throne she herself so recently occu-
pied. was led to utter the words which
have had such gruesome fulfllment in
the tragedy at Belgrade.
The Belgrade tragedy was curiously
| paralleled in romantic novel published
last September. called The Garden OF
Lies" written by Justus Miles Forman
! Since Stevenson revived the romantic
| novel with his Prince Otto" and An
thony Hope gave the renaissance its
/ greatest impetus with his Prisoner Of
Zenda," the reading world knows only
too we'll how this form OF literature has
4 fiourished. Mythical kingdoms that bear
a general resemblance to Servia and the
/ little states clustered in that corner of
! Europe have furnished the scenes for
more or less lurid tales in which plots
and counterplots. military uprisings and
revolutions have come 10 pass with so
| tiresome a regularity that they have as
general thing left the reader unmoved.
More than this, they have left their
readers incredulous. That in this en-
! lightened age a people should rise in
revolt. attack a royal palace and slay
/ king OF queen with all the mise en- scene
of a medieval raid was quite too much to
/ believe. Yet i'm the capital OF Servia,
in the year Of grace 1903 is committed
such a bloody murder OF a king and
! queen as only a novelist of daring
| Imagination would conceive.
Plot Like the Belgrade Tragedy.
1.-The Garden of Lies has plot SINH
| lar in many respects to the tragic story
whose bloody end was written in tho
Servian palace on the morning of June
IL. The story is told by an American.
Mr.. Creighton. who, being bored TO
death one night in Paris. drops into a
cafe in search of relief from ennui At
table in one corner he discovers a
friend. a great Scottish authority on
iltLNdl ulotdSt. anu Stranger. 10
whom Creighton is forthwith presented.
He is a Colonel Won Altdorf The colonel
| and the doctor are In great trouble. and
since the American once established a
reputation as a man of quick wits they
call him TO their assistance. Colonel
Won Altdorf is in Paris on a secret mis-
sion from the court of Novodnia. which
ic dagrrfhaI l..
Danube" a kingdom which might be
Roumania Servia, or Bulgaria
1t is ruled over by Carol III. who
came 10 the throne through most ex-
traordinary and improbable series OF
deaths" It was not expected that the
prince would ever come to be the ruler
! Of Novodnia. and so he was allowed to
marry a foreigner. an American girl of
great wealth.
OF course, the princes accession to the
throne created complications Since his
wife was not OF royal blood she could not
be acknowledged as queen. nor could the
children of the union have any sights to
the royal succession. And there was still
another trouble. The day Prince Karl
and the American girl were married at
Newport the horses ran away with the
bridal coach and threw the prince and
his bride out with such violence that the
girl received an injury to her head which
shattered her memory completely. She
was brought to Paris TO be treated by
DR.. Mackenzie. and was In his private
hospital. Meanwhile the prince had beer
crowned Carol Ill, and the diplomats of
his court were trying to force him into
getting a divorce from his American
wife, a thing the King resisted.
Kept in Novodnia.
King Carol desires TO go to his wife in
Paris. but his country's troubles keep
him in Novodnia. AS Won Altdorf puts
it:
Hes at home. where he can't be
spared, struggling 10 keep the throne of