New-York tribune., 1905-11-12
PICTURESQUE LADY FLORENCE.

with Ta6v Florence D!xie's death there dis
snpears one of the most picturesque, unconven-
tional and interesting figures in English llfe' a
very gifted woman clever writer, a painter as
splendid a shot she was magnlflcent eQueS-
irienne and tie champion Of all sorts or causes
Formerly. she and her husband were great
friends with King Edward, who is the godfather
of her second son, now an officer in the navy
and al one moment Lady Florence was even
persona grata with the late Queen. But Lazy
Florence forfeited Victoria's favor in some man
ner or another. and during the last decade of the
late Queens reign Lady Florence was given TO
understand that her presence at court would nor
be viewed with favor. Lady Florence useo
laughingly TO insist that 1t was on account OF the
brevity of her hair, rendering il impossible for
her to don the regulation coihure Of feathers
and lace and to a quarrel which she had with
the Lord Chamberlain on one occasion at Buck
ingham Palace about the matter. But others
are inclined to ascribe the Queens altered senti-
nents toward Lady Florence to the fact that
she associated her in some way with the death
Of her most faithful trusted and devoted of per-
sonal retainers namely, John Brown.
II NAV be recalled that about twenty-five
years ago Lady Florence, who had taken up the
cudgeIs against the Irish Land League with
her accustomed vigor. came before the public
IN connection with an alleged attempt TO muir
der her at her place. near Windsor. She claimed
TO have been attacked by two men disguised as
women while walking in the grounds of her
riverside villa on the Thames. and asserted
that they had assailed her with daggers. She
added that she had lost consciousness when she
the pcniards and that when she recovered
her senses she found herself lying on the ground.
her mouth full Of mud. with two dagger holes in
the breast Of her DRESS the knives. however,
having failed to infiict any wound Her gloves
were torn to pieces. and she attributed her es-
cape from death to the fact that her big St
Bernard dog had come to her assistance.
At first every one took this sensational story
at its face value II was known that Lady Flor
ence had incurred the bitter hatred of the Land
Leaguers by widely proclainling that the funds
of the league were grossly mismanaged 1t
seemed therefore only natural in the eyes of
the public in England. at any rate. that the peo-
pie whom she had charged with gross dishonesty
should desire to put her out of the way. Queen
Victoria in particular was much wrought up
over the matter and not only sent repeatedly to
express her sympathy and to make inquiries
but finally dispatched her gillie, John Brown In
person to find out why the police We're not max
ing better progress In running to earth the
would-be assassins.
John Brown spent an entire AFTERNOON at Lazy
Elorence's place. questioning servants. examin-
ing the scene Of the alleged outrage and finally
reached the conclusion which was peslnnlns &c
dawn upon a good many peopie-namely' thai
LADY Fqorence's essailants had been mercy
creatures of her phantasy. that the wnoie a1aiI
was the result Of an overweight Imagination
of an attack OF hysteria, brought on. probably
by her excitement and hard work in connection
with her Investigations in Ireland Concerning
the Land League-in one word, that there mac
been no attack. John Brown returned 10 ms
royal mistress intensely dsgusted insisting tha'
shoth her majesty and himself had been grossly
Imposed upon, and. what was worse, ne was
taken FIJI Immediately afterward with cnii
caught while searching in Lady Florence
grounds for traces of her would-be assassins cur
ing drizzling rain. This Illness carried hih on
and the Queen not only felt his loss deeply, pI
-.i4ewse ascribed 1t to what she believed 10 ha''
oean Q kt OF feminine fraud on the part Q. Laa.