New-York tribune., 1905-07-22
Il QUEEN OF ROMANCE.
The Real Life of Daudet's Fire
d6rique of Iuyria.

MARIA soPHLA QUEEN OF MALES Ma BY Glab2 b2
Tschudi TRANSLATED from t6e NoI 59s 4, 25S {5
Duttcn & Co.
Maria Sophia, Duchess in Bavaria and queen
Of the last Bourbon King of Naples will always
occupy a niche in history the Heroine OF
Gaeta There, during the three months siege
by the Piedmontese army, the royal girl OF
twenty displayed the high courage, the resou-
ton and energy in which her husband was
conspicuously lacking. The beautiful Queen,
walking unmoved. with sparkling eyes. under a
heavy fire, or doing the work of a Sister or
Charity among the wounded in the hospitals
was an inspiration to the soldiers. who adored
her. however little interest they may have felt
in the survival of the bad Bourbon rule. The
struggle was a useless one; Victor Emmanuel
and Garibaldi were opening the gates of free
dom and unity to all Italy, and no other Euro
pean power cared to risk anything to restore
the weakling Francis to the throne of his ia
theirs. But every chivalrous soul did homage
to the wittelsbach princess. who had not a drop
OF cowardice in her veins.
One day shell fell so close to her feet that she
would certainly have been killed had not an officer
taken her round the waist and swung her under a
protecting wall. Although the shell, in exploding.
and se oI hef dress % was
with earth and dust. she did not seem to notice
when standing in the embrasure of a window in
the castle. in conversation with the Spanish Min.
the panes shivered, and the fragments Of glass
few UP into Maria Sophia's lace. She laughingly
remarked: TT is very rude OF the enemy never TO
leave me in peace anywhere They have drven wen me me
even let me- be here.
The last month OF the siege the King and
Queen spent In a casemate IN one Of the bat
teries and the dtscomforts Of life in those dark,
airless cells may be imagined. But to the last
and in the midst OF heart wrenching scenes OF
famine, disease and misery. Maria Sophia re-
mained with her high spirits and her warm
heart enlivening force.
She was only eighteen when. after childhood
uncommonly simple and care free. this daughter
of the thousand-year- family of Wittelsbach
was married TO a youth she had never seen.
Crown Prince Francis of Naples had various
good qualities; It is probable that Daudet. In his
novel "Rois en- Exil." has been as unjust TO him
as Ne has been overwhelming 20 Maria in the
character Of Queen Frederlque. But the son Of
the detestable "Bomba' had had the worst
possible bringing up at the hands OF his schem-
ing Austrian stepnother, and whatever strength
of character he might have had was effectually
suppressed. In truth. little good could come from
that Neapolitan Bourbon strain. Therein medi-
evaI baseness. bigotry, narrowness and treach-
cry made their last stand. and what OF the blood
was not actually bad was deplorably weak.
'Bon jour- Francois!" said the charming young
bride, holding out her hand to the prince as he
came up the gangplank Of her ship in the har-
Dor OF Bari. It was a frivolous. half-contemptu-
Gus greeting for a husband then for the
first time, and II struck a keynote for their
after life. She was the stronger man Of the two,
and perhaps il he had followed her counsel and
given his people free constitution when he
came to the throne he might have kept that
throne little longer. But he had been reared
with blind faith in absolutism OF the venerable
rack-and- dungeon sort, and was incapable Of
understanding the temper Of the times. The
foolish young fellow was not without generosity.
II is said that when, at his fathers death, his
chief Minister showed him proofs that his step
mother, the Queen Dowager, was conspiring TO
unseat him and put her own eldest son in his
place. the King threw the papers into the fire,
with the quiet remark: "She was my fathers
wife"
The relations between Francis and Maria
Sophia were from the first constrained and
happy. Miss Tschudi, readers OF her former
volumes may guess, turns sentimental eye on
the situation and will have it that the awkward,
blundering Bourbon always loved his clever wife
and lived beside her days of worshipful if re-
pressed devotion However this may be, ii is
certain that their later life in Paris was con-
Quoted on lines or friendship anu lndt curing
the long and painful illness that ended in his
death his wife was to him all that was kind and
helpful. The heroic girl of Gaeta is now woman
of sixty-four, who in her home in Partisan sub
urb takes a philosophical view of life and finds
her chief pleasure In out-ofdoor exercise, in rid
ing and training her splendid horses, and in
frolics with her dogs Still youthful in feeling, the
chief mark that the years have left upon her is
her Indifference to human kind. She prefers the
companionship of horses and dogs She is singu-
Iarly alone in the world. Her father and mother
are gone; the sister dearest 10 her, the En-
press Of Austria, murdered at Geneva; her
youngest sister. the Duchesse d'Alencon
burned to death in the terrible Charity Bazaar
fire in Paris. and these not the only TRACE
dies with which she has had TO reckon. But,
Ike Beatrice, she born under a dancing
star and she is still active courageous and in
good spirits. In dignity of mind she certainly
fulfls the ideal conceived by Daudet-like the
Romance Queen OF Ulyria, she maintains
stately attitude TO the world and disdains pity.
Her sorrows are her own. and she can still for
get them IN the saddle in a tussle with
fractory horse.