The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-04-14

famous painter Ilubens, Of whom shs
was n OF the los generous patron.
In his youth. Her companion was .sa.
bella, countess Of Fergis, and her sole
attendant was an old man, faithful &c
her unto death.
A German novelist makes Marie ds
Medici die in ABSOLUTE destitution il
Cologne, the courtess of E'argis nav
ing preceded her to the grave. Fol
lowing are the concluding words
ttranslated) OF the last chapter of the
book:
1T was the 18th of February. A
low sound Of moaning might have been
heard issuing from the garnet; a with
cred female form, more like a skeleton
than a thing of flesh and blood, was
lying on a wretched bed OF straw, in
the agonies Of death. The means more
and more indistinct; a slight rafting
in h throat was at last the only aud
IDLE sound, and this also ceased. An
hour later and an old man, in Tags
and tatters, entered the chamber. One
word only had escaped his lips as he
stumbled up the rickety staircase,
'Nothing,' He drew near the bed list
lessly; but in a moment he seized an
arm of the corpse which lay before
him, and, letting it as suddenly fall,
he cried Dead. dead. of hunger, cold
and starvation
And this was Mary de Medicis, wife
of Henry ", Queen Regent of France,
mother of Louis XIII, of Isabella,
Queen of Spain, of Henrietta, Queen of
England, of Christina, Duchess of Sa-
voy of CASTOR, Duke of Orleans-dead
of cold, hunger and misery; and yet
Louis XIII, the cowardly tool of Rich
elieu his mother murderer, was still
called The Just
1t is said that many years ago there
hung On the wall of an art gallery in
one of the beautiful cities of contiuen-
tai Europe a picture of a woman's face,
so exquisitely fair, sweet and pathetic
that the tourist stood long before it,
enchanted by interest and admiration.
Above hat female head should nave
been written "Doomed"-She was tied
to a Stuart: One of that royal house
whose stock goes far back in the his
tory of Scotland, and who, at least
since James l, of England, whom Dick
ems dubbed, His Sowship," were dis
tinguished by abominable sefishness,
oOIuoC, h1UlIoh ObotllldSy, LII oCuStld1-
ity. This woman, the Countess of AL
bany, was bound by a guilty connec
ton to Prince Charles Edward, that
bonnie Prince Charlie" the subject Of
so much of "gush' in fiction and verse.
In Tuscany the Countess of Albany
met Count Victor Alferi, a wealthy
Piedmontese nobleman-a dreamer and
a mystic on the side of life and NOV
ing always in it's shadow. What he was
to her, We can only conjecture, for a
woman's heart is unfathomable in its
depths, inscrutable in it's mystery: to
him, she was the inspiration of life,
and under her influence he became a
valued contributor to the literature of
his time, in tragic drama, epic aud
lyric poetry. At length the death OF
Charles Stuart, IN his ugly debauched
elderly days, released the Countess OF
Albany from long %martyrdom, and she
and Alieri passed the remainder of life
together, partly in Paris and partly in
Florence.
+ do not say they were innocent or
virtuous; but their sin was not thai OF,
offensive, revolving moral depravit.E.
The chivalry Of his manhood was
aroused to rescue her from physical
and spiritual thraldom; the timidness
of her womanhood went u in sur.
render to his urgent need of uplifting
and inspiration. j. H. NJ.
Fayetteville, April 4.