Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-02
COUNTESS LIFE IN A BOOK.
characteristics of Divorced Wife Of
Saxon King Revealed
Special Cahlegram to The Star.

Special Cablegram to The Star.
BERLIN, June 1.-The Fight for a Roy
al Child" is the title Of a remarkable book
which is about to be published in Dresden,
and which will give intimate details of the
life and character of the Countess Month
gnoso, the divorced wife of the King Of
Saxony. who is living in exile at Florence.
The book Is written in the form Of a diary
kept by certain Frau Ida Kremer, who
was dispatched to Florence last autumn
by the Saxon court to remain four weeks
with the countess and her daughter. the
baby Princess Monica Pia, and then bring
the child back to Dresden. The child s
mother having refused to part with her so
soon. Frau Kremer continued a member of
the household Of the countess governess
until December and during that time was
the recipient OF many of her condolences.
Frau Kremer depicts the countess an
hysterical, whimsical person, without any
fixtty of purpose-as in the case Of her
| flight with the Belgian tutor, Giron, from
/, the Saxon court in 1862 wholly by the i'm
pulse Of the moment. The baby princess is
described as an incorrigible child, who has
to be tickled to sleep, and who has a
strange passion for the smell of benzine. I"
The countess love for her child Is declared
to be fictitious. The countess continues to
wear her wedding ring and refers to the
King of SaXony as her husband. She con-
stantly expresses confidence that a recon-
Citation will yet come, and told Frau Kre-
mer repeatedly that if she could only get
the king alone-away from his intriguing
entourage-she would know how to win him
back. She asked the governess some day
when she was back in Dresden with the
child to contrfve to get the king alone in
the park. when the countess would steal up
and surprise him and hold a conversation
with him which would soon right matters
Frau Kremer tells Of seeing on the coun-
tess bed room table what appeared al first
to be copy of the Bible. but which proved
To he 80 thatr III.
countess confessed that she had sewn
Faust" in a Bible cover to avoid ennui at
mass during her exile with the old countess
at Ronno, Austria. after the Dresden esca-
pade, her parents having farmed her out to
the countess in the hope that "castigatio
and partial starvation would drive the devil
out Of her SOUL The diarist reports that
the countess must have felt at one time
great affection for Giron, but that 1t had be-
come utter aversion and finally Indifference
She read a newspaper account of his en-
gagement, but it did not interest her
The concluding portion of the book is de-
voted to graphic description of the bur-
glar alarm at the villa outside of Florence
where the countess resides. Frau Kremer
was alarmed one night by revolver shots
and few minutes later the countess, with
a couple Of servants, rushed into the room
had been trying to break in. The governess
says that she later convinced herself that
the burglar incident was arranged by the
countess for the purpose of inducing the
governess to believe and report to the Sax
on court that the Italian rural districts
were not safe places for the countess and
Princess Monica to live.