The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-10-08
The Vanished Tsarina
By Marie, Queen of Roumania

their force. Perhaps Alexandra real ly loved her husband; she certainly adored her son, but her attitude to the world was perpetually distrust- full, strangely empty of tenderness, and, in a way, hostile. Placed above everything, dominating her husband, she held in her hands a terrible pow CT; had tenderness dwelt in her heart, she might have accomplished miracles, but inspired with her univer- sal distrust, placed only in order to small at a distance. as if they in- tended to steal something which was hers. Placed by fortune on a pin nacle of power infinitely above all others, she imagined that she had been thus placed only in order to show others their errors, and finally, when she perceived that her ways had not won hearts to her, she be- came bitter because of her disap- pointment
 She belonged to that category of women who consider themselves eter- nally misunderstood, and isolate themselves in the certainty that com mon folks are unable to share their mind or arrive at their ideal. An unhappy attitude this, and one sure to bring misfortune, the misunder- stood woman never adapts herself to circumstances; she prefers to dwell apart, locked in her grief as if within a sacred privilege.
 The Tsarina was one of these be- ings, and with the passing of the years, her morbid character being so accentuated there were some who doubted of her reason. Those who saw intimately bore witness to the fact that on a majority of subjects, she reasoned with an entire lucidity of intelligence, but the unshakable faith she had in her mission of bring ing light to others caused her to pay no heed whatsoever to any advice; she pledged her faith to her own er- roneous judgment, and thus became the prey of those imposters wno spy upon souls walled within solitude and obscurity.
 What force it was which gave her such a hold upon her husband has never been explained. Did he really love her? Was it simply his feebler will lowing before the will of the Empress? Did she hold him through the mystical side of his nature? No one has ever known. One thing, however is certain; her influence was dominant in act, and instead of diminishing with use, 1t became stronger and dead1ier until the un- fortunate monarch, who was by in stinct and personality attracted to- ward the light. fell into darkness so black that he was never again able to escape toward the light.
 Poor distraught soul, she did not suspect that she had discovered the darkness; such is the secret tragedy of hearts which no longer have faith in mankind or in life, and who know not how to love. She knew not how to love; therein lay, in my opinion, the cause of her defeat.
 And that defeat was destined to bring in it's train the downfall of her husband, whom, nevertheless, she expected to save, the death of the son whom she adored, and the crumbIing of the vast Empire which she desired to hold intact for that son, and which she hoped to retain for him impregnabIe and unimpaired. For Alexandra dreamed of the sue cession of her heir to an absolutely undirnfnished autocratic sway over the greatest Empire in Europe, and she strove to maintain it for him in all its fullness.