Washington Journal., 1943-01-01

their hand bags. When they came to the door
again they explained in whispers that the
house was occupied by a gang of Red r%ufians,
who had broken into the wine cellar and now
we're sleeping off their debauch.
/ escorted the two ladies along the empty
street, easily carrying their small hand bags.
AT the hotel | took them through the lobby
without being challenged by anyone. They
were met upstairs by the proprietor's wife,
who showed them their room, just vacated
by me.
Then, after the door had closed on them,
the proprietor's wife told me in an awestruck
whisper that the ladies were Her Majesty,
Queen Maria Sofia of Naples, and her lady
in-waiting.
Next morning we all had breakfast together,
upstairs-the proprietor with his family,
Little and |, and the two ladies, whom we
were told to address as Frau Mayer and
Fraulein Schwarz. SO | renewed my acquaint-
ance with the Queen of my childhood.
During the days before the White Guards
fought their way into Munich, where the out
ragged burghers presently rose against their
Red foes, | got better acquainted with
Queen Maria Sofa. OF course, | recalled to
her my childhood meetings with her in the
Court Garden and at the Palace, which she
had quite forgotten. But it gave us a point
OF contact ana leu leI TO ldlK more lTccly
with me than she might have done otherwise.
"Reminiscences of Naples
| found the old lady undismayed by the
wild happenings in Munich. With a wan smile
she said these dolngs were mild III com
parison with what she had experienced as a
young Queen, after her girlhood marriage as
a Princess of Wittelsbach to the young Grown
Prince Francesca of Naples and Sicily. She
recalled that at the age of Is she was mar
ried to him by proxy, that is, in his absence,
at the Court Church in Munich, without ever
having seen him, after which she was taken
to Naples, where the marriage was repeated
with the bridegroom in the big church there.
They had been wed but a few months,
when her Bourbon father-in-law, King Ferdi-
nand II, who had been bayonetted through the
leg by a rebellious soldier, died of the effects
of his wound, leaving them his kingdom IN
turmoil. Garibaldi with his thousand red
shirted volunteers landed in Sicily and the
fat was in the fire. Her husbands chief OF
police at Palermo was torn to pieces by an
Infatuated mob. TO her horror she discovered
that the dungeons of Naples and Gaeta were
filled with political prisoners, many of whom
had been tortured. Then Garibaldi with his
volunteers, now numbering more than ten
thousand, crossed the strait and laid siege to
Naples. At her instance the political prison.
ers we're set free. But still the p~opulace rose
against the Bourbon rule. SO the young King
and Queen had to flee aboard a neutral ship
to be taken to the supposed safety OF the
stronghold Of Gaeta. Many Of their Swiss
Guards were massacred in Naples. Others
fought their way through to Gaeta.
The old Queens "reminiscences OF the siege
of Gaeta and the sufferings endured in that
fortress, bereft Of munitions, food and me-
dicaments, indeed made a story, compared
with which our present experiences i'll Munich
were tame. What most impressed me in her
recital was her warm gratitude to the Switz-
ers, so many of whom had sacrificed their
lives for the lost cause of the Bourbons, while
others were manned and stricken by war
diseases, all of them in the end losing every
thing they had, but their Swiss citizenship.
Farewell Queen Maria Sofia!
| should have loved to hear from the aged
Queen some stories of her ~favorite race horses
and famous dogs, but before / could question
her about them came the downfall Of the
Reds and the triumphant entry Of the White
Guards into Munich. All the disorderly crew
of Reds in the hotel and elsewhere was dis
persed. The Hotel Continental was formally
occupied by General Won Epp, who rode into
the ~beflagged and joyously celebrating city
at the head Of the troops from Prussia, Wurt-
temberg and Baden that had stormed the city