Year: 1879




The following sketch is one of a
series of papers entitled "Roamings
Long Ago in Europe" that have
recently been published in the
South Western Presbyterian. The
authoress is lady of exceptional
talents, and does well in giving her
friends the benefit of her large ac-
quaintance with men and manners
of a by-gone generation.


Mr.. EDITOR: On reaching Gene
va, our first visit was to HOrtense,
ex-Queen of Holland, with whom
we had engaged to spend some days
at her country chateau near the
lake. The many strange vicissi-
| tudes in her life could not but
awaken a strong interest, as well as
even sympathy, in her fallen for
tunes. What an illustration of the
instability of all earthly possessions |!
AT one time daughter of an Empress
of the most brilliant and powerful
court in Europe; at another, Queen
herself of Holland; then mother of





dreary solitary recluse-a forgotten
relic of all the grandeur which SO
long surrounded her! How does
she bear her changed condition,
isolated, banished from the gaiety
and splendOr of that circle so en-
chanting to many, indeed to most
of the participants of its intoxicating
pleasures? Where were those now
who had once surrounded her with
their obsequious adulation? They
had all vanished. And doubtless
the thought of her was even oblit-
Grated utterly from their memory.
How did she endure the blank,
somhre life of her lonely chateau in
that spiritless region?


We found, however, a party of
about a dozen persons on our ar
rival there. They were OF almost
as many nationalities. The man
sion was one of those old ghostly
and capacious habitations which
would afford accommodation for
thrice as many guests as were pres
ent. The diversity among them,
however, impaired charm to con-
versatinn from its variety of sub
jects discussed, and the different
manner of treating them. But the
hostess herself was really the chief
attraction in the company,


Being endowed (as she was) with
the gentle manners of her far South
ern nativity, combining Herewith
the exquisitely refined animation of
a high-bred Partisan lady, under
standing, too, with feminine in
stinct, the exact minuti8 of the
dividing line between the vivacious
and the soft in manners, she was
altogether quite fascinating In spite
of her age.


Only once, when bygone days
and the detractors of her family
were incidentally adverted to, her
countenance assumed a sad--almost
a bitter-expressiOn for a moment;
but she quickly smiled, and uttered
a painful remark to the effect that
all those ann0yances had long ago
passed away, and she thought no
more about them-evidently in
tending to check any such allusions.


Yet when questions were asked
of a pleasant character about her
early days, she always replied in
the most amiable manner, and
readily recited many circumstances
and occurrences of court life with
apparent zest, and at once entered
into many relations and entertain
ing incidents, which, in her manner
of telling them, were novel and
captivating. 1t was a sort of re-
sumo of stately ceremonies, inter-
mixed with frivolitie-, which often !
amounted to boisterousness, bat |
was amusing In the recital, and ,
which she also seemed to enjoy in |
recalling, for she often introduced,
with apparent glee, some piquant |
episode from the original anecdote,
which much enhanced its drollery. ]