Carlisle Patriot February 6, 1880 The Empress of Russia

The Empress of Russia

The Empress of Russia, who is in a very distressing state of health, has moved by easy stages this week from Cannes to St. Petersburg. The marriage of this illustrious lady was almost a romance. In 1831, when the present Czar was twenty-three years of age, a list was prepared at St. Petersburg of marriageable German princesses, and under the care of Count ORLOFF he went to visit them. He had been to Berlin and the Courts of North Germany, and was on his way to Carlsruhe when he arrived at Frankfort. The Prince was about to resume his journey, when he received an invitation from the Grand Duke of Hesse Darmstadt to dine at the Palace of Darmstadt. As a matter of courtesy only the invitation was accepted, and after dinner the Court adjourned to another room for tea. There the Russian Coelebs in search of a wife saw a young lady of sixteen accompanied by her governess, whose appearance was so charming by it simplicity that he inquired who she was.   The Princess Mary was the daughter of his host, but her name was not upon the St. Petersburg list. Presently the Royal and Imperial personages proceeded to the drawing room, where Alexander asked to be presented to the attractive girl, and a long conversation with her confirmed his first impressions. Next morning Count ORLOFF informed the Prince of the arrangements for proceeding to Baden.   “My dear Count,” said the Grand Duke, “we shall go no further; I have made my choice; my journey is finished.”   When the news reached St. Petersburg the entourage of the Emperor endeavoured to prevent the marriage; but Nicholas was tenderly attached to his son, and would not allowed him to be thwarted in an affair of the heart.   An old diplomatist, the Count de Reiset, tells this story in his unpublished memoirs. The Czarevitch married the Princess Mary a few months later. Eleven years after this the same writer saw the Czarevna at Krasnoe-Selo, watching through the Palace window the first guard of her eldest son at the door of his grandfather’s Palace. Heavy rain was falling; the little fellow had put on a big soldier’s cloak, in which he marched to and fro with difficulty, and the mother’s heart was anxious about the exposure of her first born. Thirteen years later still, and all the careful nursing of the Empress did not suffice to save the life of this same son, who died at Nice, after putting his brother’s hand in that of his own betrothed, the Princess Dagmar of Denmark. So there are romances of love and sorrow beneath the etiquette of glitter and Courts.   - Echo.

 

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