Romance in High Life.

« A romance in very high life has just been brought to its last act. One of the most noted of the South German nobles was the Prince of Thurm and Taxis. He has been Minister to the late King of Bavaria, and his son was aide-de-camp to tbe present King. It is this son who is the hero of the , German romance. Long ago the Lord of Burleigh chose his wife from the peasantry, and King Cophetua swore a royal oath that a beggar maid should be his bride ; but neither of these traditional lovers went so far as the young Bavarian Prince of our own days. Ifc waa an obscure actress who fascinated him, and for whom he was content to sacrifice everything. These conventional worda meant a great deal in this case. The mar* riage actually was solemnized, but it waa made subject to conditions of a very rigorous character, which were imposed upon the bridegroom as a condition of the family assent. He was to renounce all his paternal rights, and even his name. He was to be no longer the Prince of Thurm and Taxis, but a plain bourgeois, and he was to receive an annual allowance of 5000 florins. It might seem that such conditions would be impossible. The only answer ia that they were exacted, that the marriage did occur, and that the Prince descended into plain M. de Fels. He had, howtver, a very fine tenor voice and a very beautiful bride, and he made his debut a 3hort time ago at the theatre at Zurich. The story so far reminds one of Mario's history, who was Marquis of Oandia in his own right ; but here the resemblance ceases. The Swiss are not an imaginative people, and care very little for romantic sacrifices. M. de Fels was hissed off the stage at Zurich, and retired into private life. Ifc was easy to descend from rank and position} it was difficult to re-acquire them. The young Prince was brother-in-law of the Duchess of Bavaria, nephew of the major-domo to the Court of Prince Oetingen ; so great efforts were made to restore this would-be tenor within the princely circle. At last a way was found to achieve the end. On the Lake of Chiem King Ludwig has an estate known as Herreninsel, and there it has been the custom to give great water parties and nautical fetes. A theatre is to be built there, of which the artists are to consist almost exclusively of the aristocracy. Scenes out of "Wagner's operas are to be represented, and Offenbach and Herve are also to appear on the bills. But for this distinguished theatre a dignified manager has to be provided, and the Grand Duchess of Bavaria, who has a taste for diplomacy, has' thus found the means of introducing her nephew within the ring fence of his native aristocracy. The name of Paul de Fels, which appeared on the Zurich playbill, will be heard of no longer, and the Prince of Thurm and Taxis will be known in future as Marshal of the Royal Palace and Master of the Herels to the young King of Bavaria. It is the habit of some foreign editors to admit statements into their journals " under all reserve," and when this sentence is seen it is tacitly understood that imagination has something to do with the announcements, but no such qualification has accompanied the reports of this chapter of romance.