PRINCESS IN A MADHOUSE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 76, 1 April 1899, Page 5 (Supplement)

PRINCESS IN A MADHOUSE.

ROUGH TREATMENT OF THE BEL-

GIAN KING'S D.AUGHTER,

\ The Paris 'Matin' breaks a lance in favour of Princess Louise of Coburg, who, in defiance of law or justice, has been shut up in a lunatic asylum, although perfectly sane. The letter is from a doctor who spent some time at the establishment of Professor Obersteiner, at Dobling. One night in the month of May. 1808, a lady, attended by another lady, was brought in and "lodged in a small apartment badly furnished, with bolts to the door and bars to the windows. Her name was concealed, but it was soon known to be Princess Louise of Coburg. From time to time visitors sent Dy liar husband c*ame to see her* endeavouring- to trap her by perfidious questions. She was completely abandoned by her relatives, and it was only by accident that 5-he learnt even of her daughter's wedding. The story that she told was that one morning a lawyer and a doctor, sent by. her husband, entered her bedroom, forced her to rise, attempted to handcuff her; refused to leave the room while she dressed, and afterwards took her to the asylum of Dr Obersteiner. She remained there till November, when the same lawyer appeared one day. took her eff as brusquely as he had brought her. and placed her in the asylum of pr. Budinger, near Vienna. The. 'Matin says, supposing even that the House of Austria refuses to pardon a scandal, added to so many of which that House has given the example, what is King Leopold of Belgium doing? Does he ignore, that his enemies say that he wishes to keep his daughter imprisoned so as not to be saddled with her debts? The 'Liberte' takes up the cvidgels furiously on behalf of Princess Louise, whose life it compares favourably with those of many famous Austrian -Tr::h?luohesses. King Leopold's conduct, it says, is inexplicably callous, while that of the Prince of Coburg is actuated by mean motives. It is stated that King Leopold has paid the creditors of Princess Louise. According to a report spread in certain quarters in Belgium, the princess is in America and not shut up. in a madhouse near Vienna.