MAD LUDWIG.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 225, 20 September 1913, Page 22

MAD LUDWIG.

2 STORIES OF CKUEI.TY. _ DIVORCE OF BAVARIAN DUKE. ~An astonishing drama of royal domestic Kfe is occupying the law courts, says a (Sspatt-h from Munich, dated July 19, to a Sew -York .-p-pec The Duke Lndwig of. Esssaria, who is eighty-two years old, is, Shing his morganatic wife, a former ballet dancer, for divorce. '.The Duke is the brother of the late Empress Elisabeth of Austria. He belongs to a branch of the Bavarian royal family, which, though sep-arate from that now occupying the -throne, enjoys rights of equality with reigning houses in every respect. . In youth the Duke wns considered the handsomest prince in Europe, just as his sister, the Austrian Empress, was the pearl of princesses. - In early life he married a very beautiful Bavarian actress named Henrietta Mendel. who was created Baroness Wallersee. She died in IS9I. They had one child, later the Countess Marie Larisch, who has recently written an astonishing book revealing the flirtations of ber aunt, the Empress: the mad eccentricities of the Bavarian royal family, and the i-trigries that led up to the tragic death of tie Empress's only son, the Crown Prince Budolpb. of Austria. 71 n 1592, within a year of the death of his first Wife, the Duke Ludwig hastened to contract a second morganatic marriage. This time was with a pretty ballet dancer named Antonie Barth. She was ennobled and received the name of "Baroness yon Bartolf" on her marriage. She was more than forty years younger than the Duke. She had less artistic standing than the first actress wife, but was decidedly alluring. To-day she is under forty and still quite handsome. Two years ago the morganatic wife left her royal husband. This episode was represented as a scandalous piece of miscondssct on the part of the former ballet girl. The facts now presented iv her defence suggest however, that it was more or less excusable. The case is being heard behind closed doors, but the friends of the Banoness yon Bartolf have told the astonishing story of her married life. ■ Many women envied the ballet girl when she married a royal dssks. bsit now they know if; is better to be the wife of an amiable and prosperous grocer. The Duke appears to have been the meanest husband yet discovered. He treated his wife as a horse, a dog and a goat, and constantly beat, spanked, and pinched her. On top of all this he constantly docked her apparently handsome allowance for infringement of his impossible orders. The aged Dnke pushed eccentricity to the verge of madness. His peculiarities became especially marked wheu dealing with anybody of the opposite sex. His conduct is perhaps not surprising in a member of the royal house of Wittelsbach. which has supplied two mad kings to Bavaria. fThe, Duke required his ballet girl wife to entertain him in extraordinary ways. As he- grew older his exigencies increased. At the beginning of their married life she was somewhat puzzled when he made her play horse and drove her round the room in rather sjanty costume. yise performance pleased him so much that he repeated it, but made up a four-in-hand team by harnessing three young servant maids with his wife. As he drove them ross-.sd and round the room he lashed tbem freely with a long whip. The wife states that these performances were kept up till the last days she spent with him. It is interesting to recall that-the Dake's gaissdfather, the-Dufee Maximilian, kept a famous private-cJE-us at It seems tifht the grandson wished to have a private circus, too. MAD PRANKS. The Baroness owned a pretty little Maltese terrier, of which she was very fond. One -day the Dnke caught a nondescript mongrel" "3own in the stables, and tied the two _ogs~tbgeth"er by the tails. Then he placed pieces of meat where they would entice the two dogs in opposite directions, and started them on a tug-of-war. ™oment the Baroness entered. !_f bet _ Toll *- month's allowance that my dogibeata-yours,-*' said the Dnke.* '■ • Sis wife the bet,-bnt she badC to go' wlfeont-any money for a month when the Duke's dog won. One very hot. summer day a fiendish method-of tormenting "his wife occurred to Duber- He told her to take off her shoes and- stockings in her boudoir and walk into his bedroom, which was two_ roevms away. She did as she was told? and found the whole floor carpeted with sticky fly-japer. She tried to tear the paper from he?", feet, but "only got herself more completely covered with the sticky stuff. "Hie Duke, comfortably protected by shoes, r-laughed heartily at her discomfort. As-.-a jresult of this prank she weif: into ' hy2_rics and' became seriously ill. TJCbenefer she" protested" against any' of his_3_a,d. saprices, the JDuke_.beeame. fright- ' fully angry, and forced her to obey him. She states • that he beat, spanked, kicked, and* bit her, and physically ill-treated her in -many ways. One morning, as she was about to take a bafji, she reached ont her hand for the sponge, and immediately started a buzzing of ijngry insects. . In. a few moments she wast severely-stung- by wasps. Someone had deliberately hung a nest full of wasps beside the sponge. The grinning face of the Dnke. which soon appeared in the doorway, left no donbt who had played this cruel trick. *_ . The Dnke expended much time and tremendous industry in devising NEW WATS OF TORMENTING HER. Once he asked her to occupy a new bedroom, which he said he had ordered specially;-.nmished for. her. _A* dawn-she was;-a"w"Ske_ecT' by a hideous and deafening cackling. Looking around, she saw aLout twenty geese cackling and squawking at the top of their voices. The Duke had with infinite patience trained the birds to awaken the occsjpant of this bed early every morning. This performance was kept up regularly for three months, when it began to lose its clsaSn through the accidental death of five of the geese. By that time the Duke was busy with new schemes for keeping his wife amused or tormented. In his youth he had served several years as a cavalry officer, and was considered the finest figure in the saddle that royal circles could show. An internal injury compelled lsinv-to give up this avocation. He had still a tine collection of old uniforms. It pleased to have his handsome wife put tliog. masculine garments on and parade a'.ssjit his apartments in. them. They were iu.t~n bad fit for her, except that the legs w: too long. lie theis had military trousers made for' Ist, and ordered her to appear before his friends wearing these with his old army I The Austrian Emperor has always kept up -fi-k'isdly relations with his brother-ln-lsi\v„an_ paid him occasional visits iv spite of ..is morganatic marriages. The poor Uarjisess locsked forward with considerable interest to her meeting with her august relative by marriage. Wlien the Emperor last visited the Dnke at .Munich, she says that the latter compelled her to appear before His Majesty in

her uniform and perform military exercises for" Bis "'amusement." Then he made her wait on the table. The Duke compelled his wife to wait on him lite a .lave, and whenever her services did not qnite satisfy his insanely capricious needs, he PUXISHED HER SEVERELY. When he reached his seventy-fifth birthday he had a high c-hair constructed, large enousrh to hold himself instead of a baby. In this he would sit wearing infantile garments, while he compelled his wife, dressed as a nursemaid, to wait upon him. Instead of bringing him pap and milk, however, the nursemaid had to serve him with champagne and other strong delicacies. Soon after this his capriciousness took a •turn that seriously threatened her life. He forced her to jump into Lake Starnberg, the lake in which his kinsman, the mad King Lndwig of Bavaria, drowned himself. She could not help feeling that her husband was anxious to see another drowning in the same place. The Duke has a country house and large estate upon the shores of the lake. The Duke then played a trick that finally decided her to abandon the dignity and luxury of being connectesl with a royal family. He said to her one day : "My dear, you are growing entirely too stout. You are losing your beautiful figure. I have thought out a way that will restore j yon to the most exquisite proportions. Now don't ask what it is. Jnst come out with : mc and we will try it." | The Duke put a belt with a hook in it 1 around his wife's waist. He then took her down to the park, where one of his highpowered automobiles was waiting for them. Before she realised what was going to j happen she fonnd herself attached by a rope to the back of the oar. while the Duke ! was in the machine driving it at a good j pace through the grossnds. ■When she was on the point of dropping I he slowed down a little, and when she recovered breath a little he started up again. Had he gone a trifle faster, she would have been killed. This was his method of reducing her flesh. There is no doubt that it was an effective one. She declares that she then made up her mind to save her life before it was too late. Before dawn of the following day she got up and crept away through the country roads, which she knew well. She has since refused all orders to return to him, and so he is bringing a divorce -suit.