EMPRESS' MANIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 134, 8 June 1934, Page 5

EMPRESS' MANIA.

An autocrat of tlie most traditional type was the Russian Empress Anne. She hacl a kind of barnyard-mania. On Sundays, after cliureh, she would listen to her cross-legged line of jesters, who were ordered to cluck like hens. Even a princely meifiber of the aristocracy was confined for a slight offence in a straw-lined nest, set in one of the Court rooms, and he was made to sit on eggs and emit hen-cackles on pain of death.! Anne's'jest was even more unpleasant j when a courtier angered her by marry-1 ing a woman who was not of the orthodox Russian faith. He was imme- j diately degraded to a Court buffoon and page boy. As soon as his wife died the Empress betrothed him to a hideous I Mongol woman. Representatives of the [ whole empire were summoned to the nuptials, -and the extraordinary pair were taken to the church in a cage on an elephant's back. Late at night the ! couple were taken to a house made of | solid ice, with ice furniture, ice clocks, j and even ice curtains and toilet j i requisites. J