SHELTER REFUSED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

SHELTER REFUSED.

HOME IN THE HAY. A LINK WITH ROYALTY ? IN 177(1 a beautiful young woman with a striking countenance and irresistible charm stopped at Bourton, a village near Bristol, England, begging for tea and milk. Although showing signs of superior breeding, she was iu dire distress, at times speaking wildly, as if in the first stages of mental derangement. After wandering about the neighbourhood all day in search of a resting place, she was overtaken by nightfall and lay flown under a haystack to sleep. .Several ladies of the neighbourhood, who found her, begged her to come to their houses, but she refused. Believing her to be insane, the townsfolk took her to St. Peter's Hospital, Bristol. But, being released from that institution, she hastened as fast as her shattered strength would allow to her favourite haystack, six miles away. Without bed or roof she continued to live in this miserable shelter for a period of four years. Accepted Milk and Tea Only. Although fed and clothed by her neighbours, she would accept from them, by way of food, only milk and tea, and only the plainest clothing. Given anything luxurious or ornamental, she would hang it on the bushes as unworthy of her attention. Every morning she walked about the village conversing with the poor children, to whom shi! gave various articles presented to her for her own comfort. "Trouble and misery dwell in houses," she repeated to those who questioned her as to her remarkable mode of life. She spoke with a slightly foreign accent, and a man who went to her haystack to visit her for the purpose of inquiring t into her identity, spoke to her in several continental tongues without noticeable effect until he resorted to German. Then she broke into tears, being apparently very much affected by the associations which that tongue conjured up in her memory.

After the four years spent in her haystack this remarkable personage was removed to Britton, a village of Gloucestershire, and there placed in a private madhouse. The celebrated Mrs. Hanna Moore took up subscriptions for her expenses. After some time her legs became contracted' as a result of her years of exposure, and she tecame pitifully lame. Thereafter she seldom arose from her bed of straw, where she lay, quiet, stupid and harmless, except when efforts were made to dress her or place her in' a cttm'fortable bed. She was finally removed, as incurable, to 'Guy's 'Hospital, Southwark, where Mrs., Hanna Moore .continued to supply her extra wants until the time of her death-on December 18, 1-801. Descriptions Published. Detailed descriptions of "The Lady of the Haystack" were published in newspapers 'through the continent of Europe, but brought no response until nine years after her discovery near Bristol, when a mysterious anonymous pamphlet printed in French was circulated throughout Europe. It was entitled "The Stranger—a True History," and attempted to identify the Lady of the Haystack as a certain woman of mystery; 'who had in recent years proved an enigma to the courts of Vienna and Versailles. It appeared that a few years previously the King Of Spain'had received a letter, purporting to be from Emperor Joseph 11. of Austria, asking him to take under his protection a young 1 woman whose presence in Austria wOuld caiise great grief to his mother, the Dowager Empress, because she was a natural daughter of his late father, Francis I. The King of Spain replied asking for further particulars, and his 1 letter astounded Emperor Joseph, who had written no such request of the Spanish monarch. The forgery was then traced to a mysterious young ■woman living in great luxury at Bordeaux, where she was known as Mile. ' La Fnilcn. Being arrested, she caused , a sensation through the courts of Europe by relating a strange story j whose principal details were as follow: As far back as she could remember ' she had lived in a desolate house in ' the open country in Bohemia, under the protection of two women and a priest, who had purposely prevented her learning to read or write. At various intervals she had been visited by a distinguished stranger, who had given her his portrait anrl also that of two women, one of whom he had told her was her mother. After some years the priest had announced her distinguished visitor s death and had sent her away to a convent in France, hut while en route to that retreat she had escaped. Presented With £6000. After various wanderings in ' Europe I «he had been discovered by the Austrian Ambassador to Sweden and sent to Bordeaux, where- she had been placed

in charge of a woman of that city and visited ;it various intervals by a strange man, who in a t-liort time presented her with purges containing in all £G2oO sterling. Although this man had promised to continue these remittances from a. very mysterious source, his visits suddenly censed, and after a time she found herself overwhelmed with debt. Of the three portraits given to her by her protector, that of himself proved to be the likeness of the late Emperor Francis I. Another was that of the Empress, and the third, represented to be her mother, was that of a partly veiled woman. According to the pamphleteer who related her strange story, Mile. La Frulen remained as Count Cobenzel's prisoner for several months. Then he suddenly died and she was conducted by a young officer to Quivrang, a small town in France. Fifty louLs were hero placed in her hands and she was "abandoned to her destiny." Whether she was the mysterious Lady of the Haystack or not—who, in fact, either of these enigmatical women were —remains one of the mysteries of the eighteenth century.