Whom a Man may not Marry.

Hastings Standard, Issue 320, 12 May 1897, Page 4

Whom a Man may not Marry.

liecently there was an extraordinary incident at a church in St. Petersburg, where a young man, a member of the Russian aristocracy, was unwittingly about to marry his half-sister. It appears that about 20 years ago a baron, an officer in the Imperial Guard, fled with a young count-ess to England, where he married her. On his return to Russia he was killed in a duel by the countess's brother. The baron had had a son by a former -marriage in Russia, but this son knew nothing of the second marriage of his father. At a ball he met a young lady of whom he became enamoured, and to whom he became engaged to be married. "When all the wedding party had assembled at church an old general, who had been a friend of the bridegroom's father, took the young man aside and told him that the lady he was about to marry was the countess's daughter, and therefore his half-sister. The wedding, consequently, did not take place. The young mm is alleged to have attempted to commit suicide, and the bride that was to have been is almost demented.