THE ROMANCE OF A KING'S LIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 80, 15 February 1864, Page 4

THE ROMANCE OF A KING'S LIFE.

[IVoni thr " i-'pcctatOr."] The late monarch of Denmark .was fconi October 0, ISOS, twelve months after (he bombardment of Copenhagen by the British llect. at a time when the crown j of Denmark did not seem to be worth many years' t purchase. J1 is father, 100, was but the cousin of the reigning King, who had two daughter?, and being on!}" forty years of age, had hopes sit ill of pot-seising mule offspring. Under these circumstances tlie pros- , pects of wmng Prince Frederick appeared to lie not particularly brilliant ; and Ins father being a proud though singularly unostentatious man, he was left almost entirely to himself, and permitted to grow up amongst peasants, sailors, and soldiers, from whom he imbibed strong democratic tastes. "When only four ' years of age, a great misfortune befell the poor boy. j Jiis parents, alter several years of unhnppini>s, Were separated by a divorce, which decreed that" he should | be torn from his ntieetiohate mother, and left under the care of strangers. Amongst strangers accordingly he grew up, the father being so entirely engrossed by political atlairs. in the course of which the crown of .Norway was plaecd on his heud for four short months, as almost to forget the existence of his son. A new marriage, which gave Frederick a stepmother, estranged the paternal feeling still more, and the young Prince was glad enough when, at the age of sixteen, he was permitted to leave Denmark on travels I through Europe, nominally to complete his education, in reality to begin it. lie duly made the customary r tout' /' I'MrvpC) and then settled for several years at r Geneva. Here, in the eountrv of Jean Jacques [• Roussea, he imbibed ultra-republican principles, for f the reception of which his previous training, or absence e of training, had already well iittcd lvini. With these ideas Prince Frederick went back to Denmark, at the age of twenty. Things, meanwhile, had changed at c the Danish Court in regard to the succession to the throne. The reigning King, now sixty years old. v had given up all hopes of having male offspring, and s Fredrick's father, Prince < hristian, cousin to the mone arch had become heir apparent to the crown. The aged King was exceedingly anxious to marry off his 0 two daughters, the eldest already past thirty, and no s suitor coming from nbrord, he offered fhetn t<» Die '• only disposable nude relations at home—the one the 8 young man just returned from Geneva; and the other, hia unelc, Prince Ferdinand. The young republican Prince would fain have declined the honour of being ; j united to a King's daughter; but a refusal was not jj permittgd to him, and by orders of his father and the King he was married, under strong military escort, to his cousin, Princess "Wilhclmina, on the Ist Xovemhcr, 182 S. Frederick took front the iirst a strong dislike ! to his wife, which was greatly increased in time by , her haughty disposition, utterly foreign to his own habits. Before long he left his royal spouse altogether, taking refuse a! - a mansion, distant from the capital, among his old friends and humble companions. ire here made the acquaintance, for the first time, of Louise Kasmussen, a sprightly lit Lie damsel of sixteen, the daughter of a poor tradesman, but with l " some education and more grace and mother-wit. II Such society was altogether more to his tastes than ) that of the stiff Court of Copenhagen, at which he did l * not make his appearance for a long time. 13y a royal ! s decree of {September 10, 1827, he was banished to the j & fortress of Frcderica, in Jutland. Old soldier and ? sailor friends were not allowed on visit to Frederieia, | and oven little Louise Kasmusseii could not find her 'j way to the fortress, but with many tears, on the order | of her parents, set out on a journey to Paris, where j N she became an ornament to the corps dr. ballet. A few ! | l days after Fredrick's arrival at the place of his ban- j b ishment, a decree of divorce bet ween him and Princess i l, » "Wilhelinina was issued at- Copenhagen. j The death of the King and the accession of his father to the throne released Prince Frederick from prison at the end of liille more than two years, and 1 he was then appointed governor of the Island of > uiien. Put being inclined to fall again inte his old 1 ways of living, liis royal lather soon after insisted that lie should marry once more, and after some negoti--1 atious, Princess Caroline of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was 1 chosen to be his second wife. In the full bloom of youth, very pretty, and highly accomplished, it was | hoped that she would wean Prince Frederick from his [ low-born companions, and bring him back to Court j ® unci to the sense of his Crown-princely duties. Hut this the young Priuccss signally failed to do. Frederick, although he acknowledged her to be prettier. J, thought her as proud as his first wife, ar-d before long I absented himself more than ever from tho Court and j his new home. "What, probably, greatly contributed ! to this estrangement was an accidental meeting with ' an old friend ot his youth, Louise Ru:iuius>en. Poor Louise had s-een hard times since she left Denmark ' fori?ranee. Though an ornument, for some years, ■' ol the Paris corps th she was soon shelved on u ' the appearance of g)■eater ornaments, and had to content herself with becoming it member of a ; is troupe of actors, disseminating drumaie art f. J* 11 ' 011 ©* 1 little towns of Germany, Hungary, and Bohemia. The speculation, with ;ill its hardships c - and miseries:, proved very unsatifactory in a pecuniary y sense, and Louisa Itasmussen was glad to drop of the stage of a destitute Hanoverian village, and pro- ' ccod. onJoot to llnmlmrg. 'The wealthy merchant.! e citygavehor new friends, among whom shesojnuni'id for | i another couple of years, and then returned to Copent hagon. Gotting to the dangerous boundaiv of thirty, I 3 Miss Rasinussfn now re: o.ved to become steady, rmd ' 1 / accordingly Mitt led down es nnUiner dressmaker ]

working for the shops and any procurable private < customers. Ono evening, coming home late from her t work, sho was arrested—at. least, this is the Copen- c hagen story—by the sight of a fire, and with wonted 1 '•nergy ranged herself among tho human chain of as- t sisfants whoso hands passed the pails of water from s •lie canal to the fire engine. 81ie bad not been there ( long when sho perccived that a gentleman opposite, f likewise busy in handing pales, stared very hard at 1 her, as if trying to recognise an acquaintance. She 1 recognised him nt once; it was his Royal Highness 1 Prince Frederick, heir to tho throne of Denmark. < Tho conflagration being subdued, Prince Frederick gallantly offered his arm to accompany Miss Ras- ( inussen to her humble lodgings, and, in a few months after, sho found herself insiallcd in n pretty little i villa 011 the island of Aimtger, from which, at the t end of a year, she migrated to a larger mansion, with 1 numerous servants about her. Here she had the I •nil is facl ion of lea ruing thedivorse of Prince Frederick 1 from his second wife, after a union of five years, t Princess Caroline returned to Mecklenburg-Strclitz, i and Louise Pasmur.s'en was dot lared favorite in litre. : King Christian YIIL di ed 011 the 20th January, 1 IS4B, and the same day his son ascended to the I throne as Frederick VII. Oiio of his first, acts was 1 to elevate Louise liasimissou to the rank of Paroness Danncr, which title was advanced soon after to that of Countess. The matter created some discontent at first among the people ; but was judged less severely when it was found that the royal favourite used j whatever influence she possessed for the benefit of the nation. Besides, the King loudly declared more than once I ban he would prefer a thousand times giving up his tbronethan a separation from his friend. The Countess Danncr became almost bis solo adviser, and her influence grew to such an extent, that, she was able to persuade the King to make her bis lawful wife. The .more announcement of the intention created a storm of indignation throughout the country, leading to protests on all parts, and to strong ■ remonstrances from the ministers; nevertheless, Frederick YIT. was not to be shaken in his purpose, and on the 7th of Atig'usf, ISSO, be gave bis hand, in the church of Fredericksburg, io Louise Rasinussen. A short while alter the King, with his consort, visited the southern provinces of Denmark, and being rather coldly received at one place, his Majesty made a very frank speech' at a banquet given to his honour. He lold the guests that though a king he had by no means given up his privileges as a man to marry the women he loved best, and that, in the place in which he stood, he looked upon his present wife as the only true friend he possessod in the world. The speech, repeated from mouth to mouth, created a profound j sensation, and gradually extinguished the ill-feeling against the Countess. At a iaicr period she was again censured for giving herself too much the airs of a real Queen ; but the reproach was deemed venial, in view of what was generally acknowledged—(hat she was, indeed, the devoted friend and consort, of her royal husband. She alone succeeded in chasing the spirit of profound dejection which settled upon the King in the later years of his life, under the burden of physical and mental sufferings, as well as political I cares. Frederick VII. was thus enable to become what even his pei-sonal enemies do not dispute—the best monarch Denmark has bad these hundred years.