BISMARCK'S LOVES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14225, 23 November 1909, Page 3

BISMARCK'S LOVES.

A new Bismarck biography written by Professor Erich Marck contains interesting revelations regarding the Iron Chancellor's youthful loves. It was " a charming English girl," described by. Professor Marck as a Miss Russell, who belonged to the "high* est English aristocracy," to whom the young statesman first paid ardent court and to whom -he was at one time engaged. Bismarck was twenty-two years old, and had just mounted the first rung of the Prussian bureaucratic ladder as a " referendar" at Aix-la-Chapelle.

He met Miss Russell at Wiesbaden in 1836 in the company of her uncle and aunt, " the Duke and Duchess of C." The young people's acquaintance was renewed in 1837, and on that occasion Bismarck made no secret of his tender fondness for " the British blonde of unusual beauty."

Bismarck is said by his biographer to have been so devoted to Miss Russell that he neglected pressing official duties to,follow her to Switzerland, and a Betrothal " appears actually to have taken place." Bismarck is said to have exceeded his leave from official duties by two months. Then, remembering that he was a Prussian Civil Servant, he wrote from Berne to his superiors begging humbly for forgiveness. Shortly afterwards the engagement to the " irresistible English miss" was broken off, " when, where, or why," writes Marck, " no r body seems ever to have heard." But Bismarck took it much to heart, and his biographer tells of letters and incidents to prove that for a long time he was melancholy and depressed.