PRINCESS WHO ELOPED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18565, 24 November 1923, Page 7 (Supplement)

PRINCESS WHO ELOPED.

royal romance recalled. KING LEOPOLD'S DAUGHTER. FLIGHT WITH AN OFFICER. With the death of Count Geza de Mattachich in a small Paris hotel comes the end of the Royal romance which 20 years ago caused consternation and scandal in several Courts in Europe. On a fine morning in the spring t>f 1895, Count Mattachich, an officer its the Austrian Imperial Guard, stopped in the Prater of Vienna a runaway carriage and pair in which was Princess Louise, eldest daughter of the late King Leopold of Belgium and wife of Prince Philip of Saxo Coburg Got ha.

They Jell in love, and two years later eloped during the Royal ball given in Vienna.

The Courts of *Vienna, Brussels, and Berlin —for the Princess was closely allied with the German Royal family—tried at once to hush the matter up. The couple were hunted down, and the Princess was declared to he insane. She was placed in an asylum, and was constantly removed from place to place. Count Mattachich was charged with forgery and imprisoned. -After four years' of captivity he was released, 'and his first thought was to save the Princess. For years he prepared his plans, for the constant changing of her place of confinement made the attempt difficult. But in 1904 he traced her to a watering place in Germany, and, with great daring, succeeded in taking her from under the eyes of her guardians. The couple at once fled to France, but. since then their life had been a precarious one, the Princess always living in hopes that r.he would receive her portion of the estate left by her father. This was sequestrated after the death of King poldThey travelled about the Continent living humbly, and a few weeks ago went to Paris incognito. It was in a small hotel that the count became seriously ill. The Princess remained with him to the end, true to the vow they took so many years ago when they braved the wrath of three Courts and eloped together. Now, heartbroken out still retaining at the ago of 65, some of the majesty and nobleness of demeanour which formerly made her one of the beauties of European aristocracy, the Princess says she has nothing to live for. "He was all my life, she said, today I am without friends or money. I don't know what will become of me."