LOVE BROUGHT SORROW.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18657, 13 March 1924, Page 7

LOVE BROUGHT SORROW.

< - % t*\~* "f/" <-*' * ; BELGIAN PRINCESS DIES. •' . : «( ' LONDON/'Mar. 2. Princess Louise of Belgium, whose elope-" ment with an Austrian count made a sensation in 1897, has died, says the Wiesbaden correspondent of the Weekly Pispatch.. *" ; ~\ : y :■■■_ ; ■On a fine morning in the spring of 1897, '* 1 Count 'Mattachiqh,_an offieer of th&Apa- . - trian Imperial Guard, -stopped? in . -tKe,, - Vienna Prater a runaway carriage • , and 1 pair, in which was princess Louise, eldest' daughter of the late King Leooold .of 'Bel- ( giumj, and wife of Prince Philip of Saxe- V Coburg-Gotha,' They feU in Joye, and two yearg later • eloped ■ during the, royal * ball « given iin Vienna. ' The courts „ Vienna, Brussels, and Berlin, tried to hush r the matter up. The couple were hunted' down, and tffie Princess was declared to be insane. She was placed in an asylum, ! and eonst|ntlv moved from place to , Count Mattachich was -charged) with' forgery and "imprisoned. * After four . years . 1 he was' released, and his| firsf"thought, 1 was to save the Princess. -' For years ho"| failed -in his ~ attempts, ' but ; : ih-1904 >.heUtraced her to a; German„ watering-place _ „ and daringly carried her off under , the eyes 'of her guardians. They- 1 fled'to. , •France, and after years of poverty th<»'" Count died in Paris. His wife remained with him till the end. and declared that she had nothing more ,to live for." ' He , as all my"life/',, she said recently when;' 65 ' years old. * "To-day I sin without friends or money." *" '