MAD KING’S ROMANCE.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 5628, 4 January 1917, Page 6

MAD KING’S ROMANCE.

FORTY YEARS IN AN ASYLUM. Tlie recent death of the smad King Otto of Bavaria recalls one of the most pitiful dramas of modern tory. King Otto was a king in name only; he was never crowned, and never sat on the throne which was his by right. For over forty years this unhappy monarch was confined to a madhouse, and never once did he realise he was the ruler of a kingdom. The history of the Royal House of Bavaria for several generations has 1 afforded a striking lesson of the dreadful results of wild and vicious living. It shows' that even all the power and wealth of kngs cannot avert th e awful consequences of an evil life. King Otto’s grandfather was cojmpelled to abdicate on account of his shameless intrigues and escapes. His successor, the mad King's brother, who had a career no less profligate and notorious, ended •his life bfci eomlmjitting suicido, drowning himself in th e lake in the grounds of his palace of Berg in 1886. —Smoked tnciessahtjfy.— Otto when a boy was very eccentric. It was not until about the tiime when the German people became one nation that his medical condition attracted serious attention. Then he particularly distinguished himself by leading a regiment entrusted to him by the “Grey Kaiser” in a spirited attack upon—a wall 1

A lengthy tour through Spain and Italy brought no improvement to his disordered mind, and eventually he found himself confined in the loneiy Schlo.ss Furstenried. Her e he brooded and smoked incessantly, the unconscious recipient of regai honours. He occupied a suite of apartments the doors of which as well as the outer door leading into the garden, were always left open in the daytime, for the insane King could not bear the sight of a closed 1 door. He seejmed suspicious of restraint, and liis attendants hid all appearance of authority over his movements. —Pathetic Love Affair. —

At times, however, he became conscious of what was due to his rank. On one occasion he administered a sharp and wholly unexpected rebuke to a physician who lighted a cigar without permission in the Royal presence. The King was always dressed in black. His beard was very long and thick, and he would not allow it to be tripnmed. He often washed his hands and face, but could be seldom persuaded to take a bath.

He was passionately fond of cigarettes and smoked more than forty a day. Every tifrne he lighted one he burned a whole box of matches, and seemed to enjoy the noise and flame. He had a remarkably good appetite arid had a great weakness for campagne, which was brought to him whenever the physician gave the assenting sign'.

He did not recognise even his own servants, except an old woman who had charge of the silver. He had known her all his life. She used to carry him in her arms when he was a baby, and it was touching to see how the last faint rays of his fading intelligence rested upon her alone. When he saw her he called her by name, and ordered lier to bring him whatever he happened to fancy-, usually strong beer. In a moment he forgot what he had said and relapsed into bis usual state of apathy. This mad King had a love romance, which lie never seemed to forget.

Manv years ago three ladies and a man rode out to Wiesbaden one sunny morning in the early summer to picnic in the woods that clothe the bills above the town. They were a merry party, and the ladies were young and extremely pretty. As they sat chatting and laughing, two gen ti dm on, one in uniform and one in mufti, rode past and then stopped at a little distance. Returning one of the gentlemen explained who bis companion was. and asked permiss:on to join the party. They were soon on friendly terms, and one of the. men particularly handsome, was very much struck with the prettiest of the girls, tlie young Countess von L. Suddenly she stretched out her hand and, pulling three wild straw-

berries from a plant, she offered them to the l man, who graciously accepted thejm. At the time when the doctors pronounced King Otto insane it was reported from Switzerland that the Countess von L, had suddenly disappeared from society and entered a nunnery. Fairly sunimer every year tiha mad King insisted on goning to the woods at Furstenried and picking wild strawberries. Perhaps he re(membered with his poor numbed brain the day he spent at Wiesbaden long ago, when he was young and happy and his mind clear and strong, and no doubt he had tender recollections of a beautiful girl who now existed only in a madman’s dreaims.