STRANGE ROMANCE OF WAR.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14567, 1 April 1918, Page 5

STRANGE ROMANCE OF WAR.

AUSTRIAN BARON'S HEIR IS CHILD OF ENGLISH GIRL. LONDX, Feb. 16. A romantic and true story is told of the love of the son of an Austrian millionaire baron for an English girl, his death on the battlefield, and the result of the .search of the baron m London for the mother of his son's child. In 1913 there was living m London the only son of a well-known Austrian baron. His father is a millionaire with extensive estates m his own country, and the boy, whose age was under twenty-one, had been sent to England to finish his education.

: The boy (whom we will call Franz) made the acquaintance of a young girl of respectable family who was employed as "toucher" m a photographer's shop. The acquaintance ripened and the young couple desired, to be married. "This, unfortunately, was out of the question, for the boy's status as an Austrian-sub-ject required that he should obtain the consent of his father, he being under age. In these circumstances the inevitable happened, and m July, 1914, Franz and big .sweetheart, pseudonymously here called 1 'CSoeiyy ' had " anticipated wedlock and were living together with a small son.

A fortnight before tho outbreak oi war Franz received his recall to join the army of his country, and .when war broke out he was sent with his regiment to the Russian front, where it is understood that ho fought bravely m Galicia. '

In one of the fights on that front he was mortally wounded and entrusted to a comrade a letter to his father, narrating the story of his love, stating that he regarded Cicely as his wife, which she would have been but for the Austrian laws, and asking his father to take care of her and their infant son.

The baron ultimately received his .son's letter, took it as a communication from tho dead, and found hiis grief assuaged) by the discovery tliat he had! a grandson. Franz had been his only son, and it seemed! that with Jus death there would be no j heir to inherit the title and the enormous wealth, of the family. He determined to seek out Cicely, to accept her, as he was able to do under -Austrian laAV,.as his daughter-in-law, and thereby legitimatize tho child. \

With much difficulty a Dutch agent despatched to England succeeded .; m tracing the girl, who was living .ifr -a northern suburb of London and n)gintaining herself and her child' by working at a photographer's shop. She was found to be a preity, modest girl of 20 or 21, quite happy m her independence and unconcerned as to the greatness of her lover's family. She received: the baron's message, promising her an allowance and. expressing his desire to accept the child as bis legitimate heir, but she intimated that she desired no financial help, and was m. no concern about recognition. So the case now stands, and no steps can be taken about the legal status of the boy until after the war.