A ROMANTIC CAREER.

Colonist, Volume XV, Issue 1501, 13 February 1872, Page 4

A ROMANTIC CAREER.

MYSTERIES OF THE ENGLISH- COURT— A FORMER FAVORITE OF QUEEN VICTORIA'S SECOND SON.

Under the above heading the Hew Torh Sunday Ilercury prints the following extraordinary and sensational and very " American " story:—

Attached to the royal household of England, under the immediate supervision of the Mistress of the Kobes, six years since, was the charming daughter of n landed country gentleman named Bruce. Isabella Phillippa Bruce was about twenty years of age, and beautiful as Hebe. Rose-blooming cheeks and lovelanguishing eyes, added to a Grecian profile, recalled the heads of Canova. She was a blonde, like the Queen of Love, and, like her, possessed a superb form. In the summer of 1865, this creature disappeared from the court. It was notorious that she had many admirers, of whom some of the more favored wore her picture. It was also hinted that the Eoyal Sailor Duke looked on her with unmistakable admiration; but until the date of her sudden departure the breath of slander had not dulled the mirror of her fair fame. Then, however, Reynold's newspaper connected " a beautiful young lady of the court" with the second son of the Queen ; and that the young lady's disappearance and the royal scamp's prolonged cruise, found their common explanation in this circumstance. The scandal blew over without obtaining much crodence beyond the " radical" readers of the somewhat unscrupulous paper referred to. Circumstances, however, have lately arisen in this city by which can be traced the history of Miss Bruce subsequent to her absence from the court of St. James.

About the middle of August, 1865, a young lady arrived at the Lord Warden Hotel, at Dover, by the night train. She was accompanied by her maid, and bad a large quantity of luggage. Next morning a young gentleman arrived at tha hotel, and sending up his card was ushered into the lady's prtsence. During the forenoon two other gentlemen arrived, and at 12 o'clock p.m. a wedding was solemnised at St. Paul's Church. That evening Mr. and Mrs. Frederick F. Wake and the maid crossed the channel to Franco and proceeded to* Paris. During their sojourn in the Gallic capital, Mr. Wake received large remittances of money. The couple lived in comparative privacy, and seldom mixed with the guests at (he Hotel de Lille et d'Albion, where they resided. To have been so shortly married, Mr. and Mrs. Wake were a remarkably cool couple, and the lady seemed to regard her husband with ill-concealed contempt, seldom accompanying him in the streets or otherwise manifesting pleasure in his society.,. ; In the spring of 1866, this frigid pair received a large sum of money, accompanied by an intimation that the United States would be a desirable home for them. As if neither of them had any will of their own, the couple took passage to New York, where they resided for eight months on the most unhappy terms, occupying separate apartments, and otherwise comporting themselves like a thoroughly estranged couple. During a visit to Niagara Falls, Mrs. Wake formed the acquaintance of a Mr. and Mrs. Dixon, of Chicago, and was in the habit of accompanying them in walks and excursions in the neighborhood. The Dixons were much fascinated with the English beauty. She was so melancholy and so gentle, so considerate, and so obliging, yot with that piquancy, that engaging manner which so often turns the heads of susceptible good-for-nothing men. To John M. Dixon her eye was that of a repentant Magdalen, with the half-smothered smile of a Venus Aphrodite. Calm and beautiful as the young Bwan, she proved a dangerous companion for the Chicago man, who Boon began to think and dream more of her than of his wife.

Mr. Wake wns surprised, when one morning during their sojourn at Niagara, his wife expressed a wish to reside in Chicago instead of New York during the approaching autumn and winter. -Her word was law, and they removed to the G-arden City! A wonderful transformation came over her in the Wostern city. From being'moody and reserved, she was full of vivacity, and her face when in company was wreathed with smiles. Her beauty became daz: zling, and her form was erect, graceful and statueiiqut as that of the antique Diana. Mr. and Mra. Dixoii were her warmest friends, and in th^ir society

" Her talk was like a stream that runs With rapid change from rocks to roses 5 It slipped from politics to puns, It pussed from Mohammed to Moses." A deoree of divorce from a Chio&go Court 100 c

separated them. Since then the poor victim has led a wretohed and dissipated', life on his income regularly remitted from England. Isabella went to reside at the Sherman House when she procured her divorce, without any ostensible means of paying for her board. She never asked her late husband fora farthing, and exactly how she contrived to live in luxury or what she proposed to do in the future, passed Frederick's comprehension. The plot, however, unfolded when it was known that Mr. J. M. Dixon was also applying for a divorce from his wife Julia. The decree was granted, and the marriage of Isabella to Dixon followed. The court butterfly now burst from the reserve which had characterized her since her slight mishap, and flaunted in all the pride of a full-blown Venus. Her husband and she lived unhappily together. His habits were those of a midnight rioter, and Bella was chagrined to discover that her charms failed to keep him by her Bide. Meantime Bhe numbered among her visitors and sympathisers a handsome | bachelor named Fuller, who regarded her with feelings akin to adoration. He knew all the particulars of her divorce, and had also contrived to pump the divorced and dissipated Wake respecting the histor ■ of his married life in England. While in his cups that unfortunate wretch freelj confided the whole story, and of the influence that induced him to marry her in Dover, together with the spicy particulars respecting her and the Royal Sailor Duke. Possessing this precise information, Fuller's power over Bella will at once become manifest. He advised her to procure a divorce from Dixon. He offered to pay the expenses of the decree and to produce the requisite testimony ; and when once free, he offered to marry her himself. To all of which Bella smilingly assented, and sometimes clasping her hands called him her " preserver," and her "darling," and other honeyed terms of endearment. It was soon ascertained that Mr. Dixon had not the slightest objection to her procuring a decree, provided he waa not bothered nor put to expanse. And so Mason Fuller labored like a beaver in working up her suit, paying the fees and expenses, and receiving the lady's smiles as a reward. At the same time she was playing a most perfidious part towards this young mau." While she received his addresses, and allowed him to spend money in procuring hexlegal freedom, she was secretly favoring the attentions of a pretentious Englishman named Walters, who had served in a cavalry regiment in Britain, and fought during the war in this country. His pictures represent a tall robust John Bull-looking beef-eater, with black mutton-chop whiskers, a fierce moustache, Roman nose, formidable teeth, and a chest protruding like a trumpet pigeon's. While enacting this double dealing the fair Bella was " Beyond all contradiction, The most sincere that ever dealt in fiction." The evening after the decree was in her possession, Mason Fuller and she sat up till two o'clock in the morning, picturing the happiness that would be theirs after their nuptials. They both agreed that it would be advisable to absent themselves from Chicago while their union was solemnised, and during the honeymoon; and in order that suspicion should be allayed, it was arranged that she should leave the city a week previous to him, and wait at Detroit, where the marriage was to take place. Accordingly, her baggage was quietly despatched to the station by a paid agent of Fuller's, and the lady herself departed on a night train. Two days after he was surprised to receive from her a letter announcing her determination never to see him again, alleging that he had in an • unmanly manner pried into the history of her early life. He was astounded, and at first he imagined that the excitement of her divorce suit had produced a temporary aberration of her intellect. Losing no necessary time, he at once started in pursuit, and in Detroit succeeded in identifying her at an hotel, under the protection of a gentleman who signed himself Captain Walters, and with whom she had started next morning for the East. Fuller was puzzled beyond measure; but he still adhered to his idea of temporary insanity, and followed in hot pursuit. At the Osborne House, Rochester, he again struck her trail, and still the names were Mrs. Wake and Captain Walters. In New York he ran the pair to cover in a hotel where they are at present sojourning ; now, however, they designate themselves " Captain Walters and wife." Fuller tried to force himself into the lady's presence, without success—her huge bearded Cerberus was too formidable a guard j but he proceeded to tbe office of a well-known lawyer, and relating the facts of the case as given above, desired to know if he had any legal recourse to punish the false fair one under the aggravating circumstances. He was ndvised to let her severely alone.

Mr. Fuller appeared to be one who in his narrative neither extenuated nor spoke in malice. He was a large sufferer by the Chicago fire —having neither deeds nor insurance—and he now regards the fate that kept him from marrying the beauty of St. James's particularly auspicious. Mr. Fuller relates that he observed Bella in gorgeous attire in a Broadway window, engaged in watching the triumphant entry of Grand Duke Alexis.