Princess's Elopement.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13655, 25 July 1908, Page 3 (Supplement)

Princess's Elopement.

HOW DETECTIVES WERE EVADED. The following details concerning tie flight of the Princess Amelie, of i<eurslCTberg Koenigshof, and Heir -Koczian from Vienna to Switzerland: were recently telegraphed from Lucerne. The elopement was quickly carried out. and cleverly planned, and the couple 'got ahead" of the '• detectives by about hall a' dav. Taking the most direct route to Switzerland jand travelling, as tourists .m an ordinary first-class coach, the Princess, Hen- Koc7.ia.ll, and the hitter's mother, took the Vennia Zurish express and had barely crossed the frontier when the detectives arrived from the Austrian capital and searched every train for the fugitives. Perhaps, to this day, the whereabouts of the Princess would not have been known had she nob gone to Zurich on. a shopping cureion with her fiancee, and the couple were recognised there by two Vienna -detectives returning home from France. ; While these detectives were > trying to discover the hotel in Zurich that the couple occupied, the Princess returned to Lucerne.

The fugitive.? at firet felt very unsure of ,their legal position in this country, and' it was only on being assured by a German lawyer, Dr. Seligg (who is now their legal adviser) that the Princess and her lover were perfectly free to do as they chose that they took life more easily, and appeared in public. Then followed a week of enjoyment, the " fugitives" having no callers or journalists to worry them, and spending the time on the "lake and in visiting the beauty spots around aud above Lucerne. The proprietor of the Victoria. Hotel, who was let into the secret, greatly aided the lovers by giving no information to journalists. "At the end of the week the Princess wrote to her mother, again explaining that she was determined.to marry the man she loved, and received a reply to the effect that her mother would not give her contest to the marriage. The princess then appealed to her brothers, the elder of whom arrived from London at Lucerne, and asked his sister to come and see him, refusing, -it is stated, to .meet Her'r Koczian. who returned the following day with his mother to the Victoria Hotel.

lb is highly probable, however, that the Princess, who has " a will of her own," will be married to Herr Kocziaii, in spite of every opposition, and that the ceremony will take, place ab Lucerne, where the Princess has been purchasing her seau. She is well supplied with funds, and lias opened an accounb with a Swiss bank. The princess' also comes into a portion of her father's fortune on 'her-marriage, and this fortune is nob hedged.-with, any restrictions. Koczian's pupens- are in order, and as the Princess only requires a birth certificate to fulfil the-'conditions of the Swiss law as regards marriage, there is no obstacle to the ceremony in this country, for no " political pressure" has any effect in Switzerland.