The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 16, 1901, Page 1

June 1—The kingdom of to a hubbub ago by the mat- nation of its Sas theoen it saw the esumy to the throne of the nopleman nge hap- = that the ma est . ¢ strung- : ™MAY BE - UCCEEDED BYY AN GilRE SCARDENSS OSF THE PAlL . AcCE. io Pt $133855; i e L EY TS AT TACHED TO PITTI PALACE, BALL RooM IN PITTL PALACE, ./ er?, for they have exzacted .ne greacest price and risk. Thus it would appear that time writes no wrinkles, but simply rivets chains. All this, except any exaggerated ma- turity of charms, has very much to do with the past and present of a story (the substantial truth of which ‘can be amply suaranteed) that T am going to tell about a yourg lady, for if a further delay ensue it may only strengthen the possibilities of a still more singulat union during the twentieth century. \ Long before the period when the inter- ests of hymen were being declared para- mount over those of rovalty and nation- ality among these different races and in these different countries it was already whispered in Italy that a Prince of the blood had lost his heart to a lady whom, though she was commendable in every Wway, he could not easily and convenieatly marry. His heart had gone in the way wherein the hearts of all these roval and imperfal persons had gone; would he have the courage to be led by it? Would his feelings draw him to the uttermost con- clusion? Over all obstacles? It has not vet been decided. that he will, though he does not lack courage, for he is the valor- ous Count of Turin. But his ideal is not any Madame de Maintenon, of eclassic age and compelling winsomeness withal, though ke has loved her for long—I am telling the story a% it is whispered—but one of those refreshing and inspiring tyres of voung ‘women such as will be found, strikingly depicted by Mrs. Humphry Ward in “Eleanor.” The story is that the Prince fel! under the sway of this lady love some time ago: that the passing of months has matured the charm thén cast over him, perhaps t1. the magic point of invincibility, and that what was simply nature at the first has proved to be doubly such by custom. BEut the lady is a commoner, merely of civil condition, so the Prince is one of the most romantic lovers of our own or any other age and place. Unhappy in the bliss of his rovalty and greatness, in the ideal grandeur of his residence at the Pitti Palace and tge surrounding gardens of Baboli, even as the blessed Damozel, who— Leaned out From the gold bar of heaven: TWho, unsatisfied and forever loving with- cut reanital and honing without sure hope. pined away in the very courts of heaven and, desperate amid consummate bliss— Cast her arms along The zolden barriers, And lald her face between her hands and wept. But the Prince’s manhood is of stern stuff. obviously as unlike as possible to the soft womanhood of the ‘figure in the poem of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and in the painting of Burne Jones. but adaman- tine even in ecrinarison with the virility of the lover for whom St. Damozel yearned in haradise; He is a duelist. and this- we mav onlv: inanpropriately faney the blessed Damozel's lover to have been; rot merely a brilliant swordsman but ef- fectively a duelist and. as it chances in a history-making way, one who has add- ed.a modern chanter ‘to the storv of the sfida. or combat Detween Ttalian and French heroes. at- Barletta, which Mas- simo d'Azeglio has made popular and, maybe, immorta! in his romance. “When, after the rout of Adowa, Prince * Henry-cf Orleens had told in the Paris newspaper to which he was acting as spe- olal - foeretgn - corresnondent some *storiés which reflected rather unkindly on the valor, or better, on the Snartan endur- ance of the Italian prisoners detained at the court of the Abyssinlan Negus Ne- gestl, a tide of indignation quickly rose and seethed throughout all Ttaly and challenges infinite were sent across the border te the.brav' nation. It was all, ‘we must confess, an unspeakably foolish affdir, but that is not our concern here. Either the discernment of the friends of the Ttalian monarchy or merely the im- petuous patriotism of the young Prince seized the occasion and turned it to gold- en' advantage. His swordsmanship did the rest. He was in France before it nad been brulted that he had challenged the asperser of the fallen warriors of Italy. He was on the appointed field at sunrise before his whereabouts in France had be- eome knowi. He left Prince Heury, who, fnGy e n, well nigh mor- ned to Italy a hists. If not with who fight—the on of Aduelists r still, with by the way, w~s his con tally woundes and re hero with the mon: all the nation, with new Italy Is largely —and, most of all and those for whom men t He is vourg, at least for one who har- bors an old love renuted to be of the un- g kind which time only inflames in its passing, for he was born on November 24, 1870. Like his elder brother, the Duke of Aos and his ye er brother, the Duke Abruzzi, he manly beari d ple: g appearanc An ideal lover in all respects is Vittorio Emanuele d! Saveia ed Aosta, Cou Turin. hen the romance n to be s nected, toward the end of the reign o King Humbert, the to the Ttalian throne was it off- spring. Of the three fated sovereign only one, Aosta, was married. He was born in 1869, but had been married severa) vears. The Duke of Abruzzi was born in and his not belng married could then, as now, be accounted for by his ycuth and by his all- absorbing love of the sea, adventure and travel. His expe: n in search of the nerth vole affords a reason which all will understand. Why, then, is the second brother still unmarried and un ned by serious rumor, as far as privcely matc and marriage are concerned writing another idle to be exploded. The ex 1 found in the foct related, that—I will not say now and here, th it was in San Fran & few years ago he lost his heart to one of those American beauties who bave come, one by one, to don every kind of European coronet, and wha, were it only by a zeperal Inw of evolution and an in- evitable law of nature, must be destined at last to wear crowns. This is a dear American girl, who s known as the daughter of a s tinction: who here, not insienificantly. however, under the letters, “Miss R— of F— " and be- ing the daughter of an American hero only ton zood for any prince who were worthy of her. even though he were a hero in fact as well as by noblesse oblige, and of his vlace in a family of sovereign princes whe have been creatine m: h thelr good broadswords for eight centuries. All will belleve that if the chivalrous Count had had way it would already have been even so, and the young Ameri- can lady would be wearing the insignia of royalty as a Princess of the blood, but the late King, his uncle, as the head of the national army. had a special purchase on the Toyal princes, and, worst of all, legal command of the civil list, and when he learned of what he feared might soon become an infatuation he recalled his nephew to a sense of duty. The Prince, accerding to report, refuses to look on beauty or to accept comfort, seemingly walting, like the strong man that he s, to give a chance and a hand to fortune, and to see if it will work out his ideal fate sweetly and strongly. But his Roya! Highness cannot be said to have made his romance wait upon op- portunity, for it was only in the last pe- riod of the reign of the deceased King that the story began to circulate, and the political situation since the date of the King's death has been one of arrest, a sort of general suspension of affairs of state. What will he do now? Tt Is not even dreamed, still less imagined, that he has obtained the new King's consent. Tt is not likely that he is possessed of enor- mous private wealth, nor that, In the case of a transgression of etiq , he would be able to retain his allowance on the efvil list, which is in the King's keeping. But no true lover ever stopped very long to consider such material difficy some rumors current in ei nd aristogratic were to ¢ fairy tale may be acted later in the twentieth century. One definite and circumstantial hope he bas. The conflict between Pontificate and the T most invincible difficul suitable marriages for Thev must rot we would allenmte the favor gious population and imp of their common intere: to - induce | Protestant ro change their religion, and the pr of royal rank belonging to the o religion are not ny. The roy cesses of the British emvire h tracted marriages with memt nobility. - Mizht there mnot zbandonment of tra case of an Italian roy on’ the. other hand. a younger King, and one not an uncle, but a cousin and a brother, fratello-cuzino as Italian speech has it, ills the throne, and Victor Emmanuel ITI, who Is the head of the house of Savoy as we!l as of the Italian state, though he is rigid and lo| nse he is such, may on than King Humbert ere is some further hovef: n the fact that the sov: is not only young but himsel marriage with a Montenegrin s, who entered the npapal fold in order to become his wif and that the love match thus effected is popular with the Italians as such. So young a King, happy in a strange and romantic union, may not be inflexible. So the Prince may take heart of grace. And as he is near of kin an American beauty may become Queen of Italy some day witkin tbe space of @ geuecration be described