I reject mother's tearful reproaches--I beard Prince George in his lair despite whining chamberlains--I tell him what I think of him, and he becomes frightened--Threatens madhouse--"I dare you to steal my children"--I win my point--and the children--"Her Imperial Highness regrets"--Lots of forbidden literature--Precautions against intriguing Grand Mistress--The affair with Henry--was it a flower-covered pit to entrap me?--Castle Stolpen and some of its awful history 291

CHAPTER LVII

I CONFESS TO PAPA

King Albert dies and King George a very sick man--Papa's good advice--"You will be Queen soon"--A lovely old man, very much troubled 301

CHAPTER LVIII

MONSIEUR GIRON--RICHARD, THE ARTIST

The King asks me to superintend lessons by M. Giron--A most fascinating man--His Grecian eyes--He is a painter as well as a teacher--In love--Careless whether I am caught in my lover's arms--"Richard" talks anarchy to me--Why I don't believe in woman suffrage--Characters and doings of women in power 305

CHAPTER LIX

THE PEOPLE THINK ME A WANTON

Credit me with innumerable lovers, but don't disapprove--Glad the King feels scandalized--Picture of the "she-monster"--Everybody eager for love--I delight in Richard's jealousy--Husband's indelicate announcement at table--I rush from the royal opera to see my lover--A threatening dream--Richard not mercenary like my n.o.ble lovers 309

CHAPTER LX

THE DAY OF JUDGMENT LOOMS UP

My Grand Mistress shows her colors--Richard advises flight--I hesitate on account of my children--My Grand Mistress steals a letter from Richard to me--I opine that an adulteress's word is as good as a thief's--I humble my Grand Mistress, but it won't do me much good--Pleasant hours at his studio 317

CHAPTER LXI

A MAD HOUSE FOR LOUISE--PROBABLY

My confidential maid, Lucretia, is banished--The new King has got the incriminating letter, but Frederick Augustus says nothing--On the eve of judgment the King falls ill 321

CHAPTER LXII

KING'S ILLNESS A BOON TO LOVERS

Prayers mixed with joy--Espionage disorganized, and I can do as I please--Love-making in the school-room--Buying a ring for Richard--"Wishing it on"--"Our marriage"--King's life despaired of--My tormentors obsequious--Smile at my peccadilloes--Husband proud of me--My popularity a great a.s.set--Frederick Augustus delighted when he hears that King can't last long--The joyous luncheon at Richard's studio--Making fun of majesties--I expect to be Queen presently 325

CHAPTER LXIII

WHAT I WILL DO WHEN I AM QUEEN

A foretaste: t.i.tled servants put me _en route_ for lover--The bargain I will propose to Frederick Augustus--Frederick Augustus will be a complaisant King--To revive _Pet.i.t Trianon_--I am addressed as Queen 331

CHAPTER LXIV

THE KING IS ALIVE AND PUNISHMENT NEAR

My queenship postponed--King George publicly acclaimed--Cuts me dead in church--Frederick Augustus's disappointment--Terrible power of a king over his family, and no appeal--I am like the nude witch of old 335

CHAPTER LXV

FISTICUFFS DON'T SAVE MY CROWN

The attempted theft of my Diary--Grand Mistress discovered after breaking open my desk--Reading Diary like mad--Personal encounter between me and Grand Mistress--I am the stronger, and carry off the ma.n.u.script, but have to leave all my love letters, which go to the King--I discover that they had stolen the key to my Diary from my neck 339

CHAPTER LXVI

ABANDONED

My t.i.tled servants withdraw from me--An old footman my sole support--Queen takes the children--Old Andrew plays spy for me 343

CHAPTER LXVII

FAMILY COUNCIL AT CASTLE

Rendezvous at studio--State takes my children from me--Madhouse or flight--I brought fifty-two trunks to the palace--Depart with small satchel--If I attempt to see my children I'll be seized as "mad woman"--Varying emotions of the last ten minutes--Threatening shadows thrown on a curtain decide me--Ready for flight--Diary the last thing to go into the satchel 345

[Ill.u.s.tration: FROM LOUISE'S DIARY]

THE STORY OF LOUISE, CROWN PRINCESS OF SAXONY

CHAPTER I

MOTHERHOOD

A sterile Royal Family once fruitful--Diary true record of self--Long legs of Countess Solms--A child only because he can't help it--Wet nurse to Socialist brat--Royal permit for nursing--Royal negligee talk--A Saxon failing.

CASTLE WACHWITZ, _February 17, 1893_.

I did my duty towards the Saxons. I gave them a Prince. The Royal House ought to be grateful to me:--I am helping to perpetuate it. Who would, if I didn't? My sister-in-law, Princess Mathilde, is an old maid. The other, Maria Josepha, as sterile as Sarah was before she reached the nineties. This applies also to Isabelle, the wife of brother-in-law, John-George. And Prince Max, tired of ballet girls, is about to take the soutane.

There is just one more royal Saxon princess, Elizabeth, and she succeeded in having children neither with her husband _de jure_, the late Duke of Genoa, nor with her husband-lover, Marquis Rapallo.

Louise, then, is the sole living hope of the royal Saxons that, only 160 years ago, boasted of a sovereign having three hundred and fifty-two children to his credit, among them not a few subsequently accounted geniuses. Augustus, the Physical Strong (1670 to 1733), was the happy father, the _Mareshal de_ Saxe one of his numerous gifted offspring.

Alas, since then the House of Wettin has declined not in numbers only.

Poor baby is burdened with ten names in honor of so many ancestors. Why, in addition, they want to call him "Maria" I cannot for the life of me understand, for there never was a Saxon princess or queen that amounted to a row of pins.

I wonder whether they will say the same of me after the crown of the Wettiners descended upon my brow. Those so inclined should consult these papers ere they begin throwing stones, for my Diary is intended to contain my innermost thoughts, my ambitions, my promises for the future, _Myself_, and let no one judge me by what I say other than what is recorded here.

These pages are my Father Confessor. I confess to myself,--what a woman in my position says to members of her family or official and semi-official persons--her servants, so to speak--doesn't signify, to borrow a phrase from my good cousin, the Kaiser Wilhelm.