AN ILL-FATED MARRIAGE--_continued_
If anything could have restored happiness to Milan of Servia and his
Princess, Natalie, it should surely have been the birth of the
baby-Prince, Alexander, whom both equally adored and equally spoiled.
But, instead of linking his parents in a new bond of affection "Sacha"
was from his cradle the innocent cause of widening the breach that
severed them.
For a time, fortunately, Milan had little opportunity of continuing the
feud of recrimination with his high-spirited and hot-tempered spouse.
More serious matters claimed him. Servia was plunged into war with
Turkey, and his days were spent in camp and on the battlefield, until
the intervention of Russia put an end to the long and hopeless struggle,
and Milan found himself one February day in 1882, thanks to the Berlin
Conference, hailed the first King of his country, under the title of
Milan I.
Then followed a disastrous war with Bulgaria into which the headstrong
King rushed in spite of Natalie's warning--"Draw back, Milan, and have
no share in what will prove a bloody drama. You have no chance of
conquering, for Alexander is made of the stuff of the Hohenzollerns."
And indeed the struggle was doomed to failure from the first; for Milan
was no man to lead an army to victory. Read his method of conducting a
campaign, as described by one of his aides-de-camp--
"Our troops continue to retreat--I never imagined a campaign could be so
jolly. We do nothing but dance and sing and fiddle. Yesterday the King
had some guests and the champagne literally flowed. We had the Belgrade
singers, who used to delight us in the theatre-café. They sang and
danced delightfully. The last two days we have had plenty of fun, and
yesterday a lot of jolly girls came to enliven us." Such was Milan's
method of conducting a great war, on which the very existence of his
kingdom hung. Wine and women and song were more to his taste than forced
marches, strategy, and hard-fought battles. But once again foreign
intervention came to his rescue; and his armies were saved from
annihilation.
When his sword was finally sheathed, if not with honour, he returned to
Belgrade to resume his gambling, his dallyings with fair women--and his
daily quarrels with his Queen, whose bitterness absence had done nothing
to assuage. So far from Natalie's spirit being crushed, it was higher
and prouder than ever. She would die before she would yield; but she was
in no mood to die, this autocratic, fiery-tempered, strong-willed
daughter of Russia. She gave literally a "striking" proof of the spirit
that was in her at the Easter reception of 1886, when the wife of a
Greek diplomat--a beautiful woman, to whom her husband had been more
than kind--presented herself smilingly to receive the "salute courteous"
from Her Majesty. With a look of scorn Natalie coolly surveyed her rival
from head to foot; and then, in the presence of the Court, gave her a
resounding slap on the cheek.
But the Grecian lady was only one of many fair women who basked
successively (or together) in Milan's favour. A much more formidable
rival was Artemesia Christich, a woman as designing as she was lovely,
who was quick to envelop the weak King in the toils of her witchery. Not
content with his smiles and favours she aspired to take Natalie's place
as Queen of Servia; and, it is said, had extorted from him a promise
that he would make her his Queen as soon as his existing marriage tie
could be dissolved. And to this infamous compact Artemesia's husband, a
man as crafty and unscrupulous as herself, consented, in return for his
promotion to certain high and profitable offices in the State.
In vain did the Emperor and the Crown Prince of Austria, with many
another high-placed friend, plead with Milan not to commit such a folly.
He was driven to distraction between such powerful appeals and the
allurement of the siren who had him so effectually under her spell,
until in his despair he entertained serious thoughts of suicide as
escape from his dilemma. Meanwhile, we are told, "a perfect hell" raged
in the castle; each day brought its scandalous scene between his
outraged Queen and himself. His unpopularity with his subjects became so
acute that he was hissed whenever he made his appearance in the streets
of his capital; and Artemesia was obliged to have police protection to
shield her from the vengeance of the mob.
As for Natalie, this crowning injury decided her to bear her purgatory
no longer. She would force her husband to abdicate and secure her own
appointment as Regent for her son; or, failing that, she would leave her
husband and seek an asylum out of Servia. And with the object of still
further embittering his subjects against the King she made the full
story of her injuries public, and enlisted the sympathy, not only of
Milan's most powerful ministers, but of the entire country.
"The castle is in utter confusion," wrote an officer of the Belgrade
garrison, in October, 1886. "The King looks ill, and as if he never
slept. Poor fellow! he flies for refuge to us in the guard-house, and
plays cards with the officers. Card-playing is his worst enemy. He loves
it passionately, and plays excitedly and for high points--and he always
loses."
Matters were now hastening to a crisis. Hopelessly in debt, scorned by
his subjects, and hated by his wife, Milan's plight was pitiful. The
scenes between the King and the Queen were becoming more violent and
disgraceful every day. "There was no peace anywhere, nor did anyone
belonging to the Court enjoy a moment of tranquillity." So intolerable
had life become that, early in 1887, Milan decided to dissolve his
marriage; and it was only at the pleading of the Austrian Emperor that
he consented to abandon this design, on condition that his wife left
Servia; and thus it was that one day in April Queen Natalie left
Belgrade, accompanied by her son "Sacha," ostensibly that he might
continue his education in Germany.
But, although husband and wife were thus at last separated, Milan's
resolve to divorce her remained firm. "I have to inform you," he wrote
shortly after her departure, "that I have this day sent in my
application to our Holy National Church for permission to dissolve our
marriage." And that nothing might be lacking to Natalie's suffering and
humiliation, he sent General Protitsch to Wiesbaden with a peremptory
demand that his son, "Sacha," should return to Servia.
In vain did Natalie protest against both indignities. Milan might
divorce her; but at least he should not rob her of her son, the only
solace left to her in life. And when General Protitsch, seeing that
milder measures were futile, gave orders for the Prince to be removed by
force, the distracted mother flung one protecting arm round her boy;
and, pointing a loaded pistol with the other, threatened to shoot dead
the man who dared approach her.
Opposition, however, was futile; the following evening the boy-Prince
was in his father's arms, and the weeping mother was left disconsolate.
Thus robbed of her darling "Sacha," it was not long before the second
blow fell. The divorce proceedings were rushed through the Synod. A deaf
ear was turned to Natalie's petition to be allowed, at least, to defend
herself in person; and on the 12th October, 1888, the "marriage between
King Milan I. and Natalie, born Ketschko," was formally dissolved. Well
might this most unhappy of Queens write, "The position is embittered by
my conscience assuring me that I have neglected no duty, and that there
is not a single action of my life which could be cited against me as a
grave offence, or could put me to shame were it brought before the whole
world. My fate should draw tears from the very stones; but I do not ask
for pity; I demand justice."
If anything could have increased Milan's unpopularity it was this brutal
treatment of his Queen. The very men who, at his coronation, had taken
off their cloaks that he might walk on them, and the women who had
kissed his garments, now hissed him in the streets of his capital. In
his own Court he had no friend except the infamous Christitch; the
general hatred even took the form of repeated attempts on his life. If
he would save it, he realised he must abandon his crown; and one March
morning in 1889, after informing his ministers of his intention to
abdicate, he awoke his twelve-year-old son with the greeting, "Good
morning, Your Majesty!" Milan was no longer King of Servia; his son,
Alexander, reigned in his stead.
Probably no King ever laid down his crown more willingly. He had put
aside for ever his Royal trappings, with all their unhappy memories, and
their present discomforts and danger; but in distant Paris he knew a
life of new pleasure awaited him, remote from the wranglings of Courts
and the assassin's knife. And within a week of greeting his successor as
King, he was gaily riding in the Bois, attending the theatres, supping
hilariously with ladies of the ballet, or dining with his friends at
Verrey's "where his somewhat rough manner and coarse jokes (the legacy
of his swineherd ancestry) caused him sometimes to be mistaken for a
parvenu," until a waiter would correct the impression by a whispered,
"That gentleman with the dark moustache is Milan, ex-King of Servia."
While her husband was thus drinking the cup of Paris pleasure, his wife
was still doomed to exile from her kingdom and her son, with permission
only to pay two brief visits each year. But Natalie, who had so long
defied a King, was not the woman to be daunted by mere Regents. She
would return to Belgrade, and at least make her home where she could
catch an occasional glimpse of her boy. And to Belgrade she went, to
make her entry over flower-strewn streets, and through a tornado of
cheers and shouts of "Zivela Rufe!" It was a truly Royal welcome to the
great warm heart of the Servian people; but no official of the Court was
there to greet her coming, and as she drove past the castle which held
all she counted dear in life, not even the flutter of a handkerchief
marked the passing of Servia's former Queen.
Had she but played her cards now with the least discretion, she might
have been allowed to remain in Belgrade in peace. But Natalie seems
fated to have been the harbinger of storm. For a time, it is true, she
was content to lie _perdue_, entertaining her friends at her house in
Prince Michael Street, driving through the streets of her capital behind
her pair of white ponies, or walking with her pet goat for companion,
greeted everywhere with respect and affection. But her restless,
vengeful spirit, still burning from the indignities she had suffered,
would not allow her to remain long in the background. She threw herself
into political agitation, and thus brought herself into open conflict
with the Regents; she inaugurated a campaign of abuse against her
husband, whom she still pursued with a relentless hatred; and generally
made herself so objectionable to the authorities that the Skupshtina was
at last compelled to order her banishment.
When the deputies presented themselves before her with the decree of
expulsion, she laughed in their very faces, declaring that she would
only submit to force. "I refuse to go," she said defiantly, "unless I am
expelled by the hands of the police." A few hours later she was forcibly
removed from her weeping and protesting ladies, hurried into a carriage,
and driven off, with a strong escort of soldiers, on her journey to
exile.
But the good people of Belgrade, who had got wind of the proposed
abduction, were by no means disposed to look on while their beloved
Queen was thus brutally taken from them. When the cortège reached the
Cathedral Square, it was stopped by a formidable and menacing mob; the
escort, furiously assailed with sticks and showers of stones, was beaten
off; the horses were taken from the carriage, and the Queen was drawn
back in triumph by scores of willing hands, to her residence.
Natalie's victory, however, was short-lived. At midnight, when her
stalwart champions were sleeping in their beds, the police, crawling
over the roofs of the houses in Prince Michael Street, and descending
into the Queen's courtyard, found it a very simple matter to complete
their dastardly work. The Queen was again bundled unceremoniously into a
carriage, and before Belgrade was well awake, she was far on her way to
her new exile in Hungary. A few days later a formal decree of banishment
was pronounced against her, forbidding her, under any pretext whatever,
to enter Servia again without the Regent's permission.
Only once more did Natalie and Milan set eyes on each other--when the
ex-King presented himself at Biarritz, to bring her news of their son's
projected _coup d'état_, by which he designed to depose the Regents and
to take the reins of government into his own hands. Taken by surprise,
the Queen received Milan, but when she saw him standing before her, an
aged, broken man, her composure gave way. She could not speak; she
trembled like a leaf.
With Alexander's dramatic accession to his full Kingship a new, if
brief, era of happiness opened to Natalie. The Regents were no longer
able to exclude her from Servia, and by her son's invitation she
returned to Belgrade to resume her old position of Queen.
Still beautiful, in spite of all her suffering, she played for a time
the rôle of Queen-mother to perfection, holding her Courts, presiding at
balls and soirées, taking a prominent part in affairs of State, and
gradually acquiring more power than her easy-going son himself enjoyed.
At last, after long years of unrest and unhappiness, she seemed assured
of peaceful years, secure in the affection of her son and her people,
and far removed from the husband who had brought so much misery into her
life.
But Natalie was fated never to be happy long, and once more her evil
Destiny was to snatch the cup from her lips, assuming this time the form
of Draga Maschin, one of her own ladies-in-waiting, under the spell of
whose black eyes and voluptuous charms her son quickly fell, after that
first dramatic incident at Biarritz, when she plunged into the sea to
his rescue and saved him from drowning.
Many months earlier a clairvoyante at Paris had told Natalie, "Your
Majesty is cherishing in your bosom a poisonous snake, which one day
will give you a mortal wound." She had smiled incredulously at the
warning, but she was soon to learn what truth it held. Certainly Draga
Maschin was the last person she would have suspected of being a source
of danger--a woman many years older than her son, the penniless widow of
a drunken engineer--a woman, moreover, of whose life, before Natalie had
taken pity on her poverty, many strange stories were told--how, for
instance, she had often been seen in low resorts, "with the arm of a
forester or a tradesman round her, singing the old Servian songs."
But she had not taken into account Draga's sensuous beauty, before which
her son was powerless. Each meeting left him more and more involved in
her toils, until, to the consternation of Servia and the horror of his
mother, he announced his intention of making her his Queen. Even Milan,
degraded as he was, was horror-struck when the news came to him in
Paris. "And this," he exclaimed, "is the act of 'Sacha'--my own son. He
is a monster, a thing of evil in the eyes of all men! The Maschin will
be Queen of Servia. What a reproach! What an evil! A creature like her!
A sordid creature! Could he not have put aside his love for this
low-born woman? But I could never make the fool understand that a King
has duties; he has something else to think of but love-making."
When taking leave of the friend who had brought him this evil news Milan
said, "I shall never see Servia again. My experience has been a bitter
one--everywhere treachery and deceit. And now my own son--_that_ has
broken my heart." A few months later, worn out by his excesses,
prematurely old and broken-hearted, the man who had prostituted life's
best gifts drew his last breath at Vienna at the age of forty-six.
As for Natalie, this crowning calamity of her son's disgrace did more
than all her past sufferings to crush her proud spirit. But fate had not
yet dealt the last and most cruel blow of all. That fell on that fatal
June day of 1902 when her beloved "Sacha's" mutilated body was flung by
his assassins out of his palace window, to be greeted with shouts of
derisive laughter and cries of "Long live King Peter," from the dense
crowds who had come to gloat over this last scene in the tragedy of the
House of the Obrenvoie.
INDEX
Agenois, Duc, d', 284, 285
Aissé, Mlle, 221-224
Albany, Count of, 13-20
" Countess of, 15-22
Alberoni, Cardinal, 184
Alexander, King of Servia, 319-329
Alexander III., of Russia, 93
Alexis, Tsarevitch, 10, 255
Alfieri, Vittorio, 19-22
Anjou, Duc d', 59
Anna, Empress, 26
Anne of Austria, 159, 163, 164
Arcimbaldo, 92
Aubigné, Constant d', 240, 241
" Françoise d', 240-247
Audouins, Diane d', 37
Augustus, of Saxony, 93-102
Austin, William, 205, 213
Auvergne, Comte d', 235
Babou, Françoise, 35
Baireuth, Margravine of, 7
Baratinski, Prince, 155
Barry, Guillaume du, 47
" Jean du, 47
" Madame du, 47-54
Bavaria, Elizabeth of, 215
Beaufort, Duchesse de, 41-44
Beauharnais, Eugène, 135
" Hortense, 135
" Josephine, 127-137
Beauvallon, 143
Bécu, Jeanne, 45-54
Bellegarde, Count di, 205-206
" Duc de, 37-39
Berry, Duc de, 57-61
" Duchesse de, 55-65, 182, 217
Bestyouzhev, 30, 31
Beuchling, 98
Blanguini, 111
Blois, Mlle de, 56
Bonaparte, Elisa, 104
" Letizia, 104, 105
" Napoleon, 104-112, 127-137
Bonaparte, Pauline, 104-113
Bonaventuri, Pietro, 170-175
"Bonnie Prince," 13-22
Borghese, Prince Camillo, 110
Borghese, Princess Pauline, 110-113
Bossi, Giuseppe, 205
Bourgogne, Duc de, 59
" Duchesse de, 181
Brissac, Duc de, 50-53
Bristol, Lord, 121, 122
Brougham, 212
Brunswick, Augusta, Duchess of, 194
Brunswick, Charles Wm., Duke of, 194
Byron, Lord, 138
Campbell, Lady Charlotte, 193, 194
Campredon, 249
Capello, Bartolomeo, 172
" Bianca, 169-179
Carlos, King of Spain, 304, 305.
Caroline, Princess of Wales, 191-202
Caroline, Queen of Naples, 120
Catargo, Marie, 307
Catherine I., of Russia, 1-12, 23
Catherine II., of Russia, 23, 29, 32, 72, 73, 76, 80, 149-158
Charles V., Emperor, 88
Charles VII., Emperor, 29
Charles IX., King of France, 227
Charles, Monsieur, 133, 134
Charlotte, Princess, 199, 202, 211
Charlotte, Queen, 197
Chartres, Duc de, 56
Chateauroux, Duchesse de, 288-293
Christian II, of Denmark, 81-92
Christich, Artemesia, 321, 322
Clary, Desirée, 104, 127
Colonna, Prince, 167, 295
" Princess, 167, 168, 295
Cosse, Louis, Duc de, 48-50
Domanski, 70-72, 74, 77, 79
Douglas, Lady, 200
" Sir John, 200
Dubois, Cardinal, 215, 216
Dujarrier, M., 143
Dyveke, 83-89
Elizabeth I., of Russia, 23-32, 72, 150, 153
"Elizabeth II." of Russia, 74, 76, 77
Embs, Baron von, 67
Emilie, 220, 221
Encke, Charlotte, 115, 116
" Wilhelmine, 114-126
Entragues, Henriette d', 44, 227-237
Entragues, Seigneur d', 227, 229
Esterle, Countess, 102
Estrées, Antoine d', 36
" Gabrielle d', 35-44, 226
Estrées, Jean d', 36
Eudoxia, Empress, 252-257
Faaborg, Hans, 90-91
Fabre, François X., 21
Falari, Duchesse de, 224
Feriol, Comte de, 222
" Madame de, 223
Fersen, Count, 261
Fimarcon, Marquis de, 221
Fitzherbert, Mrs, 199
Flavacourt, Madame de, 283
Fleury, Cardinal, 271, 272, 282, 283, 284
Fontanges, Mlle de, 245
Forbin, 111
François I, 36
Frederick the Great, 114-118
Frederick William II, of Prussia, 115-124
Frederick William III., of Prussia, 124
Frèron, 106
Gacé, Comte De, 183
Galitzin, Prince, 79
George III., 197, 201, 211
George IV., 191-202
Giovanna, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, 174-177
Glebof, Major, 253-256
Goncourt, de, 46, 270, 286
Guiche, Comte de, 265, 302
Guise, Duc de, 237
Gustav, Adolf, 15
Hamilton, Mary, 257-259
" Sir William, 75, 77
Haye, La, 60
Henri IV., of France (and Navarre), 35-44, 226-237
Holbein, Francis, 126
Hornstein, 69
Hutchinson, Lord, 212
Isabella, Princess, 88
Ivan, 26
Jersey, Lady, 198, 199
Joachim Murat, King, 207
Joinville, Prince de, 234, 237
Josephine, Empress, 110-112, 127-137
Junot, 107
Karageorgevitch, Alex., 306
Ketschko, Natalie, 311-329
" Nathaniel, 310
Königsmarck, Aurora von, 94-103
Königsmarck, Conrad von, 94
" Philip von, 94-96
Konstantinovitch, Alex., 313
Kristenef, 77
Kusa, Prince, 308
Lamballe, Princesse de, 263
Landsfeld, Countess of, 146-148
Languet, Abbé, 63
Lauzun, Duc de, 62
Lavallière, Duchesse de, 239
Lawrence, Sir Thomas, 201
Leclerc, General, 108, 109
Lichtenau, Countess, 120-126
Limburg, Duke of, 67, 68
Lorraine, Prince Charles of, 167, 301
Louis XIV., 159, 162-167, 238-247, 248, 295
Louis XV., 45, 47-49, 270-292
Louise, Countess of Albany, 15-22
Löwenhaupt, Count Axel, 94
" Countess, 94, 97-99
Ludwig I., of Bavaria, 144-147
Luynes, Duc de, 273
Mailly, Madame de, 273-293
Maine, Duc de, 243, 247
Maintenon, Madame de, 57, 244-247
Malmesbury, Lord, 195-198
Manby, Captain, 201
Mancini, Hortense, 162, 167, 168
Mancini, Laure, 294
" Madame, 159-163
" Marie, 160-168, 239, 298-301
Mancini, Olympe, 294-305
Maria Theresa, Queen of Spain, 302, 304
Marie Antoinette, 260-269
Marie Leczinska, 270
Marie Louise, Empress, 112, 136, 204
Marine, Monsieur de, 67
Marke, Count de la, 117
Marmont, General, 107
Maschin, Draga, 328, 329
Masson, 32, 135
Maurepas, 282-284, 292
Mazarin, Cardinal, 159-163, 239, 295, 297
Mazarin, Madame de, 282, 283
Medici, Cardinal de, 176-176
" Francesco de, 172-179
" Marie de, 231-235
Menshikoff, 3, 6, 12
Mercoeur, Duc de, 295
Mexent, Marquis de Saint, 123
Michael, Prince, of Servia, 306, 308
Michelin, Madame, 181
Milan I., of Servia, 306-329
Modena, Duke of, 185-189
" Duchess of, 182, 186-189
Monceaux, Marquise de, 41
Mons, William, 11
Montespan, Madame de, 55, 56, 239, 240, 243-245
Montez, Lola, 138-148
Montmorency, Charlotte de, 236, 237
Mortemart, Duchesse de, 54
Motte-Houdancourt, Mlle de la, 302
Motteville, Madame de, 294, 296
Mouchy, Madame de, 62-65, 217
Murussi, Princess, 313, 314
Napoleon I., 104-112, 127-137
Natalie, Queen of Servia, 311-329
Nathalie, Empress, 252
Nesle, Félicité de, 275-279
" Marquise de, 182
Nevers, Duc de, 232
Noailles, Cardinal, 64
Obrenovitch Jefrenn, 307
Ompteda, Baron, 206
Orleans, Philippe, Duc de, 55-57, 60-64, 184, 214-225
Orloff, Alexis, 74, 76-79, 155
" Count, 258
" Gregory, 29, 32, 76, 153-158
Palatine, Princess, Elizabeth, 56, 59, 62, 64
Panine, 157
Paskevitch, General, 141, 142
Patiomkin, 23
Perdita, 199
Pergami, 206-213
Permon, Albert, 107
" Madame, 109
Peter the Great, 3-12, 23, 248-259
Peter II., of Russia, 28, 257
Peter III., of Russia, 149-155
Pinneberg, Countess of, 73
Platen, Countess, 94
Polignac, Cardinal de, 261
" Diane de, 262, 265
" Jules, Comte de, 261-264
Polignac, Madame de, 182
" Yolande, de, 261-269
Pöllnitz, Von, 7
Poniatowski, 151, 152
Porte, Armande de la, 162
Protitsch, General, 323
Pugatchef, 73
Radziwill, Prince Charles, 73, 74
Ravaillac, 35
Razoum, Alexis, 23-34, 72
" Cyril, 26-28
" Gregory, 24
Richelieu, Duc de, 180-190, 275, 280, 285, 290, 291
Richelieu, Duchesse de, 185
Rietz, Herr, 117
" Wilhelmine, 117-120
Ringlet, Father, 62
Riom, Comte de, 62-64
Saint-Simon, Duc de, 57, 60, 62, 305
Saint-Simon, Madame de, 58
Savoie, Chevalier de, 65
Savoy, Charles Emmanuel, Duke of, 168
Savoy, Margaret, Princess of, 164, 165, 299, 300
Scarron, Paul, 241, 242
Schenk, Baron von, 67
Sevigné, Madame de, 245, 303
Seymour, Henry, 48
Shouvalov, 29
Sigbrit, Frau, 83-92
Skovronski, I, 23
Smith, Sydney, Captain, 200
Soissons, Comte de, 297
" Comtesse de, 295, 297-305
Soltykoff, Sergius, 151
Sophia Dorothea, of Celle, 94
Spencer, Lord Henry, 119
Stanley, Sir John, 193
Stendhal, 21
Stuart, Charles, 13-20
Sully, Duc de, 41, 42, 229-231
Tencin, Madame de, 223, 280
Teplof, 155
Thackeray, 192, 198, 200
Toebingen, Major, 199
Torbern, Oxe, 90-92
Touchet, Marie, 227
Tourel-Alégre, Marquess, 36
Tournelle, Mme de la, 280-293
Tuscany, Bianca, Grand Duchess of, 169-179
Tuscany, Francesco, Grand Duke of, 172-179
Valkendorf, Chancellor, 81-85, 89
Vallière, La, 301-303
Valois, Marguerite de, Queen of France, 42, 229, 231
Valois, Mlle de, 182, 184, 185
Vardes, Marquis de, 302
Vaudreuil, Comte de, 267, 268
Verneuil, Marquise de, 231-237
Villars, Duchesse de, 233, 234
Vintimille, Comtesse de, 276-279
Vishnevsky, Colonel, 24
Vlodimir, Princess Aly de, 66-80
Voisin, La, 303
Voltaire, 46, 57, 149
Vorontsov, 32, 33
Walewska, Madame, 127
Waliszewski, 3, 5, 251
Wasseljevitchca, Dimitri, 317