Within royal palaces : a brilliant and charmingly written inner view of emperors, kings, queens, princes and princesses ... . the ulterior fate either of the eifl or of the child of the mar-riage. The young Grand Duke himself was declared insane,was incarcerated in a fortress near Tiflis, and was deprived notonly of his rank in the army but even of his attributes as amember of the Imperial family. The Grand Duke Alexis, the Czars second brother, is ahandsome, light-headed man, even more subject to petticoatinfluence than Vladimir. His romantic runaway marriagewith Mile. Shukowska, subsequently
Within royal palaces : a brilliant and charmingly written inner view of emperors, kings, queens, princes and princesses ... . the ulterior fate either of the eifl or of the child of the mar-riage. The young Grand Duke himself was declared insane,was incarcerated in a fortress near Tiflis, and was deprived notonly of his rank in the army but even of his attributes as amember of the Imperial family. The Grand Duke Alexis, the Czars second brother, is ahandsome, light-headed man, even more subject to petticoatinfluence than Vladimir. His romantic runaway marriagewith Mile. Shukowska, subsequently annulled by the lateCzar, is well known to all. For the past few years, however,he has been the devoted slave and admirer of the Duchessede Beauharnais, the morganatic wife of his cousin, the Duede Leuchtenberg, and sister of the celebrated and popularGeneral Skobeloff, whom she resembles in appearance, char-acter and insatiable ambition. Like her late brother, she is a THE IMPERIAL FAMILY OF RUSSIA. 2gi rabid Panslavist, and the Czar fears that if he Hstens to hisbrother Alexis he may become entangled in the intrigues. GRAND DUKE ALEXIS, BROTHER OF THE CZAR. of the turbulent Panslavist party. Count de Reutern wasformerly Minister of Finance of the Empire, and stood ex- 29^ WITHIN ROYAL PALACES. ceedingly high in the favor of the late Czar, who knew thathe had in him an adviser of sterhng honesty and of triedfidehty. In an unfortunate moment for all concerned theGrand Duke Alexis became violently enamored of a particu-larly lovely maid of honor of his mother the Czarina. Theobject of his affection was the daughter of the famous poetShukowski and the favorite niece—nay, almost the adoptedchild—of the Count de Reutern, and finding life intolerablewithout her, Alexis induced her to leave Russia and to con-tract a secret marriage with him abroad. With no thouofhtof the future they established themselves in a handsome villaon the Riviera, where in due time the lady gave birth t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectcourtsandcourtiers
