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 manuscript,
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 titled 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

[Illustration: 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