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The Green Bag.

firmed this decree on the 27th of November. Meanwhile, W. tound a good Hungarian, Alexander S., who adopted him on Novem ber 9. The lovers both being Hungari ans, and Marie divorced, they were mar ried, on the 29th of November, in the Lutheran church. That church was chosen, both because the Unitarian priest was ig norant of German, and also because Marie had already tired of her new faith and had become a Lutheran. B., the deserted husband, declined to acquiesce in this sensible arrangement. Ac cordingly, upon the return of the W. family to Prague, he instituted criminal proceedings against them. This was in May, 1892; but though the case went regularly forward, the Austrian courts could not keep the pace set by the courts of Klausenburg. In April, 1894, nothing definite having happened, the implacable B. left for a tour of Hungary. Alas, for the evil power of bad example! On April 9 he reached Buda-Pesth where he abjured Catholicism and embraced the Unitarian faith; on July 28 he he became a few days he, too, was divorced from Hungarian; and (facilis descensus) within a Marie, with leave to marry again. He at once "declared that he had no legal cause of complaint against Marie and recognized the validity of the second marriage." But this complaisance was too late. The Aus trian courts were slow, but exceeding sure. In spite of B.'s defection they declared Marie's marriage invalid. This diverting tale of high life may be matched by another of even higher life. Henriette-Yalentine de Riquet, Countess of Caraman-Chimay, of the high noblesse of Belgium, became the wealthy bride of a for eign prince. Prince de Bauffremont of Paris. But this marriage, strange to relate, proving 'unhappy, the parties were declared judicially separated. The princess appears to have been a collector of nationalities. Having tried two, she now (perhaps under compe tent legal advice) yearned to be subject to the Duke of Saxe-Altenburg. She hastened

to the Duke's domains, and was naturalized there; and was no doubt surprised to find, upon consulting her Saxe-Altenburgian counsel, that in that enlightened country a judicial separation granted in a Roman Catholic country is deemed as good as a divorce. And why not? Such countries do not grant divorces. The parties to the separation have done their best to get a di vorce, and angels could no more. On this equitable principle the law of her adopted country regarded the Princess de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay de Bauffremont as no longer wedded. The clinging vine had been ruthlessly torn from its supporting oak; and it is the nature of vines under such circumstances—even of vines belonging to the high noblesse—to cling, to another oak. Henriette-Valentine added to her collection of oaks, princes and nationalities by wedding the Prince de Bibesco of Roumania. Per haps she again consulted counsel before her second marriage; be that as it may, Rou mania is an enlightened land, where spouses may Butdivorce Madame themselves de Riquet by mutual de Caramanconsent. Chimay de Bauffremont de Saxe-Altenburg de Bibesco did not remain in peace. Her delicate sensibilities were shocked to learn that the validity of her second marriage was disputed, and she ran down to Paris to find out about it. The Prince de Bauffremont appealed to the Courts to declare her second marriage null; and the Tribunal of the Seine, the Court of Paris and the Court of Cassation successively so declared. She could not, they held, thus withdraw from a Frenchman the power over good Belgian property. The Belgian Court, in which Bauffremont also sued, was inclined to take the same view; but finally put the plaintiff out of court on the ground that the French judicial separation had deprived him of all interest in his wife's property. A second Franco-German war, this time a war of pamphlets, arose over the case, and was bit terly waged between sundry learned profes sors of both countries. Under cover of the