Produced by Barbara Tozier, Jane Hyland, Bill Tozier and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Secret Memoirs THE COURT OF ROYAL SAXONY 1891-1902 This edition, printed on Japanese vellum paper, is limited to two hundred and fifty copies. No. ________ [Illustration: LOUISE, EX-CROWN-PRINCESS OF SAXONY Photo taken shortly before her flight from Dresden] Secret Memoirs THE COURT OF ROYAL SAXONY 1891-1902 THE STORY OF LOUISE CROWN PRINCESS FROM THE PAGES OF HER DIARY, LOST AT THE TIME OF HER ELOPEMENT FROM DRESDEN WITH M. ANDRE ("RICHARD") GIRON BY HENRY W. FISCHER Author of "Private Lives of William II and His Consort," "Secret History of the Court of Berlin," etc., etc. Illustrated from Photographs BENSONHURST, NEW YORK FISCHER'S FOREIGN LETTERS, INC. PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT, 1912 BY HENRY W. FISCHER Copyright, 1912, applied for by Henry W. Fischer in Great Britain Copyright, 1912, by Henry W. Fischer, in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, and all foreign countries having international copyright arrangements with the United States [_All rights reserved, including those of translation_] EDITOR'S CARD This is to certify that the Ex-Crown Princess of Saxony, now called Countess Montiguoso, Madame Toselli by her married name, is in no way, either directly or indirectly, interested in this publication. There has been no communication of whatever nature, directly or through a third party, between this lady and the editor or publishers. In fact, the publication will be as much a surprise to her as to the general public. The Royal Court of Saxony, therefore, has no right to claim, on the ground of this publication, that Princess Louise violated her agreement with that court as set forth in the chapter on the _Kith and Kin of the ex-Crown Princess of Saxony_, under the heads of "_Louise's Alimony and Conditions_" and "_Allowance Raised and a Further Threat_." HENRY W. FISCHER, _Editor_. Fischer's Foreign Letters, Publishers THIS BOOK AND ITS PURPOSE By Henry W. Fischer Of Memoirs that are truly faithful records of royal lives, we have a few; the late Queen Victoria led the small number of crowned autobiographists only to discourage the reading of self-satisfied royal ego-portrayals forever, but in the Story of Louise of Saxony we have the main life epoch of a Cyprian Royal, who had no inducement to say anything false and is not afraid to say anything true. For the Saxon Louise wrote not to guide the hand of future official historiographers, or to make virtue distasteful to some sixty odd grand-children, bored to death by the recital of the late "Mrs. John Brown's" sublime goodness:--Louise wrote for her own amusement, even as Pepys did when he diarized the peccadilloes of the Second Charles' English and French "hures" (which is the estimate these ladies put upon themselves).[1]