A Life of Zest and Endeavour
Itt his preface to Mrs. Le Blond's Memoirs, Mr. E. F. Benson observes that this form of literature can he either exasperating or entrancing, placing her volume in the latter category. No one, after reading this record of a busy life, will be disposed to contradict him.
If one were to find a fault with the author it would be the unusual one that she tells us very little about herself. She devotes five chapters to the career of her first husband, Colonel Fred Burnaby (famous for his ride to 1Chiva and other exploits), where we find some interesting letters about the attempt to relieve General Gordon and the Battle of Abou Klea, in rthich Colonel Burnaby lost his life. Then m e follow the author to the Engadine in search of health, and are introduced to San Moritz in the 'eighties and to the celebrated people who gathered there in conditions very differ- ent from those that obtain nowadays. In Switzerland Mrs. 1.e Blond became a devotee of climbing, beginning her experiences with expeditions with girl friends to the Mer de Glace and the Pierre Pointue, when they wore long skirts, shady hats, and high-heeled button boots. From this begin- ning, to winter climbs up virgin peaks in Arctic Norway, is a story that all lovers of winter sports will read with delight. Her climbing propensities distressed a Victorian great-aunt, who wrote to her mother : " Stop her climbing mountains ! She is scandalizing London and looks like a Red Indian ! " In spite of this admonition she continued climbing and also became an expert photographer, developing and printing her negatives with half-frozen fingers at high altitudes and koducing those beautiful studies of mountain scenery for which she is well known.
Of her travels, which have been many, she tells us a little of Morocco, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, China, and finally California. But the most interesting chapter in a delightful bqok is that in which we find the story of. the. Dunkelgraf. Mrs. Le Blond was staying With Count Godard 11entinel4 (her cousin) at Amerongen in Holland. She was then collecting material-for a brOk -on 'Charlotte Sophie Counteas and worked in the room where the ex-Kaiser was later to sign his abdication. Here she found a small volume, Der. Dunkelgraf, by Ludwig Beckstein, dealing with a man who was supposed to have been the son of Count John Albert Bentinck and Georgians Duchess of Devonshire. With this mystery man was a veiled lady whose face was never seen, even by the servants—supposed to be his wife, or ward.
During the War Mrs. Le Blond had no time to devote to other work and forgot all about the mysterious couple. In 1927, however, she came in touch with Herr Maeekel, who has recently published a fully documented work in German on the Dunkelgraf, and her interest revived. The story certainly contains the elements of romance. The couple first appeared at Ingelfingen, in Wurtemberg, about 1808 or 1804. - The Count was a distinguished-looking man, the girl very graceful and always veiled ; they lived simply enough over a chemist's shop. The Count would talk politics with the chemist and even associated a little with the neigh- bours, but the lady never went out except in a carriage, thickly veiled and sometimes wearing dark spectacles. After some years they disappeared.
The general idea seems to have been that they were refugees from the French Revolution. In 1807 they re- appeared at Hildburghausen. The Count went about a little and made friends with the pastor, with whom he had a daily correspondence. But the lady remained as closely guarded and veiled as ever, and it was not until her death in 1837 that her face was seen. Clothed in white satin and still beautiful, although no longer young, she lay in her coffin for all to see, until her servants carried her away by night and buried her in a garden where she used to sit. Having established the fact of her death, the Count was unwilling to give her name to the authorities, finally describing her as " Sophia Botta " of Westphalia, an obvious invention.„; To the doctor, who remonstrated with him because he had not been called in, he said : -" You little know what it would ' have meant if that secret had been disclosed to you."
What was the secret ? Imagination points to one not = unconnected with the Orphan of the Temple, one that would. have affected the French branch of the Bourbon family had it been disclosed. Mrs. Le Blond tells us that the identity of the Dunkelgraf will be revealed in the new version of Herr Maeckel's book, which is shortly to be published in English, but she does not tell us who he was.
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