Read Online And the Rest Is History by Marlene Wagman-Geller - Free Book Online Page A

in an attempt to regain power, Parnell traveled to Dublin even though he was suffering from rheumatism. The fury of his erstwhile supporters was evidenced when local coal miners threw lime at his eyes. Undeterred, he gave a speech on a rainy day and began to feel even sicker, but he determined to carry on for Ireland’s sake. He returned to Katharine at the earliest opportunity. By the time he arrived home, he was so frail that his wife of four months had to help him from his carriage. A few nights later, lying in bed, he said his last words to his first love: “Kiss me, sweet wifie, and I will try to sleep a little.”
    The Irish vilify Kitty O’Shea for barring their entry to the Promised Land; however, for Charles, she was the one who had allowed him to experience love, a love that passed into legend.
    Postscript
    Katharine placed the rose that had fallen from her dress when they first met in Charles’s coffin. When it was sealed, a wreath was placed on top with the inscription To my own true love, my husband, my king . In Ireland (where Katharine was not welcome), Charles’s coffin bore a banner bearing his false last words: Give my love to my colleagues and the Irish people. On the coffin’s final journey to Glasnevin cemetery, it was drawn by six horses, with Parnell’s own horse, Home Rule, following immediately behind, boots and stirrups reversed. His interment was attended by more than two hundred thousand people. His gravestone, made of unhewn granite, bears just one word in large letters: Parnell.
    When Katharine Parnell died, her hearse passed unnoticed through the streets of Sussex to the municipal cemetery. A simple cross was erected over the grave by her daughter. Its inscription: To the beloved memory of Katharine, widow of Charles Stewart Parnell. Fide et Amore.

10
    Nicholas Romanov and Princess Alix
    1884
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    I n most fairy tales, the handsome prince falls in love with the beautiful princess, they overcome the force of evil, and live happily ever after. In true-life love stories, however, the prince and princess don’t always get their happy ending.
    Princess Alix Victoria Helena Louise Beatrice was born in 1872 in a palace in the German Empire. She was the fifth of seven children born to Queen Victoria’s second daughter, Princess Alice. Her otherwise happy childhood was marred with the deaths of her brother, who passed away from hemophilia, and her mother and youngest sister, who succumbed to diphtheria.
    Alix’s destiny, Nicholas Alexandrovich Romanov, was born in the palace Tsarskoye Selo in Russia, the son of Tsar Alexander III—a six-foot-four man who cast his giant shadow over his hundred million subjects as well as his family. As tsarevitch, the young heir to the throne as well as the greatest fortune in the world was happy with his role as playboy prince, relishing having the best of everything without any attendant responsibilities. However, his life was forever altered when he met the princess for whom he would at last defy his father.
    The first time Alix met Nicholas was in St. Petersburg at the marriage of her older sister Elizabeth to Tsar Alexander’s brother, the Grand Duke Serge. During the wedding ceremony in the chapel of the Winter Palace, the twelve-year-old Alix stole side glances at the sixteen-year-old Nicholas. He reciprocated her interest and soon after gave her a small brooch, which she did not accept. However, this refusal was due to propriety rather than disinterest. After the ceremony, Alix scratched their names on the window of the Peterhof Palace.
    The two did not see each other again for five years, when she returned to Russia to visit her sister. They fell in love and spent all their time together, ice skating and attending balls; before she departed he threw her a party in Tsarskoye Selo. He wrote in his diary, “My dream is some day to marry