A Servant of Satan: Romantic Career of Prado the Assassin — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

™ - » viene? A SERVANT OF SATAN. 15 CHAPTER I, A SECRET MARRIAGE, Count Frederick von Waldberg, who was tried and guil- lotined at Paris under the name of Prado, was born at Berlin in 1849 and was named after King Frederick William IV. of Prussia, who, together with Queen Klizabeth, was present at the christening and acted as sponsor. This somewhat exceptional distinction was due to the fact that the child’s father, Count Heinrich von Wald- berg, was not only one of the favorite aldes-de-camp gen- erals of his majesty, but had also been a friend and com- panion of the monarch from his very boyhood. Although at the time the general had not yet achieved the great reputation as a statesman which he subsequently attained, yet he was already known throughout Kurope as an ambassador of rare skill and diplomacy, and as one of the most influential personages of the Berlin Court. Mar- ried in 1847 to a princess of the reigning house of Kipper- Deutmolde, a woman of singular beauty, little Frederick was the first and only offspring of their union. The child was scarcely a year old when the mother died at Potsdam, after only a few days’ illness, leaving the whole of her for- tune in trust for the boy. ‘The general was inconsolable, and so intense was his grief that for some days it was feared that his mind would give way. The very kindest sympathy was displayed by both the king and his consort, the latter in particular being deeply moved by the motherless condition of little Frederick. During the next three years the child spent much of his time in her majesty’s private apartments, both at Berlin and Potsdam, and, herself childless, Queen pres comicbooks.com |