Sometimes you come across a person in history and you really wonder how that person got there (or how they got out, as the case may be). One of these for me is the story of Princess Cantacuzene, the Countess Speransky. She could have been just another many-titled Russian refugee writing a memoir from an attic in Paris were it not for the fact that she had been born, Julia Dent Grant and was the granddaughter of General Ulysses S. Grant. Her interesting journey began when a grateful U.S. government appointed her father, Major-General Frederick Dent Grant, as American ambassador to the court of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary. Her recollections of Vienna contain some amusing memories of very somber and plain parents mixing with the glittering Hapsburg court; you can almost feel the shyness of a young girl whose parents are looked down upon at fancy balls for their simple attire. Still, Julia was in a position, both to see how the other side existed and to be seen.

While in Europe she met the charming, intelligent, and--she writes--likable Prince Mikhail Cantacuzene, later to be an aid to Tsar Nicholas II and from an ancient, noble family. They were married in Newport, R.I. in 1899 in the great society manner that town was known for; but Newport--and even the Hapsburg court--could not prepare her for that of the Romanovs. Her husband's estate on the Steppes of Russia, Bouromka, was not the typical country estate; it was a self-sufficient city-state which originally was made up of nearly 100,000 acres (half of it was split and given to the serfs when Alexander II liberated them). She describes an idyllic, if hard working, life filled with harvests, spectacular seasons, and sleigh rides to nearby Gypsy villages for all-night dancing and drinking. You also read a particularly American questioning of the social order, the poverty in the villages, and the lack of roads, plumbing, etc. Her entry into St. Petersburg is marked by amusing memories of court gossip and intrigue; after the awkward presentation to Alexandra, the Empress makes a remark about her square cut bodice and it is the talk for a week. Still she becomes a favorite of The Dowager Empress and--as an American--is a well-received oddity, especially being married to Cantacuzene. This book (there is another) ends on the eve of World War I, but she sees the coming storm, perhaps more clearly than her society friends in the capital.

But there is another part of this story that interests me. The Cantacuzenes were descended from the Voivodes of Wallachia (a Voivode was a hereditary prince, elected by the nobles). The Voivodes of Wallachia (the region now Roumania) were on the front lines of the Ottoman invasions of the 14th and 15th centuries. Long after reading this book, I came across a trace of the family line of the Cantacuzenes and it lead to Vlad the Impaler, Vlad Tepes, the original Dracula (actual son of the dragon or devil as he was son of Vlad III Drac). It is a tough read to follow, and I get lost somewhere in the 1600's, but it sure is interesting to think that a descendant of Grant today could be carrying the blood of Dracula.

Of note is that Julia Dent Grant was the youngest member of The Mrs. Astor's infamous "400"; she was the last, living member of that stellar group until she died in 1975.

And, that's my history lesson tonight; everyone go to bed early because the weekend is here, Leopoldo has it off, and there is going to be a whole lot of drinking and impaling.