MOROCCAN SULTANS AND FRENCH WIVES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1617, 7 December 1912, Page 10

MOROCCAN SULTANS AND FRENCH WIVES.

A CORSICAN EMPRESS. Muley Hafid, the ex-Sultan of Morocco, whose extravagances on his recent visit to France have been tho subject of continuous comment in the daily press on' both sides of the Channel; was not the first of his race to, make a journey to Paris. Mule'y Ismael over '200 years' ago ' went to Paris to seek the hand Mile, de Blois, daughter of Louis XIV and Mile, de Lavaliiere, but without success. Presumably this failuro was tho reason for adopting more forcible measures subsequently; for tho "Journal des Debats" recounts an extremely interesting story of a young Corsican girl who became Empress of Morocco 125 years ago. In '1760 a Corsican named Francheschini was on a voyage with his wife when they were captured by Algerian pirates, and taken to Algiers. Soon the captives gained the favour of their masters, ana were allowed to set sail for home. On the voyage they were again captured, by pirates and taken to Morocco with their daughter Davia. The Sultan allowed them once more to dopart on condition that Davia was left behind. The parents accordingly returned to Corsica, and lived uneventfully until in 178G an embassy was sent them by tho Sultan, to announce that Davia Francheschmi was Empress of Morocco. •• The Empress asked that her family should bo brought to - her, and her mother and father accordingly returned to Morocco. Sidi Mohammed, the Sultan, was poisoned a few years later as the result of a palace intrigue. His widow, tho Dowager Empress, was left in peace aud comfort till her death ~in 1802. Tliero still remains a descendant of the Corsican, Empress in Corsica, in the person 'of a grand-nieco of the original Davia Frauclieschini. This lady, also Davia, lives at Corbara, the native village of tho hrancheschini, in a villa called appropriately the Casa dei Turehi. She is ninety years old, and distinctly remembers her grandfather, the Empress's brother, who spent twenty-seven years at the Moroccan Court. '