THE CZAR AND THE DOVES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3132, 12 July 1881, Page 4

THE CZAR AND THE DOVES.

(Loadon Telegraph.)

Of the strange stories connected with tho melancholy fate of Alexander 11., that have obtained currency since his death, not the least curious is the following narrative, published in the St. Petersburg Beehive, and alleged by that journal to be in every particular authentic!*. —One morning, about a fortnight before the catastrophe of the 13th ultimo, while looking out of his bedroom window, the late Czar noticed two or three dead pigeons lying on the ledge of the balcony. As tho Imperial pigeons, like those of the Piazza di San Marco in Venice, are privileged birds, his Majesty, displeased that they should have been slain within the very precincts of his palace, ordered an enquiry to be made as to how they had come by their death. It was soon discovered that a huge hawk had taken up its quarters in some out-of-the-way nook of the Winter Palace roof, and, emerging thence every morning at dawn, it made a regular practice of thinning out the Emperor's flock of pigeons. Imperial commands were issued that, this inveterate eolumbicide should be watched for and shot; but the hawk contrived to evade the vigilence of the domestics charged with its destruction, and continued to kill its two, three, or four pigeons daily with absolute impunity. A powerful trap was therefore baited and set for it upon the roof ; and, early next morning, it was seen from below, caught by the leg, and struggling with all its might to get loose. Before tho servants could reach the spot to put an end to the fierce bird's agony, it had dragged the heavy trap over the edge of the parapet, and fallen with it upon the pavement of an inner courtyard, overlooked by the Imperial apartments. When the Emperor was informed that the hawk had met its death in this strange manner, he appeared much disturbed in mind, and observed several times to his attendants that * the whole nffair was of evil omen.'