AN AMERICAN VERSION.

Evening Star, Issue 11434, 29 December 1900, Page 3

AN AMERICAN VERSION.

o— As M. De Giers, the Russian .Envoy to China, is still alive, the following account, from a Chicago journal, of his death and its consequences -will be read with much interest : "The Czar has received with great emotion the dreadful details of the catastrophe at Pekin in a cablegram from Admiral Alexyeff at Port Arthur, confirming the horrible details of the assassination of 1L De Giers, the Russian Envoy. He was dragged through the streets by Boxers, insulted, beaten, tortured, thrown into a kettle, and boiled to death. The remains were thrown to the dogs. Mdme De Giers suffered a fate worse than death. She was beaten and tortured with sharp sticks until life was extinct. The Legation officials were tortured fiendishly until death ended their sufferings- M. De Giers and the Legation officials resisted desperately and killed many of the'attacking mob. "In the midst of the tortures the Envoy is said to have heroically proclaimed his faith in Christianity. He was encouraged by his wife, who soon shared his martyrdom.

"The announcement of this intelligence to the relatives of the Russian martyrs in China was accompanied by heartrending scenes. Count Lamsdorf received the friends of the murdered ones at the Foreign Office, and unfolded the tragic story. "The scenes of frenzied terror and grief that followed were unspeakable. The building of the Foreign Office was besieged by an excited throng, and the whole of St. Petersburg was full of lamentation. Immediately upon the receipt of Admiral Alexyeffs despatch the Czar ordered the Cabinet and Council of State to go into session."