COUNTIESS TARNOWSKI.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9375, 26 December 1912, Page 8

COUNTIESS TARNOWSKI.

WRITES LIFE TRAGEDY IN COAL. "THOSE WHO LOVED ME FOUND j;E.V±JI." MADE TO TURN MEN'S HEADS. "The path of my life- i« strewn with the bodies ui Uurx thai iovcd mo most. Every--0110 ol tlk'y died « violent deaih." "So .writes Connies Maria Tarnowski. The story'she pens is of a frankness to astonishing that it amounts to a conl'eusion made almost religiously. The Countess is at presold serving a team of imprisonment for complicity in ihc iiiik-' del 1 ot Count Kamedow\sl;i by her admirer, Hi* Russian student Maumow, in Venice, in iyo6. ~. Tliia amazing autobiography in the lustcy of it out* noble sou| lost In the labyrinths of Againsi her father's eonnnamls, ehi! married Count Vassili Taruowski when she Wi\'i only seventeen years old. He proved lo be a debauchee, and slowly but cunning! y led his young and hraulif.il wife along the easy path of a gay nml siniul life, inlinilely repulsive lo her at first. She writes:— . , "It,was at thai lime that a woman fricm whispered in my curs a word that made a deep impression' on inc. and which I have not forgot lon. 'My dear,' bhe-_ said, 'yon are vouug. beautiful, and Planning. '"'When von find yourself in one of I lies.: gatherings/ keep a steady smile on yoin face, never show your inner sull'eriiigs, ami ulwiiv.s strive to'make yourself acceptable (c both'men and women.' Ami,nn old Russian Prince also told me: 'My dear liiadaine, you are beautiful, and seem to lip made Ic turn men's heads and to_ make wjnanj slaves of us. But smile, smile always. Poter Tarnowski. her hie.b:tnd'sbroth.*r. fell in lovo with her. anil, realising the hnpdessuess of his passion, hanged luiimolf. lie was one of four who killed thomselveu or were killed for lovft of her. One, of the most, tragic diapers in the book describe* her affair with Lieutenant Borgowski. "lie fell in love in soon as ho was introduced to me, When understood what was happening I ran away from him, hut his courtship' assumed the form of a veritable persecution. On one oceasioii he requested our friends, the M.'s, to invite me to then oounfcrv plhoe. but when. I learned thai ho was there, I refused to go, and (ho M.'.; eanw over to visit us, bringing Borgowski ■m llmir good. I must insert here thai iijv husband was a line shot, find he ofter made mo ut kind of target-holder by plac ing nnmclhing over my head, which Ik would shoot awav. "That, day my husband was suddenly call «d away lo Kief on urgent nffairs, Aftei dinner 'wo went to our shooting gallery J; iimnso ourselves with the- rifle. Wink loading my gun Borgcwski (old me matn times that,'ho-loved me, and that he wouk lovo mo lo his death. " 'I shall prove it to you," ho fried pulling hi* right, hand over, the initio 0! my rifle, which lie had rr-loaded while 1m attention was engaged on something else ,\<j, I pulled the. irii'gor a bullet piorcei his hand. Borgowski raved all night, am ( nuTor left his bedside. A few day.i later when he was on his way to recovery. 1 ordered him lo leave (ho house, which Ik did." , , , A few- days Inter Borgcwski sent for tin Countess 1 husband. "lie went," wriles the Countess, "anr in the pre'eneo of several witnesses Bor gewski (old him that he was madly in Jov( with me, and demanded that my hiisban*. divorce me ami fight a duel with him. "Mv husband astaiWor two days' timt 10 consider, ill the end of which time h< told Borgowski (hat he had begun an ac Lion for divorce. On (his Borgcwski asket us lo a supper of celebration. "The .supper over, we got ready lo leave 11 was ono oVlcck in lhe morning. Bor gewski kiss"d my hand, and embraced. rn\ husband. But while <im was helping mi into the sleigh a bullet whistled past m\ head, piercing a largo feather in m\ bonnet, and Borgcwski fell at my feet will 11 ghastly wound in t-lio neck. As I bent over the proslralo man I heard my husband say: 'This is better.' "Borgowski was taken up to his room and there died. As I Imvo said, my husband was a good shot."