PLOT TO KIDNAP TSAR'S SON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14525, 12 November 1910, Page 2 (Supplement)

PLOT TO KIDNAP TSAR'S SON.

FOUND NAKED IN GROUNDS.

A COUP WHICH FAILED.

The Vossiche Zeitung, which is entirely free from sensational tendencies, is responsible for the following story of the Emperor of "Russia's only son, aged six, who, during the visit of the Imperial family to Friedberg, South Germany, ha* always been seen in the company of a, stalwart seaman of the Tsar's navy.

In the autumn of 1908, when the little Tsarevitch was four years of age, he was entrusted to the care of female nurses, who did duty in shifts, having orders never to leave him alone. The Tsaritsa was in the habit of visiting her son's apartments at all hours of the day and night to satisfy herself that he was being properly guarded and tended.

Late one evening the Tsaritsa entered the boy's bedroom, and on looking at the bed in which he ought to be sleeping was horrified to find that he was missing. Rushing out into the corridor, she raised the alarm and then fainted. The sentry on duty in the corridor was this particular seaman, and he rushed forthwith into the park surrounding the Imperial palace, where he soon heard faint sounds of an infant's cries in the bushes not far away. On reaching the spot the sailor found the future Emperor of Russia lying on the ground clothed in nothing but his nightshirt. Investigations showed that someone must have climbed from the ground to the bedroom on the first floor and then removed the little Tsarevitch by means of a rope ladder. This bold stroke was rendered possible through the fact that the nurse on duty had gone to have supper, and the abduction of the Imperial infant was carried out during her short absence so quietly that the sentry in the corridor did not hear any suspicious sound. Whether the plan was to kill the Tsarevitch by exposure to the cold night air, or whether he had been laid down in the »>—*•«* as a preliminary to being hidden at some more inaccessible place, was never discovered, and the whole affair remained shrouded in mystery. Since that memorable occasion this seaman has been told off to watch over the Tsarevitch, who has become deeply attached to the burly, kind-hearted 'man, the son of a peasant.