ROMANCES OF OUR OWN TIMES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2326, 29 September 1898, Page 47

ROMANCES OF OUR OWN TIMES.

' TRUE STORIES FROM REAL LIFE. By A. O. Tibbits, in Cassell's Saturday Journal, A BLOW AT AN EMPIRE. THE DIABOLICAL PLOT OF FELICE ORSINI. ''The year began more dismally than usual. It began on a Friday, and with a fog, which even the Thames could hardly surpass. " Such were the words contained in a New Year's letter received by oiir Queen one mcrning in the early days of '58. The •writer was Napoleon the Third, and the letter was written from the Tuileries where, surrounded by all the magnificence of Empire, Napoleon and the Empress Eiigenie had their Court. Among the many perils of the new year Napoleon could little foresee that which, like a thunderclap, was to burst upon him in a few days, scattering death around him, and horrifying all Europe. Among the lodgers in Grafton street, Kentish New Town, London, there had for gome short time back been a tall, blackbearded man, of foreign, but by no means unprepossessing, appearance. His features were regular and handsome, the dark eyes vivacious and piercing, and the general expression not unkindly, though most frequently sad. Felice Orsini was a quiet, inoffensive lodger, who appeared to have but few friends — none, indeed, save one or two who called upon him afc Grafton street. They ■were foreigners, all save one, the most frequent visitor of them all being a short, spare, sallow-complexioned man, with long black straight hair and dark, restless eyes. This man was Dr Simon Bernard, a Frenchman, Trho had for some time lived in Bayswater, upon scanty earnings as a teacher. The ethers who called were three Italians, named Pierri, Gomez, and Rudio, and an Englishutii named Allsop. " Felice Orsini is a truly remarkable man," wiote a newspaper correspondent who met him "He is full of interest if you can get him to tell you of his adventures, but the troubles of his country have filled him with a bitterness which, acting on a daring nature, might easily tempt nim to desperate exploits." Orsini was born at Meldola, in Italy. He belcnged to a noble family. When he was but 24 he and his father, being suspected of complicity in conspiracies against the Papal Government, were arrested, and condemned to the galleys for life. Released a year or two later, he had taken part in the war against Austria, had been expelled from Italy, had been discovered by the Austrian Government, disguised and under a, false name, _ travelling upon some mysterious enand in that country, and having been found guilty of high treason, had been condcirned to death. From the terrible dungeons of the State fortress Saint George, whence no prisoner had ever yet succeeded in breaking, the Italian made a sensational e&cape, and in May, 1856, he arrived in Lc ndon. Li October of the next year Mr Taylor, a Birmingham iron manufacturer, received a visitor one day at his works. '" I want you," the stranger said, "to in 'lce me a few things like this," and he sli Mved Mr Taylor a drawing of what he re-cn-.hed. I1I 1 was a pear-shaped iron shell, thicker at. the larger end, and at this were a number of little nipples upon which caps might be screwed. " What is it for?" asked Mr Taylor, eyeing the drawing. "Ifc is connected with, a patent, and I nmso not tell you particulars," replied Alls >■•>, for he it was. Six of the strange articles were quickly made. Allsop paid for them, and they were heiided to him. In that house in Grafton street, Kentish New Town, there had been formed a conspiracy which was to quickly ripen ' into feaiful deeds. Orsini, having cut off his - heavy black ' "beard, had left England, and - travelling under a false name had reached Brussels. In the meantime, Dr Bernard was apparently busy in strange chemical experiments hi Lfndon. Calling at the shop of Messrs Herrings, wholesale druggists,Jbe 2>urchased some"absolute alcohol, nitric acid", and mercury. 2vlixed in certain proportions, these ■would form a dangerous explosive powder tnown as fulminate of mercury. One day later Bernard visited the Cafe Suisse, a restaurant where he and Orsini had often dined, and asked to see the proprietor, M Georgi, who was about to pay a visit to Brussels. "May I 6sk you, M. Georgi," he asked, "t:> do me a favour? I have a few small iron pipes I want delivered in Brussels. They are to be used in connection with a gas patent I have been working on." M. Georgi agreed, and took the shells over. Later on he met Orsini in Brussels. He was the man to whom the shells were ta be delivered. On the night of February 14, 1858, the royal carriages were standing waiting outsile the Tuileries Palace. The Emperor had announced his intention of going to the opera. Pietri, the chief of the Parisian police, had visited Napoleon that day. '' I am afraid, sire," he said, " that there is danger at hand. I am told that there are desperate men in Paris preparing some blow at your Imperial person. lam making every inquiry, but can discover little at present^ and I should advise the postponement of your visit to the opera to a safer season." Napoleon sent to consult the Empress Eugenic. She wished to visit the opera. iWarnings of danger were so common that Napoleon had come to despise~them. " The Empress wishes to see the opera," h3 said. "We will go." The opera house was crowded. From 'its outside blazed illuminations which had been put up in honour of the Emperor's visit. The streets were crowded with a vast throng anxious to see the Imperial party pass by. J?olicc detectives mingled with the crowd, jmd glanced suspiciously around in search pi subjected chjw:actsr.f}.

One of these officers, a Monsieur Hebert, was passing along the Rue Lepelletier, when suddenly he met a man upon -whom, as the gaslight fell upon his face, he quickly pounced. "That man," he said to the police officers who surrounded him, "is Pierri. He was expelled from Prance six years ago. I know his face. Take him to the station, search, and detain him." Tlie detective was right. The man was Orsini's friend Pierri, and on his being searched a six-bai'relled revolver, a poniard, and a pear-shaped bomb — one of those manufactured by iMr Taylor at Birmingham — charged with fulminate of mercury, were found upon him. Hebert, the detective, rushed back again to the Rue Lepelletier. He could hear the cheers of the people as the Imperial carriages came nearer and nearer. There were three of them. The second, in which the Eir.peror, the Empress Eugenic, and General Rcguet were seated, was one which Louis Philippe had had specially built. It was made of wrought iron and was bullet proof. Suddenly, as the Emperor's carriage was drawing near the opera entrance, a dark object was seen to fall 'close to it. There was a flash, a roar, the air was rent with groans and screams of terror from the crowd on either side. A bomb had been thrown at the carriage ! The coachman lashed his horses wildly. They were uninjured, and sprang forward in response to the whip. Only a few paces, however. Again there came that flash and deafening roar, and the horses drawing the carriage fell to the ground. Herbert, the police officer, had rushed to the door of the now standing-still carriage Vrhen a third bomb, thrown with better aim than eitheir of the others, exploded and burst right beneath it. The bottom and front of the carriage were simply blown to pieces. All the gaslights were extinguished by the explosions. When police and soldiers came running up, and lights were brought, the Emperor was discovered standing beside the wrecked carriage, pale, buc calm, with, the Empress on his arm. They had escaped niiraculoulsy. Napoleon had received but a slight scratch, as hid the Empress, from a piece of splintered glass. Fearful havoc had been done among the crowd. No fewer than 10 persons were killed and 156 wounded, many of them women and children, by the splinters shcwered around as the diabolical machines exploded. Sixty-seven fragments were discovered in the royal carriage alone. Pale, but calm, Napoleon passed on to the Opera House. A few moments later he and the Empress entered the royal box, and were received by the audience, who had heard of the attempt, with frenzied enthusiasm. The Prince Consort's brother, who was in the Emperor's box, noticed seme little red spots on the Empress's dress. They were the blood of some of the wounded in the crowd. The Empress was wonderfully composed, calmer even than the Emperor himself. They remained till the end of the performance, and then returned to the Tuileries as dignified and self-possessed as ever. Late that night, however — so one of the imperial servants lias stated — when the palaoe was hushed and sleeping, Napoleon and the Empress paid a visit to the nursery, where, calmly reposing in his cot, lay the liltli Prince Imperial, a baby of but "little over a year old. At sight of the child the two burst into tears, and the Emperor knelt down beside the cot and wept bitterly. The Prince Imperial's nurse, too, tells how, later on as she lay in bed in the nursery, she was aroused by the sound of someone stealthily entering the room. Seeing it was the Emperor, she lay still, and he passed quietly to the side of the sleeping child, knelt down for a few moments, and then stole away quietly. In the meantime the police had been busy. At the sound of the first explosion a force of cavalry had rushed up from the nearest point at which the military had been posted, and bodies of detectives and gendarmes had poured into the Rue Lepelletier from all points. Bystanders who had seen the first bomb thrown before the gas lamps were extinguished furnished the police with an account of the man who had hurled it. He had, they declared, been himself hit by one of the splinters of his missile, and in the place they pointed out was a blood stain, and leading down a side street was a trail of great spots. The police pursued it and hunted down their man. He was Orsini, the bag, blackwhiskered lodger of Grafton street, now, however, shaved clean, and bleeding from several wounds in the head. He avowed his share in the attempted assassination, but steadfastly refused to give any information as to his accomplices. In an hour or two, however, the police had arrested the others who had actually taken active part in the attempt — Pierri, Rudio, and Gomez. The plot, it was learned, had been purely a political one, instigated and contrived by Orsini. Driven to madness by what he conceived to be the wrongs of Italy and the apathy of monarchs to the ruin of his country, he had resolved to strike a blow at Napoleon as symbolising all monarchical tyranny. On the 13th of the following March he and Pierri paid the penalty of their crime beneath the guillotine. Rudio and Gomez wcie sentenced to penal servitude for life. On the 12th of the succeeding April, Dr Bf rnard stood in the dock at the "Central Criminal Court to answer to the charge of having been concerned in the plot. No fewer than four judges sat upon the bench to hear the case. The court was crowded to almost suffocation. Count Welewski, the French ambassador in. London, had addressed communications to the Government which seemed to demand the punishment of Dr Bernard before trial. The officers of the French army had forwarded congratulatory addresses to Napoleon, in which they hinted how glad they should be to lead his troops against the nation in whose bosom, according to them had been fostered this murderous scheme. Never had two countries, perhaps, awaited the result of a trial with keener interest. Upon the afternoon of the sixth day the jxiry retired. After an absence of an hour they returned with a verdict of " not guilty." A roar of applause went up from those in court. Bernard's pale face flushed red under his

black hair ; for a moment he hardly seemed to realise what had happened. Then he burst into a wild shout, waving his handkerchief above his head, and the cheers of the people in court were swollen by those of thousands outside. The British people had not forgotten the French Ambassador's haughty words to our Government, or the threatenings of the French soldiery. Without concerning themselves as to the actual guilt or innocence of Bernard, they saw in the verdict a rebuff to French aggression. " There was not a man in that crowd," said Thiers to an Englishman, " who did not know that Bernard was an accomplice in one of the most mischievous, one of the blackest crimes that have ever disgraced humanity; but they applauded his acquittal because they thought it an insult to us. I will not say which is the more to blame in this wretched scries of mutual provocations."