An Emperor's Punishment.

Otago Witness, Issue 2399, 22 February 1900, Page 67

An Emperor's Punishment.

"Of Emperor Nicholas I," writes "RussoEngkuider,"' "there are man 3" stories still curreiii, and perhaps two or three may be found hiU're'trna. Nicholas once noticed a gross act of rudencsf- on the pert of one of his nobiliiv to an old lady. 'You will walk up and down that corridor all night, f-aid Ids Majesty, 'and every time you turn you v, ill i,aj^ in a loud voice, "I'm a puppy ! I m a puppy !" ' And he had to do so. i "According to a second story, the Emperor, at some Garden party, or other afternoon summer festivity, at the Palace, chanced to overhear a conversation between a dashing young officer in his army smd a very pretty girl 'whom the captain erroneously believed to have fu'len in love with his gallant keif, and to whom he vas condescendingly ex- ' plaining — to her manifest indignation — that she was'not of sufficiently high birth to be his wife. "The Emperor at once interfered. He sternly rebuked the officer, and having expressed to the young lady his regret that an officer in his army should have treated her so rudely, requested her to remain for an hour in one of the apartments of the palace, and ordered that during the whole, of that h.r.e the offending captain should lie at her feot and kiss her shcc« ! Neither ventured to disobey, ancl so the blushing, but secretly-de-lighted girl was escorted to a private apart- . merit, and was there duly seated in slate, while the enraged captain had to spend an entire hour prostrate at her dainty feet, kissing the pretty patent leather sandal shoes which were then so fashionable. In the sequel it is said that he fell passionately in love with the girl, and that he proposed to her, but was scornfully rejected, with a_ cutling allusion to his former conduct. Such, at least, is the story. "Once the Czar was annoyed that a leading citizen of St. Petersburg had seemed to avoid him in the street, and, receiving the explanation that the offender did not see him, commanded him thenceforward alwayp to wear spectacles out of doors, to the extreme disgust of the victim, whose vision vas excellent." ,