REFUGEE COUNTESS'S STORY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8793, 3 December 1906, Page 2

REFUGEE COUNTESS'S STORY.

FLED FROM RUSSIA THROUGH A TERRIBLE MISTAKE. The Countess Olga Sergejeflfna, who claims to be eldest daughter -of the late Grand Duke Sergiu®, the story of whose flight from Lo-ndo-n to Russia was told recently, later gave a full and touching narrative of her recent experiences. The Countees is, she says, the daughter, by a morganatic marriage, of the Grand Duke Sergius and Countess Feodorovna. She is a singularly beautiful woman, and her jewellery consisted of diamonds and pearls. "I have been forced to escape from my own country through a terrible mistake," she said. " One evening lafit June my husband, Count Romanoff, who -was an officer of the Preobrasohensky Regiment of the Guards, was entertaining a few friends at <mr horn'& in the Millionaga-Ulica. A young literary gentleman — Nicholas Kalkavsky — had been brought- by Baron. KorfE, one of our guests. "It ie said that he cherished a feeling of bitter revenge against an officer in the regiment which passed our houee. At any rate, he left* the card-table where we were playing, and deliberately threw a bomb among the soldiers. It fell shorty and therefore the injuries inflicted were slight. , " Immediately the place was in an uproar. The soldiers entered and killed all the men — my husband, Baron Oeteneacken, of the Baltic provinces, Baron Korff, and my uncle, Count Orloffski. The soldiers appropriated some £200 which was on the card-table. " I ran and hid, but was found and handed over to the police. After a detention of twenty-four hours and a hearing before a magistrate, I was released, and went back to my home. I euppose my release was expedited by powerful relatives. I was, however, immediately rearrested by. military officers and taken to Gatchina, where I was confined in a villa, closely guarded by soldiers. I heard that the officers said, ' ' If the police cannot mete out justice, we will.' " It is preposterous to have suspected me of complicity in a Nihilist plot; why, all my feelings are the other way (the countess's eyes filled with tears); a plot that robbed me of the husband I loved ! "I do not know what I shall do. I must wait till matters quiet down in Ruosia. Yes, on my father's side I am cousin to the Czar; but I suppose his mind is po>iso-ned against' me by those who carried me away. I have no friends here. 1 have been unaccustomed to any form of work, and I can only wait, wait!"