By the Assassin’s Hand.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXV, Issue XXVI, 29 December 1900, Page 1207

By the Assassin’s Hand.

SOME RULERS WHO HAVE PERISHED BY PISTOL., KNIFE AND BOMB. It has always been one of the penalties of royalty, rulers and the politically' powerful to fail to please everybody, and in many instances during the last century Kings, Queens, Princes, Presidents and Ministers have paid that penalty with their lives, while many another would have done so but for the intervention of Providence. There is hardly a living sovereign against whom the hand of the assassin has not been raised, our own good Queen not excepted, and with such deadly effect have bomb, dagger and pistol been wielded by Anarchists, Nihilists and others that it would not be possible to count on one’s fingers the times the world has been shocked in the last hundred years by news of royal and political murders. The latest murder of a crowned head will still be fresh in the memory of most of our readers—that of King Humbert, of Italy, at Monza, on the 29th July last. The murder of the Empress of Austria last year came as a shock to the whole of the civilised world.

The Empress, who was staying at her favourite resort, Territet, on the Lake of Geneva, made an excursion to Geneva, and was returning to the boat when the assassination took place. She had nearly reached the landing place, when a man pushed against her, and she nearly fell, but her lady-in-waiting, thinking that he had only jostled her, walked on by her side. When she reached the boat the Empress became very' faint, and the captain, after he had started, was induced to put back, when it was discovered that Her Majesty had been stabbed to the heart, and she jfied soon afterwards without ever knowing that she had been murdered.

The assassination of the late Shah of Persia took place under circumstances entirely different to those surrounding the murders of other riders referred to in this article, for he was engaged in his devotions when the fatal shot which robbed him of his life was fired.

On the first of May, 1896. he went forth from his palace, at Teheran, to the shrine of Abdul Azinu. Ere he entered the building he gave a bank note to an Arab, and spoke a few kind words to a water carrier. At the hour of two he was kneeling at his prayers, when the stillness was broken by the report of a revolver. The Shah rose to his feet, and, turning, fixed his eyes on the flying assassin, took two or three steps forward, and dropped to the ground. Some of his attendants rushed to his aid, while others secured the murderer, but His Imperial Majesty was past human assistance —the shot had passed between the fifth and sixth ribs and entered his heart. One of the most cruel and terrible assassinations which may claim to be included in this article was that of Stambuloff, the “Bismarck of Bulgaria,” who, though neither of royal blood nor a ruler in the understood sense of the word as here used, was for a long time, politically, monarch of Bulgaria, much to the dissatisfaction of the reigning Prince Ferdinand and of Russia.

To recount the events which led up to the murder of the ex-Premier Stambuloff would be to tell a wonderful and fascinating story of political intrigue crowned by this most abominable crime, which was not the doing of Anarchists, but it would require a volume in itself. Therefore, it must suffice to say that Stambuloff during his tenure of office as Prime Minister had by his policy, which was not entirely in the. interests of Russia, incurred her displeasure. Therefore, his removal was determined upon, and there is not the least doubt that Prince Ferdinand was well aware of the fact—Stambuloff himself knew it, and asked permission of the Government to leave Bulgaria for Carlsbad, but this was refused him. What Stambuloff told many of his friends would occur came to pass on the evening of July 15th, 1895. lie

had been playing cards in the Union Club, at Sofia, and left there to return to his mansion, which was in the same street, at the hour of eight, when it was still light in the streets, anti many people were abroad.

After standing for a moment outside the club he hailed a fiacre, and drove down the street. Scarcely had they proceeded a dozen yards when an attack was made on the carriage. Three men, armed with yataghans, knives and pistols, seemed to spring from out of the earth and rush upon the vehicle. The ex-l’rime Minister must have recognised what was happening, for, standing up in the carriage. he whipped out his revolver and fired, jumping at the same time to the ground. He rocked to and fro as he alighted on his feet, and ere he could regain his balance, a cruel blow on the head from a yataghan felled him to the earth, where the three men. setting upon him with ferocious savagery, inflicted, in less time than it takes to read of the onslaught, the most terrible injuries.

He had twenty wounds in his head, both hands were almost severed at the wrists, an eye was cut out. and his face so shockingly slashed as to lie almost unrecognisable. All this was done ere a friend with him could alight, even before the carriage had stopped, in fact, and before the body servant of the victim, who was seated on the box of the carriage beside the driver, eould spring to the ground. The murderers fled, leaving M. Stambuloff weltering in his blood and his friend lying beside him with a stab in the forehead. M. Stambuloff was yet alive when removed to his home, and lingered in agony two nights aud two days perfectly conscious, but never sleeping, ere succumbing on the 18th. Both his hands had to be amputated. He had recognized two of the three assailants. Huloff and Tufektehieff, and the latter was arrested, but immediately released, having proved an alibi. A reward of 10,001)' francs was offered for the murderers, and many arrests were made, but for this terrible crime no one suffered, and Bulgaria has yet to pay the penalty for it. The fourth president of France, M. F. Sadi Carnot, who was elected in 1887, served until June 24th, 1894, when he was stabbed to death in the streets of Ivons. He had gone thither on a visit "to the Exhibition. Spending the earlier part of the evening at the Palais de Commerce he set Out, the central figure of a procession, for the Grand Theatre, where there was to be given a great gala performance. Everywhere his visit to the town had given the greatest satisfaction, for the President was a popular man, and well liked by the people. Crowds thronged the route to the theatre, and before the Place de la Comedie was a happy crowd awaiting to greet him on his arrival, while the theatre itself was packed with an impatient who had taken their seats at the hour of nine.

Smiling faces were all around. Tn the boxes and fauteuils, gallery and pit there was a ripple of merry laughter. Joy was the all-pervading- force. The minutes crept on. The President was late, but what were those shouts without? He was coming. The mass rose prepared to cheer. There was silence outside now. Some officials entered the “log-e” reserved for the Presidential party, and M. Rivaud, Prefect of Police, stepped to the front into full view of the house. The paleness of his face seemed to cast a chilliness ovex every heart. Something was wrong-. People tried to cheer, but the Prefect solemnly raised his hand and opened his lips. He essayed to speak, but for a moment the words refused to come. When he spoke a bomb might have been dropped from the roof, so great was the scene of consternation and confusion his one short sentence created. . . ,

“Do not cheer,” be said, with a tremor in his voice. “Your President has been assassinated.” A momentary silence was followed by an outburst of rage; women cried out in terror, tears ran down many a face, men howled in rage for “Vengeance! Vengeance!” Meanwhile, the President was slowly

dying. The carriage in which lie had set out to go to the theatre was passing the Credit Lyonnais when a young man sprang suddenly from the crowd on to the step of the vehicle and d<?wn again, lie had thrust something at the President. and M. Carnot had fallen back in his seat. He had been stabbed. An officer felled the assassin to the

ground as he jumped from the step of the carriage. Tlw police seised hiui and soldiers closed aiound, and it was well they did. for the mob would surely have torn hiiu limb from limb. Caserio Santo, the assassin, was lodged in prison and safe from the enraged crowd, but be was an Italian, and they took vengeance on the Italians in Lyons. Their shops were sacked and burned, and themselves hunted from the place, and the disorder spread to other places, for at such a moment people do not stop to reason, aud the lawless portion of society seise an opportunity to pursue their calling in comparative security. The assassin, who was twenty-two years of age. was executed at Lyons on August 16th. Russia has lost two Czars in the century under the hand of the assassin, but it was not the Nihilists who strangled the Emperor Paul Petrovitch, though they accounted for the Emperor Alexander 11., grandfather of the present Czar, than whom, perhaps, no Sovereign had more attempts made upon his life.

He had begun his reign wisely and well, desirous to do his duty as Emperor. and lighten the sorrows and burdens of his people. But either th* people did not appreciate his welltneant endeavours, or he thought they did not. and when he found there were still elements in the nation dangerous alike to bis life and to the prosperity of Russia, he recalled many of his humane laws, with the result that there recommenced a system of tyranny which made things worse than they were ere he came to the throne. Then was his life aimed nt. not once, nor twice, but often, but he seemed to be specially guarded by Providence, for he escaped the most, cunningly-designed plots, and always when it seemed impossible for them to fail. But success rewarded the Nihilistic persistence at last, and the Czar was murdered on March 13. 1881.

The Emperor was returning in his carriage from a review, along the canal road, when the murder was accomplished. The first bomb that was thrown destroyer! the back of the carriage and killed the Cossack standing- behind the vehicle, as well as several other persons, but the Czar remained uninjured, and his people besought him to stay in his carriage and be driven home as quickly as possible. The humane nature of His Majesty made this wise course impossible for him, and he insisted on himself seeing the extent of the injuries received by his attendants.

As the Czar stood speaking to those who were wounded and those who had escaped, a second bomb was thrown, which exploded close at his feet, causing him the most fearful injuries, and killing the man who threw it. The Czar, as well as all those standing round him. fell to the ground as if mowed down. Into the story of the hatching of the plot, which came out at the trial of the 'who were hunted down after the murder, it is impossible to go here. Five persons were arrested, including two women, and one gave himself up voluntarily, and on April 22nd five of them were hanged, one of the women being reprieved-