THE HAUNTED CZAR.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 375, 25 June 1880, Page 17

THE HAUNTED CZAR.

A Fkench paper, Le Voltaire, of Paris, publishes in its St. Peters burg correspondence a recent incident in the life of the Czar, for which it claims entire authenticity. The incident ib said to have happened at five o'clock in the morning, when all was silent in the Winter Palace. One of the servants, who stood high in his master's favor, thought he heard the Czar's voice calling him and entered the imperial bedroom. The Emperor awakened suddenly by the noise of his footsteps and not recognizing the valet in the dim light of the lamp which swung over his head, drew a revolver from under his pillow and fired. The servant fell to the floor with a groan. The room was quickly filled with watchmen, members of the household and courtiers, fearful that another attempt had been made on the Czar's life. When the truth was learned, the wounded m»n was taken to another room, and doctors pronounced his injury to be fatal. Efforts were made on all sides to prevent the news getting abroad, and it was generally given out among the people that the man had died by his own hand. The incident is said to have augmented the Czar's terrors. His kitchen, which for some time has been placed under strict surveillance, has now. three physicians attached to it, each of them receiving 1000 roubles a month. One examines the food, the meats, vegetables, or pastry ; another tastes the wines and liquors ; the third superintends the making of the dishes. They are all subject to grave responsibilities. At the least illness of the Czar they run the risk of being arrested as accomplices on. a charge of high treason and of being instantly banished to Siberia. The Voltaire carries its list of improbabilities so far as to say that the Czar has not unfrequently been known to take emetics after dinner. " Have we not here," it cries, '■ an episode from the life of some legendary tyrant, a Dionysius of Syracuse, or an Emperor of Home, possessed with dreams of horror ?"