Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1865-05-04

ecratlon which followed Booth as he fled
across the stage Of the theatre must have
awakened him from his horrible infatuation
as completely as the future looks and fierce
howlings of the Roman people did Brutus.
The latter part of the sixteenth century
was remarkable for the number and atrocity
of the assassinations of kings and rulers. -.
The intrigues of courts and the conspiracies
of crowned heads against each other, which
constitutes the history of that dark period,
all seem to have been based upon assassina
ton as the ultimatum ofdiplomacy. Henry
the VIII Of England assassinated his dis
cardcd queens and many who sympathized
with them by the convenient process of cor
rupt courts and the public executioners. Il
Mary, Queen of Scots, secured the murder
of one husband and the marriage ofanother
by murder. The number of regicides of
which Catharinc de Medci is accused is in
credible. The crowns of kings were not
more unstable than their heads and they
generally went down together. One of the
most lamentable assassinations of this period
was that of William the Silent, Prince of
Orange, and the head of the united States
of the Netherlands. He was a brave and
sagacious statesman and warriorunder whose
guidance the Dutch Republic had, at the
time Of his death, defeated for eighteen
years all the efforts of Phillip II. of Spain
and the Holy League-then the most pow
erful military and religious combination of
the world-to subjugate the Netherlands -
| William was shot at the door Of his dining
room, in Delft, on the 10th of July, 1884,
by an obscure fanatic named Balthzar &c
rard, who, besides being innaned with re-
ligious and political fanaticism was encour-
aged to the murder by the gold of Phillip.
The rage and sorrow of the Dutch at this
calamity could not be described William
was the idol Of the people, and his death
left several States without an authoritative
head factions arose in every city different
municipal bodies worked at cross purposes
,, and twenty-five years more of war, with i'm
mense losses and sickening slaughter, en-
sued, which would have been averted but
for the bullet of the assassin.
! The next regicide of this period, and one
t connected with that Of William Of Orange,
{ was that Of the Duke of Guise, an instrument
Of Phillip fSpain, who had, in fact, though
t not in name, usurped the throne Of his
, brother, Henry III of France and son of
a Catharine dc Mcdci Guise, who was sup
D posed to have instigatcd the massacre of
e St. Bartholomew, was murdered by his own
= guardsjust as he was entering his own room,
r on the 23d of December, 1888
c Next in this line ofmurders came Henry
4 tIlt LIZ, HiulSCli, WHO WIS SluDDGl III UHC
Z following August, 1889, by Jacques Clement,
1 lanatical monk. The monk gained admit
c tance to the palace of ST. Cloud, and upon
t pretence Of delivering an important letter,
5 stabbed the King in the breast, from the
e effects of which he died in few days lie
" vas weak and eflemnato monarch, who
/ devoted his time to trifing dissipation and
5 intrigue, and his natural death would have
t been relief to the people, but they never
; theless put his assassin to death by the most
3 horrible torture. With Henry who had
| reigned Il number of years the line of Valois
became extinct, and the House Of Bourbon
: succeeded.
/ lie was succeeded by Henry of Navarro,
- who assumed the title of Henry the w., {
o vigorous and sagacious ruler and dmagnifcen
- warrior, who regned nineteen years, anC
If was extremely popular with the people. -
,e He, too, was murdered by an assassin, OF
W the 4th of May, 1910. His murderer wa
l. Francois Ravalac. Henry was riding il
ne his coach through a narrow street in Paris
u surrounded by his guard, and collision en-
$ sued with some other vehicle, when Ravai
rs lac who had been waiting and watching 70
H. the opportunity for months, stepped up
at the coach window and stabbed the king
s. who, eXclaiming, Il am stabbed" " fell bac
C. on his seat and soon after expired. Ravai
te lac made no attempt to escape, but RENAME
ID standing by the door Of the coach with tn
MS bloody dagger in his hand. He displaye
,ir no trepidation, but seemed to be laborin
to under the delusion that he had done h
in country a service and would be applaude
for the deed but the awful and hideou
cr yclls Of rage that rung in his ears as tn
Mt people heard the news the murder, speed
ON ly awakened him. 1t was with great diff
ey Guilty that he could be saved from the people
nd who, maddcncd by the crime, struggle
So desperately with the guards to rescue IL
yc assassin and tear him to pieces. Ravaill;
ed was put to the torture in order to comp
of him to disclose his confederates, and eve
for the priest refused to shrivc him unless |
ms named them; but the man denied to Il
no last that any one else participated in h
=" crime, which was doubtless the case. II
IS, was put to death with the most horrib
- torture that could be devised lie W;
nd fastened to a burning stake, had his hoS
,at torn with red hot pinchers, and after tw
ne days of such torments was finally torn
rs, pieces by four horses htchcd to his liml
of and driven in opposite directions. The J
of suits, who were supposed to have instigat,
n the murder, were expelled from France
-- In Russia the number of regicides su
ON pocted is large, but the mystery which han!
So about them and which the successors to ii
I'D throne are very careful to maintain, max,
d, it difficult for the historian to detail I'll
ell royal horrors. Peter III. of Russia, it
certain, was dcposcd by his own family al
he court, and was finally murdered in prs,
by in l762. Paul l., called Petovich the 81
,od of Petcr Ill, was strangled in his own be
of room by Counts Xuloif, Phalcn and other
who demanded his abdcation, on accou
ide of his insane extravaganza This dark de-
ost was pcrpetrated within the hearing of |
III son, and successor to the throne. His st
of ond son, Constantine, is even accused
on having participated in it, He perish
old mlserably, after furious resistance, at t
,os- hands of those who WELD the terrible 'pow
her behind the throne" which controls, W
the its menacing shadow, even the otherw
lty omnipotent Gar,
de- Gustavus Ill. of Sweden was slain a
fter masked ball in the palace at Stockhol
en-, March Goth, l702--somc authorities declG
,me by the firing Of pistol, others by bl
fore from dagger He died in the presence
of his whole court and amid the most brill,
un- of those festivities and pageants which
had had done so much to introduce, His ass
The sin was one Ankarstrom, the instrum,
cal. of body Of disailected mobiles. The uni
of tunate monarch fingered in agony for tt
his teen days.