Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1872-04-17
| that she would do so "without com
nnl llinor u In, to 11ca 1-iolor,ao !,

that she would do so without com
pelllng him to use violence
On this she uttered a cry for help:
and ere long another Uojt2tre dashed
up, and there leaped out gentleman,
sword in hand. He proved to be
young Duke de --, her Roman ad,
mirer, and he had barely time to recog.
nize Cecile, when her bethrothed. the
Knight of Malta, also appeared on the
scene, which thus becomes so melo-
dramatic as to throw ridicule on the
story.
"The Duke is about to deprive YOU
of your MISTRESS said the cunning old
Prince to his son "let us Jointly use
our swords against him in defense of
your dearests."
So thereupon the cavalier of Malta
ran the poor duke through the BODY in
the most approved fashion; bore off
the fainting Cecile to Paris, and placed
her in the hotel of his father.
There the renewed but secret ad-
dresses of the latter alarmed her, and
on one occasion she had to protect her
self by an exhibition of pistols, after
she escaped with Salmoni and the
Knight, who urged that she should, in
fulfillment Of her VOW, visit her captive
father, while he once more strove, 1T
the feet of Pope Clements successor, to
get his oath Of ceibacy absolved.
In Turkey, some unruly Janizaries
slew Salmoni, and were about to offer
some violence to Cecile, despite her
French passport, when she DISPLAYED
before them the .fet fa. This, we are
told, was a piece of yellow silk, on
which were embroidered in golden let
ters, the names of the Sultan, of her
mother Ask, and herself, with the day
and hour Of her birth, together with
certain passages from the Koran: "The
children of the Sultan are bound with
the fet f0 Immediately after birth: and
this document is deemed a sacred proof
of their royal descent and at the sight
OF 1t, every Mohammedan must bow
himself to the ground, and defend with
his life the wearer of it. y
By this time her cousin Mustapha
III. was dead, and his successor, her
kinsman, Mohammed v, on hearing of
her story, and, more than all, of her
beauty, conceived a passion for her,
and sent his chief friend and conf
dante, the Beglerberg OF Natolin, to
inform her of the honor that awaited
her. Being informed that it was the
fame Of her wonderful hair that had at
first excited the curiosity and admira-
ton of the Sultan, she cut it entirely
off, and tossed it to the messenger
CO." said she, "and give your mas
ter this-the object of his love-and
tell him that woman capable of such
a sacrifice knows no master but Heaven
and her own heart !"
Had chignons been then in fashion,
much trouble might have been saved
the fair Cecile, who, finding that a
hasty departure from Turkey alone
could save her, demanded, but in VAIN,
a passport from the Pacha of Smyrna or
Izmir. Urged by her father Achmet,
she quilted secretly by sea, and was
landed by a French frigate at Toulon,
where she learned from the lieutenant
of Maltese galley that her lover had
perlshed in duel.
Her journey to Turkey had greatly
impoverished Der, and now she found
herself III France almost without a
friend, with only five hundred ducats
and a diamond, the gift of her father,
Achmet III. Choosing to conceal her
fallen fortune from every eye, she Sc
lected st humble dwelling in an obscure
part of the city, where, long years
after, her editor first discovered her,
and where, at a distance from royal
thrones, from human wealth and gran
deur, she had sought to pass the even
ing of her days in peace and obscurity.
"God has blessed my fortitude," she
concludes. "Born in ITO. I have
lived to see the 1st of January, 1856,
and must now serenely and TRANQUILITY
await that peace by which death must
make amends for all the surprising and
affecting changes of fortune which [
have experienced in my passage
through life"
Cecile-if ever she existed at all
must have been then in her seventy
sixth year. Her narrative is certainly
mentioned in the Journal de Paris :;
but in the tide of events that so rap
idly followed the war, in which the
financial troubles of France be-
gan, the meeting of the States Gen
er l, and the crash of the first revolu-
tion following, we hear no more of
LA belle Turque,n soi-disant daugh-
ter Of the dethroned Achmet III.