Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1872-04-11
LA BELLE TURQUE.
The story Of the Prlneess Cceile.

~ OSAOSSS W AAu40 4OVA4Ou x1Oul
business" soi. disant regal pretenders,
false Or real-whether like Perkin War
beck, or the six Demetrises of Russia,
some more recent pseudo heirs of the
house OF Stuart who figured in Austria
after the Quarterly drove them out Of
Scotland, "the Duke of Normandy y
in London, and SO forth, who had ap.
peared from time to time, none have
had 80 marvellous . story to tell as the
Princess Cecile, I" La belle Turque, ,as
she was named, who announcing her.
self, in two volumes octave, to be q
daughter of the deposed sultan Ach.
met I'LL, took the needless world o1
Paris by surprise, about q hundred
9uent!y been classed with romances,
though it came forth as veritable his.
tory.
The editor, who guaranteed its truth,
was man Of veracity and credit in his
day and he urged upon the public
that however extraordinary and roman.
tic her adventures might appear, they
were, ne rtheless, strictly facts and
in q letter addressed to the editors Of
the Journal de Paris, in 1857, he add
ed, that in that year, the lady was still
alive in the French. capital, "and, not.
withstanding her advanced age, in the
enjoyment of gsod health.'
It is angular that her narrative.
whether false or true. as given by her.
self and I'M. Buissson, Litterarie.
Hotel de Mesgringy, Rue des Poite-
wins, as it would furnish ample ma
terials for the largest three.volume
move, escaped the eyes of Alexander
Dumas, or Viscount d'Arlincourt, as is
full of adventures of the most stirring
kind, and told briefly, runs thus:
The introductory part of her story,
in which the names Of persons of rank
are concealed, contains, necessarily, the
adventures of her governess, or nurse,
BY whom she was first abducted from
her home and brought to France.
It would appear that about the year
100, a Madsmoiselle Emilia (sec),
daughter of . surgeon in the French
seaport town Of Genes, was, with her
lover, young 0enoese, named Sal
moni in pleasure-boat upon the
Mediterranean, a little way from the
coast, when Notwithstanding "Lo ter
rosts dss nom de Louis XIV" they
were pounced upon by some Turkish
corsairs-a common enough evon in
those days, and not one unfrequent,
even after Lord Exmouth demolished
Algiers.
This occurred in the dusk: and the
voice of Salmoni, who had been sing.
ing, is supposed to have first attracted
them. Being armed, the italian de-
Tended his love and his life With cour-
age, but fell severely wounded, and was
left for dead in the bottom of his boat.
which doated away, the sport of the
waves, while Emilia was carried off. ana
in consequence Of her great beauty, was
ultimately sold, at Constantinople un.
der the name of Fatima, for the service
and amusement Of Achmet I'LL, who,
in consequence of her accomplish,
ments, made her a species of governor
to his children, instead of retaining
her among the odaisques in the ser.
aglio. This must have been subseauent
to 17O3, when Achmet began his trou.
blesome reign.
She was in this situation of trust.
when Salmoni, who had never forgot.
ten her, after . long and unsuccessful
search through many seaport towns in
the Levant-a veritable pilgrlm of love
accidentally discovered, by a casua]
conversation with q Turkish seaman.
where she was, and how occupied fol
this man had been one of the corsair'e
crew.
Disguised a. Turk. and .aivine out
that =" he was the father of Fatima, the
trusted slave" Salmoni found means to
communicate with her through an
tchogkan, one of the slaves or pages at
tached to the seraglio, and they were
thus enabled to see each other and con-
verse, their hasty meetings being but
stolen moments of tenderness and iov.
Emilia was now in attendance upon
little daughter of Achmet I'LL, born in
ITO, and then six months old. Her
mother was the Sultana Ask, formerly
a Georgian Slave, and then one Of
the kadines or wives of the sultan, Ia
dies whose number rarely exceeds sew
en-. Emilia was high in fevor with
both Achmet and this sultana, as she
had been particularly serviceable to the
latter at the birth of the child, through
some little skill he had acquired from
her fanher, the surgeon; thus the con-
tidence they reposed in her, and the
authority she possessed over all the
people in and about the sera9lio, facil.
itated the execution of those plans fo,
an escape, suggested and urged by Sal.
mOni.
With view to this end, she desired
the b1stoaahi, or head gardener. ia
make a see-saw, which was in the gar.
dens, 80 high that she-and her pupils,
robably-might see the whole city
from the lofty wall that girds this
place, where still the trees planted are
always green, that the inhabitants al
Galata and other places may not SET
the ladies at their lonely prom
enades. Aided by this see-saw, sh.
dropped over the wall billet, to Sal
moni, desiring him to procure ladder
"a steel-yard" to fix to the masonry, K
make arrangements with q ship captain
and when all was prepared, to wait hel
beneath the wall of that terrible Sera
Bournous, which no slave-woman hai
ever yet left alive.
Salmoni promptly obeyed her in
etructlons; he discovered a ship fol
Levant, and by note tossed over thl
wall, informed her of the night. ani
the very hour of their departure.
She was in the very act of readins
this note-probably not for the time
when the Sultan Achmet suddenly en-
tered her apartment; and she had
barely time to toss it, unseen, into ,
porphyry vase; for this billet. if dis
covered, might have consigned her I,
the bowstring Of the capidgiboshi, O
the sack of the black chonautoyx0z
and it's concealment forms an importan
feature in the story of the fngitives.
The hour-almost the moment-fo
fight had arrived, and Salmoni, sh,
knew, awaited her below the Rarde,
wall; yet, amid all the terror and anxi
ETY. of the time, go strong was Emilia
love for the little baby-girl of whom
she had the chief care, that she resoly
cd to convey the child away with her
and hoped eventually to rear it az
Christian. Collecting all her Jewels
and those which Achmet had alreail
lavished on the infant, she took wit
them the silken tetfa, or record of il