American citizen., 1877-11-03
The Countess POtOcka.

OF the many who have admired the
beauty of the Countess POtOcka, in the
photographs and engravings from the
pastel portrait by an unknown artist, in
the Berlin Museum, hardly one in hun
dred has known any thing of her ro-
mantle story. A full account of her life
is published (for the first time in En-
glish) in Scri6ner for November, ac-
companied by a large engraving of the
portrait. The writer, Mr.. Clarence G..
Buel, thus describes the purchase of
the little Fanariote in Constantinople
Within the decade of years preceding
the outbreak of the first French revolu-
ton, the French ambassador was one
day taking his customary morning walk
through the streets of Pera, the Frank
ish suburb of Constantinople. Near the
grave of Count Bonneval, French ad-
venturer of the time of Louis XIV, he
came upon a band of frolicking chill
dren. The extraordinary beauty of one
of them, little girl twelve or thirteen
years of age, excited the Frenchman's
admiration He watched their play,
with scheming eyes fixed on the gleeful
maid. '' Here" he thought, I" is Jewel
for my palace He called the child to
him. She responded cheerfully, and
stood before his excellency, with the
naughty self-possession of born prin-
cess.
'' Little girl, who are you, and where
do you live?'' asked the Marquis per-
suasiyely.
g am Sophie, sir, and my mamma is
Creek" the child replied.
"A Fanariote," exclaimed the Mar
quis, no less delighted at this intelli-
gence than charmed with the child's adj
dress. ''Tell your mother she may
bring you to the French ambassadorial
palace at noon tomorrow"
Sophie made her salana in pretty
bow, and leaving her playmates to won
der at what had happened, skipped
away to narrow street near by, and
disappeared in dingy bakers shop.
Her mothers unattractive and dissimu-
lating face frightened as Sophie related
the interview with the marquis. One
admiring look at her child explained to
the mother the meaning of the mar
quis's favor.
This is good fortune, Sophie" said
she; ''we will go to the palace" "
Sophie's father is invisible at the point
where this history begins, perhaps lying
behind the scenes with Turkish pom
lard in his heart, paying the grudge of
race Sophie was Fanariote-as the
marquis had been delighted to learn
because her parents were descendants
stantinople after the downfall of the
Eastern empire in 1853, and who were
assigned to quarter of the city called
the Fanar The Fanariotes, " kissing
ardently the hands which they could not
bite off, became interpreters and pri-
vate secretaries to their conquerors and
the foreign embassy. Subservient,
adaptable and shrewd, they exercised a
powerful influence in the State till the
Greek insurrection nipped them stalk
and flower.
Sophie's mother had the scheming
disposition and unfeeling heart of a
Fanariote grated on comparative pow
ertY. So mother and daughter appear
ed at the ambassadorial palace on the
appointed day, and were placed before
the marquis. The Frenchman knew
with whom he had to deal-a Fanariote
and doubtless poor; not overburdened
with sentiment, and susceptible to posi-
ton and gold.
s'How much money would the mother
demand for her little Sophie, if she were
disposed to sell?''
And he promised, in the same breath,
to educate and otherwise provide for the
little Fanariote as if she were his own
child.
The mother let flow a whole reservoir
of tears. She might be a poor baker
woman, she said, but she had heart
for all that, and came of an exceeding
ly good family. Her ancestor-and
here she courtesied profoundly-was,
indeed, no other than the celebrated
Byzantine emperor, Manuel Komnenos.
How could his excellency think, for a
moment, that she, the mother, would
sell her princely baker-daughter!
The Marquis did not dispute the illus
trious ancestry of the little Fanariote
The excessive grief of the mother
strengthened him in his conclusion thai
1900 piasters (S375) would prove {
, sufficient bait for the covetous baker
f woman, and he stated his terms. Tht
; mother made the palace ring with hel
, doleful cries, till the Marquis, losing al
t patience, told her to sign the contract
} which he had already prepared, or talk
her daughter and go. A few fatherl.
caresses smoothed out the brow of TIN
, child, whose first impulse was to shrinl
t from the ambassadors seeming austeri
e ty. The mother rallied at the basenes
r of the world, and finally consoling her
h self with the Turkish proverb, ''Th
e nest of blind bird is built by God,
d she signed over to the Marquis, beyon
c recall, all claims upon her daughter
It took the 800 piasters, and withdrew.