San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1877-11-10
The Countess Potoclxa.

uoouty VI tuO SOuhVooo S0oS~'t - s
photographs and engravipgs from the
pastel portrait by an unknown artist, IN
the Berlin Museum, hardly one in a hum
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 Scribner for November, ao-
companied by 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, a French ad-
venturer Of the time of Louis XIV, he
came upon 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, :" is a 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. ~tt.. nm nv
"Little girl, who are you, and where
do you live?'' asked the Marquis per-
suasively. .0Y 't..itri 20
"I am Sophie, sir, and my mamma is
a Creek" the child replied. 9u
"a Fanariote," exclaimed the Mar
quis, no less delighted at this intelli-
gence than charmed with the child's ad-
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 d'ssimu
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. W a)
"This is good fortune, Sophie," sale
she; "we will 60 to the palace"
Sophie's father is invisible at the poin
where this history begins, perhaps lying
behind the scenes with Turkish pom
lard in his heart, paying the grudge o
race. Sophie was a Fanariote-as thu
marquis had been delighted to learn
because her parents were descendant
of the Greeks who remained in Con
stantinople after the downfall of tn
Eastern empire in 1853, and who wer
assigned to a quarter of the city called
the Fanar. The Fanariotes, "kissine
ardently the hands which they could no
bite off,, became interpreters and pri
vate secretaries to their conquerors ant
the foreign embassy. Subservient
adaptable and shrewd, they exercised
powerful influence in the State till the
Greek insurrection nipped them stalk
and flower.
Sophie's mother had the schemine
disposition and unfeeling heart OF
Fanariote grated on comparative pov.
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.
elbow much money would the mother
demand for her little Sophie, if she were
disposed to sellP"
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 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
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
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