Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1879-08-06

81 You impertinent young
jackanapes, what do you mean !
shouted the general, who thought
this was little too much, especial
ly from a subaltern.
"You presented him to the
Countess Bancroft" the young Of
ficer insisted.
"Nothing Of the sort. The only
person l presented to her was my
nephew"
But don't you see that wasn't
your nephew at all! That was
Kamoutsine. So you can under
stand that the emperor is furious
triple idiot that / was!" said
the governor, sinking down upon
a bench and clasping his head in
bis hands; sit struck Inc at the
time that these wasn't a practicle
OF resemblance
Thus it became known how
Kamoutsine got into the ballroom,
but it was not so easy to find how
be got out Of it. He had evaporat-
ed. with the new dress-suit, but he
had the generosity to leave on
the table of the room he had &C.
cupied a letter exhonerating the
general. 1t was speedily discovered
and carried to the emperor, who
condescended TO laugh, to restore
the general to favor and to remark
that the trick had been very neatly
played.
But the imperial pardon did not
extend to the audacious perpetra-
tor Of the Jest. The police were
hunting st. Petersburg high and
low for him, but no trace of him
was TO be found, and was not for
twenty-four hours that it occurred
to them to look for Kamoutsine at
his country seat. On arriving there
they found him surrounded by his
family portraits, slipping coffee and
reading a foreign review.
"You have been guilty Of grave
disrespect to the emperor said
the police official.
al! Howi In what :"
ain going to the governors
ball."
"Ob come now, don't make fun
of an unhappy exile. | have been
here these last two days in com
pliance with the terms of my severe
and uumerited sentence"
"You got your gendames drunk.
any gendarmes got themselves
drunk"
"You got them intoxicated and
gave them the slip.
"Calumny-nothing but calum-
ny" When / saw that they were
too drunk to travel / came on
alone. 1t was humiliating for an
officer and noble to be escorted
like a common thief"
ain spite of your Punishment
from the capital, you presented
yourself at the governors"
"Who stuffed YOU with all this r.
"Stuffedi Nobodyi Thirty
people saw and recogized you"
"Thirty people saw met Then
Providence, to rebuke the growing
skepticism Of the age, has worked
a miracle. They must have been
the victims OF some extraordinary
Illusion, for all my people can testi
fy, i have not been outside of these
doors for the last two days"
"Well, well, perhaps they were,
said the officers, whose own con
fidence began to be shaken "bu'
my orders are to bring you bach
to st. Petersburg"
Kamoutsine looked coldly at hi,
stupefied interlocutor.
"This is pleasantly, SIR" b,
said sternly, "and it is in the wors
of taste, but / see nothing for !
but to submit"
He allowed them In conduct hin
back to the capital, retaining sucl
a consistent expression Of iniure,
innocence that his guards remain
ed ever afterwards convinced tina
this reserved and dignifed youn,
man had been traduced.
The emperor bad condescende,
to laugh, and Kamoutsine got OF
with three months detention In /,
fortress-happily not in that of ST
Petersburg, the governor never for
gave his pseudo-nephew.
1 never heard what the prince,
wager was, nor whether the coun
tess paid IL.