The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-10-19

but at the moment of action have thought that
your life is precious and that mine is dear only to
my mother. | prefer, therefore, to kill myself.
| Before dying commend TO your majesty my poor
mother. FRANCISCO DE Franciscan.
On reading this letter, Humbert made a re-
| mark which spoke both for his courage and
goodness of heart. He said: This is a crazy
fellow, who would render his suicide interest
ing" The king was, however, mistaken.
Though when first Intercepted, the sergeant
had declared that the removal" of Humbert
was 'little job" laid out for him by secret
society of conSpirators whose commands in
hour of Nihilistic infatuation, he had
solemnly sworn to obey, he since has con-
feSsed that this story was an utter fabrica-
ton, and that he connected it to give his poor
mother a claim on the generous charity of
the king. As for the motive of his attempt on
his own life, the inevitable "woman in the
case" was not good old lady, but q very
naughty young one, whom, on a recent leave,
he had met at Alamo, his native town. 1t
seems that n watch haC. been confided to his
care, to take to a fellow soldier, which time
piece Signorina Delilah had taken a fancy to
and gained possession of by some means, and
Franceschi, not being able 30 account for its
disappearance, was on the eve of being de-
nounced as a thief, disgraced and stripped of
the sergeant's galloni, and preferred death.
Perhaps it is pity he could not have had his
choice.
The son of Vittorio Emanuele does not scare
well. On the very day of that sensational
event, while many about him were alarmed
by the sergeant's letter, Humbert drove down
to Milan in an open carriage, with no guards,
and one attendant. 1t was on the day of our
most terrific thunder storm of the season.
What rain was that-rushing, roaring pour
ing, plunging down. 1t looked, seen across
the wide Piazza del Duomo, like a lake on
end. Just when the tempest was at its height
the king drove into the piazza, toward the
royal palace. Some of his loyal subjects,
sheltered under the colonnades, raised shout
of "Viva il Rel" and he, seeing himself found
out, bowed in return, lifting his hat with his
usual exceeding courtesy, barring his anointed
head to the pelting food-for that was a
storm in which no stoutest umbrella could live.
About hour later he started back to
Monza-still in the rain, still in an open car
riage.
Yet King Humbert knows, by experience,
the peculiar perils which beset the best regu-
lated royal families nowadays. @Uneasy lies
the head that wears crown"-the only ex-
ceptions among present European monarchs
being the infantile Alphonso, of Spain, and
the imbecile Ohio, of Bavaria-and yet how
many heads there are that ache and itch to
wear that troublous and perilous circlet. Be
hold in France or just notU out of France the
four pretenders, all after that old crown
which the republic has laid on the shelf, yet
all posing as distinguished patriots, thinking
only of redeeming their beloved country,
lifting her from the slough of republican
vulgarity and corruption to the old height of
imperial glory or Bourbon purity. They are
ready and eager to lay themselves out on the
altar of la pGtrie-they are as sacrificial
lambs, bleating TO be offered up. thought,
with many outsiders, that the government of
M. Grevy was of that worse thing than a
crime, blunder, in expelling all those
princes, till the indignant exiles went to
"proclamating" so furiously and foolishly-
each fellow showing his hand for the pro-
posed game of revolution.
Those Parthian arrows were dipped in the
very venom of disaffectSon and sedition and
furnish the best defense for the severe action
of the government. Since those manifestoes
appeared, and since the English have well
coined "the illustrious exiles" with such osten-
tatious syrnpc,-ly, have hoped more ar
IDENTIFY than ever that the French republic
would continue 10 ~hold the fort" against the
two elder men and the two boys, who
threaten her most direfully. In the number
of the pretenders is her safety, perhaps
The four busy Bs may sting one another
to death. do not believe that the dainty
Bourbon lilies viii ever again really flourish in
their native soil, water them with blood and
manure them with bones as you win. They
viii be overgrown by vulgar democratic
cereals, or perhaps choked with communistic
and atheistic brambles and thistles I be-
lieve the last Napoleonic throne was burned
with the Tu1lcries. If the present govern
ment has strengthened and not weakened
itself by this throwing overheard of its
Jonahs, and shall enter on a new period of
power and prosperity, its tendency must be
more and more democratic. An able Eng
lish writer says; Titles of nobility cannot
long survive in the French republic
A member of the chamber of deputies
aimed deathblow at them not long since by
coolly proposing that they should be sold in
open market. According to his plan, plain
citizens, by the payment of certain graduated
sums to the government, could call them
selves dukes, marquises, counts or barons.
The old ariStocracy of France is, after all,
wise enough to meet the inevitable tide of 4
change half way. It is no longer the proud
and 'aaghty" caste it once was.
GRACE GREENWOOD.