Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-07-19
SCRATCHED OUT.

hSA oihJ Soh Iva o JSoiS AAh>AAA VI S0SNS ~S years, was engaged to marry a beautiful serf on his estates, she forthwith banished him to France, and ordered the girl, to whom he was engaged, to marry another serf immediately. As her commands had to be obeyed, poor Sophia Uschakoff, for that was the girls name, went with her father, some six days after the counts departure, to the chapel where the marriage service was to be per formed. There were present, beside her father and herself, Michael Tokhtamish the bridegroom), his father, and the priest, an old man who was upward of 70 years of age. The service had scarcely commenced when the door of the little chapel opened, and Ivan Cheraski, the young count, entered with a revolver in his hand.
 "You thought was out of the country" he said, ''but not so: I have been biding my time not far away from here. knew all about the infamous attempt to marry my be- trothed to this clown, and I have come to prevent it. Everything is ready-the priest, the altar and the bride So. my good father, you will please marry me to Sophia Uscha- koff at once, or you and Michael Tokhtamlsh shall die before five minutes are over"
 do not know what would have happened if the priest had refused to obey the counts order. As have said, Russian nobles used to be, and very likely still are, rather Nigh handed, especially in dealing with their de pendents. At all events, Ivan Cheraski was a nobleman armed with a revolver, Michael Tokhtamish was only serf who might have been shot for the fun of the thing, while the priest very infirm old man, and bound, moreover, by his religion to discountenance bloodshed So the serf stood aside, the no- bleman took his place, the priest performed the service, and in a few minutes Ivan Che raski and Sophia Uschakoff were man and yay,fa the vestry room, where the priest proceeded to enter the particulars relating to the mar riage in the registry book.
 Now I must pause here to inform the reader that in Russia it was the custom for the priest, and not the parties who were mar ried, to sign the names of the bride and the bridegroom in the marriage register. Alex ander Troubetskoi the priest, was placed, as the saying is. between two fires. If he had not obeyed the counts orders he would have been shot. On the other hand, if the countess dowager found out what he had done, some thing else as bad, or worse, would probably happen. To escape from the dilemma he en- tered ill the register Michael Tokhtamish instead of Ivan Cheraski as the name of the bridegroom. The parties who were inter ested did not observe the substitution. The register was restored to it's place, and the Count and Countess Cheraski left secretly for Paris that evening.
 | For five years they lived very happily in France, and then the count died, leaving the | countess widow with two children. His | mother had died about a year before and Troubetskoi expired shortly after they left 1 the village of Narouel, where the marriage | took place. On the death of her husband the | countess went to the province of Minsk, in Russia, to claim his estate on behalf of her oI>sN Nl, Io;.- posed by his family, who produced the reg ter which bore evidence of her marriage, not with Ivan Cheraski. but with Michael | Tokhtamish. There seemed, then, to be no use in resorting to legal proceedings the | evidence of the witnesses to the marriage who were all serfs, would be worthless against the evidence of the marriage regis l ter. Accordingly the countess, she was | de jure, if not de facto, returned to France | Partly by the sale of her jewelry and partly owing to her husband having invested some money in their joint names in French per cent. rentes she had little more than 23 900, and with this capital she opened a sort of boarding house in Paris Here she had been living for about two years when a young | Englishman named Edwin Marston came to stop at her establishment for few days Up to the present have not said anything about the character or appearance of 1 the Countess Cheraski because, so far, I have merely been reciting a number of facts which are necessary to enable the reader to understand the curious tale that we are ap- preaching. That she was either pretty, or handsome. or beautiful, in some sense or other, the reader will probably anticipate from the fact of the count having fallen in love with her. If I mention that she was tall, with dark hair and aquiline features, all l s,,4o.
 the rest of her portrait to suit their own tastes. In character she must have been of a rather trustful disposition, as will, think, appear from her conduct to MT. Marston. He was her senior by about two years, and had been practicing as a surgeon and physi- clan for some time i'll q very poor district in the east end of London. When he first came to her house he did not intend to remain many days in Paris, but his stay was pro.
 longed for one reason or another over a space of about three weeks, during which time he and the countess had contracted 6 very sincere friendship for each other
 Finally, on the night before he left, she told
 him her story, and asked him if he could see
 any way in which she could establish the
 rights of herself and children.
 "Not at present." said MT. Marston, wher
 he had listened attentively to her story; ''but
 1 shall think the matter over"
 The next day MT. Marston left for London
 having bade the countess cordial farewell
 and promised to write to her at once if any
 idea should occur to him with regard to tht recovery of her title and estates
 More than month passed away, during which she did not hear from him, and, con sequently, was beginning to think that h,
 had probably forgotten all about her, or h, . would have written, when one evening tn, servant came up stairs to say that Mir Mar ston was in the parlor on the ground floor and would like to see her.
 Il have been thinking ever sjnce I lef 7 you," he said, when they had greeted eacI s other, ''of the extraordinary history you tolc
 me And I think now that see my way t. 8 overcome your difficulties. But you vii
 have to exercise great patience. It will talk
 me probably year, perhaps more, to carr,
 out my plans. I shall have to go to Russi
 and live in the village of Narovel, and shal t want at least 9400 at once, and probably an a other 9400 in the course of about six months In the meantime you must be content not t y ask me any questions, and to remain in per
 feet ignorance of what am doing. My wor
 is the only guarantee you can have that