The Portland daily press., 1894-06-04
A FAIR NIHILIST.

In the late seventies few years before
the death of the late car, one Of the most
important personages of the Russian en-
pire was Prince Michael Radloff. During a
trip to France, soon after the Franco Prus-
sian war, he had met at reception the
superb daughter of General de Contre-
mont, whom the Partisan world already
knew under the name of ''la belle Made
leine." Michael was hard hit, in spite of
his 40 years and his confirmed bachelor
hood
Mother" Madeleine remarked one
evening to the widow of the hero of GRAY
elotte, would you be satisfied to see me o
princessf''
Not quite, for you are beautiful enough
to be a queen"
In fact, do not recall ever having, met
in any assemblage SO perfect tpye of hui
man beauty. I can see her still as she ap-
peared one evening at the opera some
weeks after her marriage. There were in
the orchestra, should judge, 80 spectators
who were or had been more or less in love
with her. 1t was probably the most mem
orable night of Madeleine's younger years.
She felt that she stated her vengeance then
on a sex that inspired her only with ha-
tired, for among these men who would
have beggared themselves now to be loved
by her for a single hour there was not one
who had not, before that, found her too
poor to make her the companion of his life.
That evening an American widow, many
times millionaire, but nevertheless a
very pretty woman, made the following
avowal as she sat in her box:
IT do not hope to look like the Princess
Michael, for that would be to ask too
much. But to have simply her teeth I
would give my hotel in the Champs Ely
sees and everything in it, even to my jew
els With such teeth as hers woman
need not be pretty. She can smile or yawn,
according to. the circumstances, and the
world is at her feet.''
THAT is to say, at the feet of her teeth, !"
said diplomat. s'But am afraid the
princess is not destined either to smile or
to yawn. His excellency, her husband,
looks neither amusing nor agreeable. La
belle Madeleine will live to regret Paris
more than once.''
In truth, the prince was not agreeable,
even on his marriage day. But a few
years later lie was even less so, as the
princess could testify. To his wife's CO.
quetry he owed it that he had become jeal-
Gus as a tiger, and to the favor of the car
that he had been made minister of police
1t is scarcely tenable that these two facts
combined are calculated to make man
amiable
However, he had found means to make
his public functions subserve his private
jealousy. He had selected from his best
men in the secret service the coachman who
drove his wife's carriage and the concierge
who kept the door Of his hotel. And in adj
dition he had the cabinet noir.''
At first the unhappy minister of police
read dozens Of declarations of love- ad-
dressed to his wife in every key and every
measure. Then the number of these mis-
sives fell off, not that the princess had be-
come less beautiful, but that the admirers
became more wary. Those who had con-
fded their avowals to the postal and tele-
graphic services Of his imperial majesty
had not failed to notice that ill luck sud-
denly fastened itself upon them in the
most diverse and unexpected forms. "It
must be-" aid one Of these victims, ''that
the princess has the evil eye, or that her
husbands eyes are too good.
The replies, of course, as well as the first
letters, passed through the ''cabinet noir''
also, and his excellency had abundant op-
portunity to convince himself that he was
the husband of most outrageous f1irt,
but nothing more, from which he derived
a comparative satisfaction. 1t is consoling
when one hears cry of '!Fire!" in the
house to know that the conflagration is
confined to an i'll swept chimney. AS to
cvuooriy,cy tho cbirpnor hiyoco1f he meow
prince had scarcely the time, for the life of
as the affections of his wife by signing
SWANS.
Therefore his unbounded surprise may
be imagined when he read the following
note, written in a too familiar hand, though
signed only with an initial:
1t seems that the emperor starts for varsovia
earlier than had been expected. Hold yourself
in readiness to travel at the first call for who
knows when we shall have such another
chance2 have not kept you in ignorance OF
the difficulties of the enterprise. Be ready,
then, to succeed at the first attempt and with
out any preliminary trials. You will present
yourself at my house as friend of my family
travelling in Russia for pleasure. See my moth.
er before you teave. She will give give you
some sort Of commission or message for me-
and it will serve to introduce you in case of
need.
The poor princes reason nearly left him
by the time he had read this terrible note.
So this conspiracy that he fought night
and day with steel, prison and exile-this
monstrous, pitiless war of whole army
of monsters against single man-con-
fronted him even at his own Preside! 1t
was his own wife-his beautiful Made
leine-who said to the assassin, 1.-The hour
is come; be ready!''
What was the good Of keeping up the
fight? What fatality ranged even foreign
ers against his unfortunate soyereigni
This woman had everything-youth,b beau
Sy, luxury, acknowledgements she was nj
hilist! What could possess her? What
bitterness was it that drove her thus to
crime, at the risk Of the dungeon and pal
let of straw that would bruise her tende1
flesh, of the gallows rope that would crush
her ivory throat, of the Siberian SHOWS
that would turn to ice her snowy little
feetP
Alas" thought the unhappy man, ~
have utterly failed to make her happy. ]
| have been too jealous. She hates me, and