Waterbury Democrat., 1902-03-11
TENNYsoN's FATHERS FLIGHT

The following curious story, some what differently related in the life Of Tennyson, is part of the Personal Rec ollections of Tennyson by Capt. w. Gordon NfcCabe, published ill the Cen tury. The laureate is speaking:
 My father" he said, was a most impulsive man, and spoke out what ever was uppermost in his mind. Soon after the assassination of the Emperor Paul he went on tour through Rus sia, and stopped at Moscow, where the court resided. and where Lord St. Helans was English ambassador. He and my father had been friends at Cambridge, and so my father had the freedom of the embassy while in the Russian capital One night St HelenS had a great dinner. at which were all Russian notables, not one of whose names my father had caught.
 '.In some way it came about that q guarded allusion was made, during the dinner to the death of the late cZar. My father who caught it, leaned over, almost accross the breast of some Rus sian dignitary covered with decorations who sat next to him, and cried out in his quick, impulsiye way, Why, St. Helens, what's the use of speaking so gingerly about q matter so notorious We know well enough in England that the Emperor Paul was murdered in the Mikhaiiovski Palace. and we know ex- actly who did it. Count Zoboff knock ed him down, and Benningsen and Count Pahlen strangled him.
 An appalling hush fell for a mo- ment upon the table, and the Lord St. Helens at once rushed into some sub ject discreetly foreign to the sixth commandment.
 Its the custom. as you know con tinued he, .'in Russia not to sit over the wine, as is usual in England, but to go into another room where the samovar is. and there have tea, or more wine or vodka, and q smoke. AS the company rose. Lord St. Helens, standing by the door as the guests til- ed out, gave my father meaning look to drop behind the rest AS my fath- l CT came up to him. he said in a hur- ried whisper: Don't go into tue next room. but fly for your life. No flag can protect you in such a country as this. The man next you, across whose breast you leaned was Count Pahlen, one of the most powerful nobles in Russia Zoboff was at the table. too, and you have publicly charged both of them with being assassins. If you don't get away tonight, you will be in- side the dungeons of St. Peter and St. Paul within forty-eight hours Go to a Scotch merchants, whom I know. just outside of Odessa (giying him the name), and he will conceal you until l can contrive to get you out of the country. if 1t is possible. Post to- night-the fastest horses you can get. I'll keep the company as late as I can: Don't even stop to change your clothes
 My father rushed away to his hotel, called upon his courier, and made him order a four-hOrse droshky, while he literally pitched his clothes into his portmanteau. He posted all night and the next day, still in his evening clothes, and needless to say, found the clever courier and found his Scotch man. in whose house he lay perdue for weeks
 "St Helens managed to get q mes sage to him to be on the alert, and when he heard the horn of the Queens Messenger blown three times to be ready to go with the man who gave the signal. At last, one stormy night, he heard the welcome sound, and. dis guised as a servant of the messenger. who was being sent home with dis patches (which, by the way, he lost, as he was very drunk, but which were found by my father), and for whom an English frigate was waiting at Odessa. got safe on board and so back to Eng- land.''