New-York tribune., 1908-02-02
PRINCESS EXECUTED.
Pays Penalty ON the Galloscs for a
Terrorist Outrage.
Copyright. 1905. by tho Brentwood company.l

wear ago one of the most popular figures court
and in society the banks of the Neva, suddenly
vanished without leaving the slightest trace or
clew what had become of her. In other
countries a disappearance of this kind would lead
to sensational gossip and to investigation, not only
by the family but also by friends and acqualnt-
In Russia. however even the most highly
placed taught by experience of the past TO
submit in silence. to make effort 10 elucldate
the mystery and to take it for granted that II any
disappearance has taken place II has peen que 10
the action of the Car rather of his ponce ana
that the person who has vanished is either Sc
cluded in dungeon of European Russia or
else we'll on the way to the more remote districts
of Siberia
Princess Elizabeth Metchersk is by means
the only woman of princely rank in Russia VINO
has allowed herself to become involved in the toils
of the Terrorist party, and there are also num-
Der of the daughters and sisters of great disni-
tares of the crown who are suffering captivity or
banshment by reason of their connection with the
Nihist movement. Princess Victor Nakaschidze
and women of the Troubetzko Galatzln. Woikoh-
ski. Obonsk and Stroganoff families have all al
lowed their political enthusiasm TO get the better
of their discretion the cost of their position and
liberty. and at the present moment the daughter
of the Russian general Leontieff is serving out a
term of penal servitude in Switzerland for the
murder in hotel at Lucerne of an unfortunate
citizen whom she mistook for the former Russian
Minister of the Interior. Dournovo. In the eigh-
teenth century there quite number of in
stances Of women of high rank being put to death.
some OF them by of public knoutins, on
charges of conspiring against the crown But If
the authoress of the outrage perpetrated against
the Governor General of Moscow shortly before
Christmas turns out TO be the missing Princess
Metcherski as would appear (the story having re-
ceived Photographic corrobaration), 1T would be the
first instance in century of princess of one OF
the great houses Of the Muscovte aristocracy suf-
fering on the scaffold.
In this connection it is recalled that few
tIs Drin pan Naturalization MptChCr
ski, who had been visiting his son, an officer OF
of the cavalry regiments of the Guard, In ST.
Petersburg found dead. with a bullet in his
brain, in first class compartment of the express
train from the capital its arrival at Moscow
while card lying on the seat of the railroad
carriage were found the following words, inscribed
in his handwriting in pencil: From the revou-
tonaries there is escape. It is useless to dodge
fate Whether the prince, who was uncle of
Princess Elizabeth MetCherski, was murdered, or
whether he committed suicide if, having be-
come entangled like his niece in the tolls of the
Terrorist party and had baked the perpetra-
ton OF some outrage exacted of him by his fellow
conspirators, he had paid the penalty of his DISC
bedence. remains a mystery to this day.
The Metcherskis rank along with the Troubet
skos, the Narischkines, the Gagarines and the
Galatians among those great houses of the Rus
sian nobility which claim descent from Rurik and
from among whom Michael Romanoff was elected
to the Museovite crown. At the beginning of the
seventeenth century these Russian boyars assem-
bIed for the purpose of electing of their
ber Gar. Dmitri Troubetskoi. the general
whom more than to any else the repuse Of the
Polish invasion had been due, was their first
choice 1t only after he had declined the
honor that, on his nomination. Michael Romanoff,
the founder of the now sovereign house of Ro-
manof, elevated in his stead.
IL Emperor Alexander III had been permitted TO
have his way he would have married Princess
Marie Metcherski. TO whom he engaged be-
fore becoming Czarowitch through the death of his
elder brother. Nicholas She was compelled to
marry Paul Pauovitch Demidoff. and died shortly
after giving birth to her son. the present Prince
Film Demidoff of San Donate. 1t was owing
ths romance in his life that Alexander III dis
played so much paternal kindness and solicitude
to Elm Demidoff. and 1t thanks. too, to this
that her brother, Prince Metcherski, was allowed
throughout Alexanders reign such an extraor-
dinary amount OF latitude in connection with his
paper, the "Grajdanne'' CCitizen'O, which fulfilled
in Russia much the same role Henry Labou-
Chere's Truth" in London with this difference
that whereas Truth is extremely radical in it's
political opinions and utterances the 'Crajdanine'
chsmpioned above everything else Muscovfte au-
tocracy and conservatism.
PRINCES MIDNIGHT VISIT To THE CAR
This Prince Metcherski played but little known
role and a far important one than that
credited to the late chief procurator of the holy
synod, Pobtedonostseff, in persuading Alexander
III on his accession to withhold the grant of the
constitution to which his father, Alexander H.
about to aff1x his signature when murdered
by the Nihilists. On the night following the as
sassination Alexander ILL., after closing his fathers
eyes had driven back from the winter palace TO
his home in the Anitchkoff palace in a close car
riage, supporting in his his wife, half out
of her mind with terror and horror at the spec
tacle which she had Just wtnessed-the whole
lower part of the body Of her father-in-law had
been blown to pieces by the fatal bomb. Before
Alexander had been long at hts palace he
Joined by General Loris Melikoff and General
Miljutin, besides others of his fathers ministers
who urged upon him formulate the con-
stitution which the murdered Emperor was to
have signed They declared that it the only
of preventing the outbreak of a sanguinary
revolution. The Emperor dismissed them without
giving any definite answer. The entire evening and
part of the night he spent alone walking up and
down in his library, occasionally sitting down,
harassed with doubts to what course TO adopt.
There seemed to be no one to whom he could turn
for disnterested advice, who did
to have lost his head; and If he yearned for
friend with whom he could hold counsel, to whom
he could apply for advice. it at that moment,
when the very ground seemed to be trembling
under mis- feet
1t was near O'Clock In the morning when he was
startled by a noise in the anteroom and, walking
to the door and opening it, he found himself face to
face with G arrayed in the gold embroidered
uniform of chamberlain. IN whom he recognized
Prince Metcherski Much astonished. the Emperor
allowed him 70 enter the library, whereupon
Metcherski fell his knees at the Cars feet and
passionately exclaimed: Lord and Emperor. in
the autocracy OF the Gar lies the whole strength
of Russia well as its development and progress.
II is upon this that her entire future rests Them
rising he addressed Alexander at considerable
length with such vehemence and force that he
actually fell back into the old Muscovite way of
addressing his majesty as thou" He spoke OF