Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-05-25


the stir it made, the shock of horror,
the profound mystery in which the at
fair was shrouded. He remembered the
happened in that. lonely hunting.
lodge; some maintaining that the
beautiful young baroness had killed
herself rather than be forsaken, caus-
ing the prince to blow out his own
brains from remorse-others, that 1t
had been a double suicide, death
pact, deliberately conceived and as de-
liberately executed by the heir to one
of the greatest Kingdoms Of the world.
Matt was dumfounded; he could not
utter a word; was 1t possible, was 1t
conceivable that John Mort was the?
"You know the story that the world
knows" continued the old man. "YNu
know the story myself believed for
thirty-six hours, till" He hesitated.
lowered his voice, and looked about
him. Listen" he went on. II mean
to hide nothing from you. 1t is true
that the young baroness threw caution
to the winds and followed the prince
there; it is true that she shot herself;
it is true that my son in his frenzy
tried to turn the same pistol against
his own breast.
ITO face such scandal seemed i'm
possible; to escape seemed worse. In
either event the throne would be
shaken to It's foundations, and my
sons name blackened beyond re-
demption. He had valet named
Zeitz-Ludwig Zeitz-one Of those
faithful simpletons who are sublime
In the devotion which our house has
always inspired. This fellow, who, at
fected to copy the prince, .and was
proud beyond measure Of re-
semblance no one saw but himself,
threw himself at my sons feet. He
would shoot himself, he said; his
body would be mistaken for that Of
the prince; death atones for every
thing, and my son, unpursued, might
pass the frontiers without detection.
and lose his identity in the countless
millions beyond.
"His proposal was disregarded; was
treated as a gross impertinence; he
was roughly silenced and ordered to
hold his tongue, while my son, in the
midst of his comrades, persisted like
! mad man in his desire to die. Sud
denly there was report, and they
rushed in to find this Zeitz lying be-
side the woman with the top of his
head blown off. He had dressed him
self in my sons clothes; had taken my
sons rifle, and had resolved the mat
ter in his own hare-brained way. But
at that moment, in their dismayed
state, it seemed to my son and his
friends the solution OF everything.
They did not wait to ask how the
corpse of the valet could pass the ex-
animation that would necessarily fol-
| low. MY son mounted a horse and
fled. :.
"As I said, the imposture for thirty
six hours was not questioned. But the
doctors could not be deceived: the
body was Enthusiastically that of Lud-
wig Zeitz. I myself stood before 1t as
| 1t lay naked on their table, and con-
| firmed their opinion. My feeling
toward my son was very bitter;
exaggerated in my heart. though God
knows it was great enough, the harm
he had done 1t and me. With the con-
nivance Of the doctors I accepted the
imposture. The world had accepted it,
and decided to leave them in ignor-
ance. #,..
! 1T was not until years afterward-
! in 1898 when the Empress was taken
from me-, under most horrible circum-
stances, that l found in her papers
some facts Of startling import. Her
extravaganza, which had been the talk
Of Europe, and to me perpetual
source of discord-had it's origin In
vast debt, incurred in 1890, on which
afterward she had been paying ex.
cessive interest, as we'll as steadily
diminishing the principal And the
one who had obtained that vast sum
was no other than my unhappy SON.
who had gone to her in his extremity
and had thus acquired the means to
hide himself in the uttermost parts
of the earth. 0r
Ito Be Continued.)