Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1915-05-21


square had omitted to guard. And
he leaned back in his seat and smiled
as If he considered the game already
won.
/ sat silently studying the position.
But my opponent was not man who
played chess merely by moving the
pieces on the board. He did not neg
lect the opportunity to distract my at
tention by conversation.
1.-THE game of chess is an admirable
one for men of my calling" he OBJ
served. There is something truly in
structive in the lessons which it con-
veys. Look, for instance, at the pawn,
a piece which in its earlier career
scarcely repays the trouble Of capture,
but to which. later on, even the queen
may have to be sacrificed"
Unconsciously swayed, perhaps, by
these remarks, l pushed forward
pawn between my king and the attack
ing piece. The ambassador affected
hardly to notice the move.
Consider again how delieately the
kings Gsgn&y is preserved" he went
] on taking up knight with elaborate
carelessness, and setting it down dan
gerously near my pawn. you advance
upon him, you threaten him, you pre-
pare for him the certainty of capture,
but you never remove him from the
board. How different from that bar
barous game Of draughts, in which
kings are seen playing leapfrog with
one another, like so many arabs Of
the street,"
And the moral Of this?" suggest
ed, as / vainly sought a way out of
the difficulties in which my own king
was involved.
1.-THE moral is perhaps contained in
q story which would relate to you
If were not certain that you would
refuse to believe it."
But why?" / demonstrated. do
you mean that it requires one to credit
the existence of the supernatural, for
example?"
A look of the deepest, the most
panied, disgust overspread his excel
lency's face
My friend, have l by any chance
49, JOa W AAASSe-tAC AAO AOA q AOAu6ACCIg
a poet? Rest assured that the facts
shall narrate to you are perfectly au-
thentic, and are known to several per
sons in the inner circle Of the Russian
court. merely observe to you that
my story is incredible; / do not say
that it is absurd"
! resigned myself to the prospect
OF losing the game. and prepared to
listen.
The people of western Europe do
not understand Russia. It is, of course,
Russia, the Russia Of the government,
that / speak. During the whole time
that I spent in st. Petersburg / could
always perceive that / was a mere
spectator, allowed to see no more of
the true condition of affairs than 1t
suited the purpose Of the officials to
display to me. Nevertheless, fiatter
myself that ! penetrated farther be-
hind the scenes than they were aware.
"Outwardly, as everybody knows,
the government OF this empire is an
autocracy, the absolute power being
vested In the hands of the tsar. But
the true government OF Russia is a
secret society, the mysterious Tchin.
which includes the whole of the off,
cial class, and in whose hands the tsar
IS often no more than puppet. pow
erless to exert his own will. How
burdensome this position is, may be
estimated from the fact that eight
decades ago the Grand Duke Constan-
tine deliberately refused to ascend the
throne. which passed to his younger
brother, the Emperor Nicholas /.
Nor has the Tchin ever shrunk
from asserting its supremacy by the
most depiUrable deeds. It Is not the
Nihilists who have set the fashion OF
assassanating tsars. It is by the hands
OF their own ministers and courtiers
that the monarchs OF Russia have most
often perished.
1T 70 necessary to bear these facts
in mind in order to understand the in.
cident am about to relate"
His excellency stopped short. | had
taken advantage Of his political lecture
TO return to the game, in which |
thought | had at length discovered a
chance OF escape from my threatened
defeat. Sharply replying to my new
effort by the capture OF rock which
! had been obliged to expose, my op-
ponent returned to his tale.
1T Is not SO very many years since
the attention of Europe was concen.
lrated upon the death of Alexander
I'LL. Occurring as 1t did in a remote
Uorner of his dominions, on the shores
OF the Black sea, the accounts sup
pred by the correspondents of the Eu.
ropean press, who fiocked In vast mum.
bers to the spot, were as circumstan.
tial as If each one had been admitted
70 the bedside of the dying monarch.
The interest taken in this event was
moreover enhanced by the romantic
circumstances of the marriage of the
present tsar, Nicholas II.
ut was natural that the press of
Europe, ever ready to give itself I'M to
transports over those Incidents In
which royalty Is concerned, should
have layished its powers of description
upon the sudden summons to the
Princess Alix of Hesse, her hurried
and desolate journey across the. frozen
continent. her marriage with the
tsarewitch, celebrated. as 1t were. in
the very death chamber, and then the
gradual passing away of the emperor
eOn6oled In the hanninasz of bis .o,,