Evening star., 1923-12-29
Italian Counts Body Seized
Because of Poisoning Rumors

a dangerous but not a fatal wound
from which 1t took hiG1 the best part
OF a year to recover. Next with
the hope of rehabilitating himself.
he endeavored. under a false name.
to secure enlistment in the Foreign
Legion of France, where no ques-
tiofis about antecedents are asked.
But he could not fulfill the physical
requirements needed and thereupon
undertook voyage around the
world before finally settling down on
that lovely island Of Capri, which
ever since the days of the Roman
in the minds of the public with
poetry and with art, but also with
memory of the worst scandals of
the old Roman Empire.
x x *
1t may be recalled that the late
Alfred Krupp, the chief owner and
son of the founder of the great Ger
man ordnance and steel works con-
Germ at Essen. after he had made
Germany too hot to hold him, by the
alterations of his private life.
sought refuge in Capri, intending to
emulate the Emperor Tiberius He
died there very suddenly, under cir
cumstances which have always re-
matned veiled with certain amount
of mystery and which led Emperor
William and several princes of his
mouse and high dignitaries of his
government to attend Krupps fu-
neral at Essen in person, for the
purpose of endeavoring to give the
lie to the stories current of suicide
and of murder.
Count Fersen, according TO pub
lished reports, led, like Alfred Krupp.
an existence at Capri which Vas
more than questionable, and which
caused him to be boycotted by all the
English and American residents of
the island, aud also by the better
very much alone with tho compan-
ion who is now under suspicion of
having poisoned the count for the
sake of his fortune.
x = = X
1t is only a few months ago mat
I called attention, in these letters,
to the sensational discovery, among
the secret archives of the imperial
house of Hapsburg, in the sealed
vaults of Hofburg Palace, at Vienna,
of number of letters and documents
gravely affecting the reputation OF
Count Axel Won Fersen and contain
ing extortionate demands for money
upon Queen Marie Antoinette, upon
her sister, Archduchess Amelia, Sow
ereign Duchess of Parma, and upon
the then Austrian Emperor Francis
III, that is to say, the nephew of
Queen Marie Antoinette, and which
put an entirely different complexion
upon the stories of his alleged ro-
mantle ana unselfish devotion to the
i'll fated Queen of France.
The documents showed that the
count had, first Of all, obtained by
fmportuning from the queen a sum
of 100000 francs in gold and then
a quantity of her diamonds which
had been transmitted to him through
her sister, Archduchess Amelie, who
took his receipt for the money and
jewels. Only q very small portion
thereof can have been spent by him
in the organization of the unsuc-
cessful attempt TO convey the queen,
the king and their children to safety
ward the count had the impudence
to demand of the Austrian emperor.
verbally and in writing, the sum
of 100000 francs which he claimed
to have paid out of his own pocket
in his efforts to rescue the queen.
he was confronted by the emperor
with his signed receipt for the
amount in question, a document the
existence of which he had evidently
forgotten.
This serves to explain the very cold
! manner in whcih Queen Marie An
I toinette referred to the Count Won
her life, and which convinced most
people present, as well as the care
| full readers OF the evidence in court.
still preserved in the National Library
| in Paris that she retained no illu-
sions whatsoever about the disinter-
| {estedness OF the count and that what
ever beliefs she may have enter
| tained In his chivalfy had been
! iobliterated by his greed In connec-
tion with her money and jewelry.