The North Cumberland Reformer. — 1891-01-15 (Carlisle, Cumbria, England)

TIIE ARREST OF PADLEWSKI. A Paris corrospondent says, writing on Monday: I have to-day interviewed Madame de Severinc, Madame Duo Quercy, and Madame Gregoire—all of whom, it will be remembered, were concerned in Padlewski's escape—with reference to the arrest which took place at Olot on Saturday. The firstmentioned positively declares it to be impossible that the person just arrested in Spain should be Padlewski. The second states that she has carefully r(-ad all on the subject, and is equally persuaded that th 3 prisoner is not the assassin of General Seliverstoff. "Besides," added Madame Due Quercy with a smile, "I know with absolute certitude that by this time Padlewski is in a place of safety." "Then," I enquired, "who is the person now under arrest at Olot P " "A madman," was the reply, "or else some one who has broken the common law, and, knowing very well that Padlewski will not turn up in Madrid to contradict him, thinks he will gain an advantage by passing himself off as a political offender." Madame Gregorie professes to be of the same opinion, asserting that the particulars given by the prisoner at Olot in no wise resemble the real facts. The police authorities here still hesitate to pronounce any definite opinion on the point, there being several inconsistencies in the statement of the prisoner, while his description does not altogether tally with that of the veritable Padlewski. It is stated that no representative of the French police has yet been despatched to Madrid in connection with the case. The latest telegrams from Madrid indicate that the individual at Olot is in reality Padlewski. The prisoner, on being confidentially questioned, replied in French, and declared that after having committed the deed he crossed the Spanish frontier on December sth. The state of his health requiring that he should go to a southern climate, he visited several towns in Spain, including Barcelona, Alicante, and Saragossa, and subsequently proceeded to Gerona and Olot, where he believed he would be able to pass as one of the French commercial travellers who abound in Spain. The prisoner alleged that a captain in the Customs service discovered his secret by representing himself as belonging to a secret society. He declared that he was not a criminal, but had committed the murder with a political object. The prisoner was perfectly calm, all traces of the excitement which he manifested when he was arrested having disappeared. It is believed that he made the journey to Barcelona with the object of embarking on a steamer for America, but was prevented doing so owing to the passport regulations of the steamship companies. The only explanation for his returning so near the French frontier was that ho would be safer there, the place being to a great extent isolated, owing to the absence of railway communication. A telegram has been received from the Prefect of Gerona stating that the description of Padlewski forwarded to him by the French authorities corresponds exactly with the man under arrest. In a despatch just received, the Prefect of Gerona declares that he is fully convinced that the Olot prisoner is Padlewski. The soi-divint Padlewski was interviewed on Monday morning in Olot prison by a newspaper reporter. Describing his journey and travels from Dijon, he said he entered Spain by way of Cerbere, and going to Barcelona remained there some days in hiding; thence he journeyed on to Saragossa and Madrid, where he only stopped a few hours, as he feared to be arrested, so he returned to Saragossa. From there he betook himself to Carthagena and Alicante, and finally reached Olot, where he was told he would find the climate agreeable and suitable to his health, which was much shattered. Prisoner refused to say who accompanied him to Dijon for fear of compromising anyone. He talked without reserve of the murder of General Seliverstoff, who, he affirmed, was a tyrant, by whose instrumentality more than twenty-five thousand Poles had been transferred to Siberia. In killing that man he had been actuated solely by patriotic feeling, and by his deed he had avenged his family apd his coreligionists, who had suffered so many misfortunes and prosecutions. The reporter, describing the prisoner, whom he fully beheves to be Padlewski, says his manner is gentle and refined. He is very cornmunicative,but his conversation inspires convieton and sympathy rather than repulsion. The interviewer expresses the belief that the man was impelled to commit the crime of which he accused himself by no feeling other than political passion and exaltation of a revolutionary.  £