| Show Its a Way They Hnvo In Russia i The Tcritzins were nobles of enormous wealth and power Paul held a high office In court One night glittering with jewels and orders the rouusf prince who was ono of the handsomest men in Russia danced ft In a quadrille opposite the empress As she passed l m in the dance she fancied that his eyes scanned her gross figure with i > 5 1t t Ti r < L T covert amusement After the quadrille she beckoned to him and with a smile handed him her tiny ivory tablets containing con-taining seven pages one for each day in 1 the week On the first was written The imperial ball room St Petersburg On I the last The mines Siberia 1 He read it his face grew grays that of acorpse he owed > low kissed her hand and withdrew taking says the old chronicle his wife the beautiful Princess Ivanovna with him He wa heard to say as he left the ballroom My minutes sa are numbered let us not lose one Flight or resistance was impossible The hold of Catherine on her victims was ine ojable as death Prince Vcritzin was forced to remain passive in his palace while each day the power the wealth and the happiness happi-ness that life had given Jam were stripped from him i First he was degraded from allhis offices at j court next his estates were confiscated by 1 the crown his friends were forbidden to 1 hold any communication with him his very name oneof the noblest in Russia was taken from him and he was given that i of a serf Then his wife and children were driven out of the palace to herd with beggars On the last day says the record I rec-ord < Paul Veritsin in rags and barefoot i chained i to a convict bade an eternal farewell fare-well to his home and departed i to tl dark and icy north He was seen of men no i morSan Francisco Argonaut |
