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Show Princes' Islands Prisons of Historic Personages THE National Geographic society, from its Washington headquarters, has issued a bulletin concerning the Princes' islands, in the sea of Marmora, where the warring factions ef Russia have been asked to send delegates for a conference at which it is hoped the internal in-ternal dissensions in the vast Slav dominions can be composed. The bulletin bul-letin says, among other things : Vhe nine islands lie from 10 to 15 miles southeast of Constantinople, near the Asiatic shore. Few islands have a history more poignant with tragedy. Their very name is significant sig-nificant of their past, for in the days of the Byzantine empire they were the retreats, either forced or voluntary, of princes and princesses who had fallen into disfavor nt the near-by. court. Proti was the prison of the depend emperor, Romanus IV, called Diogenes. He was a distinguished young soldier descended from a Cappadoeian family. Having been implicated in a conspiracy con-spiracy to depose his sovereign, Oonstantine IX, he was condemned to be executed for treason. While being led to his death, according to one account, he caught the eye of the empress regent, Eudocia Macrembolitissa, who instantly fell in love with him, granted him a pardon and shortly thereafter married him. After his coronation as emperor he led three successful expeditions expedi-tions against the Seljuk Turks, but his fourth campaign, against Alp Arslan, was a disastrous failure. Compelled to pay a large ransom for his release, Romanus returned home to be defeated at the hands of a pretender to "the throne. Blinded, he spent his few remaining days of abject misery imprisoned in a monastery on the highest point of Proti. "In Prinkipo, Empress Irene I was imprisoned for a time. A poor but beautiful orphan of Athens, Irene married Emperor Leo IV and soon became I the true ruler of the Byzantine empire. Upon the death of her husband she j Hssumod the reins of government for her ten-year-old son, Constantine VI. a |