SIREN COUNTESS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1014, 2 January 1911, Page 6

SIREN COUNTESS.

■YFR-VID OF FALLING, SHE SLEEP 9 ON TILE FI.OOH IN PRISON. . Countess Tarnowski, wlio was conj. demned at Venice in May last to eight years' imprisonment for instigating JJr.. Naumoff and the lawyer Pnlukoif to assassinate Count Kamarowski, her hance, •is supplicating for lloyal pardon ;as a . last desperate resource' since her appeal was quashed by the Supremo Court of CassaVe'cchini, the famous lawyer who;, conducted their defence, eays her marvel,. lous .courage and self-control have nojr forsaken her, and it is doubtful if she, will survive the rigours of: solitary; con-. MBrtberto tlie Countess has been living in the best chamber of the Giudec Prison on the Venetian lagoons, pavmg a fixed rental, ordering all "her me-als at. Dleasure from a city restaurant, receiving, friends, : and. indulging freely in Russian cigarettes, wliereof is so.fond. All this must cease in a few days; whe:n the sentence is formally notified to the local jurisdiction, and the' Countess lull be sent off to a convict settlement, prop* • ably in Perugia.. . , ' . v She has become the subject of weird, hallucinations. She. cannot be induced to sleep elsewhere than on the floor,, through fear of falling. ' Some time past she lived in continual dread of a disas-, trous earthquake during the; night, and so, be"RC(I the company of ono of the sisters, of "the prison staff, who now always sleeps with her. , : Apart from the . terrible nervous .crises which keep her frequently for hours together in a cold, ' rigid, quasi-hypnotio. state, Tarnowski is, sweet-tempered' and submissive to rule. Dr. Vecchim says she dresses neatly, but with the utmost simplicity, does not spend a cent m perfumes, nor kill time by reading foreign journals and trashy novels. As a matter. of fact, she passes most of her leisure praving in tlie-convent chapel or reading spiritual books. Eighteen months have flown by since she descended or yiU. in the garden, or interested herself in. " < Tnrnowski , s appetite for food has deserted her. ' She is a martyr to headfcheTand never sleeps, more than ono hour in night-time. She is often overcome bv fainting fits. . , , It is reported that when, they met and ' conversed immediately after the great trial' Dr. Naumoff and the Countess Tarnowski not only forgave each other, but mutually vowed to marry as soon va tjio- Countess's convict days are over.