A SUMMER BLAZER.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1854, 13 September 1913, Page 13

A SUMMER BLAZER.

Here was Dona Constancy's work i ready to hand. _ She immediately became tho guardian aijgel of tho political prisoner. Since then, day and night, she has devoted her whole time to the amelioration of their misery. Alone she has matched her woman's tfit and influence agaihst the blind hatred of the more radical Republicans, to whose mind no treatment is too bad for a Royalist. It is not too much to say that in two years Dona Constanca has revolutionised prison life in Portugal. The Lack of Money. But much as she has done, Dona Constanca might have done more had she had unlimited money. At the time she began her prison work sho had a small fortuno of her own. Every penny of, it has gone to meet the great expenses of her work. Well over £4000 has gone in clothing and food for the political prisoners, and towards feeding and keeping the families of the poorer while they were in prison. _. Timo and again she has sighed for the immense fortune dissipated by her extravagant grandfather who rolled about the-capitals of Europe spending huge sums on private theatreß. Her own fortune gone. Dona ConBtanoa has not hesitated to beg others for assistance in her work. She has asked all who would to help her with money and clothing. This Dig-hearted woman soon becamo a collecting and - distributing centro for all tliose who were interested in tho politi- • cal prisoners. The Villa Franca de Xira, just outside Lisbon, where she lived, soon becam'e a storehouse of clothing, tobacoo, and delicacies of all kinds, and from it . she dispatched tho various articles to tho prisons. Three or four days a week she devoted to personal visits to the prisons where she encouraged the prisoners and brought them word of their families. On Sundays and on other free days sho visited the families of the poorer prisoners, kept them out of want and misery and brought them hopeful messages from their husbands, sons, and fathers in pris<vn. In this way sho now has moro than 300 prisoners' families on her hands. Last Christmas she took upon her - already overburdened shoulders tho task of Clothing no fewer than 1000 of tho children of political prisoners. ; Arrested by the Republicans. It is not strange, perhaps, the ardent Republicans should worry a bit about Dona Constanca's activities. In her goings and comings she certainly had many opportunities to do inestimable servico to tho Royalists if she had beefr-so disposed. First she was threatened pith assassination. Then on tho morning of July 29, 1912, a largo detachment of Republican troops, heavily armed with loadod rifles drew up in front of the Villa Franca do Xira and tool: her off to tho Aljuba prison on a charge of conspiracy. For eight months she languished there, while her enomios searched high and low tho length and breadth of the country to find a" single scrap of evidenco to justify her arrest. Duriiio; the whole time sho was in prison Dona Constanca did not permit her fehosen work to lag. Instead of sending donations to her villa her hundreds of Portuguese sympathisers dispatched them' to her cell at Aljuba. From there Dona Constanca distributed the supplies among tho prisoners in tho othor prisons. Aft-or more than seven months in prison Doiia Constanca was tojjl that'she was about to bo tried. Ono morning a prison van drew tin -to tho door of Aljuba, Dona Constanca was hurried into it, and, surrounded by a detachment of thirty soldiers, armed with loaded rifles and fixed bayonets, was driven to her court-martial. The trial waS in more respects than this a farce. Into the court were brought hundreds of ominous-looking documents, and soberly laid before tho military judges. Finally a batch of them were road, and tho.y proved to be letters of devotion and gratitude from tho hundred? of prisoners and prisoners' wives whom this brave woman had helped* This was the sole evidenco upon which Dona Constanca had been kcot in o. foul Drison for eight months.

Throatoned With Assassination. Finally, at tho close of the oourtmartial's deliberations, sho was led before tho court and told that she was free. Not even an apology! Not even an expression of regret that sho had been llnjustly imprisoned for eight ir.onths 1 i Dona Constanca went back to her work. But even her public trial has not freed her from persecution. She frequently receives threatening letters, and a fow days ago she was threatened vritli assassination unless she gavo.up hecr njission of mercy. But Dona Constanca is not even the • slightest bit afraid. Hundreds of tho more conservative Republicans have rallied to her support and her new homo, Travessa do Jardim a'Elstrella 13, is more than over the centre of a great work. Even the President, of tho Portuguese Republic, Dr. Manuel d'Arringa, is proud to bo numbered among her friends.