THE STORY OF THE KIDNAPPING OF PRINCE ALEXANDER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1288, 5 November 1886, Page 4

THE STORY OF THE KIDNAPPING OF PRINCE ALEXANDER.

The following account of the incredible ill-treatment to which Prince Alexander a was subjected is give > on the authority of Prince Louis of Battenburg:—

The aimy took a much greater part in the coup d’etat than has hitherto been known. The Ist regiment whose duty it was to guard the prince, acted in concert with the Kustendje battalion and secretly marched off. At 2 o’clock one of (he p dace guards rushed into the prince’s bedroom and thrust a revolver into bis hand whispering “ Save yourself.” The prince hastened down the stair leading to the winter garden, but on the staircase be was met by two soldiers with levelled bayonets. He hurried back to his bed room and found there a large number of officers, who covered him with their revolvers. One of them tore a sheerof paper from a note book and wrote some illegible words thereon. The others forced the. Pr ince to a table and laid the sheet befoie him crying “ Sign ! ” Closely pressed on all sides, and with more than 20 revolvers pointed at his bead, the Princt wrote under the illegible scrawl, “Alexander. ■God guard Bulgaria.”

The Prince was then dragged to the War Office, where Prince Francis Joseph who had been simil-irly surprised, already was. After two hours stay the brothers were carried oil in separate carriages each with two officer’s beside him, constantly pointing their revolvers at their heads Beside each driver sat a pupil of the cadet, school As the Prince lelt the War Office about 40 officers in uniform •were standing there with their hands in their pockets, laughing at him. Captain Bendereff cried to the Prince as the scrap of paper was shown to him, “ Look that is because thou didst not make me major.” The conspirator s were officers of the cadet school, of the first regiment of artillery, of the engineers, and of the firs; foot-, which latter regiment the Pr ince had himself inspected the pre viotrs morning. The vety officers who surprised him with their revolvers at four o’clock a.rn., had dined with him in the evening Tire Prince passed the first night in the monastery of Fitropol, in rlro BaTtans, 25 kilometres Trom (Sofia. On the whole way to the Danube the officers always cried when the Prince tried to speak “ Silence or ithou art dead."

fh'j tire Danube the t>vo brothers -were slim up in separate cabins, two officers with drawn sabres, standing ‘before the door, TJre brat,was so terrible that the Prince put His head through a window, hit the soldiers ■forced him lack wilh bayonets, and immediately alarmed the watch The Prince’s request to let him draw a breath ot fresh air, if only for a few minutes, was also neg lived, The guard on the steamer was the second company of the Danube regiment, with all the officers. Beni was reached on Tuesday at 4 p.m. The officers tried to find somebody on shore to whom they con d deliver the Prince but in vain. The ship then put out to the middle of the Danube, remaining there until eight next morning, then again coming to land. Mean* time the commander of the Russian troops, a colonel had arrived, and he had the two brothers put on shore and conducted to the burgomaster mid u r a strong guard. Thtefripcft asked to be allowed to returnwp •tj'f Danube ; but this was refused and M wjls told that he would risk his life iljhe did, as hired murderers were all along the Danube in all the towns to kill him wherever they found him. The Prince said he would risk it, but just then a telegram arrived from St. Petersburg!!, signed “ Obrutcheff,” and running as follows :—“ Prince Alexander of Battenberg is permitted to travel only via Lamberg and Warsaw.

Accordingly the Prince left on Thursday at 8 am. by express train, the Russian authorities not permitting him to take the ordinary train. A police lieutenant and several gendarmes were in the same train. At the second station a high Russian official demanded 600 roubles for the use ox the train, which, he said, would not otherwise go any further. Fortunately the prince happened to have enough money just to pay the sura demanded. At Bender the train stopped for an hour and a half, a gendarme with fixed bayonet standing before each carriage door. Here, not only did a number of people jeer at the Prince through the window of the carriage, but the officers of the Russian Dragoons, whose chi. f Prince Alexander of Hesse is, and to whom the Bulgarian prince himself belonged until his name .was struck off the Russian army list, were also on the platform, and joined the mob in jeering at the Prince, whose demands that the carriage micht be drawn oil to a siding wore disregarded. PREVIOUS INTRIGUES AGAINST PRINCE ALEXANDER The correspondent of the Berlin Tsgeblalt ami Lemberg communicates some startling particulars with respect topr 'vi' Us Rushan intrigues against t**o Prince’s person and sovereignty. Three years ago, according to this authority, the Bussian generals Roboleff and Kau'bars—the latter then acting as Bulgarian War Minister—endeavoured to perpetrate a similar coup d’e at, but without the same success. lu May 1883-, about 2 o clock

one morning—hour-beloved of all conspirators tioboletf, Kaulbars, and oiher officers entered the palace on purpose to force their way into Prince A lexander’s room, and their resolution was only frustrated by h : s Highness’s ordeily officer. Captain Barinofi (ho fell at Kbvnitza last Avinter), who threatened to make use of bis weapons and call the guard. Two carriages were waiting without then also to bear away the prince.