AN ANECDOTE OF THE CZAR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6503, 30 December 1881, Page 6

AN ANECDOTE OF THE CZAR.

<|Vm Ite harden fete.) An occasion*! correspondent .in St Petersburg records »n amiable action lately performed by the Cxsr. During tho lest few days the Chief Military Procurator, Filo* tofoff, and bis wife have relumed to Russia, and rc-appc&rtd at Court. Tbe story of their absence is a curious one. Under the regime of Gurko it was an easy thing lor any one, mm or woman, to be ticketed a*.**- politically suspected," and dealt with accordingly. Miriam* Filosofoff was a cultivated and generous lady, and she employed her spare money to frequent gifts to poor and promising students, to aid them to their camera. A student of •deuce or literature was regarded <>» facto by the Gurko school of politics as a doubtful character; if not already a Nihilist there wa* no saying howfsocahe might become one. Madame FilwofoflT# gifts to youths ot tins clots brought her into lad repute, and although so proof teems to have been found that she really aided any professed Eevclaliomite, under the plea of aiding ectenlifio or literary aspirants, she was suddenly informed that she must leave Russia and reside abroad. Her husband, the Chief Military Procurator, wa* in despair, but his influence and office could not procure a remission of the hard sentence which reduced him to tbe condition of what the Germans cell a “ straw-widower."

At a Court ball, shortly alter the exile of his wife, the late Emperor Alexander 11. west up to Filoiofoff and kindly asked him why he looked eo wretched. “ Your Majesty knows," be teplied, “that I am a lonely mas. lam no longer young, £- sm constantly ill, and I nerd horaiy soy that I raise the society of my wife." "icon I«1 for you," said the Czar, "and I wish that your wife canid return to you t but," added he, alter, a pause, “ I find that it is quite impracticable." Early the next morning, while the Procurator was at work in his study, a cornier arrived from the Czar, with a note in the Imperial handwriting., “A* your wife cannot return to you, sold tbe document, “ you had better go to her. 1 grant you an extra leave of absence and 3000 roubles for travelling expenses.—Alexander." The present Czar struck a line across Madame Filasofoff’s same in tbe list of "political suspects," and Die and her busbud, the compulsory and tbe voluntary exile, were thus esablro to return home, and, as cur police reports often conclude, " without a stain upon their character."