A SISTER'S DEVOTION.—A TALE OF SIBERIA.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 206, 21 July 1847, Page 3

A SISTER'S DEVOTION.— A TALE OF SIBERIA.

[From Tails of Female Heroism.'] Mademoiselle Betty Ambos was the (laughter of a rich wive merchant of Deuxport (Zweibrucken), in Bavaria. She was one of five children, two much older, and two younger than herself. Her eldest brother, Heuri, early displayed such talents and inclination for study, as determined her father to give him a learned education. He accordingly sent him to the university of Elaugau, in Bavaria, from whence, in due time, he returned to his family with high testimonials of his talents and good conduct. He now decided, in accordance with his father's wishes, on entering the clerical profession, and won the esteem, not only of his own family, but of his fellow townsmen, by his remarkable abilities and attractive and amiable qualities. After he had been a short time settled at home, he was engaged by some prince in the north of Germany to travel with him as his secretary ; and through him, when he was about eight-and-twenty, was appointed professor of theology in the Lutheran university of Courland, either Riga, or some town near it ; for on this point the account is not certain. Here our young professor chanced to meet a very fascinating and beautiful young Jewess, daughter of a rich Jew merchant there with whom, unhappily, he fell in love. He was now seized with a great zeal for her conversion, for it was impossible to marry until this was effected ; and he seems to have carried on a secret correspondence with her, with a view to further both these designs. This was discovered by her relations, and they strictly forbade all further intercourse. They met, however, in secret, and the lover so far succeeeded as to persuade the young lady to fly with him beyond the frontiers into Silesia, and after her baptism to become his wife. But their plans were ill-arranged ; the flight was immediately discovered, and before they had reached the frontiers they were overtaken by the police, and brought back to Riga. Here the young man was accused of having carried off the young Jewess by foree — in that district, where the Jews have peculiar immunities, said to be a capital ciime. He defended himself by declaring that the lady had eloped with him voluntarily, and that she was a Christian, and his bethrothed bride, as they had exchanged rings, the usual ceremony of betrothal. All this the lady's father positively denied ; upon which Henri Ambos desired that she might be brought into court, to answer for herself. Her relations made many objections to this just demand, but the judge supported the accused, and enforced the attendance of the lady, to give her testimony in person. She was brought into court in extreme agitatation, supported by her father, and others of her relations. The judge then asked if with her own free will she had fled with Henri Ambos? She faintly answered 'Ato.' Had any violence been used to carry her off? « Yes.' Was she a Christian ? • No.' Did she regard Henri Ambos as her affianced husband ? 'No.' On finding himself thus denied and deserted by her from whom he had hoped so much, the young man was seized with sudden frenzy ; he endeavoured first to rush upon the trembling girl, and when held back, drew a knife fiora his pocket and attempted to plunge it in his own bostm. It was snatched from him, but in the scuffle he was wounded in the hands and face. Either from remorse, or the sight of his wounds, the young lady fainted away, and her unhappy lover beholding her insensible, and becoming calm from the loss of blood now sullenly refused to answer further questions, and was at once carried to prison. These particulars reached his family after many months anxiety ; but the most diligent enquiries brought them no information of his subsequent fate. One of Henri's relations

undertook a journey to Riga, for the purpose of obtaining some intelligence or redress, but bis exertions were fruitless ; and the family knew not whether to suppose him languishing in a dungeon, or dead from his wounds. Thus six years passed away, in the course of which his father died. But the mother lived in suspense ; she could not despair, as every one did beside; she still hoped to see her son once more. At length, in the beginning of the year 1833, a travelling merchant passed through Deuxpont, and enquired for the family of Ambos. He told them that the year before he had seen and spoken to a man in rags, with a long beard, who was working in fetters with other criminals, near the fortres* of Barinski, in Siberia, who described himself as Henri Ambos, a pastor of the Lutheran church, unjustly condemned ; and besought him with fars, and the most urgent supplications, to convey some tidings of him to his unhappy parents, and beseech them to use every means for his liberation. On this overwhelming intelligence, the Ambos family, whan the first agitation and excitement left them calm enough to think, consulted what would be best to be done. It was soon determined that application should at once be made to the police authorities in St. Petersburgh, to ascertain beyond all doubt the real fate of Henri, and then to present a petition on his behalf, to the Emperor. But who must present it ? The second brother offered fiimself ; but he had a wife and two children, and his wife declared she should die if her husband left her ; besides, he was now his mother's only stay. The sister then -said she would undertake all — the journey, the enquiries, the presentation ; arguing that as a woman she might have greater chance of success. The mother gave her consent, for she saw there was no other alternative ; and, amply supplied with means, this noble-minded girl set out on her long and perilous journey. " When my mother gave me her blessing," she said, " I made a vow to God and my own heart that I would not return alive without the pardon of my brother. I feared nothing; I had nothing to live for ; I had health and strength, and I had not a doubt of my own success, because I was resolved to succeed ; but ah ! what fate was mine ! and how am I returning to my mother— my poor old mother!" Every detail and arrangement of her journey that could be planned in prospect would, no doubt, be laid out for her before leaving home, and she reached Riga without mischance. There she collected the necessary documents relative to her brother's character and conduct, with all the circumstances of his tritl, and had them promptly attested. With these she went forward to St. Petersburg!), where she arrived safe in June, 1833. She had come provided with several letters of recommendation ; one to a German ecclesiastic who entered warmly into her cause. She had the greatest difficulty in procuring from the police the necessary documents of her brother's condemnation, and of his place of exile and punishment ; but at length, by almost incredible boldness and address, she procured these, and, with the assistance of her countryman, drew up a petition to the Emperor. With this she sought an audience of the minister of the interior, and after many applications was admitted to his presence ; but be treated her with harshness, and absolutely refused to deliver the petitiou. She knelt and wept in vein, till, angry with her importunity, he said : " Your brother was a mauvis sujet, he ought not to be pardoned ; and if I were the Emperor I would not pardon him." She then rose indignant from her knees, and stretching out her hand towards Heaven, exclaimed : " I call God to witness that my brother was innocent ! and I thank God you are not the Emperor, for I can still hope !" The minister in a rage, said : "Do you dare to speak thus to me ? do you know who lam ?" " Yes," she answered, "You are bis Excellency the minister C ; but what of that ? You are a cruel man ! but I put my trust in God and the Emperor ;" and having said this, she left him, he following her to the door, and speaking very loudly and angrily, and she not even curtseying to him as she withdrew from his presence. With the same ill success she applied to all the ministers. Thpy were not all unkind, but none would undertake to present the petition. She therefore resolved to do what she had hitherto been dissuaded from— appeal to the Emperor in person. But the difficulty of gaining access to his presence threatened to be insuperable. She lavished large sums as bribes among the guards ; she beset the imperial suite at reviews ; at the theatre ; on the way to church. For six weeks she wearied herself in vain in fruitless and humiliating efforts to penetrate to the Emperor's presence. She was threatened by the police, and driven about by officials ; at length, when almost in despair, Providence raised her up a friend in one of her own sex. Her story had become known, and several ladies of rank expressed themselves interested in it. Among these, the Countess Elise — showjd particular kind-

ness and sympathy. One day, seeing her young protege in despair at so many disappointments, she said with emotion : " I cannot dare present your petition myself; I might be sent off to Siberia, or at least banished the court ; but all I can do 1 will. I will lend you my equipage and servants ; I will dress you in one of my robes ; you shall drive to the palace the next levee day, and obtain an audience under my name. When once in the presence of the Emperor you must manage yourself, if I risk thus much, will you venture the rest ?" This offer was accepted with a transport of gratitude almost too great for words ; and the scheme thus boldly planned was not long in being acted upon. At the appointed time our heroine, attired in a court dress of the Countess, took her teat in a splendid equipage, preceded by a running footman, with three laced laquais in full dress mounted behind, and drove up to the palace. She was announced as the Countess Elise , who supplicated a private audience of his majesty. The doors flew open before her, and in a few minutes she was in the presence of the Emperor, who, with an air of gallantry, advanced one or two steps to meet her, but suddenly started back. When she came to this part of her narrative she was asked, "If at this moment she did not feel her heart sink ?" " No," she replied, " on the contrary, I felt my heart beat quicker and higher ! I sprang forward and knelt at his feet, exclaiming, with clasped hands— ' Pardon, imperial majesty ! pardon !' ' Who are you V said the Emperor, astonished, ' and what can Ido for you V He spoke gently, more gently than any of his ministers ; and overcome, even by my own hopes, I burst into a flood of tears, and said : s ' May it please your imperial majesty, I am not Countess Elise — — , lam only the sister of the unfortunate Henri Ambos, who has been condemned on false accusation. O pardon ! pardon ! Here are the papers — the proofs. O imperial majesty, pardon my poor brother !' I held out the petition and the papers, and at the same time, prostrate on my knees, I seized the skirt of his embroidered coat and pressed it to my lips. The Emperor said, ' Rise, rise !' but I would not rise ; I still held my papers, resolved not to rise till he had taken them. At last the Emperor, who seemed much moved, extended one hand towards me, and took the papers with the other saying, ' Rise Mademoiselle, I command you to rise.' I ventured to kiss his hand, and said, with tears, ' I pray of your majesty to read that paper.' He said, * I will read it.' I then rose from the ground, and stood watching him while he unfolded the petition and read it. His countenance changed, and he exclaimed once or twice, ' This is dreadful.'' When he had finished, he folded the paper, and without any observation, said at once : ' Mademoiselle Ambos, your brother is ] ardoned.' The words rang in my ears, and I again flung myself at his feet, saying, ' Your imperial majesty is a god upon earth ; do you indeed pardon my brother ? Your ministers would not suffer me to approach you; and even yet I fear !' He said, ' Fear nothing, you have my promise.' He then raised me from the ground, and conducted me himself to the door. I tried to think and bless him, but I could not ; he held out his hand for me to kiss, and then bowed his head as I left the room." Her friends were warm in their congratulations on her return home, but advised her to keep her interview with the Emperor a profound secret, which she agreed to the more willingly, as after the first excitement was over her heart misgave her that some impediment would be thrown in her way, and those who had hitherto opposed her would still devise machinations to hinder the promise of the Emperor from being carried out. For some days she was in a state of great suffering from the effects of past fatigue, and present agitation and suspense. While in this state of feverish anxiety, a few days after her interview with the Emperor, she believed herself the subject of a supernatural visitation, which she described as follows : — She was reading in bed, being unable to sleep, when on raising her eyes from her book, she saw the figu c of ber brother, standing at the other end of the room. She exclaimed, " Henri, my brother, is that you ?" But, without making any reply, the form approached nearer the bed, keeping its melancholy eyes fixed on her's till it came quite close to the bedside, and laid a cold, heavy hand upon her. The figure, after looking at her sadly for some . minutes, during which she had no power ei- ' ther to move or speak, turned ar/ay. She , then made a desperate effort to call out to the ! daughter of her hostess, who slept in the next j room, " Luise, Luise !" Luise came in to i her. "Do you not see my brother standing there ? she exclaimed, with horror, and pointing to the other end of the room, where the figure seemed to have receded. Luise, terri- 1 fied and bewildered by being waked suddenly out of sleep, turned her eyes towards the spot, i and answered, " Yes !" Then thought the-

poor sister, Henri is dead, and God has permitted him to visit me ; and for two days she was haunted by this idea ; but on the third, just five days after her interview with the Emperor, a laquais in the imperial livery came to her lodgings, and puc a packet into her hands, with " The Emperor's compliments to Mademoiselle Ambos." It was the pardon of her brother, with the Emperor's seal and signature ; and at the moment she forgot everything but joy. She was now overwhelmed with offers of service from those who had before only thrown obstacles in her way ; and the minister C , with whom she had had so stormy an interview, proposed himself to forward the pardon to Siberia, in order to spare her trouble. But she was resolved that none but herself should be the bearer of this precious document — none but herself should take off those fetters, the very description of which had entered into her soul. She accordingly made instant arrangements for her journey, and reached Moscow in three days from leaving Petersburgb. The town in Siberia, where she was first to carry her official recommendation, lay, according to her account, 9000 versts beyond Moscow, and the fortress where her bi other was confined lay a great distance farther. She travelled post for seven days and nights, only sleeping in her carriage, and after two days rest, posted, without stopping, for another seven nights and days. The roads were good, the post houses at regular intervals, and the travelling rapid, but the country most desolate ! sometimes, for hundreds of miles, there was hardly a human habitation to be seen, and the only food she could procure so bad that she often suffered hunger rather than attempt to eat it. She described with great force her sensations in travelling thus alone through these wild, desolate regions. " Sometimes," she said, "my head seemed to turn : I could not believe that it was a waking reality : I could not believe that it was myself. Alone in a strange land, so many hundred leagues from my own home, and driven along as if through the air, with a rapidity so different from anything I had been used to, that it almost took away my breath." She was asked if she ever felt fear. " Ah ! yes," she answered ; " when I waked sometimes in the carriage in the middle of the night, wondering at myself, and unable immediately to collect my thoughts ; never at any other time." The recollection of this journey was terrible to her : she could not speak of it without shuddering ; but at the time, she was sustained by thoughts of j hope and joy, which overcame every natural sentiment of fear. The last week in August, she arrived at the end of her journey, and was courteously received by the governor, to whom she immediately showed her credentials ; and, with feelings of transport too great to be borne, placed in his hands her brother's pardon. The officer looked very grave as he received the paper ; and, she thought, took a very long time to read the few lines it contained. At length he stammered out, " I am sorry, but the Henri Ambos mentioned in this paper is dead/" The blow was too sudden and too heavy. She fell, insensible, to the earth. " Ah ! what a horrible late was mine !" she said weeping : " I had come thus far to find — not ray brother — only a grave !" Henri Ambos had died a year before. His fetters had caused an ulcer in the leg, which, perhaps in despair, he had neglected, and a few weeks of intense suffering brought him to bis grave. For five years his task-work had been, to break stones to repair the road, chained hand and foot, and in company with the vilest malefactors. The authorities seem to have felt for her, and to have given her every record of her unfortunate brother that remained — memorials written by stealth, and which had, since his death, come into their possession. With these she returned, heart-broken, to St. Petersburgh, where she was seized with a dangerous illness, which confined her many weeks to her bed. Her story got abroad and excited great commiseration. Many persons of distinction invited her to their houses, and made her rich presents, some of which were the splendid articles of dress already spoken of. The Emperor bimself desired to see her, and very graciously expressed his sympathy. He did her the honour also to present her to the Empress ; but she said — " They could not bring ray brother back to life." In October, she left St. Petersburgh to return home, where she had not yet had courage to communicate the bitter disappointment of all her hopes. She was received with much commiseration at Riga, by those who had known her brother, and her own extraordinary exertions in his cause. One thing, she believed, yet remained for her to do ; and this impulse '• — which must not be rashly or harshly judged of — shall be given in her own words. " There was one thing I had resolved to do, which yet remained undone. I was resolved to see the woman who had been the original cause of all my brother's misfortunes. I thought, if once

I could say to her — ' Your falsehood has done this !' I should be satisfied ; but my brother's friends dissuaded me from this idea. They said it was better not ; that it could do my poor Henri no good ; that it was wrong ; that it was un-Christian ; and I submitted. I left Riga with a voiturier. I had reached Pojer, on the Prussian frontier, and there I stopped at the Douane, to have my packages searched. The chief officer looked at the address on my trunk, and exclaimed with surprise — ' Mademoiselle Ambos ! Are you any relation of the professor, Henri Ambos V 'I am his sister.' ' Good heaven ! I was the intimate friend of your brother. What has become of him V I then told him all ; and when I came to an end, this good man burst into tears, and for some time we wept together. The kutschtr (driver), who was standing by, heard all this conversation ; and when I turned round, he was crying too. My brother's friend pressed on me offers of service and hospitality ; but I could not delay, for, besides that my impatience to reach home increased every hour, I had not much money in my purse. Of 3,000 dollars, which I had taken with me to St. Petersburg!], very little remained ; so I bade him farewell, and I proceeded. "At the next town, where my kutscher stopped to feed his horses, he came to the door of my caliche and said, ' You have just missed seeing the young lady whom your brother was in love with. That caliche which passed us just now, and changed horses here, contained Mademoiselle S , her sister, and her sister's husband.' Imagine my surprise : I could not believe my fortune. It seemed that Providence had delivered her into my hands ; and I was resolved that she should not ! escape me. I knew they would be delayed at the custom-house. I ordered the man to turn, and drive back as fast as possible, promising him the reward of a dollar if he overtook them. Ou reaching the custom-house, I saw a caleche standing at a little distance. I felt myself tremble, and my heart Leat so, but not with fear. I went up to the caliche : two ladies were sitting in it. I addressed the one who was the most beautiful, and said — 'Are you Mademoiselle Erailie S V I suppose I must have looked very strange, and wild, and resolute ; for she replied, with a frightened manner — ' 1 am. Who are you, and what do you want with me V I said — '1 am the sister of Henri Ambos, whom you murdered!' She shrieked out : the men came running from the house ; but I held fast the carriage-door, and said — 'I am not come to hurt you : but you are the murderess of my brother, Henri Ambos. He loved you, and your falsehood has killed him. May God punish you for it ! May his ghost pursue you to the end of your life!' I remember no more. I was like one mad. I have just a recollection of her ghastly, terrified look, and her eyes wide open, staring at me. I fell into fits ; and they carried me into the house of my brother's friend, and laid me on a bed. When I recovered my senses, the caleche and all were gone. " When I reached Berlin, all this appeared so miraculous, so like a dream, I could not trust my own recollection. I wrote to the officer of customs, to beg that he would attest that it was really true, and what I had said when I was out of my senses, and what she said to me ; and at Leipsic I received his letter." This, together with many other letters and documents, she showed to the sympathising English lady, all proving the truths of her statements to the minutest particulars. The next morning, Mademoiselle Ambos and her new friends parted to follow their different routs ; and nothing further is known of our heroine : though all must follow her with their kindest thoughts and wishes, to that home where she had still to break hsr sad tale to her mother. Yet amid all her sorrows and their mingled tears, some joy there must have been in welcomiug such a daughter back again, and much thankfulness that through so many dangers she was restored to them unharmed.