A ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 16, 19 January 1878, Page 3

A ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE.

These is at the present mordent incarcerated in the Conciergerie at Paris a young Servian whose love should be of the truest, if the troublous nature of its course can be taken as a criterion. Ysef, whose mishaps are awakening sueh a fund of wonnmnly pity, lost his heart to a soft-eyed Mussulman beauty just before the outbreak of the war in the East. Countless as were the obstacles which an adverse fate threw in his path, he surmounted them all, and at length the day dawned which saw him " en route " for Constantinople to claim his bride. A few hours previous to the tying of the nuptial knot, however, there surged up an insuperable barrier to the marriage in the person of a Turkish gentleman, whose suit had been formerly approved by the lady's family, but whose unaccountable disappearance had caused him to be mourned for as dead. A sense of honor induced the damsel's father to support the claims of the authentic Turk in preference to Ysef's who was but a naturalised subject of the Sultan. The latter, in despair at the parental verdict, and encouraged by the teal's of bright eyes shed in his behalf, picked a quarrel with his rival who had appeared so " malapropos," and stabbed him to the heart. Terrified at the crime, but loving still the criminal, Ysef's betrothed entreated him to hie away to Paris, whither she swore to follow him upon the first opportunity. Justice, however, has proved swifter of foot than the maiden, and the unfortunate Ysef was pounced upon a short time ago by two members of the French police, whose mission it was to place him in durance vile until the extradition formalities can be accomplished. As Ysef has been condemned to death in Constantinople, it is presumable that he supplicates Mahomet to prolong the above-mentioned formalities indefinitely. In the meantime, his captivity is rendered as endurable as may be, by little daily presents of cigars, wine, or flowers offered to the interesting prisoner by sympathising members of the fair sex, who seem to consider the poignarding incident in the romance as a bagatelle, which in no way detracts from the merits of its principal her.-.