A RUSSIAN TERRORIST.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1174, 15 November 1883, Page 1

A RUSSIAN TERRORIST.

Sophia Perovskaia was beautiful. It was Dot the beauty that dazzled at first sight, but that win’d) fascinates the more, the more it is regarded. A bloude with a pair of blue eyes, seiious and penetrating', under a broad and capacious forehead. A dedicate little nose, a charming mouth, which showed, when

she smiled, two little rows of delicate white teeth. It was, however, her countenance as a whole which was her attraction. There was something brisk, vivacious, and, at the same time, ingenuous, in her rounded face. She was girlhood personified. Notwithstanding her twenty-six years, she scorned scarcely eighteen. A small, slender, graceful figure, and a voice as charming, silvery, and sympathetic as could he, heightened this illusion, . It became almost a certainty when she began to laugh, which often happened. She had the ready laugh of girl, and laughed with so much heartiness, and so affectedly, that she really seemed a yuong lass of sixteen. She gave little thought to her appearance. She dressed in the most modest manner, and perhaps djd not even know what dress or ornament was becoming or unbecoming ; but she had a passion for neatness, and in this way was a punctilious as a Swiss girl. She was very fond of children, and was an excellent schoolmistress. There was, however, another office which (the filled even better—that of nurse. When any of her friends fell ill, Sophia was the first to offer herself for this difficult duty, and she performed that duty with such gentleness, cheerfulness, and patience, that she won the hearts of her patients for all time. Yet this woman, with such an innocent appearance, and with such a sweet and affectionate disposition, was one of the most dreaded members of the Terrorist party. It was she who had the direction of the attempt of March 13th ; it was ' she who, with a pencil, drew out upon an old envelope the plan of the locality, who - assigned to the conspirators their respective posts, and who, upon the fatal morning, remained upon the field of battle, receiving from her sentinels news of the Emperor’s movements, and informing the conspirators, by means of a handkerchief, where they were to proceed. What Titanic force was concealed under this serene appearance 1 What qualities did this extraordinary woman possess ; She united in herself the three forces which of themselves constitute power of the highest order—- » profound and vast capacity, an enthusiastic and ardent disposition, and, above all, an iron will. Sophia Perovskaia belonged, like Krapotkine, to the highest aristocracy of Russia. The Perovski are the youngest branch of the family of the famous Rasumovsky, the morganic husband of the Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, who occupied the throne of Russia in the middle of the last century (1741 1762). Her gradfather was Minister of Public Instruction ; her father was Governor-General of St Petersburg!) ; her paternal uncle, the celebrated Count Pcroysky, conquered for the Emperor Nicholas a considerable part of Central Asia. Such was the family to which this woman belonged who gave such

tremendous blow to Czarism,—Underground .Russia,