ABDUCTING A SULTANA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2555, 24 November 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

ABDUCTING A SULTANA.

How the Padisha Lost His Most Beautiful Wife. The Sultan Abdul Medjid was the one who had a favourite wife abducted (writes Oliver Harper), and this is how it came about:—There was a French gentleman who had come to the Court of Sultan Mahmoud, who had risen to the position of chief of treasury of the household during the Sultan's reign, and he bad introduced many conveniences and comforts into Turkey never known before. This gentleman, M Eli d' Apery, had married into a most important family soon after his arrival in Turkey ; and by this marriage he had two sons, the elda-t of whom was sent to Paris to study medicine, and at the age of nineteen this embryo doctor, Nicolo by name, returned to Constantinople, and, by family influence, was appointed as Court physician to the household of Sultan Abdul Medjid, and was, on occasions of necessity, admitted to the harem. He doctored the Sultan successfully for a severe attack of indigestion, and so was considered infallible, though it is more probable that the illnese3s which he factored was not serious as than that he was a great physician. However, he had acquired the reputation for much talent for the administration of pills and portions, and he enjoyed great cerebrity. Jewels and rich presents and purses of gold were bestowed upon him by the rich patients. Custom and the law of the prophets made it necessary that he should wear a veil, and a square of tulle was thrown over the lady, and another thickness of tulle laid over her wrist if it was necessary to touch her hand, so the proprieties were observed. It was astonishing how great an epidemic of nervous maladies there was among the ladies of the harem. The Valide Sultana, or Sultan's mother, fell ill, and the young doctor was called, and treated her ailment so effectually that when she recovered she overwhelmed him with rich presents and kind attentions. It was perhaps owing to her great power, only second and nearly equal to that of the Sultan, that he had so much liberty to flutter his wings in the gilded cages of the Imperial ladies. After about a year of practice in the Court and harem of Abdul Medjid, Nicolo had

amassed a fortune in jewels aud gold, and when in full tide of prosperity he ran his bark upon a dangerous rock, the most fatal of all—a woman. The then favourite wife of Abdul Medjid was

A LOVELY YOUNG GEORGIAN, whose name signified " the rose to whom the nightingale sings," but which is utterly unwritable, if such a word can be coined for the occasion. The young court doctor fell madly in love with her for her beauty and refinement. She was particularly celebrated for the extreme length and beauty of her hair, which trailed on the floor behind her as she walked, and she was more than usually intelligent, though absolutely untaught and ignorant Df everything beyond the art of making herself charming. She had been bought by a Hebrew when she was but ten years old, and raised with every care, so as to develop to the utmost the promise of her youth, and when she was thirteen had been given to the Valide Sultana as a present, for which a valuable concession was given to the Hebrew. At fifteen the Valide had given her to Abdul Medjid at the end of Ramazen, and she had been a wife three years when the doctor first met and loved her. They passed sentimental letters composed of flowers and fruit, or they looked their love, and at Inst thoy

DETERMINED TO FLY To get this young woman outside tho palace gate was not so easy then as it would be now. One guard had to be bought over, and all the others were drugged by wine which Nicolo furnished. The young Sultana had her jewels and valuables on her person, and Nicolo, who had her hidden all day in the palaco, met her. They reached the outside in safety, when a soldier on guard there demanded the password, which was unhesitatingly given, and they went along, the two men dragging the young Sultana with them, as she had fainted from fright as she heard the soldier's voice. They went a short distance to where a sedan chair awaited, and they placed her in it and carried her rapidly to the house of Philippe Apostola, the old Greek professor of Nicolo, who had not the faintest idea that it was a Sultana to whom he was to give refuge. Nicolo had engaged a small but swift Greek vessel to take them to Syra, one of the Greek islands, and for this he was to pay SO,OOO piastres. There were 160 men in the little vessel, all ready to fight if necessary. The vessel was ready to sail when Nicolo arrived with the lady, who had changed her Turkish costume for a European dress, though she wore a thick veil over her bonnet. A DANGEROUS VOYAGE. As the vessel was passing through the Dardenelles she was signalled to stop, but kept steadily on her way, receiving a salute in the shape of three cannon balls through her rigging, which did no damage. By this time the Greek captain had decided that he had not asked enough money for so great a risk, and he imprisoned the two fugitives, after a desperate resistance on the part of Nicolo, and then opened negotiations, telling him that unless he agreed to pay him in all 400,000 piastres he would put them on shore in Smyrna, which was iu Turkey, and in consequence they would be under tho jurisdiction of Turkish law. A piastre is about five cents of our money. Nicolo was obliged by force of circumstances to pay the amount agreed upon, and finally they were safely put on shore at Syra, from which they finally reached Athens, in Greece. Once iu Athens they were safe. Almost as soon as they set foot in Syra they were baptised in the Catholic Church, and the Sultana took the name of Angelica, and they were soon after married according to the Catholic ritual. At Athens they were received with honour at the palace of King Otho, and from there they set out for France, where they were also well received, the strangeness of the marriage, the rare beauty of the bride, and the romance making their visit the theme of conversation.—" Newark Call."