ions and became part owners of the soil. Of
this reform we have already spoken at length. As we have said, however,
the personal actions of the Prince, who enriched himself at the expense
of a still suffering country, sought by every means in his power to
obtain absolute rule, and led an openly immoral life, against which his
advisers protested and warned him in vain, led to what some have called
a conspiracy, but which was an uprising of all the leading
representatives of the people, lay and military, who united to drive him
from the throne.

The so-called abdication, but really the deposition, of Prince Couza, as
it was narrated at the time, was effected as follows. The conspiracy
being ripe, on February 11 [23], 1866, a sufficiently strong body of
military, acting under the orders of General Golesco and others,
surrounded the palace in which the Prince was lodged, and a number of
officers then forced their way inside. On entering the palace they
proceeded to the room of the Prince, arresting on their way thither M.
L----[169] and two officers of the body-guard. Before they forced the
door the Prince, it seems, had a presentiment of some danger, and cried
from within, 'Don't enter, for I shall fire.' Before the sentence was
finished, however, the door was burst open, and he saw before him the
conspirators with revolvers in their hands. He was cowardly enough (says
the narrative) not to fire once. It is possible that if he had known
that they had an order not to fire, whatever might happen, he would have
killed one or other of them.[170] Or, perhaps, the presence of Madame
----[171] prevented him from offering resistance, for she was there
undressed.

'What do you want?' he asked, trembling.

'We have brought your Highness's abdication,' said Captain C----. 'Will
you sign it?'

'I have neither pen nor ink,' he answered.

'We thought of that,' said one of the conspirators.

'I have no table.'

'For this once, I offer myself as such,' said Captain P----.

Having no alternative, the Prince then signed the following act of
abdication, as it lay on the shoulders of the stooping officer who had
condescended to serve as a desk for the occasion.

'We, Alexander, according to the will of the whole nation, and the oath
we took on ascending the throne, this day, February 11 [23], 1866, lay
down the reins of government and relegate the same to a princely
_locum-tenens_ and to the ministry chosen by the people.

(Signe