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Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 4875
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 3:35 pm: | 
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Ostrog was mentioned in Michael Davitt's "Leaves from a prison diary, or, Lectures to a 'solitary' audience" - London, 1885, Vol. 1
LECTURE X.
CLASS III. MAGSMEN (continued).
Aristocratic Impostures (continued) – Their Select Party in Dartmoor – Adventures of Bertrand Ashley, alias Count von Ostrogg (sic), von Sobriski (sic), &c.
DARTMOOR contained several of this class of impostor during the first three years of my time in that prison. Most of them had succeeded in obtaining admission to the stocking-knitting party, which, in consequence, became known among the rest of the prisoners as “the upper-ten push.”……………
The Russian “count,” however, was the personage who claimed most of my attention, not particularly on account of his distinguished rank, but from the fact that he was really of Russian birth, though imprisoned under the name of “Bertrand Victor A - .” As he presents a fair sample of the “foreign-nobleman” class of impostor, already partly sketched in the episode of M. le Duc de Montmethuseil, I will finish my description of this type of criminal with a brief account of Bertrand Victor, and some of his subsequent adventures. He was a man of about thirty-five years of age, close upon six feet in height, and of very good address, the features presenting very slight traces of his Slavonic origin ; while his manners, like those of most foreigners, were gentlemanly and agreeable, particularly when he was desirous of making a good impression. His introduction to me was brought about by the fact that “the upper-ten” stocking party and that in which I was employed exercised together for half an hour each evening after labour ; and as talking was permitted (at that time) while prisoners were exercising, there was ample opportunity for listening to adventures, and forming opinions of the prisoners with whom I was thus brought into contact. In my first chat with Bertrand Victor I learned that he was the son of a distinguished Russian ; that he had been sent to England to complete his education ; had studied for some time at Oxford University ; had afterwards joined the English navy as surgeon, and had managed, somehow or other, not explained, to find himself at that period (1872) within two years of completing a sentence of seven in penal servitude. His English prison name was, of course, an assumed one, and his family were kept in complete ignorance of his being an inmate of an English convict establishment.
He had made a tour of Europe, saving a visit to Ireland ; and, as he would be in possession of a fair fortune when again at liberty, and would be most anxious to withdraw from English society for a year or so after liberation, he was thinking of selecting that interesting country for a twelve months’ sojourn when restored to freedom. “Where would he be likely to meet with polite and intellectual society out of Dublin ; he having heard that that was principally an English-peopled city?” My reply being neither satisfactory nor complimentary to this proffer of distinguished patronage of Ireland, Bertrand Victor was suddenly reminded, from conversations he had had with other Fenian prisoners while in Portland Prison, that the Irish must be intellectually inferior to the English, exceptions existing, of course, in Irishmen who had won imperishable fame in the walks of English literature, &c. This is a summary of our conversation, or rather, of his talk to me on the occasion of our first introduction. His command of languages was really marvellous, amply sustaining the well-known linguistic fame of his countrymen. His English was next to faultless in pronunciation, and he could converse with equal facility in French, German, and Italian, while he had also a reputed knowledge of Danish, Swedish, and Polish, with, of course, the perfect use of the Russian. In addition, he was as well read in English literature, and as well versed in the etiquette of English society, as an ordinary college-educated Englishman. He was, on the whole, about the most singular and the most accomplished individual with whom I conversed during my imprisonment in Dartmoor. In 1873 he was transferred from that prison to Chatham along with a batch of other convicts, from which place he was discharged in the beginning of the following year ; his whole sentence of seven years having then expired.
Early in the summer of 1874 a student of E - - College engaged as foreign tutor one Count Sobriski, a Polish nobleman, who, like many more of his countrymen, had been exiled on account of his efforts to free that ill-fated land from Russian vassalage. His extraordinary linguistic accomplishments, engaging address, and distinguished birth, rendered the count an important addition to the social circle around E – College. Among the families to which the count had obtained an introduction, through his pupil, was one which consisted of a wealthy gentleman and only daughter, the latter the heiress of her father’s possessions. The lady’s beauty fascinated the gallant count from the first sight of her lovely person, while the distingue bearing, wonderful conversational abilities, and, above all, the noble rank of the exiled Pole, made no less an agreeable impression upon the susceptibilities of the lady’s heart. This mutual appreciation soon begat a declaration of love from the count, which proved both acceptable to the fair one and agreeable to papa, who was, naturally enough, pleased at the prospect of having his daughter so married that she could figure as a countess in the ranks of society. The count was, therefore, the recognised lover of the heiress. After a wooing as short as it was wonderful, the count, as was pardonable under the circumstances, was most eager to crown his happiness with the right of a husband. Like all love-smitten adorers, he pressed for an early marriage-day, and had his prayer granted in the appointment of an approximate date upon which to lead the bride to the altar. But, alas! how oft has cruel accident marred the plans of Hymen, and thwarted the love aspirations of enamoured swain and languishing beauty! Why, when the course of true affection does run smooth, will the tyrant of romantic love appear on the scene, in some form or other, and snap in twain the flowery links that are to bind two hearts for ever?
The young lady became unwell. The doctor prescribed Margate for a fortnight, and the count was pressed to accompany his darling and her papa to that (unfortunately for the count) largely frequented resort. The day after the arrival of the party the lovers were strolling along the beach, the count in all likelihood adopting the words of Claude Melnotte, and picturing to the raptured fancy of his Pauline some romantic castle by the waters of a Polish Como, where they would dwell in conjugal happiness, and laugh to scorn the impotency of descriptive genius to paint in poetic words a love like theirs, when – Good gracious! What has happened? The count has stopped, as if struck with a bullet, declares, watch in hand, that an appointment of a most vital family nature must be kept in London that very afternoon, and thereupon dashes off to the railway station like a shot.
A few moments after, when the young lady and her papa were recovering somewhat from the surprise into which the count’s singular behaviour had thrown them, two men who had been following the movements of the party on the beach approached, and, after saluting the lady, informed them that the individual whom they had just seen in the company of the gentleman and his daughter was a recently-released convict and most accomplished impostor! Some swooning followed, of course, the fainting lady was driven to an hotel, a doctor was summoned, and thus ended the dream of the would-be countess ; and with her and her ambitious papa my story has nothing further to do. But to follow the flight of the amorous Sobriski. During the count’s sojourn in E – it transpired that certain property in jewellery, money, and plate belonging to his pupil and the latter’s friends became missing, some of which was discovered in the count’s apartments during his love trip to Margate. It was for this he was “wanted” by the emissaries of the law. After his escape from Margate he was traced to a west-end lodging-house, was surprised, but not captured, in the middle of the night, and had to make his way over the roof in anything but full dress. He succeeded in eluding the efforts of his pursuers for some weeks after this narrow escape, but finally succumbed to a stratagem on the part of the detectives who were at the time acquainted with the locality where he was in hiding. A paragraph was made to appear in a London daily, containing, as a piece of apparently authentic intelligence, the information of Count Sobriski’s having baffled the vigilance of Scotland Yard, and succeeded in making his escape to Belgium. Thrown off his guard upon reading this paragraph, and believing his pursuers to have followed a wrong scent, the count emerged from his hiding-place and took himself to Burton-on-Trent, there to engage in any enterprise which fortune might kindly place in his way. There was but time for the intelligence to spread in the neighbourhood of his hotel that a Swedish nobleman of great accomplishments and fortune, one Count von Ostrogg, was staying there, before the London detectives appeared on the scene, captured their man, and terminated his swindling career for the second time in England. His trial disclosed most of the foregoing and other facts concerning successful frauds since being liberated from Chatham some six or eight months previously, and the judge awarded the unfortunate “count” a sentence of fifteen years’ penal servitude. Among the many “old familiar faces” that met my view upon attending service in the Catholic chapel in this prison the first Sunday of my arrival here in February last, was that of “Bertrand Victor A – ,” alias “Count Sobriski,” a convict this time in the name of von Ostrogg. I was informed by a French thief while in Dartmoor that the “Russian,” as he was familiarly termed, had completed two terms of imprisonment on the continent before coming to England – one in the prison of Konigsberg, and the other in Moulins, near Paris.
Allowing five years for both of these terms, in the absence of the correct sentences, the “count,” upon the termination of his present “lagging,” will have undergone seven-and-twenty years pf imprisonment – a terrible penalty, in all faith, to pay for the life of an accomplished rogue, offering very little inducement to mortals who aspire to be considered of noble birth and station to leave the paths of honest labour, and the safer, if less sensational, position of ordinary citizenship.
Robert
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Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2186
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 4:23 pm: |
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Robert
many thanks for this - a most interesting read
Chris |
R.J. Palmer
Chief Inspector
Username: Rjpalmer
Post Number: 701
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 4:24 pm: |
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Wow. I've never seen this. It's one fantastic freakin' discovery. |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2440
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 5:08 pm: |
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Yes, Robert, a very nice find indeed, and a good read to the bargain.
I'm jealous.
But well accomplished my dear chap.
I shall have to see if I can't trump you with something. |
Stephen P. Ryder
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 3295
Registered: 10-1997
| | Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 5:11 pm: |
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Excellent find Robert! Its new to me as well.
Stephen P. Ryder, Exec. Editor
Casebook: Jack the Ripper
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Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 4876
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 5:47 pm: |
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Thanks folks. I must confess to having a sneaking affection for Ostrog.
Robert |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2442
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 6:15 pm: |
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Me too, Robert.
What was the legend?
That he was on the run from prison, dashed across a cricket ground, was asked by the captain if he could bat because he was a man short, hit several sixes, stole the captain's gold cigarette case, and then made off into the distance waving his bat, and shortly to rob an army barracks of its silver cups and bugle, which he played the last post on as he disappeared over the hill.
A man if nothing else. |
Howard Brown
Chief Inspector
Username: Howard
Post Number: 873
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 7:45 pm: |
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Thats two great finds in three days by Robert Chas.
Hats off to you,sir !!
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John Savage
Inspector
Username: Johnsavage
Post Number: 468
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 7:51 pm: |
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Hi Robert,
Well done in finding this article on Ostrog.
It has some similarities with the account of him given in Philip Sugden's Complete History of Jack the Ripper.
Rgds
John |
David O'Flaherty
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Oberlin
Post Number: 1004
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 11:23 pm: |
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"I must confess to having a sneaking affection for Ostrog." You say that now, but just wait until he nicks all your plates and you find yourself eating from tins!
Nice find, Robert.
Cheers,
Dave |
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 4878
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, August 28, 2005 - 7:38 am: |
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Thanks again everyone. I do hear that the Eton wall game had to be suspended, because Ostrog stole the wall.
Robert |
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 4923
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, September 03, 2005 - 7:47 pm: |
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Slight correction to the above transcription : "After a wooing as short as it was wonderful" should be "as short as it was successful."
Robert |
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