Infelicities at Court.

Bruce Herald, Volume IX, Issue 890, 20 March 1877, Page 3

Infelicities at Court.

Madame de Montijo, the mother of tbe Empress Eugenic ? has brought a suit at law against three Parisian newspapers for publishing extracts from the acte de naissance of the late Empress, and drawing scandalous conclusions therefrom. It is apropos of thig that a Paris correspondent, writing to the 'World,' relates some reminiscences of the Second Empire, given him by a person long resident in Paris and well conversant with tbe society of Madrid. As a very young girl BpC'l© do l^ontijo was not considered at the Court of Madrid to possess any jemarkable beauty, though her profuse tresses of the palest pheatnut, just tinged with ruddy gold, and the fine eontoiir. of her throat and shoulders were greatly admired.' But the full and flowing draperies which were worn in those days were unfavorable to the display of the exquirite figure. It so chanced one d?.y that Queen Christina gave a garden party at her villa near &f adrid. de Montijo and her friends were amusing themselyes on the borders of a small when the future Empress of France l° Bfc her footing in some way and fell into the water. She was taken out insensible, though totally unhurt, and her drenched muslin dress, clinging in close folds around her form, revealed outlines of ptatuesque perfection. She sank a fashionable damsel ; she emerged from the waves a venus. From that day the reputation of Mile. Eugenic as a beauty was flrmly and in-^ coutestably established at Madrid. To her credit be it said that, after she became Empress of tbe French, though she presided over one of tbe most dissolute courts of modern Europe, the breath of slander never dared assail her. Her married Jife was far froni being happy. Like a true Spaniard, she was pasßJonately jealous of her husband, who certainly gaFP her ample cause. A story once went the rounds respecting an altercation between the Empress and a certain npble count who filled the honorable functions at the imperial court that the infamous Lebel did at that of Louis XV. The Empress one day desired, to enter the apartments of the Emperor in great baste, being desirous of imparting tp him some important piece of jntplligenpe. She was stopped at the threshold by the functionary aforesaid, who impressively declared that she CQuld not enter, as the

Emperor was at that moment in conference with one of his Ministers on a weighty affair of State. Prayers and threats having alike proved in vain, the irate lady withdrew and went and posted herself at a window which commanded a full view of the private* entrance to the apartments of the Emperor. She soon saw issue therefrom an individual whocould scarecly have been the Minister, unless indeed ministers are in the habit of wearing stylish silk dresses, and tiny little boots, and thick lace veils over stunning little bonnets. Back flew the fair Spaniard to her husband's door, where she first relieved her wounded feelings by soundly boxing the ears of the noble count aforesaid, and then she made her entrance unquestioned and in triumph. And we trow that Louis Napoleon passed an " evil quarter of an hour," as the French idiom hath it, when once she got hold of him. It was after one of these scenes that she started off so suddenly on a trip to Scotland, attended only by a single lady—inwaiting, and although the matter wa's hushed up and the story promulgated that she had gone to consult a celebrated physician of Edinburgh, the fapt that a conjugal quarrel was at the bottom of the trip was a well understood fact at the imperial court. She used to quarrel dreadfully with M. Fould, and her dislike to him reached a culminating point after the death of her sister the Duchess of Alba. The Empress gave orders that the Duchess should be interred with all the pomp and ceremony due to a member of the imperial family, to which request M. Fould, who was then, 1 believe, Minister of Finance, returned a positive refusal. " The Duchess,'* he said, " is a Spanish subject, and is in no wise entitled to the honors due to a French princess. If the Empress chooses to send tbe imperial carriages to the funeral she can do so, but I refuse to appropriate any sum from the finances of France to pay for the interment of a subject of the Spanish crown." This decision so enraged the Empress that she never forgave M. Fould, and was his bitter enemy from that hour. She heartily detested the United States on account of the supposed designs of our Government on the Island of Cuba, and she used to greatly enjoy ridiculing the awkward or ill-dressed among our countrywomen at the court balls,- her strictures being always uttered in softest Spanish behind the shadow of her fan. She is fifty years old now, and is said to be sadly dispirited by the waning prospects of Bonapartiem in France. — 'N. Y. Home Journal.'