THE EMPRESS EUGENIE

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 100, 22 January 1927, Page 18

THE EMPRESS EUGENIE

AND A SECOND EMPIRE STORY

Writing of a recently published hook entitled “The Last lovc ol an 14Wperor," moves Air. T._ I’. O’Uoiiuui', A1.1'., to some reflections in the London “bunday limes," which incluoc memories ot tile Killpress Kugeuie. It retails, he says, “a curious auvclitiire 01 my first days as a journalist in Loudon. Immediately alter me crowning oeteat at bedan it was announced that the Millpress Mugeine and tlie Prince Imperial Had taken reluge in J'.iigland, and were for tlie moment dwelling in a hotel in Hastings, and i was sent down to survey tlie situation and report Upon it. Tlie town, ol course, was a good deal agog at its invasion by such distinguished guests, and at a moment ol such historical interest. I could do little but wander around. 1 did not dare to ask admission to the hotel or to the Empress, though possibly both would haye been granted; but I was rewarded quite unexpectedly by a sight of tin; Prine? Imperial, then, of course, nothing more than a boy of about fourteen years of“ age. He went out for a walk with his tutor, who survived him many years and whose name-'if I remember rightly—was Monsieur Filon, and lie was followed by two ladies who were apareptly maids of honour. So far as I could see, the boy was in high spirits, chattered incessantly to his tutor, and was all smiles. Suddenly, as he was returning home, a man jumped out from the road, and without further ado shook the Prince warmly by the hand, and, I suppose, uttered some words of sympathy. I remember the figure of that man still. He was jusf the kind of man who would take such t a liberty; tall, broad-shoub dered, had a swagger in his walk; he wore black whiskers of the. Dundreary type, and self-complacency sat on liis brow. The Imperial party took this somewhat rude greeting quite goodhumouredly, though with evident surprise. My report of the incident created a good deal of comment at the expense of the Dundreary-whiskered intruder.” A Remarkable Family.

There are many glimpses of Eugenie in this book of the Comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau. I have always taken an interest in the Mercy-Argenteau family, not, of course, from personal acquaintance, but from reading of their histories. There was quite a remarkable member of the family, who was sent by Maria Theresa to look after poor Marie Antoinette when she migrated from her native Austria , to France, the home of her husband, Marie Antoinette certainly required guardianship at the time,, for she was only fourteen years of age, knew nothing of France, and was, I should say, a very wilful young woman. Poor Mercy-Argenteau had to write almost daily accounts to her masterful mother about her progress and her doings, and ope of the little things that stick in my memory—l love these small details of inner life as lamps, to human character—with regard to Mercy,Argem

teau and the young daupliiness, as she then was, was a letter in which he made constant complaint of his difficulty in getting the capricious young girl to brush her teeth, Angry Responses.

The Mercy-Argenteau who has written this book (“Tlie Last Love of an Emperor”), and who is now dead, proclaims herself as tse last love of the Emperor Napoleon; but this book throws new light on one of the bits of secret history in the life of Eugenie’s husband. Everybody in England at the time was surprised at the frequent voluntary exiles in the shape of an unofficial vacation which Eugenie took from time to time, and most people at the time, not knowing anything of all the horrors that lay behind the splendid edifice of the Imperia] court, did not doubt that these excursions were only for the purpose of health anti relaxation.

As a matter of fact, they were the angry response of the Empress Eugenic to the divagations" of her husband with Marguerite Bellanger, with the Comtesse de Castiglione, and wtjh the Comtesse de Mercy Argentcau, as well as others; which explains another and far wore fateful—and indeed I might say fatal—result of the Empress's jealousy and of the weakness of Louis Napoleon. who hated scenes, and could always be bullied or nagged by a woman into doing anything to be agreeable. Eugenie’s demand —though it was not so put—to be entrusted with more and more power in the Government of France, was the compensation—l had almost sad the blackmail—which was claimed, and obtained, for her forgiveness of conjugal infidelities. Thus it' was that she came to be made regent over' and over again; she claimed and obtained the right to be present at the Cabinet Councils, and I am afraid there is no doubt that it was her malign influence that precipitated the Emperor into the war which destroyed his dynasty and for a time destroyed France. I sunppose everybody knows of the reliance the Empress Eugenie in her old age placed on the friendship of Sir Thomas Liptpn; he was always st her beck and call, Did she want a voyage, he got her the necessary cabin; did she want an excursion, his horses and carriages were at her disposal; did she want a visit, especially in Ceylon to the beauty spots of the place, people have told me how delightful, and to a certain extent amusing, it was to see the Empress’s bath chair being dragged bv the great tea potentate of the island, In fact, there was an understanding between them that she would never go on any journey without the counsel and the help of this devoted admirer She only broke through this rule once, when she paid a visit to her native Spain and there—perhaps through the absence of such a careful adviser and guide—she over-exerted herself and blew out the flickering flame of her life.