LINK WITH THE PAST.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume X, Issue 186, 22 July 1920, Page 3

LINK WITH THE PAST.

THE ROMANCE OP EUGENIE DE MONTI JO. I.AST EMPRESS OF FRANCE. Perhaps the most romantie figure in all Europe, the aged Empress Eugenie, has passed away. No figure living of recent years formed such a link with the past. The whole story of her wonderful. yet tragic, career—from her early days spent at the home of her paients in Spain to the marriage with Um' Emperor Napoleon, by which she 1,...-ame mistress of the most brilliant .■m:rr in Ihe world, to her sorrowing widowhood, spent in exile, in the shadow of the tombs of her husband and sou—reads lAore like c> page Irani a romance than actual fact. rhe following extracts al - " taken from the diary of Madame Fedor, by her daughter, Mrs. Helene Cross. Madame Fedor wits attached to the suit of the Empress during the years of her eiP.e, after the wnr of Is7<t, her hinbutiil, M, rwl’ir, acting as Comptroller at ChiselliUfst after the Empress’s arrival there. J.ftcr her flight from the country over which she had ruled, writes Mrs. Cross, it was necessary for Eugenie to have a home where she could draw’ around her the small court which was ready to come at her bidding. Madame Fodor, who had often been at the balls at the Tuileries in the days of the Empire’s grandeur, happened to be staying at Hastings. He bethought her of Camden Place, Chislehurst. which belonged to Mr. Nathanial Strode, a rich bachelor friend of M. Fodor. . She wrote to Mr. Strode at Camden Place, and a reply came that if the Empress would deign to accept it, the house was hers for as long as she needed it. The Empress saw photographs of the house, gardens and park, and was charmed. She offered to take it at once. During these proceedings some interesting telegrams passed between Dr. Evans, who had assisted the Empress to escape, and M. Fodor, who became for the time being honorary Comptrolleur of the Empress’s household.

Thus Eugenie and her son went to Chislehurst, under the protection of Englund, which has sheltered so many illustrious exiles. Some of the adherents of the Empire followed them, ami remained in England also —some still wealthy, but others ruined. The Empvror was then a prisoner at Wil helmsholie, ill with the fatal disease from which he had suffered so long, broken in body and mind, and brooding over the sufferings and losses of his unfortunate army. The Jjjjipress made up her mind to vi~it him there, ami carried out her intention at. the end of the year. Later, he was released, at the capitulation of Paris, but he would not join his family until after the signature of the Treaty of Versailles.

The late Queen Victoria .showed herself a true friend to the Empress, often coming to see her at Cnmdcn Place. She treated the exiled family with the greatest kindness. The entries in Madame Fodor’s diaries often refer to a visit to her house from the Emperor, and in one she says:—“He seems weighed down by sorrow, and it. is a grief which trius not to obtrude itself. He is a man who would never speak of his sufferings, and never complain. The Empress is charming. bi;t she docs not seem to feel trouble in the same way. One moment she is all lamentation, the next she has apparently- forgotten.” In IS7I the Prince Imperial was admitted to the Royal Academy at Woolwich, having insisted upon following the same course of studies as the other cadets, and asking for no favours. The Emperor’s health got gradually worse, and in 1573 he consented to undergo the operation from which so much was hoped, but which had a fatal result. His end- was most unexpected. The bulletins which had been issued daily and hourly had given great hopes of recovery, and when the Due de Bnssano came hurriedly to tell Madame Fodor the end was come she could not believe it. “Oh, tlfe poor Empress,” was the general cry, to be repeated, ah,' how often afterwards, as one calamity afetr another lobbed her of all that made life worth living. After his father’s death, the young Prince returned to Woolwich, and a year later attained his legal majority, at the age of 18. At this time the Empress appeared at her son's side as he received a deputation from over 10,000 Frenchmen of every class, w-ho appeared at Chislehurst to congratulate him. “Vive 1 ’Empereur! ” was shouted on all sides, and Eugenic must have felt that the day was not far distant when her son would occupy his father’s place as Emperor of France. Now he was doomed to pass four years of irksome dependence and idleness—dependence on his mother’s liberality, for she was his guardian: and idleness, because there was nothing useful for a young prince to do—no occupation for an uncrowned emperor. Then suddenly, there came a cha-.ce. and he took it. and the never-to-be-forgotten tragedy occurred in Zululand.

The telegram announcing his death was sent to the Queen at Balmoral, and she, with her heart overflowing with sympathy for the poor mother, immediately hastened to Windsor. Viscount Sidney went to Chislehurst to take the dreadful news to Camden. The Empress's suite gazed upon J'.e another horrified and appalled. AV ho was to break these awful tidings to the bereaved mother.’ The Due de‘ Bassano, himself so fond of the young Prince, asked Madame le Breton to undertake the task. But that gentle and faithful lady’ could not face it. “I should drop dead before I could utter the words,” she exclaimed, sobbing. So at length the poor Due had to pull himself together and go into the Empress ’s presence. In Madame Fodor’s diary she speaks of the Due tie Bassano having himself nariated this circumstance to her, the tears running down his cheeks the while.. ’’lt is the worst experience I ever had in my life,” he said. The entries fri the diary after the day r-f the Prince Imperial’s funeral at i ‘hislehurst are as follows:— "It v.as a terrible day. Everybody was weeping. The Emprses was not visible at all, and oh! how the sound of th.- booming of the guns must have gone to her heart. We wete all in front of <'aimlen House, waiting .for th" ■•ol.in to he carried out. 1 was placed next to strip of black 'doth which | was laid .town from the house’ to a raised bower, a 11 draped in blai-k. ft was for the Queen ami Vrin.ess Beatrice and their attendants. Presently they came, quite quietly and without any fuss, walking towards it. Thev wete dressed in crepe from head t,o foot, and Were in tears, .hist in froi|t. of me there was a row- of young cadets, the Pnuee's fellow-students at Wool-

wich. They were nil weeping, and not ashamed to let it bo seen. They had all loved him. Everybody was weeping—everybody but that dreadful Prince Napoleon. The Empress would not see him.” It was a magnificent funeral. England did the best she could in sorrow mid sympathy tp soften the dreadful blunder in Zululand. Eugenie went, later, to Africa to see the very spot where her son had met his death, and she also even spoke with some of the Zulus who had attacked him? Not long after the. Prince's death, 1 he Empress built herself a chateau at Farnborough, and left Chislehurst for good. However, she did not settle down there by any means. She also hud a villa at Cap Martin, and a yacht, the Thistle, in which she cruised about a. great deal. She even, of late years, was adventurous enough to take a trip to Ceylut). Ab she passed through the Suez Canal, what memories must have been awakened of the time when, in her xoutll and power, she had gone to ths opening of the Canal, just finished bv M. de Lcsseps.

How wonderful that over 40 years should have passed over her head, and that Eugenie should again, as an old woman, have been witnessing another struggle between France and Germany. It was truly fitting that in these later limes she should have aided her adopted country- by giving up her residence at Farnborough for the 'benefit of soldiers wounded in the greatest of all wars. Eugenic has gone now, leaving behind her the memory of a charming woman, whose life of excitement and v icissitiules reads more like romance than reality.