ANVIL TO THRONE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12931, 29 July 1905, Page 5 (Supplement)

ANVIL TO THRONE.

THE ROMANCE OF THE BERNADOTTES.

Once, when twitted with having no ancestors, the parvenu Emperor Napoleon, implied, "Moi, je suis ancetre!"—"Am I not an ancestor myself?" And that is what

the French founder of the modern dynasty of Sweden might also have exclaimed. For . Prince Gustavus Adolplnis of Sweden, who led to the altar at Windsor Castle the elder daughter of Queen Victoria's soldier-son, is the sixth in direct descent from a village blacksmith in Gascony—a region famous for its bravery and its blague, as witness D'Artagnan of the "Three Musketeers." This brawny blacksmith, .Bernadotte by name, had a sou, more notable for brain than brawn, who must needs become an f/.; : attorney at Pan; while the son of this country solicitor, Jean Baptiste Jules, while inheriting at first but little of the physical attributes of his Tubal Cain forebears, developed a soul above the chicancries of the law, and at the age of seventeen ran away to enlist as a private soldier. • If one may judge from his portrait— its black curling hair, long, aggressive nose, emphatic mouth, and big, staring eyesthere must have been a good deal of the ■ swashbuckler D'Artagnan in the temweranient of this other Gascon adventurer, .. though it took him nine years to shoulder his way up to the rank of sergeant. As Dugald Dalgetty complained to the Marquis of Montrose, Bernadotte's promotion up till now—l7B9—had "been slow—dooms slow, my lord," but a better opportunity came with the outbreak of the French Revolution, which presented " line carriere ouverte aux talents." Though a Republican at heart Sergeant Bernadotte, like the good soldier that he was, never failed in loyalty to his aristocratic officers, . and he was mainly instrumental in saving the life of his.colonel, the Marquis d'Ambert, from the'fury of a Marseilles mob. So rapid was now his advancement that three years later he had jumped up to the rank of colonel, while 1794 found him in command . of a division. FROM PRIVATE SOLDIER TO I'RINTJC. He had joined the army in his seventeenth year, and at the age of forty, 1801, lie had received from Napoleon, to carry in his hand, that field-marshal's baton which every French soldier is said to carry in his knapsack. At least they did so in the time of the Corsican, when military merit was bound to come to the front. To crown all >•(;Napoleon created Bernadotte Prince of ..•Ponte Corvo, where lie had achieved one of his most brilliant victories, and this dignity ho was all the abler to sustain, as in the meantime lie had married Mile. Desiree Clary, the daughter of a wealthy banket of Marseilles, whose other daughter, Marie, had already been given to Joseph. Bonaparte, afterwards King of , ..Naples. It is said Napoleon himself had ' wanted tc wed Desiree, but the damsel's V wealthy father had declared that one Bonaparte in his family was enough, and there . he was right. • Thus it will be inferred that, on the face • of it, the Gascon blacksmith's grandson, .. 'now raised to th© rank of prince and field; .. marshal, had every reason to feel grateful o to the upstart Emperor who had invested him with these and other rewards. Bonaparte did much for Bernadotte, but what ;> he did not do was to help him to the '. .' throne-steps of Sweden, and it was as Crown Prince of Sweden that the Prince , ; of Ponte Corvo took the field against his ;> imperial patron. How in the world had gi llie poor attorney's son of Pau thus come j.-l'to be the inheritor of the crown of Gus-

tavus Vasa?—a big jump, this, from the ,'. slopes of the Pyrenees to the mountains of Sweden. > A WISE CONQUEROR. .■ The reason is soon told. The personal relations between Bernadotte and Bonaparte had never been altogether cordial, and the latter played his marshal some very dirty tricks. Among other'things,' being .dissatisfied' with some of Bernadotte's operations against Prussia, after Austerlitz, the enraged tyrant was for having Bernadotte court-martialled and shot—a catastrophe which was only obviated by the intercession of the Prince's wife. _ Of all his ,generals Napoleon stood most in dread of ■'/. ■Bernadotte and his ambition, and that was *. . why the latter was generally despatched • on distant enterprises. Thus it fell to him to lead a French army against the Swedes . in Mecklenburg ' and other Baltic ports. ' Bernadotte had little difficulty hi disposing of the' Swedes, who found in him a 1 .conqueror whose virtues filled them with admiration, and which were in flagrant contrast to those of their own ruler, Gustavus IV., . whose imbecilities had involved them in military ruin and led to his own abdication. He was replaced by his uncle Charles 7,, 'X 111.,. who suffered, however, from the • grievous defect of having 110 heir, and thus si'/ the unanimous choice of the Swedish King and people fell on Marshal Bernadotte as ' • Crown Prince of Sweden. It was probably thought that Sweden would thus stand better with Napoleon; .but, anyhow, the " Swedes had practically said to the black- : smith's grandson, "By your manner of con* 7 quering our bodies you have also conquered our hearts, so therefore please come now and prepare to reign over us.' He was just about to start for Italy when the news of his election reached linn. •• .The Corsican ogie was furious, and seemed at first inclined to decline the Prince request for leave to change his country. v " What," replied Bernadotte, "would you make me a greater than yourself by comv', pelling me to refuse a crown This seemed to give the tyrant pause. "Swear to * me at least," he conditioned, "thatyou rIV will never fight against- France." "Sire,_ . rejoined the Prince, evasively, "from this day forward my whole duty will be towards my adopted country." "Ah, well, ■ sighed the Emperor, whose star had aire.uJy begun to show signs of setting, " our. des- '., tinies are outside our own hands. An • • then, later, to his Grand-Marshal Duroc. "He does not love me; 'we do not understand each other"—with the resiut, as a clever writer has said of them, that while one died on a rock the other uied upon, : a throne.

DEFYING NAPOLEON.

It, was.not long before the force of ci - cmnstances compelled Sweden under her J er nadotte Crown Prince, who became her real ruler long before lie ascended the throne, to join the coalition against Napoleon, 0 whom he wrote: "Although I have contributed to render France triumphant- . ■ • . jt lias never entered into my thoug s •to sacrifice the interests, the honour, tne independence of the country which >as adopted me. Little jealous as lam 0 « . power and glory which suironnd you, I a jealous, -sire, of not being regarded as 1 vassal. Your Majesty commands _ tie greater part of Europe, but your dominion does not extend to the country whither x have been called"-a new way, this, 01 paying off old debts and old grievances 0 the personal kind which wouM have commended itself to the favour of tne valorousRittmeister of Drumthwackit, who scrup 1 . not to "take a turn" with the Swedes, the j Dutch, or the Spaniards according to the comparative attractiveness of their pay asoldado otherwise the soul of honour. _ the. year of Leipzig Bernadotte mar into Germany at the head of 30,000 men, against the man who had made him a new marshal and a prince, and- thereafter, the .allies, • into his; native country, v > > however, "he did not forget ..that, he .« treading the land of his birth.' ; ' Five years ■ later, when JVapoleon, ■metheus-like, was on his rock, Bernadotte, chameleon-like, ascended, his tlnon. Charles XIV., for, in addition to changin D his religion to suit the Protestant Sw > he had now also, in an equal spill ' commodation, changed his name. _ tranquil," said his predecessor, • i 1 whom lam leaving my kingdoms i T subjects"—namely, to the attorneys ® Pan, in the countiyof D'Artagnan, grandson is the present King-Oscar 1 •, ■ whose great-great-grandson has bee husband of Princess M are , 0 ~p' n f^ s t naught. One of Bernadotte s g ' merits was accounted to be his a c „0 « Norway tf Sweden, but the ron • ne ii e d his achievement lias lately been dispeHe l That the spirit of romance however,js still inherent in the Bernadottes, still from the land of the troubadours, y . he inferred from the fact that on , number, Prince Oscar, the Royal buefc. ■ groom's uncle, elected to fo la° fl _ , nan of succession rather than forfeit t of his choice.