STORIES ABOUT BONAPARTE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1260, 23 April 1896, Page 10

STORIES ABOUT BONAPARTE.

-©- Bonaparte, according to the latest purveyor of gossip concerning him, Mile. At, A. !e Normand, seems to have been quick-tempered, brutal even, but not incapable of owning himself in the wrong. For instance “in a nmmuif of wrath," we are tola, “ he kicked to death a pugdog to which" his wife “wfs much attached," but “after a few days lie appeared to be much ashamed of his sudden impulse of rage, and in order to repair the injury lie had done, caused a monument to be erected to the little victim.” He had whini3 and fancies almost amounting mania. Once he took put in a gone in the park. “.Josephine, who was then slim and nimble, ran with great agility, aed caught the Emperor by his clothes, shouting 1 You are my prisoner !’ By a violent, effort he escaped from her, ejaculating, ‘ 1 a prisoner ! Never, of anyone whatever!’" “He detested an open door. . . You had to knock at bis door first. If he replied, ‘ What’s wanting V the answer had to lie given through tho door ; if ho happened to bid you come in, you had to open the door only just; enough to squeeze through.” He detested shawls, which he used to say were “the invention of humpbacked women.” “ He did not like to see women without rouge ; he thought them always sick.” He never allowed himself more than twenty minutes at table, and when he rose everyone else had to do the same. “On tho occasion of the marriage of Prince Eugene at Munich all the nobility of the country were invited to supper. The cloth was spread for about 200 guests." When the ceremony was over “ tho Emperor seated himself immediately at the table. It being a day of great pomp, lie remained with his guests for nearly a quarter of an hour (a tiling which very rarely happened), and then went to Josephine and gave orders that the whole company should retire. The order was given before the table was filled, or scarcely a napkin unfolded. The good Germans were utterly surprised. They expected a splendid repast, but were compelled to go and sup at home.”