BEAUTY OF NAPOLEON III.'s COURT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11684, 13 July 1912, Page 3 (Supplement)

BEAUTY OF NAPOLEON lll.'s COURT.

Frederic Loliee, the historian of the second .Empire, lias just published in Paris the memoirs of the Countess of Castiglioue, whose beauty made a sensation, at ..the.court.of, Napoleon.lll. even in the days' when the Empress Eugenie was herself so beautiful and so., confident in her own loveliness—;to which alone she owed her shareof the French throne—rthat. she feared no rival.- .* - *. i';"I ' made Italy and saved the Papacy," were .words often on the lips of the famous Countess, but .they gaivo. an exaggerated value to the services she rendered when Cavour sent her to Paris with instructions to strengthen Napoleon lll.'s resolution to intervene in the affairs of Italy. "Make a success," Cavour wrote to her, " by whatever means may please you, but succeed." Her first appearance in s the Tuileries Palace, at an official reception by JJie Emperor,and the Empress Eugenie, afforded proof that her success was certain. She .was then only 15, according to her own statement, though official documents put her age at 20"5' ears. "She arrived somewhat late," says M. Loliee. "A tremor of curiosity marked her approach. As she entered the movement toward her was such that the dancing stopped, the orchestra ceased playing and an electric current of admiration seemed to pass through the company. "The Empress took a step forward toward her. The Emperor advanced to the place where she sat after she. had made her court bows to the' sovereigns, asked the Duke Ernest of Saxe-Coburg to invite the Empress to dance and himself offered his arm to the new guest." And it was soon clear to all the court that a new influence hack asserted. its power over the Emperor, and that anything that Cavour wished him to'do was certain to bo done.

Yet this woman of surpassing beauty and charm, whose start was marked with such success, withdrew from the world in 1877, -when little more than 40, and liver in rooms, shuttered from the sunlight, to which none but a fewintimate old friends were admitted, until her death in 1900. * Seventeen of these years were passed in her apartment at 26 Place. Vendome and six in a secluded flat in the Ruo Cambon. "She would not bo seen," the Marquis de Gallifet used to say, "such as time had made her, she who had been proclaimed the most beautiful woman m Europe." She allowed no mirror in her rooms and cut to pieces a splendid portrait of herself by Paul Baudry, as if she blamed it because she 110 longer resembled it. And yet the latest pictures of lier in M. Loliee's book show her as still beautiful, still full' of charming grace. She soon separated from her husband, for no special reason beyond in--compatibility of temperament. _ M. Loliee gives the story of the tragic incidents which marked a royal wedding and made her a widow. The Countess happened to be in Italy in 1867, when Princo Amedee, Duke of Aosta, was married to Princess Marie del Pozzo della Cisterna." On the morning of the wedding the first lady of the chamber to the Princess hanged herself in a dressing room, holding in her hands the upper part of the bridal dress to which she had been fastening a garland of flowers. Tho, Princess, of course, declined to wear it.

The military escort from the roya palace at Turin to the church was awaiting its colonel -when news cam* that he had died of'sunstroke when 01 his way to the palace. Then, when tin procession started it was found tha' tho attendant had neglected to opei the gates. The attendant was founc dead later, having presumably shol himself on realising his omission oi duty. ' Then the. official who had drawl up the marriage contract was seizec with aponlexy and died in the carriage that was~tafeing him to the church. Before the confusion - thus caused hat died down, a shot was heard,_ and ii was found that one of the witnesses to the marriage had blown his brain: out. Then as the train left the statior to bear away the newly-married couple the station master managed to get in front of it and was crushed to death King Victor Emmanuel, overcome bj this succession of fatalities, cried oul to the Count of Castiglione: "Enough deaths! Castion, let us go back together in a carriage,. for I am afraid." "Castion" was a diminutive of Castiglione.- The Count, in his uniform as a .Knight of Malta, rodo up to the door of 1 the carriage in which the newly - married couple now were, and suddenly reeled and fell from his horse under the wheels. Prince Humbert and the bridegroom rushed towards him, but his chest had been crushed in, and in a few minutes he was dead. Thus seven deaths markqd this wedding day, without counting an aged nurse of the royal family who tfas killed on the same day by the bursting of a boiler. The assassination, of one of tho royal attaches, Prim, happened a short time afterward. t ._ , One anecdote shows that tne beautiful Countess was not above trying to annoy tho beautiful Empress in what must be considered a small-minded way The Empress employed a hairdresser named Leroy, whom she one day ordered to invent some new and remarkable form of wearing the hair 'for a certain ball. Leroy toso to the occasion and proposed a creation worthy of his' Empress. • ■ _ The Countess, who had previously invented her own styles, determined to employ Leroy, and", after- he had incautiously mentioned the artisticmarvel he had evolved for the next grand ball she set to work to make him give her a duplicato adornment. Poor Leroy Withstood tho temptress as long as human nature would--allow, . and_tlien succumbed. 011 condition that the Countess • would not appear in this htvlo until after -tho _ ball. Trusting to the "word of a Castiglione lie delivered the headdress—it was a matter of artificial hair in both cases — to each of his beautiful clients -beroro the ball. , , Or course the Countess wore hers at tho ball to the annoyance of the Jimpress, whose hoped for sensation tvjjs spoiled, and oi course Lerov lost his anointment as imperial hairdresser, which so wounded his feelings that he died" a few months laser. . Another great lady bore the name oi Castiglione at the French COUW, the Duchess Colonna de Castiglione, wJio-used-to make sure o>r not being confused with "la belle Castiglione" by jokingly saying to the valet when she arrived, "Announce the ugly one," <1 proceeding the Countess fully approved of. as she writes in one of her letters, in wav it is known without waiting that it was not the other, the belle, and nobody turned round, nobody gotl up. on the series to look. But when slie went shopping in. the Rue de.la Paix she used to wear a heavy veil and give the name "Castiglione" alone, and-the bills used to " come to me. We have, a lawsuit the name of the Countess of Castialione emerged from, the, obscurity in which slie kept for tho lacJj quarter of a century'of her life one story .was sure to bo revived —that she onco/went to a fancy dress ball at the TuiLe.nes as Salammbo. Flaubert's description, of his "heroine's dress, it will he -remembered, savs something about the. jewels which she' wore, but beyond! a reference to violet gauze says nothing about any material covering; it was in. tact the dress which Salome dancers have in late years tried?- to reproduce as nearly-as police have 31Loliee Droves tliat this Sa-lainmbo costume was thaii of an 'Etruscan, queen, a black velvet high necked drew ot perfect correctness. it is dimculfc to kill a tradition Mtarv evidence may neverd'estroy the legend that clings . to the Countess s .name. - On another occasion, when, eome taoleaus vivants were to be given at the palace, the rumor spread, that the 'tess; in the cause of. - charity, apear in a' costume of extreme slightness, and great was tie rush when her turn to appear came. She had had yhe scene arrange®; to represent a grotto at the-hermitage of Poissy and; every one was expecting A scene in- which some, hermit was to be tfempted by a vision, or beauty, but when the curtain weire up she appeared dressed in the common brown material which nuns wear, and with a nun's headdress. 1 Not that .she disdained to show her ■ charms to her friends in private life. "At home.'" 31. Loliee ' she re--1 ee'ved' her friends with baro test, and these feet., adorned with rings and gold

I circlets on the ankle, seemed to be igI norant of the task of walking, so delicate and careflily tended were they.' To her first and successful embassy, no further -appointment followed'. Italy had no further use for her services. She tried to serve the Napoleons and 1 albo toput the Orleans family on the throne of. France, . V b«t.v never ,'again.didi ~shb: become a political She retreated into her prison home with, shuttered windows, only 'coming out at -night to take her two dogs tor a walk. 111, saddened, with mcmey; difficulties, she would declare: •| ''l have no wish to live any longer. I ought to have courage to kill myseii," a nd' then would-repeat, I made Italy and! saved the Papacy." ... > , She wrote continually, using a pencil. Her papers -contain confused impressions, scarcely . legible, scrawled! on sheets''of letter paper,; recollections of "her former days, and .sometimes reproaches and imprecations against former friends. j.'- ■ She wrote her will forbidding her executors to reveal anything -about! her life' to .any French -authorities; She left <exact instructions for , her funeral. She was to be dressed! in the "nightgown o; Conipeigne (1857),. cambric, lace, and jong striped peignoir, black velvet, white plush; on my.neck my necklace of peai'i's, nine rows, six white and threo black, the necklace I have always worn; on my -arms, which should"; be bare and pendant, my two bracelets,. one onyx -.with pearls- and the other- black enamel." Then she',gives detailed; instructions for the pillow under-her head, at .the four corners-of which aro to be placed embroidered pansies tvorkedi by iicr son when an infant. Her two stuffed dogs are to be placed' at her., feet. Her name on the tomb at Pere La-ch-aise is already 'almost obliterated, and ' 'no heir or relation has yet even asked where she is buried'," says the lawyer who had charge of her estate. Her son, .it should be explained, diedi when" he •was about 20. -