THE EMPRESS EUGENIE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2667, 26 April 1905, Page 67

THE EMPRESS EUGENIE.

The Empress Eugenic was more genuinely admired in England than in France — lirst of all as the peerless Empress wl.ose \isit with her husband to Queen Victoria became an event to date from, and in later yeais as the discrowned woman who boie sorrow and loss with a dignified resignation which enlisted widely-felt sympathy. During the fifties per portraits, engia% ed or printed, had a ready sale in this country, and adorned the walls of many a home. The favourite was one which the Vicaress of Wakefield would have approved of, for the artist had not been frugal with his diamonds. By the time photographs came in vogue, and those of great folk could be purchased at a shilling each, the Empress had lost much of her beauty, and was ceasing to be a shop-window success. The girlish loveli-

ness of Alexandra, Princess of Wales, so captivated the English people that, for a ■while, they scarcely thought much about the Empress till her troubles began and commanded general attention.

Ferdinand de Lessens was too well bred' a man to talk, about his relationship to the Kmpress, but as it was well known he was hej cousin, her presence at the opening of the Suez CanaJ helped to make that great occasion doubly gratifying to the eminent •engineer, who was also a man of the world.

People wondered whether he would be given some special title, such as Count, Duke, or even Prince of Suez, in recognition of his services to France and the ■world ; but in spite of his white hair and me sixty odd summers he must have seen, Ferdinand -de Lesseps had just vexed some of his friends and relatives by making a love-match with a young lady some forty years his junior. Bis Imperial connections, therefore, let the matter of a higher title slide, and; as events turned out, it is doubtful whether it would have been any advantage to "le Grand Francais," ■whose second canal venture, that of Panama, was to prove so _ disastrous for Fiance.

Napoleon II had no trouble ■with his wife's few relatives, though some of his own tried their hardest to annoy and disgrace him. Xt was understood that the impress's mother had been a scheming and ambitious woman, yet after the daughter's elevation little was heard of the Comtesse de Montijo. _Eugenic had no bi others, and her only sister was well married, outside France. The Emperor's family anxieties were mainly connected with those Bonaparte princes who j osed us Republicans or marsied anybodies, and took pleasure in showing how little they cared for their kinship witih, a sovereign.

In the days of the second Empire it -wos never forgotten by the real old royalties of Europe that, in dealing with -Napoleon 111 and his consort, these French Majesties were j>ersonages not entitled by birtih to their exalted position. Still, it was deemed better for the ruli/ig caste that an important country like Fran A3 should bs governed by a parvenu Emperor than by a Republican President, as one monarchy helps to strengthen another and to keep the old fcim of things going. Legitimists and Orleanists oould alike hope, while there was -a. Court of the- Tuileries, that their own ir>an would somehow replace Louis Kapoleon, and take over the State ' properties which had been kept in good order for an emperor, and would serve as well for a king. Going back to the founder of the Bonaparte regime, we are indebted to Colonel Dodge for a new anecdote of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose astonishing career will fascinate our grandchildren even as we oiirselves, and our grandfathers before us, have in turn been fascinated. The joung general was on the eve of his departure—for Italy ; his eourtsliii} of the widow Beauharnais had to he

'brought to a hurried conclusion, and Josephine had to decide to marry her leaniaoed soldier there and then, or give him up for ever. She decided to marry him. The rotary who drew up the marriage settlements, an old friend of here, demurred and remonstrated. "You are still a lovely woman," he said to .Josephine. *"Why at-fc so hurriedly? This man has nothing in tlie but his cloak and his sword."

Bonaparte, standing hj, overheard the remark, but said rothing. " Eight years later, on the eve of his coronation, he sent :for that notary. The lawyer, foewilcTered and uneasy, drove to the Tuileries. The Emperor was in the midst of one of his brilliant receptions. Crowds of men blazing with orders were bowing before the throne, passing on in their turn. When tho turn of the lawyer came, Napoleon stiid, in the clear tones that penetrated most- men''s ears like a truirrpet-rioie : " 1% Notary, oblige me by examining the robes of ceremony which are to be worn to-morrow. There- they lie. Behold, sir, the cloak and the sword !" It was just the dramatic touch that IBonaparte lov«d. The cloak was the Imperial mantle, sown with the golden bees : the sword was that of the Emperor Charlemagne !