EX-EMPRESS EUGENIE DEAD.

Timaru Herald, Issue 170268, 13 July 1920, Page 7

EX-EMPRESS EUGENIE DEAD.

FIFTY XEA-BS AN EXJLE. - By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. .Australian aad .V • Cubic /y. 3 smLONDON, July 11. . ; Tbe : ox-Empress Eugenie died while visiting Spain. T The ex-Empress, born in 1826, was 'the daughter 0 f the Count of Montijo, of Spain,who had married Miss .Kirkpatrick, daughter of the "United States Consul at Malaga. Her youth -was spent in Paris, and at the balls-given at> Elysee she made the acquaintance of Louis Napoleon, then Prince President. In November, 1852, mother and daughter were invited to Fontaine-■ ■bleau, and iri; the picturesque hunting parties the beautiful young Spaniard, who showed herself a'u expert horsewoman, was greatly admired by all present, and by her host in particular. Three weeks later the Empire was proclaimed, and. during a series of fetes at Compiegne the Emperor became more and more fascinated. On Now Year's Eve, at a. ball at the Tuiteries, Mdlle. de Montiio, .who had necessarily excited much jealousy and hostility in the female world, .had reason' to complain that, she had been .insulted bv the wife of an, official personage. On hearing of it the Emperor said: "I w.il! avenge you," and. within three days lie had made a Formal proposal of marriage. The marriage,- which some people considered was -a mesalliance, was celebratdd -\vitK~great pomp at Notre Dame. On the fall of the Empire, seventeen years later, she settled with tho Emneror .and her . son in England. The Prince Imperial was killed in the Zulu War at the agje of twenty-three, and in the following _vear the ex-Empress visited the spot and brought back the body. The ex-Empress _ had lived at Fariiboremgh, Hampshire, since the .rleath' of Napoleon 111. For her great age she was remarkably active, malting visits to European countries and watching with rare interest the revenges of time, as shown in the recent war, for tho c e past disasters of Fran re which made her for fifty years an exile.