AN EMPRESS OF ROMANCE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 20000, 16 July 1920, Page 2

AN EMPRESS OF ROMANCE.

* ENdEHIE DIE MONTIJO, A WONDERFUL CAREER. About sixty years ago, the chief cities of Europe were well acquainted with a •Spanish lady, a- widow of rank, who was fond of changing her abode at brief • intervals, and who was best known foe tlie fact that she was always iccompilnied by two beautiful daughters. This lady was the Countess of Aloritijo, who also had the right to style herself Countess of Teba. since her ausband hod borne many titles in his lifetime Tile Oomttess of Montijo was herself the daughter of a, Scotch-Irishman named Kirkpatrick, and her daughters shoved the traits of both their ancestors. The older was essentially Spanish, being a brunette, and haughty in her manner. The younger ” sister, Eugenic, iu looks at least, was of a more northern type of beauty, since she had dark chestnut hair, violet eyes, and a beautifully oval face, with a complexion that was wonderfully pure and delicate. The mother loved to lead a semibohemian life, and this is why she travelled from one brilliant capital to another accompanied by her two daughters, while they were still at an age When Spanish usage would have kept them within the limits of a convent schoolAN ARDENT LOVER,. Tho younger daughter, at the ago of twenty-five, was of a very complex character. Her admirers hod much to say of her admirable traits. Those who did not like her had many tales to toll to her discredit. Weighing all tlie evidence, it appears that she was proud, and, to most persons, somewhat reserved; that she was rather selfish and ungrateful: and finally that within her there burned the Urea of an impetuous, passionate disposition. She would accept the most marked attentions. and tlten display a curious indifference and ingratitude. On the other hand, she almost flung herself at tho feet of one or two attractive nobjemen, for whom she conceived a sudden and very ardent, hve. At one time she was wildly infatuated with tho Count of Galva” a handseine young Spaniard, To him she would give the privileges which others had procured for Irer. "When he. finallv mode it plain that he. eared nothing for her, Eugenie toll into a. tempest "of despair, and tried to poison herself hv swallowing the contents of a bottle of blacking. Such, then, was Aldjle. Eugenio do Montijo iu 1851, when she wtls just twenty-five, years of age, and when'her mother brought her to Paris—a. city which was then, above all other cities, attracting the attention of the world. Not long hot ore,.. Louis Napoleon had been elected president of tho second French Republic. In the same, yoai came the famous coup d’etat, in which the troops ol tho prince-president shot down hundreds of innocent persons along the boulevards. Mis daring stroke succeeded; he caused himself to bo re-elected for a term of ten years, and in .1852 to be proclaimed as Emperor of tho French, with the title of Napoleon 111. MEETING WITH NAPOLEON. . In was in ISol, before tho coup deist,'that the prince-president first mot Eugenie do Montijo and her mother. _ rlo was fascinated by tho ,'oung girl s beauty, and there was something about tho hohcmianism of her life that attracted one who had so' long pursued an adventurous, hand-to-mouth career. So, without any particular formality, lio at once made love to her in an easy-going way. She and her mother were invited'to the Elyses, and there they gotten very well with this would-be emperor. They were among those who congratulated him as soon as his ambitious hopes wore realised. Rut not for a moment did Napoleon intend to marry this attractive Spanish gui Ho offered her a left-handed alliance. She was nob to b© acknowledged as his wife, but sbo was to be magnificently provided for. and was to share his heart if not his throne. To this proposal she made a sharp refusal Later Napoleon asked Eugenie to his residence at Compiegnc, and iu the romantic, woods which surround the chateau the fateful words were spoken, the Emperor and Eugenie strolled together through the park. A dozen members of the court followed the pair at a respectful distance, and wat.--.iied even’ motion c'f their master. He broke from a hedge several slight green branches, arid twisted them into a crown, 'ibis ho placed upon his companion's head, and said, in a tone loud enough to bo heard by all; “Wear"'tills while waiting fdr tha Other.” HAILED AS EMPRESS. From that moment Eugeni© was hailed as the Empress of France. On January JO. ,1853, she and Napoleon wore married in the historic cathedral of Notre Dante, with much pom© and ceremony, and began their remarkable reign, in which so much that was good was mingled with so much that was evil. Eugenio’s influence over her husband was always great, and she urged him into many things which were, as the event showed, dangerous to the cm-* piTo; lint for twenty years France was victorious in war and magnificent iu • peace. It has been said that the Empress still retained her hold over thri affections of Iter rather fickle husband, and this hold was, strengthened when riie gave him an heir in 1856—tin? little Prineo Louis, whose end was de-lin«d to be so tragic. But. in some \ a vs Napoleon became partially estranged trom her. He teas an easy-going, goodtempered man, with the 'instincts of a bourgeois, and ho did not like to have her interfere with his political affairs, fn spit© of this fact, with the intriguing genius of her race, she. actually Formed a party whose members openly boasted in the Chamber of Deputies that they were “ the party of the Empress,” and more than ones they t-hwterted the police of tho Emperor. In many ways Eugenie's influence ■va;, bud, though she was herself, as ■-bo had undoubtedly been all her life, o woman whose character was fundamentally sound. She was accused of flirting, and she may have- flirted: yet nothing worlc can ho set down against 1:i;t. Many men. no doubt, fell in lore i'ilh Iter; yet she could at least assume the dignity of her rank. the LAXITY OF THE IMPERIAL COURT. Eugenie liked young people to Ua about iter- She admired youth ana health and good looks; and in this way stories without foundation were circulated concerning her. But the worst that can be said with any nuth is this—that her carelessness, ;u u j i ler occasional lack of dignity, made those about her cast aside propriety, <q that tho Napoleonic court gradually became vicious and almost depraved, ’ Mon of honour and experience found themselves unwelcome. A handsome lac©, a gilt for_ epigram, or a reputation for roman tin adventures, recured place and hrinour for, those who were quit© unworthy of iti Thus cam© about the gradual decay which honeycombed the military system of France and nurd© it an easy prey for the German invaders in 1870. lb was a- strange career, that reign of nearly twenty years. Th© Empress was , finally received by the heads Of royal families. She and her husband visited England, < Napoleon 111, quite won over Queen Victoria, who had hitherto been sustnidous of him, a.nd Eugenie's personal charm made a eonquest of Prince Albert. England and France had fought through the Crimean War nice by side, and when tho

four royal personages occupied a special box at tho Haymarket in London, at a, gala performance of opera, they wore received with thunders of applause by the audience that leaped to its feet on their appearance. The man who had mice been n. constable in the streets of London was now an Emperor “by the grace of God.’' The beautiful woman who had knocked about Europe with her bohemian mother, and had swallowed blacking at the end of an unfortunate love affair, was now an Empress, welcome a I every court, in Europe. A DAZZLING NIGHTMARE. When fho Suez Canal was opened, in 1869, the Empress was sent to represent. the French people at. tho extraordinary fetes given hy Ismail Rasim, the Khedive of Egypt., who was known as the greatest spendthrift of modern times. The ceremonies combined the gorgeousness of the Orient and The ingenuity of tho West, They were like a dazzling nightmare, with millions of lights glittering upon gilded pavilion*, long lines of fez-wearing soldiers. ;.ud wild sheiks from tho deserts. Palaces had been constructed overnight, and there were- music and banquets and revelry. On a soft-footed camel, the empress rode to flic central point of tho festivities, and there" she saw’ tho opening of that 1 great engineering work whiefi the oncient Egyptians had planned thoulauds of years before; which the first Napoleon had surveyed; which a Frenchman—M. de Lessens—had pushed to completion; and which was now opened to tho world hy Eugenie do Montijo. Its construction had cost nearly half a billion francs, much of it wrung from tho wretched fellaheen., DOWNFALL OF THE SECOND EMPIRE. Whenever Napoleon left the empress to act as regent in his absence, irom Paris, be did so with the stipulation that -she should not summon tho French Parliament in session. ??c knew 100 well that her intriguing disposition might cause political trouble. .But when the Franco-Prussiau war broke out, in 1870, she disregarded this condition. She had been in manv ways her husband’s evil genius. She had urged him to set up the pinchbeck empire in Mexico,, in defiance of tho United States, and in order that she might patronise a people speaking her native Spanish tongue. When that empire tell, and Maximilian was shot, there came, the beginning of the end in France, for Napoleon's star was waning. The Parliament that she summoned dethroned her and her consort; the glittering empire, in which she had shone with all her beauty, was lost, in one tremendous crash. Her very lite was threatened hy the ruffians of tho faubourgs, so that at last, haggard and in disguise, she was glad to take refuge in the house of (he American dentist. Dr Evans, who conveyed her add one of her ladies to the sencoasl. whence an English yacht carried her. in the midst of a tremendous storm, to'flic sufb shedtor of a. British poll. All tho glory and the pride of life had fallen from her like a garment When the fallen cmucror was released from his captivity in Germanv, and ioined her. together with their”sou, they retired +o a modest home at Chiselhurst. in Kent, where, three years later, the ex-emueror died of a disease that had tortured him fnr years. THE DEATH OF EUGENIE'S ONLY SON. It would seem as-if fate could have nothing more of bitterness in store for her, and yet she, was destined still to suffer. Her sen, the young Prince Louis, who, she hoped, might some day regain (he throne of France, teas brought, up to believe in such a destiny. He was carefully educated in fho English military school at Sandhurst. Ho was a well-mannered, amiable and attractive youth of twenty-three when he was sent out to Sputh_Afriea, in 1879, to sec some active service in tho field against the Zulus. It was thought that this would appeal to the military instincts Of the French, but they only jested and sang in their cafes ehantants a. mocking song with the absurd refrain : “Louloul Loulou! 11 chasse lea Zoulous’’’ Yet even the French turned from mocking to sorrow when “Loulou” was ambushed and stricken down hy tho assegais of the savage blacks, being left to his fate by an English officer who mistakenly supposed that the prince had reached his horse mid bad escaped with the rest of the party There is a story to tho effect that Prince Louis had fallen in lovo with a. young English girl living near Chiselhurst—a girl of humble station—and chat lie wished to marry her. In thil way some have accounted for tho face that. ho. Was sent to Africa. They believe that it was done to separate him from the girl he loved. If so, then tho ex-erapriris must ha.ve one more source Of grief, since it. was she wlio brought on the Mexican disaster, the defeat and surrender of her husband, the downfall of her empire and the death of her only eonAfter her first sorrow had spent itself she left her home at Chisclhurst and purchased an estate at Farnhorough, where she built a mausoleum for her husband apt) her soil. Recently an Italian writer met her on tho Riviera, where she spent a portion of Mm winter. He spoke to her with tact, and she replied, turning upon him a face 6f infinite sadness as she said: “I am (he past, I am the distant horizon, where exists a, mirage, a shadow, a phantom, a living sorrow! It is all a dream that now is dissipated 'lt is a dream that has been lulled bv fate. I wish to disappear with it. That has been my desire, ever since tho shadowy of mv dream was torn

apart Now lam an old woman, poor in everything that, makes a, woman rich. I have lived. I have been what I hare lieen. J do not ask tor more. I ask' only not to he remembered.'’