THE EMPRESS AND HER ONEEYED LOVER.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7917, 11 August 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE EMPRESS AND HER ONEEYED LOVER.

THE STORY OF A WOMAN WHS COULD NOT LIVE WITHOUT LOVE.

When Napoleon 1., his Imperial throne tumbled in the dust, was> on his tragic way to Elba and exile, his Empress, Marie Louise, accompanied by a brilliant retinue and with an escort of Austrian soldiers, was making a pleas-ure-jaunt through Europe, revelling in her freedom and in the regal entertainments that everywhere her. She was without a thought for the husband who had placed a crown on her head and surrounded her with splendlour and affection. That his (tie and his dreams lay in ruins only served to auu a zest to her pursuit of gaiety. Three delightful months she spent on her journey before she came to Aix, where she was to take the waters; anu here she was welcomed at the entrance to the town (by a man who, although she little suspected it, was (destined to play a very important part in her life, and who, Q/i lie stooped in courtly fashion over her hand, gave his name ns Adam Albert de Neipperg. A GALLANT SOLDIER, Verging on middle-age, with’ the erect, stalwart figure of -a soldier, with fair curly hair and a ruddy complexion, de Neipperg was a goodly man to look upon, in spite of the black bandage which he always wore over hid right eye destroyed in -battle. He was, in Tact, Austria’s most gallant soldier, a man who .had won laurels on many battlefields; a courtier, too, to the tips of his finger i, and ail “Admiral Crichton” in accomplishments, with a reputation for gallantry such as few men in Europe enjoyed. Such was the man whom Prince Metternich had deputed! to play host and entertainer in his place to the ex-Emipre."j during her stay in Aix, with the disappointing result that, we are told, “he produced: a disagreeable impression on the mind of Mario Louise, and she made no attempt to conceal it.” So far, however, from being chilled bv her coldness, which was tinged with ill-concealed contempt, Niepperg -vitas so assured of his powers! that, a few day* later, ho wrote to a friend: “ Before two months are over T shall be her lover, and, not long after that, her husband.” At Aix Marie Louise Pound her appetite for distraction arid gaiety abandon tl.y satisfied. Eveyr holr was crowded with pleasure, and in all her splendours, whether presiding over her brilliant Court, or when she would fling aside her royal dignity,* and join in some bourgeois dance or revels, her oneeyed cavalier was always JUv her side whispering flatteries into ner ears and surrounding her with delicate ministrations. HOPELESSLY IN LOVE. Under the influence ef his subtle tongue and his courtly homage, her coldness hadi already given way to admiration and friendship, which in turn were, succeeded by love ap'd- a consuming passion. Thus it was that, when she turned her back on Aix, sho left behind her her retinue and her escort and continued her journey with Niepperg alone for companion. And while Naipoleon n distant Elba was counting the hours beforo his wife would join .him, she was spending halcyon days among the glories of Switzerland, the Comte de Neipperg supporting her among the perils of precipices and glaciers, or watching her with his guitar and love-songs ts they floated, the world! forgetting, on some moonlit lake. For Ms me Louise there was now but one man in all the world. She was, we are told, hopelessly in love with her one-eyed Comte, and no longer even took the trouble to hide lier strange infatuation for the man to whom she belonged heart and soul.

To the. letters of Napoleon, eating his heart out in distant Elba, she returned no answer. For the most part they were destroyed unread. His protestations of undying love, his pathetic appeal; to her to come to him, only provoked laughter and expressions of impatience and contempt.

Her one ambition now was to secure the Duchy of Parma, thr.lt she might have a kingdom of her own to share with her beloved Neipperg; and when this ambition was realised her cup o happiness was full to overflowing. But her triumph was ghort-liv&d, for, before her jubilation war, many days o!di, the terrible news flashed through Europe that Napoleon had escaped from Elba and (was on his wav baick to France. And, worse still, Neipperg was soon taken from her side to lead! the Austrian army to oppose Murat’s advance in Italy. Then for Marie Louise followed a few months of terrible anxiety for her lover exposed to the perils of wair, -before she was restored to happiness by the “glorious news” that her husband had been finally crushed on the field of Waterloo and was on his way to hi* last exile in St. Helena.

Then followed the crowning diay of her life, when she made her royal entry into Parma, with her warrior, “in a gorgeous costume embroidered! with gold,” by her side, to the clashing of bells from sixty steeples, the jubilant blare of trumpets and the tniultuous cheers of her (subjects crowding tho gaily-flagged streets of her capital. She had now reached the supreme goal cf her happiness; she war; a queen in her own right, and she bad for consort in all but name the man she loved'. FORGOT HER HUSBAND. No thought of-the- husband whose life was ebbing out in loneliness and pain on St. Helena came to shadow the lie of .splendiur and gaiety that was/ And when, one da.v in 1820, the Church ble-sed her union with Neipperg the fact that Nappleon was still draining the dregs of his life in St. Helena, did. not disturb “the pride and! pleasure with which the joy of her life wn* consummated.” When a year later news reached her that Napoleon—loyal to her and loving her devotedly to her lai4t gasp—was rlond she write to her “Chere Victoire.” “I confer lam extremely shocked. Although I never had any deeo feeling for him, I cannot forget that he is the father of my son. You will be sorry

to learn that I have been so dreadfully bitten in the -face by gnats that I looic a monster, and am glad. l not to be obliged to show myself.” Thus heartlessly did she refer to the death of the husband whose last wish, confided to his doctor, was, “ I wish you to place my heart in spirits of wine, and take it to my beloved Louise at Parma. You will tell her that 1 loved her dearly and have never ceased to do so. OTHER LOVERS. Thus in the frivolous.pursuit of pleasure passed another dozen years before Neipperg was taken from her, and she was left disconsolate to mourn the loss of “the best husband, the most faithful friend, and all my worldly happiness” ; and to raise .over his gfiawe a monument in Carrara marble for which sho paid one hundred and thirty thousand francs. But though “all her worldly happiness” had fled with the loss of her oneeyed consort, Marie Louise could not live without the love of man: and a few years later we find her giving her hand and what remained of her heart to one of her ministers, ihV’i Comte de Bombelles. And when at last tho curtain is rung down on her misspent life, we find her making love to Jules Lecomte, a handsome, black-whiskered tenor, installing him chief favourite at her Court, and proclaiming that she found him “too adorable for .words.”