# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Borghese, Marie Pauline

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BORGHESE, MARIE PAULINE,
Princess, originally Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon, born at Ajaccio October 20th., 1780; went, when the English occupied Corsica, in 1793, to Marseilles, where she was on the point of marrying Fréron, a member of the Convention, and son of that critic whom Voltaire made famous, when another lady laid claim to his hand. The beautiful Pauline was then intended for General Duphot, who was afterwards murdered at Rome in December, 1797; but she bestowed her hand from choice on General Leclerc, then at Milan, who had been in 1795, chief of the general staff of a division at Marseilles, and had then fallen in love with her. When he was sent to St. Domingo with the rank of Captain-general. Napoleon ordered her to accompany her husband with her son. She embarked in December, 1801, at Brest, and was called by the poets of the fleet the Galatea of the Greeks, the Venus marina. Her statue in marble has since been made by Canova at Rome, a successful image of the goddess of beauty. She was no less courageous than beautiful, for when the negroes under Christophe stormed Cape Françoise, where she resided, and Leclerc, who could no longer resist the assailants, ordered his lady and child to be carried on shipboard, she yielded only to force.
After the death of her husband, November 23rd., 1802, she married at Morfontaine, November 6th., 1803, the Prince Camillo Borghese. Her son died at Rome soon after. With Napoleon, who loved her tenderly, she had many disputes and as many reconciliations; for she would not always follow the caprices of his policy. Yet even the proud style in which she demanded what her brothers begged, made her the more attractive to Napoleon. Once, however, when she forgot herself towards the empress, whom she never liked, she was obliged to leave the court. She was yet in disgrace at Nice, when Napoleon resigned his crown in 1814; upon which occasion she immediately appeared a tender sister. Instead of remaining at her palace in Rome, she set out for Elba to join her brother, and acted the part of mediator between him and the other members of his family. When Napoleon landed in France, she went to Naples to see her sister Caroline, and afterwards returned to Rome. Before the battle of Waterloo she placed all her diamonds, which were of great value, at the disposal of her brother. They were in his carriage, which was taken in that battle, and was shown publicly in London. He intended to have returned them to her.
She lived afterwards separated from her husband at Rome, where she occupied part of the palace Borghese, and where she possessed, from 1816, the villa Sciarra. Her house, in which taste and love of the fine arts prevailed, was the centre of the most splendid society at Rome. She often saw her mother, her brothers Lucien and Louis, and her Uncle Fesch. When she heard of the sickness of her brother Napoleon, she repeatedly requested permission to go ​to him at St Helena. She finally obtained her request, but the news of his death arrived immediately after. She died Jane 9th. 1825, at Florence. She left many legacies, and a donation, by the interest of which two young men of Ajaccio will be enabled to study medicine and surgery. The rest of her property she left to her brothers, the Count of St. Leu and the Prince of Montfort. Her whole property amounted to 2,000,000 francs.
Pauline was very fond of Italian poetry, and took great pleasure in listening to the melancholy verses of Petrarch.