Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1854-11-16
THE YOUNG DUKE OF RE1cHsTapr

| THE YOUNG DUKE OF REIcHsTaDT
AN INTERESTING AND AFFECTING STORY
The story of the life of Napoleon's s son
as it is told, in an article entitled L" Th
Bonaparte Family" by a writer in th'
| North British Review, can hardly fail tt
be read with deep interest," says a,
able contemporary Of the British press
Whatever relates to the Bonaparte far
i.y, is always imbued with excitement
and the romance of history, mingled witt
the truth, biography and chronology.
The fate of the son of Napoleon, has
universally been deplored by the more
enlightened portion of the civilized
world and, it is to be regretted that he
did not live to realize fruits derivablt
from the achieved glories of his illustriou,
ancestor. We fancy there are few VIII.
will read the annexed without reelizins
a painful emotion.
Only three years ago, when he came
| with his mother to reside at Schonburn,
the young Duke Of Reichstadt spent the
whole remainder of his life either there
or at Vienna; only on one or two coca
sions travelling from either beyond tie
distance of q few miles. By his grand
father, the emperor, as well as by all
the other members Of the roya, family.
he seemed to have always been treated
with extreme kindness. After the de.
parture Of his mother for the Italian
States, he was committed to the care Of
various masters, ander the superintend.
| ence of an Austrian nobleman of rank
| the Count Maurice de Dietrichsten. Re
garding his early education, only two
facts of any interest are mentioned his
excessive reluctance at first to learn
German, which, however, soon became
more his own than French and his
fondness for historical reading, and espe
cially for books relating to the career OF
his father. AS a boy, he was, on the
whole, dull. grave, worthless but docile
and afectionate.
The news of his fathers death, which
occurred when he was ten years of age,
is said to have produced visible effect
upon him. 1t was evident. indeed, that
the boy, young as he was, had been
brooding over the mystery of his own
changed condition, and cherishing as
j well as he could the thought of his con-
nection with the extraordinary human
being whom he could dimly recollect as
his father, whose bust and portrait he
could still see and who, as thew tried
to explain to him, was now shut up On
an island on the other side of the earth,
whittier the nations of Europe had con-
spired to send him for their own safety.
The thought of his father became the
boys simple passion; and when he could
no longer think of that father as still il
existence on earth, bis respect for his
memory amounted to worship. Every
book that could tell him anything of his
father, he devoured with eagerness and
if he CHANGED to hear of the arrival of
any one at Vienna, who had personal re-
lations with the emperor, he was uneasy
till he had seen him.
At last, to crafty this anxiety for in
formation, his tutors, at his grandfa-
ther's command, began to instruct him
systematically in modern history and
politics cOncealing from him nothing,
says M. de Monthel, that could enlighten
him as to the real course of his father s
life, and its effects on the condition of
Europe and only adding such comments
and expositions as might make him
aware, at the same time, in what points
his father was to be reprehended. Per-
picked by such lessons in history, ac-
cording to Metternich, the poor boy did
his best to come to the right conclusion,
and to express himself judiciously to his
tutors regarding what he was taught to
consider his father errors and excesses.
In all cases of feeling and instinct, how
ever, his reverence for the memory OF
his father prevailed. The very books
which his father had liked, such as TassO
and Ossian, became for that reason his
favorites. His fathers campaigns and
dispatches he made subject of diligent
study, using them as text for his own
military lessons. In short, before he
had attained his seventeenth year, he
had read and re-read every thing that had
been written regarding Napoleon, and
had fixed in his memory all the most
minute particulars relating to his military
OF political life, the names of his gene.
rails, his cLief battles, and the various in.
cldents in his long career, from his birth
ln Corsica to his burial in St. Helena
One point in this great history he would
dwell On with special interest thai
where, amid universal acclamations, hs
himself had come into this world the I'm.
conscious heir fn q MIGHTY onnnira