Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-10-24

The Son Of Napoleon.
The story of the life of Napoleon's son, as
it is told in an article entitled The Bonaparte
Family" in the North British Review can
hardly fail to be read with deep interest;
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 occasions travelling from either be-
yond the distance of a few miles. BY his
grandfather, the emperor, as well as by al the
other members of the royal family, he seemed
to have always been treated with extreme kind
ness. After the departure of his mother to the
Italian States, he was committed to the care of
various masters, under the superintendent of
an Austrian nobleman of rank, the Count Maui
rice de Dietrichsten. Regarding his early edu-
cation, onlyt facts of any interest are men
toned his excessive reluctance at first to
learn German, which, however, soon became
more his own than French; and his fondness
for historical reading, and especially for books
relating tothe career Of his father. As boy,
he was, on the whole, dull grave, and worth
less; but docile and aHectionate.
The news of his fathers death, which oc-
Cured when he was ten years of age, is said to
have produced visible effect upon him. It
was evident indeed, that the boy, young as he
was, had been brooding in secret over the mys-
terry of his own changed condition, and cherish
ing as well as he could, the thought of its con-
nection with the extraordinary human being
whom he could dimly recollect as his father
whose bust and portraits he could still see; and
who, as they 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 existing on the earth, his
respect for his memory amounted to worship.
Every book that could tell him anything about
his father he devoured with eagerness; and if
he CHANGED to hear Of the arrival of any one at
Vienna, who had had personal relations with
the emperor, he was uneasy till he had seen
him. At last, to CRAFTY this anxiety for infor-
nation, his tutors, at his grandfather's com
mand, began to instruct him systematically in
modern history and politics concealing from
him nothing, says M. de Monthel, that could
enlighten him as to thereal course of his fathers
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 point his father was to be reprehended.
Perplexed by such lessons in history, accord
ing 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 fathers errors
and excuses. In all cases of feeling and in
stinct, however, 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 a
subject of dilligent study, using them as a text
for his own military lessons. In short, before
he had attained his seventeenth year, he had
read and re-read everything that had been
written regarding Napoleon, and had fixed in
his memory all the most minute particulars re-
ating to his military or political life, the names
Of his generals, his chief battles, and the vari-
Gus incidents in his long career from his birth
in Corsica to his burial in st. Helena. One
point in this great history he would dwell on
with special interest-that where amid univer-
sal acclamations, he himself had come into the
world the unconscious heir to mighty en-
pire.
This brooding on the past naturally assumed
the form of a restless anxiety respecting the
future. That he, the son of Napoleon, was no
common person that as the owner of great
name, superior actions and qualifications would
be required of him; that in some way or other
he must take part in the affairs of Europe
such was the idea that inevitably took posses
sion of him. The pedantry of his teachers
seems to have fostered it to an undue extent.
II, for example, the poor youth contracted an
admiration for the poet Byron, his teachers
were at hand to criticise the poet for him, and
reduce his opinion to the just shape and stand
ard, lest he should commit what, in his case,
would be the signal improperly of exaggerated
praise. If again be was seen to be falling in
love with lady Of his grandfather's court,
they were at hand to reason him out of the
affair by considerations of what was due to-
his peculiar situation, and his importance in
the public eye. With this notion of the pecu-
liarity of his position brandished before him
from morning till night, he would go moping
about the imperial court, an amiable, but un.
happy youth. And what, after all was the
peculiarly Of his situation, except extreme in
significance. A pensioner, in the meantime, on
the imperial bounty, ultimately the mere pos
SCISSOR of some Bohemian estates, This mothers
second marriage in 1919, with the Count Nip
perg having served him from Italy still more
completely than before,) doomed to inactivity
by the misfortune of too great name, was
there not mockery in all that solitude Of
which he found himself the object? Haunted
it would appear, by some such feeling, and yet
carried forward by the restless sense that he
must do somethinger other to merit his name,
he seems to have grasped at the only chance
that was presented to him-military promotion
in his grandfather's service. Hence the ASST
duty with which he pursued his military
studies, and the regularity with which he pre-.
sented himself on horseback at all reviews and
parades, the Viennese pointing him out on such
occasions as the son Of Napoleon. When, at
last, after going through the grades, he was
permitted by his grandfather to assume the
rank and uniform Of lieutenantcolonel, his
delight was unbounded. For three days the |
poor youth appeared at the head Of his regi-
ment giving the word of command, on the |
fourth, he was laid aside with loss Of voice and
hoarseness.
There was one quarter of the horizon, how
ever, to which the son of Napoleon would often |
wistfully look--that France to which ne be-
longed; to which his dying father had be-
queathed him with such solemn injunctions |
that they should DO true one 10 the other and |
where even yet there were myriads Of veteran |
hearts that beat high at the name of Bonaparte. |
His Austrian education had indeed isolated |