Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1854-08-10
VOLUME XII. NO. 33.
NAPOLEON AND COUNTESS wALEsgL

But while victory and indifference thus re-
moved from him the wife which policy had Civ
EN- him, but which Empire could not attach to
b adversely brought back to him at Fontain-
b)eau young and beautiful foreigner, whose
love neither defeat nor exile could extinguish.
Among the numerous and fugitive objects of his
illcgitimate attachments, Napoleon had loved
once perhaps with tender and durable pas
sion. At the summit of his success and glory,
at fote at Warsaw, the beauty of a young Pol
ish lady, intoxicated with enthusiasm for his
namo, had made a lively impression upon him.
She was the wife Of a noble Lamartan already
advanced in years. She shone for the first time
amid the pomps of a court She adored Napo-
leon-as what Pole then did not9--genius, VIC
tory and the fallacious hope of the independ-
ence of her country =
Her conntenance beamed with the alteration
she internally felt. Napoleon saw her, undet-
stood<,er, loved her. Long resistance, violent
struggles between passion and duty, and tears
famed the flame into passion. The Empersr
carried off the Countess Waleski from her hus-
band, from her country. He conveyed her to
his camps and to conquered capitals A son was
yborn, the result of this attachment. A hand
some residence at Paris, often visited at night
by Napoleon, concealed from public view the
ever impassioned mother of this child.
Adversely rendered her fault almost sacred,
and his love more dear to her. She wished, by
deyoting herself to the exile, to atone for her
weakness for the conqueror of Europe. She
wrote to Napoleon to ask for an interview, and
to offer to accompany him wherever misfortune
might lead him.
! lie consented to this interview and the last
night but one which preceded the departure Of
the f .peror for Fontainbleau, the young wife
was introduced by back staircase into the
room adjoining the bedroom of her lover. The
confidential valet announced to his master the
arrival of her whom he had consented to receive.
Napoleon was plunged into that kind of dreamy
stupor which had overcome him since his fall
| lie answered that he would shortly call her who,
on his account, had brayed modesty and adver-
sty. The young lady, i'll tears, waited in vain
the greater part of the night. He called her
not. She heard him, nevertheless, walking in
his room. The attendant again reminded his
master of his visitor. "Wait little longer
said the Emperor. At length the night having
passed away, and day beginning to dawn,
there was some danger of the secret interview
being revealed; when the young woman, re-
pulsed, detected, and offended, was reconducted,
in tears, to her carriage by the confidential wit
ness of her last adieu. Whether it was that
Napoleon had lost all sense of feeling in the
agitation Of his mind or that he was ashamed
to appear as the victor and sovereign of Europe,
he evidently had no compassion for her deyo.
ton.
When the confidential servant entered his
chamber in the morning, and described tie
hopes and fears, and shame Of the Countess Wa
leski, "Ah y said he, F" 1t is as humilisting for
her as for myself, but the hours passed without
my being aware of them. had something here,"
he added, touching his forehead with his finger.
Despair, which softons the hearts Of other men,
had rendered his hard and frigid.-Lamartine,