Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-02-04

figure and graceful features, and rendered
more interesting by tinge of melancholy
and delicate health. Her saloons were
the headquarters Of many of the most
distinguished young men of Paris. There
might be found the Labedoyeres, the
L9wensteins, the PHILIPPE &c Segurs, the
Lavalettes, the De Broghes, the FIahants,
the De Canonvilles, the De Lascours, the
NesSelrodes, the Boutikims, &c. Mdlle.
Cochelei gives us very distinct view of
the state of society in the capital in the
year 1874, and Of the mode of life
in the watering places.
In the summer of 1878, Hortense was
ordered to Dieppe for the sea baths, when
the mode OF bathing was exactly the same
resorted to fourteen years afterwards by
the Duchess Of Berry. A pavilion was
erected on the beach, with two apart
ments, in which the ex. Queen of Holland
undressed, clothed herself in long cam
let gown, fitting rather closely to the per-
son, and was then carried into the water
in the arms of two stalwart sailors.
While taking her bath hundreds of spec
tatOrs were on the beach raising their
opera glasses and telescopes to have
better view of the immersion. In the
year 1927, the Duchess of Berry followed
a similar course to the letter, SO that we
have little Goubt that the then project or
sub-prelect of Dieppe had studied the pre-.
cedent of his predecessor which he found
in the archives Of his office in 1918.
In the prosperity of the Bonaparte
family, Hortense, notwithstanding the
lightness Of her character, exerted her
self deeply for the unfortunate and per-
secuted, and thus won golden opinions
from men of all parties.
When reverseS came on the Emperor.
the eX-Queen of Holland found friends
and protectors, if not admirers, in the
Emperor Of Alexander, in Prince Leo.
pold (now King of the Belgians,) and in
other high and mighty personages whose
names it is not necessary to mention.
Mile. Cochelet gives us full, true and
particular account of the efforts of Alex
ander, and Nesseirode to procure fer
Hortense dignifed position and exist
ence, and the means of enjoying that So
cial station which in France, any more
than in England, cannot be accomplished
without money. The assiduities of the
Cossack Emperor SAVIOUR of more than
the proceedings Of the preux chevalier,
and may be described indeed as the ar
dent attentions and gallantry of per
sOnal admifer. Prince Leopold, too was
earnest and assiduous, but not altogether
so empresse as the sovereign in whose
army he then held commission
In justification of Alexander, it ought, |
however, to be stated that he always pro- |
fessed somewhat of an esteem for the
Beauharnois family, for the Empress Jo-
shephine and her son Eugene, the latter
of whom he had known long previous TO |
this date. With Josephine. Hortense,
and Eugene, we learn from Mdlle. Coch-
elet, that he spent many happy days andi
evenings, not only at Malmaison, but at
the chateau of Navarro. where the ex-
Empress habitually resided after her di- |
vorce. Hortense and Alexander visited |
the waters of Marty together, and it was
on this accession that the young Emperor
of all the Russias narrowly escaped a |
fatal accident, from the skirt of his coat
having caught in the machiner, of the
celebrated machine hydraulibue, which
caused the waters to play, that had so
often amused the sated, worn out, and
inamusable Ito use the word of Madame
de Maintenon) old age of Louis XIV.
Josephine was sensible of the kindness
and civility of Alexander, and gave him
the original music, in Hortense's hand
writing, of all the airs which the ex-
Queen had composed, and among the rest
the air of Putant pour la Syrie, the words |
of which were composed by Alexandra
de Laborde. The demeanor of Hortense
:owards Alexander was perfectly digni-
fled and proper, and at the same time re-
spectful. She gave the Emperor, who
was solicitOus to serve her at the Con-
gress of Allied Sovereigns, fully to under
stand that she would not be a party to
any compliances unworthy of the name
which she bore, or of the nation which |
had so elevated the family to which she |
belonged.
In his secret soul, Alexander must |
have respected this proof of independence
and self-respect. Welearn from the En-
peror's letters to MdlIe Cochelet-a fact |
that has since transpired through many |
other sources-of the sovereign contempt |
which the Autocrat entertained for the |
elder branch Of the Bourbons. During
the years 1916 and 1917 the Minister of |
Police, Decazes, who had been an early |
protege of the mother of Napoleon, (hc |
was her reader knowing, through his
myrmidons, that Mdlle. Cochelet posses
sed several letters from the Car, in which |
the Bourbons were contemptuously spo-
ken of, caused them to be seized in the |
possession of the lady to whose safe Gus
tody Mdlle. Cochelet had entrusted them
This unworthy proceeding failed of the
effect contemplated, for Mdlle. Cochelet
had safely carried out of France mere
letters of the Car than she had left
within the kingdom, and some Of these
she published in her memoirs.
We have stated that in the palmy days
of the empire many royallsts owed not
only their pardon but their lives to the
of Hortense, among the rest
Polignac; yet at the hands of this royal
ist party she met with harsh and unkind-
ly treatment. There is good deal in
the volumes as to Hortense's children;
for whom the mother entertained a de-
voted affection. Mention ismade of Louis
Charles (now the Emperor Louis Napo-
leon) as person Of soft, timid, and re-
served character, as one shy and silent.
Vaf corc Mj11a (,oob.,1af b,c mind .,