The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-08-03
THE Ex-ErNa 5RRoxE BoNApARTE,

1t has seldom fallen to the lot of man to see
such amazing vicissitude of fortunes, affecting
himself and family, as has been witnessed by
the parsonage whose name heads this article.
The dreams of romance have been excelled by
the actual realities of his life. Ee is the only
surviving brother of the illustrious Napoleon,
and was born in 1854. So long has the latter
been historical character that, at first, it ap-
pears almost impossible that the great conquer
or, who, after running the most remarkable ca
reer of twenty years that the world ever saw,
terminated it by his death, nearly forty years
ago, upon the rock of St. H elena, should have
a brother now occupying high position in the
French Government. g5i5<4 20 r.
OF all his family he alone is permitted to
witness both their remarkable rise in prosper
ity and fortune and their subsequent tremend-
GUS downfall, and their equally wonderful re
turn to the hight of power and influence. His
recollection goes back to the time when the
family Of Bonaparte was not known beyond
the range of few friends and acq nainanees
and when its members, in private life, were
compelled to struggle in obseurity with penury
and misfortune. He can recollect his mother,
a widow with large family of children upon
her hands, and when it required a stern con-
of subsistence. He was in early manhood when
the genius of his brother first burst upon the
world, and opened to his relatives visions of
power and splendor that never, even in the
widest flights of imagination, had they pre-
yiously entertained. He saw his brothers and
sisters placed, by the magic wand of Napoleon,
upon nearly all the crowns of Europe, and
decked with diadems and coronets. n For the
first time in the history of Europe was the ex-
traordinary spectacle observed of a family OF
private citizens parceling out thrones and
crowns among themselves, as if they had been
the merest baubles. Jerome was thirty one
years old when the dark clouds of misfortune
and disaster gathered black and heavy over
the fortunes of his family, and when the storm
came that swept them from their hight of
grandeur and glory into the depth of humilia-
ton and abasement. He saw the star of the
.Bonaparte destiny, so often apostrophized by
Napoleon, sink beneath the clouds, apparently
never to rise again. For nearly forty years the
blackness of night enveloped it. Not one of
the original family saw this long night to a
close save Jerome; as, before it again emerged
from the political horizon, they were all deceas-
ed jerome has had the remarkable felicity
to see the fortunes of his family re-establshed
under a new Napoleonic dynasty. -.,-s 49,
One of the chiefs of the old Empire; he
holds similar position in the new. He di-
rects the .Counsels Of the Regent Empress
Eugenie, as he had previously done those of
Maria. Louisa. What retrospective glances he
must take at the past! What remarkable re-
fections are those in which his memory is
prone to indulge when it wanders back to the
early days of his manhood! A great historical
monument Of the past is this old King jerome,
who personally has witnessed the most remark
able family history that the world has ever
seen. 1t is not yet finished. He has not yet
attained the most extreme old age, and it is.
possible that he may see events affecting his
family quite as startling and remarkable as
those which have hitherto characterized his
career. - -
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