Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-10-10
Visit Of lIie Emperor or France to
% the Tomb Of his Mother. iu se

Napoleon, accompanied by Eugenie, paid a
visit of, few days to Arenenberg7 last
month, ln the castle there, on the shore Of
Lake Constance, many of Napoleoh's early
years were passed. There lie educated
himself.i There his mother, Queen Hortense,
died, and, in this chapel of the castle, his
fillal piety erected her statue. The first
thing he did when he went to Areneiiberg
was to visit this chapel-and breathe a
silent prayer before the sculptured resem-
blance of his mother-the only human being,
1t is said, for whom he ever cherished that
full sentiment of affection which, pure and
perfected, bears the name of love, That
man, with iron hand and heart Of stone, is
believed to have loved his mother with the
tendereSt affection. In the Sahara of his
spot-the solitary oasis. N'' ~
Many OF the old inhabitants of Arenen-
berg reCollected, in the bronzed Emperor,
the pale, thin, D,unemotional young man who,
more than a quarter of century ago, had
returned from. his exile in the United States
to receive the last blessing and latest breath
OF that mother who, whatever her faults,
very tenderly loved him, and, it is said, died,
as she lived, in the full belief that he would
one day sit upon the thorne OF France. As
he sat, on a gloomy day, early in October,
1887, by her death-bed, what tumultuOus
thoughts must have: ,1illed his saddened
mind. He. had been left -a,.r.....
with none to love him. none whom he could love"
and, thenceforth, ambition was in his heart
what affection Is to other men. Thence
forth his aim was to restore the Napoleon
dynasty, and he succeeded. No one can
deny that he has had the crown. Napoleon
really is an actor who is never off the
scene; on his life-drama the curtain can
never drop until the allotted hour comes
for him, as 1t comes for. every
descendant of Adam. -Conjectures are
certain to be made upon his most ordin-
airy action-conj which sometimes.
give little credit to his head or heart. All
men who rise to prosperity or eminence
from an humble commencement, return,
sooner or later, to the place where their
youth had been passed; where their hearts
had been trained for the action which final
ly had mastered fate or won fame, or, it
may be, conquered fortune. In revisiting
Arenenberg, last month, Napoleon, while
seemingly acting OIL his own will, was really
obeying an imperative moral law.
AS we have said, his pilgrim feet first
turned to the little chaple which contains
the marble statue of his mother, Hortense
Eugene Beauharnais, only daughter of the
Empress Josephine, and who had herself
for q time worn thecrown as Queen Consort
Of Holland. While this beautiful and un-
fortunate woman lived scandal was busy
with her fame scandal declared that none
of her husbands blood ran in the veins of
either of her sons); scandal has not spared
her in the grave, but, whatever her faults
as wife (and who dare cast the first stone
at her?) she was a loving, tender, faithful
mother; nor will humanity think less of
the man who SO long fought against the
world, and who won the battle OF life, be-
cause they find him, at the climax of his
when hei virtually Autocrat of
Europe, still fondly cherishing the memory
of the mother who loved him so very dearly.
When his mother died Napoleon was an
almost nameless exile, the seorn of men,
for he had failed in his hasty and ill-arang-
ed attempt at Strasburg, had experienced
the supercilious elemency of Louis Philippe,
and had returnel without permission from
the exile to whl;b that crafty citizen King
had doomed him. When he returned to
Arenenburg, the other day, he was Lord of
the Tuileries and Versailles and Fontain-
bleau, recognized representative of the
Bourbon monarchy and the Napoleonic
empire, conqueror Of Russia in the Crimea,
victor of fSolferino, founder of the Kingdom
of Italy, trusted ally of England, arbitrator
OF Europe. This man was more far-seeing
than people believed. When his mother
died, in 1887, he was in his thirtieth year
had thought, read, and written much-had
seen many countries and their Inhabitants.
He alone knew how weak were the obstacles
which impeded. the path to his uncle's
throne, and he must have been conscious OF
the greatness of that innate strength, that
will, on which he trusted
for success, and trusted not in vain. |
At the Champ de Mars, held at paris on
the eve of Waterloo, this Napoleon, then
only six years old, was, presented to the
army by the returned Emperor, as the |
proxy of the young King of Rome. the
true heir, who was absent with his mother, !
hat fair and taithless Austrian, then in |
Vienna. When the great man fell, the |
fortunes OF his nephew declined to zero.
He belonged, that boy, to prescribed race
and an. eXiled dynasty. Queen Hortense
was driven from place to place with her
sons, and 1t was In Switzerland alone |
where they found sure asylum, if not a |
cordial welcome There the present EN- |
Deror was educated; there he heard of the |
leath of his great uncle; there he eheard of |
,he downfall of the Bourbons and the death |
,f his counsin, the Duke deReichstadt, and
lis own elder brother, who perished in the
Italian insurrection of 1881. ...-
From that hour Louis Napoleon claimed |
% be the representative of the dynasty
uncle had founded. In the castle |
n the canton of Thurgan, which he SO late
y revisited, this young man, led a quiet
student life for some years, writing books
which few then read and still fewer be-
ieyed. He had got to theorize about his
lights, and made his coup d'etdt and failure
It Strasbourg. Next pardon which hp-
Its, receiver because it told that be
vas powerless, an exile to the New World,
! hasty return to his mothers death bed.
But Louis PHILIPPE, alarmed at his presence
n Europe, demanded that Switzerland
hould expel him, and would have backed,
Up that demand by force of arms If Louis
Napoleon had not himself saved the diff
ulty by retreating to England, where all
'olitical offenders are safe.oladV mi. q.-. al
What followed? !? The ludicrous coup a etat
t Boulogne in 1910, the trial before the
Ihamber of Peers at Paris, the condemna-
ion, the six years. Imprisonment at Ham,
he escapes the return to France after, the