Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-11-23
THE AMOURs OF NAPOLEON.
The Court and Courtesans of the
80. Emplre.

1
Emperor Napoleon. The writer says:
/ EUGENIE's FLIRTATIoSs.
II is but fair to say that the name 81
the Empress has never been associated
with these disorders of the palace. She
passed youth of somewhat discursiye
| Irritation in that society of Madrid
which could not avoid receiving GER
tain faint Of corruption from the shame
less example of the Queen. Isabella
Segunda was a woman of nature so
thoroughly corrupt that it would seem
impossible for any rigid purity to exist
in her scandalous court.
She was ontwardly as good Catholic,
however, as she was bad wife, and still
further poisoned the consciences of her
courtiers by debondir and thoughtless
generosity and good humor which gave
"a dangerous attraction to her vicious
life. Yet there were in this free-and-
easy court some regulations without
blemish. One Of these was the Queen
own sister, the Duchess of Montpensier,
and another was Eugene de Montijo.
This lovely blonde was too beautiful and
too kind to escape calumny before she
went with her judicious mother to Paris
to ensnare with her mature destinations
the phlegmatic parvenu emperor.
| The golden-haired Andalusian's flirta-
| tons ended with this enormous success.
To all the left-handed offers of her sigh
ing swain, she replied in language doubt
less prompted by her spirituelle mamma;
For your wife ! am too little; for your
| mistress | am too much"
He was safely hooked, and she soon
landed him high and dry before the altar.
Her life before marriage has been set
down with the malice of she-devil in
| the infamous book of Madame Ratazzi,
called lie Marriage dune Espdgnole.
This witty lady, who is cousin to the
Emperor and wife of the first minister
of Italy, has snatched a grace beyond
the reach of art, and gilds the refined
gold of Bonapartist scandal in this libel
GUS romonce. We do not think so i'll of
the Bonapartes as to believe what they
say of each other. But whatever may
have been the amiable indiscretions of
Miss Montijo, it cannot fairly be denied
that Madame Bonaparte, as Rochefort
and the Rappel style her, has been a
good wife and mother 1t would indi-
cate, perhaps, too naive credulity to
imagine her in love with her husband,
but she has always treated him with de-
corous respect and official fidelity.
On the other hand, he married her in
blind and unreasoning access of pas
sion, and has never ceased to love her
with something near idolatry. And yet
his infdelties have been gross and nu-
merous. The enforced respect for pub
lie opinion, which has become necessary
in this age of discussion, has presented
renewal Of the lively scenes of the
reign of the Fifteenth Louis, but in his
sly, furtive way, the late Emperor, Louis
lie Sedantaire, has proved himself the
true son of his true parents. | make no
allusion to the sometime King of Hol-
land. This hereditary tendency to twi-
light adventures has long been known
in the clubs of Paris, but on account of
the rigid censorship maintained over the
press, has never been the subject of gen
eral comment.
Recently, however, commission of
the Provisional Govepnment, in ransack-
ing the private cabinet of the Tuileries,
came across package of documents
tied with ribbon, and endorsed with the
Emperor handwriting Lettres a gar
der, which contain sufficient written evil
dence to enable the fair mistress of CHS
elhurst to sue before Lord Penzance
with an absolute certainty of divorce.
But where there is no love there is no
jealousy, and it is possible the ex-Em-
press will not cut off her name to spite
her spouse, but will continue to overlook
the treasohs she has so often con9oned
One popularity Of these secret papers
is that they do not comprise any ladies
of rank. The first Emperor, in his lion
circle Of aristocracy. His relations with |
high-born ladies are photographed on
the handsome face of Count Walewski |
and late President Of the Austrian par
lament.
But the son of Hortense indicates his |
democratic afiinities in nothing so much |
as a choice of sweethearts. His eldest |
son, the Count de Bechevet, is the fruit |
Of his liaison with the turnkey daugh- |
ter at Ham, and the two names most |
frequently met with in this gallant chron-
icle are those of Madame Howard and |
Marguerite Bellanger. The former lady |
is said, on the esoteric authority ofMad-
anne Bonaparte-W yse-Ratazzi, to have |
been a bar-maid in London dance
house OF evil report, where the exiled |
prince met her in his shabby English |
days, She followed him to Paris, and |
was finally discarded with magnificent
endowment and the title Of Countess of |
Beauregard not long after the coup d etat, |
and rehabilitated herself socially by a |
marriage with Captain Trevelyan, in
whose eyes her rent-roll covered multi
tude of memories.
MARGUERITE BELLAYGER,
Marguerite Bellanger was, II the term
be not obsolete, o grisette Of the EN-
pire. Born of the lowest grade of the
Paris proletariat, she grew up amid her
mothers wash-tubs a frail, delicate
beauty. with that air Of aristocratic Ian
gour that comes rather from deficient
vitality than high birth. She was too
pretty to escape the aesthetic eyes of the
students of her quarter, and almost be-
fore she was grown she had gained a
certain vogue among the soiled doves Of
the left bank of the Seine. One evening
his Imperial Majesty was promenading
with single aid-de-camp by the border
of the lake in the Bots de Roulogne, and
this pale, pretty creature caught his eye
the well known eye Of Badingnet-the
cold, sleepy, vicious eye Of dead shark
He aecostec her with his own inimitable
manner where Jacques Strop tries so
hard TO be Robert Maeaire She did not
recognize Caesar in her impairment adj
mirer, and answered with the ready can
dor of the Latin Quarter: LdiSse moi
tranquile, petite cdnaillei Let me be,
little blackgnardl
Common people can never know the
delight which an honest insult can give
10 the jaded senses Of despot. This
brutality from the carmined lips of girl
Of the gutter completely fascinated the
autocrat Of France He felt the JOY
which Brownings queen declares she
would know If the sentinel at the palace
l., - L Il.