The New York herald., 1870-09-08
The Empress Eusenie-The Empire and the
Republic.


The Empress Eugene, but yesterday the
most brilliant, the most powerful, the most
envied and apparently the happiest woman In
all Christendom-'the glass of fashion and
the mould of form"-the Empress of modern
society and the chosen goddess of the gay
world in both hemispheres, is to-day crownless
and houseless-a fugitive and an exile in q
foreign land. Her departure from the Tule-
ries and from France was fight as from the
wild popular vengeance Of another Reign of
Terror, and doubtless in crossing the Belgian
frontier she thought less of her imperial splen-
dors swept away than Of her personal safety
secured. She was in no danger she might
| have retired with deliberaton and dignity;
but In the midst of that fearful commotion in
Paris how was she to know it? Twenty-Five
years before King Louis Philippe fed as pre-
cipitately in his pea jacket from the ominous
tumult Of French revolution, because he knew
not that the horrible ferocities of the first
French revolutionary convulsion had passed
away-that the masses of the French people,
through that hideous carnival of crime, had
risen from the revenges of barbarism to the
Responsibilities OF CIVILIZATION.
Yet Is hard to believe that Eugenie was not
In some degree prepared for this sudden col
lapse Of the Napoleonic empire and dynasty.
| She has been too active and too ambitious az
| politician in the affairs of the empire, and
too familiar with the reasons Of Napoleon for
every scheme of his, in his internal policy and
| In diplomacy or war, not to know the dangers
that encompassed him. Yet she was, doubt
less, deceived by the delusions of the pIe-
0Sscste, and satisfied that, from the glory of
this war with Prussia, the empire would be
secured for her son, as its absolute despotism
had been secured for her husband, by the will
OF the French people. How could she believe
that the French people, in ratifying the empire
over and over again. had spoken under the
pressure Of an imperial army, and that with
this army removed they would speak for them
selves without the warning of single dayp
1t is all over now, and, in the light of the
restored republic, it is only matter of amaze
ment that the shadowy empire of Louis Ma
poleon survived 80 long. For eighteen years,
with the skill Of conjurer in his domestic
and foreign policy, he had managed to divert
the public mind of France from the outrages
of his usurpation to the glories and prosperity
of his government at home and abroad. But
all this time, as we can now see, the French
people have only submitted to the empire as a
choice of evils, and that they have been i'm
patiently awaiting their opportunity to replace
the republic which he (Napoleon) betrayed
and set aside, but which he had failed to ex-
tinguish.
It may be that in the glitter and splendors
of her imperial court, and with emperors,
kings and queens dancing attendance upon
her, Eugene really believed the republic
dead, the Bourbons q nero tradition, and the
empire needing only the glory of the rectifca-
ton of the Rhine frontier to make Its trans
mission to her son a scene of popular acclama-
ton. But chow are the mighty fallen and the
weapons Of war perishedl" We can hardly
realize the stupendous events of the last six
weeks, or that, among them. the Emperor
Napoleon is prisoner, his Prince Imperial q
wandering exile and his Empress fugitive
from back door of the Tuileries, with only
single attendant, and anxious only to escape
with her life from the surging revolution
around her. We can hardly believe that this
trembling fugitive is that magnificent Empress
who but the other day was welcomed at
Constantinople by the Sultan with a reception
excelling in it's Oriental splendors the royal
Asiatic welcome Of King Solomon to the
Queen of Sheba. Can 1t be true that this
weeping exile on the Belgian frontier, plead
ing for information of her unhappy husband
and her poor sick boy, is the same person as
that glorious Empress who in the grand East
ern spectacle of the opening of the Suez Canal
eclipsed in her radiant beauty the charms of
the gorgeous Cleopatra in all her glory! Yes
the glorious Empress whose presence In her
imperial travels inspired the admiration and
wonder of Europe, Asia and Africa, and the
melancholy wanderer in search of the sick boy
and his father, are one and the same person.
It is only change in the character she is
called to play; and such are the ups and
downs Of crowns and dynasties and go 1t has
| been from the beginning, and will be to the
| end.
But the ferocious barbarsm which paraded
the beautiful Queen Zenobia In chains through
the streets of Rome, which brought the head
of the beauteous Queen of Scots to the block,
and the fair, accomplished and courageous
Marie Antoinette to the guilloine, we may
hope has ceased to be, or will no more be
permitted in popular or royal revenges upon
defeated kings and queens. The exiled EN-
press Eugene and her husband and son
have still before them fair prospect of the
quiet, philosophical retirement Of Louis
Philippe and his sensible family. Or Eugene
may perchance now 6nd some melancholy
consolation in sympathetic communion with