Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1870-08-02
MADAME JEROME BoNAPARTE.
From the New York Standard.

From the New York Standard.
There is an inconceivable romance
in the history we print elsewhere
from correspondent in Baltimore.
Sixty years ago, Madame Jerome
Bonaparte, or, as men were more apt
TO call her, Mrs. Patterson Bonaparte,
was one OF the most celebrated
women in the world. Her strange
history, with its romance, its ambi-
ton, its womanly struggle with the
keenost injustice which woman can
suffer, has been the wonder and the
indignation of the century. For, by
every holy law, by the blessed Sac
rament of the Roman Church, this
woman was the wife of brother of
the great Napoleon. Against her he
warred, when be was strong in the
strength of Austerlitz, and by an
Imperial caprice he made her life
stormy and unhappy. She still lives,
far beyond the allotted time her
spirit bright, keen and queenly,
mourning as "a queen would mourn
over her "crushed" ambition, wor-
Shipping the memory of the man who
threw the weight of his empire
against her life, nourishing the dream
that her descendants may one day
wear his diadem and sit o q the throne
of France,
This is a strange story, and its ro-
nance is only increased by the mar
rative of our correspondent. We
are brought face to face with a
woman, whose life, next to Jose
phine's excites more interest and
more pity than any of the many
women with whom history surrounds
Napoleon. We see young Ameri-
can maiden just on the verge of
womanhood, dreaming o dream of u
European throne, deliberately plan
ming 10 be the wife of Bonaparte, and
throwing her genius and her beauty
around the young Jerome, resolved
To win him aud all the honors that
came with his illustrious family
We see no love in the alliance. This
strange woman does not ask us to
believe there was any love. She re-
spected her husband,-he respected
her. That was all. "He was very
handsome" she remembers, and they
"enjoyed their brief married life"
seemingly well She does not COM
plain OF the Emperor's harsh decree,
but speaks of him as the wisest and
best OF men. If she could only have
brought Napoleon within the range
of that influence, she would have
conquered recognition just as she
conquered the young Jerome. Wo-
men made little impression upon that
strange, cold, sublimely selfish man,
and their marvellous powers were
silent and dead in the presence OF his
ambition Of his policy; and we fear
this is but the fond fancy of dream
ing old woman. A truly royal queen
she would have been no doubt, for,
even in her old age, we see the I'M
daunted queenly spirit which would
have assembled q throne with as much
GOODNESS and grace as though she
were daughter of the Plantagenets.
The romance, and to some extent
the MYSTERY, which have surrounded
Madame Patterson, disappears when
we look upon her as she lives to-day
in Baltimore, in retirement and self
denial, rapidly creeping to her nine
tieth year. 1T is something to know
the real woman, whose life has been
told to three generations and We
see her as we are very sure she would
most care TO be seen--proud, haugh-
ty, northumberland in her ambi-
ton, but conscious that her conquer
OR was the first ruler of his age, and
paying him the tribute of chivalric
admiration, % one before whom it
was an honor to fall. She played a
great game and lost it, without q
moments repining at fate, thorough
ly without sympathy or sentiment
scorning Josephine for the ''stuff and
nonsense" OF her affection for the
Emperor, and sustained only by the
hope that in some furture generation
her descendants may be Emperor's
of France.
Well, history has strange freaks
and retributions We have seen the
children of the discarded Josephine
ascend the throne from which she
was driven, and it may be that the
descendants Of this proud, brilliant,
ambitious woman will one day be
princes and potentates. How
strange and yet how suggestive
How much vanity and foolish pride
under it all 81 am not the rose,' -
she says sadly; "only the ashes of
roses !" How many rosy ambitions
become ashes in the end +? ashes and
dust and bitterness How much
sweeter and truer would have bee n
the life of the brilliant Betsy Patter-
son, if, instead of throwing herself
at the feet of the dissolute, weak
and foolish dventurer-who had
nothing but name-she had sought
the career which opens to every
American maiden This, however,
is not for rs to say. She courted
her destiny, it came to her, and she
was worthy of it. If this may be
said Of all OF us, we have answered
the fullest measure of life.
The PRUssIAN Crown PRINCE
He is middle-aged man, gentleman
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