The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-03-14


Prince Imperial was undergoing pam
full and dangerous surgical operation.
Before leaving the Tuileries the Emperor
had gone tohis sons bedside, and taking
his hand, he said Louis, mon Pts, II
it will comfort you, | will remain win
you.
The Prince replied earnestly that he
must not, that he should not be absent
from ceremony to which they had so
eagerly looked forward.
q will CO." said the Emperor, kissing
him, "but my thoughts will all be here
with you.
There are many evidences that Ma
poleon, despite his reputation for sto.
lidity and taciturnity, was n person OF
strong and deep affections. He seems
from earliest childhood to have been de-
votedly attached TO those near him III re-
lationship or friendship. When he was
four years old, his imperial uncle was
about to depart on his unfortunate cam
paign of 1912; the little nephew, hear
ing of it, rushed weeping to the Emperor,
and with sobs in his voice begged HIM
not to go, or, if he did, to let him go
with him. After Louis had been led out
of the cabinet, the Emperor, turning TO
one who was present, remarked " MY
friend, perhaps he is the hope OF my
race" The affection between Queen
Hortense and her son was most intimate
and tender throughout her life. She de
voted herself to his education, and
seemed more ANXIOUS that he should Learn
to bear privation and self-dependence
than enjoy the luxuries or delights OF
princely station. Once she asked her
eldest son, who was seven, what he
should do, were he deprived OF friends
and money, to get on in the world.
81 would be soldier, was the
prompt reply, land fight my way tothe
rank of n captain
"And you, Louis said the Queen,
turning TO the younger, aged five,
"what would you do for "A iving|
81 would sell violet bouquets," re-
sponded the future Emperor, "as the
boys do from whom We purchase them
every day at the Tulleries gate.
When Napoleon, after the Stasbourg
faScO, was banished to America, he kept
a journal on the voyage, which ON land
ing, he promptly sent to the ex-Queen
in her retirement ut Arenberg, and
scarcely slept until he had indited long
and affectionate letter to her, giving
minute account of his attempt mt Stras-
bourg, it's failure, and the proceedings
of his trial Hortense soon afterward
fell mortally i'll, and her son fastened
across the Atlantic to her bedside /; and
the final scene of her life is described as
having been very touching in It's exhibit
ton of their deep mutual affection. The
utmost confidence existed between them
from first to last. With his elder
brother, Napoleon Louis, who died Mt
Forh, of smallpox, in 1881, his rela-
tons were equally intimate and affec-
tomato. There seems never TO have
been the shadow of difference or of
jealousy between them; they fought
side by side in the Ronagna instruction
of 1881, and Louis Napoleon often after
ward spoke with emotion OF the elders
excellent qualities.
The gossips of European courts and
capitals have long been IN the habit of
surmising that the relations of Napoleon
and his beautiful wife were far from
tender, or even smicable. Stories of
discord at the Tuileries have Mt times
been as plentiful az rumors of journal
istic duels, or of aristocratic intrigues.
The Empress was said to have gone ut
one time to Spain, at another to Egypt,
in unconjugal wrath the Emperor was
charged with peccadilloes, and romantic
scenes of quarels in consequence of
them, in the Tuileries, were related from
mouth TO mouth with eager interest.
Yet there is little doubt that, especially
during the latter years of their life to-
gether, their domestic relations were
positively happy 1t is certainly true
that the Emperor married Eugene de
Guzman because he loved her, and pre-
ferred her to all women whom he had
met. No dowry of royal alliance, great
wealth, or even of descent which would
add TO the Ulster of the Imperial Crown,
came with her to the altar. There was
n time when Louis Napoleon, then an
exile. might have welded Donna Maria,
of Portugal ; and after he became En-
peror, probably his suit for a Princess
of the House of Austria or Prussia, or
even that of Russia, would not have
been rejected. He chose to sue at the
feet of lady in private life, in whose
veins. no doubt, there ran royal blood,
but whose relationship to the Spanish
sovereigns was remote. 1t may well
have been that the romantic attachment
of this middle-aged, conspicuously plain
and unimposing gentleman was not re-
ciprocated by the brilliant Spanish
beauty, then in the fullness of youth and
charms, and that, if she accepted him,
it was because she could not turn from
the dazzling offer of Crown. But the
longer she lived with Napoleon, the
closer she seemed to draw to him.
Certain of her letters, written to him
when she was guest of the Sultan, at
accidentally became
published and they breathe just such
a spirit of confidence, affection, respect,
anxiety to see him once more, and tender,
feminine solicitude for his health and
good fortune, as might be expected from
a wife who had married the man of her
choice, and had found the union a per-
fectly congenial and happy one. A
friend relates that, having gone into the
Tuileries garden very early one pleasant
summer morning, for an appetizing be-
fore breakfast walk, he saw gentleman,
lady and little boy promenading in the
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