Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-02-12

Limoges, who seemed to be deeply inter.
ested in the heroine of the day, aud
asked what her full name was, aud wa
told that she was the daughter Of M.
Antoine Gilbert de NORM, Seigneur d'
Valleau.
This information made the inquirer
somewhat thoughtful. Perhaps the fact
that NJ de NORM was one Of the wealth
lest and proudest noblemen Of the sur.
rounding Country had something to dc
with this.
Captain MacMahon, (that was the
name of the young ofiicer), however, was
not much disturbed by this Information.
True, he was then but captain in the
French army, and had nothing but bis
pay to depend on, but then he had ex
cellent prospects of once becoming rich
his family was as old, if not older, than
that of Heloise's father, and French sol
der always has Marshals baton in his
knapsack.
How he managed to get acquainted
with Mademoiselle De NORM we cannot
tell, but certain it is, when the young
lady, sometime afterward, was told by
her father that he had selected a hus
band for her, she startled him by the
announcement that he might save him.
self that trouble, and that she had al
ready made her own choice.
The old gentleman was at first aston
ished, and then became furious. But
his daughter briefly told him that she
wanted no one but Captain MacMahon,
of the fourth regiment of the line.
And now began curious struggle be-
tween the exasperated father and the
determined daughter. Notwithstanding
the efforts of NJ. De NORM 10 intercept
Heloise's correspondence with her lover,
frequent letters were exchanged be-
tween the two; and when Captain Mac
Mahon was sent to Algeria, they pledg-
ed themselves to remain true to one
another. This separation lasted three
years, until 1912, when Mac Mahon, who
had greatly distinguished himself in
Africa, suddenly fell heir to considera-
BILE property. This softened the obdu-
rate heart of NJ. De MORN; and in 1874,
Heloise became the wife of Lieutenant
Colonel Mac Mahon.
She accompanied him to Africa and
wrote from thence to the Gazette de
France a series of anonymous sketches
on Algerian life, which were favorably
noticed by the critics, and which, oddly
enough, were generally attributed to a
distinguished officer Of the French army.
In lS49 Madame MacMahon returned
to France, where the successive deaths
of her three children almost broke her
heart She took up her abode at her
husbands property, Sully, near Autun,
and lived in the deepest retirement
from which she emerged only after the
Crimean war, when her husbands gal
lantry had made him the most popular
general in France.
She moved into modest house with
him in Paris, avoiding as much as posi-
Bile to come in contact with the imperial
court, for which she entertained an in.
vincibie repugnance, partly, probably,
on account of the, TO her, distastelul
frivolties of the Empress and her sur
roundings, and, partly too, because
having been brought up amidst all the
prejudice and hanteur of the old aris-
tocracy, she could not bring herself to
relish the parvenus that ruled supreme
in the Tuileres.
On one occasion, shortly before New
Years lie jour d'etrennes, she met the
Emperor Napoleon the Third while walk
ing with her two children through a
large Partisan toy store. The Emperor
was piqued by the coldness which the
duchess had displayed toward his court,
aud he adroitly tried to conquer her
aversion. Taking her children by the
hand, the auctocrat caused them to
select the most superb toys, until she
finally interfered, and said to the EN-
peror:
Sire, your kindness is unfortunately
useless, What will my little ones do
with these beautiful things in Africa,
whittier l shall take them tomorrow,
and rejoin my husband.
The Emperor bit his lips. He failed
in his purpose to conciliate her.
1t is needless to recapitulate here the
events of the next few years. Like
every true daughter of France, Madame
suffered intensely. The news
of her husbands defeat at Woerth pros
trated her so that her life was despaired |
of; and when she returned to Versailles |
after the war she looked ten years older,
and her hair had assumed silyery |
tinge Those who know her best say !
that she has an excellent heart, that she |
is nobly ambitious, generous foe, and |
with considerable literary tai
ents.