The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1875-09-01
THE MOTHER OF NAPOLEON iii.

which, in their entirety, are never t
be published. They were designe,
for the reading of her own family
and were intended to explain TIL
complicated, unhappy and not blame
less life of the.writer. They are full
OF exaggerations and indiscretions
or high-fown sentiments and hasty
verdicts on men and women.-
Throughout there is evidence of &
generous spirit, warm heart and Of
a penetrating mind.
The intimate descriptions of Ma
poleon are, in many passages, admi-
rable, and would be valuable to his
tory as showing the warmer side of
his character. When the Queen
touches on her welded life, she pre-
sents her husband as q domestic ty-
rant, with whom it was impossible to
live; but then it is easy to see by the
context that what she called tyranny
was the endeavor of serious and
solitary man to curb the wild exu-
berance of worldly, society-loving,
even frivolous woman, who found
most of her pleasure away from the
Preside, and who had been spoiled
by the alteration of brilliant court.
II is to be remarked that. although
she resented King Louis tyranny
and gloom, she never ceased to res
pect him. She knew that she had
not been good wife to her husband,
and in her will she acknowledged it.
Her frailties were beyond question,
nor does she deny them in the final
record of her life. She explains,
idealizes and moralizes, seeking to
bewitch rather than to satisfy the
Judgment of the reader. And to some
extent she succeeds, for there was in
the daughter of "la bonnie Joseph
inc" heroic virtue, scorn of danger,
intensity of maternal love, and char
ity which, covering the calamity of
the migrate and the treachery Of the
friend, was active to the last in kind
offices among the humblest o f her
neighbors. The good overbears and
almost hides the bad. Yet it cannot
be denied that the effect exercised by
Queen Hortense on the character of
her son Louis was enervating. She
was a lover and seeker of pleasure to
the last. All her friends were de-
lightful and cultivated companions.
She loved letters and the arts. The
learned man was ever welcome at her
board But she was no strict mis-
tress of morals.
There was much of what we I'M
derstand as the Bohemian in her ma
tnre. Cottrau, the artist, was allow
ed about the chateau in a costume
that would have charmed the grisettes
of the Quarter Latin. She liked ex-
petitions Ia bonnie franquette, to
use a Paris vulgarisn. In Rome her
parties were Of the liveliest, and in
those days strict morals made no
part of the estimate when the value
or desirability of lady's society
was under consideration.
Prince Louis could not but become
kindly and charitable under the
guidance aud with the example of his
mother: but he could hardly fail also
to feel the influence of the very thin
moral atmosphere of her little court.
The basis of the Arenenberg society
was democratic, and, as we have OBJ
served, the Bernese aristocrat was
not more welcome than the rough
radical of Thurfau. In this bracing
political company the gay queens
sol contracted that democratic tone
which his mind kept unimpaired to
the last hour of his life.
But the pleasures, the conversation
the southern brio, that threw rosy
lint about slips in morals, were ener-
waiting surroundings to the young
man whose single hand was to hold
sway and mastery over an empire !
In after-life Prince Louis showed
deep traces of both the good and the
evil of his mothers teachings and
the society in which she brought ,
him up. The good blossomed in a /;
Thousand acts of kindness, and the a
evil appeared in many weaknesses l
all those of tender heart-for which a
q bitter penalty was paid in the end. 5
i blanchard Jerrolds Life of Napo- h
leon III.
GENERAL PICKETT's KINpHEARrEp- t
SEss.-The st. Louis Times, abiding T
to the recent death of the Confeder- il
ate General Pickett, relates the fol- d
Iawinn incidant nf tho faraona .alAl \