Knoxville Whig and chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1875-1882, 1875-12-29
AN OLD FRENCH LADY's REMEM.
BRANOE OF NAPOLEON.
ny Grace Greenwood An New York
Times.


Oar friend, the old French lady, oil
whom have already spoken, says OF
Josephine: She was not pretty, but
she was the most graceful woman in
the world" OF Napoleon, whom she
remembers as First Consul and as EN-
peror, she gives asingularly vivid de-
scription. She says that though in
youth he was thin and sallow, and in
middle age stout and pale, his face had
always strange beauty-stern, yet
"His eyes were like blue steel, yet
when at rest they had an absent,
dreamy look it was only when they
regarded you that you felt their power;
then something cold and sharp seemed
to pass through you. His finely-curved
chin was firm as marble, but 1t had a
dimple CT for young girl. He had a
small, beautiful mouth, which seemed
always ready to smile and never
smiled. His speech was abrdpt and
startling it made one tremble If he
only. said Bon Jour- There was
something nleelant about him, even in
his pleasantly. He played roughly,
especially with the Empress Marie
Louise, whom he treated as a child,
sometimes tossing her in the air, and
carrying her down stairs on his shout
ders.n
OF Marie Louise she said Her
neck and arms were fine, her COM
plexion was not bad, but she had an
ugly face, uamea2ing eyes, and a vile
nose" The old lady startled me by
adding that as a wife and mother that
royal dame was "sans entrailles."
This Nine. Mere has given us some
interesting accounts of the late siege
of its sight, fights, and privations.
She says that, given little more
time, the Corr munists would have re-
enacted the most bloody scenes of the
reign of terror-that they were " res
directed sans culottes." For many
weeks the family lived on the very
edge of starvation. They have pre-
served a small piece of the black bread
to which they were reduced. 1t looks
IA though made of the refuse of an old
granary, ground up into something
which could hardly be called flour.
But Madame says they ate of it thank
fully, as they did of the meat of horses,
dogs, cats, and even rats. The latter,
she confessed, was little too much
she could not keep it on her patriotic
but enfeebled stomach, but immediate.
~ EGuueT6u ~ lls Sas meat, she
said, Twas not so bad; indeed we all
found it very like hare"
Then, she added, with a childlike
smile, "Et nlainte1dnt, q,tdad nous
1iongeouS du HeUre, nous persons al,
chat" To eat hare and think cat is
not pleasant, but when we see ieure
served for dinner, lying in state on
the platter, with his legs in the air, we
are inclined to suspect that the big
brindled serenaders of the housetops
and the portly promenaders of the
courts are really being fatted for the
market by these wonderful French
economists. Charles Lambs China
man came into a knowledge of the
righteousness of roast pig through the
burning of his house-the Parisians
burned palaces and found what Ifutri.
ment there was in grimalkin. AS fol
me, / own to a weakness for cats
those lazy, luxurious, lordly creatures
that can be touched by neither oul
JOY nor our sorrow, that attach them
selves without attachment, and follow
US without devotion. There is some
thing that piques me to love them in
their very insensibility to affection
but there is vast difference between
loving cats and liking cat.