Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1875-11-05

THE BEAUTIFUL EUGENE.
A Visit tn Her In Her Exile--Some Of
Her Trsasures--The Pope's Gold
ON Rose--Napoleonic Talis- rz8
yis se 31sa man. 0# a
From letter Of q lady who visited her.
The ex-Empress, (who always, by
the way, alludes to the disasters Of
1870 as athe events,' y has passed her
autumns at Arenenberg ever since
the end of the Franco German war.
The chateau stands on hill nearly
1900 feet in height, and commands a
lovely over the upper valley of the
Rhine. The house is furnished now
with perfect simplicity, the only
splendor anywhere kept up, being
about the chapel of the chateau, the
altar furniture OF which is decorated
with ancient and very costly laces.
In this chapel is kept the "Golden
Rose" sent by His Holiness Plus
IX, some years ago to the Emp,ess,
then reigning at the Tuileries. This
"Mystic Rose,"" by the way is rather
rose-tree than a rose, and is a
wonderful piece Of goldsmith's
work. 1t represents a bunch of roses
with buds and leaves, the whole
about twelve inches in height, being
set in an antique vase Of exquisite
pattern adorned with 6assirelievi of
scenes in the life of Plus TX. The
rose, the leaves, the vase are of the
purest gold, chiselled with delicacy
and freedom, and force, worthy the
best ages and schools of art. The
vase is set upon a base of lapis-lazuli
enriched. with alternate medallions in
gold of the Papal and the Imperial
arms, and in it's turn supported on
four small steps of lapis-lazuli. OF
course the ex-Empress sets the high
est value on this precious memorial
of her sovereign days, and of the IA
vor with which the head of her
church then as now regarded her,
alike as a woman and a sovereign.
Equally treasured with the "Golden
Rose, however, is the Craftsman OF
Charlemagne," curious souvenier
of the two greatest princes who have
ever swayed the destinies of modern
Europe. The Romans were passion
ately fond of "talismans," (which have
sometimes been called chanaerr from
the multiform fabulous monster OF
that name-goat, lion and dragon in
one and sometimes syneplegmoto,
as being made up Of discordant ele-
ments embraced in one form, and
which have been known in more re-
cent times as grylli, from the italian
grillo, which signifies at once a
"cricket'' and caprice. In the latter
days of Rome and the earlier days of
modern history the use of such sym
bolic devices carved in stones of vari.
Gus kinds and worn chiefly in rings,
became very general. They were
thought to operate as charms and te
secure to the wearer the mystic pro-
lection of the deity or deities either
symbolized or set forth plainly upon
them. The stone known as the Tai
isman of Charlemagne is species OF
eorundum and is believed to have
been held very precious by the great
sovereign. 1t was long preserved
with the rest OF the relics belonging
to him at Aix-la-C a-Chapelle, and the
Chapter Of the Cathedral there pre-
sented it, not without cogent rea
sons, TO the modern Charlemagne,
the First Nepoleon who constantly
carried it about with him. The King
of Rome, afterwards Duke of Reich
stadt, treasured it not less, ana from
him it passed to his cousin Louis
Napoleon, who had it about his per
son when he made his escape from
the prison of Ham. He left it be.
hind him, however, when he quilted
Paris in 1870. Who knows what
night of happened had he taken it te
the field with him.
On the Sd of September, when the
Empress made up her mind to fly
from France, it was enclosed in a
rellquary of rock-crystal, shut in by a
secret spring, which the Empress did
not understand and had no time to
search for. So with a woman's de-
cision she caught up pair of tongs
from the chlmney-place and dashed
the costly case in fragments, Shortly
afterwards she confded it, with a
large sum OF money, to a faithful
official, with orders to find the Emp,
eror at Wilhelmshohe and give
them to him. The official lost his
head, and instead of setting out at
once, went to his apartments IN
Paris. There he put the money and
the talisman into an snaoire, the
key of which he had lost, and the
double doors of which he fastened
together by pinning over them a
map Of the Notifications of Paris
with four pins! Then came on "the
events" one after the other, with
tremendous rapidity. The official,
caught one day out of doors, was
obliged to fly for his life without
going back to get either the money
or the talisman. Of course the EN-
press in her exile, when she heard all
this, imagined that the money and
the talisman both must be given up
for lost, and with the talisman the
fortune of the Napoleons, the. more
particularly as it was known to her
by the public journals that the apart
ments of the official to whom she
had confded them had been repeat
edly ransacked both before, during
and after the Commune. Fancy her
astonishment, then, and delight, when
this official at last returning to Paris
and to his long-abandoned apart
ments found the map of Notifications
dusty indeed but undisturbed, and
the contents of the armoire precisely
as he left them! 1t can hardly be
thought strange that this should be
regarded not only by the ex-Empress
herself, but by her son and by not a