New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-06-23
TIE MARQUIS D'EYRAGUEs.

There has always existed peculiar
bond of sympathy between France and
Louisiana, and especially between Paris
and New Orleans. French names figure
in our State, parochial and city nomen-
clature, and French blood, French laws
and French customs have softened the
stern angula rites of feature and charac-
ter which descended upon Louisiana
through Saxon and Celtic channels. The
Ere nch Creole, however much he may
love the land of his nativity, still regards
France with special reverence as the home
Of his forefathers, and the fondest of all
his fond wishes is that he may see Paris
before he dies.
Through the sympathetic sentiments
just noticed en- element Of romance has
been interviewer with the ties Of kinship,
which stretches from the new world to the
old. This shows itself in thousand in
teresting forms-in lays of love, in crea-
tons of fiction, and even in details of
fact. Louisiana has been much indebted
to France, but she has made payment
whenever the opportunity was afforded.
The child of the em;gre has by no means
brought discredit upon himself in the
home of his fathers. Entering the con-
tested fields of literature and art, he has
given them freshness and piquancy
which were racy Of the New Worlds virgin
soil. The fragrance of the magnolia,
blended with that Of the .Heer de lis, gave
to both an odor which neither before pos
sessed, thus rendering still more attractive
what was fair and beautiful before.
We do not here propose to furnish list
of the descendants of French colonists
who have done honor to their own line
age at home or abroad, but simply to pay
a passing tribute to one who, born in
New Orleans, achieved high repute in
the domain of French diplomacy.
The Marquis d'Eyragues first opened
his eyes in this city on the first Of
January, 1906. His father and mother
were refugees from San Domingo,
where their experiences had been of the
most startling and wildly romantic char
acter. Their reception here was entirely
cordial among those who spoke their Ian
guage and sympathized in their political
aspirations and antipethies, but they found
strange flag floating above the city ram
parts and from the flagstaff in Place
d'Armes, and felt that though theirrefuge
was secure, they were not at home where
the lily of France was no longer the SYM
Dol Of authority.
After few years the father of this New
Orleans boy returned to the country from
which he considered himself too long an
exile, became soldier, and in the wars of
the Empire developed into distinguished
officer, and was present when Moscow,
through the exigence Of desperate STRAIT
egg, was delivered to the flames. Finally,
he found soldiers grave when, with the
French army, he crossed the Pyrenees
and was marching on Madrid.
At the age Of nineteen young Eyragues
secured a position under NJ. de DANES,
Minister of Foreign Affairs, and through
his cleverness, discretion and probity rose
rapidly into favor. From that time for
ward his career was completely indenti-
fed with French diplomacy.
In these days of railways and telegraphs
the diplomatic travels Of NJ. d'Eyragues,
conducted about half century ago, pre-
sent in their details Of obstacles to be
overcome all the romance of perilous ad-
venture. His visit to Stamboul, his horse
back journey over the Balkin and to Con-
his description of the walls
Of the Seraglio, decorated with the heads
of revolted Greeks, and his presence in
Russia at the coronation of the Emperor
with attendant matters of ex-
ceptional interest, sound, as he tells the |
story in his private memoirs, like transla-
tons from the pages Of an Arabian Nights |
tale.
With the Napoleonic revolution of 1913 |
the career of NJ. d'Eyragues as diplomat |
closed, and he retired to Falaise, the birth
place Of William the Conqueror, where he |
remained till the quiet and happy sunset
Of his life. The wiles of Napoleon III.
could not induce him to share the for
fupoc IF 4bo< cchov,irO orI op,1,;<;o,,c a
venturer. He remained faithful to France,
however. and to his own views Of right,
and when the end came he welcomed it as
} release from cares which had become |
oppressive and as the consummation of a
hope frightened by the halo of a strong |
Christian faith.
BOGUS INTERVIEWS.