Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-05-20
THE SISTER-IN-LAW OF NAPOLEON
RONAPARTE.
A correspondent writing from Balti-
more to the Washington Chronicle.

l
A correspondent writing from Balti-
more to the Washington Chronicle.
says -
Madame Bonaparte, the sister-in-
law of the First Napoleon and widow
of Jerome Bonaparte, is still living in
Baltimore at a very advanced age. A
little less than century ago her father,
Mr.. Patterson, was wealthy and dis
tinguished citizen here, and about
seventy-fve years ago his daughter,
thesubject of this sketch, gay, brilliant,
inperious, and noted beauty, made
a ready conquest of the heart and hand
of the French Emperor's brother, Je-
rome, who was then sojourning here
With high hope and the boidest am
bition, the young bride set sail for
France with her Royal consort in
ship presented by her father. But the
American bride was promptly dis
owned by the Emperor. On reaching
French waters they were met by ship
commanded by French naval officer,
who presented royal order to Jerome
to report at once to the Emperor, un-
accompanied by his companion, the
young American lady, who was not to
be recognized as his wife. Jerome,
fearing to disobey, took. leave of his
wife and boarded the French ship. The
captain of the American vessel was
then commanded to follow. But
Madame Bonaparte, fearing to place
herself within the power of Napoleon,
commanded the captain of her vessel
to sail for England, which order was
executed by successful ruse, and she
made good her escape. so. sir, said
the Emperor coldly on meeting his
brother, you have presumed to dis
honor your blood by an alliance with
a backwoods milkmald. You must at
once consent to honor my commands,
or be forever disowned" The deser-
ton of his wife by Jerome, and his
subsequent royal alliance at his broth
er's command are well known. Subse-
quently the Emperor somewhat relent-
ed and for time Madame Bonaparte
received an allowance from him of ten
thousand dollars per annum, which
she has by judicious investment so
multiplied that she is now worth some
thing over a million. But the EN-
peror would never consent to meet her
and she has never seen him. Not
withstanding his ungracious treatment
she has ever been an ardent admirer
of his character. She considers him
the greatest man the world has ever
seen and his name the most honorable;
and for this reason and no other she
has never relinquished it. To-day she
is Madame Bonaparte and her mar
riage has always been sustained by the
Catholic Church.
She had one child, son, now de-
ceased, but she has two grandsons still
living. The elder who was the pride
of her old age and on whom she had
set great hopes, was a gallant and
spirited fellow, and an officer in the
French army. The Madame supplied
him abundantly with money to enter
tain as became one of his blood. AL
though the French authorities would
not permit him to bear his rightful
name of Bonaparte. his patron had set
her hopes on his forming a noble al
lance. But when the young officer
married against her wishes, she trans
ferred her favor to his younger broth
er, who is to-day q modest yet honored
member of the Baltimore legal fra
ternity.
But to return: | am unable to trace
the course of Madame Bonaparte
chronologically, though | have heard
it from her own lips. She has spent
altogether about twenty years at the
various capitols of Europe, though her
principal resort has been Geneva and
she has mingled freely with the best
society of the world. She is some
thing more than the result of rare cp-
portunities for culture and socigi In
tercourse. On meeting her, one be-
comes instantly conscious that he is in
the presence Of superior intelligence
and royal soul. But she is very old
more than ninety. She seems like the
spirit of past age raised from the
graves of the Napoleons and Yelling
tons, and Byrons, to utter over again
the sayings of the wits and stars of that
early period. She is still witty, epi-
grammatic, full of incidents and me-
moirs, and of the notable persons
whom she has known. If time and
space would permit, | should like to
report some of the incidents concern
ing Voltaire, Lamartine, Guccuioli
and score of others, which she re-
members as if they occurred yesterday.
Madame De Stael she refused to meet,
and when | expressed surprise, she
said: 20, De Stael was accustomed
to pronounce judgment on every one
she met, and there was no appeal from
her decision. If a person, newly in
troduced, did not strike De Stael's
fancy, or invent some remarkable wit
ticism out of hand, her death sentence
was instantly pronounced Madame
Bonaparte lives in very modest and
retired manner, and occupies herself
chiefly in reading her favorite authors
and in writing journal and autobiog-
raphy which are not to be published
until after her death. She is disin-
clined to converse on religious matters
but says that her religious opinions
are fully expressed in her writings.
However, one may infer from her high
appreciation of Voltaire's works that
her religious views are not unlike his.
ALL Odd Fellows are required ITO
Il