Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1878-09-19
EUGENE MoNTIJo.

EUGEN1E MONT1JO.
Romantic Private History Of the Sec
ond Empire--The Beauty that Won
Napoleon III. and Ruled all Europe--
A Brides Forebodtngs at the Nuptisl
Altar.
Lucy H. Hooper in uppincott's Magazine.
When the bloody business of the coup
detat was definitely finished, the mur.
DER stains washed from the streets, the
victims inferred, and few thousand of
the best and boldest hearts of France
had taken the sorrowful road of exile,
the new emperor bethought him how
best to gild his freshly gained throne.
After the gloomy tragedy of the over
throw OF the republic, France was to be
treated to the grand spectacular piece of
the "Second Empire" An empress was
besought for without delay. Negotia-
tions were opened with several princelv
houses for the hand of damsels of royal
birth, but speedily came to naucht.
The negotiations for the hand of the
Swedish Princess Vasa did, indeed.
promise at oae time to be crowned with
success. But the emperor sent his physi-
clan to take a look at the lady, and to
Judge if her physique promised health
tul and numerous offspring; and this
fact, coming to the ears of her family.
caused sudden stop to be put to the
whole affair. Meantime, at the reunion
OF Compiegne, the personality of
young and lovely foreign countess was
coming prominently into notice owing
to the evident impression that her
charms had made upon the suscentihle
heart Of Napoleon Ill. This lady, Eu-
genie Montijo, Countess de Teba, was
no longer in the first bloom of girl.
hood, having been born in 1926.
But she was in the full meridian of
beauty. It is, indeed, said that as a.
young girl her charms were in nowise
remarkable. On her first appearance in
society at the court of Madrid she cre-
ated no sensation whatever. But one
da", the court being at Aranjuez, during
a .tete chanapetre, Mademoiselle de Mon.
tito had the good or i'll fortune to fall
into one OF the ornamental fish ponds in
the garden. She was taken out insensi-
BILE, and her wet and clinging garments
revealed form of such statuesoue per
lection that all Madrid went raving
about her beeu;y. She plunged a com.
mon place girl-she rose Venus. And
when she first attracted the notice of
Napoleon she was indisputably one of
the love!lest women in Europe. She was
tall, slender, exquisitely proportioned,
ard her walk was that of goddess. Her
features delicate and regular; her.eyes
long, almond-shaped, and full of tender
and dreamy sweetness; her small and
faultlessly-shaped head was set upon a
loae,. slender neck, with the swaying
grace OF lily upon its stalk; her shout
ders were sloping and beautifully mold
ed, notwithstanding her lack of embon-
point-for in those:days she was as slight
as reed. A profusion of fair hair
which she wore turned back from the
face in the graceful style known as
ga la Pompadour,". but speedily to be
rechristened "a PImperatrice "-and a
hand and foot of truly royal beauty
completed An ensemble of charms we'll
calculated to drive humanity out of its
seven senses.
The Spanish blood of the Countess de
Teba made her obnoxious in the ewes of
many of her future subjects. Moreover,
the antecedents of the lady were not al.
together without reproach. Not that
any actual stigma had ever chung to her
character, but she had always been look.
ed upon as fast girl. Stories, some
true, some false, were circulated respect.
ing her follies and her escapades.
The fact OF the Emperor's interest in
the fair foreigner was revealed by an in.
cident slig bit in itself, and only import.
ant by the emotions which it called
forth. At one of the small intimate re.
unions at Compiegne, Mademoiselle dc
Montijo happened, while dancing, to
entangle her feet in the long folds Of he1
train, and she fell with some violence te
the floor. The extreme anxiety and dis
tress manifested by the emperor acted
as revelation to all present. A stormy
opposition to the proposed alliance was
at once organized among the fami]iars oil
the EmperOl--the men who had aided in
his elevation, and to whom it was too re-
cent for them to stand in awe of him
NM. de Morny and de Persigney in par
; ticular were violent in their opposition
In fact the latter went so far as to tel
the emperor, at the close of long and
stormy interview on the subject, that il
was hardly worth while to have made s
coup detot to end in such manner. M
de Morny argued and reasoned with hi
imperial brother, but neither the violence
Of Persigney nor the arguments of dc
Morny make any impression on the cold
and infiexible will of Napoleon ILL.,, and
a few days later the countess made he,
appearance at one of the court balls in 8
dress Topped and wreathed with the i'm
perial emblem flower, the violet. The
Emperor, advancing toward her, present
ed her with superb bouquet of the
same significant blossoms. The marriae {
was irrevocably decided upon, and all
that they had to do was to submit to the
; imperial will and make ready to Offer
their homage to the new empress. With
; the solitary exception of Prince Napo
leon, the imperial family submitted with
a good grace to the matrimonial pro.
, jects of their chief. The Princess Ma
thilNe, in particular, although the mar.
rage would depose her from the place
that she had occupied as the first lady OF
the court, declared her willingness to
bear the train Of the new empress in
public, if such duty should be required
of her, as it had been of the sisters Of
the first Napoleon.
There remained, however, an arrange
: ment to be completed which, though
awkward and painful, was yet positively
necessary. In hotel on the Rue du
Cirque dwelt lady who had been the
partner of his days Of exile and ill.
fortune, who had impoverished herself
in his service, and who had devoted her.
self to- furthering his aims with per.
sistency worthy of better cause. This