River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-09-11
NAPOLEON III. AND EUGENE.
A Spanish Countess Made Empress of France
|. a Day.

A Spanish Countess Made Empress of France
l. Day.
Now that public attention is directed
TO Chiselhurst, and the sympathy of the
world goes out to the widowed and child
less woman, whose very life may at any
moment yield to the latest burden of sor-
now, a special interest attaches to all that
relates to the life and history of the ex-,
| Empress Eugene Marie de Guzman was
born at Grenada, in Spain, May 5, 1926
and is second daughter of the Count
Montlio and of Marie Manuela Kirkpat-
ric. At an early age she displayed an
intelligence equal to her great beauty,
the stvle of the latter being very remars-
able; for with Andalusian foIm, features
and the soft eyes peculiar to Spain, it
united coronal of golden hair not often
seen in that Southern cline. These and
some other characteristics she doubtless
inherited from the Nothern ancestry of
her still beautiful mother. Her educa.
ton was varied, and colored by localities
IN which it was received Accustomed
rs she became in her earliest years to the
music and the mystic poetry of Spain
| as much so as to the blue skies, the
orange and the citrOn groves, the vivid
culOring of flowers and of costume in that
romantic land, she was sent to acquire
knowledge first to Toulous, and afterward
to Bristo.. With England she therefore
soon became acquainted, as likewise
with many of the English people. To-
ward France, however, that France for
which her father had voluntarily fought
and suffered, the thoughts of the young
| Eugene were often turned with keenest
interest, and over that fair land, in her
imagination, the Eagle of Napoleon, I'M
der whose banner her father had marched
to victory, was ever ready, despite all
changes of dynasty, to fly from tower to
tower, until resting with folded wings on
the nights of Notre Dame in Paris.
In 1889 her father died at Madrid, and
now, no less than ever before, was she
likely to forget the legends of French
glory by which he had charmed her child
hood. 1t must consequently have been
sort of nascent PRIDE and earnest sympa-
thy that she heard first of the attempt of
Prince Louis Napoleon on Strasbourg,
and aftcra ards IN 1840) near BOlogne.
Women adore heroism, and though men
may sheer at the attempt of a banished
prince to re-enter the land of his birth
by the aid of only half a hundred men,
and by the light of at star of his des-
tiny in which he had implicit belief, there
was something heroic in the eventful voy-
age of tins prince across the British Chan
mel, in the steamboat called the EdInburg
Castle, and all the more so because he had
already been made to pay the penalty OF
Punishment to America for his sudden
entry into Strasbourg. From America he
had come back, al the risk of his own life
in the hope of soothing the last days of
his adored and adoring mother, Queen
Hortense, and Iatterly, in England, he
had not shrunk from the consequences OF
that act of tilial duty, which had helped
to entail upon him consequences, includ-
ing poverty, from which the heart of a
less brave man would have recoiled. So
it was no wonder if the fair Eugene. born
of a heroic race land early sm1tten with the
| legends of the first NapoleOn's glory, did
feel that which many men might deem
romantic interest in the luckless landing Of
Prince Louis Napoleon at Bologne. Sol
diers on the French coast were excitedly
ready to hail him with rapture; other
brave men also; but he was captured and
imprisoned in tie fortress of Ham, and
] this with such rigor that it seemed very
/ doubtful whether the beautiful Spaniard,
| destined one day to become his wife,
| would ever meet him in this world, for
as vet they were personally strangers TO
each other.
From the first moment, however that
| the Emperor had beheld Mile. de MontJo.
Countesse dc Teba, after the Revolution
of 1S4S had given him power over the
| land from which he 80 long was an exile,
| his fate was fixed; and whether at the
| Presidential festivities, given at the pal
ace of the Elysee, under the auspices OF
his accomplished cousin, the Princes
Mathilde, or at st. Cloud, or elsewhere,
the lonely and graceful Spanish lady was
| observed bv him as the only one most
worthy to be placed on the throne OF
| France. Accompanied by some of her
| relatives she had visited that country.
When first she arrived there she found
the accent of the French language some
| what on posed to that of her own melodl-
Gus and more southern tongue; but at
last day came wren the illustrions host
Of St. Cloud, where she was on visit
with many other guests, said to her: rs
| it love that has taught you FrepchT' And
she is reported to have answered: mo,
| sire; it is the French that has taught me
love" In company such as then assem-
bed at St. Cloud-the once tavorite
abode of Queen Marie Antoinette, and
after ward of the Empress Josephine--lt
is often difficult to trace the real origin
of anecdotes such as this, but there can
he no doubt whatever that in the month
Of January, 1858, the Emperor Napoleon
III, having cnnvoked an assembly OF the
chief legislative representatives at the
4 Tuileries, thus announced his approach
ing marriage with Mile. de Montuo: "She
who has become the object of my prefer
Ience is of elevated birth. French In
heart, by education, and by the memory
of her fathers blood shed for the cause
of the Empire; she, as Spamard, has
tie advantage of being the member of q
4 family on which it might be necessary to
confer honors and dignities. Endowed
with all the noble qualities of the soul
she will be the ornament of the throne
: while in the day of danger she would be
come one of its most courageous support
ers. Catholic ana piouss she will address
the same prayers as myself to Heaven to-
the happiness of France. Gracious anc
good, she will, firmly hope, by beng
placed in the same position, revive thu
virtues of the Empress Josephine
n The address having met with most ia
vorable response. the marriage of Napoleon
i III. with Eugene de Montiio, Confess
de Teba. y as celebrated at the Tuileres OF
the Goth of anuary. 1853, and on the fol
lowing Iay at the Cathedral of Notr'
| Dame. Almost imediately afterward tn
Empress-bride gave an indication of tina
generosity of disposition, which has upol
various occasions since distinguished her
: for the sum of $4,000, taving been vo
r ted by the Municipal Council of Paris to
the purchase Of parure of ornaments
: suitable not only to.her beauty but he
II imperial rank, she entreated that, iDsteat
! of devoting this sum to her own persona
| adornmenf. she might be allowed to ICON
: secrate it to the fonn iatian Of an estab
f Ilishment 10. the professional education .
I p. or young girls, uho. though posslbl.
I well born. and gifted with some talent
|. are precIuded from the honest exercise o