Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1879-12-11
Napoleon. The story of his Marriages.


play an important part in the story Of
their fortunes, and none Of them were
SO significant and important as those
Of the Emperor. TO one who, like
him, looked upon the world rs made
for him, and upon laws merely IL
something which were good for him to
impose upon others, it must have APP
pcared that his two wives were admi-
rably planned for his use. Josephine
de Bcauharnais was an ideal wife for
Il young and rising man of genius.
She had everything which would APP
peal to a fancy like his, at once selfish
and passionate. She had beauty, rank,
the power Of pleasing, and Il certain
indolent grace that promised an obc-
dicncc reasonably free from jealousy,
Up to the time that he mounted the
imperial throne and seated her by his
side, she was all that his narrow heart
and boundlcss ambition could desire.
But after the marvellous victory Of
Wagram had opened up to his icyercd
Imagination still wider pcrspectives Of
dominion, he looked for another style
of wife, and found her in Maria Louisa
OF Austria. Her blonde beauty, form
ed of pink and white color and round
" curving lines and the golden floss
of n child's hair, appealed strongly to
his iadcd taste He was not old, but,
as he said to the directory, zone ages
fast upon the field of battle" and he
wanted some such solace n this soft,
unintellcctual beauty lsomcbody has
called it the Aldcrncy style Of prctti-
ness in his home, if such a word may
be used of the Tuilcries. Besides he
doubtless felt that an emperor should
have an cmpcror's daughter to wife,
and this was young girl who had u
hundred monarchs for her anccstor-,
and vet she would be gentle and obc-
dicnt, and not argue with him or an
-wer him. and would give him heir.
He was genuinely attached to her.
and if he knew nothing about her. and
had no prcmontiou OF Count Ncip-
pcrg, it was all the better for him.
She, also, was quite taken by storm
with him, and for while the novelty
of being loved by an ogrc-ior such
she had alway, considered him-wa-
agreeable to her. But his tumultuou.
glory was quite too much for the daily
food of such human small being n
the empress, and she was doubtless re.
licved when the indignant soul left his
body at Longwood, and she was free
to follow her ignoble little heart and
marry NcipPerg.
Josephine would have bad her re-
ycngc il she could have forc.ccn the
course of history for even few years.
Il i she. and not the pretty Austrian.
who will be known forever as the wife
of Napoleon. II i, her statue that
rises in marble in the public places of
Paris 1t is her name and those of
her children that mark the great ave
nucs OF the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. .Io-
scphinc, Ia Refine llortcn-e, Boulc-
ward du Prince Eugene. Though she
was oustcd rcmor-cic-sly from a throne
to make room for Maria. it was her
chiIdrcn-the children OF the creole
postscript-who should become the
tenants Of palaces, and not those Of
her rival The Duke of Reichstadt
was to pass youth of ingloriou- pleas
ure. and was 10 die before his prime.
and leave no son TO inherit his claims
to empire while the Bcauharnais line
was to stretch out like the swarm Of
Kings seen by the Thanc of Cawdor in
his vision. Eugene, her heroic son.
after the fall of the Napolcons, return
ed to- the court of his father.in.law.
the King of Bavaria, and became
Prince of Eichstadt, Duke of Isuch.
tenberg, and first nobleman of the
kingdom. His daughter, united to the
son of Bernadotte, became Queen of
Sweden another became Princes
of Hohenzollern, and third Empress
of Brazil. His oldest son won the
hand of the Queen of Portugal, and
the younger married n daughter of
the Gar Nicholas Of Russia. And
whatever doubt might be thrown on
the purity Of the Napoleonic descent
by which the Emperor Napoleon III.
claimed the throne, he was unques-
tionably the son of Hortense, and was
Beauharris and Tascher-la- Pagerie be-
yond challenge. The grandson of
Josephine, Louis Napoleon, ruled
France in peace and with a sort of
splender for the space of twenty-five
years while the period of the first Ma
poleon's reign counting Consulate and
Empire together, was but fifteen
though so powerful was the personal
imprint made by the uncle, and so
vague was the individual character of
the nephew, that the shorter reign
seems like an age, and the longer like
an episode.
n