Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1879-11-29
The Ex-Empress Eugenie's Mother

The marriage of her daughter with the late
Emperor Napoleon III. Is the Countess de Mon
t1O'S Chief claim upon the attention Of the news
papers. otherwise probably the lady would
have died and been buried with little foreign
notice OF these mournful events. She went to
Paris with two pretty daughters thirty-flve
years ago, and though living quietly, became the
subject of the following note entered at Police
Headquarters by one of the Paris detectives:
There is staying at No. As Rue st. Antoine, in
a rather shabby apartment on the third floor,
Nine. de Mont1jo, who processes to be the wife
OF Spanish grandee. Her style of living
is modest and she receives no visits from ladies';
but three or four times week number OF
gentlemen, principally foreigners, come and
pass the evening with her and play cards. 1t is
presumable that they are attracted as much by
the beauty of Nine. de Mont1jos daughters as
by the wish to gamble" On the border of this
note the Project of Police wrote: 'Find out
whether Mime. Montijo is really the wife of
was the return: '.Mme de Montfjo is really
what she processes to be, the wife OF the Count
OF that name, but the pair were virtually d.
yorced three years after marriage, and the
ten thousand francs year."
Five years afterward the marriage of the
Countess's eldest daughter to the rich Spanish
Duke of Alba brought wealth to her family: for
it is reported that the Duke gave the old lady
one hundred thousand francs a year on condition
that She should stay away from Spain. She re-
up an establishment of considerable splendor,
became guest at President Louis Napoleon's
receptions and protracted visitor at his subur-
ban palaces; and succeeded in keeping Eugene
presumably heart-whole until Napoleon got
ready to lay siege to the little fortress.
In order to facilitate operations she said to
him one day, in effect: "Your attentions to my
dear child are so marked and have become SO
remarked upon that really, Mr.. President l
think we shall have to take our departure from
our adopted and beloved Paris. We shall be
forced, fear, to make the sacrifice; unless, un-
less, =" my dear Countess, interrupted, sub
stanttally, the smitten Nephew Of his Uncle,
"don't say another word. understand you per.
fectly. Pray give me until to morrow" Forthwith
he acquainted his Cabinet with his intention to
marry Mile. Montijo. They objected that the
lady was not his equal socially. He replied that
he would have her anyhow. About a week af-
terward he was proclaimed Emperor; and about
two months afterward he was bound to the
beautiful Eugene by both civil and ecclesiasti-
cal ceremonies, the latter in the Cathedral of
Notre Dame. During the Empire the Countess
lived as became an Emperor's mother-in-laW:
and when Napoleon fell at Sedan she retired
gracefully to Spain. Her widowed and childless
daughter, after a long and trying journey from
Chiselhurst, reached Madrid too late to bid her
farewell. The dead Countess was the daug liter
OF Mr.. Kirkpatrick, once an English consul at
Malaga Her husband was the youngest son of
the Count Of MontiJo, who subsequently became
his fathers heir. Like her daughters she was
beautiful in her prime, and was victorious
through beauty.-tN. Y. Post.