Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1879-11-17
Napoleon's Marriages.

The marriages OF the BOnaparte play
an important part in the story OF their
fortunes, and none of them We're so sig
Jnificant and important as those OF the
Emperor. To one who, like him, look
ed uDOn the world as made for him, and
upon laws merely as something which
were good for him to impose upon 9TH
ers, it must have appeared that his two
wives were admirably p aimed Tor his
use. Josephine de Beauharnais was
an ideal wife for young and rising
man of genius. She had everything
which would appeal to fancy like his,
at once selfish and passionate. She had
beauty, rank, the powerOf pleasing, and
a certain indOlent grace that promised
an obedience reasonably Tree from leal-
ousy. Up to the time that he mounted
the imperial throne and seated Der by
his side. she was all that his narrow
heart and bOundless ambition could de-
sire. But after the marvellous victory
OF Wagram had opened up to his fever
ed imagination still wider perspectlves
of dominion, he looked for another
style of vile. and found her in Maria
Louisa of Austria. Her blond beauty,
formed of pink and white color and
roundly curving lines and the golden
floss OF a child's hair, appealed strongly
10 his faded 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 as this soft,
unintellectual beauty somebody has
called il the Alderney style OF pretti-
ness) in his home, il such a word may
be used of the 1uileries. Besides, he
doubtless felt that an emperor should
have an emperOr's daughter to wife,
and this was a young girl who had
hundred mOnarchs for her ancestors,
and vet she would be gentle and obedi-
emf, and not argue with him or answer
him, and would give an him heir. lie was
genuinely attached to her, and ii he
knew nothing about her, and had no
premOnitiOn OF Count Nelpperg 1t was
all the better for him. She also was
quite taken by storm with him, and Tor
a while the novelty of being loved by
an ogro-for such she had always con-
sidered him-was agreeable to her. But
his tumultuOus glory was quite too
much for the daily food of such hui
man small being a. the Empress, and
she was doubtless relieved when the in
dignant soul left his body at LOngwood,
and she was free to follow her ignOble
little heart and marry Neipperg.
Josephine would have had her re-
yenge IL she could have fOreseen the
course of history for even a few years
II is she, and not the pretty Austrian,
JshO will be known forever as the wife
of Napoleon. 1t is her statue that rises
in marble in the public places OF Paris.
ID is her name and those OF her children
that mark the great avenues OF the me
tropolis-Avenue Josephine, La Refine
Hortense. Boulevard ia Prince Eugene.
Though she was Ousted remOrsefulIv from
from a throne to make for Maria Louisa,
il was her children-the children OF the
creole prOScript-whO should become
the tenants OF palaces, and not those OF
her rival. The Duke of Reichstadt was
to pass a youth of inglOriOus pleasure,
and was 10 die before his prime, and
leave no son to inherit his claims to
empire: while the Beauharnais line was
TO stretch out like the swarm OF kings
seen bv the Thane of Cawdor
i'm his vision. Eugene, her
uerOlt Sln, dlNCI NlC As'AA VI t'N
Napole0ns, returned to the court OF his
father-in-law, the King of Bavaria, and
became Prince Of EiChstadt, Duke OF
Leuchtenberg, and first nObleman OF the
kingdom. His daughter, united to the
son of BernadOtte, became Queen OF
Sweden; another became princess OF
Hohenzollern, and third Empress OF
Brazil. His oldest son won the hand OF
the Queen OF Portugal, and the younger
married a daughter OF the Car Nicholas
of Russia. And whatever doubt might
be thrown on the purity OF the Napo-
leonic descent by which the Emperor
Napoleon III. claimed the throne, he
was Internationally the son OF Hor-
tense. and was Beauhdrnais and las
cher-la-Pagerie beyond challenge. The
grandson OF Josephine, Louis Napoleon,
ruled France in peace and with a sort OF
splendor for the space of twenty-five
wears, 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 that uncle, and so
vague was the individual character Of
the nephew, that the shorter reign
seems ike an ace, and the longer
ike an episode.-HGrPcr's Magazine for
December.