Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1880-02-13
Napoleon.

Josephine de Beauharnais was an idea
wife for a young and rising man of genius
She had everything that would appeal to
fancy like his; at once selfish and passion
ute. She had beauty, rank, the power o.
pleasing; and a certain indolent grace tina
promised an obedience reasonably free from
Iea ously. Up to the time he mounted the
Imperial throne and seated her by his side,
'he was all that his narrow heart and bound
ess ambition could desire But alter the
marvellous victory at Wagram had opened
up to his fevered Imagination still wider
perspectives Of dominion, he looked for an
other style of wife, and found her in Marie
Louise of Austria Her blonde beauty, form
cd Of pink and white color, and roundy
surving lines and the golden floss of u chi,d's
lair, appealed strongly to the jaded taste
lie was not old, but, rs he said to the drec-
tory, zone ages fast upon the field of battle"
and he wanted some such solacc as this soft,
inintelectual beauty somebody has called
it the Alderney style of prettiness) in hi
home if such word may be used Of the
| ruilleries. Besides he doubtless felt that
an emperor should have an emperors daugh-
ter to wife, and this was young girl who
nad hundred monarchs for her ancestors,
and yet she would be gentle and obedent,
and not argue with him or answer him, and
would give him heirs. He was genuinely
attached to her, and if he knew nothing
al h.v Nd had M ,,ra,,n.tt;1n Of ~
Neipperg, 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
ogre-for such she had always considered
him was agreeable to her, But his tumul-
tuous glory was quite too much for the daily
food OF such small human being as the Em-
press, and she was doubtless relieved when
the indignant soul left his body at Logwood,
and she was free to follow her ignoble little
heart and marry Neipperg.
Josephine would have had her revenge ii
she could have foreseen the course Of his
tory for even few years. II is she, and not
| the pretty Austrian who will be known for.
ever as the wife of Napoleon. 1t is 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 avenue
Of the metropolis. Avenue Josephine, Da
Refine Hortense, Boulevard du Prince Flu
gene, Though she was ousted remorseless
rom throne TO make room for Marie
Louise, it was her children--the children
of the creole proscript--who should be-
come the tenants of palaces, and not those
of her rivals. The Duke OF Rcichstadt was
To pass youth of ing,orious pleasure and
was to 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 by the Thane of
Cawdor in his vision. Eugene, her heroic
son, after the fall Of the Napoeons, returned
TO the courts Of his father-in-law, the King
ol Bavaria, and became Prince Of Reich
stadt. Duke Of Leutchtemberg, and first
nobeman of the kingdom. His daughter
united to the son Of Bernadotte, becane
Queen Of Sweden; another bscsms Prin-
cess Of Hohenzolern, and third Empress
OF Brazil. His Oldest son won the hand OF
the Queen Portugal, and the younger daugh-
ter married son OF the Car Nicholas of
Russia. And whatever doubt might be
thrown on the purity Of the Napoleonic de-
scent by which the Emperor Napoleon Ill,
claimed the throne, he was unquestionabIy
the son OF Hortense, and was Beauharnai,
| 4 a.. A.
fhc grandson Of Josephine, Louis Napo-
leon, ruled France in peace and with sort
OF spiendOr for the space of twenty-five
years while the period Of the first Napoleon
reign counting Consulate and Empire 10.
sether was but filtoen--though so powerful
was the personal imprint made by the uncle
and 80 vague was the individual character
Of the nephew that the shorter reign seems
like an age, and the longer like an episode