The Osceola times., 1880-01-24

as Nine. dc Remusat's revelations of the
private life of the Bonaparte household.
What hos lie English pens did in the
first quarter of this century to spawn all
sorts Of scandals about this family is rs
nothing to what Nine de Remusat
writes, as modestly as she can, but yet
with plainness which is permissible ia
Paris, if not in Boston. 1t is pity. per.
haps, that tins iconoClast has rudely
pulled down Napoleon's first wife from
the marble pedestal on which so many
have set up the sainted Josephine. But
at the beginning il was her "complais-
ance" to Barras that gained Bonaparte
the command Of the army in Italy, and
thus paved his way TO the Imperial
throne. 1t was after he became First
Consul that there was "business-like
compact by which Bonaparte and Jo-
sephine agreed to overlook each others
iniidelites." This harmonious agree
ment Nine. de Remusat represents as
positively respectable in comparison
with the shameless slewaness of Bona
parties three sisters. 1t was tins pre-
cious trio that published all of Jose
phine's misdoings. They forged the
story that Ilortense's frst-born child
was the fruit of an incestuous intrigue
between the First Consul and his daugh-
ter-in-law. Nine. de Remusat, who be-
heved that Josephine's daughter was the
one pure and irreproachable being in
that wanton court, charges the oblovuy
heaped upon poor Hortense TO the per-
sistcnt and malignant defamations of
Napoeon's sisters Surely it was not
they who invented the tale that the
third son of Hortense, Charles Louis
Napoleon (Napoleon Ill }; was also the
son OF the Dutch Admiral Verhuel. it
is historical that King Louis of Holland
had lived so long apart from Hortense
hat he declined to assume the paternity
OF little Louis till Napoleon commanded
him to do so. But while two of the sis
tcrs, especially, Pauline and Caroline,
were blackening the Beauharnais, moth
er and daughter, what Josephine whis-
pered into the ear of Nine. de Remusat
about the Bonapartes is almost too much
for her modest pen, and she draws her
portraits as modestly as she can. And,
if this new biographer is entitled to full
credence, until the long looked for mem
oirs of Talleyrand are given to the
world nothing can more completely de-
throne the Bonapartes from the position
they have long held in public estimate.
especially in this country The average
young American, till he grows older and
learns better, has an ardent admiration
for C@sarism, an the fulsome adulation
of the first Napoleon by Abbott makes
his romance one of the most sought-fo for
| and eagerly devoured histories" in our
public Libraries. But in these days, Bis
marck, or even Beaconsfield, is "a big
ger man than old Bonaparte, and the
brilliant light of the Napoleon dynasty
Is fast fading away. The recent death OF
the young Prince Imperial, of at least
| doubtful descent, so far as having had {
drop Of Bonaparte blood in his veins i.
concerned, leaves, as the last prctendel
to the throne in France, prince" Napo
leon, the son of the second wife of Je
rome, whose first marriage Plus VII. re
fused to cancel, ard Whose legitnnat,
successors are Jerome Napoleon Bona
par.c, of Baltimore, and the children
| born Of his marriage at Newport, il
! 1879