The Portland daily press., 1882-02-08
Bonaparte aud Josephine.
Their Courtsnip and Marriage.

Their Courtship and Marriage.
In the third volume Of Colonel Jung's docu-
ments concerning Bonaparte, we have some
new glimpses of the Corsican and Of the Pa
risian society in the time OF the directory:
Let the reader try to imagine General Bona-
parties arrival at Paris in the most brilliant
days of the directory. He has no friends, no
relations in the world of politics or society.
Robespierre is dead; Barras is playing the lead
ing role, and 80 he attaches himself to Barras,
because as he wrote, 81 was obliged to attach
myself to somebody and something"
The avowal is as artless as it is sincere. Then
the young Corsicans passions were aroused by
contact with the society of the directory, thst
mixture of grace, of nonchalance, and Of cor
ruption, and by the sight of that pleiad of love-
ly women, Mesdames Tallien, Recamier, Beau
harnais, de Beaumont and others, all greedy Of
pleasure and notorietyl The queen Of all of
them was, for beauty and grace, Our Lady OF
Thermidor, the Cheyenne Tallien, more beam
tiful than the Capitol Venus of Phidias, for in
the Tallien you found the same purity Of traits,
the same perfection, in the arms, the hands,
the feet, and all that animated by an expires
sion of benevolence, reflection Of all the
benevoence of her heart. "Her dress" says
contemporary, "did not contribute TO her beau
ty, for she wore simple gown OF Indian mus
on the shoulders by two canoes. A golden
belt clasped her waist, and its fastening was
formed of cameo. A large gold bracelet held
her sleeve above the elbow; her hair, OF vel
vety black color, was short and frizzled around
the head. This coiffure was called Ia Titus.
On those beautiful white shoulders was su-
perb shawl Of red cachemire, which at that
time was very rare and much sought for. She
draped it around her in manner always
graceful and picturesque"
20 rosf 10 N r4ratt of oil no "
women of the time. And this was the time,
If ever, when most honor was paid TO women.
Writing to his brother Joseph, July Is, 1895,
Napoleon says; Luxury, pleasure and the
arts are reviving here in an astonishing man
ner. The women are everywhere; at the thea
tres, in the public promenades, at the libraries.
In the cabinet of the savant you see very pretty
persons. Here alone, OF all places on the
earth, they deserve to hold the helm; and 30
the men are mad about them, think of nothing
but them, and live only of and for them. A
woman has need OF six months OF Paris to
know what is due her, and what her empire
really isl
On the 30th of the same month he writes:
'This great people is giving itself up to pleas
ure, Dances theatres women, who are here
the finest in the world, are becoming the great
affair. Ease, luxury, good tone, everything,
has been recovered. People no longer remem-
Der the terror except as kind OF dream"
1t was in the salons of Barras that Napoleon
met pretty creole lady, Marie Josephe Rose
de Tascker de la Pagerie, widow OF Alexander
de Beauharnais, guillotined in 1874. Josephine
was left with two children, Eugene, the future
Viceroy of Italy, and the future Queen Hor-
tense. She was Creole, q coquette; she loved
luxury and abominated poverty. She was an
amiable and nonchalant woman, who found 1t
peasanter to follow the will Of others than to
take determination OF her own; and 80, not
attempting to play the role OF widow OF hero,
she plunged gaily into society, and went to see
Barras and Tallien and Freron, and Mime.
Hamelin. Josephine even admitted an atfec-
tion for Barras, which gives rise to more than
one conjecture, the more so as she was without
resources. The first time Napoleon saw Jo-
sephiDe he was struck by her, but he hardly
thought of marriage, He was then Corsican
officer living at third-rate inn, but after Ven
demaire his ideas took another course. he
saw that it was political necessity for him to
have an interior at Paris il he meant to be
absent himself in search of fortune. His pref
erence was for widow who could preside In a
salon. His choice lay between Nine. Permon,
whose daughter has left such charming sketch
es of society under the directory, and Mime. de
Beauharnais.
Legend SAYS that Bonaparte was first brought
into relations with Nine. de Beauharnais by
visit of young Eugene, who came to demand OF
Bonaparte the sword of his father, killed upon
the scaffold. This story is as poetical as IT is
inexact. Besides, Bonaparte, at st. Helena,
gave the true account of this marriage. BE met
Josephine at Barras's house, and Barras ar
ranged the whole matter and obtained jose
phine's consent. Josephine confessed that she
did not love Napoleon, and that she was rather
afraid of him than otherwise; but IN her mar
riage, as in most other acts, she allowed other
people to make up her mind for her.
Lucien Bonaparte, in his unpublished me-
moirs and papers, which Colonel Jung has re-
Gently discovered and intends shortly to print,
has curious passage about Josephine, which
has at least the merit of novelty:
Admitted to several suppers and dinners OF
the director, Barras, / there make acquaintance
with Nine. de Stael. pay court little to the
beautiful Nine. Tallien, favorite sultana OF the
yoluptuous Barras. / hardly remark in the
midst Of this numerous circle Of pretty women,
generally reputed galantes, the ex-Marquise de
Beauharnais, widow of general OF that name
who was guillotined. My brother, Napoleon,
remarks her more, or rather, is remarked Dy
her. This woman, who has never been beauti-
full, and who is more than on the return, captt-
Yates him sufficiently to make him want to
marry her, tits true that Barras takes charge
of the dowry, which is to be the command.in-
chief of the army of Italy. Josephine
was not bad hearted, or, rather. people used al
ways to say that she was very good-especially
when he- acts of goodness cost her no saerifice.
Sufficiently accustomed to high society, 70
which she had been introduced by her first hus-
band, a little before the revolution OF lI59,
she had little, very little intelligence or wit,
and of what might be called beauty nothing
whatever; but certain Creole souvenirs in the
supple undulations of her form, a face without
natural freshness it is true, but repaired by
toilet preparations sufficiently well for candle
light-everything, in short, in her person wa
not entirely bereft of those remnants OF attracs
tions of her early youth which the
painter Gerard, that clever restorer OF the
faded beauty of women on the shady side OF
life, has very agreeably reproduced in the por-
traits which we have of the wife OF the First
Consul. In the brilliant soirees of the directo-
ry, to which Barras had done me the honor OF
admitting me, it is under this aspect that met
the Cheyenne Beauharnais several times De-
fore my brother married her, and the truth Is
that up to that, in spite Of the portrait am
now making of her, and of which the resem-
blance. think, cannot be contested, she had
hardly attracted attention: she appeared to me
so much the reverse of young, and so inferior
to the other beauties who ordinarily composed
the court of the voluptuous director, and OF
which the beautiful Talien was the veritable
Calypso"
Napoleon loved Josephine This Creole, with
her veiled and languorous eyes, charmed him.
He fell wildly in love with her, with his sweet
and incompatible Josephine" He is to see
her in three hours, but he cannot wait He
writes to her to assure her of his love. Mean
while, milo dolce amor Thousand kisses, but do
not give me any, for they consume my blood.
February 9, 1886, the bans were published.
March the Directory appointed Bonaparte
General-in-Chief of the Army OF Italy. March
Bonaparte received his letter OF service,
March he was married. and forty nours
afterward he left his wife and Paris to take
possession of his post. In the marriage certih-
cate both Bonaparte and Josephine declare
their age to be twenty-eight years, though In
reality Bonaparte was twenty-seven and jose
phine thirty-three.