St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-16
NAPOLEON's DEAR EMILIA.
THE MORGANATIC WIFE OF THE
FIRST EMPEROR OF FRANCE.
Strange Career of the Countess of the Dogs
Bonapurte's Liberntity-4 Gay Life End
ing Ia Misery and Disgrace.
Paris Figaro.1

known fact that the Emperor resided at the
castle during the Austrian campaign.
Emilia was at that time in all the splendor
of her twentieth year. Tall and slender she
was, and with her blonde hair falling like a
river Of gold over her goddess-like shoulders
she at once made great impression on Ma
poleon, who seized the first opportunity to
make her formal declaration.
| Strange as it may seem, the young Girl.
although perhaps somewhat dazzled by such
unexpected homage, in nowise abandoned
her scruples and naively demanded of the
Emperor nothing less than marriage Caesar
pretended to yield to this ultimatum and
cheerfully went through the mockery of a
religious ceremony, at which the Comte de
Montholon, one of the Emperor's aide-de-
camps, and afterwards his companion at st.
Helena, is said to have assisted.
Some days after this exceedingly morgan
attic union he was obliged to leave for
Munich, where Eugene de Beauharnais was
to be affianced to a Bavarian Princess. Ma
poleon brought Emilia in his suite, but in
cognito, for the Empress Josephine, who had
just come from France, watched her hus-
band with jealous anxiety that was but too
often justified.
At the end of January, 1906, the beauti.
full Austrian moved to Paris, and is said
to have kept herself hidden in one of the
secret apartments of the Tuileries where
Talma-according to another and more
doubtful legend-used to give the Caesar GER
tain famous lessons in department. 1t is at
least incontestable that the fair recluse con-
demned herself with joy to q life of abso-
lutte secrecy-a sort of retreat only broken
by the visits of a very few of the Emper-
or's friends. When Napoleon again be-
strobe his battle-steed he was accompanied
to the frontier by Josephine; but once upon
the other side of the frontier the morgantic
wife resumed her rights. She cut off her
| beautiful bright hair, and assumed mascu-
| line attire in order to attach herself the
| better to her lovers dcstinies. The battle
of Jena, the triumphal entry into Berlin,
the march upon Warsaw, the victories of
| Eylau and PARLIAMENTARY the peace of
| Tilsit-all those glorious and bloody episodes
of the Napoeonic epopIia cast their splcn-
doris and their shadows athwart the life Of the
Austrian miners daughter.
In July, 1907, Napoleon returned from
Dresden to Paris, and Emilia resumed her
claustral life until the breaking out of the
Spanish war. Once more she followed Ma
|
Little Red Man, with whom, however, the
old camp legend may yet satisfactorily ident-
ify her. In March, 1902 we find her again
in Austria, and even at SchGnbrunn, where
Napoleon leaves her in order to triumph at
Wagram. She has abandoned her military
disguise, and allowed her golden hair to
float again over her white shoulders.
| In the month of October following, she re-
entered Paris accompanied by her master.
The marriage of Napoleon with Marie Louise
necessarily Teegated Emilia TO obscurity.
The newly welded pair lived at Compiegne
in public splendOr, at Saint Cloud and at the
Tuileries, while the morganatic wife seemed
to have become utterly forgotten. Her
whereabouts was known only to Constant,
the valet-de-C hambre, and to RoustOn, the
Mameluke.
But-curious phenomenon scarcely had
the Russian campaign opened than Emilia
reappeared at NapoleOn's side. Step by step
she followed all the terrific course Of that
savage war.
At Smolensko, at Moscow, in the icy tenn
| pests, throughout that dismal route wherein
the Grande Armee melted away, she guard
ed with heroic fidelity the post to which she
had been consigned. This strange union,
formed between two victories, and which
years of battle, was definitely broken only at
Fontainebleau. Before addressingthat ever
memorable farewell address TO his veteran
guards, Napoleon went to bid Emilia fare
well. He had created her Baroness Of VOLTS
berg and had assured her comfortable fu.
tUrc by depositing in an English banking
house the sum Of one million OF francs,
whereof Emilia was to receive the yearly in
terest. The documents relating to this ar
rangement were intrusted to the keeping Of
her adopted father, who had in the mean
time become a counsellor in the war-oilice
and a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
Emelia did not see Napoleon again during
the Hundred Days. While he was pining
away at Saint Helena, she married a Wen
nese lawyer named SchGnauer. But our
Amazon could not submit easily to the pro-
sale conditions of her new life. In 1920 she
applied for and obtained divorce.
From that moment began the long martyr
dom of her life. After Napoleon's death,
the Austrian Office holder to whog the man
agement of Emelia's million had been in
trusted, managed to squander more than
two-thirds of it. What was even worse, he
refused to remember anything about col
lection of jewels that Emilia had coniided TO
his honor. The poor woman left Vienna,
and accompanied by her mother and sister,
sought a new some at B, upon the
Lake of Constance, where she bought little
cottage and resolved to end her days there
in peace.
But she had reckoned without love, and
love changed her plans. She became sud-
denly enamored of a young physician and
married him Notwithstanding a notable diff
ference in ages She was then forty and her
husband only twenty-five. In 1899 the sur
geon died and poverty entered the home Of
the 'Little Empress She sold or pawned
her robes, her jewelry and her furniture.
The sale Of her house involved her in a law
suit which consumed her last resources.
And when ruin had come at last she lost her
pride to such a degree as even to ask for
aims. She especially solicited the interven-
tion of the Archbishop of Salzburg, who de-
clined and replied to her that her situation
was of too peculiara character and the source
Of her fortune too impure to render it pos
sible for any prelate to decently grant her
protection
The Countess aux Chiensn as she was
called by the people, did not allow herself to
be discouraged. She even dared to make a
direct application to Marie Louise, and the
widow Of Napoleon actually granted her a
pension of 1000 francs, which-it may be
parenthetcally observed-demonstrates the
historical reality of the ties which united
Emilia to the Emperor. However it may
have been, encouraged by this first success
she began to prosecute the Princess with her
selfish supplications, and thus wrested pecu-
mary assistance from her on many occasions,
and even tried to obtain an audience of her
illustrious protectress while the latter was on
journey to Salzburg
This last favor was rpfuepd bnr Without
being at all brillient her situation was by no
means desperate. Besides the annual PEN
sion and the occasional gratuities of which I