The Columbus journal., 1889-07-31

have IN undecided character, and Il 4
the same with Desiree, while Julie and
know what We want. You would d
better, then, tomArIyJ Julie; and Deairee,
he added, taking me On his hDee. 'shl
shall b my wffe.' And that h the way
that I became betrothed to Napoleon"
Joseph and Julie were married sooG
after; and before Napoleonis departur<
] from Harseilles, Nine. Clary had con
scented to his marriage with DeGfree q
soon - she should b 10. Napoleon and
Desiree at first wrote often to each other;
but Of this correspondence there are Pre-
served only the drafts Of some OF her let
terA He was taken up with his affair
at Paris, and his Letters TO his fiancee BE-
came less frequent.
Meanwhile, Napoleon had fallen In
love with Nine. de BeauhaxnAis, and hil
| Letters to his brother showed moro indif-
ference to his little Desireeeor his Eu-
genie, a. he preferred to can her.
At the same time he had . little pique
because, I'm 1795. duringa journeyin Il
guEia, she, either offended by his ap-
parent neglect, or alarmed at reports of
his intimacy with Nine. de Beauharnais,
had for q time ceased writing to him.
He asked Joseph in one letter whether
one passed the river Lethe In going to
Genoa, and advised him not to give the
portrait which he had sent ''to one who
seemed to have forgotten him, unless she
asked for It again" Desiree, however,
was not % inconstant a. Napoleon imag-
ined. She told afterwards how much
she had suffered from his abandonment
Of her. When Napoleon married Jose
phine, Desiree, who wa only fourteen,
wrote him . touching letter, such - an
older person would probably not have
written:
"After q year Of absence I thought I
was nearly happy, and was hoping to
sec you again soon and become the hap
piest Of women in marrying you. But
no! your marriage has made all my fell
city vanish. Il is true that I was In the
wrong toward you; but you would have
found me again % tender, 90 constant,
that I was daring to fatter myself that
you would pardon me everything. The
day Of your leaving Marseilles was very
painful for me; but at least I had the
hope of being one day married to you.
Now the only consolation that remains
to me is to know that you believe in
my constancy, after which I desire only
death. Life is q frightful torment to
me since I a no longer c~orsecrate il
to you. wish you all sorts OF happi-
ness and prosperity in your marriage,
and hope that the wife you have chosen
will render you as happy a. I purposed
to do, and as you deserve. But in the
midst Of your happiness do not alto
gether forget Eugene and pity her lot"
Wounds of the heart-especiaIly at that
early age-are soon healed; but although
Desiree forgave Napoleon, she always
kept a little grudge against Josephine,
who had taken him from her. Sixty
years afterward she says:
"For q man Of genius like Napoleon
to let himself be subdued by an elderly
coquette of notably doubtful repute,
proves him without any experience Of
women. Even after his secondmarriage,
Josephine made herself talked about, and
1t was not without good reason that her
husband required her to join him during
the Italian campaign, and that on his re-
turn from Egypt he determined to sepa-
rate from her."
Nine. Clary and her daughter contin-
ued to live in Rome while Joseph Bona
parte remained there as ambassador.
Here Gen. Duphot paid court to her.
Whatever might have happened-and
there were serious obstacles i'm the shape
of an Legitimate child of Duphot-his
death put an end to everything. The
arrival of an embassy from the French
republic caused q crowd to assemble in
the neighborhood of the palace and make
manifestations against the papal govern
ment. On the evening Of Dec. ~, 1871,
the papal troops interfered and fired on
the mob. Joseph Bonaparte, Duphot
and Adjt. Gen. Sherlock went out to
stop the conflict. Duphot was simply
massacred by the soldiers; the others had
barely time to re-enter the. house. His
body was afterward recovered and
brought in. Desiree left Rome with
Joseph B~onaparte Immediately after
ward. Her stay there had been 90 short
that she had not even had time to 60 to
st. Peters, and her sole recollection of
Rome was the terrible scene she had
witnessed from the top Of the staircase
Of the French embassy, when the man.
gled body of Duphot was brought in.
On her return to France, her beauty,
her wealth, and her connection with tho
Bonapartes brought her numbers Of i'd
mirers One Of the proposals for her
hand is charmingly told. After his re-
turn from Iceland. in 1856; Prince Ma
poleon came to Stockholm accompanied
by the Due d'Abrantes (soa of Junot,
who asked for q private audience of the
Queen Dowager Desiree. When it was
over, Hochschild found her thoughtful
and dreamy. ITO think" she said, that
I could have married his fatheri Thare
was q time when Junot proposed to me,
but he was awkward about It, and asked
Marmont to do it for him. All! il Mar
mont had spoken in his own name-who
knows? I should perhaps have said
Yes; he was so handsome"
In 1898, B~ernadotte, who was then q
general of division, had been Ambassador
at Vienna, and was soon to be minister
Of war-no longer the Sergeant Berna-
dotte who had knocked in vain for lodg-
ings at the door of the Clary house at
Marseilles, but who was now intimate
with Joseph Bonaparte-proposed to De-
stree. She did not know him well, but,
as she said, ''he was something different
from the others I had refused, and I con-
sented to marry him when they told me
that he was q strong enough man to hold
his own against Napoleon" The mar
riage took place on Aug. II, 17se. Ma
poleon was in Egypt, and used no influ-
ence in the matter. When he heard Of
it he wrote to Joseph: 81 wish happiness
TO Desiree II she marries BefnAdotte, for
she deserves IT."
The Bernadottes settled in Paris, and
the next year after their only son ri
born, who was afterward known as King
Oscar I. Happy both as q wife and