The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-07-17
EX-ENIPRESS EUGENE
Once Ruler of the Most Magnifi-
cent Court in Europe.
A FUGITIVE AND AN EXILE.
Now Her Marvellous Face Is wrinkled
and Sho Totters When She walks
She May Not Visit Paris.

There are now living in Europe three
women who once sat on thrones, two of
whom have descended to private life,
while the third is only public person.
age because her son is emperor of Ger
many The lot of Isabella of Spain and
the Empress Frederick is hard, but the
fate of her who was once empress of the
French is one of the most pitiable is his
tory.
Mademoiselle Eugene de Teba was
granddaughter on her mothers side of q
Mr.. kirkpatrick, English consul at an
unimportant Spanish town. This gentle
man married a Spaniard, and their
daughter. an extremely clever and inn
moral woman, became Countess of Mon
tito. wife of a grandee of Spain. One Of
her daughters married the Due d'Albe, q
famous Spanish nobleman; the other,
after her fathers death, made the round
with her mother of several European cap
itals.
The present Countess of Cork has told of
meeting Mile. de Teba at party at Lady
Palmerston's some forty years ago, and
called her "a vision of peerless loneliness.
But the Castilian beauty remained but a
day or two in London, and hurried to
Paris where her success was more lasting.
She soon became very much talked about,
not always charitably, for there can be
little doubt that the future empress of the
French was fast. With such mother she
could hardly be otherwise.
In 1851 and 1852 about the time when
Louis Napoleon made himself emperor,
her charms were in their full develop
ment. Just % years old, tall, graceful,
with exquisite neck and shoulders which
she liked to display in all their enchant-
ing proportions; with q dazzling COM
piexion. abundant golden hair drawn
back to show the classic contour of her
head and large blue eyes that were melting
and brilliant by turn; high spirited, ac-
complished, speaking French, English,
Spanish and Italian, a fearless rider, q
bewitching dancer, dressing marvellously;
daring all things in dress, manner and
speech, yet doing what was most daring
with chic that defied criticism and q
grace that disarmed censure-she was just
the woman to infiame man or captlvate
society. Shel was seen at all the great
Boulogne, and at diplomatic parties. but
|
the Faubourg Saint Germain.
With this woman the prince president
fell madly in love. At first, however, he
had no idea of marrying her. After he
had settled himself in his uncle's seat he
made overtures to several royal houses in
the hope of allying himself to one of the
established dynasties; but even the second
rate princesses rejected him, and mean
while his admiration for the brilliant
Spaniard was ripening every hour. The
willy woman saw his infatuation, and
though she possibly shared it, was playing
for higher stakes than love; there was q
crown on the cards. She did not mean to
accept the role of Montespan or La VAL
liere; it was rather Ann Of Austria's place
she coveted; that other Spanish woman
who had ruled France 200 years before.
Nevertheless, her friends thought her in
danger and cautioned her. AT this time
she was the guest of an English woman in
Paris, not of the highest rank, but who
had the entree to many distinguished
houses, and this lady said to her visitor
one day: eff you never see him alone,
you can certainly become an empress"
The young aspirant, however, understood
her position very clearly, and was not
over delicate in letting the emperor know
it, too. One morning she was watching
the passage of troops from her balcony
which happened to be next door to q
church, and the emperor rode up to her.
"How can l reach you. mademoiselle ?"
he asked. "Par la chapelte"-"By the
church door," was the significant reply.
Another time she was visiting Com
peigne, one of the imperial palaces, with
her mother, and game of blind mans
buff was introduced. The emperor caught
Mile. de Teba, and, according to the
French game, placed a crown of flowers
| on her head. "Sire" said the lady. this
crown is too light" and every one sup
posed she was thinking of the crown of
| Josephine.
The chapel In the end was the road the
| emperor took. and the church door was
| that of Notre Dame. Either his love over
came his ambition or his ambition was
checked by the retusals he received, and he
| offered his hand instead of handker-
chief. They were married with great
pomp in the cathedral where the
Bourbons had welded their long de-
scended brides. The announcement
| of the emperor's choice was MASTER
| piece of Napoleonic craft. He referred to
| the career of the first Bonaparte and to
| his own grandmother. the creole
| Josephine; then calling himself a parvenu
| among kings. he declared he preferred the
| woman of his heart to a more pretentious
| consort taken from royal houses This
| pleased the French people, and they never
| had a sovereign more popular than the
| unroyal Spaniard. Still there was much
| public criticism at the time, and the
| ministry even resigned, but finally con-
| Guided TO salute their new mistress and
| retain their places.
| The court that Eugene reigned over was
| the most splendid of her time The second
| empire surpassed the first in luxury and
magnificence, and the Tuileries became
| the scene of a sumptuous gaiety that
| rivalled the glories of Louis Quatorze, and
| far eclipsed any displays of Victoria or the
| car The etiquette was not always as
| rigid as at Vienna or Berlin, and the NOR
| ais were certainly not straight, laced; but
| other courts have been careless in these re-
| spects, where the daughters of kings pre-
| sided Napoleon Ill. gave his consort cause
nations ensued. The hunts at Com
| peigne and the evening parties afterward
| were very free; games of hunt the slipper
| and others not usual in palaces were often
! intermixed with tableaux and charades
| and still more stately pageants. The old
| aristocracy of France held aloof to the
| last, but Napoleon made new peers and re-
| vived the titles conferred by his uncle,
| while both ne and his beautiful wife in
| vlted many foreigners. The Princess de
| Metternich. the Austrian embassadress
| became an intimate friend of the empress,
and used to say she was willing to be her
| Princesse de Lansballe.
| Americans, too. were often welcomed at
| the imperial parties. Mrs Lori Hard Rom
| aid and her fair haired sister met the en-
| peror at a skating party and fascinated