The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-06-07

kecamler became constant viSltOr al the
Demands. This liaison Was probably not
the bankers first gallsntry, and 1t GER
tainly was not his last His subsequent
financial embarrassments, which were
mainly due TO rash speculations. were con-
siderably increased by the heavy sums
Withdrawn from his capital, to be spent
no one but himself knew how. Half of
his life was devoted to the pursuit Of
beautiful society women, and he availed
himself of his wealth to allure them with
those dazzling and magnificent gifts by
which, in all ages, the fair and frail sex
has been tempted. In his banking house
we're young men who passed as his neph-
ews-and he had as many nephews a
caEdinal-some of whom bore to him the
same personal resemblance that was so
conspicuous in the daughter OF Mime. Ber-
nKrd.
The marriage of Jacques Recsmier with
Juliette took place precipitately, April ~.
1898, In the midst of the Reign of Terror.
AS rich man and an aristocrat, the bank
er had suddenly found himself "suspecte.
The Bernard family, on the contrary, were
violent republicans. In those days 10 be-
come ''suspecte" usually resulted in a visit
to the Ruillotine. Those were days and
nights OF swift and appalling dangers, and
to the device which probably Nine Ber-
nard imagined, to avert suspicion from
her former lover by allying him with her
own ultra-revolutionary family. This ar
tlice OF q marriage was perhaps intended
merely as an eXpedient for few months.
until the fury of the storm Yves spent, but
it lasted a lifetime.
Once only did Juliette seek to break the
unnatural link that distorted her life
when, as We have seen, she yielded TO the
suit OF the prince OF Prussia and resolved
TO cast OF the letter which her girlhood
had accepted and marry. Had she and
NJ ReCamier been lawfully welded she
would evidently not have entertained the
project OF a divorce. which the Roman
church does not recognize. nor even of q
separation, for which, in this instance,
there was legally no cause OF action. But
If their union was one that both church
and stare would instantly declare void alb
initio. her motive and its justice are ap-
parent. And. similarly. does it not seem
q solecism that VI. Rece or should have
objected TO this divorce, and that che
should ultimately have abandoned it,
merely because OF a possible scandal, I'M
less the facts OF their case were such that
neither OF them dared face tine world after
those facts were known? Was il not for
very shame's sake that he pleaded her,
and that she yielded? And it Is remark
able that when their union was eventually
severed by NJ. Recamier's death, in 1890,
not one of the letters written to her by
half s dozen intimate friends alludes To
her loss as the bereavement of a wife, but
all points to the removal of one who had
flied q parental relationship. Nine. Lee
nOrmant refers 70 this event with the sug-
gestiye comment, AL le pendant, Nine.
Recamier crut pedre une seconde fois son
pere."
These facts present a striking chain OF
evidence: NJ. Recamier's gallant procliv-
tiles and his constant visits TO Nine Der.
nard NJ. Demands refusal to recognize
Ju.iette as his child: the personal TO
semblance of Juliette 10 NJ. Recamier; the
odd menage at Clichy, corroborated by
the fact that this husband and vile never
lived together, Mime. Recamier's ceaseless
refrain of an unsa,isiied affection. and her
resolve to cut short this wicked farce OF
marriage and wed the prince of Prussia
NJ. Recamier's admission that she can ter
inmate their union if she chooses, at the
same time entreating her TO spare
them both a monstrous scandal
his peril as an aristocrat. during
the Reign of Terror, furnishing a
reason sufficient to have suggested
the thought of this marriage to Nine
Bernard; and finally the letters of those
who must have known the secret in which
NJ. Recamers death is referred to il
language which common sense could moi
have addressed to a wife at the loss OF &
husband. Can these be mere chance CO
medicines?
1t can not surprise one TO know that
when she had grown old, Nine. Recamiel
loved solitude and the reveries to. which
sweet, soft music inclnes. No wonder
either, that she invariably refused to &c
through the mOckery of writing hel
memoirs. What an empty recapitula
ton they would have been without some
alusiOn to the circumstances Of which she
was the living victim! And what marvel
Gus meditatiOns and souvenirs
! must have been hers who
was married. vet had no hus.
band who was loved and feted and wor
SHIPPED as may fall TO the lot of one woman
in century. yet who loved no man un
reservedly through all the fiction and un
reality OF her life. who repealed the amor
Gus advances of Bonsparte, and was pun
ished by him with years of exile, vet lived
to see his stupendous fall whose girlhoOd
was passed amid the anguish and blood
shedding of the revolution, and whose
later years faded away in the breath
less calm that succeeded the exhaustion
OF the Napoleonic wars. But above all
through those silent musings, how sharply
must have rung the minor key, 'the un
dertone of tears, in the bitterness of I
regret for her youth that had gone. anC
which, however brilliant before the world
had been empty and heartless and colo
beneath the weight of her extraordinarJ
secret!