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

ing noteworthy article in the first numbe
of his new London periodical, the Pail
Man Magazine:
This brilliant and beautiful woman's
career and her extraordinary power over
the social world che influenced and
adorned are the theme of panegyrics that
have ended by raising her to a level of al
most mythical perfection. We are told
that she possessed the physical symmetryof
Medicean Venus; that she charmed with
marvellous intellectual fascination; that
her tact, grace and kindness won all
hearts; that In the midst of DISCO
lutte court and in an atmosphere of adula-
ton her character retained its maiden
purity; that age changed her only to con-
fer new and subtle attractions. So promi-
nent place does she seem to have filled,
and so familiar has she beer made 10 us
during the forty-four years that have
elapsed since her death. that our magma
ton can recall the witchery of her pres
ence, the enchantment of her thought and
speech, and the spotless soul that looked
from her eyes. We gaze at her as one may
study marble nymph, carved in unalter-
able youth and beauty. Moreover, she
appears against a back ground of intense
dramatic action, embracing the most
sanguinary period OF the revolution and
the tTiumphs and disasters of the Ma
poieonic era
The life OF woman so gifted as Nine.
Redamier is reputed to have been offers
more than the routine of journeys, fetes
and correspondence with which biograph-
L., ~ l.
fascinated the renowned men and women
of half Europe, we perceive the tinesttype
of French feminine character at a period
when Partisan society retained much Of
the traditions and retinements of the an
cient regime, combined with an impulse
resulting from military and political
events and from the scientific inspiration
of this century. And il is in the course
of an analysis of the intimate circum-
stances of her history that the Oddities
and contradictions OF her relations
with the man to whom she was married
| become noticeable. Varied and exciting
as her life must have been, she
il continually repininR over some unsat-
isfied desire some latent affection that
finds no object, some grief that seems the
passionate longing of an empty and break
ing heart. Through all her correspond
ence, and In illusions to her in letters
which those who knew her best eX-
changed, we are conscious of a mystery
that at two periOds-namely, when. she
urges the dissolution OF her marriage aud
upon her husbands deatn--cOnfrOnts US
with startling distnctness. There is q
secret woven through the years Of her
married life that casts a sadness upon
them, and TO which reference is clearly
made by so many persons that we may
wonder how it could so long have re-
manned unknown to the world.
! At the time of their marriage N.
! Recamler was fOrty-twO years of age, and
/ Juliette Bernard fifteen. thus presenting q
/ disparity Of nearly twentv-seven wears.
/ They bore a marked likeness to each
/ other, possessing the same classically
/ regular features, the same hair and eyes,
/ the same trifling mannerism that go so far
/ to make n personal resemblance. Imme-
diately after their marriage NJ. Recamier
/ established his bride with her mother at
/ Clicy, where he dined with them almost
/ daily, spending his mornings at his count
/ ing house and habitually returning 10
| Paris in the evening.
And this singular MENACE, or one re-
sembling it, continued for years. He
treated Julette with unfailing Kindness
and indulgence, but there is no contradic-
ton to be found to the declaration of
many who knew them intimately that
they never lived together IS man and
| wife. This has been accounted for by the
conjecture that Nine. Recamier had an in
tense adherence of the marital relation,
or by a surmise imagined after her death,
that she suffered from physical infrm-
ity. Both these supp0sitlons are etiaced
| by the most extraordinary event in her
! life-namely her resolve In 1907 to sever
her "fiial relations" with NJ Recamier
and marry Prince Augustus OF Prussia,
| whose ardent courtship and passionate
love letters must have given her no doubt
full intimstion that he would prove a
most unplatonic husband.
The letters exchanged between the
Recamiers at this strange juncture are
probably among the most remarkable ever
penned to one another by husband and
wife. Nine. Recamier camly declares
that, yielding to the assiduities of the
prince of Prussia, as we'll as to her own
inclination, she contemplates severing the
bond that has Joined them for thirteen
years. To this monstrous announcement
! Nj. Recamier replies without temper, con-
filming himself to expressions of chagrin
that divorce with its attendant scandal,
| should embitter his last years, now that,
In the twilight OF life, he had grown in
firm, needy and friendless living upon
the fragments of the fortune he
had wrecked. But he admitted that the
tie which united them was one the church
would declare null, and agrees. if Juli-
cite requires it, to meet her at some
place outside France where they can
concert the legal measures to be taken
and seek to moderate the scandal be
breads in Paris. Compliance in a hus-
hand rarely goes further but this aston
ishing situation explains itself if we may
believe that M. Recamier was addressing
not his wife, but his daughter.
Although is is evident that Nine. Le
normant, who is Mime. Recamier's CHIEF
bioQrapher, believed her to be NJ. Reca
mier's daughter, her intimations gave nc
adequate clew, and the strange story re-
mains q mystery but half revealed. The
evidence. however, points to the conolu.
sion that Juliette Bernard when a girl
was married to her father, and that she
carried this secret in silence TO the grave
What motive could have prompted this
revolving sembiance of marriage and
perhaps forced 1t upon her? Did she
know her relationship to NJ. Recamier
when she married him-this man who In
her childhood, had given her dolls and
sugar plums? or what event betrayed 1t?
Her mother, Julie Nation Bernard, was
bourgeoise of striking beauty, with
bright black eyes, and rosy face. and fail