The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-04-05
NJ. HENRI ROCHEFORT
STARTLING HISTORICAL FACTS RE-
vEALED BY HIS MEMOIRS.
The Famous Frenchman Shows Up the
Wanton Lives Of Both Josephine
and Eugenfe.
New York Journal.

most remarkable men OF modern times COM
menced short time ago to publish his menu
oirs in a Paris newspaper under the title
''The Adventures of My Life The first
part of these "reminiscences has just been
issued in book form. Few men are better
equipped 10 write a stirring account OF con-
temporary history, and particularly French
history, than Henri Rochefort. He has
known personally every man and woman OF
note OF time and has been connected in
some way with every important event. He
has been everything man can be-clerk. re-
porter, dramatist novelist, soldier, convict.
deputy and one OF the leaders OF the bloody
Commune which attempted to destroy Paris
after the fall Of the empire. 1t was Roche
forts brilliant periodical La Lanterne"
which FASTENED the fall Of Napoleon III. He
has been an inmate of nearly every prison IN
France. He has been sentenced to death
once and exfled from his country three
times. When the popularity Of Boulanger
was at its height Rochefort's paper Lin
transsigeant was the officiai organ Of the am
bilious general
Rochefort's "reminiscences begin when he
was child eight years old. Although allied
to very prominent families, Rochefort's
father was very poor all the immense prop
erty that his father, the Marquis de Roche
fort-Lucay. possessed having been the prey
of the revoutionists. The grandfather took
refuge at Coblentz with all the rest of the
emigrant mobiles, but being more far-sighted
than the others, he sold his property in
France before it was confiscated by the re-
public, and as he was great spendthrift,
there was naturally nothing left when he
came back to France in 1916
Rochefort's grandmother did not follow her
husband to Coblentz. but lay hidden in Paris,
always hoping that ''the troubles would
soon end" but the 10th of August and the
arrest of Louis XVI were the last blows to
the hopes of the royalists. Toward the end
of 1892 Rochefort's grandmother was arrested
and sent to the conctergerie. where a little
later she was joined by Nine. du Barry, the
notorious mistress of Louis XIV.
THE VULGAR DU BARRY.
Concerning this woman Rochefort says:
I'm 1893, a few days before her Incarceration,
the du Barry woman was still receiving
from the state a pension of 10000 livnes,
which Louis XVI had granted her. She was
arrested not, as has been said, owing to a
trap laid by the negro Zamore, but for hav-
ing stupidity attracted attention to herself
by unreasonable and incessant demands on
the treasury, which. at the time, Of her pow
err she had completely exhausted. On enter
ing the prison she seemed to forget all the
aristocratio manners which she had acquired
in asSociating with persons of quality. The
common woman or the street reappeared
completely as soon as she found herself be-
tween the four walls Of the prison. In which,
perhaps, she had been often put IN her
youth.
My grandmother said how surprised she
was at the ooarseness, gross Ignorance and
stupidity of this woman, who had filed
France and Europe with her name and her
reputation for beauty. She told my grand
mother that large casket Containing,
miniature>o of Marie Arithmetic, magniicently
set in diamonds, which the Queen had pre-
sented TO her. was buried in the Pare de
Lsouveciennes, where it presumably is to-
day"
Rocheforts grandparents also throws quite
a NEW Light ON the execution of Marie An
the Queen went proudly 70 the scaf6old and
maintained such Self-posseSsion that she
apologized TO the executioner for having ac-
cidentally trodden on his foot. This, accord
ing to Nine. de Rochefort. who was am eye
witness, is the purest fiction.
My grandmother has often told u.s."
writes Rochefort, that the crowd around
the scaffold was extremely apathetic, and
that the Queen, who was almost in faint
ing condition, was bent almost double. They
almost carried her up to the bascule of the
guillotine, on which She fell rhotionless. I'm
mediately after the execution young man
climbed up the staircase of the scaffold and
Immediately hid in his bosom. He disap-
peared before anybody thought of stopping
him to ask him whether the sentiment which
dictated mis- act was hostile or sympathetic"
Rochefort claims that ne alone knows the
true history of the Queens necklace, which
he says was the only natural consequence
Of Marie Antoinette's love of pleasure and
friendly with the Marquis ID Autichamp. who,
at the court of Louis XVI, was called the
handsome D'Autichamp: Marie Antoinette
olr y,afi Of M To rfx,rfc ND
he she confided in when the terrible
scandal came to light which suddenly re-
vealed the Queen of France accepting money
from cardinal.
A STARTLING FACT.
'Tt is difficult to conceive" says Roche
fort, ..yet it IS absolutely true, that when
the Queen could not persuade her husband,
Louis XVI. to buy her the necklace costing
100000 lvres, she went to the Cardinal de
Rohan, who at the time boosted of being un-
able to live without an income of two million
francs a year, and of possessing charms
which no woman could resist"
Rochefort's father, during the Restoration,
became Governor of one of the French COL
onies, and in this position he naturally came
in contact with some of the officers who had
been stationed at st. Helena during the time
Of Napoleon'S Imprisonment there.
Napoleon, my father used to tell me"
says Rochefort. was by no means the
heroic and impassive Jugurtha, who, cap
tured by the Romans, dies of hunger without
uttering a complaint. The Corsican passed
from the most naughty demands TO the most
disgraceful humbeness- Everybody at ST.
Helena was stupefied on receiving from Ma
poeon a letter Of confidence, which he de-
sired to be sent to Louis XVIII, when the
Due de Berry died This man, who had
ASA estimated the Due DEnghien,' the Kings
cousin, and Who expressed to the King in
dgnation and sorrow at the assassination Of
another nephew, could hardly inspire his
enemies with anything but disdain. And this
disdain was accumulated when ait the birth
Of the Due de Bordeaux Napoleon sent his
assured henceforth the throne to the Bour-
bon dynasty.
ut is possible that these acts of abject
politeness conceal the hope of softening the
severity Of the allied powers toward him.
He imagined until the last moment that St.
Helena had only been chosen temporary
place of exile and that before long they
would permit him to choose between several
places, either in Europe or in America"
Concerning the marriage of Napoleon III
to Eugene, the journalist says: In France,
where habit becomes a second or even first
nature, people imagine that the Empress is
an Empress. But 1 well remember the ex-
plosicns of incredibly with which the first
rumoTs of the marriage with Mile. de
Montijo were received and the indignant
stupefaction when the news was officially
confirmed. Napoleon bad also the bad taste
to insert this phrase IN his matrimonial an
Eouncement:
~ am about to marry a woman whom
love and whom respect