Evening journal., 1896-11-05
EMPEROR OF ELBA.
HOW NAPOLEON CONDUCTED HIM
SELF DURING EXILE.

World shown to Good Advantage In His
Pygny Kingdom.-The Darker side Of
Brilliant Career.
Elba was an island divided against
itself, there being both imperialists and
royalists among its> inhabitants and
considerable party which desired inde-
pendence BY representing that Napo-
leon had brought with him fabulous
sums the Austrian and English commits
sioners easily won the Elbans to a fer
vor Of loyalty for their new emperor.
Before nightfall Of the 4th the court
was established, and the new admins
tration began its labors. Having mas
tered the resources and needs OF his
pygmy realm, the emperor began to de-
ploy all his powers, mending the high
ways, fortifying the strategic points and
creating about the nucleus of 400 guards
which We're sent from Fontainebleau an
efficient little army of 1, 600 men. His
expenses were regulated to the minutcst
detail both at home and abroad. The
salt works and iron mines, which were
the bulwarks of Elban prosperity, began
at once 20 increase their output, and
taxation was regulated with scrupulous
nicely. By that supereminent virtue OF
the French burgher, good management,
the island was made almost independ-
ent Of the remnants of the Tuileries
treasure (about 5000, 900 francs) which
Napoleon had brought from France. The
same powers which had swayed a world
operated with equal success in sphere
almost microscopic by comparison.
Before long the Princess Borghese,
separated soon after her marriage from
4. her second husband and banished since
1910 from Paris for impertinent conduct
to the empress, came, according toprom-
Use, to be her brothers. companion,
and Madame Mere, though distant in
prosperity, came likewise to soothe her
son in adversity. The intercepted letters
Of the former prove her to have been at
+ least as loose in her life at Elba as ever
before, but they do not afford sufii-
cient basis for the scandals concerning
/ her relations with Napoleon which were
founded upon them and industriously
circulated at the court of Louis XVIII
/ The shameful charge has no adequate
foundation of any sort.
Napoleon's economies were rendered
not merely expedient, but imperative
by the fact that none Of the money
from France was forthcoming which
had been promised in his treaty with
the powers After a short stay Roller
frankly stated that, in his opinion, il
would never be paid and departed. The
island swarmed with Bourbon spies,
and the only conversation in which Ma.
poleon could indulge himself unguard.
edly was with Sir Neil Campbell, the
English representative, or with the IL
tied English gentlemen who gratified
their curiosity by visiting him. During
the. summer heats, when the court wal
encamped on the heights at Maroiani
for refreshment, there appeared a mys
terious lady with her child. Both wer
well received and kindly treated, bu
they Withdrew themselves entirely from
the public gaze. Common rumor said j
was the empress, but this was not true
1t was the Countess Walewska, witt
the son she had borne TO her host, whom
she still adored. They remained but
few days and departed as mysteriOusl.
as they had come.
Base females thronged the precinct
of the imperial residence, openly strug
Cling for Napoleon's favor as they ha
so far never dared to do. Success to
frequently attended their efforts Blu
the one woman who should have bee
at his side was absent 1t is certain tha
she made an honest effort to come, an
apartments were prepared for her receT
tiOn in tho little palace ct Porto Ferra
jo Her father, however, thwarted he
at every turn. and finally she was vii
tual prisoner at Schonbrunn.
, So manifest was the restraint that he
grandmother, Caroline, queen Of th
two Sicilies, cried out in indignation
"If wero in the place of Maria Louis
I would tie the sheets of my bed to th
window frame and fee. " Committe
to the charge Of the elegant and subtl
Neipperg, afavorite chamberlain, whol
she had first seen at Dresden. he pile
her with such insidious wiles that ,
last her slender moral fiber was entirel
broken down and she fell victim
his charms. AS late as August NapoleC
received impassioned letters from he
/ Then she grew formal and cold. AT las
under Metternioh's urgency, she cease
TO write at all. Her French attendan
Menoval, managed TO convey the who
y sad story TO her husband, but the en-
: peror was inoredulous and hoped again
!, hope until December. Then only
ceased from his incessant and urgei
+ appeals. Life of Napoleon; the +;
lie and His Return" by Professor Y
u NJ. Sloane, in Century.
NJ. o.. H..