St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1896-11-20
EMPEROR OF ELBA.
HOW NAPOLEON CONDUCTED HIM.
SELF DURING EXILE.

The Powers Which swayed the Larger
World Shown to Good Advantage In His
Pygmy Kingdom-The Darker Side of a
Brilliant Career.
Elba was an island divided against
itself, there being both imperialists and
royalists among its inhabitants and
considerable party which desired indie.
pendence. By representing that Napo-
leon had brought with him fabulous
sums the Austrian and English commits
sioners easily won the Elbans to q 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, terrifying the strategic points and
creating about the nucleus Of 400 guards
which were sent from Fontainebleau an
efficient little army of 1000 men. His
expenses were regulated to the minutest
detail both at home and abroad. The
salt works and iron mines, which were
the bulwarks Of Ethan prosperity, began
at once to 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 5, 900, 900 francs) which
Napoleon had brought from France The
same powers which had swayed world
operated with equal success in a sphere
almost microscopic by comparison.
Before long the Princess Borghese,
separated soon after her marriage from
her second husband and banished since
1910 from Paris for impertinent conduct
to the empress, came, according to prom
Use, to be her brothers. companion,
and Madame Mere, though distant in
prosperity, came likewise to soothe her
son in adversely. 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 a suffi-
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 economics 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 short stay Roller
frankly stated that, in his opinion, it
would never be paid and departed. The
island swarmed with Bourbon spies,
and the only conversation in which Ma
poleon could indulge himself unguard-
eddy was with Sir Neil Campbell, the
English representative, or with the til
tied English gentlemen who gratifed
their curiosity by visiting him. During
the summer heats, when the court was
encamped on the heights at Maroiana
for refreshment, there appeared a mys-
terious lady with her child. Both were
we'll received and kindly treated, but
they withdrew themselves entirely from
the public gaze. Common rumor said it
was the empress, but this was not true.
1t was the Countess Walewska, with
the son she had borne to her host, whom
she still adored They remained but
few days and departed as mysteriously
as they had come.
Base females thronged the precincts
of the imperial residence, openly strug-
Cling for Napoleon's favor as they had
so far never dared to- do. Success too
frequently attended their efforts. But
the one woman who should have been
at his side was absent. 1t is certain that
she made an honest effort to come, and
apartments were prepared for her recep-
tion in the little palace at Porto Ferra-
jo. Her father, however, thwarted her
at every turn, and finally she was vir-
tual prisoner at Sohonbrunn.
So manifest was the restraint that her
grandmother, Caroline, queen Of the
two Siciles, cried out in indignation,
eff l were in the place of Maria Louisa,