Omaha daily bee., 1896-08-23
MOTHER OF AN EMPRESS.
The Remarkable Career of the Count.
ess de MOntijO.

The Remarkable Career OF the Couht-
ess de MOntijO.
The history of the Countess de Montijo,
ex-Empress Eugenie's mother, is as oman
tic as that of her daughter is sad. Is is
not so generally known as not to be OF
interest at any time, says a writer IN the
st. Louis Republic, The Countess de
Montijo was the daughter of an English
consul at Malaga, whose name was Kirk
patrick. Thomas Kirkpatrick, his rather,
owned a small property, called KNOCK
in Dumfriesshire. The consuls daughter,
Maria, was a remarkably beautiful girl, and
attracted the attention Of a Spanish
grandee, the youngest son OF the great
house of Montijo.
The marriage of the daughter Of a Scot
fish merchant with the son of so noble a
house was considered a mesalliance, ana
King Ferdinand of Spain refused consent TO
the union. The young man was OBSTINATE
and the Kirkpatricks eager, and they en-
gagged Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, the noted
English wit. to prepare for his falr
countrywoman a family tree, in which the
dagger dripping with the hearts blood OF
the red Comyn" made a conspicuous hg-
ure.
was sent 10 Ferdinand VII. Z H'Nu'"'
exclaiming:
ooh. by all means, let the son Of Montijo
marry the daughter of Flngal -,
The nair was married, but the Spanish
don soon tired of his beautiful wife, and
thew separated long before his death. With
har two daughters the countess then trav-
eled from country to country, and spent
some years in London, where she lived In
retirement. Upon leaving London, which
she found too expensive, she returned To
Spain and resided for some time in Seville
In 1S43 she transferred herself and her
1.,.lto,. tn puris ami some documents
found at the prefecture of police under the
commune brought to light the following
queer notes about her:
"There is staying at No. As Rue st. An
tome. in a rather shabby apartment on the
third floor, a Nine. de Montijo, who pro-
fesses to be the wife of a Spanish grandee,
Her STYLE OF living Is modest and she re-
ceiyes no visits from ladies, but three or
four times a week a number of gentlemen,
principally foreigners, come ana spend the
evening with her and play cards. 1t is
presumable that they are attracted as much
by the beauty of Nine. de Montijo's laugh
tiers as by the wish TO gamble"
On the margin OF this note the project
Of that time had written:
'Find out whether Nine. Montijo is really
the wife of a Spanish nobleman." On a
paper appended to the above Is this brief
statement: NINE. de Montijo is really what
she asserts she is, but the couple were vir-
tually divorced three years after marriage
and the countess processes to live on her
iointure OF 10 900 francs a year" The word
"professes'' was underlined in both quota
tions, and it is evident that the lady de-
rived the larger share of her income from
the maintenance OF one OF those private
gambling salons which have at all times
been common to Paris.
Her two daughters were really lovely to
an astonishing degree. The elder married
the duke OF Alba, and. thanks to his rank
and wealth, the position OF the Montijos
was soon very different from what 1t had
been before the marriage. She lived sump-
tuously for a time in her son-in-law's house
in Madrid, and when she returned to Paris
set up an elegant establishment in the
Champs Elysees. To get rid of his mother
in-law. who had a somewhat domineering
temper, the duke of Alba allowed her lO0,-
600 francs a year, with the request that she
live anywhere but in his own home in Mad
rid.
Eugene, the younger, had many suitors
for her hand. An English earl, an Amer
lean banker, a young cousin OF the duke of
Alba, and shoals OF Frenchmen, among
whom was a famous novelist, proposed to
her. One night at a ball given by the pres
ident at the Elysee, Eugene met Louis Ma
poleon. He had just been snubbed by the
prince OF Bavaria, who had declined TO give
the hand OF his daughter to an adyenturer.