The evening bulletin. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1887-1905, 1896-04-18

mob about him, not to believe in the old
marriage contracts, and such n man could
easily persuade such woman rs Josephine
to his way of thinking.
Barras became .Josephines protector,
and under the new dispensation they lived
together as man and wife. 1t should te
said that their relations were maintained
with quiet not customary in those days
Of defiance to precedent
In the meantime Napoleon had forced
his way to the front of affairs. The war
against Italy was proclaimed and Barras,
who had wearied of Josephine, planned to
get rid of her and at the same time to free
France from n rival He succeeded, but
his success defeated his purpose.
Barras introduced the beautiful widow
to the young general. Napoleon fell il
love with Josephine at once 1t is now
pretty certain that he knew of the rela
tions she Lad sustained to his master,
Barras, but he was not the man to halt
over little things. The woman who had
won Barras was good enough for him.
The marriage of General Bonaparte and
Josephine vas brought about by Darras,
who, ~ days after the wedding, ordered
the young husband to the command of the
army organized for the invasion of Italy.
1t is now conceded by impartial students
of history that Napoleon was IN unrivaled
monster of heartlessness, selfshness and
indifference to the claims of others. At
St. Helena he confessed that he had never
loved any one, unless it was his brother
Joseph, who was his senior but the letters
hot linz,
campaign prove that he was madly in Iowa
with her.
Before a battle, after n battle, even amid
the thunders of battle this woman dOmi-
mated his heart, if not his brain, and he
wrote her every day and often five times
a day. And all this time according to the
cruel memoirs of Barras, recently pub
lished, Josephine was living in the whirl
| of licentious society and setting an ex-
ample of inhdelity to the reckless women
about her.
Napoleon must have heard of Josephine's
wild life for he begged her to join him,
| and after three months she consented and
went to Milan.
After the peace of Leoben the general
and Nine. Bonaparte lived in apparent
| happiness for some months at beautiful
Montebello, near Milan.
The general wished his wife to remain
with him, and she would have done so
| had she loved him with half the fervor she
claimed But she had no liking for
camps, no taste for war, no hunger for
glory bought by hardship. Her giddy
brain and frivolous nature hungered for
the gay life of the capital, where as the
wife of the successful young soldier, she
! could be the center of society and live in
the palaces of the murdered Louis.
Reluctantly Napoleon consented, and,
hurrying back to Barras, she flung herself
into the designations of the hour with what
Barras calls "recklessness.
| Napoleon's name was now on every lip.
| The campaign in Italy had made him the
wonder of the world and the idol of
! France.
AS the husband was not present to re-
| ceive the congratulations and adulation OF
the people they were poured out on Jose
| phine. Her salons became the rendezvous
Of the great the rich and the immoral,
and by no effort of hers did she set an ex-
ample of social purity.
Napoleon returned to Paris, but it was
only for short time. Barras sent him TO
Egypt, and he wanted his wife to 60 with
him, but she refused.
| hnllC lIO nuSDauu was hShNiiiS
| by tho Nile, Josephine was living in splen-
dor in Paris, and Barras claims she was rs
indifferent to her marriage vows as If she
| had never made Thorn.
Until her husbands return Josephine
lived like queen Mt tho Luxembourg and
| tho Tuilcrics. "Sho was not faithful to the
first husband; how could you expect her to
be faithful to the secondY" wrote the stern
| Junot to friend.
Needless to detail the life Of woman
whose only claim to emincnce was her
beauty and her alliance with the worlds
| greatest man.
Long before it came about Napoleon
would have been justified in demanding a
divorce if tho half charged against Joseph
| Inc were true.
In estimating her character we should
remember the times in which she lived
Yet these can hardly excuse her ignorance
superstition and unbounded extravaganza
Her marriage made her immortal, and the
divorce threw glamour of romance about
her which history is fast dissipating.
ALFRED II. CALHOUN.