Condon globe. (Condon, Gilliam Co., Or.) 189?-1919, 1896-11-13
EMPERoR On FI1A.
How Napoleon Conducted Himself
During Exii,.


During Exile.
Elba was an island divided against
Itself, there being both imperiahsts and
royalists among It's Inhabitants, and a
considerable party which desired lnde-
pendence. BY representing that Ma
poleon had brought with him fabulous
sums the Austrian and English com
missioners easily won the Elbans to
feryor 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
pigmy realm, the Emperor began to de-
ploy all his powers. mending the high
ways, fortifying the strategic points,
and creating about the nucleus of four
hundred guards which were sent from
Fontainebleau an efficient little army
OF sixteen hundred men. His expenses
were regulated to the minutest detail
bothathomeand abroad; the salt works
and iror mines, which were the bull
warks OF Elban prosperity, began at
once to increase their output. and taxa
tion was regulated with scrupulous
nicely. BY that supereminent virtue OF
the French burgher. good management
the island was made almost indepenG
ent OF the remnants OF the Tuileries
treasure about Ave million 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
her second husband. and banished
since 1910 from Paris for impertinent
conduct to the Empress. came, accord
Ing to promise, to be her brothers COM
panion, and Madame Mere, though dis
tant In prosperity, came likewise to
soothe her son In adversely. The in
tercepted 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 sufficient basis for the
scandals concerning her relations with
Napoelon which were founded upon
them, and industrlously circulated at
the court of Louis XVIII. The shame
ful charge has no adequate foundation
Of any sort.
Napoleon's economics we're render.
ed not merely expedient. but impera-
tive. by the fact that none Of the mon
eys from France were forthcomin
which had been promised In his treaty
with the powers. After short stay
holler frankly stated that In his opin-
ion they would never be paid, and de.
parted. The island swarmed with
Bourbon spies, and the only converaa-
ton In which Napoleon could indulge
himself unguardedly was with Sir Neil
Campbell, the English representative,
or with the titled English gentlemen
who Eratifed their curiosity by visiting
him. During the summer heats whom
the court was encamped on the heights
at Marciana for refreshment, there ap-
peared a mysterious lady with her
child. Both were well received and
kindly treated. but they withdrew
themselves entirely from the publ,
gaze. Common rumor said 1t was th.
Empress; but this was not true: It was
the Countess Walewska, with the son
she had borne to her host, whom abe
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
80 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
reception in the little palace at Porto
Ferrajo. Her father, however, thwart- .
ed her at every turn, and finally she
was virtual prisoner at Schonbrunn.
So manifest was the restraint that her
grandmother, Caroline, Queen of the
Two Sicllies, cried out In Indignation,
''If were in the place Of Maria Louisa
would tie the sheets Of my bed to the
window frame and fee" Committed
to the charge Of the elegant and subtle
Neipperg, favorite chamberlain whom
she had flrst seen at Dresden, he piled
her with such insidlous wlles that at
last her slender moral Hber was entire
ly broken down and she fell a victim
to his charms AS late as August Napol.
con received impassioned letters from
her; then she grew formal and cold; at
last under Metternich's urgency, she
ceased to write at all. Her French at.
tendant Meneval, managed to convey
the whole sad story to her husband,
but the Emepror was incredulous, and
hoped against hope until December.
Then only he ceased from his incessant
and urgent appeals.--Century.