The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-05-18
BAZAiNE'S MARRIAGES.
The Two Romantic Courtships of the Mar
shall of France.

The Two Romantic Courtships of the Mar
shall of France.
In The Century there is an article
on "Maximilian's Empire by Mrs.
! Sara Y. Stevenson, who was in Mex
leo during the entire period of the
French intervention. Mrs. Steven
son says of romantic character in
French history:
General Bazaine was at this time
the most popular man in the army.
Hitherto eminently successful in all
his military undertakings, he had
risen from the ranks, having won
his honors step by step upon the
battlefield, at first by his courage,
later by his remarkable military
ability.
He was plain looking man, short
and thickset, whose plebeian fea-
lures one might search in vain for
spark of genius or ray of imagina-
ton, and yet under the common
place exterior dwelt kindly spirit,
an intelligence Of no mean order,
and, despite certain coarseness of
thought and expression too COM
mon among Frenchmen, a. upon
which the romance of lite had i'm
pressed its mark in lines of fire.
The story went that, when colo
mel, he had in Spain come across a
little girl of great beauty and per-
sonal attractions who seemed to
him out of place amid her surround
ings. He picked up the little wild
rose as it grew on the roadside and
conceived the notion of transplant
ing it into good, rich soil, and of
giving it its share of sunshine. He
took the child to Paris, where he
left her in a convent to be educated.
The soldier continued his brilliant
career in tho Crimea, Italy, Syria
and Africa, and when, after some
years, he returned to Paris he found
the little girl had grown into a
beautiful and attractive woman,
whose heart was full of warm graf
itude for her benefactor. He fell in
love with her, and, breaking through
all rules of French matrimonial
usage, married her.
Her charm won for her many
friends in the circle which his posi-
ton entitled her to enter, and her
death, which occurred under pecul-
iarly distressing circumstances,
soon after his promotion to the
command of the army in Mexico, was
cruel blow.
The news of her death reached the
general while away from the capital
on the brilliant campaign which
added the greater part of tho coun-
try to the projected empire (Novem-
ber, 1869. After a funeral mass,
which he heard with his officers, he
retired to his tent, and, alone, fought
that hardest of all battles and con-
quered his own heart. In a few
days he returned to his duty, and
no one ever knew what had passed
in his innermost soul.
Two years later ball was given
at the quarter general. Bazaine,
who had lately been promoted to
the rank of marshal 1864, had
stopped for a moment to say few
words, when one of his guests, a
young Mexican girl who was waltz
ing by, suddenly stopped near us,
having torn her dress. Pins were
produced, the damaged ruffle was
repaired, and the girl passed on.
"Who is its" asked the marshal,
evidently much struck with her ap-
pearance. "It is extraordinary, y
he muttered, chow much she re-
minds me of my wife y He looked
distrait, and shortly after excused
himself and wandered off in the di-
rection Mile. de la Pena had taken.
The courtship was a short one,
Maximilian, in order to facilitate a
union which lie deemed to bo in the
interest of his government, gave the
young girl as dowry the palace Of
San Cosme, valued at 500, 600, and
thus was May united to December.
Two children were born to the mar
shal, one of them in Mexico, and
never was father prouder of his
young wife and of her offspring than
was tho marshal.