The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-21


that there was another one at home who
would have been more glad of his COM
TRUTH WAS OFFENSIVE.
When the news of Maximilian's death
reached Paris there was the rumbling of
coming storm. Vague news of the catastro-
phe had preceded the authentic announce
ments by several days. Indignation was rife
among all classes. Napoleon was blamed for
it. At the annual distribution of prizes at
the College de France, one of the Cavaig
macs had refused to receive his prize at the
hands of the prince imperial. The Empress
on hearing of this insult to the imperial
family burst into hysterical tears and was
obliged to leave the reception rooms. A dark
cloud hung over the Tuilleries. Napoleon felt
that he was blamed. He regretted it, but
bowed to the storm and did not resent the
i'll words said of him. Not so the Empress.
Truth was only welcome when it fattered
her. She fancied herself an auto
done the Boa nlsHs before eu he S n N
Hyrvoix was then the chief of the
secret police. 1t was through him that the
voice of the people" reached her. He had
been instructed by the Emperor to report
what the people said, and he did so. He was
generally the first of all the officials to
present his daily report. One MOI ming the
Emperor gave him his cue by asking, What
do the people say?" 1t was the morning
known. The answer did not come as read
lily as usual, for the chief of police had not
been in the habit of mincing matters. The
Emperor pressed his question and then the
answer came
We'll sire if you wish to know, not only
the people, but every one, is deeply indig-
of this unfortunate war. 1t is commented
upon everywhere in the .selfsame spirit.
They gss say fs il is the fault st Off,; off, >o,
Sire" stammered M. Hyrvoix. lin the
time of Louis XVI people said: Tt is the
fault of the Austrian woman.
Under Napoleon III people say: 1T is the
fault of the Spanish woman "
These words had scarcely left M. Hyr-
voix's lips when door leading to the inner
apartments opened and the Empress APP
peared on the threshold. She looked like a
gown, her hair was waving over err her r. sh eu
ders, and her eyes shot flames. She Kissed
rather than spoke, as she bounded toward
the chief of police and said: "You will
please repeat what you said just now. M.
Hyrvoix," her voice hoarse with anger.
Certainly madame" the chief of police
replied, seeing that 1 am here to speak the
truth, and, being SO, your Majesty will par
don me- L told the Emperor that the Paris
ians spoke of the Spanish woman they
the Austrian woman"
THE Spanish woman! The Spanish wom-
an!'' she shrieked out three or four times,
while her hands were tightly clinched. II
have become French. but 1 will show my
enemies that | can csI, be Spanish when &C.
With this she left as suddenly as she had
entered, taking no notice of the Emperors
uplifted hand to detain her.
The chief of police said, after the door
had closed on this imperial fury, II am
more ss than grleved, sire; that l spoke"
You did your duty" the Emperor replied,
grasping the chiefs hand
MADE MANY ENEMIES.
The enemies to whom Eugene made the
threat cho CHI
vengeance were legion. Even her venge-
ance was not powerful enough to sweep
them from her path but she found in M.
Hyrvoix a scrapegoat. Next morning M.
Hyrvoix was appointed receiver general for
one of the departments-that is, exiled to
one of the provinces; and this system of
ostracism was applied to all who offended
her. Hence, in few years the so-called
counselors around the Emperor became
mere automata, moving at her will and at
her will only. Men who dared to think for
themselves were removed, or voluntarily re-
tired from the court, rather than submit to
tyranny not based, like that of Catherine
II or Elizabeth, upon great intellectual gifts,
but upon the hayward impulses of a Wom-
in no way distinguished mentally from
the meanest of her sex, except by an over
weening vanity and an equally overweening
conceit.
One evening at court during the PERFORM
ance of some charadeS several of the per-
formers, both men and women, threw all
decorum to the winds in their inprovised
dialogues. young colonel, not by any
means straitlaced or a hypocrite. and who
was great favorite with both the Emperor
and Empress professed himself shocked, in
the hearing of the latter. at so much license
in the presence of the sovereigns In reality
1T was an honest but indirect comment upon
the Empress's blamable attitude in that re-
spect. The Empress took up the cudgel on
behalf of the offenders. and said: You
don't like it, colonel: 1 laugh at it, and
again laugh at it, and still again laugh at
it." The Emperor laughed too. and APP
plauded his consort. The colonel took the
hint and was seen at the court no more
A great deal has been heard of the En-
press Eugenie's charity, but it was chari-
ty often as indiscriminate as her anger: a
charity prompted by sentimentalism rather
than by sentiment. Yet the woman who
could indulge in sentiment about the alb
sence of dessert in the refectory of ST. La
zare would, at the end of the hunt deliber-
atey jump off her horse plunge the gleam-
ing knife in the throat of the painting stag,
and revel in the sight of blood Many who
saw her do this argued that in the hour of
danger she would as boldly face the enc
mics of herself and dynasty. Instead of do
ing this, she. skunk away at the supreme
hour. while the princess, to whom she had
presumed to teach the manners of a court.
left like a princess, in an open landau, and
preceded by an Outrider.
At the opening of the Franco-Prussian
war the best informed men in the French
army acknowledged the wretched condition
of the army and the utter lack of military
and strategic science among its generals and
officers. but the cry was Courage does ALL
forgetting the magnificent lines of the foun-
der Of the dynasty, which these court gen.
erals and colonies had been Systematically
undermining for years by their dissipation,
frivolity and corruption. The first Napo-
leon had said: 1.-THE general is the head
the all in all of the army" And she who
aspired to play the role of a Maria Theresa
applauded the vaporings of these misguided
men, who said courage was the all in all,
even when dispatches arrived daily in Paris
telling, of generals who had failed to find
their brigadeS, of regiments which found
themselves on the march without canteens,
ambulances or baggage wagons-the result
of blunders by generals who might have
had abundant courage. but were wanting
in all the essential knowledge that a gem
eral should have.
WHERE SHE FAILED.
During the absence at the front of the
Emperor the Empress Eugene was made
regent, and did everything to prevent his
coming back to Paris, though many of the
wisest men there deemed that it was best
for the nation that he should do so. She
finally managed to create what was called
the Empress party made up of court fiat
terers. But when the time came for her to
play the part of Marie Antoinette she sig
nally failed to carry out the role, and dis
appeared from Paris, no one knew how, ex-
cepting her personal attendants. The
writers of their memoirs men who lived at
Paris during the empire, agree that TIE
third Napoleon was very much hen-pecked
husband, and that in this line the ex-Em-
a mt N nd