The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1898-01-28
BAZAINE'S MARRIAGES.

lished his reputation for physical courage.
BAzA1NE's MARRIAGES.
The Two Romantic Courtships of tho
Marshal OF France.
In the January Century there is an ar
ticlc on 'Maximilian's Empire" by Mrs.
Sara Y. Stevenson. who was in Mexico
during the entire period of the French
Intervention. Mrs. Stevenson saws of a
romantic character in French history:
Gen. Bazaine was at this time the most
popular man in the army. Hitherto emil
nently successful in all his military I'M
dertakings, 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
thick-set, whose plebeian features enc
might search in vain for spark of
genius or ray of imagination; and yet
under the commonplace exterior dwelt
kindly spirit, an intelligence of no mean
OF thought and expression, too common
among Frenchmen. soul upon which
the romance of life had impressed it's
mark in lines of fire.
The story went that, when a colonel,
he had in Spain come across a little girl
of great beauty and personal attractions,
who seemed to him out of place amid her
surroundings. He picked up the little
wild rose as it grew on the roadside, and
conceived the notion of TRANSFORMING it
into good, rich soil, and of giving it it's
share of sunshine. He took the child to
Paris. where he left her in a convent to
be educated.
The soldier continued his brilliant ca
reer in the Crimea, Italy, Syria and
Africa; and when, after some years, he
returned to Paris. he found the little girl
had grown into beautiful and attractive
woman. whose heart was full of warm
gratitude for her benefactor. He fell in
love with her, and, breaking through all
rules of French matrimonial usage mar
ried her.
Her charm won for her many friends in
the circle which her position entitled her
unde peculiarly distressing circumstances.
soon after his promotion to the command
of the army in Mexico, was a cruel blow.
The news of her death reached the gen
eral while away from the capital on the
brilliant campaign which added the great
er part Of the country to the projected
empire November, 1863. After a flu
-eers;- he retired to his tent, and, alone,
fought that hardest of all battles, and
conquered his own heart In 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
quartier-general. Bazaine, who had late
~ been promoted to the rank of marshal
1854, had stopped for moment to say
few words, when one of his guests,
young Mexican girl. who was Waiting
by, suddenly stopped near us, having torn
her dress. Pins were produced, the dam
aged ruff}e was repaired, and the girl
passed on. WHO is it?'' asked the
marshal. evidently much struck with her
muttered; chow much she reminds me of
my wife, He looked distract, and shortly
after excused himself, and wandered off
in the direction Mile. de la Pena had
taken.
The courtship was a short one, Maxi
milan, in order to facilitate a union,
which he deemed to be in the interest of
dowry the palace of San Cosme, valued
at 100000; and thus was May united to
December. Two children were born to
the marshal, one of them in Mexico, and
never was father prouder of his young
wife and of her offspring than was the
marshal.
John Muir, who has summered and
wintered in the Alaskan lands, towards
which all mems eyes and many mems feet
are now turning, says in the January At
lantic: Nowhere on my travels so far
have [ seen so much warm-blooded rejOic-
ing life as in this grand Arctic reserva-
ton by so many regarded as desolate.
Not only are there whales in abundance
along the shores, and innumera BILE seals,
al hoo h11t Te
of fat reindeer on the tundras, and wild
sheep, foxes, hares, Jennings, whistling
marmots and birds. Perhaps more birds
are born here than in any other region of
equal extent on the continent. Not only
do strong-winged hawks, eagles and wa
ter fowl, to whom the length of the con-
tinent is only pleasant excursion, come
but also many short-winged warblers,
thrushes and fnches, to rear their young
in safety, reinforce the plant bloom with
their plumage and sweeten the wilderness
with song. flying all the way, some of
them, from Florida, Mexico and Central
America. In thus going SO far north
they are only going home, for they We're
the winter months as New Englanders go
to Florida. Sweet-voiced troubadours,
they sing in orange groves and vine-clad
magnolia woods in winter, in Tickets
of dwarf birch and alder in summer, and
sing and chatter more or less all the way
back and forth, keeping the whole coun-
try glad. Oftentimes in New England
just as the last snow patches are melting,
and the sap in the naples begins to flow,
the blessed wanderers may be heard
about orchards and the edges of fields,
where they have stopped to CLEAN scanty
meal, not tarrying long, knowing they
have far to go. Tracing the footsteps Of
spring. they arrive in their tundra homes
in June or July, and set out OH their re-
turn journeys in September, or as soon as
their families are able to fly well.