The San Francisco call., 1905-05-14
Clotilde Of Savoy
Rounds Out Life
of Sorrow.
TRIES TO BURY
CRUEL MEMORY
Devotes Remaining
Days to Work
of Charity.
SHE is RELICT
OF A BONAPARTE
Her Son. Yearns to
Become Emperor
of France.
Special Cable to The Call.

LONDON, May 13.-By the world al
most forgotten. in her old age trying
to bury in good works the memory of
her loveless marriage and the years Of
wretchedness that 1t brought her,
Princess Clotilde of Savoy is one of the
most pathetic figures in modern his
tory. She inherited the bluest strain
of royal blood in Europe and with sor-
row and misery she has paid for it.
When only 16 fresh from a convent
school, knowing nothing of the vices
and wickedness that are often asso-
ciated with exalted hereditary rank,
she was married in 1859 to Prince Ma
poleon. the son of Jerome Bsnaparte,
the youngest brother of the great
Bonaparte-"le petit corporal" whose
ambition drenched Europe in blood and
cost millions of lives. The marriage
was dictated by purely political con-
siderations. The girl was sacrificed be-
cause of her pedigree. The battles of
Magenta and Solferino had been fought
and won; the Austrians had been driv-
en- back across the Alps; the unity
Of Italy was fairly in sight and the
dream of Victor Emmanuel almost real
lied. The price demanded by the EN-
peror of the French for his assistance
against Austria was the province of
Savoy, the cradle of Victor Emmanuel's
dynasty and the Kings daughter for
his cousin, Prince Napoleon.
1t is said that only twice in his life
were tears known to dim the fierce eyes
of III Re Galantuomo"-once, when on
the field of Levara. his father-defeat-
ed, despairing. dying-took the crown
from his brow and bade the soldiers
hail Prince Victor Emmanuel as
King of Sardinia and Savoy;
and again when. after long
interviews with his Minister Ca
YOUR. he sent for his child Clo-
tide and told her he had promised her
hand to the most notorious "viveur,"
the coldest-hearted man of his time,
Jerome Napoleon, the French Emper-
or's kinsman and possible SUCCESSOR
a man considerably more than twice
her age and whom she had never be-
held. And thus the motherless girl
Queen Adelaide had died three years
before-was given to the man who
presided over the orgies Of the Palais
Royal AS had happened TO Princesses
of her house before. she was ruthlessly
bartered away for value received. She
was sacrificed to the cause of Italian
unity.
A NEST OF INTRIGUE.
The Palais Royal, where Prince Ma
poleon installed his bride, had been
the scene of many intrigues and the
center of much plotting and counter
lnx 90
Cardinal. whose crowning extrava-
gance the building had been. Richie
lieu left the Palais to his master,
Louis XIII: and Louis widow, Anne
of Austria, inhabited it until it be-
came the asylum of Henrietta Marie
de France, widow of King Charles /
of England. In its magnificent rooms
lived the English Queen and her
youngest child, Princess Henrietta.
Henrietta married the Due d'Orleans.
brother of Louis XIV. The Palais
| Royal was the home of the royal pair
] and their poor Henrietta saw her
dream of welded happiness fade away
like fairy gold She died there in a
very few years-of poison, it was said.
!. Such were the tragic memories of the
! place to which Prince Napoleon
brought his girl-wife.
Princess Clotilde had been reared
by the good sisters of Santa Chiara to
esteem simple goodness. and piety and
feminine virtue above all things. Her
beautiful home in the old city of
,, Turin within sight of the SHOWS of the
Alps. within sound of the rushing
green waters of the Pc. had i'll pre-
pared her for the meretricious gaudi-
ness of Paris under the third empire.
And she could not forget that Turin
| itself had been subjugated and humili-
ated by the uncle of her bridegroom.
The very bridge by which she crossed
| the river had been built by Napoleon I
with the spoils of the affairs of the
Cathedral of Turin, the terrible Corsi-
can having torn the very crown from
the brow of the virgin and the jewels
from the chalices in the sacristy in
his impious disregard for holy things
and his greed for gold.
If the ways of the court of the
Tuileries were distasteful to Princess
Clotilde, she herself was in her turn
distasteful to the imperial pair then
seated on the throne of France. The
beautiful Empress loved to see around
her women as radiant and as frivolous
as herself; she wished. she said her