Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-06

SAINT George, she animated that she could not
accept unless he offered the distinction to her
husband. Alexander proceeded to do this, apprec1-
ating the generosity with which throughout her
married life she endeavored to protect the prestige
of her consort.
A somewhat malignant and misleading picture of
this unfortunate monarch but very attractive and
faithful portrayal of Queen Marie will be found in
Alphonse Daudets novel, 1.-THE Kings in Exile,
where Francis and Marie inquire as the King ana
Queen of Hlyra.''
The Queen, who, like her sister the Empress Eliza
BETH was passonatey fond of horses, kept for
number of years racing stable at Paris, where her
colors registered the turf under the name OF
Count Isola' This was, however, during the life
time of her husband She has long since given up
racing and now devotes her leisure and much OF her
spare money to the maintenance OF shop IN Paris
for the sale of articles manufactured by the poverty
stricken peasantry of Calabra and of other provinces
subject to her scepter Everything realized by
this enterprise is sent to Italy, to be used tor the
relief of her former eges AS she is chlldless and
widowed, the only motive of the charity to which
she is thus devoting her last years IS kindly re-
membrane for the people of the land of her adoption
Empress Eusenie's Bravery
EMPRESS EUGENIE has sometimes been de-
II scribed wanting in courage, and it is urged
against her that she had turned deaf ear to the
BY no means disinterested representations of Prince
Metternch and Count Nigra, and had renamed at
the Tuieries, at any rate In Paris, instead OF
escaping to England, she might possibly have saved
the throne, II not Tor ner nuSDanQ, anyhow loI
her son. and have averted the loss of Lorraine and
possibly of Alsace. The advice of the two Am
bassadors prompted, of course by the rea1za-
ton that once the Empire overthrown their
respective sovereigns would be liberated fpSo tdco
from the engagements they had secretly contracted
toward Napoleon Ill. which were of a nature to
embroil them with victorious Germany.
In for Eugene may be argued that she had
been deserted by all her household especially by the
masculine dgnitares of her court, and that she was
urged to seek safety in fight by those whom she be-
lieved, perhaps foolishly, to be her most ds1nter
ested advisers and her most trusted and devoted
friends 1t is certain that several other occasions
she displayed considerable personal bravery
Thus on the night of the memorable attempt to
assassinate Napoleon III. in Paris by means OF
bombs, an outrage which resulted in the
less serious injury of at least thirty people, the En-
peror himself having his face slightly cut by piece
of glass, and the carriage In which he and the En-
press were sitting completely wrecked, she sat
throughout the greater part of the subsequent per
Torrance at the opera by her husbands side, dis
playing the utmost calmness and fort1tude Indeed,
It was not until the performance over and her
return to the Tuieries, that she able to remove
her Dress which was stained with the blood of the
victims of the explosion.
Eugene is also on record as having visited the
various cholera wards of the hospitals In Paris,
Amens and other cities where this Asiatic epidemic
was raging in 1865 and 1866 taking consolation
and sympathy to the sick and dying, and encourage
ment and imperial recognition to the physicians and
nurses engaged in caring for those stricken. And,
though so proud of her beauty which was her Pr1n-
cpal asset, she did not even hesitate during the
memorable smallpox epidemic to visit the smallpox
wards of the hospitals order to sustain the droop
ing spirits of the doctors and attendants
On another occasion, she may be said to have pro-
tected her husband from serious jury not worse,
by an Infatuated bull The episode took place some
three years before the overthrow of the Empire in
the neighborhood of Biarritz Napoleon and
Eugene were out walking, when Nero the spaniel
(which, by the by, figures beside the Prince Imperial
in Carpeaux' famous statue of their i'll fated sony
began to bark at some cattle that grazing