New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-11-19
THE SECOND EMPIRE
Recollections of Princess Car
oline Murat.
MY MEMOIRS BY the Princess Carolin
Murat Illustrated. Svo, PIP 344- {
p. Putnam's Sons.

MY MEMOIRS. BY the Princess Caroline
Murat Illustrated Svo, PIP. 344. q.
p. Putnam'S Sons.
/ The woman who penned these frag-
mentary recollections was the daughter
of Iucien Murat the granddaughter of
! the King of Naples and his wife, Caro-
line Bonaparte. She was born on the
last dav of the year 1888 at Borden
town, n J.. where her father, having
married a South Carolinian girl. Caro-
lima Fraser, came to settle near his
uncle. Joseph Bonaparte, cx-king OF
Spain When this elder daughter of the
pair was fifteen the revolution of 1S4S
ended the exile of the great Napoleon
relatives of the second and third genera
lions. The Murats returned to France
and to the enjoyment of whatever pros
perity might be provided for them by
Louis Napoleon. as President and later
as Emperor Caroline married at seven
teen the Baron dc Chassiron, concerning
whom We gather little more than that
he was an excellent dancer. She took
part in the gayeties of the Second En-
pire. and when that empire fell she
sought refuge in England. There, being
left a widow by the unimportant Chas
siron she married A, country squire
named Garden, who seems to have busted
himself about the affairs of the Bona
partists In England-a land she con-
tinued 10 dislike cxtremely-she spent
most Of her remaining years. and there
she died in 1902. Such, in outline, was
the life of this lady.
1t would be we'll for her memory if
these recollections had never seen the
light. for a more unpleasing book Of the
kind could not easily be found. II is here
and there Of Il disgusting coarseness. 1t
sets forth scandalous tales which are
merely nasty. The late Princess
Mathilde, who was, of all the Bonaparte
women, the most brilliant intellectually
appears to have been consistently kind
10 her young cousin, making of her in
some sort a petted protegee. Concerning
her this narrative is brutally frank. AS
for the Empress Eugene, this Caroline
seems to have borne toward her a hatred
as bitter as that felt by her grand
mother, Queen Caroline Of Naples. for
the Empress Josephine. The unclean
stories. the vulgar and cruel attacks on
an unhappy woman are so violent that
their animus becomes unmistakablc and
the reader ends by regarding the whole
malignant business with total disbelief.
The "reminiscences Of the writer's child
hood in New Jersey are inoffensive but
not as interesting as they might have
been. We note that nothing is said of
the school kept there by her father and
mother. Their most picturesque visitor
OF those years was old General Bertrand,
the companion Of the great Napoleon at
St. Helena. He was an invalid when he
came to Bordentown, and his hosts We're
plunged into CONSERVATION when they
learned that he could eat nothing but
fish, and remembered that only shad
were available. The Spanish Minister,
Don Pedro d'Argaiz, lived near and had
a marvellous French chef. This treasure
was able to procure some rock-fsh, and
with these two Inhabitants Of the waters
he made splendid feast Of several
courses, so admirably disguised in their
different aspects that the bill Of fare
offered varied list Of ingenious names
TO tempt the appetite, and the dinner |
was a great success
1t is not an attractive picture of the |
court of Napoleon III that is painted in !
this volume. One Of the Bonapartes who |
won acknowledged liking from the writer |
was Prince Pierre. the black sheep and |
murderer Of Victor Noir There is a |
hint that she would have been willing to |
marry him; and there is another hint |
that marriage with another prince, |
who was presumably Louis Napoleon, !
was suggested. Here is retold the story |
of Prince Pierre, his brother, Prince |
Lucien. and Maria Cecchi OF Lucca
Twas said that the two brothers, Prince |
Louis Lucien and Prince Pierre, In their |
early youth, when shooting mouffons in the |
mountains in Corsica, came across a beauti- |
iul peasant girl, with whom they both fell |
'iolentiy IN love Who she was and whether |
she favored both brothers or neither. / |
cannot tell BE that as 1t may, they quar- |
relied. LES pJenF cieraHer8 of old would. no |