River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-11-09

ISGA XX-a>Sal -
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HW - HEN kings love is mentioned,
~ va - the mind flies to the morgan
"a W 4 attic.
Va In America the word has
~ MB been misused for seeminess in
WV mentioning the usual heart af-
D !. !: !: I; !:
A. ~ XIV fairs Of royalty, but it is an ex-
iR3FI I'D ITsNF act term of purely German
iSTI NHh I1p genealogical law, and means
f1NU I'LL ! legal and binding marriage that
VIZ does not raise an unroyal wife
~ to royal rank
Now, if a false morganatic
marriage is the easiest thing imaginable and a
true one disadvantageous but quite possible,
how shall we sufficiently admire an emperor
who lifts little countess to be empress beside
him? Add unstable throne, new in itself,
newly mounted in sore need of royal alliances;
add the bitter opposition of his family the
laugh of the world, the contempt of statesmen,
and the enlargement of partisans; make the
beloved a foreigner completely unpopular
with his people, and you will have the ele-
9nents of Napoleon HIS heroism in loving
Eugene.
this.
Among so many royal loves that lacked de-
Rotion, it shines like a star
1t begins with a gypsy at Madrid. Eugenies
Enother, a widow, camarera mayor to the
queen, lived in her own house in the Plaza del
Angel
One day-Eugenie being thirteen and tom
'boy-they refused to take her in the Prado
carriage promenade, which, with the opera,
still remains the common ground where poor,
tprond families meet the great ones of Madrid
as equals. The Countess de Montiio chung to
her carriage and her opera box.
Alone, TOmboy Eugene sliding down
the banister. She slid too strong, banged
against the fy-screen front door, and fell mani
mate A gypsy woman, passing, took the girls
head in her lap and brought her to. Then she
Cooked attentively at her and said:
'''The senorita was born under the open sky
the night of battle"
What" exclaimed the countess, returned
with the carriage She was struck by the
truth Of the words Thirteen years ago, at
Granada, an earthquake had forced them to
camp night in the garden. and Eugene was
there prematurely born.
what will be her future?" asked the super
Stitious mother.
"She will be queen" said the gypsy.
The prediction was bold, and beauty only
could lift the thirteen-yearold girl to it's
realization; but beauty had already done much
Tor that family
So dreamed the mother. She herself had
qeen a really poor girl daughter of a British
subject
His name was Kirkpatrick, and he had long
been American vice-consul He had married
one of two beautiful sisters, yet still poorer
see how hereditary beauty will force its way,
through four generations from its unadorned
self to throne!
The first was a poor Spanish girl Gallegros,
whose sole possession was her beauty Gre
vigne French wine merchant of Malaga, mar
ried her and had two lovely daughters and
a
Scotch Kirkpatrick, lifted them by marriage to
the first rounds of the social ladder. E"om the
DE Lesseps alliance came the grand Fr2scais
of Suez and Panama; but Kirkpatricks wife
gave him a daughter of such rare charms that
q Spanish grandee, with a place at court
and of considerable family, married her for
love.
He was a duke, marquis, a viscount and
q baron but the title by which he had been
Known to the world was Count de Montijo.
He had two daughters fairer yet than mother,
grandmother greatgrandmother, and he
died Eugene was one, her sister Pacca was
the other.
On the thirteen-year-old girl the gypsy's pre-
sdiction made a formative impression. Con-
Arming it. as she grew up she saw her elder
sister Pacca maria Francisca) make an I'M
aorecedented match even in that family. Pacca
caught the rich and mighty Duke of Alva.
HIGHER than the Duke of Alva could only be
king.
Eugene, growing up, refused brilliant Span
Fsh offers first the Duke of Ossuna, then the
rich and handsome young Duke of Sesto
Sesto in truth inspired her with "a certain
sympathy and admiration. He was so attrac-
xfvei" But 1t was not love- Deep in her heart
she loved a dream prince, the unknown OF the
gypsy, endowed by her girls fancy with thou
sand charming attributes. She smiled at the
absurdity of 1t. Where could such prince be?
Yet she held off from all other suitors.
When her mother took her to Paris her
heart leaped at an unexpected premonition.
The handsome, dark-browed, careworn man.
still young who, as French president, received
at the Elysee, became romantic figure In her
eyes, Eugene wished to attend presidential
reception. Her mother hesitated. 1t would
make them ridiculous with the mildewed smart
set.
But my father was an officer of the great
Napoleon" said Eugene, and she had her way.
The priace-president, weighed down with the