The Donaldsonville chief., 1911-11-18

|55EHb ETT I1p genealogical law, and means
JNNIWIH Id legal and binding marriage that
AS1 lq l. does not raise an un-royal WHe
AD to royal rank.
Now, If false morganatio
marriage ds the easiest thing imaginable ana
true one disadvantageous but quite possible
how shall we sufficiently admire an emperor
who lifts a little countess to be empress oeslae
him? Add an 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 estrangement of partisans; make the
beloved one foreigner completely unpopular
with his people, and you will have the ele-
ments of Napoleon HIS heroism in loving
Eugenie.
Few kings since Cophetua have loved like
this.
Among SO many royal loves that lacked de-
votion, it shines like star
1t begins with gypsy at Madrid. Eugenies
mother, 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,
proud families meet the great ones Of Madrid
as equals. The Countess de Montijo clung to
her carriage and her opera box.
Alone, Tomboy Eugene was Sliding down
the banister She slid too strong, banged
against the fy-screen front door, and fell inani-
mate gypsy woman, passing, took the girls
head in her lap and brought her to. Then she
looked attentively at her and said:
"The senorita was born under the open sky,
the night of a battle"
"What!" exclaimed the countess, returned
with the carriage. She was struck by the
truth CT 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
stitous mother.
sShe will be queen said the gypsy
The prediction was bold, and beauty only
could lift the thirteenyear-old girl to its
realization: but beauty had already done much
for that family
So dreamed the mother. She herself had
been really poor girl, daughter of a British
subject who had failed in business In Malaga.
His name was Kirkpatrick. and he had long
been American viceconsul. 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 a throne!
The first was poor Spanish girl, Gallegros,
yigne French wine merchant of Malaga. mar
ried her and had two lovely daughters; and
two foreign consuls, French de Lesseps and
Scotch Kirkpatrick, lifted them by marriage to
the first rounds of the social ladder. From the
De Lesseps alliance came the grand Francois"
of Suez and Panama: but Krkpatricks wife
gave him daughter of such rare charms that
q Spanish grandee, with place at court
and of considerable family. married her for
love.
He was duke marquis, viscount and
a. 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 or greatgrandmother, and he
died Eugenie was one, her sister Pacca was
the other.
On the thirteen-year-old girl the gypsy's pre-
diction made formative impression. Con-
firming It, as she grew up she saw her elder
sister Pacca (Maria Francisca) make an un-
precedented match even In that family Pacca
caught the rich and mighty Duke of Alva.
Higher than the Duke of Alva could only be a
king
Eugene. growing up, refused brilliant Span
Ash offers; first the Duke of Ossuna, then the
rich and handsome young Duke of Sesto.
Gesto in truth inspired her with "a certain
sympathy and admiration. He was SO attrac-
sive!" But it 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
ebsurdity Of 1t. Where could such a prince be?
Yet she held off from all other guitors.
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 grea:
Napoleon" said Eugenie. and she had her way
The prince-president weighed down with the