The chronicle=news. (Trinidad, Colo.) 1898-current, 1914-10-09

l
1t was on April II. that he wrote
April 20 that he left Fountainebleau
for Elba. Both scenes were touching
and tragic. 1t was on June is of
the next year that lie was finally
crushed at Waterloo. in that worlds
Earthquake. Those are all epochal
dates
But on May %. one hundred years
ago, amid the then incompatible
beauties of the rose gardens of La
| Malmai son. and amid memories OF
almost Uncomfortable grandeur but
in heart-brcaking loneliness. died 10
sephine. That was the supreme trag-
cdy. That was the seal upon the set
ting sun.
There is a familiar legend that a
| voodoO priestess in Santo Domingo
said to the lovely Creole in her girl
hood that she would some day be
greater than a queen, and yet would
die in a hospital. Certain it is that
Josephine believed in the first part
of the prophecy. She regarded her
self as a woman OF destiny.
They speak of your star. she said
to Napoleon one day, but 1t is my
star which influences yours: it is to
me that great destiny is promised
Nor was her boast idle. 1t was
from the moment when he first saw
and became enraptured with her that
Napoleon's star was in the ascendant.
It remained ascendant. superb. tri-
umphant SO long as his fortune was
| linked with hers. From the moment
when. with a studied perfidy extra
ordinary even in him. he cast her off,
his star began hopelessly to wane.
| The achievements which preceded
his divorce from her were Eckmuhl,
Aspern and Wasram, the occupation
of Vienna and the peace of Schon-
brunn. The events which followed 1t
were the peninsular war and the
Moscow campaign. With Josephine
at his side. he was the dictator OF
Europe. Without her. he was trap
ped by Russian winter at the north
and by Wellington at the south, and
the end was at hand.
How often and how bitterly he
lamented his remuneration of her, i'm
agination may picture. Again and
again he turned away from the shall
low substitute for her whom selfish
ambition had provided. and sought
out Jose phine amid the roses of NAL
maison for counsel. But II was too
late. She advised him wisely, but
lie did not follow her advice. Had
lie done so, he would not have COM
mittcd the three browning and fatal
foliies of his life. 1 He would not
have murdered the duke of Enghein.
He would not have provoked England
into sending Wellington to Spain.
| He would not have invaded Russia.
Against each of those mad acts. Jose
phinc warned and eNhortcd him. But
! each and all of them he committed
against her consent. Had she still
been Ills wife. her counsel might have
prevailed.
When the allies approached Paris
in 1874. she fled from Malmaison to
Navarro. But the allied sovereigns
besought her to return. that they
might have the privilege of being
received by her at Malmaison. She
complied with their request, in the
fond hope that thus she might In
some WY retrieve the fortunes of the
man who had not scruple to make
flaw in the ceremony by which he
married her. so that lie might. If he
should so wish. discard her and an
null the marriage. 1t il not often that
a bridegroom has practiccd such in
F,y to f,ft -
has forgiven II. But she did. AS she
had forgiven his innumerable inf
delities.
1t was at the very time that Napol-
con with the curses and threats of
the French 1opulace ringing In his
| ears, and wearing an odious disguise.
| including the white cockade of the
Bourbons. to save him from lynching.
escaped from France to his exile in
Elha that the Russian emperor and
his brothers and the Prussian king
and his sons kissed the hand of Jose
phine at Malmaison and treated her
with a respect which they would not
have shown to him or to the fugitive
Marie Louise.
But the end was at hand. Amid
all these courtly attentions she was
dying of broken heart. A slight
cold induced the climax; a few hours
and all was over. Her last words
were: Observation-Disclosures Lou
ise''
The place was fitting for the
Gene. Malmaison had been the
home of Richelieu. But Josephine
herself. rccreated it while Napoleon
wa. on his Egyptian campaign. 1t
was to it that he came home when
he fled from the Mamelukes. The
Tuilerics were sad with grandeur.