The Washington herald., 1914-07-26

VLT HILE Napoleon dwelt in the palace
wv of the fugitive Archduehess Marie
Louise of Austria at Shonbrunn, In
1909, and occupied the room of the future
king of Rome he formed the long-defer-
red resolution to divorce Josephine, and,
marrying a daughter Of one of the an
cient dynasties, provide an heir to his
empire.
As the victor of WagraIn, in the pride
Of success and the responsibility of pow
er, tread the palace halls of the Haps-
burgs, his determination ripened that the
inheritor of his glory and his conquests-
should be at once a child of his own po-
tent blood and the scion of a race OF
kings He saw no other way to life the
imperial succession above the ugly jeal-
ousies and conspiracies that had already
divided the Bonapartes and place 1t be-
yond the rivalry of the more ambitious
marshals who stood ready to fight for the
crown among themselves. ,
Like his only companions in fame, he
was childless, but he would not, like
Alexander, bequeath his kingdom to the
strongest, or, like Caesar, adopt a
nephew. True, he had looked with favor
on the first born of his brother, Louis.
but when the little fellow died, in 1897, the
Emperor did not transfer his favor to the
second son, nor yet to the third, who was
born the next year, although this last
child really was destined, as Napoleon III,
to be the only successor his throne ever
was to have.
The Divorce Campaign.
For two years the Emperor had wres-
tied with the man, the monarch with the
husband. ambition with affection, the
head with the heart. Nor was Josephine
blind to that silent conflict between his
emotions and his policies. which had so
long agitated her husbands breast. She
dreaded to have him pass for moment
beyond her spell, and she was begging
him in her letters. throughout his absence
on the Prussian and Polish campaign, to
LET her share his hardships in the camp
and IN the field.
While the anxious wife waited for the
return of her courtiers, she alternately
went and consulted the cards to learn
from their mystic faces whether the
hoped-for summons was on the way. She
impatiently tore open one Of his letters
TO read: 'T laughed at your saying that
hand. I thought, in my ignorance, that
the wife was made for the husband. the
husband for his country, his fame and
his glory" Again she received from him
this chiding message: 'I am told you are
always crying Fie! How ugly that is!
An empress ought to be courageous
All the while the same superserviceable
faction which. for its own profit, had
paved Napoleon's way to the life consul
ate, and then to the throne. was eagerly
plotting, in season and out, to have him
marry again and obtain an heir to that
throne by which its members lived. Al
ways ready to do the dirty work. Fouche
had gone to the Empress, either with or
without the Emperor's sanction, and
,,rRed her to make a voluntary sacrifice
of herself for the sa2e of the empire. But
when she asked Napoleon about IT, he
botly denounced the meddling of the min
lister of police and, folding her in his en-
brace and weeping over her, he reassured
her of his love
Josephine's Spell.
A year afterward. while Talleyrand.
Fouche and other agitstors of the ques-
ton were again pressing their counsels
upon him, and even stirring up a public
agitation for the divorce Of Josephine. the
sight of her one evening dressed for
leyee, with a tender melancholy in her
ewes, reopened the fioodgates of the EN-
peror's memory and emotions. Catching
her in his arms and crushing her beauti-
full gown. he cried like a child while he
protested: No! can never leave you."
He was so overwrought as he sobbingly
complained of the people who were tor
menting him. that the Empress induced
him to lie down and let her hold the re-
ception without him. after which she re-
turned and stayed with him through a
troubled night, when. we are told, he lit
orally soaked his pillow with tears
As the agitators saw the Emperor pas
sing again under the spell Of his wife's
charm and recoiling from the step toward
which they were pushing him, Talleyrand
expressed their impatience and disgust:
what q devil of man. How he yields
TO his impulses! Why can he not come
TO a decision and stop making US the
puppets Of his moodsr'
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