The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-04-10
Strange Romance of the
 Mother of Napoleon III

In the calendar of the French rm- periaIistss the tenth of April commem- 'orates the birthday of the beautiful but fraiI Queen Hortense of Holland
 the daughter of the Empress Jos eplline by her first husband, ,i AIexan- dre Beaucharnafs. Interest in her TO- mantle and chekered career has been revived by the recent death in battle of one of her great-grahdsons, Lo-
 thaire de Heeckeren d'Anthes a lieutenant in the French army.
 Hortense Eugenie Beaucharnais was born in Paris 133 years ago to- day, April 10. s1783. It was shortly after this that her father and mother finally separated Josephine being granted by the courts the permanent
 possession of Hortense. In 178S the future Empress took her little daugh- ter to Martinique. where they remain ed two years During the revolution
 by placing Hortense with a dress maker to learn the trade. Hortense remained with friends when he father and mother were cast into prison. The Viscount de Beauharnais was execut- ed, but Josephine was released soOh afterward, and contrived to support herself and her son and daughter by entering into relations with two men of wealth and position. After Jos ephine's marriage to Bonaparte she
 continued her fIirtations, and set an example, which her daughter Hor- tense was nots low to follow when she attained young womanhood.
 Hortense was eighten when she be-
 came the bride of Louis Napoleon. She was deeply in love with another
 man, but gave him up in compliance with the wishes of Napoleon. who ap- parent1y had for, her 8 sincere and
 deep affection. From 1903 to- Is 10 Louis Napoleon and Hortense occu- pied the throne of Holland. Queen
 Iortense was a fascinating and bril- liant woman, but she knew not the
 meaning of the word virtue. She en- tertained deep disgust for her royal husband, and openly defied him in her | amours. As fickIe as she was fair,
 she had dozens of lovers. Prominent in this procession was the Comte de FIahaut, for whom Hortense compos- ed her popular song, "Partant pour Ia Sayrie'' as he was leaving Paris for | Germany, and who is supposed to have been the father of M. de Morny, the i1Iegitimate half brother of Napo- Ileon III. As a matter of fact, in mo- nents of candor Hortense boasted that
 she was not sure of the paternity of any of her children, although confi- | dent that her husband was not the
 father of any of them. Admiral Yer fuel, a Dutch naval officer, is said to have been the father of Napoleon III. Lotus Napoleon Q6nl6Q CHdC the CAAAAo was his but Napoleon forced him to recognize the paternity of the boy
 who was destined to restore the Elm pire.
 During her reign as Queen, Hor- ltense spent most of her time in Paris 1 living apart from her husband. Dur ling her stay in the Dutch capital
 however, she had several lovers be- sides the Admiral, one of these being | Baron de Heeckeren, a Dutch diplo- mat She gave him a son, and when l the Baron went to St. Petersburg as minister he took the youngster with
 him. George de Heeckeren d'Anthes | as the son of the diplomat and the 1 Queen was known, remained in the
 Russian capital, and married Cath | erine Goncharoff. His intimate at ! tentions to his wife's sister, who was
 the spouse of Pushkin, the great Russian poet, finally led to duel be- tween the two men. The poet, who was part negro, was killed, and Hor-
 tense's son had to flee from the
 Czar's dominions. He took refuge 1T i France, and became prominent dur
 ing the reign of his half-brother, Ma I poleon III. Queen Hortense died 1T i Switzerland at the age of fifty-four.