The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1920-07-12
FORMER EMPRESS
EUGENE IS DEAD
IN HER 95TH YEAR
Remarkable Career of Wife of
Napoleon ILL.,, of France
LIFE OF MANY SORROWS
Saved by American Dentist In Paris
Following Fall Of Empire
In 1870.

Madrid, July 1.-THE former En-
press Eugene widow of Napoleon ILL.,,
Emperor of the French, died here this
morning.
Death occurred shortly before 8
O'Clock from acute intestinal inAamma-
tion. The Empress passed away
quietly in the presence of her lady in
waiting. Her nephew, the Duke of
Alba, at whose residence she died, was
in France and the other members OF
the family were absent.
Empress Eugene had long suffered
from ophtalmia and recently had been
Ioperated on for cataract Full imperial
honors will be accorded at her fun
eral,
For years the most pathetic figure
in Europe, the Empress lived to see
France crushed by the Prussia in
1870, rise to strength and influence
and again invaded by her enemy in
| 1914 and struggle through four years
of wars horrors until the Allies vic.
tory In 1918.
| AT the outbreak Of the Franco.Prus-
sian war there were many persons
who accused Eugenie of having been
responsible for the commencement of
hostiltics. Later her enemies, and
| they were numerous, used TO say that
she was the cause Of all the calamit'eS
which befel France Nevertheless
the one.time Empress from the public
generally received respectful sym.
pathy and even after her beauty had
faded and old age had crept upon her
she was greeted reyently by these
who saw her seated in the parks OF
Paris enjoying the warm sunshine and
talking with the children playing
Inear by
Lame. bent and white haired, the
former Empress often was called "Eu-
ropes Queen Of Sorrow" She was
quoted always as praying that death
might end her long term OF sadness
and agar n bring her to her husband and
son In the TuiIeres Gardens in Paris
1.-THE stern yisaged gendaFmes looked
the other way when Eugenie was pluck
ling flowers. -.f =.
The former Empress not only hoped
and prayed but worked for the victory
Iof the Anes in the great world war
The outbreak found her in a splendid
home at Marlborough Hin in Hamp
shire England Early in the conflict
she gave up her quiet and secluded life
there so that her home could be trans
formed into a hospital for wounded
British officers Despite her advanced
age she assumed entire direction of the
place and devoted herself to aiding the
wounded men. While the war was in
progress she had said she hoped to live
TO see the Germans driven from France
and also that she expected to fulfill a
gypsy that she would live to be near
100 years old.
Between my past and my present
said the Empress Eugene some years
ago, there exists not halt a century
but ten centuries, Times have chang
ed Men no longer pursue heroic
ideals, am an old woman, poor il
Everything that makes woman rich
My dreary winter is nearly ended"
The Second Empire fell almost fifty
years ago. Napoleon H., died two
years later in English exile. The
Spanish girl "the most beautiful wo
man in Europe whom he had made
Empress Of the French, and who hat
shared with him the dramatic vicis
STUDIES of the seventeen years reign
lived on, rearing her son in the grea
ambition to restore the Empire Thel
the son died killed by Zulus-and wa
laid beside his father at Chiselhurst
Thereafter Eugenie was a sorrowfu
woman who had outliyed all those sh
= loved
) "The most beaut full woman cam
to be known as the most pathetic tia
! ure in Europe Melancholy pleasur
, she obtained from annual visits t
, Paris, whero as the Comtesse de Pierr
fonds she always had rooms in the He
( tel Continental, whose windows over
{ looked the gardens which in those otl
p er days she had surveyed as mistres
. from the window of the Tuilerie'
] Eventually rheumatism crippled he
! and she leaned on n cane. Yet dali
she walked her stint of two miles an
- by this exercise prolonged her life.
y Marie Eugenie lgnace Augustine d
= Montijo was born at Granada. And;
=. lusa, Spain, May 5, 1926.
BERGDOLL ARREST