Evening star., 1924-08-10
Austria Will Give Back to France
Relics Of the Great Emperor's Heir.
Emotions Of Nation Be Aroused When Cradle Pony Carriage and Watch Fob
in Memory of Tragic YOUTH Nov Dead Nearly Century,
BY STERLING HEILIG.

belated news of the past. But
1t was very great news in
the old days. Of baby prince who
was to unite distracted Europe.
p Now, though a hundred years have
passed. that baby prince, son of the
great Napoleon and Marie Louise of
Austria (who, as the Aiglon, Son of
the Eagle" grew and died, tragic
youth, having failed in all things),
at last keeps his PROMISE!
All France is moved by official news
that Austria will return to France
three relics of Napoleon's son which
were originally made in France. and
which France always craved to pos
sess.
These are the silver cradle pre-
sented to Marie Louise by the city
of Paris. the pony-carriage ordered
by the great Napoleon for his kid
and the mysterious watch-fob which
the Aiglon always wore-and which.
in turn, the Archdukc Rudolph, son
and heir of the late Emperor Francis
Joseph, always wore, himself a tragic
youth, mysteriously killed at Meyer
ling!
Small things. you say?
+ The war began from Austria. OF
all the countries suffering from the
war, Austria is most diminished. los
ing territory. population. and the af-
fiuence of her worlds city of Vienna.
Yet it is Austria, all the same, which
the allies are most willing to help!
Vienna, in the old days. was called
''the Polite Capital" This spirit is
found still in its people, who have
settled down to do the best they can,
and in their government, which has
been honest and loyal in executing
liteness is in both.
THE same graceful movement by
which Austria, the other day.
restored to the French city of Lyon
her famous keys of the municipality,
which Austria had held SO long. now
offers France these relics of the Aig-
Ion.
Is it a small thing? Three months
hence all France will cry sponta-
neously Yes" to any advantage
which its government may propose
for Austria, as a tacit return-polite
but surely great!
France does not measure relics of
her glory and her hearts deep things
by a small rule.
Vienna, by her tact, may well go
on and make herself again the center
of culture and ease, of kindliness and
pleasant living which she was, from
the days of the Aiglon up to yester-
day!
Austria holds and will, naturally,
continue to keep, a thousand objects
which belonged to the son of Ma
poleon. Such are the books which
he loved, the furniture amid which
he lived, the letters which he wrote,
his clothes and knick-knacks. study
books and tutors exercises, and the
numerous portraits of him which
were painted as the lad grew up.
All these belong to Austria. be-
cause they originated in Austria
But the three relics in question are
different. They originated in France.
They were carried to Vienna. France
has long desired them.
l. Vastly celebrated in its day
(and still we'll known in France) is
the silver cradle presented to Marie
Louise by the city Of Paris when the
prince imperial was born.
This magnificent monument of
metal, nodded and carved. in great
part heavily gilded, is the work of
three French masters of the empire
period-Prudhon. Rognet and Odiot.
NJ de Montbel, first historian Of the
Aiglon, thus begins his description
of the silver cradle:
"It has the form of ship. triumph
antly sailing surrounded by allegori-
cal figures"
Poor babe, the great Napoleon's
babe. triumphantly sailing! The ship
rests on a heavy silver foundation.
At the head a silver canopy rises.
Over it a silver statue of Victory
spreads protecting wings. holding
two crowns in it's hands!
The sleeping babe was shaded by
gold-threaded silk curtains, falling
from the silver canopy below the
Victory. At the ships Prov (the
babes feeD, a silver eagle watches
the babes face, its wings closed tran
GULLY.
THIS precious silver monument
L (whose intrinsic and historic
value is immense) had been left be-
when, at the fall of Napoleon, her
husband, she returned to her girl
hoods home in the court OF Vienna
The silver cradle was heavy and
bulky.
One day King Louis XVIII of
France came across the cradle and
thought that the babe might need it.
So he sent 1t to Marie Louise, along
with another bulky gift of the Paris
municipality, which she had similarly
forgotten GALL her other belongings,
gifts, economies and gratis accumu-
lated in Paris, she had taken back
home with her carefully. 1t was a
vast travelling toilet valise, filled
with all kinds of silver and cut glass
utensils.
During the cholera epidemic in
Vienna, years later, Marie Louise sold
the toilet valise to the goldsmith
Kleinmuscher, for the benefit Of suf-
ferers. Then she thought of the sill
YER cradle (Which had come along,
by slow freight with the bag), and
looked 1t up. When she found it, she
sent it to her son, the Aiglon, in his
palace.
The Aiglon was already grown up.
He was the sad prince, near to his
| death, whom we know in the play.
With melancholy, he contemplated the
triumphal cradle, with its Victory,