Evening star., 1933-10-01
n rare Likeness Of the
Empress Josephine, from
a miniature by Isabey.

uAPOLEON BONAPARTE who took
kingdoms apart and fitted them
N together again as II they were
NJ jg-saw puzzles, and made himself
the most powerful ruler on earth
for some is years. was just like
any other man when it came to love affair.
He may have been the worlds greatest
soldier, its most daring gambler. its most ur,-
worried strategist-
But he could get just as nervous as love-
Sck schoolboy If his lady love didn't write
20 him regularly he could pen love notes that
sounded like the outpouring Of . minor poet.
end he could fret himself into q dreadful
STEW II the woman OF his heart let her glance
npve toward other men.
All of this came to light not long ago when
eight long forgotten love letters, written by
Napoleon to that Josephine de Beauharnais.
whom he made Empress Of France and later
discarded. we're sold at auction in London.
The letters are warm, impassioned. ardent
In fact, they are what an Hreverent American
would call pretty hot stuff. And that they
have q deep value for historians was made
evident when Ben Maggs. London bookseller,
paid 44Oo pounds for them-something like
$50 900 at normal rates Of exchange.
Before examining these letters. 1t is In
teresting to glance briefly at their background
NAPOLEON met Josephine in Paris in 1885,
~ The dust of the revolution had barely
SETTLED, and that memorable overturn OF
French society had had momentous conse-
Quences for both Of these people.
It had set Napoleon squarely on the path
to fame and fortune. He had been a humble
artillery lieutenant when the storm broke, and
since his birth his financial prospects were
nothing to get excited about, it had looked
as If he would never rise above q subordinate
position.
p,,t fIo hod oil rtc Of
opportunities for capable officers. The French
army had increased to many times its former
size, many royalist officers had left the country.
many more had been executed Napoleon at
"a, was general
Josephine was a creole, born on the island
Of Martinique, in the tropics. She had mar
ried the Viscount de Beauharnas, and in the
revolution that gentleman had been beheaded
and Josephine imprisoned.
Released in 1893, she wandered to Paris,
penniless and with two children to support.
Times were confused and the moral standards
were lax and Josephine set out to keep her
self and her children alive in any way she
could. A modern New Yorker would say that
she had become a species Of Broadway but
terfy.
Anyway Napoleon fell madly In love with
her as soon as he met her. In spite of the
fact that she was five years older than he
and had begun to look her age. At that time,
apparently Josephine was not especially in
love with Napoleon; but his was rising star,
Josephine knew it-and when he set off for
italy to begin the dazzling campaign that was
10 make him famous he was her husband
JOSEPHINE stayed behind. She didn't like
= travel and she did like Paris. So Napoleon
wrote to her. Here is one Of the letters:
Il have awakened full Of you Your picture
and the intoxicating memory Of last night
have denied my senses all repose. Sweet, in
comparable Josephine, how strangely you
sway my heart!
"The thought of your being angry, sad or
apprehensive crushes my spirit and deprives
your lover of all peace Of mind i. but can
there be any more peace for me when, aban-