Year: 1873

e together, their domestic Telatio1.
e were positively happy. It Is Ger.
e tainly true that the Emperor mar.
ried Eugene de Guzman because he
loved her, and preferred her to all
women whom he had met. No dow.
/ Iry or royal alliance, great wealth. o.
leVen of a descent which would add


to the luster Of the Imperial Grown.


came with her to the altar. There


was a time when Louis Napoleon,


then an exile, might have welded


Donna Maria, of Portugal; and af-


ter he became Emperor, probably


his suit for a Princess of the House
of Austria or Prussia, OF even that
Of Russia, would not have been re-
Ijected. He chose to sue at the feet
of a lady in private life, in whose
veins, no doubt there ran royal
blood, but whose relationship to the
Spanish soVereigns was remote. It
may well have been that the romatic
attachment of this middle-aged, con
spiciously plain and unimposing
gentleman was not reciprocated by
the brilliant Spanish beauty, then
in the fullness Of youth and charms,
and that, if she accepted him, it was
because she could not turn from the
dazzling offer of a Crown. But the
longer she lived with Napoleon, the
closer she seemed to draw to him.
Certain Of her letters, written to
him when she was a guest Of the
Sultan, at Constantinople, accident
ally became published; and they
breathe just such a spirit of conf
denee, affection, respect, anxiety to
see him once more, and tender,
feminine solicitude for his health
and good fortune, as might be ex-
pected from & wife who had married
the man of her choice, and had
found the union peafectly congen-
ial and happy one. A friend relates
that, having gone into the Tuileries
garden very early one pleasant sum-
mer morning, for an appetizing be-
fore breakfast walk, he saw a gentle
man, lady and a little boy prone
|nading in the inclosed part Of the
garden next the palace. Presently
the gentleman began to romp and
play with the child, giving him a
stroke and running back while the
child tottered after him, and then
turning to the lady and laughing
heartily. Then all three began to
play, the gambOls of the child put
ting tho others into high good hu-
NOR Meanwhile, several chamber
lains and other palace officials stood
starch and prim along the palace
wall, forming an amusing contrast
to the ease and freedom of the
movements of the group of merry
makers. sH


The latter wero, ofcourse, Napol-
con, Eugene and the little Prince
Imperial. The witness to this COSY
family airing said that the pretty
sight did more to convince him of
the mutual content of the Emperor
and Empress with each other than
the annals of all the court chronic
lers in the world. Napoleon once
said to an eminent Englishman that
he was never so hsppy as when he
could tear himself away from the
ceremonies and pomp of the Tuiler-
les, retire to his favorite Saint Cloud
and give himself up to domestic qui-
let and family pleasures. His ehiy-
.alrous courtesy to Engenie and his
respect for her advice were not OBJ
served more by the multitudes who
thronged his leUees than by the in |
Inmates Of his private life, the wit
nesses of his domestic seclusion.
Eugene may have been, and with
reason, jealous at times; but there is
no reason to doubt that she came to
have real affection for her spouse,
to whom, in the short period of his |
exiled life at Chiselhurst, she was
surely most constantly and faithful |
ly devoted. Her whole conduct af- !
ter his fall, from the day on which |
she tainted when she heard Of his
capture at Sedan, to that on which |
she was too i'll of grief to follow his
remains to their English tomb, be-
trays the loving and sympathetic |
wife.-APpIetons' Journal.