Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 301, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1913 — EUGENIE’S END NEAR [ARTICLE]

EUGENIE’S END NEAR

Some Features in Life of Former French Empress. How the Daughter of a Spanish Grandee Captured the Heart and Throne of Napoleon lll.—Attempted Suicide Once.

London.—Empress Eugenie lies ill In Farnborough. Press reports say she is dying. The woman, once the leader of the gayest court in all Europe and the most: beautiful woman of

her day, is now plunged in the most profound melancholy. She has retired completely from society and refuses to permit any one to talk to her about the time when, as empress of the French, she shone with regal splendor. And the end is drawing near for one of the most tragic figures in France. Hers is only the shadow of a name.

“The tragedy of my life,” she says to friends, “is almost ended. My visitors come to witness the last act.”

Eugenie was not born to the pu/fcle. Her mother was the daughter of an Irish adventurer; her father was the count of Montijo, a grandee of Spain. The mother was a light, frivolous woman, but Eugenie and her sister Francesca grew up to be adorable little girls. Their father having died after inheriting the title of his brother, they were sent to a . convent in Paris and came back to Madrid, where their mother was living as maid of honor to Queen Isabella. Suitors flocked around them. The countess encouraged the attention of the dashing young duke of Alba and bade him chose between the sisters. The duke chose Francesca.

When the young girl, beaming with joy, hastened to tell the news to her younger sister, she*found Eugenie lying in bed. At first she b,elieved her sister asleep, but on approaching closely she saw that Eugenie’s eyes were staring wide, her cheeks were wet with perspiration, her features contorted by convulsions. Eugenie had heard the duke’s proposal to Francesca and had taken poison in her sorrow. Slowly she regained her health, but the Incident her character. The convent bred girl became determined to dazzle the world. She rode through the streets of Madrid on an unsaddled horse. She led the applause at bull fights, flirted with toreadors, and embroidered caps for them in gold.

She received attentions from none except serene highnesses and dukes. The queen, angry at being outshone, dismissed mother and daughter from court. Eugenie tossed her beautiful head and vowed that if she ever came back to Madrid it should be as a queen There was at this time in France an interesting young man who had just been elected president of the second republic of France. And he was destined to fulfill the young girl's ambition to be a queen. Shortly after he met the charming madcap girl, ■ the prince-president, Louis Napoleon, had brought about the famous coup d’etat by which he caused himself to be re-elected term of ten years, and In 1852 to b« proclaimed emperor with the title r-f Napoleon 111. He was fascinated by the young girl’s beauty and her happy go lucky sort of existence appealed to one who had so long led an adventurous band to mouth life. he at once made love to her in an easy going way. She and her mother were Inyited to the Elysee. But Napoleon had no notion of marrying this fascinating Spanish girl. He realized that the best way to strengthen his throne was by an al-* Hance with some woman of royal blood. He begged Prince Hohenlohe for the hand of Prince Adelaide of Prussia. He appealed to the dowager duchess of Saden to help him find a princww for his wife. Queen Victoria*

and Prince Albert were sounded on the subject. Hadjmy woman of royal rank been willing to share his throne it is certain that he would have married her at once. But none desired to marry this parvenu among royalty; he did not really belong.

All the while he was growing more and more in love with.Mdlle. de Montijo, passing hours in her company and leading her mother to believe that her daughter might soon become an empress. His other matrimonial schemes came to nothing. He felt that he had been snubbed and more or less humiliated, yet even then he satd nothing about marriage to the lovely Eugenie. ItMs said that he offered her a left handed alliance. She was not to be acknowledged as his wife, but she was to be magnificently provided for and was to share his heart if not his throne. But Eugenie indignantly refused this offer. She turned and left him and for a while declined to receive him, because he had .insulted her.

This was the sort of treatment to make Napoleon yield. He brooded over her beauty and his love for her became almost frantic. He asked Eugenie to his residence at Compeigne and in the romantic woods of the chauteau offered her his throne. They were married with great pomp in the Cathedral of Notre Dame.