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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4690-h.zip b/4690-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..477f28e --- /dev/null +++ b/4690-h.zip diff --git a/4690-h/4690-h.htm b/4690-h/4690-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a587c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/4690-h/4690-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5119 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Famous Affinities of History, Vol 2, +by Lyndon Orr +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.transnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.intro {font-size: medium ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 5% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Famous Affinities of History, V2, by Lyndon Orr + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Famous Affinities of History, V2 + The Romance of Devotion + +Author: Lyndon Orr + +Posting Date: August 24, 2009 [EBook #4690] +Release Date: November, 2003 +First Posted: March 3, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY, V2 *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +THE ROMANCE OF DEVOTION +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +LYNDON ORR +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +VOLUME II of IV. +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<H4> + <A HREF="#catharine">THE EMPRESS CATHARINE AND PRINCE POTEMKIN</A><BR> + <A HREF="#marie">MARIE ANTOINETTE AND COUNT FERSEN</A><BR> + <A HREF="#burr">THE STORY OF AARON BURR</A><BR> + <A HREF="#george">GEORGE IV. AND MRS. FITZHERBERT</A><BR> + <A HREF="#charlotte">CHARLOTTE CORDAY AND ADAM LUX</A><BR> + <A HREF="#napoleon">NAPOLEON AND MARIE WALEWSKA</A><BR> + <A HREF="#pauline">THE STORY OF PAULINE BONAPARTE</A><BR> + <A HREF="#louise">THE STORY OF THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE AND COUNT NEIPPERG</A><BR> +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="catharine"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE EMPRESS CATHARINE AND PRINCE POTEMKIN +</H3> + +<P> +It has often been said that the greatest Frenchman who ever lived was +in reality an Italian. It might with equal truth be asserted that the +greatest Russian woman who ever lived was in reality a German. But the +Emperor Napoleon and the Empress Catharine II. resemble each other in +something else. Napoleon, though Italian in blood and lineage, made +himself so French in sympathy and understanding as to be able to play +upon the imagination of all France as a great musician plays upon a +splendid instrument, with absolute sureness of touch and an ability to +extract from it every one of its varied harmonies. So the Empress +Catharine of Russia—perhaps the greatest woman who ever ruled a +nation—though born of German parents, became Russian to the core and +made herself the embodiment of Russian feeling and Russian aspiration. +</P> + +<P> +At the middle of the eighteenth century Russia was governed by the +Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great. In her own time, and +for a long while afterward, her real capacity was obscured by her +apparent indolence, her fondness for display, and her seeming +vacillation; but now a very high place is accorded her in the history +of Russian rulers. She softened the brutality that had reigned supreme +in Russia. She patronized the arts. Her armies twice defeated Frederick +the Great and raided his capital, Berlin. Had Elizabeth lived, she +would probably have crushed him. +</P> + +<P> +In her early years this imperial woman had been betrothed to Louis XV. +of France, but the match was broken off. Subsequently she entered into +a morganatic marriage and bore a son who, of course, could not be her +heir. In 1742, therefore, she looked about for a suitable successor, +and chose her nephew, Prince Peter of Holstein-Gottorp. +</P> + +<P> +Peter, then a mere youth of seventeen, was delighted with so splendid a +future, and came at once to St. Petersburg. The empress next sought for +a girl who might marry the young prince and thus become the future +Czarina. She thought first of Frederick the Great's sister; but +Frederick shrank from this alliance, though it would have been of much +advantage to him. He loved his sister—indeed, she was one of the few +persons for whom he ever really cared. So he declined the offer and +suggested instead the young Princess Sophia of the tiny duchy of +Anhalt-Zerbst. +</P> + +<P> +The reason for Frederick's refusal was his knowledge of the +semi-barbarous conditions that prevailed at the Russian court. +</P> + +<P> +The Russian capital, at that time, was a bizarre, half-civilized, +half-oriental place, where, among the very highest-born, a thin veneer +of French elegance covered every form of brutality and savagery and +lust. It is not surprising, therefore, that Frederick the Great was +unwilling to have his sister plunged into such a life. +</P> + +<P> +But when the Empress Elizabeth asked the Princess Sophia of +Anhalt-Zerbst to marry the heir to the Russian throne the young girl +willingly accepted, the more so as her mother practically commanded it. +This mother of hers was a grim, harsh German woman who had reared her +daughter in the strictest fashion, depriving her of all pleasure with a +truly puritanical severity. In the case of a different sort of girl +this training would have crushed her spirit; but the Princess Sophia, +though gentle and refined in manner, had a power of endurance which was +toughened and strengthened by the discipline she underwent. +</P> + +<P> +And so in 1744, when she was but sixteen years of age, she was taken by +her mother to St. Petersburg. There she renounced the Lutheran faith +and was received into the Greek Church, changing her name to Catharine. +Soon after, with great magnificence, she was married to Prince Peter, +and from that moment began a career which was to make her the most +powerful woman in the world. +</P> + +<P> +At this time a lady of the Russian court wrote down a description of +Catharine's appearance. She was fair-haired, with dark-blue eyes; and +her face, though never beautiful, was made piquant and striking by the +fact that her brows were very dark in contrast with her golden hair. +Her complexion was not clear, yet her look was a very pleasing one. She +had a certain diffidence of manner at first; but later she bore herself +with such instinctive dignity as to make her seem majestic, though in +fact she was beneath the middle size. At the time of her marriage her +figure was slight and graceful; only in after years did she become +stout. Altogether, she came to St. Petersburg an attractive, +pure-minded German maiden, with a character well disciplined, and +possessing reserves of power which had not yet been drawn upon. +</P> + +<P> +Frederick the Great's forebodings, which had led him to withhold his +sister's hand, were almost immediately justified in the case of +Catharine. Her Russian husband revealed to her a mode of life which +must have tried her very soul. This youth was only seventeen—a mere +boy in age, and yet a full-grown man in the rank luxuriance of his +vices. Moreover, he had eccentricities which sometimes verged upon +insanity. Too young to be admitted to the councils of his imperial +aunt, he occupied his time in ways that were either ridiculous or vile. +</P> + +<P> +Next to the sleeping-room of his wife he kept a set of kennels, with a +number of dogs, which he spent hours in drilling as if they had been +soldiers. He had a troop of rats which he also drilled. It was his +delight to summon a court martial of his dogs to try the rats for +various military offenses, and then to have the culprits executed, +leaving their bleeding carcasses upon the floor. At any hour of the day +or night Catharine, hidden in her chamber, could hear the yapping of +the curs, the squeak of rats, and the word of command given by her +half-idiot husband. +</P> + +<P> +When wearied of this diversion Peter would summon a troop of favorites, +both men and women, and with them he would drink deep of beer and +vodka, since from his early childhood he had been both a drunkard and a +debauchee. The whoops and howls and vile songs of his creatures could +be heard by Catharine; and sometimes he would stagger into her rooms, +accompanied by his drunken minions. With a sort of psychopathic +perversity he would insist on giving Catharine the most minute and +repulsive narratives of his amours, until she shrank from him with +horror at his depravity and came to loathe the sight of his bloated +face, with its little, twinkling, porcine eyes, his upturned nose and +distended nostrils, and his loose-hung, lascivious mouth. She was +scarcely less repelled when a wholly different mood would seize upon +him and he would declare himself her slave, attending her at court +functions in the garb of a servant and professing an unbounded devotion +for his bride. +</P> + +<P> +Catharine's early training and her womanly nature led her for a long +time to submit to the caprices of her husband. In his saner moments she +would plead with him and strive to interest him in something better +than his dogs and rats and venal mistresses; but Peter was +incorrigible. Though he had moments of sense and even of good feeling, +these never lasted, and after them he would plunge headlong into the +most frantic excesses that his half-crazed imagination could devise. +</P> + +<P> +It is not strange that in course of time Catharine's strong good sense +showed her that she could do nothing with this creature. She therefore +gradually became estranged from him and set herself to the task of +doing those things which Peter was incapable of carrying out. +</P> + +<P> +She saw that ever since the first awakening of Russia under Peter the +Great none of its rulers had been genuinely Russian, but had tried to +force upon the Russian people various forms of western civilization +which were alien to the national spirit. Peter the Great had striven to +make his people Dutch. Elizabeth had tried to make them French. +Catharine, with a sure instinct, resolved that they should remain +Russian, borrowing what they needed from other peoples, but stirred +always by the Slavic spirit and swayed by a patriotism that was their +own. To this end she set herself to become Russian. She acquired the +Russian language patiently and accurately. She adopted the Russian +costume, appearing, except on state occasions, in a simple gown of +green, covering her fair hair, however, with a cap powdered with +diamonds. Furthermore, she made friends of such native Russians as were +gifted with talent, winning their favor, and, through them, the favor +of the common people. +</P> + +<P> +It would have been strange, however, had Catharine, the woman, escaped +the tainting influences that surrounded her on every side. The +infidelities of Peter gradually made her feel that she owed him nothing +as his wife. Among the nobles there were men whose force of character +and of mind attracted her inevitably. Chastity was a thing of which the +average Russian had no conception; and therefore it is not strange that +Catharine, with her intense and sensitive nature, should have turned to +some of these for the love which she had sought in vain from the half +imbecile to whom she had been married. +</P> + +<P> +Much has been written of this side of her earlier and later life; yet, +though it is impossible to deny that she had favorites, one should +judge very gently the conduct of a girl so young and thrust into a life +whence all the virtues seemed to be excluded. She bore several children +before her thirtieth year, and it is very certain that a grave doubt +exists as to their paternity. Among the nobles of the court were two +whose courage and virility specially attracted her. The one with whom +her name has been most often coupled was Gregory Orloff. He and his +brother, Alexis Orloff, were Russians of the older type—powerful in +frame, suave in manner except when roused, yet with a tigerish ferocity +slumbering underneath. Their power fascinated Catharine, and it was +currently declared that Gregory Orloff was her lover. +</P> + +<P> +When she was in her thirty-second year her husband was proclaimed Czar, +after the death of the Empress Elizabeth. At first in some ways his +elevation seemed to sober him; but this period of sanity, like those +which had come to him before, lasted only a few weeks. Historians have +given him much credit for two great reforms that are connected with his +name; and yet the manner in which they were actually brought about is +rather ludicrous. He had shut himself up with his favorite revelers, +and had remained for several days drinking and carousing until he +scarcely knew enough to speak. At this moment a young officer named +Gudovitch, who was really loyal to the newly created Czar, burst into +the banquet-hall, booted and spurred and his eyes aflame with +indignation. Standing before Peter, his voice rang out with the tone of +a battle trumpet, so that the sounds of revelry were hushed. +</P> + +<P> +"Peter Feodorovitch," he cried, "do you prefer these swine to those who +really wish to serve you? Is it in this way that you imitate the +glories of your ancestor, that illustrious Peter whom you have sworn to +take as your model? It will not be long before your people's love will +be changed to hatred. Rise up, my Czar! Shake off this lethargy and +sloth. Prove that you are worthy of the faith which I and others have +given you so loyally!" +</P> + +<P> +With these words Gudovitch thrust into Peter's trembling hand two +proclamations, one abolishing the secret bureau of police, which had +become an instrument of tyrannous oppression, and the other restoring +to the nobility many rights of which they had been deprived. +</P> + +<P> +The earnestness and intensity of Gudovitch temporarily cleared the +brain of the drunken Czar. He seized the papers, and, without reading +them, hastened at once to his great council, where he declared that +they expressed his wishes. Great was the rejoicing in St. Petersburg, +and great was the praise bestowed on Peter; yet, in fact, he had acted +only as any drunkard might act under the compulsion of a stronger will +than his. +</P> + +<P> +As before, his brief period of good sense was succeeded by another of +the wildest folly. It was not merely that he reversed the wise policy +of his aunt, but that he reverted to his early fondness for everything +that was German. His bodyguard was made up of German troops—thus +exciting the jealousy of the Russian soldiers. He introduced German +fashions. He boasted that his father had been an officer in the +Prussian army. His crazy admiration for Frederick the Great reached the +utmost verge of sycophancy. +</P> + +<P> +As to Catharine, he turned on her with something like ferocity. He +declared in public that his eldest son, the Czarevitch Paul, was really +fathered by Catharine's lovers. At a state banquet he turned to +Catharine and hurled at her a name which no woman could possibly +forgive—and least of all a woman such as Catharine, with her high +spirit and imperial pride. He thrust his mistresses upon her; and at +last he ordered her, with her own hand, to decorate the Countess +Vorontzoff, who was known to be his maitresse en titre. +</P> + +<P> +It was not these gross insults, however, so much as a concern for her +personal safety that led Catharine to take measures for her own +defense. She was accustomed to Peter's ordinary eccentricities. On the +ground of his unfaithfulness to her she now had hardly any right to +make complaint. But she might reasonably fear lest he was becoming mad. +If he questioned the paternity of their eldest son he might take +measures to imprison Catharine or even to destroy her. Therefore she +conferred with the Orloffs and other gentlemen, and their conference +rapidly developed into a conspiracy. +</P> + +<P> +The soldiery, as a whole, was loyal to the empress. It hated Peter's +Holstein guards. What she planned was probably the deposition of Peter. +She would have liked to place him under guard in some distant palace. +But while the matter was still under discussion she was awakened early +one morning by Alexis Orloff. He grasped her arm with scant ceremony. +</P> + +<P> +"We must act at once," said he. "We have been betrayed!" +</P> + +<P> +Catharine was not a woman to waste time. She went immediately to the +barracks in St. Petersburg, mounted upon a charger, and, calling out +the Russian guards, appealed to them for their support. To a man they +clashed their weapons and roared forth a thunderous cheer. Immediately +afterward the priests anointed her as regent in the name of her son; +but as she left the church she was saluted by the people, as well as by +the soldiers, as empress in her own right. +</P> + +<P> +It was a bold stroke, and it succeeded down to the last detail. The +wretched Peter, who was drilling his German guards at a distance from +the capital, heard of the revolt, found that his sailors at Kronstadt +would not acknowledge him, and then finally submitted. He was taken to +Ropsha and confined within a single room. To him came the Orloffs, +quite of their own accord. Gregory Orloff endeavored to force a +corrosive poison into Peter's mouth. Peter, who was powerful of build +and now quite desperate, hurled himself upon his enemies. Alexis Orloff +seized him by the throat with a tremendous clutch and strangled him +till the blood gushed from his ears. In a few moments the unfortunate +man was dead. +</P> + +<P> +Catharine was shocked by the intelligence, but she had no choice save +to accept the result of excessive zeal. She issued a note to the +foreign ambassadors informing them that Peter had died of a violent +colic. When his body was laid out for burial the extravasated blood is +said to have oozed out even through his hands, staining the gloves that +had been placed upon them. No one believed the story of the colic; and +some six years later Alexis Orloff told the truth with the utmost +composure. The whole incident was characteristically Russian. +</P> + +<P> +It is not within the limits of our space to describe the reign of +Catharine the Great—the exploits of her armies, the acuteness of her +statecraft, the vast additions which she made to the Russian Empire, +and the impulse which she gave to science and art and literature. Yet +these things ought to be remembered first of all when one thinks of the +woman whom Voltaire once styled "the Semiramis of the North." Because +she was so powerful, because no one could gainsay her, she led in +private a life which has been almost more exploited than her great +imperial achievements. And yet, though she had lovers whose names have +been carefully recorded, even she fulfilled the law of womanhood—which +is to love deeply and intensely only once. +</P> + +<P> +One should not place all her lovers in the same category. As a girl, +and when repelled by the imbecility of Peter, she gave herself to +Gregory Orloff. She admired his strength, his daring, and his +unscrupulousness. But to a woman of her fine intelligence he came to +seem almost more brute than man. She could not turn to him for any of +those delicate attentions which a woman loves so much, nor for that +larger sympathy which wins the heart as well as captivates the senses. +A writer of the time has said that Orloff would hasten with equal +readiness from the arms of Catharine to the embraces of any flat-nosed +Finn or filthy Calmuck or to the lowest creature whom he might +encounter in the streets. +</P> + +<P> +It happened that at the time of Catharine's appeal to the imperial +guards there came to her notice another man who—as he proved in a +trifling and yet most significant manner—had those traits which Orloff +lacked. Catharine had mounted, man—fashion, a cavalry horse, and, with +a helmet on her head, had reined up her steed before the barracks. At +that moment One of the minor nobles, who was also favorable to her, +observed that her helmet had no plume. In a moment his horse was at her +side. Bowing low over his saddle, he took his own plume from his helmet +and fastened it to hers. This man was Prince Gregory Potemkin, and this +slight act gives a clue to the influence which he afterward exercised +over his imperial mistress! +</P> + +<P> +When Catharine grew weary of the Orloffs, and when she had enriched +them with lands and treasures, she turned to Potemkin; and from then +until the day of his death he was more to her than any other man had +ever been. With others she might flirt and might go even further than +flirtation; but she allowed no other favorite to share her confidence, +to give advice, or to direct her policies. +</P> + +<P> +To other men she made munificent gifts, either because they pleased her +for the moment or because they served her on one occasion or another; +but to Potemkin she opened wide the whole treasury of her vast realm. +There was no limit to what she would do for him. When he first knew her +he was a man of very moderate fortune. Within two years after their +intimate acquaintance had begun she had given him nine million rubles, +while afterward he accepted almost limitless estates in Poland and in +every province of Greater Russia. +</P> + +<P> +He was a man of sumptuous tastes, and yet he cared but little for mere +wealth. What he had, he used to please or gratify or surprise the woman +whom he loved. He built himself a great palace in St. Petersburg, +usually known as the Taurian Palace, and there he gave the most +sumptuous entertainments, reversing the story of Antony and Cleopatra. +</P> + +<P> +In a superb library there stood one case containing volumes bound with +unusual richness. When the empress, attracted by the bindings, drew +forth a book she found to her surprise that its pages were English +bank-notes. The pages of another proved to be Dutch bank-notes, and, of +another, notes on the Bank of Venice. Of the remaining volumes some +were of solid gold, while others had pages of fine leather in which +were set emeralds and rubies and diamonds and other gems. The story +reads like a bit of fiction from the Arabian Nights. Yet, after all, +this was only a small affair compared with other undertakings with +which Potemkin sought to please her. +</P> + +<P> +Thus, after Taurida and the Crimea had been added to the empire by +Potemkin's agency, Catharine set out with him to view her new +possessions. A great fleet of magnificently decorated galleys bore her +down the river Dnieper. The country through which she passed had been a +year before an unoccupied waste. Now, by Potemkin's extraordinary +efforts, the empress found it dotted thick with towns and cities which +had been erected for the occasion, filled with a busy population which +swarmed along the riverside to greet the sovereign with applause. It +was only a chain of fantom towns and cities, made of painted wood and +canvas; but while Catharine was there they were very real, seeming to +have solid buildings, magnificent arches, bustling industries, and +beautiful stretches of fertile country. No human being ever wrought on +so great a scale so marvelous a miracle of stage-management. +</P> + +<P> +Potemkin was, in fact, the one man who could appeal with unfailing +success to so versatile and powerful a spirit as Catharine's. He was +handsome of person, graceful of manner, and with an intellect which +matched her own. He never tried to force her inclination, and, on the +other hand, he never strove to thwart it. To him, as to no other man, +she could turn at any moment and feel that, no matter what her mood, he +could understand her fully. And this, according to Balzac, is the thing +that woman yearns for most—a kindred spirit that can understand +without the slightest need of explanation. +</P> + +<P> +Thus it was that Gregory Potemkin held a place in the soul of this +great woman such as no one else attained. He might be absent, heading +armies or ruling provinces, and on his return he would be greeted with +even greater fondness than before. And it was this rather than his +victories over Turk and other oriental enemies that made Catharine +trust him absolutely. +</P> + +<P> +When he died, he died as the supreme master of her foreign policy and +at a time when her word was powerful throughout all Europe. Death came +upon him after he had fought against it with singular tenacity of +purpose. Catharine had given him a magnificent triumph, and he had +entertained her in his Taurian Palace with a splendor such as even +Russia had never known before. Then he fell ill, though with high +spirit he would not yield to illness. He ate rich meats and drank rich +wines and bore himself as gallantly as ever. Yet all at once death came +upon him while he was traveling in the south of Russia. His carriage +was stopped, a rug was spread beneath a tree by the roadside, and there +he died, in the country which he had added to the realms of Russia, +</P> + +<P> +The great empress who loved him mourned him deeply during the five +years of life that still remained to her. The names of other men for +whom she had imagined that she cared were nothing to her. But this one +man lived in her heart in death as he had done in life. +</P> + +<P> +Many have written of Catharine as a great ruler, a wise diplomat, a +creature of heroic mold. Others have depicted her as a royal wanton and +have gathered together a mass of vicious tales, the gossip of the +palace kitchens, of the clubs, and of the barrack-rooms. But perhaps +one finds the chief interest of her story to lie in this—that besides +being empress and diplomat and a lover of pleasure she was, beyond all +else, at heart a woman. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="marie"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MARIE ANTOINETTE AND COUNT FERSEN +</H3> + +<P> +The English-speaking world long ago accepted a conventional view of +Marie Antoinette. The eloquence of Edmund Burke in one brilliant +passage has fixed, probably for all time, an enduring picture of this +unhappy queen. +</P> + +<P> +When we speak or think of her we speak and think first of all of a +dazzling and beautiful woman surrounded by the chivalry of France and +gleaming like a star in the most splendid court of Europe. And then +there comes to us the reverse of the picture. We see her despised, +insulted, and made the butt of brutal men and still more fiendish +women; until at last the hideous tumbrel conveys her to the guillotine, +where her head is severed from her body and her corpse is cast down +into a bloody pool. +</P> + +<P> +In these two pictures our emotions are played upon in turn—admiration, +reverence, devotion, and then pity, indignation, and the shudderings of +horror. +</P> + +<P> +Probably in our own country and in England this will remain the +historic Marie Antoinette. Whatever the impartial historian may write, +he can never induce the people at large to understand that this queen +was far from queenly, that the popular idea of her is almost wholly +false, and that both in her domestic life and as the greatest lady in +France she did much to bring on the terrors of that revolution which +swept her to the guillotine. +</P> + +<P> +In the first place, it is mere fiction that represents Maria Antoinette +as having been physically beautiful. The painters and engravers have so +idealized her face as in most cases to have produced a purely imaginary +portrait. +</P> + +<P> +She was born in Vienna, in 1755, the daughter of the Emperor Francis +and of that warrior-queen, Maria Theresa. She was a very German-looking +child. Lady Jackson describes her as having a long, thin face, small, +pig-like eyes, a pinched-up mouth, with the heavy Hapsburg lip, and +with a somewhat misshapen form, so that for years she had to be +bandaged tightly to give her a more natural figure. +</P> + +<P> +At fourteen, when she was betrothed to the heir to the French throne, +she was a dumpy, mean-looking little creature, with no distinction +whatever, and with only her bright golden hair to make amends for her +many blemishes. At fifteen she was married and joined the Dauphin in +French territory. +</P> + +<P> +We must recall for a moment the conditions which prevailed in France. +King Louis XV. was nearing his end. He was a man of the most shameless +life; yet he had concealed or gilded his infamies by an external +dignity and magnificence which, were very pleasing to his people. The +French, liked to think that their king was the most splendid monarch +and the greatest gentleman in Europe. The courtiers about him might be +vile beneath the surface, yet they were compelled to deport themselves +with the form and the etiquette that had become traditional in France. +They might be panders, or stock-jobbers, or sellers of political +offices; yet they must none the less have wit and grace and outward +nobility of manner. +</P> + +<P> +There was also a tradition regarding the French queen. However loose in +character the other women of the court might be, she alone, like +Caesar's wife, must remain above suspicion. She must be purer than the +pure. No breath, of scandal must reach her or be directed against her. +</P> + +<P> +In this way the French court, even under so dissolute a monarch as +Louis XV., maintained its hold upon the loyalty of the people. Crowds +came every morning to view the king in his bed before he arose; the +same crowds watched him as he was dressed by the gentlemen of the +bedchamber, and as he breakfasted and went through all the functions +which are usually private. The King of France must be a great actor. He +must appear to his people as in reality a king-stately, dignified, and +beyond all other human beings in his remarkable presence. +</P> + +<P> +When the Dauphin and Marie Antoinette came to the French court King +Louis XV. kept up in the case the same semblance of austerity. He +forbade these children to have their sleeping-apartments together. He +tried to teach them that if they were to govern as well as to reign +they must conform to the rigid etiquette of Paris and Versailles. +</P> + +<P> +It proved a difficult task, however. The little German princess had no +natural dignity, though she came from a court where the very strictest +imperial discipline prevailed. Marie Antoinette found that she could +have her own way in many things, and she chose to enjoy life without +regard to ceremony. Her escapades at first would have been thought mild +enough had she not been a "daughter of France"; but they served to +shock the old French king, and likewise, perhaps even more, her own +imperial mother, Maria Theresa. +</P> + +<P> +When a report of the young girl's conduct was brought to her the +empress was at first mute with indignation. Then she cried out: +</P> + +<P> +"Can this girl be a child of mine? She surely must be a changeling!" +</P> + +<P> +The Austrian ambassador to France was instructed to warn the Dauphiness +to be more discreet. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell her," said Maria Theresa, "that she will lose her throne, and +even her life, unless she shows more prudence." +</P> + +<P> +But advice and remonstrance were of no avail. Perhaps they might have +been had her husband possessed a stronger character; but the young +Louis was little more fitted to be a king than was his wife to be a +queen. Dull of perception and indifferent to affairs of state, he had +only two interests that absorbed him. One was the love of hunting, and +the other was his desire to shut himself up in a sort of blacksmith +shop, where he could hammer away at the anvil, blow the bellows, and +manufacture small trifles of mechanical inventions. From this smudgy +den he would emerge, sooty and greasy, an object of distaste to his +frivolous princess, with her foamy laces and perfumes and pervasive +daintiness. +</P> + +<P> +It was hinted in many quarters, and it has been many times repeated, +that Louis was lacking in virility. Certainly he had no interest in the +society of women and was wholly continent. But this charge of physical +incapacity seems to have had no real foundation. It had been made +against some of his predecessors. It was afterward hurled at Napoleon +the Great, and also Napoleon the Little. In France, unless a royal +personage was openly licentious, he was almost sure to be jeered at by +the people as a weakling. +</P> + +<P> +And so poor Louis XVI., as he came to be, was treated with a mixture of +pity and contempt because he loved to hammer and mend locks in his +smithy or shoot game when he might have been caressing ladies who would +have been proud to have him choose them out. +</P> + +<P> +On the other hand, because of this opinion regarding Louis, people were +the more suspicious of Marie Antoinette. Some of them, in coarse +language, criticized her assumed infidelities; others, with a polite +sneer, affected to defend her. But the result of it all was dangerous +to both, especially as France was already verging toward the deluge +which Louis XV. had cynically predicted would follow after him. +</P> + +<P> +In fact, the end came sooner than any one had guessed. Louis XV., who +had become hopelessly and helplessly infatuated with the low-born +Jeanne du Barry, was stricken down with smallpox of the most virulent +type. For many days he lay in his gorgeous bed. Courtiers crowded his +sick-room and the adjacent hall, longing for the moment when the breath +would leave his body. He had lived an evil life, and he was to die a +loathsome death; yet he had borne himself before men as a stately +monarch. Though his people had suffered in a thousand ways from his +misgovernment, he was still Louis the Well Beloved, and they blamed his +ministers of state for all the shocking wrongs that France had felt. +</P> + +<P> +The abler men, and some of the leaders of the people, however, looked +forward to the accession of Louis XVI. He at least was frugal in his +habits and almost plebeian in his tastes, and seemed to be one who +would reduce the enormous taxes that had been levied upon France. +</P> + +<P> +The moment came when the Well Beloved died. His death-room was fetid +with disease, and even the long corridors of the palace reeked with +infection, while the motley mob of men and women, clad in silks and +satins and glittering with jewels, hurried from the spot to pay their +homage to the new Louis, who was spoken of as "the Desired." The body +of the late monarch was hastily thrown into a mass of quick-lime, and +was driven away in a humble wagon, without guards and with no salute, +save from a single veteran, who remembered the glories of Fontenoy and +discharged his musket as the royal corpse was carried through the +palace gates. +</P> + +<P> +This was a critical moment in the history of France; but we have to +consider it only as a critical moment in the history of Marie +Antoinette. She was now queen. She had it in her power to restore to +the French court its old-time grandeur, and, so far as the queen was +concerned, its purity. Above all, being a foreigner, she should have +kept herself free from reproach and above every shadow of suspicion. +</P> + +<P> +But here again the indifference of the king undoubtedly played a +strange part in her life. Had he borne himself as her lord and master +she might have respected him. Had he shown her the affection of a +husband she might have loved him. But he was neither imposing, nor, on +the other hand, was he alluring. She wrote very frankly about him in a +letter to the Count Orsini: +</P> + +<P> +My tastes are not the same as those of the king, who cares only for +hunting and blacksmith work. You will admit that I should not show to +advantage in a forge. I could not appear there as Vulcan, and the part +of Venus might displease him even more than my tastes. +</P> + +<P> +Thus on the one side is a woman in the first bloom of youth, ardent, +eager—and neglected. On the other side is her husband, whose +sluggishness may be judged by quoting from a diary which he kept during +the month in which he was married. Here is a part of it: +</P> + +<P> +Sunday, 13—Left Versailles. Supper and slept at Compignee, at the +house of M. de Saint-Florentin. +</P> + +<P> +Monday, 14—Interview with Mme. la Dauphine. +</P> + +<P> +Tuesday, 15—Supped at La Muette. Slept at Versailles. +</P> + +<P> +Wednesday, 16—My marriage. Apartment in the gallery. Royal banquet in +the Salle d'Opera. +</P> + +<P> +Thursday, 17—Opera of "Perseus." +</P> + +<P> +Friday, 18—Stag-hunt. Met at La Belle Image. Took one. +</P> + +<P> +Saturday, 19—Dress-ball in the Salle d'Opera. Fireworks. +</P> + +<P> +Thursday, 31—I had an indigestion. +</P> + +<P> +What might have been expected from a young girl placed as this queen +was placed? She was indeed an earlier Eugenie. The first was of royal +blood, the second was almost a plebeian; but each was headstrong, +pleasure-loving, and with no real domestic ties. As Mr. Kipling +expresses it— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + The colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady<BR> + Are sisters under their skins;<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +and so the Austrian woman of 1776 and the Spanish woman of 1856 found +amusement in very similar ways. They plunged into a sea of strange +frivolity, such as one finds to-day at the centers of high fashion. +Marie Antoinette bedecked herself with eccentric garments. On her head +she wore a hat styled a "what-is-it," towering many feet in height and +flaunting parti-colored plumes. Worse than all this, she refused to +wear corsets, and at some great functions she would appear in what +looked exactly like a bedroom gown. +</P> + +<P> +She would even neglect the ordinary niceties of life. Her hands were +not well cared for. It was very difficult for the ladies in attendance +to persuade her to brush her teeth with regularity. Again, she would +persist in wearing her frilled and lace-trimmed petticoats long after +their dainty edges had been smirched and blackened. +</P> + +<P> +Yet these things might have been counteracted had she gone no further. +Unfortunately, she did go further. She loved to dress at night like a +shop-girl and venture out into the world of Paris, where she was +frequently followed and recognized. Think of it—the Queen of France, +elbowed in dense crowds and seeking to attract the attention of common +soldiers! +</P> + +<P> +Of course, almost every one put the worst construction upon this, and +after a time upon everything she did. When she took a fancy for +constructing labyrinths and secret passages in the palace, all Paris +vowed that she was planning means by which her various lovers might +enter without observation. The hidden printing-presses of Paris swarmed +with gross lampoons about this reckless girl; and, although there was +little truth in what they said, there was enough to cloud her +reputation. When she fell ill with the measles she was attended in her +sick-chamber by four gentlemen of the court. The king was forbidden to +enter lest he might catch the childish disorder. +</P> + +<P> +The apathy of the king, indeed, drove her into many a folly. After four +years of marriage, as Mrs. Mayne records, he had only reached the point +of giving her a chilly kiss. The fact that she had no children became a +serious matter. Her brother, the Emperor Joseph of Austria, when he +visited Paris, ventured to speak to the king upon the subject. Even the +Austrian ambassador had thrown out hints that the house of Bourbon +needed direct heirs. Louis grunted and said little, but he must have +known how good was the advice. +</P> + +<P> +It was at about this time when there came to the French court a young +Swede named Axel de Fersen, who bore the title of count, but who was +received less for his rank than for his winning manner, his knightly +bearing, and his handsome, sympathetic face. Romantic in spirit, he +threw himself at once into a silent inner worship of Marie Antoinette, +who had for him a singular attraction. Wherever he could meet her they +met. To her growing cynicism this breath of pure yet ardent affection +was very grateful. It came as something fresh and sweet into the +feverish life she led. +</P> + +<P> +Other men had had the audacity to woo her—among them Duc de Lauzun, +whose complicity in the famous affair of the diamond necklace afterward +cast her, though innocent, into ruin; the Duc de Biron; and the Baron +de Besenval, who had obtained much influence over her, which he used +for the most evil purposes. Besenval tainted her mind by persuading her +to read indecent books, in the hope that at last she would become his +prey. +</P> + +<P> +But none of these men ever meant to Marie Antoinette what Fersen meant. +Though less than twenty years of age, he maintained the reserve of a +great gentleman, and never forced himself upon her notice. Yet their +first acquaintance had occurred in such a way as to give to it a touch +of intimacy. He had gone to a masked ball, and there had chosen for his +partner a lady whose face was quite concealed. Something drew the two +together. The gaiety of the woman and the chivalry of the man blended +most harmoniously. It was only afterward that he discovered that his +chance partner was the first lady in France. She kept his memory in her +mind; for some time later, when he was at a royal drawing-room and she +heard his voice, she exclaimed: +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, an old acquaintance!" +</P> + +<P> +From this time Fersen was among those who were most intimately favored +by the queen. He had the privilege of attending her private receptions +at the palace of the Trianon, and was a conspicuous figure at the +feasts given in the queen's honor by the Princess de Lamballe, a +beautiful girl whose head was destined afterward to be severed from her +body and borne upon a bloody pike through the streets of Paris. But as +yet the deluge had not arrived and the great and noble still danced +upon the brink of a volcano. +</P> + +<P> +Fersen grew more and more infatuated, nor could he quite conceal his +feelings. The queen, in her turn, was neither frightened nor indignant. +His passion, so profound and yet so respectful, deeply moved her. Then +came a time when the truth was made clear to both of them. Fersen was +near her while she was singing to the harpsichord, and "she was +betrayed by her own music into an avowal which song made easy." She +forgot that she was Queen of France. She only felt that her womanhood +had been starved and slighted, and that here was a noble-minded lover +of whom she could be proud. +</P> + +<P> +Some time after this announcement was officially made of the +approaching accouchement of the queen. It was impossible that malicious +tongues should be silent. The king's brother, the Comte de Provence, +who hated the queen, just as the Bonapartes afterward hated Josephine, +did his best to besmirch her reputation. He had, indeed, the +extraordinary insolence to do so at a time when one would suppose that +the vilest of men would remain silent. The child proved to be a +princess, and she afterward received the title of Duchesse d'Angouleme. +The King of Spain asked to be her godfather at the christening, which +was to be held in the cathedral of Notre Dame. The Spanish king was not +present in person, but asked the Comte de Provence to act as his proxy. +</P> + +<P> +On the appointed day the royal party proceeded to the cathedral, and +the Comte de Provence presented the little child at the baptismal font. +The grand almoner, who presided, asked; +</P> + +<P> +"What name shall be given to this child?" +</P> + +<P> +The Comte de Provence answered in a sneering tone: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, we don't begin with that. The first thing to find out is who the +father and the mother are!" +</P> + +<P> +These words, spoken at such a place and such a time, and with a +strongly sardonic ring, set all Paris gossiping. It was a thinly veiled +innuendo that the father of the child was not the King of France. Those +about the court immediately began to look at Fersen with significant +smiles. The queen would gladly have kept him near her; but Fersen cared +even more for her good name than for his love of her. It would have +been so easy to remain in the full enjoyment of his conquest; but he +was too chivalrous for that, or, rather, he knew that the various +ambassadors in Paris had told their respective governments of the +rising scandal. In fact, the following secret despatch was sent to the +King of Sweden by his envoy: +</P> + +<P> +I must confide to your majesty that the young Count Fersen has been so +well received by the queen that various persons have taken it amiss. I +own that I am sure that she has a liking for him. I have seen proofs of +it too certain to be doubted. During the last few days the queen has +not taken her eyes off him, and as she gazed they were full of tears. I +beg your majesty to keep their secret to yourself. +</P> + +<P> +The queen wept because Fersen had resolved to leave her lest she should +be exposed to further gossip. If he left her without any apparent +reason, the gossip would only be the more intense. Therefore he decided +to join the French troops who were going to America to fight under +Lafayette. A brilliant but dissolute duchess taunted him when the news +became known. +</P> + +<P> +"How is this?" said she. "Do you forsake your conquest?" +</P> + +<P> +But, "lying like a gentleman," Fersen answered, quietly: +</P> + +<P> +"Had I made a conquest I should not forsake it. I go away free, and, +unfortunately, without leaving any regret." +</P> + +<P> +Nothing could have been more chivalrous than the pains which Fersen +took to shield the reputation of the queen. He even allowed it to be +supposed that he was planning a marriage with a rich young Swedish +woman who had been naturalized in England. As a matter of fact, he +departed for America, and not very long afterward the young woman in +question married an Englishman. +</P> + +<P> +Fersen served in America for a time, returning, however, at the end of +three years. He was one of the original Cincinnati, being admitted to +the order by Washington himself. When he returned to France he was +received with high honors and was made colonel of the royal Swedish +regiment. +</P> + +<P> +The dangers threatening Louis and his court, which were now gigantic +and appalling, forbade him to forsake the queen. By her side he did +what he could to check the revolution; and, failing this, he helped her +to maintain an imperial dignity of manner which she might otherwise +have lacked. He faced the bellowing mob which surrounded the Tuileries. +Lafayette tried to make the National Guard obey his orders, but he was +jeered at for his pains. Violent epithets were hurled at the king. The +least insulting name which they could give him was "a fat pig." As for +the queen, the most filthy phrases were showered upon her by the men, +and even more so by the women, who swarmed out of the slums and sought +her life. +</P> + +<P> +At last, in 1791, it was decided that the king and the queen and their +children, of whom they now had three, should endeavor to escape from +Paris. Fersen planned their flight, but it proved to be a failure. +Every one remembers how they were discovered and halted at Varennes. +The royal party was escorted back to Paris by the mob, which chanted +with insolent additions: +</P> + +<P> +"We've brought back the baker, the baker's wife, and the baker's boy! +Now we shall have bread!" +</P> + +<P> +Against the savage fury which soon animated the French a foreigner like +Fersen could do very little; but he seems to have endeavored, night and +day, to serve the woman whom he loved. His efforts have been described +by Grandat; but they were of no avail. The king and queen were +practically made prisoners. Their eldest son died. They went through +horrors that were stimulated by the wretch Hebert, at the head of his +so-called Madmen (Enrages). The king was executed in January, 1792. The +queen dragged out a brief existence in a prison where she was for ever +under the eyes of human brutes, who guarded her and watched her and +jeered at her at times when even men would be sensitive. Then, at last, +she mounted the scaffold, and her head, with its shining hair, fell +into the bloody basket. +</P> + +<P> +Marie Antoinette shows many contradictions in her character. As a young +girl she was petulant and silly and almost unseemly in her actions. As +a queen, with waning power, she took on a dignity which recalled the +dignity of her imperial mother. At first a flirt, she fell deeply in +love when she met a man who was worthy of that love. She lived for most +part like a mere cocotte. She died every inch a queen. +</P> + +<P> +One finds a curious resemblance between the fate of Marie Antoinette +and that of her gallant lover, who outlived her for nearly twenty +years. She died amid the shrieks and execrations of a maddened populace +in Paris; he was practically torn in pieces by a mob in the streets of +Stockholm. The day of his death was the anniversary of the flight to +Varennes. To the last moment of his existence he remained faithful to +the memory of the royal woman who had given herself so utterly to him. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="burr"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE STORY OF AARON BURR +</H3> + +<P> +There will come a time when the name of Aaron Burr will be cleared from +the prejudice which now surrounds it, when he will stand in the public +estimation side by side with Alexander Hamilton, whom he shot in a duel +in 1804, but whom in many respects he curiously resembled. When the +white light of history shall have searched them both they will appear +as two remarkable men, each having his own undoubted faults and at the +same time his equally undoubted virtues. +</P> + +<P> +Burr and Hamilton were born within a year of each other—Burr being a +grandson of Jonathan Edwards, and Alexander Hamilton being the +illegitimate son of a Scottish merchant in the West Indies. Each of +them was short in stature, keen of intellect, of great physical +endurance, courage, and impressive personality. Each as a young man +served on the staff of Washington during the Revolutionary War, and +each of them quarreled with him, though in a different way. +</P> + +<P> +On one occasion Burr was quite unjustly suspected by Washington of +looking over the latter's shoulder while he was writing. "Washington +leaped to his feet with the exclamation: +</P> + +<P> +"How dare you, Colonel Burr?" +</P> + +<P> +Burr's eyes flashed fire at the question, and he retorted, haughtily: +</P> + +<P> +"Colonel Burr DARE do anything." +</P> + +<P> +This, however, was the end of their altercation The cause of Hamilton's +difference with his chief is not known, but it was a much more serious +quarrel; so that the young officer left his staff position in a fury +and took no part in the war until the end, when he was present at the +battle of Yorktown. +</P> + +<P> +Burr, on the other hand, helped Montgomery to storm the heights of +Quebec, and nearly reached the upper citadel when his commander was +shot dead and the Americans retreated. In all this confusion Burr +showed himself a man of mettle. The slain Montgomery was six feet high, +but Burr carried his body away with wonderful strength amid a shower of +musket-balls and grape-shot. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton had no belief in the American Constitution, which he called "a +shattered, feeble thing." He could never obtain an elective office, and +he would have preferred to see the United States transformed into a +kingdom. Washington's magnanimity and clear-sightedness made Hamilton +Secretary of the Treasury. Burr, on the other hand, continued his +military service until the war was ended, routing the enemy at +Hackensack, enduring the horrors of Valley Forge, commanding a brigade +at the battle of Monmouth, and heading the defense of the city of New +Haven. He was also attorney-general of New York, was elected to the +United States Senate, was tied with Jefferson for the Presidency, and +then became Vice-President. +</P> + +<P> +Both Hamilton and Burr were effective speakers; but, while Hamilton was +wordy and diffuse, Burr spoke always to the point, with clear and +cogent reasoning. Both were lavish spenders of money, and both were +engaged in duels before the fatal one in which Hamilton fell. Both +believed in dueling as the only way of settling an affair of honor. +Neither of them was averse to love affairs, though it may be said that +Hamilton sought women, while Burr was rather sought by women. When +Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was obliged to confess an +adulterous amour in order to save himself from the charge of corrupt +practices in public office. So long as Burr's wife lived he was a +devoted, faithful husband to her. Hamilton was obliged to confess his +illicit acts while his wife, formerly Miss Elizabeth Schuyler, was +living. She spent her later years in buying and destroying the +compromising documents which her husband had published for his +countrymen to read. +</P> + +<P> +The most extraordinary thing about Aaron Burr was the magnetic quality +that was felt by every one who approached him. The roots of this +penetrated down into a deep vitality. He was always young, always +alert, polished in manner, courageous with that sort of courage which +does not even recognize the presence of danger, charming in +conversation, and able to adapt it to men or women of any age whatever. +His hair was still dark in his eightieth year. His step was still +elastic, his motions were still as spontaneous and energetic, as those +of a youth. +</P> + +<P> +So it was that every one who knew him experienced his fascination. The +rough troops whom he led through the Canadian swamps felt the iron hand +of his discipline; yet they were devoted to him, since he shared all +their toils, faced all their dangers, and ate with them the scraps of +hide which they gnawed to keep the breath of life in their shrunken +bodies. +</P> + +<P> +Burr's discipline was indeed very strict, so that at first raw recruits +rebelled against it. On one occasion the men of an untrained company +resented it so bitterly that they decided to shoot Colonel Burr as he +paraded them for roll-call that evening. Burr somehow got word of it +and contrived to have all the cartridges drawn from their muskets. When +the time for the roll-call came one of the malcontents leaped from the +front line and leveled his weapon at Burr. +</P> + +<P> +"Now is the time, boys!" he shouted. +</P> + +<P> +Like lightning Burr's sword flashed from its scabbard with such a +vigorous stroke as to cut the man's arm completely off and partly to +cleave the musket. +</P> + +<P> +"Take your place in the ranks," said Burr. +</P> + +<P> +The mutineer obeyed, dripping with blood. A month later every man in +that company was devoted to his commander. They had learned that +discipline was the surest source of safety. +</P> + +<P> +But with this high spirit and readiness to fight Burr had a most +pleasing way of meeting every one who came to him. When he was arrested +in the Western forests, charged with high treason, the sound of his +voice won from jury after jury verdicts of acquittal. Often the +sheriffs would not arrest him. One grand jury not merely exonerated him +from all public misdemeanors, but brought in a strong presentment +against the officers of the government for molesting him. +</P> + +<P> +It was the same everywhere. Burr made friends and devoted allies among +all sorts of men. During his stay in France, England, Germany, and +Sweden he interested such men as Charles Lamb, Jeremy Bentham, Sir +Walter Scott, Goethe, and Heeren. They found his mind able to meet with +theirs on equal terms. Burr, indeed, had graduated as a youth with +honors from Princeton, and had continued his studies there after +graduation, which was then a most unusual thing to do. But, of course, +he learned most from his contact with men and women of the world. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, in The Minister's Wooing, has given what is +probably an exact likeness of Aaron Burr, with his brilliant gifts and +some of his defects. It is strong testimony to the character of Burr +that Mrs. Stowe set out to paint him as a villain; but before she had +written long she felt his fascination and made her readers, in their +own despite, admirers of this remarkable man. There are many parallels, +indeed, between him and Napoleon—in the quickness of his intellect, +the ready use of his resources, and his power over men, while he was +more than Napoleon in his delightful gift of conversation and the easy +play of his cultured mind. +</P> + +<P> +Those who are full of charm are willing also to be charmed. All his +life Burr was abstemious in food and drink. His tastes were most +refined. It is difficult to believe that such a man could have been an +unmitigated profligate. +</P> + +<P> +In his twentieth year there seems to have begun the first of the +romances that run through the story of his long career. Perhaps one +ought not to call it the first romance, for at eighteen, while he was +studying law at Litchfield, a girl, whose name has been suppressed, +made an open avowal of love for him. Almost at the same time an heiress +with a large fortune would have married him had he been willing to +accept her hand. But at this period he was only a boy and did not take +such things seriously. +</P> + +<P> +Two years later, after Burr had seen hard service at Quebec and on +Manhattan Island, his name was associated with that of a very beautiful +girl named Margaret Moncrieffe. She was the daughter of a British +major, but in some way she had been captured while within the American +lines. Her captivity was regarded as little more than a joke; but while +she was thus a prisoner she saw a great deal of Burr. For several +months they were comrades, after which General Putnam sent her with his +compliments to her father. +</P> + +<P> +Margaret Moncrieffe had a most emotional nature. There can be no doubt +that she deeply loved the handsome young American officer, whom she +never saw again. It is doubtful how far their intimacy was carried. +Later she married a Mr. Coghlan. After reaching middle life she wrote +of Burr in a way which shows that neither years nor the obligations of +marriage could make her forget that young soldier, whom she speaks of +as "the conqueror of her soul." In the rather florid style of those +days the once youthful Margaret Moncrieffe expresses herself as follows: +</P> + +<P> +Oh, may these pages one day meet the eye of him who subdued my virgin +heart, whom the immutable, unerring laws of nature had pointed out for +my husband, but whose sacred decree the barbarous customs of society +fatally violated! +</P> + +<P> +Commenting on this paragraph, Mr. H. C. Merwin justly remarks that, +whatever may have been Burr's conduct toward Margaret Moncrieffe, the +lady herself, who was the person chiefly concerned, had no complaint to +make of it. It certainly was no very serious affair, since in the +following year Burr met a lady who, while she lived, was the only woman +for whom he ever really cared. +</P> + +<P> +This was Theodosia Prevost, the wife of a major in the British army. +Burr met her first in 1777, while she was living with her sister in +Westchester County. Burr's command was fifteen miles across the river, +but distance and danger made no difference to him. He used to mount a +swift horse, inspect his sentinels and outposts, and then gallop to the +Hudson, where a barge rowed by six soldiers awaited him. The barge was +well supplied with buffalo-skins, upon which the horse was thrown with +his legs bound, and then half an hour's rowing brought them to the +other side. There Burr resumed his horse, galloped to the house of Mrs. +Prevost, and, after spending a few hours with her, returned in the same +way. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Prevost was by no means beautiful, but she had an attractiveness +of her own. She was well educated and possessed charming manners, with +a disposition both gentle and affectionate. Her husband died soon after +the beginning of the war, and then Burr married her. No more ideal +family life could be conceived than his, and the letters which passed +between the two are full of adoration. Thus she wrote to him: +</P> + +<P> +Tell me, why do I grow every day more tenacious of your regard? Is it +because each revolving day proves you more deserving? +</P> + +<P> +And thus Burr answered her: +</P> + +<P> +Continue to multiply your letters to me. They are all my solace. The +last six are constantly within my reach. I read them once a day at +least. Write me all that I have asked, and a hundred things which I +have not. +</P> + +<P> +When it is remembered that these letters were written after nine years +of marriage it is hard to believe all the evil things that have been +said of Burr. +</P> + +<P> +His wife died in 1794, and he then gave a double affection to his +daughter Theodosia, whose beauty and accomplishments were known +throughout the country. Burr took the greatest pains in her education, +and believed that she should be trained, as he had been, to be brave, +industrious, and patient. He himself, who has been described as a +voluptuary, delighted in the endurance of cold and heat and of severe +labor. +</P> + +<P> +After his death one of his younger admirers was asked what Burr had +done for him. The reply was characteristic. +</P> + +<P> +"He made me iron," was the answer. +</P> + +<P> +No father ever gave more attention to his daughter's welfare. As to +Theodosia's studies he was very strict, making her read Greek and Latin +every day, with drawing and music and history, in addition to French. +Not long before her marriage to Joseph Allston, of South Carolina, Burr +wrote to her: +</P> + +<P> +I really think, my dear Theo, that you will be very soon beyond all +verbal criticism, and that my whole attention will be presently +directed to the improvement of your style. +</P> + +<P> +Theodosia Burr married into a family of good old English stock, where +riches were abundant, and high character was regarded as the best of +all possessions. Every one has heard of the mysterious tragedy which is +associated with her history. In 1812, when her husband had been elected +Governor of his state, her only child—a sturdy boy of eleven—died, +and Theodosia's health was shattered by her sorrow. In the same year +Burr returned from a sojourn in Europe, and his loving daughter +embarked from Charleston on a schooner, the Patriot, to meet her father +in New York. When Burr arrived he was met by a letter which told him +that his grandson was dead and that Theodosia was coming to him. +</P> + +<P> +Weeks sped by, and no news was heard of the ill-fated Patriot. At last +it became evident that she must have gone down or in some other way +have been lost. Burr and Governor Allston wrote to each other letter +after letter, of which each one seems to surpass the agony of the +other. At last all hope was given up. Governor Allston died soon after +of a broken heart; but Burr, as became a Stoic, acted otherwise. +</P> + +<P> +He concealed everything that reminded him of Theodosia. He never spoke +of his lost daughter. His grief was too deep-seated and too terrible +for speech. Only once did he ever allude to her, and this was in a +letter written to an afflicted friend, which contained the words: +</P> + +<P> +Ever since the event which separated me from mankind I have been able +neither to give nor to receive consolation. +</P> + +<P> +In time the crew of a pirate vessel was captured and sentenced to be +hanged. One of the men, who seemed to be less brutal than the rest, +told how, in 1812, they had captured a schooner, and, after their usual +practice, had compelled the passengers to walk the plank. All hesitated +and showed cowardice, except only one—a beautiful woman whose eyes +were as bright and whose bearing was as unconcerned as if she were safe +on shore. She quickly led the way, and, mounting the plank with a +certain scorn of death, said to the others: +</P> + +<P> +"Come, I will show you how to die." +</P> + +<P> +It has always been supposed that this intrepid girl may have been +Theodosia Allston. If so, she only acted as her father would have done +and in strict accordance with his teachings. +</P> + +<P> +This resolute courage, this stern joy in danger, this perfect +equanimity, made Burr especially attractive to women, who love courage, +the more so when it is coupled with gentleness and generosity. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps no man in our country has been so vehemently accused regarding +his relations with the other sex. The most improbable stories were told +about him, even by his friends. As to his enemies, they took boundless +pains to paint him in the blackest colors. According to them, no woman +was safe from his intrigues. He was a perfect devil in leading them +astray and then casting them aside. +</P> + +<P> +Thus one Matthew L. Davis, in whom Burr had confided as a friend, wrote +of him long afterward a most unjust account—unjust because we have +proofs that it was false in the intensity of its abuse. Davis wrote: +</P> + +<P> +It is truly surprising how any individual could become so eminent as a +soldier, as a statesman, and as a professional man who devoted so much +time to the other sex as was devoted by Colonel Burr. For more than +half a century of his life they seemed to absorb his whole thought. His +intrigues were without number; the sacred bonds of friendship were +unhesitatingly violated when they operated as barriers to the +indulgence of his passions. In this particular Burr appears to have +been unfeeling and heartless. +</P> + +<P> +It is impossible to believe that the Spartan Burr, whose life was one +of incessant labor and whose kindliness toward every one was so well +known, should have deserved a commentary like this. The charge of +immorality is so easily made and so difficult of disproof that it has +been flung promiscuously at all the great men of history, including, in +our own country. +</P> + +<P> +Washington and Jefferson as well as Burr. In England, when Gladstone +was more than seventy years of age, he once stopped to ask a question +of a woman in the street. Within twenty-four hours the London clubs +were humming with a sort of demoniac glee over the story that this aged +and austere old gentleman was not above seeking common street amours. +</P> + +<P> +And so with Aaron Burr to a great extent. That he was a man of strict +morality it would be absurd to maintain. That he was a reckless and +licentious profligate would be almost equally untrue. Mr. H. O. Merwin +has very truly said: +</P> + +<P> +Part of Burr's reputation for profligacy was due, no doubt, to that +vanity respecting women of which Davis himself speaks. He never refused +to accept the parentage of a child. +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you allow this woman to saddle you with her child when you KNOW +you are not the father of it?" said a friend to him a few months before +his death. +</P> + +<P> +"Sir," he replied, "when a lady does me the honor to name me the father +of her child I trust I shall always be too gallant to show myself +ungrateful for the favor." +</P> + +<P> +There are two curious legends relating to Aaron Burr. They serve to +show that his reputation became such that he could not enjoy the +society of a woman without having her regarded as his mistress. +</P> + +<P> +When he was United States Senator from New York he lived in +Philadelphia at the lodging-house of a Mrs. Payne, whose daughter, +Dorothy Todd, was the very youthful widow of an officer. This young +woman was rather free in her manners, and Burr was very responsive in +his. At the time, however, nothing was thought of it; but presently +Burr brought to the house the serious and somewhat pedantic James +Madison and introduced him to the hoyden. +</P> + +<P> +Madison was then forty-seven years of age, a stranger to society, but +gradually rising to a prominent position in politics—"the great little +Madison," as Burr rather lightly called him. Before very long he had +proposed marriage to the young widow. She hesitated, and some one +referred the matter to President Washington. The Father of his Country +answered in what was perhaps the only opinion that he ever gave on the +subject of matrimony. It is worth preserving because it shows that he +had a sense of humor: +</P> + +<P> +For my own part, I never did nor do I believe I ever shall give advice +to a woman who is setting out on a matrimonial voyage ... A woman very +rarely asks an opinion or seeks advice on such an occasion till her +mind is wholly made up, and then it is with the hope and expectation of +obtaining a sanction, and not that she means to be governed by your +disapproval. +</P> + +<P> +Afterward when Dolly Madison with, her yellow turban and kittenish ways +was making a sensation in Washington society some one recalled her old +association with Burr. At once the story sprang to light that Burr had +been her lover and that he had brought about the match with Madison as +an easy way of getting rid of her. +</P> + +<P> +There is another curious story which makes Martin Van Buren, eighth +President of the United States, to have been the illegitimate son of +Aaron Burr. There is no earthly reason for believing this, except that +Burr sometimes stopped overnight at the tavern in Kinderhook which was +kept by Van Buren's putative father, and that Van Buren in later life +showed an astuteness equal to that of Aaron Burr himself, so that he +was called by his opponents "the fox of Kinderhook." But, as Van Buren +was born in December of the same year (1782) in which Burr was married +to Theodosia Prevost, the story is utterly improbable when we remember, +as we must, the ardent affection which Burr showed his wife, not only +before their marriage, but afterward until her death. +</P> + +<P> +Putting aside these purely spurious instances, as well as others cited +by Mr. Parton, the fact remains that Aaron Burr, like Daniel Webster, +found a great attraction in the society of women; that he could please +them and fascinate them to an extraordinary degree; and that during his +later life he must be held quite culpable in this respect. His +love-making was ardent and rapid, as we shall afterward see in the case +of his second marriage. +</P> + +<P> +Many other stories are told of him. For instance, it is said that he +once took a stage-coach from Jersey City to Philadelphia. The only +other occupant was a woman of high standing and one whose family deeply +hated Aaron Burr. Nevertheless, so the story goes, before they had +reached Newark she was absolutely swayed by his charm of manner; and +when the coach made its last stop before Philadelphia she voluntarily +became his mistress. +</P> + +<P> +It must also be said that, unlike those of Webster and Hamilton, his +intrigues were never carried on with women of the lower sort. This may +be held by some to deepen the charge against him; but more truly does +it exonerate him, since it really means that in many cases these women +of the world threw themselves at him and sought him as a lover, when +otherwise he might never have thought of them. +</P> + +<P> +That he was not heartless and indifferent to those who had loved him +may be shown by the great care which he took to protect their names and +reputations. Thus, on the day before his duel with Hamilton, he made a +will in which he constituted his son-in-law as his executor. At the +same time he wrote a sealed letter to Governor Allston in which he said: +</P> + +<P> +If you can pardon and indulge a folly, I would suggest that Mme. ——, +too well known under the name of Leonora, has claims on my +recollection. She is now with her husband at Santiago, in Cuba. +</P> + +<P> +Another fact has been turned to his discredit. From many women, in the +course of his long life, he had received a great quantity of letters +written by aristocratic hands on scented paper, and these letters he +had never burned. Here again, perhaps, was shown the vanity of the man +who loved love for its own sake. He kept all these papers in a huge +iron-clamped chest, and he instructed Theodosia in case he should die +to burn every letter which might injure any one. +</P> + +<P> +After Theodosia's death Burr gave the same instructions to Matthew L. +Davis, who did, indeed, burn them, though he made their existence a +means of blackening the character of Burr. He should have destroyed +them unopened, and should never have mentioned them in his memoirs of +the man who trusted him as a friend. +</P> + +<P> +Such was Aaron Burr throughout a life which lasted for eighty years. +His last romance, at the age of seventy-eight, is worth narrating +because it has often been misunderstood. +</P> + +<P> +Mme. Jumel was a Rhode Island girl who at seventeen years of age eloped +with an English officer, Colonel Peter Croix. Her first husband died +while she was still quite young, and she then married a French +wine-merchant, Stephen Jumel, some twenty years her senior, but a man +of much vigor and intelligence. M. Jumel made a considerable fortune in +New York, owning a small merchant fleet; and after Napoleon's downfall +he and his wife went to Paris, where she made a great impression in the +salons by her vivacity and wit and by her lavish expenditures. +</P> + +<P> +Losing, however, part of what she and her husband possessed, Mme. Jumel +returned to New York, bringing with her a great amount of furniture and +paintings, with which she decorated the historic house still standing +in the upper part of Manhattan Island—a mansion held by her in her own +right. She managed her estate with much ability; and in 1828 M. Jumel +returned to live with her in what was in those days a splendid villa. +</P> + +<P> +Four years later, however, M. Jumel suffered an accident from which he +died in a few days, leaving his wife still an attractive woman and not +very much past her prime. Soon after she had occasion to seek for legal +advice, and for this purpose visited the law-office of Aaron Burr. She +had known him a good many years before; and, though he was now +seventy-eight years of age, there was no perceptible change in him. He +was still courtly in manner, tactful, and deferential, while physically +he was straight, active, and vigorous. +</P> + +<P> +A little later she invited him to a formal banquet, where he displayed +all his charms and shone to great advantage. When he was about to lead +her in to dinner, he said: +</P> + +<P> +"I give my hand, madam; my heart has long been yours." +</P> + +<P> +These attentions he followed up with several other visits, and finally +proposed that she should marry him. Much fluttered and no less +flattered, she uttered a sort of "No" which was not likely to +discourage a man like Aaron Burr. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall come to you before very long," he said, "accompanied by a +clergyman; and then you will give me your hand because I want it." +</P> + +<P> +This rapid sort of wooing was pleasantly embarrassing. The lady rather +liked it; and so, on an afternoon when the sun was shining and the +leaves were rustling in the breeze, Burr drove up to Mme. Jumel's +mansion accompanied by Dr. Bogart—the very clergyman who had married +him to his first wife fifty years before. +</P> + +<P> +Mme. Jumel was now seriously disturbed, but her refusal was not a +strong one. There were reasons why she should accept the offer. The +great house was lonely. The management of her estate required a man's +advice. Moreover, she was under the spell of Burr's fascination. +Therefore she arrayed herself in one of her most magnificent Paris +gowns; the members of her household and eight servants were called in +and the ceremony was duly performed by Dr. Bogart. A banquet followed. +A dozen cobwebbed bottles of wine were brought up from the cellar, and +the marriage feast went on merrily until after midnight. +</P> + +<P> +This marriage was a singular one from many points of view. It was +strange that a man of seventy-eight should take by storm the affections +of a woman so much younger than he—a woman of wealth and knowledge of +the world. In the second place, it is odd that there was still another +woman—a mere girl—who was so infatuated with Burr that when she was +told of his marriage it nearly broke her heart. Finally, in the early +part of that same year he had been accused of being the father of a +new-born child, and in spite of his age every one believed the charge +to be true. Here is a case that it would be hard to parallel. +</P> + +<P> +The happiness of the newly married pair did not, however, last very +long. They made a wedding journey into Connecticut, of which state +Burr's nephew was then Governor, and there Burr saw a monster bridge +over the Connecticut River, in which his wife had shares, though they +brought her little income. He suggested that she should transfer the +investment, which, after all, was not a very large one, and place it in +a venture in Texas which looked promising. The speculation turned out +to be a loss, however, and this made Mrs. Burr extremely angry, the +more so as she had reason to think that her ever-youthful husband had +been engaged in flirting with the country girls near the Jumel mansion. +</P> + +<P> +She was a woman of high spirit and had at times a violent temper. One +day the post-master at what was then the village of Harlem was +surprised to see Mrs. Burr drive up before the post-office in an open +carriage. He came out to ask what she desired, and was surprised to +find her in a violent temper and with an enormous horse-pistol on each +cushion at her side. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you wish, madam?" said he, rather mildly. +</P> + +<P> +"What do I wish?" she cried. "Let me get at that villain Aaron Burr!" +</P> + +<P> +Presently Burr seems to have succeeded in pacifying her; but in the end +they separated, though she afterward always spoke most kindly of him. +When he died, only about a year later, she is said to have burst into a +flood of tears—another tribute to the fascination which Aaron Burr +exercised through all his checkered life. +</P> + +<P> +It is difficult to come to any fixed opinion regarding the moral +character of Aaron Burr. As a soldier he was brave to the point of +recklessness. As a political leader he was almost the equal of +Jefferson and quite superior to Hamilton. As a man of the world he was +highly accomplished, polished in manner, charming in conversation. He +made friends easily, and he forgave his enemies with a broadmindedness +that is unusual. +</P> + +<P> +On the other hand, in his political career there was a touch of +insincerity, and it can scarcely be denied that he used his charm too +often to the injury of those women who could not resist his insinuating +ways and the caressing notes of his rich voice. But as a husband, in +his youth, he was devoted, affectionate, and loyal; while as a father +he was little less than worshiped by the daughter whom he reared so +carefully. +</P> + +<P> +One of his biographers very truly says that no such wretch as Burr has +been declared to be could have won and held the love of such a wife and +such a daughter as Burr had. +</P> + +<P> +When all the other witnesses have been heard, let the two Theodosias be +summoned, and especially that daughter who showed toward him an +affectionate veneration unsurpassed by any recorded in history or +romance. Such an advocate as Theodosia the younger must avail in some +degree, even though the culprit were brought before the bar of Heaven +itself. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="george"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +GEORGE IV. AND MRS. FITZHERBERT +</H3> + +<P> +In the last decade of the eighteenth century England was perhaps the +most brilliant nation of the world. Other countries had been humbled by +the splendid armies of France and were destined to be still further +humbled by the emperor who came from Corsica. France had begun to seize +the scepter of power; yet to this picture there was another +side—fearful want and grievous poverty and the horrors of the +Revolution. Russia was too far away, and was still considered too +barbarous, for a brilliant court to flourish there. Prussia had the +prestige that Frederick the Great won for her, but she was still a +comparatively small state. Italy was in a condition of political chaos; +the banks of the Rhine were running blood where the Austrian armies +faced the gallant Frenchmen under the leadership of Moreau. But +England, in spite of the loss of her American colonies, was rich and +prosperous, and her invincible fleets were extending her empire over +the seven seas. +</P> + +<P> +At no time in modern England has the court at London seen so much real +splendor or such fine manners. The royalist emigres who fled from +France brought with them names and pedigrees that were older than the +Crusades, and many of them were received with the frankest, freest +English hospitality. If here and there some marquis or baron of ancient +blood was perforce content to teach music to the daughters of tradesmen +in suburban schools, nevertheless they were better off than they had +been in France, harried by the savage gaze-hounds of the guillotine. +Afterward, in the days of the Restoration, when they came back to their +estates, they had probably learned more than one lesson from the +bouledogues of Merry England, who had little tact, perhaps, but who +were at any rate kindly and willing to share their goods with pinched +and poverty-stricken foreigners. +</P> + +<P> +The court, then, as has been said, was brilliant with notables from +Continental countries, and with the historic wealth of the peerage of +England. Only one cloud overspread it; and that was the mental +condition of the king. We have become accustomed to think of George III +as a dull creature, almost always hovering on the verge of that +insanity which finally swept him into a dark obscurity; but Thackeray's +picture of him is absurdly untrue to the actual facts. George III. was +by no means a dullard, nor was he a sort of beefy country squire who +roved about the palace gardens with his unattractive spouse. +</P> + +<P> +Obstinate enough he was, and ready for a combat with the rulers of the +Continent or with his self-willed sons; but he was a man of brains and +power, and Lord Rosebery has rightly described him as the most striking +constitutional figure of his time. Had he retained his reason, and had +his erratic and self-seeking son not succeeded him during his own +lifetime, Great Britain might very possibly have entered upon other +ways than those which opened to her after the downfall of Napoleon. +</P> + +<P> +The real center of fashionable England, however, was not George III., +but rather his son, subsequently George IV., who was made Prince of +Wales three days after his birth, and who became prince regent during +the insanity of the king. He was the leader of the social world, the +fit companion of Beau Brummel and of a choice circle of rakes and +fox-hunters who drank pottle-deep. Some called him "the first gentleman +of Europe." Others, who knew him better, described him as one who never +kept his word to man or woman and who lacked the most elementary +virtues. +</P> + +<P> +Yet it was his good luck during the first years of his regency to be +popular as few English kings have ever been. To his people he typified +old England against revolutionary France; and his youth and gaiety made +many like him. He drank and gambled; he kept packs of hounds and +strings of horses; he ran deeply into debt that he might patronize the +sports of that uproarious day. He was a gallant "Corinthian," a haunter +of dens where there were prize-fights and cock-fights, and there was +hardly a doubtful resort in London where his face was not familiar. +</P> + +<P> +He was much given to gallantry—not so much, as it seemed, for +wantonness, but from sheer love of mirth and chivalry. For a time, with +his chosen friends, such as Fox and Sheridan, he ventured into reckless +intrigues that recalled the amours of his predecessor, Charles II. He +had by no means the wit and courage of Charles; and, indeed, the house +of Hanover lacked the outward show of chivalry which made the Stuarts +shine with external splendor. But he was good-looking and stalwart, and +when he had half a dozen robust comrades by his side he could assume a +very manly appearance. Such was George IV. in his regency and in his +prime. He made that period famous for its card-playing, its deep +drinking, and for the dissolute conduct of its courtiers and noblemen +no less than for the gallantry of its soldiers and its momentous +victories on sea and land. It came, however, to be seen that his true +achievements were in reality only escapades, that his wit was only +folly, and his so-called "sensibility" was but sham. He invented +buckles, striped waistcoats, and flamboyant collars, but he knew +nothing of the principles of kingship or the laws by which a state is +governed. +</P> + +<P> +The fact that he had promiscuous affairs with women appealed at first +to the popular sense of the romantic. It was not long, however, before +these episodes were trampled down into the mire of vulgar scandal. +</P> + +<P> +One of the first of them began when he sent a letter, signed +"Florizel," to a young actress, "Perdita" Robinson. Mrs. Robinson, +whose maiden name was Mary Darby, and who was the original of famous +portraits by Gainsborough and Reynolds, was a woman of beauty, talent, +and temperament. George, wishing in every way to be "romantic," +insisted upon clandestine meetings on the Thames at Kew, with all the +stage trappings of the popular novels—cloaks, veils, faces hidden, and +armed watchers to warn her of approaching danger. Poor Perdita took +this nonsense so seriously that she gave up her natural vocation for +the stage, and forsook her husband, believing that the prince would +never weary of her. +</P> + +<P> +He did weary of her very soon, and, with the brutality of a man of such +a type, turned her away with the promise of some money; after which he +cut her in the Park and refused to speak to her again. As for the +money, he may have meant to pay it, but Perdita had a long struggle +before she succeeded in getting it. It may be assumed that the prince +had to borrow it and that this obligation formed part of the debts +which Parliament paid for him. +</P> + +<P> +It is not necessary to number the other women whose heads he turned. +They are too many for remembrance here, and they have no special +significance, save one who, as is generally believed, became his wife +so far as the church could make her so. An act of 1772 had made it +illegal for any member of the English royal family to marry without the +permission of the king. A marriage contracted without the king's +consent might be lawful in the eyes of the church, but the children +born of it could not inherit any claim to the throne. +</P> + +<P> +It may be remarked here that this withholding of permission was +strictly enforced. Thus William IV., who succeeded George IV., was +married, before his accession to the throne, to Mrs. Jordan (Dorothy +Bland). Afterward he lawfully married a woman of royal birth who was +known as Queen Adelaide. +</P> + +<P> +There is an interesting story which tells how Queen Victoria came to be +born because her father, the Duke of Kent, was practically forced to +give up a morganatic union which he greatly preferred to a marriage +arranged for him by Parliament. Except the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke +of Kent was the only royal duke who was likely to have children in the +regular line. The only daughter of George IV. had died in childhood. +The Duke of Cumberland was for various reasons ineligible; the Duke of +Clarence, later King William IV., was almost too old; and therefore, to +insure the succession, the Duke of Kent was begged to marry a young and +attractive woman, a princess of the house of Saxe-Coburg, who was ready +for the honor. It was greatly to the Duke's credit that he showed deep +and sincere feeling in this matter. As he said himself in effect: +</P> + +<P> +"This French lady has stood by me in hard times and in good times, +too—why should I cast her off? She has been more than a wife to me. +And what do I care for your plans in Parliament? Send over for one of +the Stuarts—they are better men than the last lot of our fellows that +you have had!" +</P> + +<P> +In the end, however, he was wearied out and was persuaded to marry, but +he insisted that a generous sum should be settled on the lady who had +been so long his true companion, and to whom, no doubt, he gave many a +wistful thought in his new but unfamiliar quarters in Kensington +Palace, which was assigned as his residence. +</P> + +<P> +Again, the second Duke of Cambridge, who died only a few years ago, +greatly desired to marry a lady who was not of royal rank, though of +fine breeding and of good birth. He besought his young cousin, as head +of the family, to grant him this privilege of marriage; but Queen +Victoria stubbornly refused. The duke was married according to the +rites of the church, but he could not make his wife a duchess. The +queen never quite forgave him for his partial defiance of her wishes, +though the duke's wife—she was usually spoken of as Mrs. +FitzGeorge—was received almost everywhere, and two of her sons hold +high rank in the British army and navy, respectively. +</P> + +<P> +The one real love story in the life of George IV. is that which tells +of his marriage with a lady who might well have been the wife of any +king. This was Maria Anne Smythe, better known as Mrs. Fitzherbert, who +was six years older than the young prince when she first met him in +company with a body of gentlemen and ladies in 1784. +</P> + +<P> +Maria Fitzherbert's face was one which always displayed its best +advantages. Her eyes were peculiarly languishing, and, as she had +already been twice a widow, and was six years his senior, she had the +advantage over a less experienced lover. Likewise, she was a Catholic, +and so by another act of Parliament any marriage with her would be +illegal. Yet just because of all these different objections the prince +was doubly drawn to her, and was willing to sacrifice even the throne +if he could but win her. +</P> + +<P> +His father, the king, called him into the royal presence and said: +</P> + +<P> +"George, it is time that you should settle down and insure the +succession to the throne." +</P> + +<P> +"Sir," replied the prince, "I prefer to resign the succession and let +my brother have it, and that I should live as a private English +gentleman." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fitzherbert was not the sort of woman to give herself up readily +to a morganatic connection. Moreover, she soon came to love Prince +George too well to entangle him in a doubtful alliance with one of +another faith than his. Not long after he first met her the prince, who +was always given to private theatricals, sent messengers riding in hot +haste to her house to tell her that he had stabbed himself, that he +begged to see her, and that unless she came he would repeat the act. +The lady yielded, and hurried to Carlton House, the prince's residence; +but she was prudent enough to take with her the Duchess of Devonshire, +who was a reigning beauty of the court. +</P> + +<P> +The scene which followed was theatrical rather than impressive.—The +prince was found in his sleeping-chamber, pale and with his ruffles +blood-stained. He played the part of a youthful and love-stricken +wooer, vowing that he would marry the woman of his heart or stab +himself again. In the presence of his messengers, who, with the +duchess, were witnesses, he formally took the lady as his wife, while +Lady Devonshire's wedding-ring sealed the troth. The prince also +acknowledged it in a document. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fitzherbert was, in fact, a woman of sound sense. Shortly after +this scene of melodramatic intensity her wits came back to her, and she +recognized that she had merely gone through a meaningless farce. So she +sent back the prince's document and the ring and hastened to the +Continent, where he could not reach her, although his detectives +followed her steps for a year. +</P> + +<P> +At the last she yielded, however, and came home to marry the prince in +such fashion as she could—a marriage of love, and surely one of +morality, though not of parliamentary law. The ceremony was performed +"in her own drawing-room in her house in London, in the presence of the +officiating Protestant clergyman and two of her own nearest relatives." +</P> + +<P> +Such is the serious statement of Lord Stourton, who was Mrs. +Fitzherbert's cousin and confidant. The truth of it was never denied, +and Mrs. Fitzherbert was always treated with respect, and even regarded +as a person of great distinction. Nevertheless, on more than one +occasion the prince had his friends in Parliament deny the marriage in +order that his debts might be paid and new allowances issued to him by +the Treasury. +</P> + +<P> +George certainly felt himself a husband. Like any other married prince, +he set himself to build a palace for his country home. While in search +of some suitable spot he chanced to visit the "pretty fishing-village" +of Brighton to see his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland. Doubtless he +found it an attractive place, yet this may have been not so much +because of its view of the sea as for the reason that Mrs. Fitzherbert +had previously lived there. +</P> + +<P> +However, in 1784 the prince sent down his chief cook to make +arrangements for the next royal visit. The cook engaged a house on the +spot where the Pavilion now stands, and from that time Brighton began +to be an extremely fashionable place. The court doctors, giving advice +that was agreeable, recommended their royal patient to take sea-bathing +at Brighton. At once the place sprang into popularity. +</P> + +<P> +At first the gentry were crowded into lodging-houses and the +accommodations were primitive to a degree. But soon handsome villas +arose on every side; hotels appeared; places of amusement were opened. +The prince himself began to build a tasteless but showy structure, +partly Chinese and partly Indian in style, on the fashionable promenade +of the Steyne. +</P> + +<P> +During his life with Mrs. Fitzherbert at Brighton the prince held what +was practically a court. Hundreds of the aristocracy came down from +London and made their temporary dwellings there; while thousands who +were by no means of the court made the place what is now popularly +called "London by the Sea." There were the Duc de Chartres, of France; +statesmen and rakes, like Fox, Sheridan, and the Earl of Barrymore; a +very beautiful woman, named Mrs. Couch, a favorite singer at the opera, +to whom the prince gave at one time jewels worth ten thousand pounds; +and a sister of the Earl of Barrymore, who was as notorious as her +brother. She often took the president's chair at a club which George's +friends had organized and which she had christened the Hell Fire Club. +</P> + +<P> +Such persons were not the only visitors at Brighton. Men of much more +serious demeanor came down to visit the prince and brought with them +quieter society. Nevertheless, for a considerable time the place was +most noted for its wild scenes of revelry, into which George frequently +entered, though his home life with Mrs. Fitzherbert at the Pavilion was +a decorous one. +</P> + +<P> +No one felt any doubt as to the marriage of the two persons, who seemed +so much like a prince and a princess. Some of the people of the place +addressed Mrs. Fitzherbert as "Mrs. Prince." The old king and his wife, +however, much deplored their son's relation with her. This was partly +due to the fact that Mrs. Fitzherbert was a Catholic and that she had +received a number of French nuns who had been driven out of France at +the time of the Revolution. But no less displeasure was caused by the +prince's racing and dicing, which swelled his debts to almost a million +pounds, so that Parliament and, indeed, the sober part of England were +set against him. +</P> + +<P> +Of course, his marriage to Mrs. Fitzherbert had no legal status; nor is +there any reason for believing that she ever became a mother. She had +no children by her former two husbands, and Lord Stourton testified +positively that she never had either son or daughter by Prince George. +Nevertheless, more than one American claimant has risen to advance some +utterly visionary claim to the English throne by reason of alleged +descent from Prince George and Mrs. Fitzherbert. +</P> + +<P> +Neither William IV. nor Queen Victoria ever spent much time at +Brighton. In King William's case it was explained that the dampness of +the Pavilion did not suit him; and as to Queen Victoria, it was said +that she disliked the fact that buildings had been erected so as to cut +off the view of the sea. It is quite likely, however, that the queen +objected to the associations of the place, and did not care to be +reminded of the time when her uncle had lived there so long in a +morganatic state of marriage. +</P> + +<P> +At length the time came when the king, Parliament, and the people at +large insisted that the Prince of Wales should make a legal marriage, +and a wife was selected for him in the person of Caroline, daughter of +the Duke of Brunswick. This marriage took place exactly ten years after +his wedding with the beautiful and gentle-mannered Mrs. Fitzherbert. +With the latter he had known many days and hours of happiness. With +Princess Caroline he had no happiness at all. +</P> + +<P> +Prince George met her at the pier to greet her. It is said that as he +took her hand he kissed her, and then, suddenly recoiling, he whispered +to one of his friends: +</P> + +<P> +"For God's sake, George, give me a glass of brandy!" +</P> + +<P> +Such an utterance was more brutal and barbaric than anything his bride +could have conceived of, though it is probable, fortunately, that she +did not understand him by reason of her ignorance of English. +</P> + +<P> +We need not go through the unhappy story of this unsympathetic, +neglected, rebellious wife. Her life with the prince soon became one of +open warfare; but instead of leaving England she remained to set the +kingdom in an uproar. As soon as his father died and he became king, +George sued her for divorce. Half the people sided with the queen, +while the rest regarded her as a vulgar creature who made love to her +attendants and brought dishonor on the English throne. It was a sorry, +sordid contrast between the young Prince George who had posed as a sort +of cavalier and this now furious gray old man wrangling with his +furious German wife. +</P> + +<P> +Well might he look back to the time when he met Perdita in the +moonlight on the Thames, or when he played the part of Florizel, or, +better still, when he enjoyed the sincere and disinterested love of the +gentle woman who was his wife in all but legal status. Caroline of +Brunswick was thrust away from the king's coronation. She took a house +within sight of Westminster Abbey, so that she might make hag-like +screeches to the mob and to the king as he passed by. Presently, in +August, 1821, only a month after the coronation, she died, and her body +was taken back to Brunswick for burial. +</P> + +<P> +George himself reigned for nine years longer. When he died in 1830 his +executor was the Duke of Wellington. The duke, in examining the late +king's private papers, found that he had kept with the greatest care +every letter written to him by his morganatic wife. During his last +illness she had sent him an affectionate missive which it is said +George "read eagerly." Mrs. Fitzherbert wished the duke to give up her +letters; but he would do so only in return for those which he had +written to her. +</P> + +<P> +It was finally decided that it would be best to burn both his and hers. +This work was carried out in Mrs. Fitzherbert's own house by the lady, +the duke, and the Earl of Albemarle. +</P> + +<P> +Of George it may be said that he has left as memories behind him only +three things that will be remembered. The first is the Pavilion at +Brighton, with its absurdly oriental decorations, its minarets and +flimsy towers. The second is the buckle which he invented and which +Thackeray has immortalized with his biting satire. The last is the +story of his marriage to Maria Fitzherbert, and of the influence +exercised upon him by the affection of a good woman. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="charlotte"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHARLOTTE CORDAY AND ADAM LUX +</H3> + +<P> +Perhaps some readers will consider this story inconsistent with those +that have preceded it. Yet, as it is little known to most readers and +as it is perhaps unique in the history of romantic love, I cannot +forbear relating it; for I believe that it is full of curious interest +and pathetic power. +</P> + +<P> +All those who have written of the French Revolution have paused in +their chronicle of blood and flame to tell the episode of the peasant +Royalist, Charlotte Corday; but in telling it they have often omitted +the one part of the story that is personal and not political. The +tragic record of this French girl and her self-sacrifice has been told +a thousand times by writers in many languages; yet almost all of them +have neglected the brief romance which followed her daring deed and +which was consummated after her death upon the guillotine. It is worth +our while to speak first of Charlotte herself and of the man she slew, +and then to tell that other tale which ought always to be entwined with +her great deed of daring. +</P> + +<P> +Charlotte Corday—Marie Anne Charlotte Corday d'Armand—was a native of +Normandy, and was descended, as her name implies, from noble ancestors. +Her forefathers, indeed, had been statesmen, civil rulers, and +soldiers, and among them was numbered the famous poet Corneille, whom +the French rank with Shakespeare. But a century or more of vicissitudes +had reduced her branch of the family almost to the position of +peasants—a fact which partly justifies the name that some give her +when they call her "the Jeanne d'Arc of the Revolution." +</P> + +<P> +She did not, however, spend her girlish years amid the fields and woods +tending her sheep, as did the other Jeanne d'Arc; but she was placed in +charge of the sisters in a convent, and from them she received such +education as she had. She was a lonely child, and her thoughts turned +inward, brooding over many things. +</P> + +<P> +After she had left the convent she was sent to live with an aunt. Here +she devoted herself to reading over and over the few books which the +house contained. These consisted largely of the deistic writers, +especially Voltaire, and to some extent they destroyed her convent +faith, though it is not likely that she understood them very fully. +</P> + +<P> +More to her taste was a copy of Plutarch's Lives. These famous stories +fascinated her. They told her of battle and siege, of intrigue and +heroism, and of that romantic love of country which led men to throw +away their lives for the sake of a whole people. Brutus and Regulus +were her heroes. To die for the many seemed to her the most glorious +end that any one could seek. When she thought of it she thrilled with a +sort of ecstasy, and longed with all the passion of her nature that +such a glorious fate might be her own. +</P> + +<P> +Charlotte had nearly come to womanhood at the time when the French +Revolution first broke out. Royalist though she had been in her +sympathies, she felt the justice of the people's cause. She had seen +the suffering of the peasantry, the brutality of the tax-gatherers, and +all the oppression of the old regime. But what she hoped for was a +democracy of order and equality and peace. Could the king reign as a +constitutional monarch rather than as a despot, this was all for which +she cared. +</P> + +<P> +In Normandy, where she lived, were many of those moderate republicans +known as Girondists, who felt as she did and who hoped for the same +peaceful end to the great outbreak. On the other hand, in Paris, the +party of the Mountain, as it was called, ruled with a savage violence +that soon was to culminate in the Reign of Terror. Already the +guillotine ran red with noble blood. Already the king had bowed his +head to the fatal knife. Already the threat had gone forth that a mere +breath of suspicion or a pointed finger might be enough to lead men and +women to a gory death. +</P> + +<P> +In her quiet home near Caen Charlotte Corday heard as from afar the +story of this dreadful saturnalia of assassination which was making +Paris a city of bloody mist. Men and women of the Girondist party came +to tell her of the hideous deeds that were perpetrated there. All these +horrors gradually wove themselves in the young girl's imagination +around the sinister and repulsive figure of Jean Paul Marat. She knew +nothing of his associates, Danton and Robespierre. It was in Marat +alone that she saw the monster who sent innocent thousands to their +graves, and who reveled like some arch-fiend in murder and gruesome +death. +</P> + +<P> +In his earlier years Marat had been a very different figure—an +accomplished physician, the friend of nobles, a man of science and +original thought, so that he was nearly elected to the Academy of +Sciences. His studies in electricity gained for him the admiration of +Benjamin Franklin and the praise of Goethe. But when he turned to +politics he left all this career behind him. He plunged into the very +mire of red republicanism, and even there he was for a time so much +hated that he sought refuge in London to save his life. +</P> + +<P> +On his return he was hunted by his enemies, so that his only place of +refuge was in the sewers and drains of Paris. A woman, one Simonne +Evrard, helped him to escape his pursuers. In the sewers, however, he +contracted a dreadful skin-disease from which he never afterward +recovered, and which was extremely painful as well as shocking to +behold. +</P> + +<P> +It is small wonder that the stories about Marat circulated through the +provinces made him seem more a devil than a man. His vindictiveness +against the Girondists brought all of this straight home to Charlotte +Corday and led her to dream of acting the part of Brutus, so that she +might free her country from this hideous tyrant. +</P> + +<P> +In January, 1793, King Louis XVI. met his death upon the scaffold; and +the queen was thrust into a foul prison. This was a signal for activity +among the Girondists in Normandy, and especially at Caen, where +Charlotte was present at their meetings and heard their fervid oratory. +There was a plot to march on Paris, yet in some instinctive way she +felt that such a scheme must fail. It was then that she definitely +formed the plan of going herself, alone, to the French capital to seek +out the hideous Marat and to kill him with her own hands. +</P> + +<P> +To this end she made application for a passport allowing her to visit +Paris. This passport still exists, and it gives us an official +description of the girl. It reads: +</P> + +<P> +Allow citizen Marie Corday to pass. She is twenty-four years of age, +five feet and one inch in height, hair and eyebrows chestnut color, +eyes gray, forehead high, mouth medium size, chin dimpled, and an oval +face. +</P> + +<P> +Apart from this verbal description we have two portraits painted while +she was in prison. Both of them make the description of the passport +seem faint and pale. The real Charlotte had a wealth of chestnut hair +which fell about her face and neck in glorious abundance. Her great +gray eyes spoke eloquently of truth and courage. Her mouth was firm yet +winsome, and her form combined both strength and grace. Such is the +girl who, on reaching Paris, wrote to Marat in these words: +</P> + +<P> +Citizen, I have just arrived from Caen. Your love for your native place +doubtless makes you wish to learn the events which have occurred in +that part of the republic. I shall call at your residence in about an +hour. Be so good as to receive me and give me a brief interview. I will +put you in such condition as to render great service to France. +</P> + +<P> +This letter failed to gain her admission, and so did another which she +wrote soon after. The fact is that Marat was grievously ill. His +disease had reached a point where the pain could be assuaged only by +hot water; and he spent the greater part of his time wrapped in a +blanket and lying in a large tub. +</P> + +<P> +A third time, however, the persistent girl called at his house and +insisted that she must see him, saying that she was herself in danger +from the enemies of the Republic. Through an open door Marat heard her +mellow voice and gave orders that she should be admitted. +</P> + +<P> +As she entered she gazed for a moment upon the lank figure rolling in +the tub, the rat-like face, and the shifting eyes. Then she approached +him, concealing in the bosom of her dress a long carving-knife which +she had purchased for two francs. In answer to Marat's questioning look +she told him that there was much excitement at Caen and that the +Girondists were plotting there. +</P> + +<P> +To this Marat answered, in his harsh voice: +</P> + +<P> +"All these men you mention shall be guillotined in the next few days!" +</P> + +<P> +As he spoke Charlotte flashed out the terrible knife and with all her +strength she plunged it into his left side, where it pierced a lung and +a portion of his heart. +</P> + +<P> +Marat, with the blood gushing from his mouth, cried out: +</P> + +<P> +"Help, darling!" +</P> + +<P> +His cry was meant for one of the two women in the house. Both heard it, +for they were in the next room; and both of them rushed in and +succeeded in pinioning Charlotte Corday, who, indeed, made only a +slight effort to escape. Troops were summoned, she was taken to the +Prison de l'Abbaye, and soon after she was arraigned before the +revolutionary tribunal. +</P> + +<P> +Placed in the dock, she glanced about her with an air of pride, as of +one who gloried in the act which she had just performed. A written +charge was read. She was asked what she had to say. Lifting her head +with a look of infinite satisfaction, she answered in a ringing voice: +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing—except that I succeeded!" +</P> + +<P> +A lawyer was assigned for her defense. He pleaded for her earnestly, +declaring that she must he regarded as insane; but those clear, calm +eyes and that gentle face made her sanity a matter of little doubt. She +showed her quick wit in the answers which she gave to the rough +prosecutor, Fouquier-Tinville, who tried to make her confess that she +had accomplices. +</P> + +<P> +"Who prompted you to do this deed?" roared Tinville. +</P> + +<P> +"I needed no prompting. My own heart was sufficient." +</P> + +<P> +"In what, then, had Marat wronged you?" +</P> + +<P> +"He was a savage beast who was going to destroy the remains of France +in the fires of civil war." +</P> + +<P> +"But whom did you expect to benefit?" insinuated the prosecutor. +</P> + +<P> +"I have killed one man to save a hundred thousand." +</P> + +<P> +"What? Did you imagine that you had murdered all the Marats?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, but, this one being dead, the rest will perhaps take warning." +</P> + +<P> +Thus her directness baffled all the efforts of the prosecution to trap +her into betraying any of her friends. The court, however, sentenced +her to death. She was then immured in the Conciergerie. +</P> + +<P> +This dramatic court scene was the beginning of that strange, brief +romance to which one can scarcely find a parallel. At the time there +lived in Paris a young German named Adam Lux. The continual talk about +Charlotte Corday had filled him with curiosity regarding this young +girl who had been so daring and so patriotic. She was denounced on +every hand as a murderess with the face of a Medusa and the muscles of +a Vulcan. Street songs about her were dinned into the ears of Adam Lux. +</P> + +<P> +As a student of human nature he was anxious to see this terrible +creature. He forced his way to the front of the crowded benches in the +court-room and took his stand behind a young artist who was finishing a +beautiful sketch. From that moment until the end of the trial the eyes +of Adam Lux were fastened on the prisoner. What a contrast to the +picture he had imagined! +</P> + +<P> +A mass of regal chestnut hair crowned with the white cap of a Norman +peasant girl; gray eyes, very sad and serious, but looking serenely +forth from under long, dark lashes; lips slightly curved with an +expression of quiet humor; a face the color of the sun and wind, a bust +indicative of perfect health, the chin of a Caesar, and the whole +expression one of almost divine self-sacrifice. Such were the features +that the painter was swiftly putting upon his canvas; but behind them +Adam Lux discerned the soul for which he gladly sacrificed both his +liberty and his life. +</P> + +<P> +He forgot his surroundings and seemed to see only that beautiful, pure +face and to hear only the exquisite cadences of the wonderful voice. +When Charlotte was led forth by a file of soldiers Adam staggered from +the scene and made his way as best he might to his lodgings. There he +lay prostrate, his whole soul filled with the love of her who had in an +instant won the adoration of his heart. +</P> + +<P> +Once, and only once again, when the last scene opened on the tragedy, +did he behold the heroine of his dreams. +</P> + +<P> +On the 17th of July Charlotte Corday was taken from her prison to the +gloomy guillotine. It was toward evening, and nature had given a +setting fit for such an end. Blue-black thunder-clouds rolled in huge +masses across the sky until their base appeared to rest on the very +summit of the guillotine. Distant thunder rolled and grumbled beyond +the river. Great drops of rain fell upon the soldiers' drums. Young, +beautiful, unconscious of any wrong, Charlotte Corday stood beneath the +shadow of the knife. +</P> + +<P> +At the supreme moment a sudden ray from the setting sun broke through +the cloud-wrack and fell upon her slender figure until she glowed in +the eyes of the startled spectators like a statue cut in burnished +bronze. Thus illumined, as it were, by a light from heaven itself, she +bowed herself beneath the knife and paid the penalty of a noble, if +misdirected, impulse. As the blade fell her lips quivered with her last +and only plea: +</P> + +<P> +"My duty is enough—the rest is nothing!" +</P> + +<P> +Adam Lux rushed from the scene a man transformed. He bore graven upon +his heart neither the mob of tossing red caps nor the glare of the +sunset nor the blood-stained guillotine, but that last look from those +brilliant eyes. The sight almost deprived him of his reason. The +self-sacrifice of the only woman he had ever loved, even though she had +never so much as seen him, impelled him with a sort of fury to his own +destruction. +</P> + +<P> +He wrote a bitter denunciation of the judges, of the officers, and of +all who had been followers of Marat. This document he printed, and +scattered copies of it through every quarter in Paris. The last +sentences are as follows: +</P> + +<P> +The guillotine is no longer a disgrace. It has become a sacred altar, +from which every taint has been removed by the innocent blood shed +there on the 17th of July. Forgive me, my divine Charlotte, if I find +it impossible at the last moment to show the courage and the gentleness +that were yours! I glory because you are superior to me, for it is +right that she who is adored should be higher and more glorious than +her adorer! +</P> + +<P> +This pamphlet, spread broadcast among the people, was soon reported to +the leaders of the rabble. Adam Lux was arrested for treason against +the Republic; but even these men had no desire to make a martyr of this +hot-headed youth. They would stop his mouth without taking his life. +Therefore he was tried and speedily found guilty, but an offer was made +him that he might have passports that would allow him to return to +Germany if only he would sign a retraction of his printed words. +</P> + +<P> +Little did the judges understand the fiery heart of the man they had to +deal with. To die on the same scaffold as the woman whom he had +idealized was to him the crowning triumph of his romantic love. He gave +a prompt and insolent refusal to their offer. He swore that if released +he would denounce his darling's murderers with a still greater passion. +</P> + +<P> +In anger the tribunal sentenced him to death. Only then he smiled and +thanked his judges courteously, and soon after went blithely to the +guillotine like a bridegroom to his marriage feast. +</P> + +<P> +Adam Lux! Spirit courtship had been carried on silently all through +that terrible cross-examination of Charlotte Corday. His heart was +betrothed to hers in that single gleam of the setting sun when she +bowed beneath the knife. One may believe that these two souls were +finally united when the same knife fell sullenly upon his neck and when +his life-blood sprinkled the altar that was still stained with hers. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="napoleon"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NAPOLEON AND MARIE WALEWSKA +</H3> + +<P> +There are four women who may be said to have deeply influenced the life +of Napoleon. These four are the only ones who need to be taken into +account by the student of his imperial career. The great emperor was +susceptible to feminine charms at all times; but just as it used to be +said of him that "his smile never rose above his eyes," so it might as +truly be said that in most instances the throbbing of his heart did not +affect his actions. +</P> + +<P> +Women to him were the creatures of the moment, although he might seem +to care for them and to show his affection in extravagant ways, as in +his affair with Mlle. Georges, the beautiful but rather tiresome +actress. As for Mme. de Stael, she bored him to distraction by her +assumption of wisdom. That was not the kind of woman that Napoleon +cared for. He preferred that a woman should be womanly, and not a sort +of owl to sit and talk with him about the theory of government. +</P> + +<P> +When it came to married women they interested him only because of the +children they might bear to grow up as recruits for his insatiate +armies. At the public balls given at the Tuileries he would walk about +the gorgeous drawing-rooms, and when a lady was presented to him he +would snap out, sharply: +</P> + +<P> +"How many children have you?" +</P> + +<P> +If she were able to answer that she had several the emperor would look +pleased and would pay her some compliment; but if she said that she had +none he would turn upon her sharply and say: +</P> + +<P> +"Then go home and have some!" +</P> + +<P> +Of the four women who influenced his life, first must come Josephine, +because she secured him his earliest chance of advancement. She met him +through Barras, with whom she was said to be rather intimate. The young +soldier was fascinated by her—the more because she was older than he +and possessed all the practised arts of the creole and the woman of the +world. When she married him she brought him as her dowry the command of +the army of Italy, where in a few months he made the tri-color, borne +by ragged troops, triumphant over the splendidly equipped hosts of +Austria. +</P> + +<P> +She was his first love, and his knowledge of her perfidy gave him the +greatest shock and horror of his whole life; yet she might have held +him to the end if she had borne an heir to the imperial throne. It was +her failure to do so that led Napoleon to divorce Josephine and marry +the thick-lipped Marie Louise of Austria. There were times later when +he showed signs of regret and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I have had no luck since I gave up Josephine!" +</P> + +<P> +Marie Louise was of importance for a time—the short time when she +entertained her husband and delighted him by giving birth to the little +King of Rome. Yet in the end she was but an episode; fleeing from her +husband in his misfortune, becoming the mistress of Count Neipperg, and +letting her son—l'Aiglon—die in a land that was far from France. +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon's sister, Pauline Bonaparte, was the third woman who comes to +mind when we contemplate the great Corsican's career. She, too, is an +episode. During the period of his ascendancy she plagued him with her +wanton ways, her sauciness and trickery. It was amusing to throw him +into one of his violent rages; but Pauline was true at heart, and when +her great brother was sent to Elba she followed him devotedly and gave +him all her store of jewels, including the famous Borghese diamonds, +perhaps the most superb of all gems known to the western world. She +would gladly have followed him, also, to St. Helena had she been +permitted. Remaining behind, she did everything possible in conspiring +to secure his freedom. +</P> + +<P> +But, after all, Pauline and Marie Louise count for comparatively +little. Josephine's fate was interwoven with Napoleon's; and, with his +Corsican superstition, he often said so. The fourth woman, of whom I am +writing here, may be said to have almost equaled Josephine in her +influence on the emperor as well as in the pathos of her life-story. +</P> + +<P> +On New-Year's Day of 1807 Napoleon, who was then almost Emperor of +Europe, passed through the little town of Bronia, in Poland. Riding +with his cavalry to Warsaw, the ancient capital of the Polish kingdom, +he seemed a very demigod of battle. +</P> + +<P> +True, he had had to abandon his long-cherished design of invading and +overrunning England, and Nelson had shattered his fleets and +practically driven his flag from the sea; but the naval disaster of +Trafalgar had speedily been followed by the triumph of Austerlitz, the +greatest and most brilliant of all Napoleon's victories, which left +Austria and Russia humbled to the very ground before him. +</P> + +<P> +Then Prussia had dared to defy the over-bearing conqueror and had put +into the field against him her armies trained by Frederick the Great; +but these he had shattered almost at a stroke, winning in one day the +decisive battles of Jena and Auerstadt. He had stabled his horses in +the royal palace of the Hohenzollerns and had pursued the remnant of +the Prussian forces to the Russian border. +</P> + +<P> +As he marched into the Polish provinces the people swarmed by thousands +to meet him and hail him as their country's savior. They believed down +to the very last that Bonaparte would make the Poles once more a free +and independent nation and rescue them from the tyranny of Russia. +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon played upon this feeling in every manner known to his artful +mind. He used it to alarm the Czar. He used it to intimidate the +Emperor of Austria; but more especially did he use it among the Poles +themselves to win for his armies thousands upon thousands of gallant +soldiers, who believed that in fighting for Napoleon they were fighting +for the final independence of their native land. +</P> + +<P> +Therefore, with the intensity of patriotism which is a passion among +the Poles, every man and every woman gazed at Napoleon with something +like adoration; for was not he the mighty warrior who had in his gift +what all desired? Soldiers of every rank swarmed to his standards. +Princes and nobles flocked about him. Those who stayed at home repeated +wonderful stories of his victories and prayed for him and fed the flame +which spread through all the country. It was felt that no sacrifice was +too great to win his favor; that to him, as to a deity, everything that +he desired should be yielded up, since he was to restore the liberty of +Poland. +</P> + +<P> +And hence, when the carriage of the emperor dashed into Bronia, +surrounded by Polish lancers and French cuirassiers, the enormous crowd +surged forward and blocked the way so that their hero could not pass +because of their cheers and cries and supplications. +</P> + +<P> +In the midst of it all there came a voice of peculiar sweetness from +the thickest portion of the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +"Please let me pass!" said the voice. "Let me see him, if only for a +moment!" +</P> + +<P> +The populace rolled backward, and through the lane which they made a +beautiful girl with dark blue eyes that flamed and streaming hair that +had become loosened about her radiant face was confronting the emperor. +Carried away by her enthusiasm, she cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Thrice welcome to Poland! We can do or say nothing to express our joy +in the country which you will surely deliver from its tyrant." +</P> + +<P> +The emperor bowed and, with a smile, handed a great bouquet of roses to +the girl, for her beauty and her enthusiasm had made a deep impression +on him. +</P> + +<P> +"Take it," said he, "as a proof of my admiration. I trust that I may +have the pleasure of meeting you at Warsaw and of hearing your thanks +from those beautiful lips." +</P> + +<P> +In a moment more the trumpets rang out shrilly, the horsemen closed up +beside the imperial carriage, and it rolled away amid the tumultuous +shouting of the populace. +</P> + +<P> +The girl who had so attracted Napoleon's attention was Marie Walewska, +descended from an ancient though impoverished family in Poland. When +she was only fifteen she was courted by one of the wealthiest men in +Poland, the Count Walewska. He was three or four times her age, yet her +dark blue eyes, her massive golden hair, and the exquisite grace of her +figure led him to plead that she might become his wife. She had +accepted him, but the marriage was that of a mere child, and her +interest still centered upon her country and took the form of +patriotism rather than that of wifehood and maternity. +</P> + +<P> +It was for this reason that the young Countess had visited Bronia. She +was now eighteen years of age and still had the sort of romantic +feeling which led her to think that she would keep in some secret +hiding-place the bouquet which the greatest man alive had given her. +</P> + +<P> +But Napoleon was not the sort of man to forget anything that had given +him either pleasure or the reverse. He who, at the height of his cares, +could recall instantly how many cannon were in each seaport of France +and could make out an accurate list of all his military stores; he who +could call by name every soldier in his guard, with a full remembrance +of the battles each man had fought in and the honors that he had +won—he was not likely to forget so lovely a face as the one which had +gleamed with peculiar radiance through the crowd at Bronia. +</P> + +<P> +On reaching Warsaw he asked one or two well-informed persons about this +beautiful stranger. Only a few hours had passed before Prince +Poniatowski, accompanied by other nobles, called upon her at her home. +</P> + +<P> +"I am directed, madam," said he, "by order of the Emperor of France, to +bid you to be present at a ball that is to be given in his honor +to-morrow evening." +</P> + +<P> +Mme. Walewska was startled, and her face grew hot with blushes. Did the +emperor remember her escapade at Bronia? If so, how had he discovered +her? Why should he seek her out and do her such an honor? +</P> + +<P> +"That, madam, is his imperial majesty's affair," Poniatowski told her. +"I merely obey his instructions and ask your presence at the ball. +Perhaps Heaven has marked you out to be the means of saving our unhappy +country." +</P> + +<P> +In this way, by playing on her patriotism, Poniatowski almost persuaded +her, and yet something held her back. She trembled, though she was +greatly fascinated; and finally she refused to go. +</P> + +<P> +Scarcely had the envoy left her, however, when a great company of +nobles entered in groups and begged her to humor the emperor. Finally +her own husband joined in their entreaties and actually commanded her +to go; so at last she was compelled to yield. +</P> + +<P> +It was by no means the frank and radiant girl who was now preparing +again to meet the emperor. She knew not why, and yet her heart was full +of trepidation and nervous fright, the cause of which she could not +guess, yet which made her task a severe ordeal. She dressed herself in +white satin, with no adornment save a wreath of foliage in her hair. +</P> + +<P> +As she entered the ballroom she was welcomed by hundreds whom she had +never seen before, but who were of the highest nobility of Poland. +Murmurs of admiration followed her, and finally Poniatowski came to her +and complimented her, besides bringing her a message that the emperor +desired her to dance with him. +</P> + +<P> +"I am very sorry," she said, with a quiver of the lips, "but I really +cannot dance. Be kind enough to ask the emperor to excuse me." +</P> + +<P> +But at that very moment she felt some strange magnetic influence; and +without looking up she could feel that Napoleon himself was standing by +her as she sat with blanched face and downcast eyes, not daring to look +up at him. +</P> + +<P> +"White upon white is a mistake, madam," said the emperor, in his +gentlest tones. Then, stooping low, he whispered, "I had expected a far +different reception." +</P> + +<P> +She neither smiled nor met his eyes. He stood there for a moment and +then passed on, leaving her to return to her home with a heavy heart. +The young countess felt that she had acted wrongly, and yet there was +an instinct—an instinct that she could not conquer. +</P> + +<P> +In the gray of the morning, while she was still tossing feverishly, her +maid knocked at the door and brought her a hastily scribbled note. It +ran as follows: +</P> + +<P> +I saw none but you, I admired none but you; I desire only you. Answer +at once, and calm the impatient ardor of—N. +</P> + +<P> +These passionate words burned from her eyes the veil that had hidden +the truth from her. What before had been mere blind instinct became an +actual verity. Why had she at first rushed forth into the very streets +to hail the possible deliverer of her country, and then why had she +shrunk from him when he sought to honor her! It was all clear enough +now. This bedside missive meant that he had intended her dishonor and +that he had looked upon her simply as a possible mistress. +</P> + +<P> +At once she crushed the note angrily in her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no answer at all," said she, bursting into bitter tears at +the very thought that he should dare to treat her in this way. +</P> + +<P> +But on the following morning when she awoke her maid was standing +beside her with a second letter from Napoleon. She refused to open it +and placed it in a packet with the first letter, and ordered that both +of them should be returned to the emperor. +</P> + +<P> +She shrank from speaking to her husband of what had happened, and there +was no one else in whom she dared confide. All through that day there +came hundreds of visitors, either of princely rank or men who had won +fame by their gallantry and courage. They all begged to see her, but to +them all she sent one answer—that she was ill and could see no one. +</P> + +<P> +After a time her husband burst into her room, and insisted that she +should see them. +</P> + +<P> +"Why," exclaimed he, "you are insulting the greatest men and the +noblest women of Poland! More than that, there are some of the most +distinguished Frenchmen sitting at your doorstep, as it were. There is +Duroc, grand marshal of France, and in refusing to see him you are +insulting the great emperor on whom depends everything that our country +longs for. Napoleon has invited you to a state dinner and you have +given him no answer whatever. I order you to rise at once and receive +these ladies and gentlemen who have done you so much honor!" +</P> + +<P> +She could not refuse. Presently she appeared in her drawing-room, where +she was at once surrounded by an immense throng of her own countrymen +and countrywomen, who made no pretense of misunderstanding the +situation. To them, what was one woman's honor when compared with the +freedom and independence of their nation? She was overwhelmed by +arguments and entreaties. She was even accused of being disloyal to the +cause of Poland if she refused her consent. +</P> + +<P> +One of the strangest documents of that period was a letter sent to her +and signed by the noblest men in Poland. It contained a powerful appeal +to her patriotism. One remarkable passage even quotes the Bible to +point out her line of duty. A portion of this letter ran as follows: +</P> + +<P> +Did Esther, think you, give herself to Ahasuerus out of the fulness of +her love for him? So great was the terror with which he inspired her +that she fainted at the sight of him. We may therefore conclude that +affection had but little to do with her resolve. She sacrificed her own +inclinations to the salvation of her country, and that salvation it was +her glory to achieve. May we be enabled to say the same of you, to your +glory and our own happiness! +</P> + +<P> +After this letter came others from Napoleon himself, full of the most +humble pleading. It was not wholly distasteful thus to have the +conqueror of the world seek her out and offer her his adoration any +more than it was distasteful to think that the revival of her own +nation depended on her single will. M. Frederic Masson, whose minute +studies regarding everything relating to Napoleon have won him a seat +in the French Academy, writes of Marie Walewska at this time: Every +force was now brought into play against her. Her country, her friends, +her religion, the Old and the New Testaments, all urged her to yield; +they all combined for the ruin of a simple and inexperienced girl of +eighteen who had no parents, whose husband even thrust her into +temptation, and whose friends thought that her downfall would be her +glory. +</P> + +<P> +Amid all these powerful influences she consented to attend the dinner. +To her gratification Napoleon treated her with distant courtesy, and, +in fact, with a certain coldness. +</P> + +<P> +"I heard that Mme. Walewska was indisposed. I trust that she has +recovered," was all the greeting that he gave her when they met. +</P> + +<P> +Every one else with whom she spoke overwhelmed her with flattery and +with continued urging; but the emperor himself for a time acted as if +she had displeased him. This was consummate art; for as soon as she was +relieved of her fears she began to regret that she had thrown her power +away. +</P> + +<P> +During the dinner she let her eyes wander to those of the emperor +almost in supplication. He, the subtlest of men, knew that he had won. +His marvelous eyes met hers and drew her attention to him as by an +electric current; and when the ladies left the great dining-room +Napoleon sought her out and whispered in her ear a few words of ardent +love. +</P> + +<P> +It was too little to alarm her seriously now. It was enough to make her +feel that magnetism which Napoleon knew so well how to evoke and +exercise. Again every one crowded about her with congratulations. Some +said: +</P> + +<P> +"He never even saw any of US. His eyes were all for YOU! They flashed +fire as he looked at you." +</P> + +<P> +"You have conquered his heart," others said, "and you can do what you +like with him. The salvation of Poland is in your hands." +</P> + +<P> +The company broke up at an early hour, but Mme. Walewska was asked to +remain. When she was alone General Duroc—one of the emperor's favorite +officers and most trusted lieutenants—entered and placed a letter from +Napoleon in her lap. He tried to tell her as tactfully as possible how +much harm she was doing by refusing the imperial request. She was +deeply affected, and presently, when Duroc left her, she opened the +letter which he had given her and read it. It was worded thus: +</P> + +<P> +There are times when all splendors become oppressive, as I feel but too +deeply at the present moment. How can I satisfy the desires of a heart +that yearns to cast itself at your feet, when its impulses are checked +at every point by considerations of the highest moment? Oh, if you +would, you alone might overcome the obstacles that keep us apart. MY +FRIEND DUROC WILL MAKE ALL EASY FOR YOU. Oh, come, come! Your every +wish shall be gratified! Your country will be dearer to me when you +take pity on my poor heart. N. +</P> + +<P> +Every chance of escape seemed to be closed. She had Napoleon's own word +that he would free Poland in return for her self-sacrifice. Moreover, +her powers of resistance had been so weakened that, like many women, +she temporized. She decided that she would meet the emperor alone. She +would tell him that she did not love him, and yet would plead with him +to save her beloved country. +</P> + +<P> +As she sat there every tick of the clock stirred her to a new +excitement. At last there came a knock upon the door, a cloak was +thrown about her from behind, a heavy veil was drooped about her golden +hair, and she was led, by whom she knew not, to the street, where a +finely appointed carriage was waiting for her. +</P> + +<P> +No sooner had she entered it than she was driven rapidly through the +darkness to the beautifully carved entrance of a palace. Half led, half +carried, she was taken up the steps to a door which was eagerly opened +by some one within. There were warmth and light and color and the scent +of flowers as she was placed in a comfortable arm-chair. Her wrappings +were taken from her, the door was closed behind her; and then, as she +looked up, she found herself in the presence of Napoleon, who was +kneeling at her feet and uttering soothing words. +</P> + +<P> +Wisely, the emperor used no violence. He merely argued with her; he +told her over and over his love for her; and finally he declared that +for her sake he would make Poland once again a strong and splendid +kingdom. +</P> + +<P> +Several hours passed. In the early morning, before daylight, there came +a knock at the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Already?" said Napoleon. "Well, my plaintive dove, go home and rest. +You must not fear the eagle. In time you will come to love him, and in +all things you shall command him." +</P> + +<P> +Then he led her to the door, but said that he would not open it unless +she promised to see him the next day—a promise which she gave the more +readily because he had treated her with such respect. +</P> + +<P> +On the following morning her faithful maid came to her bedside with a +cluster of beautiful violets, a letter, and several daintily made +morocco cases. When these were opened there leaped out strings and +necklaces of exquisite diamonds, blazing in the morning sunlight. Mme. +Walewska seized the jewels and flung them across the room with an order +that they should be taken back at once to the imperial giver; but the +letter, which was in the same romantic strain as the others, she +retained. +</P> + +<P> +On that same evening there was another dinner, given to the emperor by +the nobles, and Marie Walewska attended it, but of course without the +diamonds, which she had returned. Nor did she wear the flowers which +had accompanied the diamonds. +</P> + +<P> +When Napoleon met her he frowned upon her and made her tremble with the +cold glances that shot from his eyes of steel. He scarcely spoke to her +throughout the meal, but those who sat beside her were earnest in their +pleading. +</P> + +<P> +Again she waited until the guests had gone away, and with a lighter +heart, since she felt that she had nothing to fear. But when she met +Napoleon in his private cabinet, alone, his mood was very different +from that which he had shown before. Instead of gentleness and +consideration he was the Napoleon of camps, and not of courts. He +greeted her bruskly. +</P> + +<P> +"I scarcely expected to see you again," said he. "Why did you refuse my +diamonds and my flowers? Why did you avoid my eyes at dinner? Your +coldness is an insult which I shall not brook." Then he raised his +voice to that rasping, almost blood-curdling tone which even his +hardiest soldiers dreaded: "I will have you know that I mean to conquer +you. You SHALL—yes, I repeat it, you SHALL love me! I have restored +the name of your country. It owes its very existence to me." +</P> + +<P> +Then he resorted to a trick which he had played years before in dealing +with the Austrians at Campo Formio. +</P> + +<P> +"See this watch which I am holding in my hand. Just as I dash it to +fragments before you, so will I shatter Poland if you drive me to +desperation by rejecting my heart and refusing me your own." +</P> + +<P> +As he spoke he hurled the watch against the opposite wall with terrific +force, dashing it to pieces. In terror, Mme. Walewska fainted. When she +resumed consciousness there was Napoleon wiping away her tears with the +tenderness of a woman and with words of self-reproach. +</P> + +<P> +The long siege was over. Napoleon had conquered, and this girl of +eighteen gave herself up to his caresses and endearments, thinking +that, after all, her love of country was more than her own honor. +</P> + +<P> +Her husband, as a matter of form, put her away from him, though at +heart he approved what she had done, while the Polish people regarded +her as nothing less than a national heroine. To them she was no +minister to the vices of an emperor, but rather one who would make him +love Poland for her sake and restore its greatness. +</P> + +<P> +So far as concerned his love for her, it was, indeed, almost idolatry. +He honored her in every way and spent all the time at his disposal in +her company. But his promise to restore Poland he never kept, and +gradually she found that he had never meant to keep it. +</P> + +<P> +"I love your country," he would say, "and I am willing to aid in the +attempt to uphold its rights, but my first duty is to France. I cannot +shed French blood in a foreign cause." +</P> + +<P> +By this time, however, Marie Walewska had learned to love Napoleon for +his own sake. She could not resist his ardor, which matched the ardor +of the Poles themselves. Moreover, it flattered her to see the greatest +soldier in the world a suppliant for her smiles. +</P> + +<P> +For some years she was Napoleon's close companion, spending long hours +with him and finally accompanying him to Paris. She was the mother of +Napoleon's only son who lived to manhood. This son, who bore the name +of Alexandre Florian de Walewski, was born in Poland in 1810, and later +was created a count and duke of the second French Empire. It may be +said parenthetically that he was a man of great ability. Living down to +1868, he was made much of by Napoleon III., who placed him in high +offices of state, which he filled with distinction. In contrast with +the Duc de Morny, who was Napoleon's illegitimate half-brother, +Alexandre de Walewski stood out in brilliant contrast. He would have +nothing to do with stock-jobbing and unseemly speculation. +</P> + +<P> +"I may be poor," he said—though he was not poor—"but at least I +remember the glory of my father and what is due to his great name." +</P> + +<P> +As for Mme. Walewska, she was loyal to the emperor, and lacked the +greed of many women whom he had made his favorites. Even at Elba, when +he was in exile and disgrace, she visited him that she might endeavor +to console him. She was his counselor and friend as well as his +earnestly loved mate. When she died in Paris in 1817, while the +dethroned emperor was a prisoner at St. Helena, the word "Napoleon" was +the last upon her lips. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="pauline"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE STORY OF PAULINE BONAPARTE +</H3> + +<P> +It was said of Napoleon long ago that he could govern emperors and +kings, but that not even he could rule his relatives. He himself once +declared: +</P> + +<P> +"My family have done me far more harm than I have been able to do them +good." +</P> + +<P> +It would be an interesting historical study to determine just how far +the great soldier's family aided in his downfall by their selfishness, +their jealousy, their meanness, and their ingratitude. +</P> + +<P> +There is something piquant in thinking of Napoleon as a domestic sort +of person. Indeed, it is rather difficult to do so. When we speak his +name we think of the stern warrior hurling his armies up bloody slopes +and on to bloody victory. He is the man whose steely eyes made his +haughtiest marshals tremble, or else the wise, far-seeing statesman and +lawgiver; but decidedly he is not a household model. We read of his +sharp speech to women, of his outrageous manners at the dinner-table, +and of the thousand and one details which Mme. de Remusat has +chronicled—and perhaps in part invented, for there has always existed +the suspicion that her animus was that of a woman who had herself +sought the imperial favor and had failed to win it. +</P> + +<P> +But, in fact, all these stories relate to the Napoleon of courts and +palaces, and not to the Napoleon of home. In his private life this +great man was not merely affectionate and indulgent, but he even showed +a certain weakness where his relatives were concerned, so that he let +them prey upon him almost without end. +</P> + +<P> +He had a great deal of the Italian largeness and lavishness of +character with his family. When a petty officer he nearly starved +himself in order to give his younger brother, Louis, a military +education. He was devotedly fond of children, and they were fond of +him, as many anecdotes attest. His passionate love for Josephine before +he learned of her infidelity is almost painful to read of; and even +afterward, when he had been disillusioned, and when she was paying +Fouche a thousand francs a day to spy upon Napoleon's every action, he +still treated her with friendliness and allowed her extravagance to +embarrass him. +</P> + +<P> +He made his eldest brother, Joseph, King of Spain, and Spain proved +almost as deadly to him as did Russia. He made his youngest brother, +Jerome, King of Westphalia, and Jerome turned the palace into a pigsty +and brought discredit on the very name of Bonaparte. His brother Louis, +for whom he had starved himself, he placed upon the throne of Holland, +and Louis promptly devoted himself to his own interests, conniving at +many things which were inimical to France. He was planning high +advancement for his brother Lucien, and Lucien suddenly married a +disreputable actress and fled with her to England, where he was +received with pleasure by the most persistent of all Napoleon's enemies. +</P> + +<P> +So much for his brothers—incompetent, ungrateful, or openly his foes. +But his three sisters were no less remarkable in the relations which +they bore to him. They have been styled "the three crowned courtesans," +and they have been condemned together as being utterly void of +principle and monsters of ingratitude. +</P> + +<P> +Much of this censure was well deserved by all of them—by Caroline and +Elise and Pauline. But when we look at the facts impartially we shall +find something which makes Pauline stand out alone as infinitely +superior to her sisters. Of all the Bonapartes she was the only one who +showed fidelity and gratitude to the great emperor, her brother. Even +Mme. Mere, Napoleon's mother, who beyond all question transmitted to +him his great mental and physical power, did nothing for him. At the +height of his splendor she hoarded sous and francs and grumblingly +remarked: +</P> + +<P> +"All this is for a time. It isn't going to last!" +</P> + +<P> +Pauline, however, was in one respect different from all her kindred. +Napoleon made Elise a princess in her own right and gave her the Grand +Duchy of Tuscany. He married Caroline to Marshal Murat, and they became +respectively King and Queen of Naples. For Pauline he did very +little—less, in fact, than for any other member of his family—and yet +she alone stood by him to the end. +</P> + +<P> +This feather-headed, languishing, beautiful, distracting morsel of +frivolity, who had the manners of a kitten and the morals of a cat, +nevertheless was not wholly unworthy to be Napoleon's sister. One has +to tell many hard things of her; and yet one almost pardons her because +of her underlying devotion to the man who made the name of Bonaparte +illustrious for ever. Caroline, Queen of Naples, urged her husband to +turn against his former chief. Elise, sour and greedy, threw in her +fortunes with the Murats. Pauline, as we shall see, had the one +redeeming trait of gratitude. +</P> + +<P> +To those who knew her she was from girlhood an incarnation of what used +to be called "femininity." We have to-day another and a higher +definition of womanhood, but to her contemporaries, and to many modern +writers, she has seemed to be first of all woman—"woman to the tips of +her rosy finger-nails," says Levy. Those who saw her were distracted by +her loveliness. They say that no one can form any idea of her beauty +from her pictures. "A veritable masterpiece of creation," she had been +called. Frederic Masson declares: +</P> + +<P> +She was so much more the typical woman that with her the defects common +to women reached their highest development, while her beauty attained a +perfection which may justly be called unique. +</P> + +<P> +No one speaks of Pauline Bonaparte's character or of her intellect, but +wholly of her loveliness and charm, and, it must be added, of her utter +lack of anything like a moral sense. +</P> + +<P> +Even as a child of thirteen, when the Bonapartes left Corsica and took +up their abode in Marseilles, she attracted universal attention by her +wonderful eyes, her grace, and also by the utter lack of decorum which +she showed. The Bonaparte girls at this time lived almost on charity. +The future emperor was then a captain of artillery and could give them +but little out of his scanty pay. +</P> + +<P> +Pauline—or, as they called her in those days, Paulette—wore +unbecoming hats and shabby gowns, and shoes that were full of holes. +None the less, she was sought out by several men of note, among them +Freron, a commissioner of the Convention. He visited Pauline so often +as to cause unfavorable comment; but he was in love with her, and she +fell in love with him to the extent of her capacity. She used to write +him love letters in Italian, which were certainly not lacking in ardor. +Here is the end of one of them: +</P> + +<P> +I love you always and most passionately. I love you for ever, my +beautiful idol, my heart, my appealing lover. I love you, love you, +love you, the most loved of lovers, and I swear never to love any one +else! +</P> + +<P> +This was interesting in view of the fact that soon afterward she fell +in love with Junot, who became a famous marshal. But her love affairs +never gave her any serious trouble; and the three sisters, who now +began to feel the influence of Napoleon's rise to power, enjoyed +themselves as they had never done before. At Antibes they had a +beautiful villa, and later a mansion at Milan. +</P> + +<P> +By this time Napoleon had routed the Austrians in Italy, and all France +was ringing with his name. What was Pauline like in her maidenhood? +Arnault says: +</P> + +<P> +She was an extraordinary combination of perfect physical beauty and the +strangest moral laxity. She was as pretty as you please, but utterly +unreasonable. She had no more manners than a school-girl—talking +incoherently, giggling at everything and nothing, and mimicking the +most serious persons of rank. +</P> + +<P> +General de Ricard, who knew her then, tells in his monograph of the +private theatricals in which Pauline took part, and of the sport which +they had behind the scenes. He says: +</P> + +<P> +The Bonaparte girls used literally to dress us. They pulled our ears +and slapped us, but they always kissed and made up later. We used to +stay in the girls' room all the time when they were dressing. +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon was anxious to see his sisters in some way settled. He +proposed to General Marmont to marry Pauline. The girl was then only +seventeen, and one might have had some faith in her character. But +Marmont was shrewd and knew her far too well. The words in which he +declined the honor are interesting: +</P> + +<P> +"I know that she is charming and exquisitely beautiful; yet I have +dreams of domestic happiness, of fidelity, and of virtue. Such dreams +are seldom realized, I know. Still, in the hope of winning them—" +</P> + +<P> +And then he paused, coughed, and completed what he had to say in a sort +of mumble, but his meaning was wholly clear. He would not accept the +offer of Pauline in marriage, even though she was the sister of his +mighty chief. +</P> + +<P> +Then Napoleon turned to General Leclerc, with whom Pauline had for some +time flirted, as she had flirted with almost all the officers of +Napoleon's staff. Leclerc was only twenty-six. He was rich and of good +manners, but rather serious and in poor health. This was not precisely +the sort of husband for Pauline, if we look at it in the conventional +way; but it served Napoleon's purpose and did not in the least +interfere with his sister's intrigues. +</P> + +<P> +Poor Leclerc, who really loved Pauline, grew thin, and graver still in +manner. He was sent to Spain and Portugal, and finally was made +commander-in-chief of the French expedition to Haiti, where the famous +black rebel, Toussaint l'Ouverture, was heading an uprising of the +negroes. +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon ordered Pauline to accompany her husband. Pauline flatly +refused, although she made this an occasion for ordering "mountains of +pretty clothes and pyramids of hats." But still she refused to go on +board the flag-ship. Leclerc expostulated and pleaded, but the lovely +witch laughed in his face and still persisted that she would never go. +</P> + +<P> +Word was brought to Napoleon. He made short work of her resistance. +</P> + +<P> +"Bring a litter," he said, with one of his steely glances. "Order six +grenadiers to thrust her into it, and see that she goes on board +forthwith." +</P> + +<P> +And so, screeching like an angry cat, she was carried on board, and set +sail with her husband and one of her former lovers. She found Haiti and +Santo Domingo more agreeable than she had supposed. She was there a +sort of queen who could do as she pleased and have her orders +implicitly obeyed. Her dissipation was something frightful. Her folly +and her vanity were beyond belief. +</P> + +<P> +But at the end of two years both she and her husband fell ill. He was +stricken down by the yellow fever, which was decimating the French +army. Pauline was suffering from the results of her life in a tropical +climate. Leclerc died, the expedition was abandoned, and Pauline +brought the general's body back to France. When he was buried she, +still recovering from her fever, had him interred in a costly coffin +and paid him the tribute of cutting off her beautiful hair and burying +it with him. +</P> + +<P> +"What a touching tribute to her dead husband!" said some one to +Napoleon. +</P> + +<P> +The emperor smiled cynically as he remarked: +</P> + +<P> +"H'm! Of course she knows that her hair is bound to fall out after her +fever, and that it will come in longer and thicker for being cropped." +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon, in fact, though he loved Pauline better than his other +sisters—or perhaps because he loved her better—was very strict with +her. He obliged her to wear mourning, and to observe some of the +proprieties; but it was hard to keep her within bounds. +</P> + +<P> +Presently it became noised about that Prince Camillo Borghese was +exceedingly intimate with her. The prince was an excellent specimen of +the fashionable Italian. He was immensely rich. His palace at Rome was +crammed with pictures, statues, and every sort of artistic treasure. He +was the owner, moreover, of the famous Borghese jewels, the finest +collection of diamonds in the world. +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon rather sternly insisted upon her marrying Borghese. +Fortunately, the prince was very willing to be connected with Napoleon; +while Pauline was delighted at the idea of having diamonds that would +eclipse all the gems which Josephine possessed; for, like all of the +Bonapartes, she detested her brother's wife. So she would be married +and show her diamonds to Josephine. It was a bit of feminine malice +which she could not resist. +</P> + +<P> +The marriage took place very quietly at Joseph Bonaparte's house, +because of the absence of Napoleon; but the newly made princess was +invited to visit Josephine at the palace of Saint-Cloud. Here was to be +the triumph of her life. She spent many days in planning a toilet that +should be absolutely crushing to Josephine. Whatever she wore must be a +background for the famous diamonds. Finally she decided on green velvet. +</P> + +<P> +When the day came Pauline stood before a mirror and gazed at herself +with diamonds glistening in her hair, shimmering around her neck, and +fastened so thickly on her green velvet gown as to remind one of a +moving jewel-casket. She actually shed tears for joy. Then she entered +her carriage and drove out to Saint-Cloud. +</P> + +<P> +But the Creole Josephine, though no longer young, was a woman of great +subtlety as well as charm. Stories had been told to her of the green +velvet, and therefore she had her drawing-room redecorated in the most +uncompromising blue. It killed the green velvet completely. As for the +diamonds, she met that maneuver by wearing not a single gem of any +kind. Her dress was an Indian muslin with a broad hem of gold. +</P> + +<P> +Her exquisite simplicity, coupled with her dignity of bearing, made the +Princess Pauline, with her shower of diamonds, and her green velvet +displayed against the blue, seem absolutely vulgar. Josephine was most +generous in her admiration of the Borghese gems, and she kissed Pauline +on parting. The victory was hers. +</P> + +<P> +There is another story of a defeat which Pauline met from another lady, +one Mme. de Coutades. This was at a magnificent ball given to the most +fashionable world of Paris. Pauline decided upon going, and intended, +in her own phrase, to blot out every woman there. She kept the secret +of her toilet absolutely, and she entered the ballroom at the +psychological moment, when all the guests had just assembled. +</P> + +<P> +She appeared; and at sight of her the music stopped, silence fell upon +the assemblage, and a sort of quiver went through every one. Her +costume was of the finest muslin bordered with golden palm-leaves. Four +bands, spotted like a leopard's skin, were wound about her head, while +these in turn were supported by little clusters of golden grapes. She +had copied the head-dress of a Bacchante in the Louvre. All over her +person were cameos, and just beneath her breasts she wore a golden band +held in place by an engraved gem. Her beautiful wrists, arms, and hands +were bare. She had, in fact, blotted out her rivals. +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, Mme. de Coutades took her revenge. She went up to +Pauline, who was lying on a divan to set off her loveliness, and began +gazing at the princess through a double eye-glass. Pauline felt +flattered for a moment, and then became uneasy. The lady who was +looking at her said to a companion, in a tone of compassion: +</P> + +<P> +"What a pity! She really would be lovely if it weren't for THAT!" +</P> + +<P> +"For what?" returned her escort. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, are you blind? It's so remarkable that you SURELY must see it." +</P> + +<P> +Pauline was beginning to lose her self-composure. She flushed and +looked wildly about, wondering what was meant. Then she heard Mme. +Coutades say: +</P> + +<P> +"Why, her ears. If I had such ears as those I would cut them off!" +</P> + +<P> +Pauline gave one great gasp and fainted dead away. As a matter of fact, +her ears were not so bad. They were simply very flat and colorless, +forming a contrast with the rosy tints of her face. But from that +moment no one could see anything but these ears; and thereafter the +princess wore her hair low enough to cover them. +</P> + +<P> +This may be seen in the statue of her by Canova. It was considered a +very daring thing for her to pose for him in the nude, for only a bit +of drapery is thrown over her lower limbs. Yet it is true that this +statue is absolutely classical in its conception and execution, and its +interest is heightened by the fact that its model was what she +afterward styled herself, with true Napoleonic pride—"a sister of +Bonaparte." +</P> + +<P> +Pauline detested Josephine and was pleased when Napoleon divorced her; +but she also disliked the Austrian archduchess, Marie Louise, who was +Josephine's successor. On one occasion, at a great court function, she +got behind the empress and ran out her tongue at her, in full view of +all the nobles and distinguished persons present. Napoleon's eagle eye +flashed upon Pauline and blazed like fire upon ice. She actually took +to her heels, rushed out of the ball, and never visited the court again. +</P> + +<P> +It would require much time to tell of her other eccentricities, of her +intrigues, which were innumerable, of her quarrel with her husband, and +of the minor breaches of decorum with which she startled Paris. One of +these was her choice of a huge negro to bathe her every morning. When +some one ventured to protest, she answered, naively: +</P> + +<P> +"What! Do you call that thing a MAN?" +</P> + +<P> +And she compromised by compelling her black servitor to go out and +marry some one at once, so that he might continue his ministrations +with propriety! +</P> + +<P> +To her Napoleon showed himself far more severe than with either +Caroline or Elise. He gave her a marriage dowry of half a million +francs when she became the Princess Borghese, but after that he was +continually checking her extravagances. Yet in 1814, when the downfall +came and Napoleon was sent into exile at Elba, Pauline was the only one +of all his relatives to visit him and spend her time with him. His wife +fell away and went back to her Austrian relatives. Of all the +Bonapartes only Pauline and Mme. Mere remained faithful to the emperor. +</P> + +<P> +Even then Napoleon refused to pay a bill of hers for sixty-two francs, +while he allowed her only two hundred and forty francs for the +maintenance of her horses. But she, with a generosity of which one +would have thought her quite incapable, gave to her brother a great +part of her fortune. When he escaped from Elba and began the campaign +of 1815 she presented him with all the Borghese diamonds. In fact, he +had them with him in his carriage at Waterloo, where they were captured +by the English. Contrast this with the meanness and ingratitude of her +sisters and her brothers, and one may well believe that she was +sincerely proud of what it meant to be la soeur de Bonaparte. +</P> + +<P> +When he was sent to St. Helena she was ill in bed and could not +accompany him. Nevertheless, she tried to sell all her trinkets, of +which she was so proud, in order that she might give him help. When he +died she received the news with bitter tears "on hearing all the +particulars of that long agony." +</P> + +<P> +As for herself, she did not long survive. At the age of forty-four her +last moments came. Knowing that she was to die, she sent for Prince +Borghese and sought a reconciliation. But, after all, she died as she +had lived—"the queen of trinkets" (la reine des colifichets). She +asked the servant to bring a mirror. She gazed into it with her dying +eyes; and then, as she sank back, it was with a smile of deep content. +</P> + +<P> +"I am not afraid to die," she said. "I am still beautiful!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="louise"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE STORY OF THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE AND COUNT NEIPPERG +</H3> + +<P> +There is one famous woman whom history condems while at the same time +it partly hides the facts which might mitigate the harshness of the +judgment that is passed upon her. This woman is Marie Louise, Empress +of France, consort of the great Napoleon, and archduchess of imperial +Austria. When the most brilliant figure in all history, after his +overthrow in 1814, was in tawdry exile on the petty island of Elba, the +empress was already about to become a mother; and the father of her +unborn child was not Napoleon, but another man. This is almost all that +is usually remembered of her—that she was unfaithful to Napoleon, that +she abandoned him in the hour of his defeat, and that she gave herself +with readiness to one inferior in rank, yet with whom she lived for +years, and to whom she bore what a French writer styled "a brood of +bastards." +</P> + +<P> +Naturally enough, the Austrian and German historians do not have much +to say of Marie Louise, because in her own disgrace she also brought +disgrace upon the proudest reigning family in Europe. Naturally, also, +French writers, even those who are hostile to Napoleon, do not care to +dwell upon the story; since France itself was humiliated when its +greatest genius and most splendid soldier was deceived by his Austrian +wife. Therefore there are still many who know little beyond the bare +fact that the Empress Marie Louise threw away her pride as a princess, +her reputation as a wife, and her honor as a woman. Her figure seems to +crouch in a sort of murky byway, and those who pass over the highroad +of history ignore it with averted eyes. +</P> + +<P> +In reality the story of Napoleon and Marie Louise and of the Count von +Neipperg is one which, when you search it to the very core, leads you +straight to a sex problem of a very curious nature. Nowhere else does +it occur in the relations of the great personages of history; but in +literature Balzac, that master of psychology, has touched upon the +theme in the early chapters of his famous novel called "A Woman of +Thirty." +</P> + +<P> +As to the Napoleonic story, let us first recall the facts of the case, +giving them in such order that their full significance may be +understood. +</P> + +<P> +In 1809 Napoleon, then at the plenitude of his power, shook himself +free from the clinging clasp of Josephine and procured the annulment of +his marriage to her. He really owed her nothing. Before he knew her she +had been the mistress of another. In the first years of their life +together she had been notoriously unfaithful to him. He had held to her +from habit which was in part a superstition; but the remembrance of the +wrong which she had done him made her faded charms at times almost +repulsive. And then Josephine had never borne him any children; and +without a son to perpetuate his dynasty, the gigantic achievements +which he had wrought seemed futile in his eyes, and likely to crumble +into nothingness when he should die. +</P> + +<P> +No sooner had the marriage been annulled than his titanic ambition +leaped, as it always did, to a tremendous pinnacle. He would wed. He +would have children. But he would wed no petty princess. This man who +in his early youth had felt honored by a marriage with the almost +declassee widow of a creole planter now stretched out his hand that he +might take to himself a woman not merely royal but imperial. +</P> + +<P> +At first he sought the sister of the Czar of Russia; but Alexander +entertained a profound distrust of the French emperor, and managed to +evade the tentative demand. There was, however, a reigning family far +more ancient than the Romanoffs—a family which had held the imperial +dignity for nearly six centuries—the oldest and the noblest blood in +Europe. This was the Austrian house of Hapsburg. Its head, the Emperor +Francis, had thirteen children, of whom the eldest, the Archduchess +Marie Louise, was then in her nineteenth year. +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon had resented the rebuff which the Czar had given him. He +turned, therefore, the more eagerly to the other project. Yet there +were many reasons why an Austrian marriage might be dangerous, or, at +any rate, ill-omened. Only sixteen years before, an Austrian +arch-duchess, Marie Antoinette, married to the ruler of France, had met +her death upon the scaffold, hated and cursed by the French people, who +had always blamed "the Austrian" for the evil days which had ended in +the flames of revolution. Again, the father of the girl to whom +Napoleon's fancy turned had been the bitter enemy of the new regime in +France. His troops had been beaten by the French in five wars and had +been crushed at Austerlitz and at Wagram. Bonaparte had twice entered +Vienna at the head of a conquering army, and thrice he had slept in the +imperial palace at Schonbrunn, while Francis was fleeing through the +dark, a beaten fugitive pursued by the swift squadrons of French +cavalry. +</P> + +<P> +The feeling of Francis of Austria was not merely that of the vanquished +toward the victor. It was a deep hatred almost religious in its fervor. +He was the head and front of the old-time feudalism of birth and blood; +Napoleon was the incarnation of the modern spirit which demolished +thrones and set an iron heel upon crowned heads, giving the sacred +titles of king and prince to soldiers who, even in palaces, still +showed the swaggering brutality of the camp and the stable whence they +sprang. Yet, just because an alliance with the Austrian house seemed in +so many ways impossible, the thought of it inflamed the ardor of +Napoleon all the more. +</P> + +<P> +"Impossible?" he had once said, contemptuously. "The word 'impossible' +is not French." +</P> + +<P> +The Austrian alliance, unnatural though it seemed, was certainly quite +possible. In the year 1809 Napoleon had finished his fifth war with +Austria by the terrific battle of Wagram, which brought the empire of +the Hapsburgs to the very dust. The conqueror's rude hand had stripped +from Francis province after province. He had even let fall hints that +the Hapsburgs might be dethroned and that Austria might disappear from +the map of Europe, to be divided between himself and the Russian Czar, +who was still his ally. It was at this psychological moment that the +Czar wounded Napoleon's pride by refusing to give the hand of his +sister Anne. +</P> + +<P> +The subtle diplomats of Vienna immediately saw their chance. Prince +Metternich, with the caution of one who enters the cage of a +man-eating-tiger, suggested that the Austrian archduchess would be a +fitting bride for the French conqueror. The notion soothed the wounded +vanity of Napoleon. From that moment events moved swiftly; and before +long it was understood that there was to be a new empress in France, +and that she was to be none other than the daughter of the man who had +been Napoleon's most persistent foe upon the Continent. The girl was to +be given—sacrificed, if you like—to appease an imperial adventurer. +After such a marriage, Austria would be safe from spoliation. The +reigning dynasty would remain firmly seated upon its historic throne. +</P> + +<P> +But how about the girl herself? She had always heard Napoleon spoken of +as a sort of ogre—a man of low ancestry, a brutal and faithless enemy +of her people. She knew that this bold, rough-spoken soldier less than +a year before had added insult to the injury which he had inflicted on +her father. In public proclamations he had called the Emperor Francis a +coward and a liar. Up to the latter part of the year Napoleon was to +her imagination a blood-stained, sordid, and yet all-powerful monster, +outside the pale of human liking and respect. What must have been her +thoughts when her father first told her with averted face that she was +to become the bride of such a being? +</P> + +<P> +Marie Louise had been brought up, as all German girls of rank were then +brought up, in quiet simplicity and utter innocence. In person she was +a tall blonde, with a wealth of light brown hair tumbling about a face +which might be called attractive because it was so youthful and so +gentle, but in which only poets and courtiers could see beauty. Her +complexion was rosy, with that peculiar tinge which means that in the +course of time it will become red and mottled. Her blue eyes were clear +and childish. Her figure was good, though already too full for a girl +who was younger than her years. +</P> + +<P> +She had a large and generous mouth with full lips, the lower one being +the true "Hapsburg lip," slightly pendulous—a feature which has +remained for generation after generation as a sure sign of Hapsburg +blood. One sees it in the present emperor of Austria, in the late Queen +Regent of Spain, and in the present King of Spain, Alfonso. All the +artists who made miniatures or paintings of Marie Louise softened down +this racial mark so that no likeness of her shows it as it really was. +But take her all in all, she was a simple, childlike, German madchen +who knew nothing of the outside world except what she had heard from +her discreet and watchful governess, and what had been told her of +Napoleon by her uncles, the archdukes whom he had beaten down in battle. +</P> + +<P> +When she learned that she was to be given to the French emperor her +girlish soul experienced a shudder; but her father told her how vital +was this union to her country and to him. With a sort of piteous dread +she questioned the archdukes who had called Napoleon an ogre. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that was when Napoleon was an enemy," they replied. "Now he is our +friend." +</P> + +<P> +Marie Louise listened to all this, and, like the obedient German girl +she was, yielded her own will. +</P> + +<P> +Events moved with a rush, for Napoleon was not the man to dally. +Josephine had retired to her residence at Malmaison, and Paris was +already astir with preparations for the new empress who was to assure +the continuation of the Napoleonic glory by giving children to her +husband. Napoleon had said to his ambassador with his usual bluntness: +</P> + +<P> +"This is the first and most important thing—she must have children." +</P> + +<P> +To the girl whom he was to marry he sent the following letter—an odd +letter, combining the formality of a negotiator with the veiled ardor +of a lover: +</P> + +<P> +MY COUSIN: The brilliant qualities which adorn your person have +inspired in me a desire to serve you and to pay you homage. In making +my request to the emperor, your father, and praying him to intrust to +me the happiness of your imperial highness, may I hope that you will +understand the sentiments which lead me to this act? May I flatter +myself that it will not be decided solely by the duty of parental +obedience? However slightly the feelings of your imperial highness may +incline to me, I wish to cultivate them with so great care, and to +endeavor so constantly to please you in everything, that I flatter +myself that some day I shall prove attractive to you. This is the end +at which I desire to arrive, and for which I pray your highness to be +favorable to me. +</P> + +<P> +Immediately everything was done to dazzle the imagination of the girl. +She had dressed always in the simplicity of the school-room. Her only +ornaments had been a few colored stones which she sometimes wore as a +necklace or a bracelet. Now the resources of all France were drawn +upon. Precious laces foamed about her. Cascades of diamonds flashed +before her eyes. The costliest and most exquisite creations of the +Parisian shops were spread around her to make up a trousseau fit for +the princess who was soon to become the bride of the man who had +mastered continental Europe. +</P> + +<P> +The archives of Vienna were ransacked for musty documents which would +show exactly what had been done for other Austrian princesses who had +married rulers of France. Everything was duplicated down to the last +detail. Ladies-in-waiting thronged about the young archduchess; and +presently there came to her Queen Caroline of Naples, Napoleon's +sister, of whom Napoleon himself once said: "She is the only man among +my sisters, as Joseph is the only woman among my brothers." Caroline, +by virtue of her rank as queen, could have free access to her husband's +future bride. Also, there came presently Napoleon's famous marshal, +Berthier, Prince of Neuchatel, the chief of the Old Guard, who had just +been created Prince of Wagram—a title which, very naturally, he did +not use in Austria. He was to act as proxy for Napoleon in the +preliminary marriage service at Vienna. +</P> + +<P> +All was excitement. Vienna had never been so gay. Money was lavished +under the direction of Caroline and Berthier. There were illuminations +and balls. The young girl found herself the center of the world's +interest; and the excitement made her dizzy. She could not but be +flattered, and yet there were many hours when her heart misgave her. +More than once she was found in tears. Her father, an affectionate +though narrow soul, spent an entire day with her consoling and +reassuring her. One thought she always kept in mind—what she had said +to Metternich at the very first: "I want only what my duty bids me +want." At last came the official marriage, by proxy, in the presence of +a splendid gathering. The various documents were signed, the dowry was +arranged for. Gifts were scattered right and left. At the opera there +were gala performances. Then Marie Louise bade her father a sad +farewell. Almost suffocated by sobs and with her eyes streaming with +tears, she was led between two hedges of bayonets to her carriage, +while cannon thundered and all the church-bells of Vienna rang a joyful +peal. +</P> + +<P> +She set out for France accompanied by a long train of carriages filled +with noblemen and noblewomen, with ladies-in-waiting and scores of +attendant menials. The young bride—the wife of a man whom she had +never seen—was almost dead with excitement and fatigue. At a station +in the outskirts of Vienna she scribbled a few lines to her father, +which are a commentary upon her state of mind: +</P> + +<P> +I think of you always, and I always shall. God has given me power to +endure this final shock, and in Him alone I have put all my trust. He +will help me and give me courage, and I shall find support in doing my +duty toward you, since it is all for you that I have sacrificed myself. +</P> + +<P> +There is something piteous in this little note of a frightened girl +going to encounter she knew not what, and clinging almost frantically +to the one thought—that whatever might befall her, she was doing as +her father wished. +</P> + +<P> +One need not recount the long and tedious journey of many days over +wretched roads, in carriages that jolted and lurched and swayed. She +was surrounded by unfamiliar faces and was compelled to meet at every +town the chief men of the place, all of whom paid her honor, but stared +at her with irrepressible curiosity. Day after day she went on and on. +Each morning a courier on a foaming horse presented her with a great +cluster of fresh flowers and a few lines scrawled by the unknown +husband who was to meet her at her journey's end. +</P> + +<P> +There lay the point upon which her wandering thoughts were focused—the +journey's end! The man whose strange, mysterious power had forced her +from her school-room, had driven her through a nightmare of strange +happenings, and who was waiting for her somewhere to take her to +himself, to master her as he had mastered generals and armies! +</P> + +<P> +What was marriage? What did it mean? What experience still lay before +her! These were the questions which she must have asked herself +throughout that long, exhausting journey. When she thought of the past +she was homesick. When she thought of the immediate future she was +fearful with a shuddering fear. +</P> + +<P> +At last she reached the frontier of France, and her carriage passed +into a sort of triple structure, the first pavilion of which was +Austrian, while the middle pavilion was neutral, and the farther one +was French. Here she was received by those who were afterward to +surround her—the representatives of the Napoleonic court. They were +not all plebeians and children of the Revolution, ex-stable boys, +ex-laundresses. By this time Napoleon had gathered around himself some +of the noblest families of France, who had rallied to the empire. The +assemblage was a brilliant one. There were Montmorencys and Beaumonts +and Audenardes in abundance. But to Marie Louise, as to her Austrian +attendants, they were all alike. They were French, they were strangers, +and she shrank from them. +</P> + +<P> +Yet here her Austrians must leave her. All who had accompanied her thus +far were now turned back. Napoleon had been insistent on this point. +Even her governess, who had been with her since her childhood, was not +allowed to cross the French frontier. So fixed was Napoleon's purpose +to have nothing Austrian about her, that even her pet dog, to which she +clung as a girl would cling, was taken from her. Thereafter she was +surrounded only by French faces, by French guards, and was greeted only +by salvos of French artillery. +</P> + +<P> +In the mean time what was Napoleon doing at Paris. Since the annulment +of his marriage with Josephine he had gone into a sort of retirement. +Matters of state, war, internal reforms, no longer interested him; but +that restless brain could not sink into repose. Inflamed with the ardor +of a new passion, that passion was all the greater because he had never +yet set eyes upon its object. Marriage with an imperial princess +flattered his ambition. The youth and innocence of the bride stirred +his whole being with a thrill of novelty. The painted charms of +Josephine, the mercenary favors of actresses, the calculated ecstasies +of the women of the court who gave themselves to him from vanity, had +long since palled upon him. Therefore the impatience with which he +awaited the coming of Marie Louise became every day more tense. +</P> + +<P> +For a time he amused himself with planning down to the very last +details the demonstrations that were to be given in her honor. He +organized them as minutely as he had ever organized a conquering army. +He showed himself as wonderful in these petty things as he had in those +great strategic combinations which had baffled the ablest generals of +Europe. But after all had been arranged—even to the illuminations, the +cheering, the salutes, and the etiquette of the court—he fell into a +fever of impatience which gave him sleepless nights and frantic days. +He paced up and down the Tuileries, almost beside himself. He hurried +off courier after courier with orders that the postilions should lash +their horses to bring the hour of meeting nearer still. He scribbled +love letters. He gazed continually on the diamond-studded portrait of +the woman who was hurrying toward him. +</P> + +<P> +At last as the time approached he entered a swift traveling-carriage +and hastened to Compiegne, about fifty miles from Paris, where it had +been arranged that he should meet his consort and whence he was to +escort her to the capital, so that they might be married in the great +gallery of the Louvre. At Compiegne the chancellerie had been set apart +for Napoleon's convenience, while the chateau had been assigned to +Marie Louise and her attendants. When Napoleon's carriage dashed into +the place, drawn by horses that had traveled at a gallop, the emperor +could not restrain himself. It was raining torrents and night was +coming on, yet, none the less, he shouted for fresh horses and pushed +on to Soissons, where the new empress was to stop and dine. When he +reached there and she had not arrived, new relays of horses were +demanded, and he hurried off once more into the dark. +</P> + +<P> +At the little village of Courcelles he met the courier who was riding +in advance of the empress's cortege. +</P> + +<P> +"She will be here in a few moments!" cried Napoleon; and he leaped from +his carriage into the highway. +</P> + +<P> +The rain descended harder than ever, and he took refuge in the arched +doorway of the village church, his boots already bemired, his great +coat reeking with the downpour. As he crouched before the church he +heard the sound of carriages; and before long there came toiling +through the mud the one in which was seated the girl for whom he had so +long been waiting. It was stopped at an order given by an officer. +Within it, half-fainting with fatigue and fear, Marie Louise sat in the +dark, alone. +</P> + +<P> +Here, if ever, was the chance for Napoleon to win his bride. Could he +have restrained himself, could he have shown the delicate consideration +which was demanded of him, could he have remembered at least that he +was an emperor and that the girl—timid and shuddering—was a princess, +her future story might have been far different. But long ago he had +ceased to think of anything except his own desires. +</P> + +<P> +He approached the carriage. An obsequious chamberlain drew aside the +leathern covering and opened the door, exclaiming as he did so, "The +emperor!" And then there leaped in the rain-soaked, mud-bespattered +being whose excesses had always been as unbridled as his genius. The +door was closed, the leathern curtain again drawn, and the horses set +out at a gallop for Soissons. Within, the shrinking bride was at the +mercy of pure animal passion, feeling upon her hot face a torrent of +rough kisses, and yielding herself in terror to the caresses of wanton +hands. +</P> + +<P> +At Soissons Napoleon allowed no halt, but the carriage plunged on, +still in the rain, to Compiegne. There all the arrangements made with +so much care were thrust aside. Though the actual marriage had not yet +taken place, Napoleon claimed all the rights which afterward were given +in the ceremonial at Paris. He took the girl to the chancellerie, and +not to the chateau. In an anteroom dinner was served with haste to the +imperial pair and Queen Caroline. Then the latter was dismissed with +little ceremony, the lights were extinguished, and this daughter of a +line of emperors was left to the tender mercies of one who always had +about him something of the common soldier—the man who lives for loot +and lust. ... At eleven the next morning she was unable to rise and was +served in bed by the ladies of her household. +</P> + +<P> +These facts, repellent as they are, must be remembered when we call to +mind what happened in the next five years. The horror of that night +could not be obliterated by splendid ceremonies, by studious attention, +or by all the pomp and gaiety of the court. Napoleon was then +forty-one—practically the same age as his new wife's father, the +Austrian emperor; Marie Louise was barely nineteen and younger than her +years. Her master must have seemed to be the brutal ogre whom her +uncles had described. +</P> + +<P> +Installed in the Tuileries, she taught herself compliance. On their +marriage night Napoleon had asked her briefly: "What did your parents +tell you?" And she had answered, meekly: "To be yours altogether and to +obey you in everything." But, though she gave compliance, and though +her freshness seemed enchanting to Napoleon, there was something +concealed within her thoughts to which he could not penetrate. He gaily +said to a member of the court: +</P> + +<P> +"Marry a German, my dear fellow. They are the best women in the +world—gentle, good, artless, and as fresh as roses." +</P> + +<P> +Yet, at the same time, Napoleon felt a deep anxiety lest in her very +heart of hearts this German girl might either fear or hate him +secretly. Somewhat later Prince Metternich came from the Austrian court +to Paris. +</P> + +<P> +"I give you leave," said Napoleon, "to have a private interview with +the empress. Let her tell you what she likes, and I shall ask no +questions. Even should I do so, I now forbid your answering me." +</P> + +<P> +Metternich was closeted with the empress for a long while. When he +returned to the ante-room he found Napoleon fidgeting about, his eyes a +pair of interrogation-points. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure," he said, "that the empress told you that I was kind to +her?" +</P> + +<P> +Metternich bowed and made no answer. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Napoleon, somewhat impatiently, "at least I am sure that +she is happy. Tell me, did she not say so?" +</P> + +<P> +The Austrian diplomat remained unsmiling. +</P> + +<P> +"Your majesty himself has forbidden me to answer," he returned with +another bow. +</P> + +<P> +We may fairly draw the inference that Marie Louise, though she adapted +herself to her surroundings, was never really happy. Napoleon became +infatuated with her. He surrounded her with every possible mark of +honor. He abandoned public business to walk or drive with her. But the +memory of his own brutality must have vaguely haunted him throughout it +all. He was jealous of her as he had never been jealous of the fickle +Josephine. Constant has recorded that the greatest precautions were +taken to prevent any person whatsoever, and especially any man, from +approaching the empress save in the presence of witnesses. +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon himself underwent a complete change of habits and demeanor. +Where he had been rough and coarse he became attentive and refined. His +shabby uniforms were all discarded, and he spent hours in trying on new +costumes. He even attempted to learn to waltz, but this he gave up in +despair. Whereas before he ate hastily and at irregular intervals, he +now sat at dinner with unusual patience, and the court took on a +character which it had never had. Never before had he sacrificed either +his public duty or his private pleasure for any woman. Even in the +first ardor of his marriage with Josephine, when he used to pour out +his heart to her in letters from Italian battle-fields, he did so only +after he had made the disposition of his troops and had planned his +movements for the following day. Now, however, he was not merely +devoted, but uxorious; and in 1811, after the birth of the little King +of Rome, he ceased to be the earlier Napoleon altogether. He had +founded a dynasty. He was the head of a reigning house. He forgot the +principles of the Revolution, and he ruled, as he thought, like other +monarchs, by the grace of God. +</P> + +<P> +As for Marie Louise, she played her part extremely well. Somewhat +haughty and unapproachable to others, she nevertheless studied +Napoleon's every wish. She seemed even to be loving; but one can +scarcely doubt that her obedience sprang ultimately from fear and that +her devotion was the devotion of a dog which has been beaten into +subjection. +</P> + +<P> +Her vanity was flattered in many ways, and most of all by her +appointment as regent of the empire during Napoleon's absence in the +disastrous Russian campaign which began in 1812. It was in June of that +year that the French emperor held court at Dresden, where he played, as +was said, to "a parterre of kings." This was the climax of his +magnificence, for there were gathered all the sovereigns and princes +who were his allies and who furnished the levies that swelled his Grand +Army to six hundred thousand men. Here Marie Louise, like her husband, +felt to the full the intoxication of supreme power. By a sinister +coincidence it was here that she first met the other man, then +unnoticed and little heeded, who was to cast upon her a fascination +which in the end proved irresistible. +</P> + +<P> +This man was Adam Albrecht, Count von Neipperg. There is something +mysterious about his early years, and something baleful about his +silent warfare with Napoleon. As a very young soldier he had been an +Austrian officer in 1793. His command served in Belgium; and there, in +a skirmish, he was overpowered by the French in superior numbers, but +resisted desperately. In the melee a saber slashed him across the right +side of his face, and he was made prisoner. The wound deprived him of +his right eye, so that for the rest of his life he was compelled to +wear a black bandage to conceal the mutilation. +</P> + +<P> +From that moment he conceived an undying hatred of the French, serving +against them in the Tyrol and in Italy. He always claimed that had the +Archduke Charles followed his advice, the Austrians would have forced +Napoleon's army to capitulate at Marengo, thus bringing early eclipse +to the rising star of Bonaparte. However this may be, Napoleon's +success enraged Neipperg and made his hatred almost the hatred of a +fiend. +</P> + +<P> +Hitherto he had detested the French as a nation. Afterward he +concentrated his malignity upon the person of Napoleon. In every way he +tried to cross the path of that great soldier, and, though Neipperg was +comparatively an unknown man, his indomitable purpose and his continued +intrigues at last attracted the notice of the emperor; for in 1808 +Napoleon wrote this significant sentence: +</P> + +<P> +The Count von Neipperg is openly known to have been the enemy of the +French. +</P> + +<P> +Little did the great conqueror dream how deadly was the blow which this +Austrian count was destined finally to deal him! +</P> + +<P> +Neipperg, though his title was not a high one, belonged to the old +nobility of Austria. He had proved his bravery in war and as a duelist, +and he was a diplomat as well as a soldier. Despite his mutilation, he +was a handsome and accomplished courtier, a man of wide experience, and +one who bore himself in a manner which suggested the spirit of romance. +According to Masson, he was an Austrian Don Juan, and had won the +hearts of many women. At thirty he had formed a connection with an +Italian woman named Teresa Pola, whom he had carried away from her +husband. She had borne him five children; and in 1813 he had married +her in order that these children might be made legitimate. +</P> + +<P> +In his own sphere the activity of Neipperg was almost as remarkable as +Napoleon's in a greater one. Apart from his exploits on the field of +battle he had been attached to the Austrian embassy in Paris, and, +strangely enough, had been decorated by Napoleon himself with, the +golden eagle of the Legion of Honor. Four months later we find him +minister of Austria at the court of Sweden, where he helped to lay the +train of intrigue which was to detach Bernadotte from Napoleon's cause. +In 1812, as has just been said, he was with Marie Louise for a short +time at Dresden, hovering about her, already forming schemes. Two years +after this he overthrew Murat at Naples; and then hurried on post-haste +to urge Prince Eugene to abandon Bonaparte. +</P> + +<P> +When the great struggle of 1814 neared its close, and Napoleon, +fighting with his back to the wall, was about to succumb to the united +armies of Europe, it was evident that the Austrian emperor would soon +be able to separate his daughter from her husband. In fact, when +Napoleon was sent to Elba, Marie Louise returned to Vienna. The cynical +Austrian diplomats resolved that she should never again meet her +imperial husband. She was made Duchess of Parma in Italy, and set out +for her new possessions; and the man with the black band across his +sightless eye was chosen to be her escort and companion. +</P> + +<P> +When Neipperg received this commission he was with Teresa Pola at +Milan. A strange smile flitted across his face; and presently he +remarked, with cynical frankness: +</P> + +<P> +"Before six months I shall be her lover, and, later on, her husband." +</P> + +<P> +He took up his post as chief escort of Marie Louise, and they journeyed +slowly to Munich and Baden and Geneva, loitering on the way. Amid the +great events which were shaking Europe this couple attracted slight +attention. Napoleon, in Elba, longed for his wife and for his little +son, the King of Rome. He sent countless messages and many couriers; +but every message was intercepted, and no courier reached his +destination. Meanwhile Marie Louise was lingering agreeably in +Switzerland. She was happy to have escaped from the whirlpool of +politics and war. Amid the romantic scenery through which she passed +Neipperg was always by her side, attentive, devoted, trying in +everything to please her. With him she passed delightful evenings. He +sang to her in his rich barytone songs of love. He seemed romantic with +a touch of mystery, a gallant soldier whose soul was also touched by +sentiment. +</P> + +<P> +One would have said that Marie Louise, the daughter of an imperial +line, would have been proof against the fascinations of a person so far +inferior to herself in rank, and who, beside the great emperor, was +less than nothing. Even granting that she had never really loved +Napoleon, she might still have preferred to maintain her dignity, to +share his fate, and to go down in history as the empress of the +greatest man whom modern times have known. +</P> + +<P> +But Marie Louise was, after all, a woman, and she followed the guidance +of her heart. To her Napoleon was still the man who had met her amid +the rain-storm at Courcelles, and had from the first moment when he +touched her violated all the instincts of a virgin. Later he had in his +way tried to make amends; but the horror of that first night had never +wholly left her memory. Napoleon had unrolled before her the drama of +sensuality, but her heart had not been given to him. She had been his +empress. In a sense it might be more true to say that she had been his +mistress. But she had never been duly wooed and won and made his +wife—an experience which is the right of every woman. And so this +Neipperg, with his deferential manners, his soothing voice, his +magnetic touch, his ardor, and his devotion, appeased that craving +which the master of a hundred legions could not satisfy. +</P> + +<P> +In less than the six months of which Neipperg had spoken the +psychological moment had arrived. In the dim twilight she listened to +his words of love; and then, drawn by that irresistible power which +masters pride and woman's will, she sank into her lover's arms, +yielding to his caresses, and knowing that she would be parted from him +no more except by death. +</P> + +<P> +From that moment he was bound to her by the closest ties and lived with +her at the petty court of Parma. His prediction came true to the very +letter. Teresa Pola died, and then Napoleon died, and after this Marie +Louise and Neipperg were united in a morganatic marriage. Three +children were born to them before his death in 1829. +</P> + +<P> +It is interesting to note how much of an impression was made upon her +by the final exile of her imperial husband to St. Helena. When the news +was brought her she observed, casually: +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks. By the way, I should like to ride this morning to Markenstein. +Do you think the weather is good enough to risk it?" +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon, on his side, passed through agonies of doubt and longing when +no letters came to him from Marie Louise. She was constantly in his +thoughts during his exile at St. Helena. "When his faithful friend and +constant companion at St. Helena, the Count Las Casas, was ordered by +Sir Hudson Lowe to depart from St. Helena, Napoleon wrote to him: +</P> + +<P> +"Should you see, some day, my wife and son, embrace them. For two years +I have, neither directly nor indirectly, heard from them. There has +been on this island for six months a German botanist, who has seen them +in the garden of Schoenbrunn a few months before his departure. The +barbarians (meaning the English authorities at St. Helena) have +carefully prevented him from coming to give me any news respecting +them." +</P> + +<P> +At last the truth was told him, and he received it with that high +magnanimity, or it may be fatalism, which at times he was capable of +showing. Never in all his days of exile did he say one word against +her. Possibly in searching his own soul he found excuses such as we may +find. In his will he spoke of her with great affection, and shortly +before his death he said to his physician, Antommarchi: +</P> + +<P> +"After my death, I desire that you will take my heart, put it in the +spirits of wine, and that you carry it to Parma to my dear Marie +Louise. You will please tell her that I tenderly loved her—that I +never ceased to love her. You will relate to her all that you have +seen, and every particular respecting my situation and death." +</P> + +<P> +The story of Marie Louise is pathetic, almost tragic. There is the +taint of grossness about it; and yet, after all, there is a lesson in +it—the lesson that true love cannot be forced or summoned at command, +that it is destroyed before its birth by outrage, and that it goes out +only when evoked by sympathy, by tenderness, and by devotion. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="finis"> +THE END +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Famous Affinities of History, V2, by Lyndon Orr + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY, V2 *** + +***** This file should be named 4690-h.htm or 4690-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/6/9/4690/ + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Famous Affinities of History, V2 + The Romance of Devotion + +Author: Lyndon Orr + +Posting Date: August 24, 2009 [EBook #4690] +Release Date: November, 2003 +First Posted: March 3, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY, V2 *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + +FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY + + +THE ROMANCE OF DEVOTION + + +BY + +LYNDON ORR + + + +VOLUME II of IV. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + + THE EMPRESS CATHARINE AND PRINCE POTEMKIN + MARIE ANTOINETTE AND COUNT FERSEN + THE STORY OF AARON BURR + GEORGE IV. AND MRS. FITZHERBERT + CHARLOTTE CORDAY AND ADAM LUX + NAPOLEON AND MARIE WALEWSKA + THE STORY OF PAULINE BONAPARTE + THE STORY OF THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE AND COUNT NEIPPERG + + + + +THE EMPRESS CATHARINE AND PRINCE POTEMKIN + + +It has often been said that the greatest Frenchman who ever lived was +in reality an Italian. It might with equal truth be asserted that the +greatest Russian woman who ever lived was in reality a German. But the +Emperor Napoleon and the Empress Catharine II. resemble each other in +something else. Napoleon, though Italian in blood and lineage, made +himself so French in sympathy and understanding as to be able to play +upon the imagination of all France as a great musician plays upon a +splendid instrument, with absolute sureness of touch and an ability to +extract from it every one of its varied harmonies. So the Empress +Catharine of Russia--perhaps the greatest woman who ever ruled a +nation--though born of German parents, became Russian to the core and +made herself the embodiment of Russian feeling and Russian aspiration. + +At the middle of the eighteenth century Russia was governed by the +Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great. In her own time, and +for a long while afterward, her real capacity was obscured by her +apparent indolence, her fondness for display, and her seeming +vacillation; but now a very high place is accorded her in the history +of Russian rulers. She softened the brutality that had reigned supreme +in Russia. She patronized the arts. Her armies twice defeated Frederick +the Great and raided his capital, Berlin. Had Elizabeth lived, she +would probably have crushed him. + +In her early years this imperial woman had been betrothed to Louis XV. +of France, but the match was broken off. Subsequently she entered into +a morganatic marriage and bore a son who, of course, could not be her +heir. In 1742, therefore, she looked about for a suitable successor, +and chose her nephew, Prince Peter of Holstein-Gottorp. + +Peter, then a mere youth of seventeen, was delighted with so splendid a +future, and came at once to St. Petersburg. The empress next sought for +a girl who might marry the young prince and thus become the future +Czarina. She thought first of Frederick the Great's sister; but +Frederick shrank from this alliance, though it would have been of much +advantage to him. He loved his sister--indeed, she was one of the few +persons for whom he ever really cared. So he declined the offer and +suggested instead the young Princess Sophia of the tiny duchy of +Anhalt-Zerbst. + +The reason for Frederick's refusal was his knowledge of the +semi-barbarous conditions that prevailed at the Russian court. + +The Russian capital, at that time, was a bizarre, half-civilized, +half-oriental place, where, among the very highest-born, a thin veneer +of French elegance covered every form of brutality and savagery and +lust. It is not surprising, therefore, that Frederick the Great was +unwilling to have his sister plunged into such a life. + +But when the Empress Elizabeth asked the Princess Sophia of +Anhalt-Zerbst to marry the heir to the Russian throne the young girl +willingly accepted, the more so as her mother practically commanded it. +This mother of hers was a grim, harsh German woman who had reared her +daughter in the strictest fashion, depriving her of all pleasure with a +truly puritanical severity. In the case of a different sort of girl +this training would have crushed her spirit; but the Princess Sophia, +though gentle and refined in manner, had a power of endurance which was +toughened and strengthened by the discipline she underwent. + +And so in 1744, when she was but sixteen years of age, she was taken by +her mother to St. Petersburg. There she renounced the Lutheran faith +and was received into the Greek Church, changing her name to Catharine. +Soon after, with great magnificence, she was married to Prince Peter, +and from that moment began a career which was to make her the most +powerful woman in the world. + +At this time a lady of the Russian court wrote down a description of +Catharine's appearance. She was fair-haired, with dark-blue eyes; and +her face, though never beautiful, was made piquant and striking by the +fact that her brows were very dark in contrast with her golden hair. +Her complexion was not clear, yet her look was a very pleasing one. She +had a certain diffidence of manner at first; but later she bore herself +with such instinctive dignity as to make her seem majestic, though in +fact she was beneath the middle size. At the time of her marriage her +figure was slight and graceful; only in after years did she become +stout. Altogether, she came to St. Petersburg an attractive, +pure-minded German maiden, with a character well disciplined, and +possessing reserves of power which had not yet been drawn upon. + +Frederick the Great's forebodings, which had led him to withhold his +sister's hand, were almost immediately justified in the case of +Catharine. Her Russian husband revealed to her a mode of life which +must have tried her very soul. This youth was only seventeen--a mere +boy in age, and yet a full-grown man in the rank luxuriance of his +vices. Moreover, he had eccentricities which sometimes verged upon +insanity. Too young to be admitted to the councils of his imperial +aunt, he occupied his time in ways that were either ridiculous or vile. + +Next to the sleeping-room of his wife he kept a set of kennels, with a +number of dogs, which he spent hours in drilling as if they had been +soldiers. He had a troop of rats which he also drilled. It was his +delight to summon a court martial of his dogs to try the rats for +various military offenses, and then to have the culprits executed, +leaving their bleeding carcasses upon the floor. At any hour of the day +or night Catharine, hidden in her chamber, could hear the yapping of +the curs, the squeak of rats, and the word of command given by her +half-idiot husband. + +When wearied of this diversion Peter would summon a troop of favorites, +both men and women, and with them he would drink deep of beer and +vodka, since from his early childhood he had been both a drunkard and a +debauchee. The whoops and howls and vile songs of his creatures could +be heard by Catharine; and sometimes he would stagger into her rooms, +accompanied by his drunken minions. With a sort of psychopathic +perversity he would insist on giving Catharine the most minute and +repulsive narratives of his amours, until she shrank from him with +horror at his depravity and came to loathe the sight of his bloated +face, with its little, twinkling, porcine eyes, his upturned nose and +distended nostrils, and his loose-hung, lascivious mouth. She was +scarcely less repelled when a wholly different mood would seize upon +him and he would declare himself her slave, attending her at court +functions in the garb of a servant and professing an unbounded devotion +for his bride. + +Catharine's early training and her womanly nature led her for a long +time to submit to the caprices of her husband. In his saner moments she +would plead with him and strive to interest him in something better +than his dogs and rats and venal mistresses; but Peter was +incorrigible. Though he had moments of sense and even of good feeling, +these never lasted, and after them he would plunge headlong into the +most frantic excesses that his half-crazed imagination could devise. + +It is not strange that in course of time Catharine's strong good sense +showed her that she could do nothing with this creature. She therefore +gradually became estranged from him and set herself to the task of +doing those things which Peter was incapable of carrying out. + +She saw that ever since the first awakening of Russia under Peter the +Great none of its rulers had been genuinely Russian, but had tried to +force upon the Russian people various forms of western civilization +which were alien to the national spirit. Peter the Great had striven to +make his people Dutch. Elizabeth had tried to make them French. +Catharine, with a sure instinct, resolved that they should remain +Russian, borrowing what they needed from other peoples, but stirred +always by the Slavic spirit and swayed by a patriotism that was their +own. To this end she set herself to become Russian. She acquired the +Russian language patiently and accurately. She adopted the Russian +costume, appearing, except on state occasions, in a simple gown of +green, covering her fair hair, however, with a cap powdered with +diamonds. Furthermore, she made friends of such native Russians as were +gifted with talent, winning their favor, and, through them, the favor +of the common people. + +It would have been strange, however, had Catharine, the woman, escaped +the tainting influences that surrounded her on every side. The +infidelities of Peter gradually made her feel that she owed him nothing +as his wife. Among the nobles there were men whose force of character +and of mind attracted her inevitably. Chastity was a thing of which the +average Russian had no conception; and therefore it is not strange that +Catharine, with her intense and sensitive nature, should have turned to +some of these for the love which she had sought in vain from the half +imbecile to whom she had been married. + +Much has been written of this side of her earlier and later life; yet, +though it is impossible to deny that she had favorites, one should +judge very gently the conduct of a girl so young and thrust into a life +whence all the virtues seemed to be excluded. She bore several children +before her thirtieth year, and it is very certain that a grave doubt +exists as to their paternity. Among the nobles of the court were two +whose courage and virility specially attracted her. The one with whom +her name has been most often coupled was Gregory Orloff. He and his +brother, Alexis Orloff, were Russians of the older type--powerful in +frame, suave in manner except when roused, yet with a tigerish ferocity +slumbering underneath. Their power fascinated Catharine, and it was +currently declared that Gregory Orloff was her lover. + +When she was in her thirty-second year her husband was proclaimed Czar, +after the death of the Empress Elizabeth. At first in some ways his +elevation seemed to sober him; but this period of sanity, like those +which had come to him before, lasted only a few weeks. Historians have +given him much credit for two great reforms that are connected with his +name; and yet the manner in which they were actually brought about is +rather ludicrous. He had shut himself up with his favorite revelers, +and had remained for several days drinking and carousing until he +scarcely knew enough to speak. At this moment a young officer named +Gudovitch, who was really loyal to the newly created Czar, burst into +the banquet-hall, booted and spurred and his eyes aflame with +indignation. Standing before Peter, his voice rang out with the tone of +a battle trumpet, so that the sounds of revelry were hushed. + +"Peter Feodorovitch," he cried, "do you prefer these swine to those who +really wish to serve you? Is it in this way that you imitate the +glories of your ancestor, that illustrious Peter whom you have sworn to +take as your model? It will not be long before your people's love will +be changed to hatred. Rise up, my Czar! Shake off this lethargy and +sloth. Prove that you are worthy of the faith which I and others have +given you so loyally!" + +With these words Gudovitch thrust into Peter's trembling hand two +proclamations, one abolishing the secret bureau of police, which had +become an instrument of tyrannous oppression, and the other restoring +to the nobility many rights of which they had been deprived. + +The earnestness and intensity of Gudovitch temporarily cleared the +brain of the drunken Czar. He seized the papers, and, without reading +them, hastened at once to his great council, where he declared that +they expressed his wishes. Great was the rejoicing in St. Petersburg, +and great was the praise bestowed on Peter; yet, in fact, he had acted +only as any drunkard might act under the compulsion of a stronger will +than his. + +As before, his brief period of good sense was succeeded by another of +the wildest folly. It was not merely that he reversed the wise policy +of his aunt, but that he reverted to his early fondness for everything +that was German. His bodyguard was made up of German troops--thus +exciting the jealousy of the Russian soldiers. He introduced German +fashions. He boasted that his father had been an officer in the +Prussian army. His crazy admiration for Frederick the Great reached the +utmost verge of sycophancy. + +As to Catharine, he turned on her with something like ferocity. He +declared in public that his eldest son, the Czarevitch Paul, was really +fathered by Catharine's lovers. At a state banquet he turned to +Catharine and hurled at her a name which no woman could possibly +forgive--and least of all a woman such as Catharine, with her high +spirit and imperial pride. He thrust his mistresses upon her; and at +last he ordered her, with her own hand, to decorate the Countess +Vorontzoff, who was known to be his maitresse en titre. + +It was not these gross insults, however, so much as a concern for her +personal safety that led Catharine to take measures for her own +defense. She was accustomed to Peter's ordinary eccentricities. On the +ground of his unfaithfulness to her she now had hardly any right to +make complaint. But she might reasonably fear lest he was becoming mad. +If he questioned the paternity of their eldest son he might take +measures to imprison Catharine or even to destroy her. Therefore she +conferred with the Orloffs and other gentlemen, and their conference +rapidly developed into a conspiracy. + +The soldiery, as a whole, was loyal to the empress. It hated Peter's +Holstein guards. What she planned was probably the deposition of Peter. +She would have liked to place him under guard in some distant palace. +But while the matter was still under discussion she was awakened early +one morning by Alexis Orloff. He grasped her arm with scant ceremony. + +"We must act at once," said he. "We have been betrayed!" + +Catharine was not a woman to waste time. She went immediately to the +barracks in St. Petersburg, mounted upon a charger, and, calling out +the Russian guards, appealed to them for their support. To a man they +clashed their weapons and roared forth a thunderous cheer. Immediately +afterward the priests anointed her as regent in the name of her son; +but as she left the church she was saluted by the people, as well as by +the soldiers, as empress in her own right. + +It was a bold stroke, and it succeeded down to the last detail. The +wretched Peter, who was drilling his German guards at a distance from +the capital, heard of the revolt, found that his sailors at Kronstadt +would not acknowledge him, and then finally submitted. He was taken to +Ropsha and confined within a single room. To him came the Orloffs, +quite of their own accord. Gregory Orloff endeavored to force a +corrosive poison into Peter's mouth. Peter, who was powerful of build +and now quite desperate, hurled himself upon his enemies. Alexis Orloff +seized him by the throat with a tremendous clutch and strangled him +till the blood gushed from his ears. In a few moments the unfortunate +man was dead. + +Catharine was shocked by the intelligence, but she had no choice save +to accept the result of excessive zeal. She issued a note to the +foreign ambassadors informing them that Peter had died of a violent +colic. When his body was laid out for burial the extravasated blood is +said to have oozed out even through his hands, staining the gloves that +had been placed upon them. No one believed the story of the colic; and +some six years later Alexis Orloff told the truth with the utmost +composure. The whole incident was characteristically Russian. + +It is not within the limits of our space to describe the reign of +Catharine the Great--the exploits of her armies, the acuteness of her +statecraft, the vast additions which she made to the Russian Empire, +and the impulse which she gave to science and art and literature. Yet +these things ought to be remembered first of all when one thinks of the +woman whom Voltaire once styled "the Semiramis of the North." Because +she was so powerful, because no one could gainsay her, she led in +private a life which has been almost more exploited than her great +imperial achievements. And yet, though she had lovers whose names have +been carefully recorded, even she fulfilled the law of womanhood--which +is to love deeply and intensely only once. + +One should not place all her lovers in the same category. As a girl, +and when repelled by the imbecility of Peter, she gave herself to +Gregory Orloff. She admired his strength, his daring, and his +unscrupulousness. But to a woman of her fine intelligence he came to +seem almost more brute than man. She could not turn to him for any of +those delicate attentions which a woman loves so much, nor for that +larger sympathy which wins the heart as well as captivates the senses. +A writer of the time has said that Orloff would hasten with equal +readiness from the arms of Catharine to the embraces of any flat-nosed +Finn or filthy Calmuck or to the lowest creature whom he might +encounter in the streets. + +It happened that at the time of Catharine's appeal to the imperial +guards there came to her notice another man who--as he proved in a +trifling and yet most significant manner--had those traits which Orloff +lacked. Catharine had mounted, man--fashion, a cavalry horse, and, with +a helmet on her head, had reined up her steed before the barracks. At +that moment One of the minor nobles, who was also favorable to her, +observed that her helmet had no plume. In a moment his horse was at her +side. Bowing low over his saddle, he took his own plume from his helmet +and fastened it to hers. This man was Prince Gregory Potemkin, and this +slight act gives a clue to the influence which he afterward exercised +over his imperial mistress! + +When Catharine grew weary of the Orloffs, and when she had enriched +them with lands and treasures, she turned to Potemkin; and from then +until the day of his death he was more to her than any other man had +ever been. With others she might flirt and might go even further than +flirtation; but she allowed no other favorite to share her confidence, +to give advice, or to direct her policies. + +To other men she made munificent gifts, either because they pleased her +for the moment or because they served her on one occasion or another; +but to Potemkin she opened wide the whole treasury of her vast realm. +There was no limit to what she would do for him. When he first knew her +he was a man of very moderate fortune. Within two years after their +intimate acquaintance had begun she had given him nine million rubles, +while afterward he accepted almost limitless estates in Poland and in +every province of Greater Russia. + +He was a man of sumptuous tastes, and yet he cared but little for mere +wealth. What he had, he used to please or gratify or surprise the woman +whom he loved. He built himself a great palace in St. Petersburg, +usually known as the Taurian Palace, and there he gave the most +sumptuous entertainments, reversing the story of Antony and Cleopatra. + +In a superb library there stood one case containing volumes bound with +unusual richness. When the empress, attracted by the bindings, drew +forth a book she found to her surprise that its pages were English +bank-notes. The pages of another proved to be Dutch bank-notes, and, of +another, notes on the Bank of Venice. Of the remaining volumes some +were of solid gold, while others had pages of fine leather in which +were set emeralds and rubies and diamonds and other gems. The story +reads like a bit of fiction from the Arabian Nights. Yet, after all, +this was only a small affair compared with other undertakings with +which Potemkin sought to please her. + +Thus, after Taurida and the Crimea had been added to the empire by +Potemkin's agency, Catharine set out with him to view her new +possessions. A great fleet of magnificently decorated galleys bore her +down the river Dnieper. The country through which she passed had been a +year before an unoccupied waste. Now, by Potemkin's extraordinary +efforts, the empress found it dotted thick with towns and cities which +had been erected for the occasion, filled with a busy population which +swarmed along the riverside to greet the sovereign with applause. It +was only a chain of fantom towns and cities, made of painted wood and +canvas; but while Catharine was there they were very real, seeming to +have solid buildings, magnificent arches, bustling industries, and +beautiful stretches of fertile country. No human being ever wrought on +so great a scale so marvelous a miracle of stage-management. + +Potemkin was, in fact, the one man who could appeal with unfailing +success to so versatile and powerful a spirit as Catharine's. He was +handsome of person, graceful of manner, and with an intellect which +matched her own. He never tried to force her inclination, and, on the +other hand, he never strove to thwart it. To him, as to no other man, +she could turn at any moment and feel that, no matter what her mood, he +could understand her fully. And this, according to Balzac, is the thing +that woman yearns for most--a kindred spirit that can understand +without the slightest need of explanation. + +Thus it was that Gregory Potemkin held a place in the soul of this +great woman such as no one else attained. He might be absent, heading +armies or ruling provinces, and on his return he would be greeted with +even greater fondness than before. And it was this rather than his +victories over Turk and other oriental enemies that made Catharine +trust him absolutely. + +When he died, he died as the supreme master of her foreign policy and +at a time when her word was powerful throughout all Europe. Death came +upon him after he had fought against it with singular tenacity of +purpose. Catharine had given him a magnificent triumph, and he had +entertained her in his Taurian Palace with a splendor such as even +Russia had never known before. Then he fell ill, though with high +spirit he would not yield to illness. He ate rich meats and drank rich +wines and bore himself as gallantly as ever. Yet all at once death came +upon him while he was traveling in the south of Russia. His carriage +was stopped, a rug was spread beneath a tree by the roadside, and there +he died, in the country which he had added to the realms of Russia, + +The great empress who loved him mourned him deeply during the five +years of life that still remained to her. The names of other men for +whom she had imagined that she cared were nothing to her. But this one +man lived in her heart in death as he had done in life. + +Many have written of Catharine as a great ruler, a wise diplomat, a +creature of heroic mold. Others have depicted her as a royal wanton and +have gathered together a mass of vicious tales, the gossip of the +palace kitchens, of the clubs, and of the barrack-rooms. But perhaps +one finds the chief interest of her story to lie in this--that besides +being empress and diplomat and a lover of pleasure she was, beyond all +else, at heart a woman. + + + + +MARIE ANTOINETTE AND COUNT FERSEN + + +The English-speaking world long ago accepted a conventional view of +Marie Antoinette. The eloquence of Edmund Burke in one brilliant +passage has fixed, probably for all time, an enduring picture of this +unhappy queen. + +When we speak or think of her we speak and think first of all of a +dazzling and beautiful woman surrounded by the chivalry of France and +gleaming like a star in the most splendid court of Europe. And then +there comes to us the reverse of the picture. We see her despised, +insulted, and made the butt of brutal men and still more fiendish +women; until at last the hideous tumbrel conveys her to the guillotine, +where her head is severed from her body and her corpse is cast down +into a bloody pool. + +In these two pictures our emotions are played upon in turn--admiration, +reverence, devotion, and then pity, indignation, and the shudderings of +horror. + +Probably in our own country and in England this will remain the +historic Marie Antoinette. Whatever the impartial historian may write, +he can never induce the people at large to understand that this queen +was far from queenly, that the popular idea of her is almost wholly +false, and that both in her domestic life and as the greatest lady in +France she did much to bring on the terrors of that revolution which +swept her to the guillotine. + +In the first place, it is mere fiction that represents Maria Antoinette +as having been physically beautiful. The painters and engravers have so +idealized her face as in most cases to have produced a purely imaginary +portrait. + +She was born in Vienna, in 1755, the daughter of the Emperor Francis +and of that warrior-queen, Maria Theresa. She was a very German-looking +child. Lady Jackson describes her as having a long, thin face, small, +pig-like eyes, a pinched-up mouth, with the heavy Hapsburg lip, and +with a somewhat misshapen form, so that for years she had to be +bandaged tightly to give her a more natural figure. + +At fourteen, when she was betrothed to the heir to the French throne, +she was a dumpy, mean-looking little creature, with no distinction +whatever, and with only her bright golden hair to make amends for her +many blemishes. At fifteen she was married and joined the Dauphin in +French territory. + +We must recall for a moment the conditions which prevailed in France. +King Louis XV. was nearing his end. He was a man of the most shameless +life; yet he had concealed or gilded his infamies by an external +dignity and magnificence which, were very pleasing to his people. The +French, liked to think that their king was the most splendid monarch +and the greatest gentleman in Europe. The courtiers about him might be +vile beneath the surface, yet they were compelled to deport themselves +with the form and the etiquette that had become traditional in France. +They might be panders, or stock-jobbers, or sellers of political +offices; yet they must none the less have wit and grace and outward +nobility of manner. + +There was also a tradition regarding the French queen. However loose in +character the other women of the court might be, she alone, like +Caesar's wife, must remain above suspicion. She must be purer than the +pure. No breath, of scandal must reach her or be directed against her. + +In this way the French court, even under so dissolute a monarch as +Louis XV., maintained its hold upon the loyalty of the people. Crowds +came every morning to view the king in his bed before he arose; the +same crowds watched him as he was dressed by the gentlemen of the +bedchamber, and as he breakfasted and went through all the functions +which are usually private. The King of France must be a great actor. He +must appear to his people as in reality a king-stately, dignified, and +beyond all other human beings in his remarkable presence. + +When the Dauphin and Marie Antoinette came to the French court King +Louis XV. kept up in the case the same semblance of austerity. He +forbade these children to have their sleeping-apartments together. He +tried to teach them that if they were to govern as well as to reign +they must conform to the rigid etiquette of Paris and Versailles. + +It proved a difficult task, however. The little German princess had no +natural dignity, though she came from a court where the very strictest +imperial discipline prevailed. Marie Antoinette found that she could +have her own way in many things, and she chose to enjoy life without +regard to ceremony. Her escapades at first would have been thought mild +enough had she not been a "daughter of France"; but they served to +shock the old French king, and likewise, perhaps even more, her own +imperial mother, Maria Theresa. + +When a report of the young girl's conduct was brought to her the +empress was at first mute with indignation. Then she cried out: + +"Can this girl be a child of mine? She surely must be a changeling!" + +The Austrian ambassador to France was instructed to warn the Dauphiness +to be more discreet. + +"Tell her," said Maria Theresa, "that she will lose her throne, and +even her life, unless she shows more prudence." + +But advice and remonstrance were of no avail. Perhaps they might have +been had her husband possessed a stronger character; but the young +Louis was little more fitted to be a king than was his wife to be a +queen. Dull of perception and indifferent to affairs of state, he had +only two interests that absorbed him. One was the love of hunting, and +the other was his desire to shut himself up in a sort of blacksmith +shop, where he could hammer away at the anvil, blow the bellows, and +manufacture small trifles of mechanical inventions. From this smudgy +den he would emerge, sooty and greasy, an object of distaste to his +frivolous princess, with her foamy laces and perfumes and pervasive +daintiness. + +It was hinted in many quarters, and it has been many times repeated, +that Louis was lacking in virility. Certainly he had no interest in the +society of women and was wholly continent. But this charge of physical +incapacity seems to have had no real foundation. It had been made +against some of his predecessors. It was afterward hurled at Napoleon +the Great, and also Napoleon the Little. In France, unless a royal +personage was openly licentious, he was almost sure to be jeered at by +the people as a weakling. + +And so poor Louis XVI., as he came to be, was treated with a mixture of +pity and contempt because he loved to hammer and mend locks in his +smithy or shoot game when he might have been caressing ladies who would +have been proud to have him choose them out. + +On the other hand, because of this opinion regarding Louis, people were +the more suspicious of Marie Antoinette. Some of them, in coarse +language, criticized her assumed infidelities; others, with a polite +sneer, affected to defend her. But the result of it all was dangerous +to both, especially as France was already verging toward the deluge +which Louis XV. had cynically predicted would follow after him. + +In fact, the end came sooner than any one had guessed. Louis XV., who +had become hopelessly and helplessly infatuated with the low-born +Jeanne du Barry, was stricken down with smallpox of the most virulent +type. For many days he lay in his gorgeous bed. Courtiers crowded his +sick-room and the adjacent hall, longing for the moment when the breath +would leave his body. He had lived an evil life, and he was to die a +loathsome death; yet he had borne himself before men as a stately +monarch. Though his people had suffered in a thousand ways from his +misgovernment, he was still Louis the Well Beloved, and they blamed his +ministers of state for all the shocking wrongs that France had felt. + +The abler men, and some of the leaders of the people, however, looked +forward to the accession of Louis XVI. He at least was frugal in his +habits and almost plebeian in his tastes, and seemed to be one who +would reduce the enormous taxes that had been levied upon France. + +The moment came when the Well Beloved died. His death-room was fetid +with disease, and even the long corridors of the palace reeked with +infection, while the motley mob of men and women, clad in silks and +satins and glittering with jewels, hurried from the spot to pay their +homage to the new Louis, who was spoken of as "the Desired." The body +of the late monarch was hastily thrown into a mass of quick-lime, and +was driven away in a humble wagon, without guards and with no salute, +save from a single veteran, who remembered the glories of Fontenoy and +discharged his musket as the royal corpse was carried through the +palace gates. + +This was a critical moment in the history of France; but we have to +consider it only as a critical moment in the history of Marie +Antoinette. She was now queen. She had it in her power to restore to +the French court its old-time grandeur, and, so far as the queen was +concerned, its purity. Above all, being a foreigner, she should have +kept herself free from reproach and above every shadow of suspicion. + +But here again the indifference of the king undoubtedly played a +strange part in her life. Had he borne himself as her lord and master +she might have respected him. Had he shown her the affection of a +husband she might have loved him. But he was neither imposing, nor, on +the other hand, was he alluring. She wrote very frankly about him in a +letter to the Count Orsini: + +My tastes are not the same as those of the king, who cares only for +hunting and blacksmith work. You will admit that I should not show to +advantage in a forge. I could not appear there as Vulcan, and the part +of Venus might displease him even more than my tastes. + +Thus on the one side is a woman in the first bloom of youth, ardent, +eager--and neglected. On the other side is her husband, whose +sluggishness may be judged by quoting from a diary which he kept during +the month in which he was married. Here is a part of it: + +Sunday, 13--Left Versailles. Supper and slept at Compignee, at the +house of M. de Saint-Florentin. + +Monday, 14--Interview with Mme. la Dauphine. + +Tuesday, 15--Supped at La Muette. Slept at Versailles. + +Wednesday, 16--My marriage. Apartment in the gallery. Royal banquet in +the Salle d'Opera. + +Thursday, 17--Opera of "Perseus." + +Friday, 18--Stag-hunt. Met at La Belle Image. Took one. + +Saturday, 19--Dress-ball in the Salle d'Opera. Fireworks. + +Thursday, 31--I had an indigestion. + +What might have been expected from a young girl placed as this queen +was placed? She was indeed an earlier Eugenie. The first was of royal +blood, the second was almost a plebeian; but each was headstrong, +pleasure-loving, and with no real domestic ties. As Mr. Kipling +expresses it-- + + The colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady + Are sisters under their skins; + +and so the Austrian woman of 1776 and the Spanish woman of 1856 found +amusement in very similar ways. They plunged into a sea of strange +frivolity, such as one finds to-day at the centers of high fashion. +Marie Antoinette bedecked herself with eccentric garments. On her head +she wore a hat styled a "what-is-it," towering many feet in height and +flaunting parti-colored plumes. Worse than all this, she refused to +wear corsets, and at some great functions she would appear in what +looked exactly like a bedroom gown. + +She would even neglect the ordinary niceties of life. Her hands were +not well cared for. It was very difficult for the ladies in attendance +to persuade her to brush her teeth with regularity. Again, she would +persist in wearing her frilled and lace-trimmed petticoats long after +their dainty edges had been smirched and blackened. + +Yet these things might have been counteracted had she gone no further. +Unfortunately, she did go further. She loved to dress at night like a +shop-girl and venture out into the world of Paris, where she was +frequently followed and recognized. Think of it--the Queen of France, +elbowed in dense crowds and seeking to attract the attention of common +soldiers! + +Of course, almost every one put the worst construction upon this, and +after a time upon everything she did. When she took a fancy for +constructing labyrinths and secret passages in the palace, all Paris +vowed that she was planning means by which her various lovers might +enter without observation. The hidden printing-presses of Paris swarmed +with gross lampoons about this reckless girl; and, although there was +little truth in what they said, there was enough to cloud her +reputation. When she fell ill with the measles she was attended in her +sick-chamber by four gentlemen of the court. The king was forbidden to +enter lest he might catch the childish disorder. + +The apathy of the king, indeed, drove her into many a folly. After four +years of marriage, as Mrs. Mayne records, he had only reached the point +of giving her a chilly kiss. The fact that she had no children became a +serious matter. Her brother, the Emperor Joseph of Austria, when he +visited Paris, ventured to speak to the king upon the subject. Even the +Austrian ambassador had thrown out hints that the house of Bourbon +needed direct heirs. Louis grunted and said little, but he must have +known how good was the advice. + +It was at about this time when there came to the French court a young +Swede named Axel de Fersen, who bore the title of count, but who was +received less for his rank than for his winning manner, his knightly +bearing, and his handsome, sympathetic face. Romantic in spirit, he +threw himself at once into a silent inner worship of Marie Antoinette, +who had for him a singular attraction. Wherever he could meet her they +met. To her growing cynicism this breath of pure yet ardent affection +was very grateful. It came as something fresh and sweet into the +feverish life she led. + +Other men had had the audacity to woo her--among them Duc de Lauzun, +whose complicity in the famous affair of the diamond necklace afterward +cast her, though innocent, into ruin; the Duc de Biron; and the Baron +de Besenval, who had obtained much influence over her, which he used +for the most evil purposes. Besenval tainted her mind by persuading her +to read indecent books, in the hope that at last she would become his +prey. + +But none of these men ever meant to Marie Antoinette what Fersen meant. +Though less than twenty years of age, he maintained the reserve of a +great gentleman, and never forced himself upon her notice. Yet their +first acquaintance had occurred in such a way as to give to it a touch +of intimacy. He had gone to a masked ball, and there had chosen for his +partner a lady whose face was quite concealed. Something drew the two +together. The gaiety of the woman and the chivalry of the man blended +most harmoniously. It was only afterward that he discovered that his +chance partner was the first lady in France. She kept his memory in her +mind; for some time later, when he was at a royal drawing-room and she +heard his voice, she exclaimed: + +"Ah, an old acquaintance!" + +From this time Fersen was among those who were most intimately favored +by the queen. He had the privilege of attending her private receptions +at the palace of the Trianon, and was a conspicuous figure at the +feasts given in the queen's honor by the Princess de Lamballe, a +beautiful girl whose head was destined afterward to be severed from her +body and borne upon a bloody pike through the streets of Paris. But as +yet the deluge had not arrived and the great and noble still danced +upon the brink of a volcano. + +Fersen grew more and more infatuated, nor could he quite conceal his +feelings. The queen, in her turn, was neither frightened nor indignant. +His passion, so profound and yet so respectful, deeply moved her. Then +came a time when the truth was made clear to both of them. Fersen was +near her while she was singing to the harpsichord, and "she was +betrayed by her own music into an avowal which song made easy." She +forgot that she was Queen of France. She only felt that her womanhood +had been starved and slighted, and that here was a noble-minded lover +of whom she could be proud. + +Some time after this announcement was officially made of the +approaching accouchement of the queen. It was impossible that malicious +tongues should be silent. The king's brother, the Comte de Provence, +who hated the queen, just as the Bonapartes afterward hated Josephine, +did his best to besmirch her reputation. He had, indeed, the +extraordinary insolence to do so at a time when one would suppose that +the vilest of men would remain silent. The child proved to be a +princess, and she afterward received the title of Duchesse d'Angouleme. +The King of Spain asked to be her godfather at the christening, which +was to be held in the cathedral of Notre Dame. The Spanish king was not +present in person, but asked the Comte de Provence to act as his proxy. + +On the appointed day the royal party proceeded to the cathedral, and +the Comte de Provence presented the little child at the baptismal font. +The grand almoner, who presided, asked; + +"What name shall be given to this child?" + +The Comte de Provence answered in a sneering tone: + +"Oh, we don't begin with that. The first thing to find out is who the +father and the mother are!" + +These words, spoken at such a place and such a time, and with a +strongly sardonic ring, set all Paris gossiping. It was a thinly veiled +innuendo that the father of the child was not the King of France. Those +about the court immediately began to look at Fersen with significant +smiles. The queen would gladly have kept him near her; but Fersen cared +even more for her good name than for his love of her. It would have +been so easy to remain in the full enjoyment of his conquest; but he +was too chivalrous for that, or, rather, he knew that the various +ambassadors in Paris had told their respective governments of the +rising scandal. In fact, the following secret despatch was sent to the +King of Sweden by his envoy: + +I must confide to your majesty that the young Count Fersen has been so +well received by the queen that various persons have taken it amiss. I +own that I am sure that she has a liking for him. I have seen proofs of +it too certain to be doubted. During the last few days the queen has +not taken her eyes off him, and as she gazed they were full of tears. I +beg your majesty to keep their secret to yourself. + +The queen wept because Fersen had resolved to leave her lest she should +be exposed to further gossip. If he left her without any apparent +reason, the gossip would only be the more intense. Therefore he decided +to join the French troops who were going to America to fight under +Lafayette. A brilliant but dissolute duchess taunted him when the news +became known. + +"How is this?" said she. "Do you forsake your conquest?" + +But, "lying like a gentleman," Fersen answered, quietly: + +"Had I made a conquest I should not forsake it. I go away free, and, +unfortunately, without leaving any regret." + +Nothing could have been more chivalrous than the pains which Fersen +took to shield the reputation of the queen. He even allowed it to be +supposed that he was planning a marriage with a rich young Swedish +woman who had been naturalized in England. As a matter of fact, he +departed for America, and not very long afterward the young woman in +question married an Englishman. + +Fersen served in America for a time, returning, however, at the end of +three years. He was one of the original Cincinnati, being admitted to +the order by Washington himself. When he returned to France he was +received with high honors and was made colonel of the royal Swedish +regiment. + +The dangers threatening Louis and his court, which were now gigantic +and appalling, forbade him to forsake the queen. By her side he did +what he could to check the revolution; and, failing this, he helped her +to maintain an imperial dignity of manner which she might otherwise +have lacked. He faced the bellowing mob which surrounded the Tuileries. +Lafayette tried to make the National Guard obey his orders, but he was +jeered at for his pains. Violent epithets were hurled at the king. The +least insulting name which they could give him was "a fat pig." As for +the queen, the most filthy phrases were showered upon her by the men, +and even more so by the women, who swarmed out of the slums and sought +her life. + +At last, in 1791, it was decided that the king and the queen and their +children, of whom they now had three, should endeavor to escape from +Paris. Fersen planned their flight, but it proved to be a failure. +Every one remembers how they were discovered and halted at Varennes. +The royal party was escorted back to Paris by the mob, which chanted +with insolent additions: + +"We've brought back the baker, the baker's wife, and the baker's boy! +Now we shall have bread!" + +Against the savage fury which soon animated the French a foreigner like +Fersen could do very little; but he seems to have endeavored, night and +day, to serve the woman whom he loved. His efforts have been described +by Grandat; but they were of no avail. The king and queen were +practically made prisoners. Their eldest son died. They went through +horrors that were stimulated by the wretch Hebert, at the head of his +so-called Madmen (Enrages). The king was executed in January, 1792. The +queen dragged out a brief existence in a prison where she was for ever +under the eyes of human brutes, who guarded her and watched her and +jeered at her at times when even men would be sensitive. Then, at last, +she mounted the scaffold, and her head, with its shining hair, fell +into the bloody basket. + +Marie Antoinette shows many contradictions in her character. As a young +girl she was petulant and silly and almost unseemly in her actions. As +a queen, with waning power, she took on a dignity which recalled the +dignity of her imperial mother. At first a flirt, she fell deeply in +love when she met a man who was worthy of that love. She lived for most +part like a mere cocotte. She died every inch a queen. + +One finds a curious resemblance between the fate of Marie Antoinette +and that of her gallant lover, who outlived her for nearly twenty +years. She died amid the shrieks and execrations of a maddened populace +in Paris; he was practically torn in pieces by a mob in the streets of +Stockholm. The day of his death was the anniversary of the flight to +Varennes. To the last moment of his existence he remained faithful to +the memory of the royal woman who had given herself so utterly to him. + + + + +THE STORY OF AARON BURR + + +There will come a time when the name of Aaron Burr will be cleared from +the prejudice which now surrounds it, when he will stand in the public +estimation side by side with Alexander Hamilton, whom he shot in a duel +in 1804, but whom in many respects he curiously resembled. When the +white light of history shall have searched them both they will appear +as two remarkable men, each having his own undoubted faults and at the +same time his equally undoubted virtues. + +Burr and Hamilton were born within a year of each other--Burr being a +grandson of Jonathan Edwards, and Alexander Hamilton being the +illegitimate son of a Scottish merchant in the West Indies. Each of +them was short in stature, keen of intellect, of great physical +endurance, courage, and impressive personality. Each as a young man +served on the staff of Washington during the Revolutionary War, and +each of them quarreled with him, though in a different way. + +On one occasion Burr was quite unjustly suspected by Washington of +looking over the latter's shoulder while he was writing. "Washington +leaped to his feet with the exclamation: + +"How dare you, Colonel Burr?" + +Burr's eyes flashed fire at the question, and he retorted, haughtily: + +"Colonel Burr DARE do anything." + +This, however, was the end of their altercation The cause of Hamilton's +difference with his chief is not known, but it was a much more serious +quarrel; so that the young officer left his staff position in a fury +and took no part in the war until the end, when he was present at the +battle of Yorktown. + +Burr, on the other hand, helped Montgomery to storm the heights of +Quebec, and nearly reached the upper citadel when his commander was +shot dead and the Americans retreated. In all this confusion Burr +showed himself a man of mettle. The slain Montgomery was six feet high, +but Burr carried his body away with wonderful strength amid a shower of +musket-balls and grape-shot. + +Hamilton had no belief in the American Constitution, which he called "a +shattered, feeble thing." He could never obtain an elective office, and +he would have preferred to see the United States transformed into a +kingdom. Washington's magnanimity and clear-sightedness made Hamilton +Secretary of the Treasury. Burr, on the other hand, continued his +military service until the war was ended, routing the enemy at +Hackensack, enduring the horrors of Valley Forge, commanding a brigade +at the battle of Monmouth, and heading the defense of the city of New +Haven. He was also attorney-general of New York, was elected to the +United States Senate, was tied with Jefferson for the Presidency, and +then became Vice-President. + +Both Hamilton and Burr were effective speakers; but, while Hamilton was +wordy and diffuse, Burr spoke always to the point, with clear and +cogent reasoning. Both were lavish spenders of money, and both were +engaged in duels before the fatal one in which Hamilton fell. Both +believed in dueling as the only way of settling an affair of honor. +Neither of them was averse to love affairs, though it may be said that +Hamilton sought women, while Burr was rather sought by women. When +Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was obliged to confess an +adulterous amour in order to save himself from the charge of corrupt +practices in public office. So long as Burr's wife lived he was a +devoted, faithful husband to her. Hamilton was obliged to confess his +illicit acts while his wife, formerly Miss Elizabeth Schuyler, was +living. She spent her later years in buying and destroying the +compromising documents which her husband had published for his +countrymen to read. + +The most extraordinary thing about Aaron Burr was the magnetic quality +that was felt by every one who approached him. The roots of this +penetrated down into a deep vitality. He was always young, always +alert, polished in manner, courageous with that sort of courage which +does not even recognize the presence of danger, charming in +conversation, and able to adapt it to men or women of any age whatever. +His hair was still dark in his eightieth year. His step was still +elastic, his motions were still as spontaneous and energetic, as those +of a youth. + +So it was that every one who knew him experienced his fascination. The +rough troops whom he led through the Canadian swamps felt the iron hand +of his discipline; yet they were devoted to him, since he shared all +their toils, faced all their dangers, and ate with them the scraps of +hide which they gnawed to keep the breath of life in their shrunken +bodies. + +Burr's discipline was indeed very strict, so that at first raw recruits +rebelled against it. On one occasion the men of an untrained company +resented it so bitterly that they decided to shoot Colonel Burr as he +paraded them for roll-call that evening. Burr somehow got word of it +and contrived to have all the cartridges drawn from their muskets. When +the time for the roll-call came one of the malcontents leaped from the +front line and leveled his weapon at Burr. + +"Now is the time, boys!" he shouted. + +Like lightning Burr's sword flashed from its scabbard with such a +vigorous stroke as to cut the man's arm completely off and partly to +cleave the musket. + +"Take your place in the ranks," said Burr. + +The mutineer obeyed, dripping with blood. A month later every man in +that company was devoted to his commander. They had learned that +discipline was the surest source of safety. + +But with this high spirit and readiness to fight Burr had a most +pleasing way of meeting every one who came to him. When he was arrested +in the Western forests, charged with high treason, the sound of his +voice won from jury after jury verdicts of acquittal. Often the +sheriffs would not arrest him. One grand jury not merely exonerated him +from all public misdemeanors, but brought in a strong presentment +against the officers of the government for molesting him. + +It was the same everywhere. Burr made friends and devoted allies among +all sorts of men. During his stay in France, England, Germany, and +Sweden he interested such men as Charles Lamb, Jeremy Bentham, Sir +Walter Scott, Goethe, and Heeren. They found his mind able to meet with +theirs on equal terms. Burr, indeed, had graduated as a youth with +honors from Princeton, and had continued his studies there after +graduation, which was then a most unusual thing to do. But, of course, +he learned most from his contact with men and women of the world. + +Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, in The Minister's Wooing, has given what is +probably an exact likeness of Aaron Burr, with his brilliant gifts and +some of his defects. It is strong testimony to the character of Burr +that Mrs. Stowe set out to paint him as a villain; but before she had +written long she felt his fascination and made her readers, in their +own despite, admirers of this remarkable man. There are many parallels, +indeed, between him and Napoleon--in the quickness of his intellect, +the ready use of his resources, and his power over men, while he was +more than Napoleon in his delightful gift of conversation and the easy +play of his cultured mind. + +Those who are full of charm are willing also to be charmed. All his +life Burr was abstemious in food and drink. His tastes were most +refined. It is difficult to believe that such a man could have been an +unmitigated profligate. + +In his twentieth year there seems to have begun the first of the +romances that run through the story of his long career. Perhaps one +ought not to call it the first romance, for at eighteen, while he was +studying law at Litchfield, a girl, whose name has been suppressed, +made an open avowal of love for him. Almost at the same time an heiress +with a large fortune would have married him had he been willing to +accept her hand. But at this period he was only a boy and did not take +such things seriously. + +Two years later, after Burr had seen hard service at Quebec and on +Manhattan Island, his name was associated with that of a very beautiful +girl named Margaret Moncrieffe. She was the daughter of a British +major, but in some way she had been captured while within the American +lines. Her captivity was regarded as little more than a joke; but while +she was thus a prisoner she saw a great deal of Burr. For several +months they were comrades, after which General Putnam sent her with his +compliments to her father. + +Margaret Moncrieffe had a most emotional nature. There can be no doubt +that she deeply loved the handsome young American officer, whom she +never saw again. It is doubtful how far their intimacy was carried. +Later she married a Mr. Coghlan. After reaching middle life she wrote +of Burr in a way which shows that neither years nor the obligations of +marriage could make her forget that young soldier, whom she speaks of +as "the conqueror of her soul." In the rather florid style of those +days the once youthful Margaret Moncrieffe expresses herself as follows: + +Oh, may these pages one day meet the eye of him who subdued my virgin +heart, whom the immutable, unerring laws of nature had pointed out for +my husband, but whose sacred decree the barbarous customs of society +fatally violated! + +Commenting on this paragraph, Mr. H. C. Merwin justly remarks that, +whatever may have been Burr's conduct toward Margaret Moncrieffe, the +lady herself, who was the person chiefly concerned, had no complaint to +make of it. It certainly was no very serious affair, since in the +following year Burr met a lady who, while she lived, was the only woman +for whom he ever really cared. + +This was Theodosia Prevost, the wife of a major in the British army. +Burr met her first in 1777, while she was living with her sister in +Westchester County. Burr's command was fifteen miles across the river, +but distance and danger made no difference to him. He used to mount a +swift horse, inspect his sentinels and outposts, and then gallop to the +Hudson, where a barge rowed by six soldiers awaited him. The barge was +well supplied with buffalo-skins, upon which the horse was thrown with +his legs bound, and then half an hour's rowing brought them to the +other side. There Burr resumed his horse, galloped to the house of Mrs. +Prevost, and, after spending a few hours with her, returned in the same +way. + +Mrs. Prevost was by no means beautiful, but she had an attractiveness +of her own. She was well educated and possessed charming manners, with +a disposition both gentle and affectionate. Her husband died soon after +the beginning of the war, and then Burr married her. No more ideal +family life could be conceived than his, and the letters which passed +between the two are full of adoration. Thus she wrote to him: + +Tell me, why do I grow every day more tenacious of your regard? Is it +because each revolving day proves you more deserving? + +And thus Burr answered her: + +Continue to multiply your letters to me. They are all my solace. The +last six are constantly within my reach. I read them once a day at +least. Write me all that I have asked, and a hundred things which I +have not. + +When it is remembered that these letters were written after nine years +of marriage it is hard to believe all the evil things that have been +said of Burr. + +His wife died in 1794, and he then gave a double affection to his +daughter Theodosia, whose beauty and accomplishments were known +throughout the country. Burr took the greatest pains in her education, +and believed that she should be trained, as he had been, to be brave, +industrious, and patient. He himself, who has been described as a +voluptuary, delighted in the endurance of cold and heat and of severe +labor. + +After his death one of his younger admirers was asked what Burr had +done for him. The reply was characteristic. + +"He made me iron," was the answer. + +No father ever gave more attention to his daughter's welfare. As to +Theodosia's studies he was very strict, making her read Greek and Latin +every day, with drawing and music and history, in addition to French. +Not long before her marriage to Joseph Allston, of South Carolina, Burr +wrote to her: + +I really think, my dear Theo, that you will be very soon beyond all +verbal criticism, and that my whole attention will be presently +directed to the improvement of your style. + +Theodosia Burr married into a family of good old English stock, where +riches were abundant, and high character was regarded as the best of +all possessions. Every one has heard of the mysterious tragedy which is +associated with her history. In 1812, when her husband had been elected +Governor of his state, her only child--a sturdy boy of eleven--died, +and Theodosia's health was shattered by her sorrow. In the same year +Burr returned from a sojourn in Europe, and his loving daughter +embarked from Charleston on a schooner, the Patriot, to meet her father +in New York. When Burr arrived he was met by a letter which told him +that his grandson was dead and that Theodosia was coming to him. + +Weeks sped by, and no news was heard of the ill-fated Patriot. At last +it became evident that she must have gone down or in some other way +have been lost. Burr and Governor Allston wrote to each other letter +after letter, of which each one seems to surpass the agony of the +other. At last all hope was given up. Governor Allston died soon after +of a broken heart; but Burr, as became a Stoic, acted otherwise. + +He concealed everything that reminded him of Theodosia. He never spoke +of his lost daughter. His grief was too deep-seated and too terrible +for speech. Only once did he ever allude to her, and this was in a +letter written to an afflicted friend, which contained the words: + +Ever since the event which separated me from mankind I have been able +neither to give nor to receive consolation. + +In time the crew of a pirate vessel was captured and sentenced to be +hanged. One of the men, who seemed to be less brutal than the rest, +told how, in 1812, they had captured a schooner, and, after their usual +practice, had compelled the passengers to walk the plank. All hesitated +and showed cowardice, except only one--a beautiful woman whose eyes +were as bright and whose bearing was as unconcerned as if she were safe +on shore. She quickly led the way, and, mounting the plank with a +certain scorn of death, said to the others: + +"Come, I will show you how to die." + +It has always been supposed that this intrepid girl may have been +Theodosia Allston. If so, she only acted as her father would have done +and in strict accordance with his teachings. + +This resolute courage, this stern joy in danger, this perfect +equanimity, made Burr especially attractive to women, who love courage, +the more so when it is coupled with gentleness and generosity. + +Perhaps no man in our country has been so vehemently accused regarding +his relations with the other sex. The most improbable stories were told +about him, even by his friends. As to his enemies, they took boundless +pains to paint him in the blackest colors. According to them, no woman +was safe from his intrigues. He was a perfect devil in leading them +astray and then casting them aside. + +Thus one Matthew L. Davis, in whom Burr had confided as a friend, wrote +of him long afterward a most unjust account--unjust because we have +proofs that it was false in the intensity of its abuse. Davis wrote: + +It is truly surprising how any individual could become so eminent as a +soldier, as a statesman, and as a professional man who devoted so much +time to the other sex as was devoted by Colonel Burr. For more than +half a century of his life they seemed to absorb his whole thought. His +intrigues were without number; the sacred bonds of friendship were +unhesitatingly violated when they operated as barriers to the +indulgence of his passions. In this particular Burr appears to have +been unfeeling and heartless. + +It is impossible to believe that the Spartan Burr, whose life was one +of incessant labor and whose kindliness toward every one was so well +known, should have deserved a commentary like this. The charge of +immorality is so easily made and so difficult of disproof that it has +been flung promiscuously at all the great men of history, including, in +our own country. + +Washington and Jefferson as well as Burr. In England, when Gladstone +was more than seventy years of age, he once stopped to ask a question +of a woman in the street. Within twenty-four hours the London clubs +were humming with a sort of demoniac glee over the story that this aged +and austere old gentleman was not above seeking common street amours. + +And so with Aaron Burr to a great extent. That he was a man of strict +morality it would be absurd to maintain. That he was a reckless and +licentious profligate would be almost equally untrue. Mr. H. O. Merwin +has very truly said: + +Part of Burr's reputation for profligacy was due, no doubt, to that +vanity respecting women of which Davis himself speaks. He never refused +to accept the parentage of a child. + +"Why do you allow this woman to saddle you with her child when you KNOW +you are not the father of it?" said a friend to him a few months before +his death. + +"Sir," he replied, "when a lady does me the honor to name me the father +of her child I trust I shall always be too gallant to show myself +ungrateful for the favor." + +There are two curious legends relating to Aaron Burr. They serve to +show that his reputation became such that he could not enjoy the +society of a woman without having her regarded as his mistress. + +When he was United States Senator from New York he lived in +Philadelphia at the lodging-house of a Mrs. Payne, whose daughter, +Dorothy Todd, was the very youthful widow of an officer. This young +woman was rather free in her manners, and Burr was very responsive in +his. At the time, however, nothing was thought of it; but presently +Burr brought to the house the serious and somewhat pedantic James +Madison and introduced him to the hoyden. + +Madison was then forty-seven years of age, a stranger to society, but +gradually rising to a prominent position in politics--"the great little +Madison," as Burr rather lightly called him. Before very long he had +proposed marriage to the young widow. She hesitated, and some one +referred the matter to President Washington. The Father of his Country +answered in what was perhaps the only opinion that he ever gave on the +subject of matrimony. It is worth preserving because it shows that he +had a sense of humor: + +For my own part, I never did nor do I believe I ever shall give advice +to a woman who is setting out on a matrimonial voyage ... A woman very +rarely asks an opinion or seeks advice on such an occasion till her +mind is wholly made up, and then it is with the hope and expectation of +obtaining a sanction, and not that she means to be governed by your +disapproval. + +Afterward when Dolly Madison with, her yellow turban and kittenish ways +was making a sensation in Washington society some one recalled her old +association with Burr. At once the story sprang to light that Burr had +been her lover and that he had brought about the match with Madison as +an easy way of getting rid of her. + +There is another curious story which makes Martin Van Buren, eighth +President of the United States, to have been the illegitimate son of +Aaron Burr. There is no earthly reason for believing this, except that +Burr sometimes stopped overnight at the tavern in Kinderhook which was +kept by Van Buren's putative father, and that Van Buren in later life +showed an astuteness equal to that of Aaron Burr himself, so that he +was called by his opponents "the fox of Kinderhook." But, as Van Buren +was born in December of the same year (1782) in which Burr was married +to Theodosia Prevost, the story is utterly improbable when we remember, +as we must, the ardent affection which Burr showed his wife, not only +before their marriage, but afterward until her death. + +Putting aside these purely spurious instances, as well as others cited +by Mr. Parton, the fact remains that Aaron Burr, like Daniel Webster, +found a great attraction in the society of women; that he could please +them and fascinate them to an extraordinary degree; and that during his +later life he must be held quite culpable in this respect. His +love-making was ardent and rapid, as we shall afterward see in the case +of his second marriage. + +Many other stories are told of him. For instance, it is said that he +once took a stage-coach from Jersey City to Philadelphia. The only +other occupant was a woman of high standing and one whose family deeply +hated Aaron Burr. Nevertheless, so the story goes, before they had +reached Newark she was absolutely swayed by his charm of manner; and +when the coach made its last stop before Philadelphia she voluntarily +became his mistress. + +It must also be said that, unlike those of Webster and Hamilton, his +intrigues were never carried on with women of the lower sort. This may +be held by some to deepen the charge against him; but more truly does +it exonerate him, since it really means that in many cases these women +of the world threw themselves at him and sought him as a lover, when +otherwise he might never have thought of them. + +That he was not heartless and indifferent to those who had loved him +may be shown by the great care which he took to protect their names and +reputations. Thus, on the day before his duel with Hamilton, he made a +will in which he constituted his son-in-law as his executor. At the +same time he wrote a sealed letter to Governor Allston in which he said: + +If you can pardon and indulge a folly, I would suggest that Mme. ----, +too well known under the name of Leonora, has claims on my +recollection. She is now with her husband at Santiago, in Cuba. + +Another fact has been turned to his discredit. From many women, in the +course of his long life, he had received a great quantity of letters +written by aristocratic hands on scented paper, and these letters he +had never burned. Here again, perhaps, was shown the vanity of the man +who loved love for its own sake. He kept all these papers in a huge +iron-clamped chest, and he instructed Theodosia in case he should die +to burn every letter which might injure any one. + +After Theodosia's death Burr gave the same instructions to Matthew L. +Davis, who did, indeed, burn them, though he made their existence a +means of blackening the character of Burr. He should have destroyed +them unopened, and should never have mentioned them in his memoirs of +the man who trusted him as a friend. + +Such was Aaron Burr throughout a life which lasted for eighty years. +His last romance, at the age of seventy-eight, is worth narrating +because it has often been misunderstood. + +Mme. Jumel was a Rhode Island girl who at seventeen years of age eloped +with an English officer, Colonel Peter Croix. Her first husband died +while she was still quite young, and she then married a French +wine-merchant, Stephen Jumel, some twenty years her senior, but a man +of much vigor and intelligence. M. Jumel made a considerable fortune in +New York, owning a small merchant fleet; and after Napoleon's downfall +he and his wife went to Paris, where she made a great impression in the +salons by her vivacity and wit and by her lavish expenditures. + +Losing, however, part of what she and her husband possessed, Mme. Jumel +returned to New York, bringing with her a great amount of furniture and +paintings, with which she decorated the historic house still standing +in the upper part of Manhattan Island--a mansion held by her in her own +right. She managed her estate with much ability; and in 1828 M. Jumel +returned to live with her in what was in those days a splendid villa. + +Four years later, however, M. Jumel suffered an accident from which he +died in a few days, leaving his wife still an attractive woman and not +very much past her prime. Soon after she had occasion to seek for legal +advice, and for this purpose visited the law-office of Aaron Burr. She +had known him a good many years before; and, though he was now +seventy-eight years of age, there was no perceptible change in him. He +was still courtly in manner, tactful, and deferential, while physically +he was straight, active, and vigorous. + +A little later she invited him to a formal banquet, where he displayed +all his charms and shone to great advantage. When he was about to lead +her in to dinner, he said: + +"I give my hand, madam; my heart has long been yours." + +These attentions he followed up with several other visits, and finally +proposed that she should marry him. Much fluttered and no less +flattered, she uttered a sort of "No" which was not likely to +discourage a man like Aaron Burr. + +"I shall come to you before very long," he said, "accompanied by a +clergyman; and then you will give me your hand because I want it." + +This rapid sort of wooing was pleasantly embarrassing. The lady rather +liked it; and so, on an afternoon when the sun was shining and the +leaves were rustling in the breeze, Burr drove up to Mme. Jumel's +mansion accompanied by Dr. Bogart--the very clergyman who had married +him to his first wife fifty years before. + +Mme. Jumel was now seriously disturbed, but her refusal was not a +strong one. There were reasons why she should accept the offer. The +great house was lonely. The management of her estate required a man's +advice. Moreover, she was under the spell of Burr's fascination. +Therefore she arrayed herself in one of her most magnificent Paris +gowns; the members of her household and eight servants were called in +and the ceremony was duly performed by Dr. Bogart. A banquet followed. +A dozen cobwebbed bottles of wine were brought up from the cellar, and +the marriage feast went on merrily until after midnight. + +This marriage was a singular one from many points of view. It was +strange that a man of seventy-eight should take by storm the affections +of a woman so much younger than he--a woman of wealth and knowledge of +the world. In the second place, it is odd that there was still another +woman--a mere girl--who was so infatuated with Burr that when she was +told of his marriage it nearly broke her heart. Finally, in the early +part of that same year he had been accused of being the father of a +new-born child, and in spite of his age every one believed the charge +to be true. Here is a case that it would be hard to parallel. + +The happiness of the newly married pair did not, however, last very +long. They made a wedding journey into Connecticut, of which state +Burr's nephew was then Governor, and there Burr saw a monster bridge +over the Connecticut River, in which his wife had shares, though they +brought her little income. He suggested that she should transfer the +investment, which, after all, was not a very large one, and place it in +a venture in Texas which looked promising. The speculation turned out +to be a loss, however, and this made Mrs. Burr extremely angry, the +more so as she had reason to think that her ever-youthful husband had +been engaged in flirting with the country girls near the Jumel mansion. + +She was a woman of high spirit and had at times a violent temper. One +day the post-master at what was then the village of Harlem was +surprised to see Mrs. Burr drive up before the post-office in an open +carriage. He came out to ask what she desired, and was surprised to +find her in a violent temper and with an enormous horse-pistol on each +cushion at her side. + +"What do you wish, madam?" said he, rather mildly. + +"What do I wish?" she cried. "Let me get at that villain Aaron Burr!" + +Presently Burr seems to have succeeded in pacifying her; but in the end +they separated, though she afterward always spoke most kindly of him. +When he died, only about a year later, she is said to have burst into a +flood of tears--another tribute to the fascination which Aaron Burr +exercised through all his checkered life. + +It is difficult to come to any fixed opinion regarding the moral +character of Aaron Burr. As a soldier he was brave to the point of +recklessness. As a political leader he was almost the equal of +Jefferson and quite superior to Hamilton. As a man of the world he was +highly accomplished, polished in manner, charming in conversation. He +made friends easily, and he forgave his enemies with a broadmindedness +that is unusual. + +On the other hand, in his political career there was a touch of +insincerity, and it can scarcely be denied that he used his charm too +often to the injury of those women who could not resist his insinuating +ways and the caressing notes of his rich voice. But as a husband, in +his youth, he was devoted, affectionate, and loyal; while as a father +he was little less than worshiped by the daughter whom he reared so +carefully. + +One of his biographers very truly says that no such wretch as Burr has +been declared to be could have won and held the love of such a wife and +such a daughter as Burr had. + +When all the other witnesses have been heard, let the two Theodosias be +summoned, and especially that daughter who showed toward him an +affectionate veneration unsurpassed by any recorded in history or +romance. Such an advocate as Theodosia the younger must avail in some +degree, even though the culprit were brought before the bar of Heaven +itself. + + + + +GEORGE IV. AND MRS. FITZHERBERT + + +In the last decade of the eighteenth century England was perhaps the +most brilliant nation of the world. Other countries had been humbled by +the splendid armies of France and were destined to be still further +humbled by the emperor who came from Corsica. France had begun to seize +the scepter of power; yet to this picture there was another +side--fearful want and grievous poverty and the horrors of the +Revolution. Russia was too far away, and was still considered too +barbarous, for a brilliant court to flourish there. Prussia had the +prestige that Frederick the Great won for her, but she was still a +comparatively small state. Italy was in a condition of political chaos; +the banks of the Rhine were running blood where the Austrian armies +faced the gallant Frenchmen under the leadership of Moreau. But +England, in spite of the loss of her American colonies, was rich and +prosperous, and her invincible fleets were extending her empire over +the seven seas. + +At no time in modern England has the court at London seen so much real +splendor or such fine manners. The royalist emigres who fled from +France brought with them names and pedigrees that were older than the +Crusades, and many of them were received with the frankest, freest +English hospitality. If here and there some marquis or baron of ancient +blood was perforce content to teach music to the daughters of tradesmen +in suburban schools, nevertheless they were better off than they had +been in France, harried by the savage gaze-hounds of the guillotine. +Afterward, in the days of the Restoration, when they came back to their +estates, they had probably learned more than one lesson from the +bouledogues of Merry England, who had little tact, perhaps, but who +were at any rate kindly and willing to share their goods with pinched +and poverty-stricken foreigners. + +The court, then, as has been said, was brilliant with notables from +Continental countries, and with the historic wealth of the peerage of +England. Only one cloud overspread it; and that was the mental +condition of the king. We have become accustomed to think of George III +as a dull creature, almost always hovering on the verge of that +insanity which finally swept him into a dark obscurity; but Thackeray's +picture of him is absurdly untrue to the actual facts. George III. was +by no means a dullard, nor was he a sort of beefy country squire who +roved about the palace gardens with his unattractive spouse. + +Obstinate enough he was, and ready for a combat with the rulers of the +Continent or with his self-willed sons; but he was a man of brains and +power, and Lord Rosebery has rightly described him as the most striking +constitutional figure of his time. Had he retained his reason, and had +his erratic and self-seeking son not succeeded him during his own +lifetime, Great Britain might very possibly have entered upon other +ways than those which opened to her after the downfall of Napoleon. + +The real center of fashionable England, however, was not George III., +but rather his son, subsequently George IV., who was made Prince of +Wales three days after his birth, and who became prince regent during +the insanity of the king. He was the leader of the social world, the +fit companion of Beau Brummel and of a choice circle of rakes and +fox-hunters who drank pottle-deep. Some called him "the first gentleman +of Europe." Others, who knew him better, described him as one who never +kept his word to man or woman and who lacked the most elementary +virtues. + +Yet it was his good luck during the first years of his regency to be +popular as few English kings have ever been. To his people he typified +old England against revolutionary France; and his youth and gaiety made +many like him. He drank and gambled; he kept packs of hounds and +strings of horses; he ran deeply into debt that he might patronize the +sports of that uproarious day. He was a gallant "Corinthian," a haunter +of dens where there were prize-fights and cock-fights, and there was +hardly a doubtful resort in London where his face was not familiar. + +He was much given to gallantry--not so much, as it seemed, for +wantonness, but from sheer love of mirth and chivalry. For a time, with +his chosen friends, such as Fox and Sheridan, he ventured into reckless +intrigues that recalled the amours of his predecessor, Charles II. He +had by no means the wit and courage of Charles; and, indeed, the house +of Hanover lacked the outward show of chivalry which made the Stuarts +shine with external splendor. But he was good-looking and stalwart, and +when he had half a dozen robust comrades by his side he could assume a +very manly appearance. Such was George IV. in his regency and in his +prime. He made that period famous for its card-playing, its deep +drinking, and for the dissolute conduct of its courtiers and noblemen +no less than for the gallantry of its soldiers and its momentous +victories on sea and land. It came, however, to be seen that his true +achievements were in reality only escapades, that his wit was only +folly, and his so-called "sensibility" was but sham. He invented +buckles, striped waistcoats, and flamboyant collars, but he knew +nothing of the principles of kingship or the laws by which a state is +governed. + +The fact that he had promiscuous affairs with women appealed at first +to the popular sense of the romantic. It was not long, however, before +these episodes were trampled down into the mire of vulgar scandal. + +One of the first of them began when he sent a letter, signed +"Florizel," to a young actress, "Perdita" Robinson. Mrs. Robinson, +whose maiden name was Mary Darby, and who was the original of famous +portraits by Gainsborough and Reynolds, was a woman of beauty, talent, +and temperament. George, wishing in every way to be "romantic," +insisted upon clandestine meetings on the Thames at Kew, with all the +stage trappings of the popular novels--cloaks, veils, faces hidden, and +armed watchers to warn her of approaching danger. Poor Perdita took +this nonsense so seriously that she gave up her natural vocation for +the stage, and forsook her husband, believing that the prince would +never weary of her. + +He did weary of her very soon, and, with the brutality of a man of such +a type, turned her away with the promise of some money; after which he +cut her in the Park and refused to speak to her again. As for the +money, he may have meant to pay it, but Perdita had a long struggle +before she succeeded in getting it. It may be assumed that the prince +had to borrow it and that this obligation formed part of the debts +which Parliament paid for him. + +It is not necessary to number the other women whose heads he turned. +They are too many for remembrance here, and they have no special +significance, save one who, as is generally believed, became his wife +so far as the church could make her so. An act of 1772 had made it +illegal for any member of the English royal family to marry without the +permission of the king. A marriage contracted without the king's +consent might be lawful in the eyes of the church, but the children +born of it could not inherit any claim to the throne. + +It may be remarked here that this withholding of permission was +strictly enforced. Thus William IV., who succeeded George IV., was +married, before his accession to the throne, to Mrs. Jordan (Dorothy +Bland). Afterward he lawfully married a woman of royal birth who was +known as Queen Adelaide. + +There is an interesting story which tells how Queen Victoria came to be +born because her father, the Duke of Kent, was practically forced to +give up a morganatic union which he greatly preferred to a marriage +arranged for him by Parliament. Except the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke +of Kent was the only royal duke who was likely to have children in the +regular line. The only daughter of George IV. had died in childhood. +The Duke of Cumberland was for various reasons ineligible; the Duke of +Clarence, later King William IV., was almost too old; and therefore, to +insure the succession, the Duke of Kent was begged to marry a young and +attractive woman, a princess of the house of Saxe-Coburg, who was ready +for the honor. It was greatly to the Duke's credit that he showed deep +and sincere feeling in this matter. As he said himself in effect: + +"This French lady has stood by me in hard times and in good times, +too--why should I cast her off? She has been more than a wife to me. +And what do I care for your plans in Parliament? Send over for one of +the Stuarts--they are better men than the last lot of our fellows that +you have had!" + +In the end, however, he was wearied out and was persuaded to marry, but +he insisted that a generous sum should be settled on the lady who had +been so long his true companion, and to whom, no doubt, he gave many a +wistful thought in his new but unfamiliar quarters in Kensington +Palace, which was assigned as his residence. + +Again, the second Duke of Cambridge, who died only a few years ago, +greatly desired to marry a lady who was not of royal rank, though of +fine breeding and of good birth. He besought his young cousin, as head +of the family, to grant him this privilege of marriage; but Queen +Victoria stubbornly refused. The duke was married according to the +rites of the church, but he could not make his wife a duchess. The +queen never quite forgave him for his partial defiance of her wishes, +though the duke's wife--she was usually spoken of as Mrs. +FitzGeorge--was received almost everywhere, and two of her sons hold +high rank in the British army and navy, respectively. + +The one real love story in the life of George IV. is that which tells +of his marriage with a lady who might well have been the wife of any +king. This was Maria Anne Smythe, better known as Mrs. Fitzherbert, who +was six years older than the young prince when she first met him in +company with a body of gentlemen and ladies in 1784. + +Maria Fitzherbert's face was one which always displayed its best +advantages. Her eyes were peculiarly languishing, and, as she had +already been twice a widow, and was six years his senior, she had the +advantage over a less experienced lover. Likewise, she was a Catholic, +and so by another act of Parliament any marriage with her would be +illegal. Yet just because of all these different objections the prince +was doubly drawn to her, and was willing to sacrifice even the throne +if he could but win her. + +His father, the king, called him into the royal presence and said: + +"George, it is time that you should settle down and insure the +succession to the throne." + +"Sir," replied the prince, "I prefer to resign the succession and let +my brother have it, and that I should live as a private English +gentleman." + +Mrs. Fitzherbert was not the sort of woman to give herself up readily +to a morganatic connection. Moreover, she soon came to love Prince +George too well to entangle him in a doubtful alliance with one of +another faith than his. Not long after he first met her the prince, who +was always given to private theatricals, sent messengers riding in hot +haste to her house to tell her that he had stabbed himself, that he +begged to see her, and that unless she came he would repeat the act. +The lady yielded, and hurried to Carlton House, the prince's residence; +but she was prudent enough to take with her the Duchess of Devonshire, +who was a reigning beauty of the court. + +The scene which followed was theatrical rather than impressive.--The +prince was found in his sleeping-chamber, pale and with his ruffles +blood-stained. He played the part of a youthful and love-stricken +wooer, vowing that he would marry the woman of his heart or stab +himself again. In the presence of his messengers, who, with the +duchess, were witnesses, he formally took the lady as his wife, while +Lady Devonshire's wedding-ring sealed the troth. The prince also +acknowledged it in a document. + +Mrs. Fitzherbert was, in fact, a woman of sound sense. Shortly after +this scene of melodramatic intensity her wits came back to her, and she +recognized that she had merely gone through a meaningless farce. So she +sent back the prince's document and the ring and hastened to the +Continent, where he could not reach her, although his detectives +followed her steps for a year. + +At the last she yielded, however, and came home to marry the prince in +such fashion as she could--a marriage of love, and surely one of +morality, though not of parliamentary law. The ceremony was performed +"in her own drawing-room in her house in London, in the presence of the +officiating Protestant clergyman and two of her own nearest relatives." + +Such is the serious statement of Lord Stourton, who was Mrs. +Fitzherbert's cousin and confidant. The truth of it was never denied, +and Mrs. Fitzherbert was always treated with respect, and even regarded +as a person of great distinction. Nevertheless, on more than one +occasion the prince had his friends in Parliament deny the marriage in +order that his debts might be paid and new allowances issued to him by +the Treasury. + +George certainly felt himself a husband. Like any other married prince, +he set himself to build a palace for his country home. While in search +of some suitable spot he chanced to visit the "pretty fishing-village" +of Brighton to see his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland. Doubtless he +found it an attractive place, yet this may have been not so much +because of its view of the sea as for the reason that Mrs. Fitzherbert +had previously lived there. + +However, in 1784 the prince sent down his chief cook to make +arrangements for the next royal visit. The cook engaged a house on the +spot where the Pavilion now stands, and from that time Brighton began +to be an extremely fashionable place. The court doctors, giving advice +that was agreeable, recommended their royal patient to take sea-bathing +at Brighton. At once the place sprang into popularity. + +At first the gentry were crowded into lodging-houses and the +accommodations were primitive to a degree. But soon handsome villas +arose on every side; hotels appeared; places of amusement were opened. +The prince himself began to build a tasteless but showy structure, +partly Chinese and partly Indian in style, on the fashionable promenade +of the Steyne. + +During his life with Mrs. Fitzherbert at Brighton the prince held what +was practically a court. Hundreds of the aristocracy came down from +London and made their temporary dwellings there; while thousands who +were by no means of the court made the place what is now popularly +called "London by the Sea." There were the Duc de Chartres, of France; +statesmen and rakes, like Fox, Sheridan, and the Earl of Barrymore; a +very beautiful woman, named Mrs. Couch, a favorite singer at the opera, +to whom the prince gave at one time jewels worth ten thousand pounds; +and a sister of the Earl of Barrymore, who was as notorious as her +brother. She often took the president's chair at a club which George's +friends had organized and which she had christened the Hell Fire Club. + +Such persons were not the only visitors at Brighton. Men of much more +serious demeanor came down to visit the prince and brought with them +quieter society. Nevertheless, for a considerable time the place was +most noted for its wild scenes of revelry, into which George frequently +entered, though his home life with Mrs. Fitzherbert at the Pavilion was +a decorous one. + +No one felt any doubt as to the marriage of the two persons, who seemed +so much like a prince and a princess. Some of the people of the place +addressed Mrs. Fitzherbert as "Mrs. Prince." The old king and his wife, +however, much deplored their son's relation with her. This was partly +due to the fact that Mrs. Fitzherbert was a Catholic and that she had +received a number of French nuns who had been driven out of France at +the time of the Revolution. But no less displeasure was caused by the +prince's racing and dicing, which swelled his debts to almost a million +pounds, so that Parliament and, indeed, the sober part of England were +set against him. + +Of course, his marriage to Mrs. Fitzherbert had no legal status; nor is +there any reason for believing that she ever became a mother. She had +no children by her former two husbands, and Lord Stourton testified +positively that she never had either son or daughter by Prince George. +Nevertheless, more than one American claimant has risen to advance some +utterly visionary claim to the English throne by reason of alleged +descent from Prince George and Mrs. Fitzherbert. + +Neither William IV. nor Queen Victoria ever spent much time at +Brighton. In King William's case it was explained that the dampness of +the Pavilion did not suit him; and as to Queen Victoria, it was said +that she disliked the fact that buildings had been erected so as to cut +off the view of the sea. It is quite likely, however, that the queen +objected to the associations of the place, and did not care to be +reminded of the time when her uncle had lived there so long in a +morganatic state of marriage. + +At length the time came when the king, Parliament, and the people at +large insisted that the Prince of Wales should make a legal marriage, +and a wife was selected for him in the person of Caroline, daughter of +the Duke of Brunswick. This marriage took place exactly ten years after +his wedding with the beautiful and gentle-mannered Mrs. Fitzherbert. +With the latter he had known many days and hours of happiness. With +Princess Caroline he had no happiness at all. + +Prince George met her at the pier to greet her. It is said that as he +took her hand he kissed her, and then, suddenly recoiling, he whispered +to one of his friends: + +"For God's sake, George, give me a glass of brandy!" + +Such an utterance was more brutal and barbaric than anything his bride +could have conceived of, though it is probable, fortunately, that she +did not understand him by reason of her ignorance of English. + +We need not go through the unhappy story of this unsympathetic, +neglected, rebellious wife. Her life with the prince soon became one of +open warfare; but instead of leaving England she remained to set the +kingdom in an uproar. As soon as his father died and he became king, +George sued her for divorce. Half the people sided with the queen, +while the rest regarded her as a vulgar creature who made love to her +attendants and brought dishonor on the English throne. It was a sorry, +sordid contrast between the young Prince George who had posed as a sort +of cavalier and this now furious gray old man wrangling with his +furious German wife. + +Well might he look back to the time when he met Perdita in the +moonlight on the Thames, or when he played the part of Florizel, or, +better still, when he enjoyed the sincere and disinterested love of the +gentle woman who was his wife in all but legal status. Caroline of +Brunswick was thrust away from the king's coronation. She took a house +within sight of Westminster Abbey, so that she might make hag-like +screeches to the mob and to the king as he passed by. Presently, in +August, 1821, only a month after the coronation, she died, and her body +was taken back to Brunswick for burial. + +George himself reigned for nine years longer. When he died in 1830 his +executor was the Duke of Wellington. The duke, in examining the late +king's private papers, found that he had kept with the greatest care +every letter written to him by his morganatic wife. During his last +illness she had sent him an affectionate missive which it is said +George "read eagerly." Mrs. Fitzherbert wished the duke to give up her +letters; but he would do so only in return for those which he had +written to her. + +It was finally decided that it would be best to burn both his and hers. +This work was carried out in Mrs. Fitzherbert's own house by the lady, +the duke, and the Earl of Albemarle. + +Of George it may be said that he has left as memories behind him only +three things that will be remembered. The first is the Pavilion at +Brighton, with its absurdly oriental decorations, its minarets and +flimsy towers. The second is the buckle which he invented and which +Thackeray has immortalized with his biting satire. The last is the +story of his marriage to Maria Fitzherbert, and of the influence +exercised upon him by the affection of a good woman. + + + + +CHARLOTTE CORDAY AND ADAM LUX + + +Perhaps some readers will consider this story inconsistent with those +that have preceded it. Yet, as it is little known to most readers and +as it is perhaps unique in the history of romantic love, I cannot +forbear relating it; for I believe that it is full of curious interest +and pathetic power. + +All those who have written of the French Revolution have paused in +their chronicle of blood and flame to tell the episode of the peasant +Royalist, Charlotte Corday; but in telling it they have often omitted +the one part of the story that is personal and not political. The +tragic record of this French girl and her self-sacrifice has been told +a thousand times by writers in many languages; yet almost all of them +have neglected the brief romance which followed her daring deed and +which was consummated after her death upon the guillotine. It is worth +our while to speak first of Charlotte herself and of the man she slew, +and then to tell that other tale which ought always to be entwined with +her great deed of daring. + +Charlotte Corday--Marie Anne Charlotte Corday d'Armand--was a native of +Normandy, and was descended, as her name implies, from noble ancestors. +Her forefathers, indeed, had been statesmen, civil rulers, and +soldiers, and among them was numbered the famous poet Corneille, whom +the French rank with Shakespeare. But a century or more of vicissitudes +had reduced her branch of the family almost to the position of +peasants--a fact which partly justifies the name that some give her +when they call her "the Jeanne d'Arc of the Revolution." + +She did not, however, spend her girlish years amid the fields and woods +tending her sheep, as did the other Jeanne d'Arc; but she was placed in +charge of the sisters in a convent, and from them she received such +education as she had. She was a lonely child, and her thoughts turned +inward, brooding over many things. + +After she had left the convent she was sent to live with an aunt. Here +she devoted herself to reading over and over the few books which the +house contained. These consisted largely of the deistic writers, +especially Voltaire, and to some extent they destroyed her convent +faith, though it is not likely that she understood them very fully. + +More to her taste was a copy of Plutarch's Lives. These famous stories +fascinated her. They told her of battle and siege, of intrigue and +heroism, and of that romantic love of country which led men to throw +away their lives for the sake of a whole people. Brutus and Regulus +were her heroes. To die for the many seemed to her the most glorious +end that any one could seek. When she thought of it she thrilled with a +sort of ecstasy, and longed with all the passion of her nature that +such a glorious fate might be her own. + +Charlotte had nearly come to womanhood at the time when the French +Revolution first broke out. Royalist though she had been in her +sympathies, she felt the justice of the people's cause. She had seen +the suffering of the peasantry, the brutality of the tax-gatherers, and +all the oppression of the old regime. But what she hoped for was a +democracy of order and equality and peace. Could the king reign as a +constitutional monarch rather than as a despot, this was all for which +she cared. + +In Normandy, where she lived, were many of those moderate republicans +known as Girondists, who felt as she did and who hoped for the same +peaceful end to the great outbreak. On the other hand, in Paris, the +party of the Mountain, as it was called, ruled with a savage violence +that soon was to culminate in the Reign of Terror. Already the +guillotine ran red with noble blood. Already the king had bowed his +head to the fatal knife. Already the threat had gone forth that a mere +breath of suspicion or a pointed finger might be enough to lead men and +women to a gory death. + +In her quiet home near Caen Charlotte Corday heard as from afar the +story of this dreadful saturnalia of assassination which was making +Paris a city of bloody mist. Men and women of the Girondist party came +to tell her of the hideous deeds that were perpetrated there. All these +horrors gradually wove themselves in the young girl's imagination +around the sinister and repulsive figure of Jean Paul Marat. She knew +nothing of his associates, Danton and Robespierre. It was in Marat +alone that she saw the monster who sent innocent thousands to their +graves, and who reveled like some arch-fiend in murder and gruesome +death. + +In his earlier years Marat had been a very different figure--an +accomplished physician, the friend of nobles, a man of science and +original thought, so that he was nearly elected to the Academy of +Sciences. His studies in electricity gained for him the admiration of +Benjamin Franklin and the praise of Goethe. But when he turned to +politics he left all this career behind him. He plunged into the very +mire of red republicanism, and even there he was for a time so much +hated that he sought refuge in London to save his life. + +On his return he was hunted by his enemies, so that his only place of +refuge was in the sewers and drains of Paris. A woman, one Simonne +Evrard, helped him to escape his pursuers. In the sewers, however, he +contracted a dreadful skin-disease from which he never afterward +recovered, and which was extremely painful as well as shocking to +behold. + +It is small wonder that the stories about Marat circulated through the +provinces made him seem more a devil than a man. His vindictiveness +against the Girondists brought all of this straight home to Charlotte +Corday and led her to dream of acting the part of Brutus, so that she +might free her country from this hideous tyrant. + +In January, 1793, King Louis XVI. met his death upon the scaffold; and +the queen was thrust into a foul prison. This was a signal for activity +among the Girondists in Normandy, and especially at Caen, where +Charlotte was present at their meetings and heard their fervid oratory. +There was a plot to march on Paris, yet in some instinctive way she +felt that such a scheme must fail. It was then that she definitely +formed the plan of going herself, alone, to the French capital to seek +out the hideous Marat and to kill him with her own hands. + +To this end she made application for a passport allowing her to visit +Paris. This passport still exists, and it gives us an official +description of the girl. It reads: + +Allow citizen Marie Corday to pass. She is twenty-four years of age, +five feet and one inch in height, hair and eyebrows chestnut color, +eyes gray, forehead high, mouth medium size, chin dimpled, and an oval +face. + +Apart from this verbal description we have two portraits painted while +she was in prison. Both of them make the description of the passport +seem faint and pale. The real Charlotte had a wealth of chestnut hair +which fell about her face and neck in glorious abundance. Her great +gray eyes spoke eloquently of truth and courage. Her mouth was firm yet +winsome, and her form combined both strength and grace. Such is the +girl who, on reaching Paris, wrote to Marat in these words: + +Citizen, I have just arrived from Caen. Your love for your native place +doubtless makes you wish to learn the events which have occurred in +that part of the republic. I shall call at your residence in about an +hour. Be so good as to receive me and give me a brief interview. I will +put you in such condition as to render great service to France. + +This letter failed to gain her admission, and so did another which she +wrote soon after. The fact is that Marat was grievously ill. His +disease had reached a point where the pain could be assuaged only by +hot water; and he spent the greater part of his time wrapped in a +blanket and lying in a large tub. + +A third time, however, the persistent girl called at his house and +insisted that she must see him, saying that she was herself in danger +from the enemies of the Republic. Through an open door Marat heard her +mellow voice and gave orders that she should be admitted. + +As she entered she gazed for a moment upon the lank figure rolling in +the tub, the rat-like face, and the shifting eyes. Then she approached +him, concealing in the bosom of her dress a long carving-knife which +she had purchased for two francs. In answer to Marat's questioning look +she told him that there was much excitement at Caen and that the +Girondists were plotting there. + +To this Marat answered, in his harsh voice: + +"All these men you mention shall be guillotined in the next few days!" + +As he spoke Charlotte flashed out the terrible knife and with all her +strength she plunged it into his left side, where it pierced a lung and +a portion of his heart. + +Marat, with the blood gushing from his mouth, cried out: + +"Help, darling!" + +His cry was meant for one of the two women in the house. Both heard it, +for they were in the next room; and both of them rushed in and +succeeded in pinioning Charlotte Corday, who, indeed, made only a +slight effort to escape. Troops were summoned, she was taken to the +Prison de l'Abbaye, and soon after she was arraigned before the +revolutionary tribunal. + +Placed in the dock, she glanced about her with an air of pride, as of +one who gloried in the act which she had just performed. A written +charge was read. She was asked what she had to say. Lifting her head +with a look of infinite satisfaction, she answered in a ringing voice: + +"Nothing--except that I succeeded!" + +A lawyer was assigned for her defense. He pleaded for her earnestly, +declaring that she must he regarded as insane; but those clear, calm +eyes and that gentle face made her sanity a matter of little doubt. She +showed her quick wit in the answers which she gave to the rough +prosecutor, Fouquier-Tinville, who tried to make her confess that she +had accomplices. + +"Who prompted you to do this deed?" roared Tinville. + +"I needed no prompting. My own heart was sufficient." + +"In what, then, had Marat wronged you?" + +"He was a savage beast who was going to destroy the remains of France +in the fires of civil war." + +"But whom did you expect to benefit?" insinuated the prosecutor. + +"I have killed one man to save a hundred thousand." + +"What? Did you imagine that you had murdered all the Marats?" + +"No, but, this one being dead, the rest will perhaps take warning." + +Thus her directness baffled all the efforts of the prosecution to trap +her into betraying any of her friends. The court, however, sentenced +her to death. She was then immured in the Conciergerie. + +This dramatic court scene was the beginning of that strange, brief +romance to which one can scarcely find a parallel. At the time there +lived in Paris a young German named Adam Lux. The continual talk about +Charlotte Corday had filled him with curiosity regarding this young +girl who had been so daring and so patriotic. She was denounced on +every hand as a murderess with the face of a Medusa and the muscles of +a Vulcan. Street songs about her were dinned into the ears of Adam Lux. + +As a student of human nature he was anxious to see this terrible +creature. He forced his way to the front of the crowded benches in the +court-room and took his stand behind a young artist who was finishing a +beautiful sketch. From that moment until the end of the trial the eyes +of Adam Lux were fastened on the prisoner. What a contrast to the +picture he had imagined! + +A mass of regal chestnut hair crowned with the white cap of a Norman +peasant girl; gray eyes, very sad and serious, but looking serenely +forth from under long, dark lashes; lips slightly curved with an +expression of quiet humor; a face the color of the sun and wind, a bust +indicative of perfect health, the chin of a Caesar, and the whole +expression one of almost divine self-sacrifice. Such were the features +that the painter was swiftly putting upon his canvas; but behind them +Adam Lux discerned the soul for which he gladly sacrificed both his +liberty and his life. + +He forgot his surroundings and seemed to see only that beautiful, pure +face and to hear only the exquisite cadences of the wonderful voice. +When Charlotte was led forth by a file of soldiers Adam staggered from +the scene and made his way as best he might to his lodgings. There he +lay prostrate, his whole soul filled with the love of her who had in an +instant won the adoration of his heart. + +Once, and only once again, when the last scene opened on the tragedy, +did he behold the heroine of his dreams. + +On the 17th of July Charlotte Corday was taken from her prison to the +gloomy guillotine. It was toward evening, and nature had given a +setting fit for such an end. Blue-black thunder-clouds rolled in huge +masses across the sky until their base appeared to rest on the very +summit of the guillotine. Distant thunder rolled and grumbled beyond +the river. Great drops of rain fell upon the soldiers' drums. Young, +beautiful, unconscious of any wrong, Charlotte Corday stood beneath the +shadow of the knife. + +At the supreme moment a sudden ray from the setting sun broke through +the cloud-wrack and fell upon her slender figure until she glowed in +the eyes of the startled spectators like a statue cut in burnished +bronze. Thus illumined, as it were, by a light from heaven itself, she +bowed herself beneath the knife and paid the penalty of a noble, if +misdirected, impulse. As the blade fell her lips quivered with her last +and only plea: + +"My duty is enough--the rest is nothing!" + +Adam Lux rushed from the scene a man transformed. He bore graven upon +his heart neither the mob of tossing red caps nor the glare of the +sunset nor the blood-stained guillotine, but that last look from those +brilliant eyes. The sight almost deprived him of his reason. The +self-sacrifice of the only woman he had ever loved, even though she had +never so much as seen him, impelled him with a sort of fury to his own +destruction. + +He wrote a bitter denunciation of the judges, of the officers, and of +all who had been followers of Marat. This document he printed, and +scattered copies of it through every quarter in Paris. The last +sentences are as follows: + +The guillotine is no longer a disgrace. It has become a sacred altar, +from which every taint has been removed by the innocent blood shed +there on the 17th of July. Forgive me, my divine Charlotte, if I find +it impossible at the last moment to show the courage and the gentleness +that were yours! I glory because you are superior to me, for it is +right that she who is adored should be higher and more glorious than +her adorer! + +This pamphlet, spread broadcast among the people, was soon reported to +the leaders of the rabble. Adam Lux was arrested for treason against +the Republic; but even these men had no desire to make a martyr of this +hot-headed youth. They would stop his mouth without taking his life. +Therefore he was tried and speedily found guilty, but an offer was made +him that he might have passports that would allow him to return to +Germany if only he would sign a retraction of his printed words. + +Little did the judges understand the fiery heart of the man they had to +deal with. To die on the same scaffold as the woman whom he had +idealized was to him the crowning triumph of his romantic love. He gave +a prompt and insolent refusal to their offer. He swore that if released +he would denounce his darling's murderers with a still greater passion. + +In anger the tribunal sentenced him to death. Only then he smiled and +thanked his judges courteously, and soon after went blithely to the +guillotine like a bridegroom to his marriage feast. + +Adam Lux! Spirit courtship had been carried on silently all through +that terrible cross-examination of Charlotte Corday. His heart was +betrothed to hers in that single gleam of the setting sun when she +bowed beneath the knife. One may believe that these two souls were +finally united when the same knife fell sullenly upon his neck and when +his life-blood sprinkled the altar that was still stained with hers. + + + + +NAPOLEON AND MARIE WALEWSKA + + +There are four women who may be said to have deeply influenced the life +of Napoleon. These four are the only ones who need to be taken into +account by the student of his imperial career. The great emperor was +susceptible to feminine charms at all times; but just as it used to be +said of him that "his smile never rose above his eyes," so it might as +truly be said that in most instances the throbbing of his heart did not +affect his actions. + +Women to him were the creatures of the moment, although he might seem +to care for them and to show his affection in extravagant ways, as in +his affair with Mlle. Georges, the beautiful but rather tiresome +actress. As for Mme. de Stael, she bored him to distraction by her +assumption of wisdom. That was not the kind of woman that Napoleon +cared for. He preferred that a woman should be womanly, and not a sort +of owl to sit and talk with him about the theory of government. + +When it came to married women they interested him only because of the +children they might bear to grow up as recruits for his insatiate +armies. At the public balls given at the Tuileries he would walk about +the gorgeous drawing-rooms, and when a lady was presented to him he +would snap out, sharply: + +"How many children have you?" + +If she were able to answer that she had several the emperor would look +pleased and would pay her some compliment; but if she said that she had +none he would turn upon her sharply and say: + +"Then go home and have some!" + +Of the four women who influenced his life, first must come Josephine, +because she secured him his earliest chance of advancement. She met him +through Barras, with whom she was said to be rather intimate. The young +soldier was fascinated by her--the more because she was older than he +and possessed all the practised arts of the creole and the woman of the +world. When she married him she brought him as her dowry the command of +the army of Italy, where in a few months he made the tri-color, borne +by ragged troops, triumphant over the splendidly equipped hosts of +Austria. + +She was his first love, and his knowledge of her perfidy gave him the +greatest shock and horror of his whole life; yet she might have held +him to the end if she had borne an heir to the imperial throne. It was +her failure to do so that led Napoleon to divorce Josephine and marry +the thick-lipped Marie Louise of Austria. There were times later when +he showed signs of regret and said: + +"I have had no luck since I gave up Josephine!" + +Marie Louise was of importance for a time--the short time when she +entertained her husband and delighted him by giving birth to the little +King of Rome. Yet in the end she was but an episode; fleeing from her +husband in his misfortune, becoming the mistress of Count Neipperg, and +letting her son--l'Aiglon--die in a land that was far from France. + +Napoleon's sister, Pauline Bonaparte, was the third woman who comes to +mind when we contemplate the great Corsican's career. She, too, is an +episode. During the period of his ascendancy she plagued him with her +wanton ways, her sauciness and trickery. It was amusing to throw him +into one of his violent rages; but Pauline was true at heart, and when +her great brother was sent to Elba she followed him devotedly and gave +him all her store of jewels, including the famous Borghese diamonds, +perhaps the most superb of all gems known to the western world. She +would gladly have followed him, also, to St. Helena had she been +permitted. Remaining behind, she did everything possible in conspiring +to secure his freedom. + +But, after all, Pauline and Marie Louise count for comparatively +little. Josephine's fate was interwoven with Napoleon's; and, with his +Corsican superstition, he often said so. The fourth woman, of whom I am +writing here, may be said to have almost equaled Josephine in her +influence on the emperor as well as in the pathos of her life-story. + +On New-Year's Day of 1807 Napoleon, who was then almost Emperor of +Europe, passed through the little town of Bronia, in Poland. Riding +with his cavalry to Warsaw, the ancient capital of the Polish kingdom, +he seemed a very demigod of battle. + +True, he had had to abandon his long-cherished design of invading and +overrunning England, and Nelson had shattered his fleets and +practically driven his flag from the sea; but the naval disaster of +Trafalgar had speedily been followed by the triumph of Austerlitz, the +greatest and most brilliant of all Napoleon's victories, which left +Austria and Russia humbled to the very ground before him. + +Then Prussia had dared to defy the over-bearing conqueror and had put +into the field against him her armies trained by Frederick the Great; +but these he had shattered almost at a stroke, winning in one day the +decisive battles of Jena and Auerstadt. He had stabled his horses in +the royal palace of the Hohenzollerns and had pursued the remnant of +the Prussian forces to the Russian border. + +As he marched into the Polish provinces the people swarmed by thousands +to meet him and hail him as their country's savior. They believed down +to the very last that Bonaparte would make the Poles once more a free +and independent nation and rescue them from the tyranny of Russia. + +Napoleon played upon this feeling in every manner known to his artful +mind. He used it to alarm the Czar. He used it to intimidate the +Emperor of Austria; but more especially did he use it among the Poles +themselves to win for his armies thousands upon thousands of gallant +soldiers, who believed that in fighting for Napoleon they were fighting +for the final independence of their native land. + +Therefore, with the intensity of patriotism which is a passion among +the Poles, every man and every woman gazed at Napoleon with something +like adoration; for was not he the mighty warrior who had in his gift +what all desired? Soldiers of every rank swarmed to his standards. +Princes and nobles flocked about him. Those who stayed at home repeated +wonderful stories of his victories and prayed for him and fed the flame +which spread through all the country. It was felt that no sacrifice was +too great to win his favor; that to him, as to a deity, everything that +he desired should be yielded up, since he was to restore the liberty of +Poland. + +And hence, when the carriage of the emperor dashed into Bronia, +surrounded by Polish lancers and French cuirassiers, the enormous crowd +surged forward and blocked the way so that their hero could not pass +because of their cheers and cries and supplications. + +In the midst of it all there came a voice of peculiar sweetness from +the thickest portion of the crowd. + +"Please let me pass!" said the voice. "Let me see him, if only for a +moment!" + +The populace rolled backward, and through the lane which they made a +beautiful girl with dark blue eyes that flamed and streaming hair that +had become loosened about her radiant face was confronting the emperor. +Carried away by her enthusiasm, she cried: + +"Thrice welcome to Poland! We can do or say nothing to express our joy +in the country which you will surely deliver from its tyrant." + +The emperor bowed and, with a smile, handed a great bouquet of roses to +the girl, for her beauty and her enthusiasm had made a deep impression +on him. + +"Take it," said he, "as a proof of my admiration. I trust that I may +have the pleasure of meeting you at Warsaw and of hearing your thanks +from those beautiful lips." + +In a moment more the trumpets rang out shrilly, the horsemen closed up +beside the imperial carriage, and it rolled away amid the tumultuous +shouting of the populace. + +The girl who had so attracted Napoleon's attention was Marie Walewska, +descended from an ancient though impoverished family in Poland. When +she was only fifteen she was courted by one of the wealthiest men in +Poland, the Count Walewska. He was three or four times her age, yet her +dark blue eyes, her massive golden hair, and the exquisite grace of her +figure led him to plead that she might become his wife. She had +accepted him, but the marriage was that of a mere child, and her +interest still centered upon her country and took the form of +patriotism rather than that of wifehood and maternity. + +It was for this reason that the young Countess had visited Bronia. She +was now eighteen years of age and still had the sort of romantic +feeling which led her to think that she would keep in some secret +hiding-place the bouquet which the greatest man alive had given her. + +But Napoleon was not the sort of man to forget anything that had given +him either pleasure or the reverse. He who, at the height of his cares, +could recall instantly how many cannon were in each seaport of France +and could make out an accurate list of all his military stores; he who +could call by name every soldier in his guard, with a full remembrance +of the battles each man had fought in and the honors that he had +won--he was not likely to forget so lovely a face as the one which had +gleamed with peculiar radiance through the crowd at Bronia. + +On reaching Warsaw he asked one or two well-informed persons about this +beautiful stranger. Only a few hours had passed before Prince +Poniatowski, accompanied by other nobles, called upon her at her home. + +"I am directed, madam," said he, "by order of the Emperor of France, to +bid you to be present at a ball that is to be given in his honor +to-morrow evening." + +Mme. Walewska was startled, and her face grew hot with blushes. Did the +emperor remember her escapade at Bronia? If so, how had he discovered +her? Why should he seek her out and do her such an honor? + +"That, madam, is his imperial majesty's affair," Poniatowski told her. +"I merely obey his instructions and ask your presence at the ball. +Perhaps Heaven has marked you out to be the means of saving our unhappy +country." + +In this way, by playing on her patriotism, Poniatowski almost persuaded +her, and yet something held her back. She trembled, though she was +greatly fascinated; and finally she refused to go. + +Scarcely had the envoy left her, however, when a great company of +nobles entered in groups and begged her to humor the emperor. Finally +her own husband joined in their entreaties and actually commanded her +to go; so at last she was compelled to yield. + +It was by no means the frank and radiant girl who was now preparing +again to meet the emperor. She knew not why, and yet her heart was full +of trepidation and nervous fright, the cause of which she could not +guess, yet which made her task a severe ordeal. She dressed herself in +white satin, with no adornment save a wreath of foliage in her hair. + +As she entered the ballroom she was welcomed by hundreds whom she had +never seen before, but who were of the highest nobility of Poland. +Murmurs of admiration followed her, and finally Poniatowski came to her +and complimented her, besides bringing her a message that the emperor +desired her to dance with him. + +"I am very sorry," she said, with a quiver of the lips, "but I really +cannot dance. Be kind enough to ask the emperor to excuse me." + +But at that very moment she felt some strange magnetic influence; and +without looking up she could feel that Napoleon himself was standing by +her as she sat with blanched face and downcast eyes, not daring to look +up at him. + +"White upon white is a mistake, madam," said the emperor, in his +gentlest tones. Then, stooping low, he whispered, "I had expected a far +different reception." + +She neither smiled nor met his eyes. He stood there for a moment and +then passed on, leaving her to return to her home with a heavy heart. +The young countess felt that she had acted wrongly, and yet there was +an instinct--an instinct that she could not conquer. + +In the gray of the morning, while she was still tossing feverishly, her +maid knocked at the door and brought her a hastily scribbled note. It +ran as follows: + +I saw none but you, I admired none but you; I desire only you. Answer +at once, and calm the impatient ardor of--N. + +These passionate words burned from her eyes the veil that had hidden +the truth from her. What before had been mere blind instinct became an +actual verity. Why had she at first rushed forth into the very streets +to hail the possible deliverer of her country, and then why had she +shrunk from him when he sought to honor her! It was all clear enough +now. This bedside missive meant that he had intended her dishonor and +that he had looked upon her simply as a possible mistress. + +At once she crushed the note angrily in her hand. + +"There is no answer at all," said she, bursting into bitter tears at +the very thought that he should dare to treat her in this way. + +But on the following morning when she awoke her maid was standing +beside her with a second letter from Napoleon. She refused to open it +and placed it in a packet with the first letter, and ordered that both +of them should be returned to the emperor. + +She shrank from speaking to her husband of what had happened, and there +was no one else in whom she dared confide. All through that day there +came hundreds of visitors, either of princely rank or men who had won +fame by their gallantry and courage. They all begged to see her, but to +them all she sent one answer--that she was ill and could see no one. + +After a time her husband burst into her room, and insisted that she +should see them. + +"Why," exclaimed he, "you are insulting the greatest men and the +noblest women of Poland! More than that, there are some of the most +distinguished Frenchmen sitting at your doorstep, as it were. There is +Duroc, grand marshal of France, and in refusing to see him you are +insulting the great emperor on whom depends everything that our country +longs for. Napoleon has invited you to a state dinner and you have +given him no answer whatever. I order you to rise at once and receive +these ladies and gentlemen who have done you so much honor!" + +She could not refuse. Presently she appeared in her drawing-room, where +she was at once surrounded by an immense throng of her own countrymen +and countrywomen, who made no pretense of misunderstanding the +situation. To them, what was one woman's honor when compared with the +freedom and independence of their nation? She was overwhelmed by +arguments and entreaties. She was even accused of being disloyal to the +cause of Poland if she refused her consent. + +One of the strangest documents of that period was a letter sent to her +and signed by the noblest men in Poland. It contained a powerful appeal +to her patriotism. One remarkable passage even quotes the Bible to +point out her line of duty. A portion of this letter ran as follows: + +Did Esther, think you, give herself to Ahasuerus out of the fulness of +her love for him? So great was the terror with which he inspired her +that she fainted at the sight of him. We may therefore conclude that +affection had but little to do with her resolve. She sacrificed her own +inclinations to the salvation of her country, and that salvation it was +her glory to achieve. May we be enabled to say the same of you, to your +glory and our own happiness! + +After this letter came others from Napoleon himself, full of the most +humble pleading. It was not wholly distasteful thus to have the +conqueror of the world seek her out and offer her his adoration any +more than it was distasteful to think that the revival of her own +nation depended on her single will. M. Frederic Masson, whose minute +studies regarding everything relating to Napoleon have won him a seat +in the French Academy, writes of Marie Walewska at this time: Every +force was now brought into play against her. Her country, her friends, +her religion, the Old and the New Testaments, all urged her to yield; +they all combined for the ruin of a simple and inexperienced girl of +eighteen who had no parents, whose husband even thrust her into +temptation, and whose friends thought that her downfall would be her +glory. + +Amid all these powerful influences she consented to attend the dinner. +To her gratification Napoleon treated her with distant courtesy, and, +in fact, with a certain coldness. + +"I heard that Mme. Walewska was indisposed. I trust that she has +recovered," was all the greeting that he gave her when they met. + +Every one else with whom she spoke overwhelmed her with flattery and +with continued urging; but the emperor himself for a time acted as if +she had displeased him. This was consummate art; for as soon as she was +relieved of her fears she began to regret that she had thrown her power +away. + +During the dinner she let her eyes wander to those of the emperor +almost in supplication. He, the subtlest of men, knew that he had won. +His marvelous eyes met hers and drew her attention to him as by an +electric current; and when the ladies left the great dining-room +Napoleon sought her out and whispered in her ear a few words of ardent +love. + +It was too little to alarm her seriously now. It was enough to make her +feel that magnetism which Napoleon knew so well how to evoke and +exercise. Again every one crowded about her with congratulations. Some +said: + +"He never even saw any of US. His eyes were all for YOU! They flashed +fire as he looked at you." + +"You have conquered his heart," others said, "and you can do what you +like with him. The salvation of Poland is in your hands." + +The company broke up at an early hour, but Mme. Walewska was asked to +remain. When she was alone General Duroc--one of the emperor's favorite +officers and most trusted lieutenants--entered and placed a letter from +Napoleon in her lap. He tried to tell her as tactfully as possible how +much harm she was doing by refusing the imperial request. She was +deeply affected, and presently, when Duroc left her, she opened the +letter which he had given her and read it. It was worded thus: + +There are times when all splendors become oppressive, as I feel but too +deeply at the present moment. How can I satisfy the desires of a heart +that yearns to cast itself at your feet, when its impulses are checked +at every point by considerations of the highest moment? Oh, if you +would, you alone might overcome the obstacles that keep us apart. MY +FRIEND DUROC WILL MAKE ALL EASY FOR YOU. Oh, come, come! Your every +wish shall be gratified! Your country will be dearer to me when you +take pity on my poor heart. N. + +Every chance of escape seemed to be closed. She had Napoleon's own word +that he would free Poland in return for her self-sacrifice. Moreover, +her powers of resistance had been so weakened that, like many women, +she temporized. She decided that she would meet the emperor alone. She +would tell him that she did not love him, and yet would plead with him +to save her beloved country. + +As she sat there every tick of the clock stirred her to a new +excitement. At last there came a knock upon the door, a cloak was +thrown about her from behind, a heavy veil was drooped about her golden +hair, and she was led, by whom she knew not, to the street, where a +finely appointed carriage was waiting for her. + +No sooner had she entered it than she was driven rapidly through the +darkness to the beautifully carved entrance of a palace. Half led, half +carried, she was taken up the steps to a door which was eagerly opened +by some one within. There were warmth and light and color and the scent +of flowers as she was placed in a comfortable arm-chair. Her wrappings +were taken from her, the door was closed behind her; and then, as she +looked up, she found herself in the presence of Napoleon, who was +kneeling at her feet and uttering soothing words. + +Wisely, the emperor used no violence. He merely argued with her; he +told her over and over his love for her; and finally he declared that +for her sake he would make Poland once again a strong and splendid +kingdom. + +Several hours passed. In the early morning, before daylight, there came +a knock at the door. + +"Already?" said Napoleon. "Well, my plaintive dove, go home and rest. +You must not fear the eagle. In time you will come to love him, and in +all things you shall command him." + +Then he led her to the door, but said that he would not open it unless +she promised to see him the next day--a promise which she gave the more +readily because he had treated her with such respect. + +On the following morning her faithful maid came to her bedside with a +cluster of beautiful violets, a letter, and several daintily made +morocco cases. When these were opened there leaped out strings and +necklaces of exquisite diamonds, blazing in the morning sunlight. Mme. +Walewska seized the jewels and flung them across the room with an order +that they should be taken back at once to the imperial giver; but the +letter, which was in the same romantic strain as the others, she +retained. + +On that same evening there was another dinner, given to the emperor by +the nobles, and Marie Walewska attended it, but of course without the +diamonds, which she had returned. Nor did she wear the flowers which +had accompanied the diamonds. + +When Napoleon met her he frowned upon her and made her tremble with the +cold glances that shot from his eyes of steel. He scarcely spoke to her +throughout the meal, but those who sat beside her were earnest in their +pleading. + +Again she waited until the guests had gone away, and with a lighter +heart, since she felt that she had nothing to fear. But when she met +Napoleon in his private cabinet, alone, his mood was very different +from that which he had shown before. Instead of gentleness and +consideration he was the Napoleon of camps, and not of courts. He +greeted her bruskly. + +"I scarcely expected to see you again," said he. "Why did you refuse my +diamonds and my flowers? Why did you avoid my eyes at dinner? Your +coldness is an insult which I shall not brook." Then he raised his +voice to that rasping, almost blood-curdling tone which even his +hardiest soldiers dreaded: "I will have you know that I mean to conquer +you. You SHALL--yes, I repeat it, you SHALL love me! I have restored +the name of your country. It owes its very existence to me." + +Then he resorted to a trick which he had played years before in dealing +with the Austrians at Campo Formio. + +"See this watch which I am holding in my hand. Just as I dash it to +fragments before you, so will I shatter Poland if you drive me to +desperation by rejecting my heart and refusing me your own." + +As he spoke he hurled the watch against the opposite wall with terrific +force, dashing it to pieces. In terror, Mme. Walewska fainted. When she +resumed consciousness there was Napoleon wiping away her tears with the +tenderness of a woman and with words of self-reproach. + +The long siege was over. Napoleon had conquered, and this girl of +eighteen gave herself up to his caresses and endearments, thinking +that, after all, her love of country was more than her own honor. + +Her husband, as a matter of form, put her away from him, though at +heart he approved what she had done, while the Polish people regarded +her as nothing less than a national heroine. To them she was no +minister to the vices of an emperor, but rather one who would make him +love Poland for her sake and restore its greatness. + +So far as concerned his love for her, it was, indeed, almost idolatry. +He honored her in every way and spent all the time at his disposal in +her company. But his promise to restore Poland he never kept, and +gradually she found that he had never meant to keep it. + +"I love your country," he would say, "and I am willing to aid in the +attempt to uphold its rights, but my first duty is to France. I cannot +shed French blood in a foreign cause." + +By this time, however, Marie Walewska had learned to love Napoleon for +his own sake. She could not resist his ardor, which matched the ardor +of the Poles themselves. Moreover, it flattered her to see the greatest +soldier in the world a suppliant for her smiles. + +For some years she was Napoleon's close companion, spending long hours +with him and finally accompanying him to Paris. She was the mother of +Napoleon's only son who lived to manhood. This son, who bore the name +of Alexandre Florian de Walewski, was born in Poland in 1810, and later +was created a count and duke of the second French Empire. It may be +said parenthetically that he was a man of great ability. Living down to +1868, he was made much of by Napoleon III., who placed him in high +offices of state, which he filled with distinction. In contrast with +the Duc de Morny, who was Napoleon's illegitimate half-brother, +Alexandre de Walewski stood out in brilliant contrast. He would have +nothing to do with stock-jobbing and unseemly speculation. + +"I may be poor," he said--though he was not poor--"but at least I +remember the glory of my father and what is due to his great name." + +As for Mme. Walewska, she was loyal to the emperor, and lacked the +greed of many women whom he had made his favorites. Even at Elba, when +he was in exile and disgrace, she visited him that she might endeavor +to console him. She was his counselor and friend as well as his +earnestly loved mate. When she died in Paris in 1817, while the +dethroned emperor was a prisoner at St. Helena, the word "Napoleon" was +the last upon her lips. + + + + +THE STORY OF PAULINE BONAPARTE + + +It was said of Napoleon long ago that he could govern emperors and +kings, but that not even he could rule his relatives. He himself once +declared: + +"My family have done me far more harm than I have been able to do them +good." + +It would be an interesting historical study to determine just how far +the great soldier's family aided in his downfall by their selfishness, +their jealousy, their meanness, and their ingratitude. + +There is something piquant in thinking of Napoleon as a domestic sort +of person. Indeed, it is rather difficult to do so. When we speak his +name we think of the stern warrior hurling his armies up bloody slopes +and on to bloody victory. He is the man whose steely eyes made his +haughtiest marshals tremble, or else the wise, far-seeing statesman and +lawgiver; but decidedly he is not a household model. We read of his +sharp speech to women, of his outrageous manners at the dinner-table, +and of the thousand and one details which Mme. de Remusat has +chronicled--and perhaps in part invented, for there has always existed +the suspicion that her animus was that of a woman who had herself +sought the imperial favor and had failed to win it. + +But, in fact, all these stories relate to the Napoleon of courts and +palaces, and not to the Napoleon of home. In his private life this +great man was not merely affectionate and indulgent, but he even showed +a certain weakness where his relatives were concerned, so that he let +them prey upon him almost without end. + +He had a great deal of the Italian largeness and lavishness of +character with his family. When a petty officer he nearly starved +himself in order to give his younger brother, Louis, a military +education. He was devotedly fond of children, and they were fond of +him, as many anecdotes attest. His passionate love for Josephine before +he learned of her infidelity is almost painful to read of; and even +afterward, when he had been disillusioned, and when she was paying +Fouche a thousand francs a day to spy upon Napoleon's every action, he +still treated her with friendliness and allowed her extravagance to +embarrass him. + +He made his eldest brother, Joseph, King of Spain, and Spain proved +almost as deadly to him as did Russia. He made his youngest brother, +Jerome, King of Westphalia, and Jerome turned the palace into a pigsty +and brought discredit on the very name of Bonaparte. His brother Louis, +for whom he had starved himself, he placed upon the throne of Holland, +and Louis promptly devoted himself to his own interests, conniving at +many things which were inimical to France. He was planning high +advancement for his brother Lucien, and Lucien suddenly married a +disreputable actress and fled with her to England, where he was +received with pleasure by the most persistent of all Napoleon's enemies. + +So much for his brothers--incompetent, ungrateful, or openly his foes. +But his three sisters were no less remarkable in the relations which +they bore to him. They have been styled "the three crowned courtesans," +and they have been condemned together as being utterly void of +principle and monsters of ingratitude. + +Much of this censure was well deserved by all of them--by Caroline and +Elise and Pauline. But when we look at the facts impartially we shall +find something which makes Pauline stand out alone as infinitely +superior to her sisters. Of all the Bonapartes she was the only one who +showed fidelity and gratitude to the great emperor, her brother. Even +Mme. Mere, Napoleon's mother, who beyond all question transmitted to +him his great mental and physical power, did nothing for him. At the +height of his splendor she hoarded sous and francs and grumblingly +remarked: + +"All this is for a time. It isn't going to last!" + +Pauline, however, was in one respect different from all her kindred. +Napoleon made Elise a princess in her own right and gave her the Grand +Duchy of Tuscany. He married Caroline to Marshal Murat, and they became +respectively King and Queen of Naples. For Pauline he did very +little--less, in fact, than for any other member of his family--and yet +she alone stood by him to the end. + +This feather-headed, languishing, beautiful, distracting morsel of +frivolity, who had the manners of a kitten and the morals of a cat, +nevertheless was not wholly unworthy to be Napoleon's sister. One has +to tell many hard things of her; and yet one almost pardons her because +of her underlying devotion to the man who made the name of Bonaparte +illustrious for ever. Caroline, Queen of Naples, urged her husband to +turn against his former chief. Elise, sour and greedy, threw in her +fortunes with the Murats. Pauline, as we shall see, had the one +redeeming trait of gratitude. + +To those who knew her she was from girlhood an incarnation of what used +to be called "femininity." We have to-day another and a higher +definition of womanhood, but to her contemporaries, and to many modern +writers, she has seemed to be first of all woman--"woman to the tips of +her rosy finger-nails," says Levy. Those who saw her were distracted by +her loveliness. They say that no one can form any idea of her beauty +from her pictures. "A veritable masterpiece of creation," she had been +called. Frederic Masson declares: + +She was so much more the typical woman that with her the defects common +to women reached their highest development, while her beauty attained a +perfection which may justly be called unique. + +No one speaks of Pauline Bonaparte's character or of her intellect, but +wholly of her loveliness and charm, and, it must be added, of her utter +lack of anything like a moral sense. + +Even as a child of thirteen, when the Bonapartes left Corsica and took +up their abode in Marseilles, she attracted universal attention by her +wonderful eyes, her grace, and also by the utter lack of decorum which +she showed. The Bonaparte girls at this time lived almost on charity. +The future emperor was then a captain of artillery and could give them +but little out of his scanty pay. + +Pauline--or, as they called her in those days, Paulette--wore +unbecoming hats and shabby gowns, and shoes that were full of holes. +None the less, she was sought out by several men of note, among them +Freron, a commissioner of the Convention. He visited Pauline so often +as to cause unfavorable comment; but he was in love with her, and she +fell in love with him to the extent of her capacity. She used to write +him love letters in Italian, which were certainly not lacking in ardor. +Here is the end of one of them: + +I love you always and most passionately. I love you for ever, my +beautiful idol, my heart, my appealing lover. I love you, love you, +love you, the most loved of lovers, and I swear never to love any one +else! + +This was interesting in view of the fact that soon afterward she fell +in love with Junot, who became a famous marshal. But her love affairs +never gave her any serious trouble; and the three sisters, who now +began to feel the influence of Napoleon's rise to power, enjoyed +themselves as they had never done before. At Antibes they had a +beautiful villa, and later a mansion at Milan. + +By this time Napoleon had routed the Austrians in Italy, and all France +was ringing with his name. What was Pauline like in her maidenhood? +Arnault says: + +She was an extraordinary combination of perfect physical beauty and the +strangest moral laxity. She was as pretty as you please, but utterly +unreasonable. She had no more manners than a school-girl--talking +incoherently, giggling at everything and nothing, and mimicking the +most serious persons of rank. + +General de Ricard, who knew her then, tells in his monograph of the +private theatricals in which Pauline took part, and of the sport which +they had behind the scenes. He says: + +The Bonaparte girls used literally to dress us. They pulled our ears +and slapped us, but they always kissed and made up later. We used to +stay in the girls' room all the time when they were dressing. + +Napoleon was anxious to see his sisters in some way settled. He +proposed to General Marmont to marry Pauline. The girl was then only +seventeen, and one might have had some faith in her character. But +Marmont was shrewd and knew her far too well. The words in which he +declined the honor are interesting: + +"I know that she is charming and exquisitely beautiful; yet I have +dreams of domestic happiness, of fidelity, and of virtue. Such dreams +are seldom realized, I know. Still, in the hope of winning them--" + +And then he paused, coughed, and completed what he had to say in a sort +of mumble, but his meaning was wholly clear. He would not accept the +offer of Pauline in marriage, even though she was the sister of his +mighty chief. + +Then Napoleon turned to General Leclerc, with whom Pauline had for some +time flirted, as she had flirted with almost all the officers of +Napoleon's staff. Leclerc was only twenty-six. He was rich and of good +manners, but rather serious and in poor health. This was not precisely +the sort of husband for Pauline, if we look at it in the conventional +way; but it served Napoleon's purpose and did not in the least +interfere with his sister's intrigues. + +Poor Leclerc, who really loved Pauline, grew thin, and graver still in +manner. He was sent to Spain and Portugal, and finally was made +commander-in-chief of the French expedition to Haiti, where the famous +black rebel, Toussaint l'Ouverture, was heading an uprising of the +negroes. + +Napoleon ordered Pauline to accompany her husband. Pauline flatly +refused, although she made this an occasion for ordering "mountains of +pretty clothes and pyramids of hats." But still she refused to go on +board the flag-ship. Leclerc expostulated and pleaded, but the lovely +witch laughed in his face and still persisted that she would never go. + +Word was brought to Napoleon. He made short work of her resistance. + +"Bring a litter," he said, with one of his steely glances. "Order six +grenadiers to thrust her into it, and see that she goes on board +forthwith." + +And so, screeching like an angry cat, she was carried on board, and set +sail with her husband and one of her former lovers. She found Haiti and +Santo Domingo more agreeable than she had supposed. She was there a +sort of queen who could do as she pleased and have her orders +implicitly obeyed. Her dissipation was something frightful. Her folly +and her vanity were beyond belief. + +But at the end of two years both she and her husband fell ill. He was +stricken down by the yellow fever, which was decimating the French +army. Pauline was suffering from the results of her life in a tropical +climate. Leclerc died, the expedition was abandoned, and Pauline +brought the general's body back to France. When he was buried she, +still recovering from her fever, had him interred in a costly coffin +and paid him the tribute of cutting off her beautiful hair and burying +it with him. + +"What a touching tribute to her dead husband!" said some one to +Napoleon. + +The emperor smiled cynically as he remarked: + +"H'm! Of course she knows that her hair is bound to fall out after her +fever, and that it will come in longer and thicker for being cropped." + +Napoleon, in fact, though he loved Pauline better than his other +sisters--or perhaps because he loved her better--was very strict with +her. He obliged her to wear mourning, and to observe some of the +proprieties; but it was hard to keep her within bounds. + +Presently it became noised about that Prince Camillo Borghese was +exceedingly intimate with her. The prince was an excellent specimen of +the fashionable Italian. He was immensely rich. His palace at Rome was +crammed with pictures, statues, and every sort of artistic treasure. He +was the owner, moreover, of the famous Borghese jewels, the finest +collection of diamonds in the world. + +Napoleon rather sternly insisted upon her marrying Borghese. +Fortunately, the prince was very willing to be connected with Napoleon; +while Pauline was delighted at the idea of having diamonds that would +eclipse all the gems which Josephine possessed; for, like all of the +Bonapartes, she detested her brother's wife. So she would be married +and show her diamonds to Josephine. It was a bit of feminine malice +which she could not resist. + +The marriage took place very quietly at Joseph Bonaparte's house, +because of the absence of Napoleon; but the newly made princess was +invited to visit Josephine at the palace of Saint-Cloud. Here was to be +the triumph of her life. She spent many days in planning a toilet that +should be absolutely crushing to Josephine. Whatever she wore must be a +background for the famous diamonds. Finally she decided on green velvet. + +When the day came Pauline stood before a mirror and gazed at herself +with diamonds glistening in her hair, shimmering around her neck, and +fastened so thickly on her green velvet gown as to remind one of a +moving jewel-casket. She actually shed tears for joy. Then she entered +her carriage and drove out to Saint-Cloud. + +But the Creole Josephine, though no longer young, was a woman of great +subtlety as well as charm. Stories had been told to her of the green +velvet, and therefore she had her drawing-room redecorated in the most +uncompromising blue. It killed the green velvet completely. As for the +diamonds, she met that maneuver by wearing not a single gem of any +kind. Her dress was an Indian muslin with a broad hem of gold. + +Her exquisite simplicity, coupled with her dignity of bearing, made the +Princess Pauline, with her shower of diamonds, and her green velvet +displayed against the blue, seem absolutely vulgar. Josephine was most +generous in her admiration of the Borghese gems, and she kissed Pauline +on parting. The victory was hers. + +There is another story of a defeat which Pauline met from another lady, +one Mme. de Coutades. This was at a magnificent ball given to the most +fashionable world of Paris. Pauline decided upon going, and intended, +in her own phrase, to blot out every woman there. She kept the secret +of her toilet absolutely, and she entered the ballroom at the +psychological moment, when all the guests had just assembled. + +She appeared; and at sight of her the music stopped, silence fell upon +the assemblage, and a sort of quiver went through every one. Her +costume was of the finest muslin bordered with golden palm-leaves. Four +bands, spotted like a leopard's skin, were wound about her head, while +these in turn were supported by little clusters of golden grapes. She +had copied the head-dress of a Bacchante in the Louvre. All over her +person were cameos, and just beneath her breasts she wore a golden band +held in place by an engraved gem. Her beautiful wrists, arms, and hands +were bare. She had, in fact, blotted out her rivals. + +Nevertheless, Mme. de Coutades took her revenge. She went up to +Pauline, who was lying on a divan to set off her loveliness, and began +gazing at the princess through a double eye-glass. Pauline felt +flattered for a moment, and then became uneasy. The lady who was +looking at her said to a companion, in a tone of compassion: + +"What a pity! She really would be lovely if it weren't for THAT!" + +"For what?" returned her escort. + +"Why, are you blind? It's so remarkable that you SURELY must see it." + +Pauline was beginning to lose her self-composure. She flushed and +looked wildly about, wondering what was meant. Then she heard Mme. +Coutades say: + +"Why, her ears. If I had such ears as those I would cut them off!" + +Pauline gave one great gasp and fainted dead away. As a matter of fact, +her ears were not so bad. They were simply very flat and colorless, +forming a contrast with the rosy tints of her face. But from that +moment no one could see anything but these ears; and thereafter the +princess wore her hair low enough to cover them. + +This may be seen in the statue of her by Canova. It was considered a +very daring thing for her to pose for him in the nude, for only a bit +of drapery is thrown over her lower limbs. Yet it is true that this +statue is absolutely classical in its conception and execution, and its +interest is heightened by the fact that its model was what she +afterward styled herself, with true Napoleonic pride--"a sister of +Bonaparte." + +Pauline detested Josephine and was pleased when Napoleon divorced her; +but she also disliked the Austrian archduchess, Marie Louise, who was +Josephine's successor. On one occasion, at a great court function, she +got behind the empress and ran out her tongue at her, in full view of +all the nobles and distinguished persons present. Napoleon's eagle eye +flashed upon Pauline and blazed like fire upon ice. She actually took +to her heels, rushed out of the ball, and never visited the court again. + +It would require much time to tell of her other eccentricities, of her +intrigues, which were innumerable, of her quarrel with her husband, and +of the minor breaches of decorum with which she startled Paris. One of +these was her choice of a huge negro to bathe her every morning. When +some one ventured to protest, she answered, naively: + +"What! Do you call that thing a MAN?" + +And she compromised by compelling her black servitor to go out and +marry some one at once, so that he might continue his ministrations +with propriety! + +To her Napoleon showed himself far more severe than with either +Caroline or Elise. He gave her a marriage dowry of half a million +francs when she became the Princess Borghese, but after that he was +continually checking her extravagances. Yet in 1814, when the downfall +came and Napoleon was sent into exile at Elba, Pauline was the only one +of all his relatives to visit him and spend her time with him. His wife +fell away and went back to her Austrian relatives. Of all the +Bonapartes only Pauline and Mme. Mere remained faithful to the emperor. + +Even then Napoleon refused to pay a bill of hers for sixty-two francs, +while he allowed her only two hundred and forty francs for the +maintenance of her horses. But she, with a generosity of which one +would have thought her quite incapable, gave to her brother a great +part of her fortune. When he escaped from Elba and began the campaign +of 1815 she presented him with all the Borghese diamonds. In fact, he +had them with him in his carriage at Waterloo, where they were captured +by the English. Contrast this with the meanness and ingratitude of her +sisters and her brothers, and one may well believe that she was +sincerely proud of what it meant to be la soeur de Bonaparte. + +When he was sent to St. Helena she was ill in bed and could not +accompany him. Nevertheless, she tried to sell all her trinkets, of +which she was so proud, in order that she might give him help. When he +died she received the news with bitter tears "on hearing all the +particulars of that long agony." + +As for herself, she did not long survive. At the age of forty-four her +last moments came. Knowing that she was to die, she sent for Prince +Borghese and sought a reconciliation. But, after all, she died as she +had lived--"the queen of trinkets" (la reine des colifichets). She +asked the servant to bring a mirror. She gazed into it with her dying +eyes; and then, as she sank back, it was with a smile of deep content. + +"I am not afraid to die," she said. "I am still beautiful!" + + + + +THE STORY OF THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE AND COUNT NEIPPERG + + +There is one famous woman whom history condems while at the same time +it partly hides the facts which might mitigate the harshness of the +judgment that is passed upon her. This woman is Marie Louise, Empress +of France, consort of the great Napoleon, and archduchess of imperial +Austria. When the most brilliant figure in all history, after his +overthrow in 1814, was in tawdry exile on the petty island of Elba, the +empress was already about to become a mother; and the father of her +unborn child was not Napoleon, but another man. This is almost all that +is usually remembered of her--that she was unfaithful to Napoleon, that +she abandoned him in the hour of his defeat, and that she gave herself +with readiness to one inferior in rank, yet with whom she lived for +years, and to whom she bore what a French writer styled "a brood of +bastards." + +Naturally enough, the Austrian and German historians do not have much +to say of Marie Louise, because in her own disgrace she also brought +disgrace upon the proudest reigning family in Europe. Naturally, also, +French writers, even those who are hostile to Napoleon, do not care to +dwell upon the story; since France itself was humiliated when its +greatest genius and most splendid soldier was deceived by his Austrian +wife. Therefore there are still many who know little beyond the bare +fact that the Empress Marie Louise threw away her pride as a princess, +her reputation as a wife, and her honor as a woman. Her figure seems to +crouch in a sort of murky byway, and those who pass over the highroad +of history ignore it with averted eyes. + +In reality the story of Napoleon and Marie Louise and of the Count von +Neipperg is one which, when you search it to the very core, leads you +straight to a sex problem of a very curious nature. Nowhere else does +it occur in the relations of the great personages of history; but in +literature Balzac, that master of psychology, has touched upon the +theme in the early chapters of his famous novel called "A Woman of +Thirty." + +As to the Napoleonic story, let us first recall the facts of the case, +giving them in such order that their full significance may be +understood. + +In 1809 Napoleon, then at the plenitude of his power, shook himself +free from the clinging clasp of Josephine and procured the annulment of +his marriage to her. He really owed her nothing. Before he knew her she +had been the mistress of another. In the first years of their life +together she had been notoriously unfaithful to him. He had held to her +from habit which was in part a superstition; but the remembrance of the +wrong which she had done him made her faded charms at times almost +repulsive. And then Josephine had never borne him any children; and +without a son to perpetuate his dynasty, the gigantic achievements +which he had wrought seemed futile in his eyes, and likely to crumble +into nothingness when he should die. + +No sooner had the marriage been annulled than his titanic ambition +leaped, as it always did, to a tremendous pinnacle. He would wed. He +would have children. But he would wed no petty princess. This man who +in his early youth had felt honored by a marriage with the almost +declassee widow of a creole planter now stretched out his hand that he +might take to himself a woman not merely royal but imperial. + +At first he sought the sister of the Czar of Russia; but Alexander +entertained a profound distrust of the French emperor, and managed to +evade the tentative demand. There was, however, a reigning family far +more ancient than the Romanoffs--a family which had held the imperial +dignity for nearly six centuries--the oldest and the noblest blood in +Europe. This was the Austrian house of Hapsburg. Its head, the Emperor +Francis, had thirteen children, of whom the eldest, the Archduchess +Marie Louise, was then in her nineteenth year. + +Napoleon had resented the rebuff which the Czar had given him. He +turned, therefore, the more eagerly to the other project. Yet there +were many reasons why an Austrian marriage might be dangerous, or, at +any rate, ill-omened. Only sixteen years before, an Austrian +arch-duchess, Marie Antoinette, married to the ruler of France, had met +her death upon the scaffold, hated and cursed by the French people, who +had always blamed "the Austrian" for the evil days which had ended in +the flames of revolution. Again, the father of the girl to whom +Napoleon's fancy turned had been the bitter enemy of the new regime in +France. His troops had been beaten by the French in five wars and had +been crushed at Austerlitz and at Wagram. Bonaparte had twice entered +Vienna at the head of a conquering army, and thrice he had slept in the +imperial palace at Schonbrunn, while Francis was fleeing through the +dark, a beaten fugitive pursued by the swift squadrons of French +cavalry. + +The feeling of Francis of Austria was not merely that of the vanquished +toward the victor. It was a deep hatred almost religious in its fervor. +He was the head and front of the old-time feudalism of birth and blood; +Napoleon was the incarnation of the modern spirit which demolished +thrones and set an iron heel upon crowned heads, giving the sacred +titles of king and prince to soldiers who, even in palaces, still +showed the swaggering brutality of the camp and the stable whence they +sprang. Yet, just because an alliance with the Austrian house seemed in +so many ways impossible, the thought of it inflamed the ardor of +Napoleon all the more. + +"Impossible?" he had once said, contemptuously. "The word 'impossible' +is not French." + +The Austrian alliance, unnatural though it seemed, was certainly quite +possible. In the year 1809 Napoleon had finished his fifth war with +Austria by the terrific battle of Wagram, which brought the empire of +the Hapsburgs to the very dust. The conqueror's rude hand had stripped +from Francis province after province. He had even let fall hints that +the Hapsburgs might be dethroned and that Austria might disappear from +the map of Europe, to be divided between himself and the Russian Czar, +who was still his ally. It was at this psychological moment that the +Czar wounded Napoleon's pride by refusing to give the hand of his +sister Anne. + +The subtle diplomats of Vienna immediately saw their chance. Prince +Metternich, with the caution of one who enters the cage of a +man-eating-tiger, suggested that the Austrian archduchess would be a +fitting bride for the French conqueror. The notion soothed the wounded +vanity of Napoleon. From that moment events moved swiftly; and before +long it was understood that there was to be a new empress in France, +and that she was to be none other than the daughter of the man who had +been Napoleon's most persistent foe upon the Continent. The girl was to +be given--sacrificed, if you like--to appease an imperial adventurer. +After such a marriage, Austria would be safe from spoliation. The +reigning dynasty would remain firmly seated upon its historic throne. + +But how about the girl herself? She had always heard Napoleon spoken of +as a sort of ogre--a man of low ancestry, a brutal and faithless enemy +of her people. She knew that this bold, rough-spoken soldier less than +a year before had added insult to the injury which he had inflicted on +her father. In public proclamations he had called the Emperor Francis a +coward and a liar. Up to the latter part of the year Napoleon was to +her imagination a blood-stained, sordid, and yet all-powerful monster, +outside the pale of human liking and respect. What must have been her +thoughts when her father first told her with averted face that she was +to become the bride of such a being? + +Marie Louise had been brought up, as all German girls of rank were then +brought up, in quiet simplicity and utter innocence. In person she was +a tall blonde, with a wealth of light brown hair tumbling about a face +which might be called attractive because it was so youthful and so +gentle, but in which only poets and courtiers could see beauty. Her +complexion was rosy, with that peculiar tinge which means that in the +course of time it will become red and mottled. Her blue eyes were clear +and childish. Her figure was good, though already too full for a girl +who was younger than her years. + +She had a large and generous mouth with full lips, the lower one being +the true "Hapsburg lip," slightly pendulous--a feature which has +remained for generation after generation as a sure sign of Hapsburg +blood. One sees it in the present emperor of Austria, in the late Queen +Regent of Spain, and in the present King of Spain, Alfonso. All the +artists who made miniatures or paintings of Marie Louise softened down +this racial mark so that no likeness of her shows it as it really was. +But take her all in all, she was a simple, childlike, German madchen +who knew nothing of the outside world except what she had heard from +her discreet and watchful governess, and what had been told her of +Napoleon by her uncles, the archdukes whom he had beaten down in battle. + +When she learned that she was to be given to the French emperor her +girlish soul experienced a shudder; but her father told her how vital +was this union to her country and to him. With a sort of piteous dread +she questioned the archdukes who had called Napoleon an ogre. + +"Oh, that was when Napoleon was an enemy," they replied. "Now he is our +friend." + +Marie Louise listened to all this, and, like the obedient German girl +she was, yielded her own will. + +Events moved with a rush, for Napoleon was not the man to dally. +Josephine had retired to her residence at Malmaison, and Paris was +already astir with preparations for the new empress who was to assure +the continuation of the Napoleonic glory by giving children to her +husband. Napoleon had said to his ambassador with his usual bluntness: + +"This is the first and most important thing--she must have children." + +To the girl whom he was to marry he sent the following letter--an odd +letter, combining the formality of a negotiator with the veiled ardor +of a lover: + +MY COUSIN: The brilliant qualities which adorn your person have +inspired in me a desire to serve you and to pay you homage. In making +my request to the emperor, your father, and praying him to intrust to +me the happiness of your imperial highness, may I hope that you will +understand the sentiments which lead me to this act? May I flatter +myself that it will not be decided solely by the duty of parental +obedience? However slightly the feelings of your imperial highness may +incline to me, I wish to cultivate them with so great care, and to +endeavor so constantly to please you in everything, that I flatter +myself that some day I shall prove attractive to you. This is the end +at which I desire to arrive, and for which I pray your highness to be +favorable to me. + +Immediately everything was done to dazzle the imagination of the girl. +She had dressed always in the simplicity of the school-room. Her only +ornaments had been a few colored stones which she sometimes wore as a +necklace or a bracelet. Now the resources of all France were drawn +upon. Precious laces foamed about her. Cascades of diamonds flashed +before her eyes. The costliest and most exquisite creations of the +Parisian shops were spread around her to make up a trousseau fit for +the princess who was soon to become the bride of the man who had +mastered continental Europe. + +The archives of Vienna were ransacked for musty documents which would +show exactly what had been done for other Austrian princesses who had +married rulers of France. Everything was duplicated down to the last +detail. Ladies-in-waiting thronged about the young archduchess; and +presently there came to her Queen Caroline of Naples, Napoleon's +sister, of whom Napoleon himself once said: "She is the only man among +my sisters, as Joseph is the only woman among my brothers." Caroline, +by virtue of her rank as queen, could have free access to her husband's +future bride. Also, there came presently Napoleon's famous marshal, +Berthier, Prince of Neuchatel, the chief of the Old Guard, who had just +been created Prince of Wagram--a title which, very naturally, he did +not use in Austria. He was to act as proxy for Napoleon in the +preliminary marriage service at Vienna. + +All was excitement. Vienna had never been so gay. Money was lavished +under the direction of Caroline and Berthier. There were illuminations +and balls. The young girl found herself the center of the world's +interest; and the excitement made her dizzy. She could not but be +flattered, and yet there were many hours when her heart misgave her. +More than once she was found in tears. Her father, an affectionate +though narrow soul, spent an entire day with her consoling and +reassuring her. One thought she always kept in mind--what she had said +to Metternich at the very first: "I want only what my duty bids me +want." At last came the official marriage, by proxy, in the presence of +a splendid gathering. The various documents were signed, the dowry was +arranged for. Gifts were scattered right and left. At the opera there +were gala performances. Then Marie Louise bade her father a sad +farewell. Almost suffocated by sobs and with her eyes streaming with +tears, she was led between two hedges of bayonets to her carriage, +while cannon thundered and all the church-bells of Vienna rang a joyful +peal. + +She set out for France accompanied by a long train of carriages filled +with noblemen and noblewomen, with ladies-in-waiting and scores of +attendant menials. The young bride--the wife of a man whom she had +never seen--was almost dead with excitement and fatigue. At a station +in the outskirts of Vienna she scribbled a few lines to her father, +which are a commentary upon her state of mind: + +I think of you always, and I always shall. God has given me power to +endure this final shock, and in Him alone I have put all my trust. He +will help me and give me courage, and I shall find support in doing my +duty toward you, since it is all for you that I have sacrificed myself. + +There is something piteous in this little note of a frightened girl +going to encounter she knew not what, and clinging almost frantically +to the one thought--that whatever might befall her, she was doing as +her father wished. + +One need not recount the long and tedious journey of many days over +wretched roads, in carriages that jolted and lurched and swayed. She +was surrounded by unfamiliar faces and was compelled to meet at every +town the chief men of the place, all of whom paid her honor, but stared +at her with irrepressible curiosity. Day after day she went on and on. +Each morning a courier on a foaming horse presented her with a great +cluster of fresh flowers and a few lines scrawled by the unknown +husband who was to meet her at her journey's end. + +There lay the point upon which her wandering thoughts were focused--the +journey's end! The man whose strange, mysterious power had forced her +from her school-room, had driven her through a nightmare of strange +happenings, and who was waiting for her somewhere to take her to +himself, to master her as he had mastered generals and armies! + +What was marriage? What did it mean? What experience still lay before +her! These were the questions which she must have asked herself +throughout that long, exhausting journey. When she thought of the past +she was homesick. When she thought of the immediate future she was +fearful with a shuddering fear. + +At last she reached the frontier of France, and her carriage passed +into a sort of triple structure, the first pavilion of which was +Austrian, while the middle pavilion was neutral, and the farther one +was French. Here she was received by those who were afterward to +surround her--the representatives of the Napoleonic court. They were +not all plebeians and children of the Revolution, ex-stable boys, +ex-laundresses. By this time Napoleon had gathered around himself some +of the noblest families of France, who had rallied to the empire. The +assemblage was a brilliant one. There were Montmorencys and Beaumonts +and Audenardes in abundance. But to Marie Louise, as to her Austrian +attendants, they were all alike. They were French, they were strangers, +and she shrank from them. + +Yet here her Austrians must leave her. All who had accompanied her thus +far were now turned back. Napoleon had been insistent on this point. +Even her governess, who had been with her since her childhood, was not +allowed to cross the French frontier. So fixed was Napoleon's purpose +to have nothing Austrian about her, that even her pet dog, to which she +clung as a girl would cling, was taken from her. Thereafter she was +surrounded only by French faces, by French guards, and was greeted only +by salvos of French artillery. + +In the mean time what was Napoleon doing at Paris. Since the annulment +of his marriage with Josephine he had gone into a sort of retirement. +Matters of state, war, internal reforms, no longer interested him; but +that restless brain could not sink into repose. Inflamed with the ardor +of a new passion, that passion was all the greater because he had never +yet set eyes upon its object. Marriage with an imperial princess +flattered his ambition. The youth and innocence of the bride stirred +his whole being with a thrill of novelty. The painted charms of +Josephine, the mercenary favors of actresses, the calculated ecstasies +of the women of the court who gave themselves to him from vanity, had +long since palled upon him. Therefore the impatience with which he +awaited the coming of Marie Louise became every day more tense. + +For a time he amused himself with planning down to the very last +details the demonstrations that were to be given in her honor. He +organized them as minutely as he had ever organized a conquering army. +He showed himself as wonderful in these petty things as he had in those +great strategic combinations which had baffled the ablest generals of +Europe. But after all had been arranged--even to the illuminations, the +cheering, the salutes, and the etiquette of the court--he fell into a +fever of impatience which gave him sleepless nights and frantic days. +He paced up and down the Tuileries, almost beside himself. He hurried +off courier after courier with orders that the postilions should lash +their horses to bring the hour of meeting nearer still. He scribbled +love letters. He gazed continually on the diamond-studded portrait of +the woman who was hurrying toward him. + +At last as the time approached he entered a swift traveling-carriage +and hastened to Compiegne, about fifty miles from Paris, where it had +been arranged that he should meet his consort and whence he was to +escort her to the capital, so that they might be married in the great +gallery of the Louvre. At Compiegne the chancellerie had been set apart +for Napoleon's convenience, while the chateau had been assigned to +Marie Louise and her attendants. When Napoleon's carriage dashed into +the place, drawn by horses that had traveled at a gallop, the emperor +could not restrain himself. It was raining torrents and night was +coming on, yet, none the less, he shouted for fresh horses and pushed +on to Soissons, where the new empress was to stop and dine. When he +reached there and she had not arrived, new relays of horses were +demanded, and he hurried off once more into the dark. + +At the little village of Courcelles he met the courier who was riding +in advance of the empress's cortege. + +"She will be here in a few moments!" cried Napoleon; and he leaped from +his carriage into the highway. + +The rain descended harder than ever, and he took refuge in the arched +doorway of the village church, his boots already bemired, his great +coat reeking with the downpour. As he crouched before the church he +heard the sound of carriages; and before long there came toiling +through the mud the one in which was seated the girl for whom he had so +long been waiting. It was stopped at an order given by an officer. +Within it, half-fainting with fatigue and fear, Marie Louise sat in the +dark, alone. + +Here, if ever, was the chance for Napoleon to win his bride. Could he +have restrained himself, could he have shown the delicate consideration +which was demanded of him, could he have remembered at least that he +was an emperor and that the girl--timid and shuddering--was a princess, +her future story might have been far different. But long ago he had +ceased to think of anything except his own desires. + +He approached the carriage. An obsequious chamberlain drew aside the +leathern covering and opened the door, exclaiming as he did so, "The +emperor!" And then there leaped in the rain-soaked, mud-bespattered +being whose excesses had always been as unbridled as his genius. The +door was closed, the leathern curtain again drawn, and the horses set +out at a gallop for Soissons. Within, the shrinking bride was at the +mercy of pure animal passion, feeling upon her hot face a torrent of +rough kisses, and yielding herself in terror to the caresses of wanton +hands. + +At Soissons Napoleon allowed no halt, but the carriage plunged on, +still in the rain, to Compiegne. There all the arrangements made with +so much care were thrust aside. Though the actual marriage had not yet +taken place, Napoleon claimed all the rights which afterward were given +in the ceremonial at Paris. He took the girl to the chancellerie, and +not to the chateau. In an anteroom dinner was served with haste to the +imperial pair and Queen Caroline. Then the latter was dismissed with +little ceremony, the lights were extinguished, and this daughter of a +line of emperors was left to the tender mercies of one who always had +about him something of the common soldier--the man who lives for loot +and lust. ... At eleven the next morning she was unable to rise and was +served in bed by the ladies of her household. + +These facts, repellent as they are, must be remembered when we call to +mind what happened in the next five years. The horror of that night +could not be obliterated by splendid ceremonies, by studious attention, +or by all the pomp and gaiety of the court. Napoleon was then +forty-one--practically the same age as his new wife's father, the +Austrian emperor; Marie Louise was barely nineteen and younger than her +years. Her master must have seemed to be the brutal ogre whom her +uncles had described. + +Installed in the Tuileries, she taught herself compliance. On their +marriage night Napoleon had asked her briefly: "What did your parents +tell you?" And she had answered, meekly: "To be yours altogether and to +obey you in everything." But, though she gave compliance, and though +her freshness seemed enchanting to Napoleon, there was something +concealed within her thoughts to which he could not penetrate. He gaily +said to a member of the court: + +"Marry a German, my dear fellow. They are the best women in the +world--gentle, good, artless, and as fresh as roses." + +Yet, at the same time, Napoleon felt a deep anxiety lest in her very +heart of hearts this German girl might either fear or hate him +secretly. Somewhat later Prince Metternich came from the Austrian court +to Paris. + +"I give you leave," said Napoleon, "to have a private interview with +the empress. Let her tell you what she likes, and I shall ask no +questions. Even should I do so, I now forbid your answering me." + +Metternich was closeted with the empress for a long while. When he +returned to the ante-room he found Napoleon fidgeting about, his eyes a +pair of interrogation-points. + +"I am sure," he said, "that the empress told you that I was kind to +her?" + +Metternich bowed and made no answer. + +"Well," said Napoleon, somewhat impatiently, "at least I am sure that +she is happy. Tell me, did she not say so?" + +The Austrian diplomat remained unsmiling. + +"Your majesty himself has forbidden me to answer," he returned with +another bow. + +We may fairly draw the inference that Marie Louise, though she adapted +herself to her surroundings, was never really happy. Napoleon became +infatuated with her. He surrounded her with every possible mark of +honor. He abandoned public business to walk or drive with her. But the +memory of his own brutality must have vaguely haunted him throughout it +all. He was jealous of her as he had never been jealous of the fickle +Josephine. Constant has recorded that the greatest precautions were +taken to prevent any person whatsoever, and especially any man, from +approaching the empress save in the presence of witnesses. + +Napoleon himself underwent a complete change of habits and demeanor. +Where he had been rough and coarse he became attentive and refined. His +shabby uniforms were all discarded, and he spent hours in trying on new +costumes. He even attempted to learn to waltz, but this he gave up in +despair. Whereas before he ate hastily and at irregular intervals, he +now sat at dinner with unusual patience, and the court took on a +character which it had never had. Never before had he sacrificed either +his public duty or his private pleasure for any woman. Even in the +first ardor of his marriage with Josephine, when he used to pour out +his heart to her in letters from Italian battle-fields, he did so only +after he had made the disposition of his troops and had planned his +movements for the following day. Now, however, he was not merely +devoted, but uxorious; and in 1811, after the birth of the little King +of Rome, he ceased to be the earlier Napoleon altogether. He had +founded a dynasty. He was the head of a reigning house. He forgot the +principles of the Revolution, and he ruled, as he thought, like other +monarchs, by the grace of God. + +As for Marie Louise, she played her part extremely well. Somewhat +haughty and unapproachable to others, she nevertheless studied +Napoleon's every wish. She seemed even to be loving; but one can +scarcely doubt that her obedience sprang ultimately from fear and that +her devotion was the devotion of a dog which has been beaten into +subjection. + +Her vanity was flattered in many ways, and most of all by her +appointment as regent of the empire during Napoleon's absence in the +disastrous Russian campaign which began in 1812. It was in June of that +year that the French emperor held court at Dresden, where he played, as +was said, to "a parterre of kings." This was the climax of his +magnificence, for there were gathered all the sovereigns and princes +who were his allies and who furnished the levies that swelled his Grand +Army to six hundred thousand men. Here Marie Louise, like her husband, +felt to the full the intoxication of supreme power. By a sinister +coincidence it was here that she first met the other man, then +unnoticed and little heeded, who was to cast upon her a fascination +which in the end proved irresistible. + +This man was Adam Albrecht, Count von Neipperg. There is something +mysterious about his early years, and something baleful about his +silent warfare with Napoleon. As a very young soldier he had been an +Austrian officer in 1793. His command served in Belgium; and there, in +a skirmish, he was overpowered by the French in superior numbers, but +resisted desperately. In the melee a saber slashed him across the right +side of his face, and he was made prisoner. The wound deprived him of +his right eye, so that for the rest of his life he was compelled to +wear a black bandage to conceal the mutilation. + +From that moment he conceived an undying hatred of the French, serving +against them in the Tyrol and in Italy. He always claimed that had the +Archduke Charles followed his advice, the Austrians would have forced +Napoleon's army to capitulate at Marengo, thus bringing early eclipse +to the rising star of Bonaparte. However this may be, Napoleon's +success enraged Neipperg and made his hatred almost the hatred of a +fiend. + +Hitherto he had detested the French as a nation. Afterward he +concentrated his malignity upon the person of Napoleon. In every way he +tried to cross the path of that great soldier, and, though Neipperg was +comparatively an unknown man, his indomitable purpose and his continued +intrigues at last attracted the notice of the emperor; for in 1808 +Napoleon wrote this significant sentence: + +The Count von Neipperg is openly known to have been the enemy of the +French. + +Little did the great conqueror dream how deadly was the blow which this +Austrian count was destined finally to deal him! + +Neipperg, though his title was not a high one, belonged to the old +nobility of Austria. He had proved his bravery in war and as a duelist, +and he was a diplomat as well as a soldier. Despite his mutilation, he +was a handsome and accomplished courtier, a man of wide experience, and +one who bore himself in a manner which suggested the spirit of romance. +According to Masson, he was an Austrian Don Juan, and had won the +hearts of many women. At thirty he had formed a connection with an +Italian woman named Teresa Pola, whom he had carried away from her +husband. She had borne him five children; and in 1813 he had married +her in order that these children might be made legitimate. + +In his own sphere the activity of Neipperg was almost as remarkable as +Napoleon's in a greater one. Apart from his exploits on the field of +battle he had been attached to the Austrian embassy in Paris, and, +strangely enough, had been decorated by Napoleon himself with, the +golden eagle of the Legion of Honor. Four months later we find him +minister of Austria at the court of Sweden, where he helped to lay the +train of intrigue which was to detach Bernadotte from Napoleon's cause. +In 1812, as has just been said, he was with Marie Louise for a short +time at Dresden, hovering about her, already forming schemes. Two years +after this he overthrew Murat at Naples; and then hurried on post-haste +to urge Prince Eugene to abandon Bonaparte. + +When the great struggle of 1814 neared its close, and Napoleon, +fighting with his back to the wall, was about to succumb to the united +armies of Europe, it was evident that the Austrian emperor would soon +be able to separate his daughter from her husband. In fact, when +Napoleon was sent to Elba, Marie Louise returned to Vienna. The cynical +Austrian diplomats resolved that she should never again meet her +imperial husband. She was made Duchess of Parma in Italy, and set out +for her new possessions; and the man with the black band across his +sightless eye was chosen to be her escort and companion. + +When Neipperg received this commission he was with Teresa Pola at +Milan. A strange smile flitted across his face; and presently he +remarked, with cynical frankness: + +"Before six months I shall be her lover, and, later on, her husband." + +He took up his post as chief escort of Marie Louise, and they journeyed +slowly to Munich and Baden and Geneva, loitering on the way. Amid the +great events which were shaking Europe this couple attracted slight +attention. Napoleon, in Elba, longed for his wife and for his little +son, the King of Rome. He sent countless messages and many couriers; +but every message was intercepted, and no courier reached his +destination. Meanwhile Marie Louise was lingering agreeably in +Switzerland. She was happy to have escaped from the whirlpool of +politics and war. Amid the romantic scenery through which she passed +Neipperg was always by her side, attentive, devoted, trying in +everything to please her. With him she passed delightful evenings. He +sang to her in his rich barytone songs of love. He seemed romantic with +a touch of mystery, a gallant soldier whose soul was also touched by +sentiment. + +One would have said that Marie Louise, the daughter of an imperial +line, would have been proof against the fascinations of a person so far +inferior to herself in rank, and who, beside the great emperor, was +less than nothing. Even granting that she had never really loved +Napoleon, she might still have preferred to maintain her dignity, to +share his fate, and to go down in history as the empress of the +greatest man whom modern times have known. + +But Marie Louise was, after all, a woman, and she followed the guidance +of her heart. To her Napoleon was still the man who had met her amid +the rain-storm at Courcelles, and had from the first moment when he +touched her violated all the instincts of a virgin. Later he had in his +way tried to make amends; but the horror of that first night had never +wholly left her memory. Napoleon had unrolled before her the drama of +sensuality, but her heart had not been given to him. She had been his +empress. In a sense it might be more true to say that she had been his +mistress. But she had never been duly wooed and won and made his +wife--an experience which is the right of every woman. And so this +Neipperg, with his deferential manners, his soothing voice, his +magnetic touch, his ardor, and his devotion, appeased that craving +which the master of a hundred legions could not satisfy. + +In less than the six months of which Neipperg had spoken the +psychological moment had arrived. In the dim twilight she listened to +his words of love; and then, drawn by that irresistible power which +masters pride and woman's will, she sank into her lover's arms, +yielding to his caresses, and knowing that she would be parted from him +no more except by death. + +From that moment he was bound to her by the closest ties and lived with +her at the petty court of Parma. His prediction came true to the very +letter. Teresa Pola died, and then Napoleon died, and after this Marie +Louise and Neipperg were united in a morganatic marriage. Three +children were born to them before his death in 1829. + +It is interesting to note how much of an impression was made upon her +by the final exile of her imperial husband to St. Helena. When the news +was brought her she observed, casually: + +"Thanks. By the way, I should like to ride this morning to Markenstein. +Do you think the weather is good enough to risk it?" + +Napoleon, on his side, passed through agonies of doubt and longing when +no letters came to him from Marie Louise. She was constantly in his +thoughts during his exile at St. Helena. "When his faithful friend and +constant companion at St. Helena, the Count Las Casas, was ordered by +Sir Hudson Lowe to depart from St. Helena, Napoleon wrote to him: + +"Should you see, some day, my wife and son, embrace them. For two years +I have, neither directly nor indirectly, heard from them. There has +been on this island for six months a German botanist, who has seen them +in the garden of Schoenbrunn a few months before his departure. The +barbarians (meaning the English authorities at St. Helena) have +carefully prevented him from coming to give me any news respecting +them." + +At last the truth was told him, and he received it with that high +magnanimity, or it may be fatalism, which at times he was capable of +showing. Never in all his days of exile did he say one word against +her. Possibly in searching his own soul he found excuses such as we may +find. In his will he spoke of her with great affection, and shortly +before his death he said to his physician, Antommarchi: + +"After my death, I desire that you will take my heart, put it in the +spirits of wine, and that you carry it to Parma to my dear Marie +Louise. You will please tell her that I tenderly loved her--that I +never ceased to love her. You will relate to her all that you have +seen, and every particular respecting my situation and death." + +The story of Marie Louise is pathetic, almost tragic. There is the +taint of grossness about it; and yet, after all, there is a lesson in +it--the lesson that true love cannot be forced or summoned at command, +that it is destroyed before its birth by outrage, and that it goes out +only when evoked by sympathy, by tenderness, and by devotion. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Famous Affinities of History, V2, by Lyndon Orr + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY, V2 *** + +***** This file should be named 4690.txt or 4690.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/6/9/4690/ + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. 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We need your donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 +Find out about how to make a donation at the bottom of this file. + + + +Title: Famous Affinities of History V2 + The Romance of Devotion +ŒFú‰^øëeÄ^ø&€uN&Ä_ &ƒ +Author: Lyndon Orr + +Release Date: November, 2003 [Etext #4690] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 3, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Famous Affinities of History V2, by Lyndon Orr +This file should be named ffnt210.txt or ffnt210.zip + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, ffnt211.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, ffnt210a.txt + +This text was produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +The "legal small print" and other information about this book +may now be found at the end of this file. Please read this +important information, as it gives you specific rights and +tells you about restrictions in how the file may be used. + + + + + + + + + + +FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY + +THE ROMANCE OF DEVOTION + +BY LYNDON ORR + +VOLUME II of IV. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE EMPRESS CATHARINE AND PRINCE POTEMKIN +MARIE ANTOINETTE AND COUNT FERSEN +THE STORY OF AARON BURR +GEORGE IV. AND MRS. FITZHERBERT +CHARLOTTE CORDAY AND ADAM LUX +NAPOLEON AND MARIE WALEWSKA +THE STORY OF PAULINE BONAPARTE +THE STORY OF THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE AND COUNT NEIPPERG + + + + + +THE EMPRESS CATHARINE AND PRINCE POTEMKIN + + +It has often been said that the greatest Frenchman who ever lived +was in reality an Italian. It might with equal truth be asserted +that the greatest Russian woman who ever lived was in reality a +German. But the Emperor Napoleon and the Empress Catharine II. +resemble each other in something else. Napoleon, though Italian in +blood and lineage, made himself so French in sympathy and +understanding as to be able to play upon the imagination of all +France as a great musician plays upon a splendid instrument, with +absolute sureness of touch and an ability to extract from it every +one of its varied harmonies. So the Empress Catharine of Russia-- +perhaps the greatest woman who ever ruled a nation--though born of +German parents, became Russian to the core and made herself the +embodiment of Russian feeling and Russian aspiration. + +At the middle of the eighteenth century Russia was governed by the +Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great. In her own time, +and for a long while afterward, her real capacity was obscured by +her apparent indolence, her fondness for display, and her seeming +vacillation; but now a very high place is accorded her in the +history of Russian rulers. She softened the brutality that had +reigned supreme in Russia. She patronized the arts. Her armies +twice defeated Frederick the Great and raided his capital, Berlin. +Had Elizabeth lived, she would probably have crushed him. + +In her early years this imperial woman had been betrothed to Louis +XV. of France, but the match was broken off. Subsequently she +entered into a morganatic marriage and bore a son who, of course, +could not be her heir. In 1742, therefore, she looked about for a +suitable successor, and chose her nephew, Prince Peter of +Holstein-Gottorp. + +Peter, then a mere youth of seventeen, was delighted with so +splendid a future, and came at once to St. Petersburg. The empress +next sought for a girl who might marry the young prince and thus +become the future Czarina. She thought first of Frederick the +Great's sister; but Frederick shrank from this alliance, though it +would have been of much advantage to him. He loved his sister-- +indeed, she was one of the few persons for whom he ever really +cared. So he declined the offer and suggested instead the young +Princess Sophia of the tiny duchy of Anhalt-Zerbst. + +The reason for Frederick's refusal was his knowledge of the semi- +barbarous conditions that prevailed at the Russian court. + +The Russian capital, at that time, was a bizarre, half-civilized, +half-oriental place, where, among the very highest-born, a thin +veneer of French elegance covered every form of brutality and +savagery and lust. It is not surprising, therefore, that Frederick +the Great was unwilling to have his sister plunged into such a +life. + +But when the Empress Elizabeth asked the Princess Sophia of +Anhalt-Zerbst to marry the heir to the Russian throne the young +girl willingly accepted, the more so as her mother practically +commanded it. This mother of hers was a grim, harsh German woman +who had reared her daughter in the strictest fashion, depriving +her of all pleasure with a truly puritanical severity. In the case +of a different sort of girl this training would have crushed her +spirit; but the Princess Sophia, though gentle and refined in +manner, had a power of endurance which was toughened and +strengthened by the discipline she underwent. + +And so in 1744, when she was but sixteen years of age, she was +taken by her mother to St. Petersburg. There she renounced the +Lutheran faith and was received into the Greek Church, changing +her name to Catharine. Soon after, with great magnificence, she +was married to Prince Peter, and from that moment began a career +which was to make her the most powerful woman in the world. + +At this time a lady of the Russian court wrote down a description +of Catharine's appearance. She was fair-haired, with dark-blue +eyes; and her face, though never beautiful, was made piquant and +striking by the fact that her brows were very dark in contrast +with her golden hair. Her complexion was not clear, yet her look +was a very pleasing one. She had a certain diffidence of manner at +first; but later she bore herself with such instinctive dignity as +to make her seem majestic, though in fact she was beneath the +middle size. At the time of her marriage her figure was slight and +graceful; only in after years did she become stout. Altogether, +she came to St. Petersburg an attractive, pure-minded German +maiden, with a character well disciplined, and possessing reserves +of power which had not yet been drawn upon. + +Frederick the Great's forebodings, which had led him to withhold +his sister's hand, were almost immediately justified in the case +of Catharine. Her Russian husband revealed to her a mode of life +which must have tried her very soul. This youth was only +seventeen--a mere boy in age, and yet a full-grown man in the rank +luxuriance of his vices. Moreover, he had eccentricities which +sometimes verged upon insanity. Too young to be admitted to the +councils of his imperial aunt, he occupied his time in ways that +were either ridiculous or vile. + +Next to the sleeping-room of his wife he kept a set of kennels, +with a number of dogs, which he spent hours in drilling as if they +had been soldiers. He had a troop of rats which he also drilled. +It was his delight to summon a court martial of his dogs to try +the rats for various military offenses, and then to have the +culprits executed, leaving their bleeding carcasses upon the +floor. At any hour of the day or night Catharine, hidden in her +chamber, could hear the yapping of the curs, the squeak of rats, +and the word of command given by her half-idiot husband. + +When wearied of this diversion Peter would summon a troop of +favorites, both men and women, and with them he would drink deep +of beer and vodka, since from his early childhood he had been both +a drunkard and a debauchee. The whoops and howls and vile songs of +his creatures could be heard by Catharine; and sometimes he would +stagger into her rooms, accompanied by his drunken minions. With a +sort of psychopathic perversity he would insist on giving +Catharine the most minute and repulsive narratives of his amours, +until she shrank from him with horror at his depravity and came to +loathe the sight of his bloated face, with its little, twinkling, +porcine eyes, his upturned nose and distended nostrils, and his +loose-hung, lascivious mouth. She was scarcely less repelled when +a wholly different mood would seize upon him and he would declare +himself her slave, attending her at court functions in the garb of +a servant and professing an unbounded devotion for his bride. + +Catharine's early training and her womanly nature led her for a +long time to submit to the caprices of her husband. In his saner +moments she would plead with him and strive to interest him in +something better than his dogs and rats and venal mistresses; but +Peter was incorrigible. Though he had moments of sense and even of +good feeling, these never lasted, and after them he would plunge +headlong into the most frantic excesses that his half-crazed +imagination could devise. + +It is not strange that in course of time Catharine's strong good +sense showed her that she could do nothing with this creature. She +therefore gradually became estranged from him and set herself to +the task of doing those things which Peter was incapable of +carrying out. + +She saw that ever since the first awakening of Russia under Peter +the Great none of its rulers had been genuinely Russian, but had +tried to force upon the Russian people various forms of western +civilization which were alien to the national spirit. Peter the +Great had striven to make his people Dutch. Elizabeth had tried to +make them French. Catharine, with a sure instinct, resolved that +they should remain Russian, borrowing what they needed from other +peoples, but stirred always by the Slavic spirit and swayed by a +patriotism that was their own. To this end she set herself to +become Russian. She acquired the Russian language patiently and +accurately. She adopted the Russian costume, appearing, except on +state occasions, in a simple gown of green, covering her fair +hair, however, with a cap powdered with diamonds. Furthermore, she +made friends of such native Russians as were gifted with talent, +winning their favor, and, through them, the favor of the common +people. + +It would have been strange, however, had Catharine, the woman, +escaped the tainting influences that surrounded her on every side. +The infidelities of Peter gradually made her feel that she owed +him nothing as his wife. Among the nobles there were men whose +force of character and of mind attracted her inevitably. Chastity +was a thing of which the average Russian had no conception; and +therefore it is not strange that Catharine, with her intense and +sensitive nature, should have turned to some of these for the love +which she had sought in vain from the half imbecile to whom she +had been married. + +Much has been written of this side of her earlier and later life; +yet, though it is impossible to deny that she had favorites, one +should judge very gently the conduct of a girl so young and thrust +into a life whence all the virtues seemed to be excluded. She bore +several children before her thirtieth year, and it is very certain +that a grave doubt exists as to their paternity. Among the nobles +of the court were two whose courage and virility specially +attracted her. The one with whom her name has been most often +coupled was Gregory Orloff. He and his brother, Alexis Orloff, +were Russians of the older type--powerful in frame, suave in +manner except when roused, yet with a tigerish ferocity slumbering +underneath. Their power fascinated Catharine, and it was currently +declared that Gregory Orloff was her lover. + +When she was in her thirty-second year her husband was proclaimed +Czar, after the death of the Empress Elizabeth. At first in some +ways his elevation seemed to sober him; but this period of sanity, +like those which had come to him before, lasted only a few weeks. +Historians have given him much credit for two great reforms that +are connected with his name; and yet the manner in which they were +actually brought about is rather ludicrous. He had shut himself up +with his favorite revelers, and had remained for several days +drinking and carousing until he scarcely knew enough to speak. At +this moment a young officer named Gudovitch, who was really loyal +to the newly created Czar, burst into the banquet-hall, booted and +spurred and his eyes aflame with indignation. Standing before +Peter, his voice rang out with the tone of a battle trumpet, so +that the sounds of revelry were hushed. + +"Peter Feodorovitch," he cried, "do you prefer these swine to +those who really wish to serve you? Is it in this way that you +imitate the glories of your ancestor, that illustrious Peter whom +you have sworn to take as your model? It will not be long before +your people's love will be changed to hatred. Rise up, my Czar! +Shake off this lethargy and sloth. Prove that you are worthy of +the faith which I and others have given you so loyally!" + +With these words Gudovitch thrust into Peter's trembling hand two +proclamations, one abolishing the secret bureau of police, which +had become an instrument of tyrannous oppression, and the other +restoring to the nobility many rights of which they had been +deprived. + +The earnestness and intensity of Gudovitch temporarily cleared the +brain of the drunken Czar. He seized the papers, and, without +reading them, hastened at once to his great council, where he +declared that they expressed his wishes. Great was the rejoicing +in St. Petersburg, and great was the praise bestowed on Peter; +yet, in fact, he had acted only as any drunkard might act under +the compulsion of a stronger will than his. + +As before, his brief period of good sense was succeeded by another +of the wildest folly. It was not merely that he reversed the wise +policy of his aunt, but that he reverted to his early fondness for +everything that was German. His bodyguard was made up of German +troops--thus exciting the jealousy of the Russian soldiers. He +introduced German fashions. He boasted that his father had been an +officer in the Prussian army. His crazy admiration for Frederick +the Great reached the utmost verge of sycophancy. + +As to Catharine, he turned on her with something like ferocity. He +declared in public that his eldest son, the Czarevitch Paul, was +really fathered by Catharine's lovers. At a state banquet he +turned to Catharine and hurled at her a name which no woman could +possibly forgive--and least of all a woman such as Catharine, +with her high spirit and imperial pride. He thrust his mistresses +upon her; and at last he ordered her, with her own hand, to +decorate the Countess Vorontzoff, who was known to be his +maitresse en titre. + +It was not these gross insults, however, so much as a concern for +her personal safety that led Catharine to take measures for her +own defense. She was accustomed to Peter's ordinary +eccentricities. On the ground of his unfaithfulness to her she now +had hardly any right to make complaint. But she might reasonably +fear lest he was becoming mad. If he questioned the paternity of +their eldest son he might take measures to imprison Catharine or +even to destroy her. Therefore she conferred with the Orloffs and +other gentlemen, and their conference rapidly developed into a +conspiracy. + +The soldiery, as a whole, was loyal to the empress. It hated +Peter's Holstein guards. What she planned was probably the +deposition of Peter. She would have liked to place him under guard +in some distant palace. But while the matter was still under +discussion she was awakened early one morning by Alexis Orloff. He +grasped her arm with scant ceremony. + +"We must act at once," said he. "We have been betrayed!" + +Catharine was not a woman to waste time. She went immediately to +the barracks in St. Petersburg, mounted upon a charger, and, +calling out the Russian guards, appealed to them for their +support. To a man they clashed their weapons and roared forth a +thunderous cheer. Immediately afterward the priests anointed her +as regent in the name of her son; but as she left the church she +was saluted by the people, as well as by the soldiers, as empress +in her own right. + +It was a bold stroke, and it succeeded down to the last detail. +The wretched Peter, who was drilling his German guards at a +distance from the capital, heard of the revolt, found that his +sailors at Kronstadt would not acknowledge him, and then finally +submitted. He was taken to Ropsha and confined within a single +room. To him came the Orloffs, quite of their own accord. Gregory +Orloff endeavored to force a corrosive poison into Peter's mouth. +Peter, who was powerful of build and now quite desperate, hurled +himself upon his enemies. Alexis Orloff seized him by the throat +with a tremendous clutch and strangled him till the blood gushed +from his ears. In a few moments the unfortunate man was dead. + +Catharine was shocked by the intelligence, but she had no choice +save to accept the result of excessive zeal. She issued a note to +the foreign ambassadors informing them that Peter had died of a +violent colic. When his body was laid out for burial the +extravasated blood is said to have oozed out even through his +hands, staining the gloves that had been placed upon them. No one +believed the story of the colic; and some six years later Alexis +Orloff told the truth with the utmost composure. The whole +incident was characteristically Russian. + +It is not within the limits of our space to describe the reign of +Catharine the Great--the exploits of her armies, the acuteness of +her statecraft, the vast additions which she made to the Russian +Empire, and the impulse which she gave to science and art and +literature. Yet these things ought to be remembered first of all +when one thinks of the woman whom Voltaire once styled "the +Semiramis of the North." Because she was so powerful, because no +one could gainsay her, she led in private a life which has been +almost more exploited than her great imperial achievements. And +yet, though she had lovers whose names have been carefully +recorded, even she fulfilled the law of womanhood--which is to +love deeply and intensely only once, + +One should not place all her lovers in the same category. As a +girl, and when repelled by the imbecility of Peter, she gave +herself to Gregory Orloff. She admired his strength, his daring, +and his unscrupulousness. But to a woman of her fine intelligence +he came to seem almost more brute than man. She could not turn to +him for any of those delicate attentions which a woman loves so +much, nor for that larger sympathy which wins the heart as well as +captivates the senses. A writer of the time has said that Orloff +would hasten with equal readiness from the arms of Catharine to +the embraces of any flat-nosed Finn or filthy Calmuck or to the +lowest creature whom he might encounter in the streets. + +It happened that at the time of Catharine's appeal to the imperial +guards there came to her notice another man who--as he proved in a +trifling and yet most significant manner--had those traits which +Orloff lacked. Catharine had mounted, man--fashion, a cavalry +horse, and, with a helmet on her head, had reined up her steed +before the barracks. At that moment One of the minor nobles, who +was also favorable to her, observed that her helmet had no plume. +In a moment his horse was at her side. Bowing low over his saddle, +he took his own plume from his helmet and fastened it to hers. +This man was Prince Gregory Potemkin, and this slight act gives a +clue to the influence which he afterward exercised over his +imperial mistress! + +When Catharine grew weary of the Orloffs, and when she had +enriched them with lands and treasures, she turned to Potemkin; +and from then until the day of his death he was more to her than +any other man had ever been. With others she might flirt and might +go even further than flirtation; but she allowed no other favorite +to share her confidence, to give advice, or to direct her +policies. + +To other men she made munificent gifts, either because they +pleased her for the moment or because they served her on one +occasion or another; but to Potemkin she opened wide the whole +treasury of her vast realm. There was no limit to what she would +do for him. When he first knew her he was a man of very moderate +fortune. Within two years after their intimate acquaintance had +begun she had given him nine million rubles, while afterward he +accepted almost limitless estates in Poland and in every province +of Greater Russia. + +He was a man of sumptuous tastes, and yet he cared but little for +mere wealth. What he had, he used to please or gratify or surprise +the woman whom he loved. He built himself a great palace in St. +Petersburg, usually known as the Taurian Palace, and there he gave +the most sumptuous entertainments, reversing the story of Antony +and Cleopatra. + +In a superb library there stood one case containing volumes bound +with unusual richness. When the empress, attracted by the +bindings, drew forth a book she found to her surprise that its +pages were English bank-notes. The pages of another proved to be +Dutch bank-notes, and, of another, notes on the Bank of Venice. Of +the remaining volumes some were of solid gold, while others had +pages of fine leather in which were set emeralds and rubies and +diamonds and other gems. The story reads like a bit of fiction +from the Arabian Nights. Yet, after all, this was only a small +affair compared with other undertakings with which Potemkin sought +to please her. + +Thus, after Taurida and the Crimea had been added to the empire by +Potemkin's agency, Catharine set out with him to view her new +possessions. A great fleet of magnificently decorated galleys bore +her down the river Dnieper. The country through which she passed +had been a year before an unoccupied waste. Now, by Potemkin's +extraordinary efforts, the empress found it dotted thick with +towns and cities which had been erected for the occasion, filled +with a busy population which swarmed along the riverside to greet +the sovereign with applause. It was only a chain of fantom towns +and cities, made of painted wood and canvas; but while Catharine +was there they were very real, seeming to have solid buildings, +magnificent arches, bustling industries, and beautiful stretches +of fertile country. No human being ever wrought on so great a +scale so marvelous a miracle of stage-management. + +Potemkin was, in fact, the one man who could appeal with unfailing +success to so versatile and powerful a spirit as Catharine's. He +was handsome of person, graceful of manner, and with an intellect +which matched her own. He never tried to force her inclination, +and, on the other hand, he never strove to thwart it. To him, as +to no other man, she could turn at any moment and feel that, no +matter what her mood, he could understand her fully. And this, +according to Balzac, is the thing that woman yearns for most--a +kindred spirit that can understand without the slightest need of +explanation. + +Thus it was that Gregory Potemkin held a place in the soul of this +great woman such as no one else attained. He might be absent, +heading armies or ruling provinces, and on his return he would be +greeted with even greater fondness than before. And it was this +rather than his victories over Turk and other oriental enemies +that made Catharine trust him absolutely. + +When he died, he died as the supreme master of her foreign policy +and at a time when her word was powerful throughout all Europe. +Death came upon him after he had fought against it with singular +tenacity of purpose. Catharine had given him a magnificent +triumph, and he had entertained her in his Taurian Palace with a +splendor such as even Russia had never known before. Then he fell +ill, though with high spirit he would not yield to illness. He ate +rich meats and drank rich wines and bore himself as gallantly as +ever. Yet all at once death came upon him while he was traveling +in the south of Russia. His carriage was stopped, a rug was spread +beneath a tree by the roadside, and there he died, in the country +which he had added to the realms of Russia, + +The great empress who loved him mourned him deeply during the five +years of life that still remained to her. The names of other men +for whom she had imagined that she cared were nothing to her. But +this one man lived in her heart in death as he had done in life. + +Many have written of Catharine as a great ruler, a wise diplomat, +a creature of heroic mold. Others have depicted her as a royal +wanton and have gathered together a mass of vicious tales, the +gossip of the palace kitchens, of the clubs, and of the barrack- +rooms. But perhaps one finds the chief interest of her story to +lie in this--that besides being empress and diplomat and a lover +of pleasure she was, beyond all else, at heart a woman. + + + + + +MARIE ANTOINETTE AND COUNT FERSEN + + +The English-speaking world long ago accepted a conventional view +of Marie Antoinette. The eloquence of Edmund Burke in one +brilliant passage has fixed, probably for all time, an enduring +picture of this unhappy queen. + +When we speak or think of her we speak and think first of all of a +dazzling and beautiful woman surrounded by the chivalry of France +and gleaming like a star in the most splendid court of Europe. And +then there comes to us the reverse of the picture. We see her +despised, insulted, and made the butt of brutal men and still more +fiendish women; until at last the hideous tumbrel conveys her to +the guillotine, where her head is severed from her body and her +corpse is cast down into a bloody pool. + +In these two pictures our emotions are played upon in turn-- +admiration, reverence, devotion, and then pity, indignation, and +the shudderings of horror. + +Probably in our own country and in England this will remain the +historic Marie Antoinette. Whatever the impartial historian may +write, he can never induce the people at large to understand that +this queen was far from queenly, that the popular idea of her is +almost wholly false, and that both in her domestic life and as the +greatest lady in France she did much to bring on the terrors of +that revolution which swept her to the guillotine. + +In the first place, it is mere fiction that represents Maria +Antoinette as having been physically beautiful. The painters and +engravers have so idealized her face as in most cases to have +produced a purely imaginary portrait. + +She was born in Vienna, in 1755, the daughter of the Emperor +Francis and of that warrior-queen, Maria Theresa. She was a very +German-looking child. Lady Jackson describes her as having a +long, thin face, small, pig-like eyes, a pinched-up mouth, with +the heavy Hapsburg lip, and with a somewhat misshapen form, so +that for years she had to be bandaged tightly to give her a more +natural figure. + +At fourteen, when she was betrothed to the heir to the French +throne, she was a dumpy, mean-looking little creature, with no +distinction whatever, and with only her bright golden hair to make +amends for her many blemishes. At fifteen she was married and +joined the Dauphin in French territory. + +We must recall for a moment the conditions which prevailed in +France. King Louis XV. was nearing his end. He was a man of the +most shameless life; yet he had concealed or gilded his infamies +by an external dignity and magnificence which, were very pleasing +to his people. The French, liked to think that their king was the +most splendid monarch and the greatest gentleman in Europe. The +courtiers about him might be vile beneath the surface, yet they +were compelled to deport themselves with the form and the +etiquette that had become traditional in France. They might be +panders, or stock-jobbers, or sellers of political offices; yet +they must none the less have wit and grace and outward nobility of +manner. + +There was also a tradition regarding the French queen. However +loose in character the other women of the court might be, she +alone, like Caesar's wife, must remain above suspicion. She must +be purer than the pure. No breath, of scandal must reach her or be +directed against her. + +In this way the French court, even under so dissolute a monarch as +Louis XV., maintained its hold upon the loyalty of the people. +Crowds came every morning to view the king in his bed before he +arose; the same crowds watched him as he was dressed by the +gentlemen of the bedchamber, and as he breakfasted and went +through all the functions which are usually private. The King of +France must be a great actor. He must appear to his people as in +reality a king-stately, dignified, and beyond all other human +beings in his remarkable presence. + +When the Dauphin and Marie Antoinette came to the French court +King Louis XV. kept up in the case the same semblance of +austerity. He forbade these children to have their sleeping- +apartments together. He tried to teach them that if they were to +govern as well as to reign they must conform to the rigid +etiquette of Paris and Versailles. + +It proved a difficult task, however. The little German princess +had no natural dignity, though she came from a court where the +very strictest imperial discipline prevailed. Marie Antoinette +found that she could have her own way in many things, and she +chose to enjoy life without regard to ceremony. Her escapades at +first would have been thought mild enough had she not been a +"daughter of France"; but they served to shock the old French +king, and likewise, perhaps even more, her own imperial mother, +Maria Theresa. + +When a report of the young girl's conduct was brought to her the +empress was at first mute with indignation. Then she cried out: + +"Can this girl be a child of mine? She surely must be a +changeling!" + +The Austrian ambassador to France was instructed to warn the +Dauphiness to be more discreet. + +"Tell her," said Maria Theresa, "that she will lose her throne, +and even her life, unless she shows more prudence." + +But advice and remonstrance were of no avail. Perhaps they might +have been had her husband possessed a stronger character; but the +young Louis was little more fitted to be a king than was his wife +to be a queen. Dull of perception and indifferent to affairs of +state, he had only two interests that absorbed him. One was the +love of hunting, and the other was his desire to shut himself up +in a sort of blacksmith shop, where he could hammer away at the +anvil, blow the bellows, and manufacture small trifles of +mechanical inventions. From this smudgy den he would emerge, sooty +and greasy, an object of distaste to his frivolous princess, with +her foamy laces and perfumes and pervasive daintiness. + +It was hinted in many quarters, and it has been many times +repeated, that Louis was lacking in virility. Certainly he had no +interest in the society of women and was wholly continent. But +this charge of physical incapacity seems to have had no real +foundation. It had been made against some of his predecessors. It +was afterward hurled at Napoleon the Great, and also Napoleon the +Little. In France, unless a royal personage was openly licentious, +he was almost sure to be jeered at by the people as a weakling. + +And so poor Louis XVI., as he came to be, was treated with a +mixture of pity and contempt because he loved to hammer and mend +locks in his smithy or shoot game when he might have been +caressing ladies who would have been proud to have him choose them +out. + +On the other hand, because of this opinion regarding Louis, people +were the more suspicious of Marie Antoinette. Some of them, in +coarse language, criticized her assumed infidelities; others, with +a polite sneer, affected to defend her. But the result of it all +was dangerous to both, especially as France was already verging +toward the deluge which Louis XV. had cynically predicted would +follow after him. + +In fact, the end came sooner than any one had guessed. Louis XV., +who had become hopelessly and helplessly infatuated with the low- +born Jeanne du Barry, was stricken down with smallpox of the most +virulent type. For many days he lay in his gorgeous bed. Courtiers +crowded his sick-room and the adjacent hall, longing for the +moment when the breath would leave his body. He had lived an evil +life, and he was to die a loathsome death; yet he had borne +himself before men as a stately monarch. Though his people had +suffered in a thousand ways from his misgovernment, he was still +Louis the Well Beloved, and they blamed his ministers of state for +all the shocking wrongs that France had felt. + +The abler men, and some of the leaders of the people, however, +looked forward to the accession of Louis XVI. He at least was +frugal in his habits and almost plebeian in his tastes, and seemed +to be one who would reduce the enormous taxes that had been levied +upon France. + +The moment came when the Well Beloved died. His death-room was +fetid with disease, and even the long corridors of the palace +reeked with infection, while the motley mob of men and women, clad +in silks and satins and glittering with jewels, hurried from the +spot to pay their homage to the new Louis, who was spoken of as +"the Desired." The body of the late monarch was hastily thrown +into a mass of quick-lime, and was driven away in a humble wagon, +without guards and with no salute, save from a single veteran, who +remembered the glories of Fontenoy and discharged his musket as +the royal corpse was carried through the palace gates. + +This was a critical moment in the history of France; but we have +to consider it only as a critical moment in the history of Marie +Antoinette. She was now queen. She had it in her power to restore +to the French court its old-time grandeur, and, so far as the +queen was concerned, its purity. Above all, being a foreigner, she +should have kept herself free from reproach and above every shadow +of suspicion. + +But here again the indifference of the king undoubtedly played a +strange part in her life. Had he borne himself as her lord and +master she might have respected him. Had he shown her the +affection of a husband she might have loved him. But he was +neither imposing, nor, on the other hand, was he alluring. She +wrote very frankly about him in a letter to the Count Orsini: + +My tastes are not the same as those of the king, who cares only +for hunting and blacksmith work. You will admit that I should not +show to advantage in a forge. I could not appear there as Vulcan, +and the part of Venus might displease him even more than my +tastes. + +Thus on the one side is a woman in the first bloom of youth, +ardent, eager--and neglected. On the other side is her husband, +whose sluggishness may be judged by quoting from a diary which he +kept during the month in which he was married. Here is a part of +it: + +Sunday, 13--Left Versailles. Supper and slept at Compignee, at the +house of M. de Saint-Florentin. + +Monday, 14--Interview with Mme. la Dauphine. + +Tuesday, 15--Supped at La Muette. Slept at Versailles. + +Wednesday, 16--My marriage. Apartment in the gallery. Royal +banquet in the Salle d'Opera. + +Thursday, 17--Opera of "Perseus." + +Friday, 18--Stag-hunt. Met at La Belle Image. Took one. + +Saturday, 19--Dress-ball in the Salle d'Opera. Fireworks. + +Thursday, 31--I had an indigestion. + +What might have been expected from a young girl placed as this +queen was placed? She was indeed an earlier Eugenie. The first was +of royal blood, the second was almost a plebeian; but each was +headstrong, pleasure-loving, and with no real domestic ties. As +Mr. Kipling expresses it-- + + The colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady + Are sisters under their skins; + +and so the Austrian woman of 1776 and the Spanish woman of 1856 +found amusement in very similar ways. They plunged into a sea of +strange frivolity, such as one finds to-day at the centers of high +fashion. Marie Antoinette bedecked herself with eccentric +garments. On her head she wore a hat styled a "what-is-it," +towering many feet in height and flaunting parti-colored plumes. +Worse than all this, she refused to wear corsets, and at some +great functions she would appear in what looked exactly like a +bedroom gown. + +She would even neglect the ordinary niceties of life. Her hands +were not well cared for. It was very difficult for the ladies in +attendance to persuade her to brush her teeth with regularity. +Again, she would persist in wearing her frilled and lace-trimmed +petticoats long after their dainty edges had been smirched and +blackened. + +Yet these things might have been counteracted had she gone no +further. Unfortunately, she did go further. She loved to dress at +night like a shop-girl and venture out into the world of Paris, +where she was frequently followed and recognized. Think of it--the +Queen of France, elbowed in dense crowds and seeking to attract +the attention of common soldiers! + +Of course, almost every one put the worst construction upon this, +and after a time upon everything she did. When she took a fancy +for constructing labyrinths and secret passages in the palace, all +Paris vowed that she was planning means by which her various +lovers might enter without observation. The hidden printing- +presses of Paris swarmed with gross lampoons about this reckless +girl; and, although there was little truth in what they said, +there was enough to cloud her reputation. When she fell ill with +the measles she was attended in her sick-chamber by four gentlemen +of the court. The king was forbidden to enter lest he might catch +the childish disorder. + +The apathy of the king, indeed, drove her into many a folly. After +four years of marriage, as Mrs. Mayne records, he had only reached +the point of giving her a chilly kiss. The fact that she had no +children became a serious matter. Her brother, the Emperor Joseph +of Austria, when he visited Paris, ventured to speak to the king +upon the subject. Even the Austrian ambassador had thrown out +hints that the house of Bourbon needed direct heirs. Louis grunted +and said little, but he must have known how good was the advice. + +It was at about this time when there came to the French court a +young Swede named Axel de Fersen, who bore the title of count, but +who was received less for his rank than for his winning manner, +his knightly bearing, and his handsome, sympathetic face. Romantic +in spirit, he threw himself at once into a silent inner worship of +Marie Antoinette, who had for him a singular attraction. Wherever +he could meet her they met. To her growing cynicism this breath of +pure yet ardent affection was very grateful. It came as something +fresh and sweet into the feverish life she led. + +Other men had had the audacity to woo her--among them Duc de +Lauzun, whose complicity in the famous affair of the diamond +necklace afterward cast her, though innocent, into ruin; the Duc +de Biron; and the Baron de Besenval, who had obtained much +influence over her, which he used for the most evil purposes. +Besenval tainted her mind by persuading her to read indecent +books, in the hope that at last she would become his prey. + +But none of these men ever meant to Marie Antoinette what Fersen +meant. Though less than twenty years of age, he maintained the +reserve of a great gentleman, and never forced himself upon her +notice. Yet their first acquaintance had occurred in such a way as +to give to it a touch of intimacy. He had gone to a masked ball, +and there had chosen for his partner a lady whose face was quite +concealed. Something drew the two together. The gaiety of the +woman and the chivalry of the man blended most harmoniously. It +was only afterward that he discovered that his chance partner was +the first lady in France. She kept his memory in her mind; for +some time later, when he was at a royal drawing-room and she heard +his voice, she exclaimed: + +"Ah, an old acquaintance!" + +From this time Fersen was among those who were most intimately +favored by the queen. He had the privilege of attending her +private receptions at the palace of the Trianon, and was a +conspicuous figure at the feasts given in the queen's honor by the +Princess de Lamballe, a beautiful girl whose head was destined +afterward to be severed from her body and borne upon a bloody pike +through the streets of Paris. But as yet the deluge had not +arrived and the great and noble still danced upon the brink of a +volcano. + +Fersen grew more and more infatuated, nor could he quite conceal +his feelings. The queen, in her turn, was neither frightened nor +indignant. His passion, so profound and yet so respectful, deeply +moved her. Then came a time when the truth was made clear to both +of them. Fersen was near her while she was singing to the +harpsichord, and "she was betrayed by her own music into an avowal +which song made easy." She forgot that she was Queen of France. +She only felt that her womanhood had been starved and slighted, +and that here was a noble-minded lover of whom she could be proud. + +Some time after this announcement was officially made of the +approaching accouchement of the queen. It was impossible that +malicious tongues should be silent. The king's brother, the Comte +de Provence, who hated the queen, just as the Bonapartes afterward +hated Josephine, did his best to besmirch her reputation. He had, +indeed, the extraordinary insolence to do so at a time when one +would suppose that the vilest of men would remain silent. The +child proved to be a princess, and she afterward received the +title of Duchesse d'Angouleme. The King of Spain asked to be her +godfather at the christening, which was to be held in the +cathedral of Notre Dame. The Spanish king was not present in +person, but asked the Comte de Provence to act as his proxy. + +On the appointed day the royal party proceeded to the cathedral, +and the Comte de Provence presented the little child at the +baptismal font. The grand almoner, who presided, asked; + +"What name shall be given to this child?" + +The Comte de Provence answered in a sneering tone: + +"Oh, we don't begin with that. The first thing to find out is who +the father and the mother are!" + +These words, spoken at such a place and such a time, and with a +strongly sardonic ring, set all Paris gossiping. It was a thinly +veiled innuendo that the father of the child was not the King of +France. Those about the court immediately began to look at Fersen +with significant smiles. The queen would gladly have kept him near +her; but Fersen cared even more for her good name than for his +love of her. It would have been so easy to remain in the full +enjoyment of his conquest; but he was too chivalrous for that, or, +rather, he knew that the various ambassadors in Paris had told +their respective governments of the rising scandal. In fact, the +following secret despatch was sent to the King of Sweden by his +envoy: + +I must confide to your majesty that the young Count Fersen has +been so well received by the queen that various persons have taken +it amiss. I own that I am sure that she has a liking for him. I +have seen proofs of it too certain to be doubted. During the last +few days the queen has not taken her eyes off him, and as she +gazed they were full of tears. I beg your majesty to keep their +secret to yourself. + +The queen wept because Fersen had resolved to leave her lest she +should be exposed to further gossip. If he left her without any +apparent reason, the gossip would only be the more intense. +Therefore he decided to join the French troops who were going to +America to fight under Lafayette. A brilliant but dissolute +duchess taunted him when the news became known. + +"How is this?" said she. "Do you forsake your conquest?" + +But, "lying like a gentleman," Fersen answered, quietly: + +"Had I made a conquest I should not forsake it. I go away free, +and, unfortunately, without leaving any regret." + +Nothing could have been more chivalrous than the pains which +Fersen took to shield the reputation of the queen. He even allowed +it to be supposed that he was planning a marriage with a rich +young Swedish woman who had been naturalized in England. As a +matter of fact, he departed for America, and not very long +afterward the young woman in question married an Englishman. + +Fersen served in America for a time, returning, however, at the +end of three years. He was one of the original Cincinnati, being +admitted to the order by Washington himself. When he returned to +France he was received with high honors and was made colonel of +the royal Swedish regiment. + +The dangers threatening Louis and his court, which were now +gigantic and appalling, forbade him to forsake the queen. By her +side he did what he could to check the revolution; and, failing +this, he helped her to maintain an imperial dignity of manner +which she might otherwise have lacked. He faced the bellowing mob +which surrounded the Tuileries. Lafayette tried to make the +National Guard obey his orders, but he was jeered at for his +pains. Violent epithets were hurled at the king. The least +insulting name which they could give him was "a fat pig." As for +the queen, the most filthy phrases were showered upon her by the +men, and even more so by the women, who swarmed out of the slums +and sought her life. + +At last, in 1791, it was decided that the king and the queen and +their children, of whom they now had three, should endeavor to +escape from Paris. Fersen planned their flight, but it proved to +be a failure. Every one remembers how they were discovered and +halted at Varennes. The royal party was escorted back to Paris by +the mob, which chanted with insolent additions: + +"We've brought back the baker, the baker's wife, and the baker's +boy! Now we shall have bread!" + +Against the savage fury which soon animated the French a foreigner +like Fersen could do very little; but he seems to have endeavored, +night and day, to serve the woman whom he loved. His efforts have +been described by Grandat; but they were of no avail. The king and +queen were practically made prisoners. Their eldest son died. They +went through horrors that were stimulated by the wretch Hebert, at +the head of his so-called Madmen (Enrages). The king was executed +in January, 1792. The queen dragged out a brief existence in a +prison where she was for ever under the eyes of human brutes, who +guarded her and watched her and jeered at her at times when even +men would be sensitive. Then, at last, she mounted the scaffold, +and her head, with its shining hair, fell into the bloody basket. + +Marie Antoinette shows many contradictions in her character. As a +young girl she was petulant and silly and almost unseemly in her +actions. As a queen, with waning power, she took on a dignity +which recalled the dignity of her imperial mother. At first a +flirt, she fell deeply in love when she met a man who was worthy +of that love. She lived for most part like a mere cocotte. She +died every inch a queen. + +One finds a curious resemblance between the fate of Marie +Antoinette and that of her gallant lover, who outlived her for +nearly twenty years. She died amid the shrieks and execrations of +a maddened populace in Paris; he was practically torn in pieces by +a mob in the streets of Stockholm. The day of his death was the +anniversary of the flight to Varennes. To the last moment of his +existence he remained faithful to the memory of the royal woman +who had given herself so utterly to him. + + + + + +THE STORY OF AARON BURR + + +There will come a time when the name of Aaron Burr will be cleared +from the prejudice which now surrounds it, when he will stand in +the public estimation side by side with Alexander Hamilton, whom +he shot in a duel in 1804, but whom in many respects he curiously +resembled. When the white light of history shall have searched +them both they will appear as two remarkable men, each having his +own undoubted faults and at the same time his equally undoubted +virtues. + +Burr and Hamilton were born within a year of each other--Burr +being a grandson of Jonathan Edwards, and Alexander Hamilton being +the illegitimate son of a Scottish merchant in the West Indies. +Each of them was short in stature, keen of intellect, of great +physical endurance, courage, and impressive personality. Each as a +young man served on the staff of Washington during the +Revolutionary War, and each of them quarreled with him, though in +a different way. + +On one occasion Burr was quite unjustly suspected by Washington of +looking over the latter's shoulder while he was writing. +"Washington leaped to his feet with the exclamation: + +"How dare you, Colonel Burr?" + +Burr's eyes flashed fire at the question, and he retorted, +haughtily: + +"Colonel Burr DARE do anything." + +This, however, was the end of their altercation The cause of +Hamilton's difference with his chief is not known, but it was a +much more serious quarrel; so that the young officer left his +staff position in a fury and took no part in the war until the +end, when he was present at the battle of Yorktown. + +Burr, on the other hand, helped Montgomery to storm the heights of +Quebec, and nearly reached the upper citadel when his commander +was shot dead and the Americans retreated. In all this confusion +Burr showed himself a man of mettle. The slain Montgomery was six +feet high, but Burr carried his body away with wonderful strength +amid a shower of musket-balls and grape-shot. + +Hamilton had no belief in the American Constitution, which he +called "a shattered, feeble thing." He could never obtain an +elective office, and he would have preferred to see the United +States transformed into a kingdom. Washington's magnanimity and +clear-sightedness made Hamilton Secretary of the Treasury. Burr, +on the other hand, continued his military service until the war +was ended, routing the enemy at Hackensack, enduring the horrors +of Valley Forge, commanding a brigade at the battle of Monmouth, +and heading the defense of the city of New Haven. He was also +attorney-general of New York, was elected to the United States +Senate, was tied with Jefferson for the Presidency, and then +became Vice-President. + +Both Hamilton and Burr were effective speakers; but, while +Hamilton was wordy and diffuse, Burr spoke always to the point, +with clear and cogent reasoning. Both were lavish spenders of +money, and both were engaged in duels before the fatal one in +which Hamilton fell. Both believed in dueling as the only way of +settling an affair of honor. Neither of them was averse to love +affairs, though it may be said that Hamilton sought women, while +Burr was rather sought by women. When Secretary of the Treasury, +Hamilton was obliged to confess an adulterous amour in order to +save himself from the charge of corrupt practices in public +office. So long as Burr's wife lived he was a devoted, faithful +husband to her. Hamilton was obliged to confess his illicit acts +while his wife, formerly Miss Elizabeth Schuyler, was living. She +spent her later years in buying and destroying the compromising +documents which her husband had published for his countrymen to +read. + +The most extraordinary thing about Aaron Burr was the magnetic +quality that was felt by every one who approached him. The roots +of this penetrated down into a deep vitality. He was always young, +always alert, polished in manner, courageous with that sort of +courage which does not even recognize the presence of danger, +charming in conversation, and able to adapt it to men or women of +any age whatever. His hair was still dark in his eightieth year. +His step was still elastic, his motions were still as spontaneous +and energetic, as those of a youth. + +So it was that every one who knew him experienced his fascination. +The rough troops whom he led through the Canadian swamps felt the +iron hand of his discipline; yet they were devoted to him, since +he shared all their toils, faced all their dangers, and ate with +them the scraps of hide which they gnawed to keep the breath of +life in their shrunken bodies. + +Burr's discipline was indeed very strict, so that at first raw +recruits rebelled against it. On one occasion the men of an +untrained company resented it so bitterly that they decided to +shoot Colonel Burr as he paraded them for roll-call that evening. +Burr somehow got word of it and contrived to have all the +cartridges drawn from their muskets. When the time for the roll- +call came one of the malcontents leaped from the front line and +leveled his weapon at Burr. + +"Now is the time, boys!" he shouted. + +Like lightning Burr's sword flashed from its scabbard with such a +vigorous stroke as to cut the man's arm completely off and partly +to cleave the musket. + +"Take your place in the ranks," said Burr. + +The mutineer obeyed, dripping with blood. A month later every man +in that company was devoted to his commander. They had learned +that discipline was the surest source of safety. + +But with this high spirit and readiness to fight Burr had a most +pleasing way of meeting every one who came to him. When he was +arrested in the Western forests, charged with high treason, the +sound of his voice won from jury after jury verdicts of acquittal. +Often the sheriffs would not arrest him. One grand jury not merely +exonerated him from all public misdemeanors, but brought in a +strong presentment against the officers of the government for +molesting him. + +It was the same everywhere. Burr made friends and devoted allies +among all sorts of men. During his stay in France, England, +Germany, and Sweden he interested such men as Charles Lamb, Jeremy +Bentham, Sir Walter Scott, Goethe, and Heeren. They found his mind +able to meet with theirs on equal terms. Burr, indeed, had +graduated as a youth with honors from Princeton, and had continued +his studies there after graduation, which was then a most unusual +thing to do. But, of course, he learned most from his contact with +men and women of the world. + +Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, in The Minister's Wooing, has given +what is probably an exact likeness of Aaron Burr, with his +brilliant gifts and some of his defects. It is strong testimony to +the character of Burr that Mrs. Stowe set out to paint him as a +villain; but before she had written long she felt his fascination +and made her readers, in their own despite, admirers of this +remarkable man. There are many parallels, indeed, between him and +Napoleon--in the quickness of his intellect, the ready use of his +resources, and his power over men, while he was more than Napoleon +in his delightful gift of conversation and the easy play of his +cultured mind. + +Those who are full of charm are willing also to be charmed. All +his life Burr was abstemious in food and drink. His tastes were +most refined. It is difficult to believe that such a man could +have been an unmitigated profligate. + +In his twentieth year there seems to have begun the first of the +romances that run through the story of his long career. Perhaps +one ought not to call it the first romance, for at eighteen, while +he was studying law at Litchfield, a girl, whose name has been +suppressed, made an open avowal of love for him. Almost at the +same time an heiress with a large fortune would have married him +had he been willing to accept her hand. But at this period he was +only a boy and did not take such things seriously. + +Two years later, after Burr had seen hard service at Quebec and on +Manhattan Island, his name was associated with that of a very +beautiful girl named Margaret Moncrieffe. She was the daughter of +a British major, but in some way she had been captured while +within the American lines. Her captivity was regarded as little +more than a joke; but while she was thus a prisoner she saw a +great deal of Burr. For several months they were comrades, after +which General Putnam sent her with his compliments to her father. + +Margaret Moncrieffe had a most emotional nature. There can be no +doubt that she deeply loved the handsome young American officer, +whom she never saw again. It is doubtful how far their intimacy +was carried. Later she married a Mr. Coghlan. After reaching +middle life she wrote of Burr in a way which shows that neither +years nor the obligations of marriage could make her forget that +young soldier, whom she speaks of as "the conqueror of her soul." +In the rather florid style of those days the once youthful +Margaret Moncrieffe expresses herself as follows: + +Oh, may these pages one day meet the eye of him who subdued my +virgin heart, whom the immutable, unerring laws of nature had +pointed out for my husband, but whose sacred decree the barbarous +customs of society fatally violated! + +Commenting on this paragraph, Mr. H. C. Merwin justly remarks +that, whatever may have been Burr's conduct toward Margaret +Moncrieffe, the lady herself, who was the person chiefly +concerned, had no complaint to make of it. It certainly was no +very serious affair, since in the following year Burr met a lady +who, while she lived, was the only woman for whom he ever really +cared. + +This was Theodosia Prevost, the wife of a major in the British +army. Burr met her first in 1777, while she was living with her +sister in Westchester County. Burr's command was fifteen miles +across the river, but distance and danger made no difference to +him. He used to mount a swift horse, inspect his sentinels and +outposts, and then gallop to the Hudson, where a barge rowed by +six soldiers awaited him. The barge was well supplied with +buffalo-skins, upon which the horse was thrown with his legs +bound, and then half an hour's rowing brought them to the other +side. There Burr resumed his horse, galloped to the house of Mrs. +Prevost, and, after spending a few hours with her, returned in the +same way. + +Mrs. Prevost was by no means beautiful, but she had an +attractiveness of her own. She was well educated and possessed +charming manners, with a disposition both gentle and affectionate. +Her husband died soon after the beginning of the war, and then +Burr married her. No more ideal family life could be conceived +than his, and the letters which passed between the two are full of +adoration. Thus she wrote to him: + +Tell me, why do I grow every day more tenacious of your regard? Is +it because each revolving day proves you more deserving? + +And thus Burr answered her: + +Continue to multiply your letters to me. They are all my solace. +The last six are constantly within my reach. I read them once a +day at least. Write me all that I have asked, and a hundred things +which I have not. + +When it is remembered that these letters were written after nine +years of marriage it is hard to believe all the evil things that +have been said of Burr. + +His wife died in 1794, and he then gave a double affection to his +daughter Theodosia, whose beauty and accomplishments were known +throughout the country. Burr took the greatest pains in her +education, and believed that she should be trained, as he had +been, to be brave, industrious, and patient. He himself, who has +been described as a voluptuary, delighted in the endurance of cold +and heat and of severe labor. + +After his death one of his younger admirers was asked what Burr +had done for him. The reply was characteristic. + +"He made me iron," was the answer. + +No father ever gave more attention to his daughter's welfare. As +to Theodosia's studies he was very strict, making her read Greek +and Latin every day, with drawing and music and history, in +addition to French. Not long before her marriage to Joseph +Allston, of South Carolina, Burr wrote to her: + +I really think, my dear Theo, that you will be very soon beyond +all verbal criticism, and that my whole attention will be +presently directed to the improvement of your style. + +Theodosia Burr married into a family of good old English stock, +where riches were abundant, and high character was regarded as the +best of all possessions. Every one has heard of the mysterious +tragedy which is associated with her history. In 1812, when her +husband had been elected Governor of his state, her only child--a +sturdy boy of eleven--died, and Theodosia's health was shattered +by her sorrow. In the same year Burr returned from a sojourn in +Europe, and his loving daughter embarked from Charleston on a +schooner, the Patriot, to meet her father in New York. When Burr +arrived he was met by a letter which told him that his grandson +was dead and that Theodosia was coming to him. + +Weeks sped by, and no news was heard of the ill-fated Patriot. At +last it became evident that she must have gone down or in some +other way have been lost. Burr and Governor Allston wrote to each +other letter after letter, of which each one seems to surpass the +agony of the other. At last all hope was given up. Governor +Allston died soon after of a broken heart; but Burr, as became a +Stoic, acted otherwise. + +He concealed everything that reminded him of Theodosia. He never +spoke of his lost daughter. His grief was too deep-seated and too +terrible for speech. Only once did he ever allude to her, and this +was in a letter written to an afflicted friend, which contained +the words: + +Ever since the event which separated me from mankind I have been +able neither to give nor to receive consolation. + +In time the crew of a pirate vessel was captured and sentenced to +be hanged. One of the men, who seemed to be less brutal than the +rest, told how, in 1812, they had captured a schooner, and, after +their usual practice, had compelled the passengers to walk the +plank. All hesitated and showed cowardice, except only one--a +beautiful woman whose eyes were as bright and whose bearing was as +unconcerned as if she were safe on shore. She quickly led the way, +and, mounting the plank with a certain scorn of death, said to the +others: + +"Come, I will show you how to die." + +It has always been supposed that this intrepid girl may have been +Theodosia Allston. If so, she only acted as her father would have +done and in strict accordance with his teachings. + +This resolute courage, this stern joy in danger, this perfect +equanimity, made Burr especially attractive to women, who love +courage, the more so when it is coupled with gentleness and +generosity. + +Perhaps no man in our country has been so vehemently accused +regarding his relations with the other sex. The most improbable +stories were told about him, even by his friends. As to his +enemies, they took boundless pains to paint him in the blackest +colors. According to them, no woman was safe from his intrigues. +He was a perfect devil in leading them astray and then casting +them aside. + +Thus one Matthew L. Davis, in whom Burr had confided as a friend, +wrote of him long afterward a most unjust account--unjust because +we have proofs that it was false in the intensity of its abuse. +Davis wrote: + +It is truly surprising how any individual could become so eminent +as a soldier, as a statesman, and as a professional man who +devoted so much time to the other sex as was devoted by Colonel +Burr. For more than half a century of his life they seemed to +absorb his whole thought. His intrigues were without number; the +sacred bonds of friendship were unhesitatingly violated when they +operated as barriers to the indulgence of his passions. In this +particular Burr appears to have been unfeeling and heartless. + +It is impossible to believe that the Spartan Burr, whose life was +one of incessant labor and whose kindliness toward every one was +so well known, should have deserved a commentary like this. The +charge of immorality is so easily made and so difficult of +disproof that it has been flung promiscuously at all the great men +of history, including, in our own country, + +Washington and Jefferson as well as Burr. In England, when +Gladstone was more than seventy years of age, he once stopped to +ask a question of a woman in the street. Within twenty-four hours +the London clubs were humming with a sort of demoniac glee over +the story that this aged and austere old gentleman was not above +seeking common street amours. + +And so with Aaron Burr to a great extent. That he was a man of +strict morality it would be absurd to maintain. That he was a +reckless and licentious profligate would be almost equally untrue. +Mr. H. O. Merwin has very truly said: + +Part of Burr's reputation for profligacy was due, no doubt, to +that vanity respecting women of which Davis himself speaks. He +never refused to accept the parentage of a child. + +"Why do you allow this woman to saddle you with her child when you +KNOW you are not the father of it?" said a friend to him a few +months before his death. + +"Sir," he replied, "when a lady does me the honor to name me the +father of her child I trust I shall always be too gallant to show +myself ungrateful for the favor." + +There are two curious legends relating to Aaron Burr. They serve +to show that his reputation became such that he could not enjoy +the society of a woman without having her regarded as his +mistress. + +When he was United States Senator from New York he lived in +Philadelphia at the lodging-house of a Mrs. Payne, whose daughter, +Dorothy Todd, was the very youthful widow of an officer. This +young woman was rather free in her manners, and Burr was very +responsive in his. At the time, however, nothing was thought of +it; hut presently Burr brought to the house the serious and +somewhat pedantic James Madison and introduced him to the hoyden. + +Madison was then forty-seven years of age, a stranger to society, +but gradually rising to a prominent position in politics--"the +great little Madison," as Burr rather lightly called him. Before +very long he had proposed marriage to the young widow. She +hesitated, and some one referred the matter to President +Washington. The Father of his Country answered in what was perhaps +the only opinion that he ever gave on the subject of matrimony. It +is worth preserving because it shows that he had a sense of +humor: + +For my own part, I never did nor do I believe I ever shall give +advice to a woman who is setting out on a matrimonial voyage ... A +woman very rarely asks an opinion or seeks advice on such an +occasion till her mind is wholly made up, and then it is with the +hope and expectation of obtaining a sanction, and not that she +means to be governed by your disapproval. + +Afterward when Dolly Madison with, her yellow turban and kittenish +ways was making a sensation in Washington society some one +recalled her old association with Burr. At once the story sprang +to light that Burr had been her lover and that he had brought +about the match with Madison as an easy way of getting rid of her. + +There is another curious story which makes Martin Van Buren, +eighth President of the United States, to have been the +illegitimate son of Aaron Burr. There is no earthly reason for +believing this, except that Burr sometimes stopped overnight at +the tavern in Kinderhook which was kept by Van Buren's putative +father, and that Van Buren in later life showed an astuteness +equal to that of Aaron Burr himself, so that he was called by his +opponents "the fox of Kinderhook." But, as Van Buren was born in +December of the same year (1782) in which Burr was married to +Theodosia Prevost, the story is utterly improbable when we +remember, as we must, the ardent affection which Burr showed his +wife, not only before their marriage, but afterward until her +death. + +Putting aside these purely spurious instances, as well as others +cited by Mr. Parton, the fact remains that Aaron Burr, like Daniel +Webster, found a great attraction in the society of women; that he +could please them and fascinate them to an extraordinary degree; +and that during his later life he must be held quite culpable in +this respect. His love-making was ardent and rapid, as we shall +afterward see in the case of his second marriage. + +Many other stories are told of him. For instance, it is said that +he once took a stage-coach from Jersey City to Philadelphia. The +only other occupant was a woman of high standing and one whose +family deeply hated Aaron Burr. Nevertheless, so the story goes, +before they had reached Newark she was absolutely swayed by his +charm of manner; and when the coach made its last stop before +Philadelphia she voluntarily became his mistress. + +It must also be said that, unlike those of Webster and Hamilton, +his intrigues were never carried on with women of the lower sort. +This may be held by some to deepen the charge against him; but +more truly does it exonerate him, since it really means that in +many cases these women of the world threw themselves at him and +sought him as a lover, when otherwise he might never have thought +of them. + +That he was not heartless and indifferent to those who had loved +him may be shown by the great care which he took to protect their +names and reputations. Thus, on the day before his duel with +Hamilton, he made a will in which he constituted his son-in-law as +his executor. At the same time he wrote a sealed letter to +Governor Allston in which he said: + +If you can pardon and indulge a folly, I would suggest that Mme. ----, +too well known under the name of Leonora, has claims on my +recollection. She is now with her husband at Santiago, in Cuba. + +Another fact has been turned to his discredit. From many women, in +the course of his long life, he had received a great quantity of +letters written by aristocratic hands on scented paper, and these +letters he had never burned. Here again, perhaps, was shown the +vanity of the man who loved love for its own sake. He kept all +these papers in a huge iron-clamped chest, and he instructed +Theodosia in case he should die to burn every letter which might +injure any one. + +After Theodosia's death Burr gave the same instructions to Matthew +L. Davis, who did, indeed, burn them, though he made their +existence a means of blackening the character of Burr. He should +have destroyed them unopened, and should never have mentioned them +in his memoirs of the man who trusted him as a friend. + +Such was Aaron Burr throughout a life which lasted for eighty +years. His last romance, at the age of seventy-eight, is worth +narrating because it has often been misunderstood. + +Mme. Jumel was a Rhode Island girl who at seventeen years of age +eloped with an English officer, Colonel Peter Croix. Her first +husband died while she was still quite young, and she then married +a French wine-merchant, Stephen Jumel, some twenty years her +senior, but a man of much vigor and intelligence. M. Jumel made a +considerable fortune in New York, owning a small merchant fleet; +and after Napoleon's downfall he and his wife went to Paris, where +she made a great impression in the salons by her vivacity and wit +and by her lavish expenditures. + +Losing, however, part of what she and her husband possessed, Mme. +Jumel returned to New York, bringing with her a great amount of +furniture and paintings, with which she decorated the historic +house still standing in the upper part of Manhattan Island--a +mansion held by her in her own right. She managed her estate with +much ability; and in 1828 M. Jumel returned to live with her in +what was in those days a splendid villa. + +Four years later, however, M. Jumel suffered an accident from +which he died in a few days, leaving his wife still an attractive +woman and not very much past her prime. Soon after she had +occasion to seek for legal advice, and for this purpose visited +the law-office of Aaron Burr. She had known him a good many years +before; and, though he was now seventy-eight years of age, there +was no perceptible change in him. He was still courtly in manner, +tactful, and deferential, while physically he was straight, +active, and vigorous. + +A little later she invited him to a formal banquet, where he +displayed all his charms and shone to great advantage. When he was +about to lead her in to dinner, he said: + +"I give my hand, madam; my heart has long been yours." + +These attentions he followed up with several other visits, and +finally proposed that she should marry him. Much fluttered and no +less flattered, she uttered a sort of "No" which was not likely to +discourage a man like Aaron Burr. + +"I shall come to you before very long," he said, "accompanied by a +clergyman; and then you will give me your hand because I want it." + +This rapid sort of wooing was pleasantly embarrassing. The lady +rather liked it; and so, on an afternoon when the sun was shining +and the leaves were rustling in the breeze, Burr drove up to Mme. +Jumel's mansion accompanied by Dr. Bogart--the very clergyman who +had married him to his first wife fifty years before. + +Mme. Jumel was now seriously disturbed, but her refusal was not a +strong one. There were reasons why she should accept the offer. +The great house was lonely. The management of her estate required +a man's advice. Moreover, she was under the spell of Burr's +fascination. Therefore she arrayed herself in one of her most +magnificent Paris gowns; the members of her household and eight +servants were called in and the ceremony was duly performed by Dr. +Bogart. A banquet followed. A dozen cobwebbed bottles of wine were +brought up from the cellar, and the marriage feast went on merrily +until after midnight. + +This marriage was a singular one from many points of view. It was +strange that a man of seventy-eight should take by storm the +affections of a woman so much younger than he--a woman of wealth +and knowledge of the world. In the second place, it is odd that +there was still another woman--a mere girl--who was so infatuated +with Burr that when she was told of his marriage it nearly broke +her heart. Finally, in the early part of that same year he had +been accused of being the father of a new-born child, and in spite +of his age every one believed the charge to be true. Here is a +case that it would be hard to parallel. + +The happiness of the newly married pair did not, however, last +very long. They made a wedding journey into Connecticut, of which +state Burr's nephew was then Governor, and there Burr saw a +monster bridge over the Connecticut River, in which his wife had +shares, though they brought her little income. He suggested that +she should transfer the investment, which, after all, was not a +very large one, and place it in a venture in Texas which looked +promising. The speculation turned out to be a loss, however, and +this made Mrs. Burr extremely angry, the more so as she had reason +to think that her ever-youthful husband had been engaged in +flirting with the country girls near the Jumel mansion. + +She was a woman of high spirit and had at times a violent temper. +One day the post-master at what was then the village of Harlem +was surprised to see Mrs. Burr drive up before the post-office in +an open carriage. He came out to ask what she desired, and was +surprised to find her in a violent temper and with an enormous +horse-pistol on each cushion at her side. + +"What do you wish, madam?" said he, rather mildly. + +"What do I wish?" she cried. "Let me get at that villain Aaron +Burr!" + +Presently Burr seems to have succeeded in pacifying her; but in +the end they separated, though she afterward always spoke most +kindly of him. When he died, only about a year later, she is said +to have burst into a flood of tears--another tribute to the +fascination which Aaron Burr exercised through all his checkered +life. + +It is difficult to come to any fixed opinion regarding the moral +character of Aaron Burr. As a soldier he was brave to the point of +recklessness. As a political leader he was almost the equal of +Jefferson and quite superior to Hamilton. As a man of the world he +was highly accomplished, polished in manner, charming in +conversation. He made friends easily, and he forgave his enemies +with a broadmindedness that is unusual. + +On the other hand, in his political career there was a touch of +insincerity, and it can scarcely be denied that he used his charm +too often to the injury of those women who could not resist his +insinuating ways and the caressing notes of his rich voice. But as +a husband, in his youth, he was devoted, affectionate, and loyal; +while as a father he was little less than worshiped by the +daughter whom he reared so carefully. + +One of his biographers very truly says that no such wretch as Burr +has been declared to be could have won and held the love of such a +wife and such a daughter as Burr had. + +When all the other witnesses have been heard, let the two +Theodosias be summoned, and especially that daughter who showed +toward him an affectionate veneration unsurpassed by any recorded +in history or romance. Such an advocate as Theodosia the younger +must avail in some degree, even though the culprit were brought +before the bar of Heaven itself. + + + + + +GEORGE IV. AND MRS. FITZHERBERT + + +In the last decade of the eighteenth century England was perhaps +the most brilliant nation of the world. Other countries had been +humbled by the splendid armies of France and were destined to be +still further humbled by the emperor who came from Corsica. France +had begun to seize the scepter of power; yet to this picture there +was another side--fearful want and grievous poverty and the +horrors of the Revolution. Russia was too far away, and was still +considered too barbarous, for a brilliant court to flourish there. +Prussia had the prestige that Frederick the Great won for her, but +she was still a comparatively small state. Italy was in a +condition of political chaos; the banks of the Rhine were running +blood where the Austrian armies faced the gallant Frenchmen under +the leadership of Moreau. But England, in spite of the loss of her +American colonies, was rich and prosperous, and her invincible +fleets were extending her empire over the seven seas. + +At no time in modern England has the court at London seen so much +real splendor or such fine manners. The royalist emigres who fled +from France brought with them names and pedigrees that were older +than the Crusades, and many of them were received with the +frankest, freest English hospitality. If here and there some +marquis or baron of ancient blood was perforce content to teach +music to the daughters of tradesmen in suburban schools, +nevertheless they were better off than they had been in France, +harried by the savage gaze-hounds of the guillotine. Afterward, +in the days of the Restoration, when they came back to their +estates, they had probably learned more than one lesson from the +bouledogues of Merry England, who had little tact, perhaps, but +who were at any rate kindly and willing to share their goods with +pinched and poverty-stricken foreigners. + +The court, then, as has been said, was brilliant with notables +from Continental countries, and with the historic wealth of the +peerage of England. Only one cloud overspread it; and that was the +mental condition of the king. We have become accustomed to think +of George III as a dull creature, almost always hovering on the +verge of that insanity which finally swept him into a dark +obscurity; but Thackeray's picture of him is absurdly untrue to +the actual facts. George III. was by no means a dullard, nor was +he a sort of beefy country squire who roved about the palace +gardens with his unattractive spouse. + +Obstinate enough he was, and ready for a combat with the rulers of +the Continent or with his self-willed sons; but he was a man of +brains and power, and Lord Rosebery has rightly described him as +the most striking constitutional figure of his time. Had he +retained his reason, and had his erratic and self-seeking son not +succeeded him during his own lifetime, Great Britain might very +possibly have entered upon other ways than those which opened to +her after the downfall of Napoleon. + +The real center of fashionable England, however, was not George +III., but rather his son, subsequently George IV., who was made +Prince of Wales three days after his birth, and who became prince +regent during the insanity of the king. He was the leader of the +social world, the fit companion of Beau Brummel and of a choice +circle of rakes and fox-hunters who drank pottle-deep. Some called +him "the first gentleman of Europe." Others, who knew him better, +described him as one who never kept his word to man or woman and +who lacked the most elementary virtues. + +Yet it was his good luck during the first years of his regency to +be popular as few English kings have ever been. To his people he +typified old England against revolutionary France; and his youth +and gaiety made many like him. He drank and gambled; he kept packs +of hounds and strings of horses; he ran deeply into debt that he +might patronize the sports of that uproarious day. He was a +gallant "Corinthian," a haunter of dens where there were prize- +fights and cock-fights, and there was hardly a doubtful resort in +London where his face was not familiar. + +He was much given to gallantry--not so much, as it seemed, for +wantonness, but from sheer love of mirth and chivalry. For a time, +with his chosen friends, such as Fox and Sheridan, he ventured +into reckless intrigues that recalled the amours of his +predecessor, Charles II. He had by no means the wit and courage of +Charles; and, indeed, the house of Hanover lacked the outward show +of chivalry which made the Stuarts shine with external splendor. +But he was good-looking and stalwart, and when he had half a dozen +robust comrades by his side he could assume a very manly +appearance. Such was George IV. in his regency and in his prime. +He made that period famous for its card-playing, its deep +drinking, and for the dissolute conduct of its courtiers and +noblemen no less than for the gallantry of its soldiers and its +momentous victories on sea and land. It came, however, to be seen +that his true achievements were in reality only escapades, that +his wit was only folly, and his so-called "sensibility" was but +sham. He invented buckles, striped waistcoats, and flamboyant +collars, but he knew nothing of the principles of kingship or the +laws by which a state is governed. + +The fact that he had promiscuous affairs with women appealed at +first to the popular sense of the romantic. It was not long, +however, before these episodes were trampled down into the mire of +vulgar scandal. + +One of the first of them began when he sent a letter, signed +"Florizel," to a young actress, "Perdita" Robinson. Mrs. Robinson, +whose maiden name was Mary Darby, and who was the original of +famous portraits by Gainsborough and Reynolds, was a woman of +beauty, talent, and temperament. George, wishing in every way to +be "romantic," insisted upon clandestine meetings on the Thames at +Kew, with all the stage trappings of the popular novels--cloaks, +veils, faces hidden, and armed watchers to warn her of approaching +danger. Poor Perdita took this nonsense so seriously that she gave +up her natural vocation for the stage, and forsook her husband, +believing that the prince would never weary of her. + +He did weary of her very soon, and, with the brutality of a man of +such a type, turned her away with the promise of some money; after +which he cut her in the Park and refused to speak to her again. As +for the money, he may have meant to pay it, but Perdita had a long +struggle before she succeeded in getting it. It may be assumed +that the prince had to borrow it and that this obligation formed +part of the debts which Parliament paid for him. + +It is not necessary to number the other women whose heads he +turned. They are too many for remembrance here, and they have no +special significance, save one who, as is generally believed, +became his wife so far as the church could make her so. An act of +1772 had made it illegal for any member of the English royal +family to marry without the permission of the king. A marriage +contracted without the king's consent might be lawful in the eyes +of the church, but the children born of it could not inherit any +claim to the throne. + +It may be remarked here that this withholding of permission was +strictly enforced. Thus William IV., who succeeded George IV., was +married, before his accession to the throne, to Mrs. Jordan +(Dorothy Bland). Afterward he lawfully married a woman of royal +birth who was known as Queen Adelaide. + +There is an interesting story which tells how Queen Victoria came +to be born because her father, the Duke of Kent, was practically +forced to give up a morganatic union which he greatly preferred to +a marriage arranged for him by Parliament. Except the Duke of +Cambridge, the Duke of Kent was the only royal duke who was likely +to have children in the regular line. The only daughter of George +IV. had died in childhood. The Duke of Cumberland was for various +reasons ineligible; the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV., +was almost too old; and therefore, to insure the succession, the +Duke of Kent was begged to marry a young and attractive woman, a +princess of the house of Saxe-Coburg, who was ready for the honor. +It was greatly to the Duke's credit that he showed deep and +sincere feeling in this matter. As he said himself in effect: + +"This French lady has stood by me in hard times and in good times, +too--why should I cast her off? She has been more than a wife to +me. And what do I care for your plans in Parliament? Send over for +one of the Stuarts--they are better men than the last lot of our +fellows that you have had!" + +In the end, however, he was wearied out and was persuaded to +marry, but he insisted that a generous sum should be settled on +the lady who had been so long his true companion, and to whom, no +doubt, he gave many a wistful thought in his new but unfamiliar +quarters in Kensington Palace, which was assigned as his +residence. + +Again, the second Duke of Cambridge, who died only a few years +ago, greatly desired to marry a lady who was not of royal rank, +though of fine breeding and of good birth. He besought his young +cousin, as head of the family, to grant him this privilege of +marriage; but Queen Victoria stubbornly refused. The duke was +married according to the rites of the church, but he could not +make his wife a duchess. The queen never quite forgave him for his +partial defiance of her wishes, though the duke's wife--she was +usually spoken of as Mrs. FitzGeorge--was received almost +everywhere, and two of her sons hold high rank in the British army +and navy, respectively. + +The one real love story in the life of George IV. is that which +tells of his marriage with a lady who might well have been the +wife of any king. This was Maria Anne Smythe, better known as Mrs. +Fitzherbert, who was six years older than the young prince when +she first met him in company with a body of gentlemen and ladies +in 1784. + +Maria Fitzherbert's face was one which always displayed its best +advantages. Her eyes were peculiarly languishing, and, as she had +already been twice a widow, and was six years his senior, she had +the advantage over a less experienced lover. Likewise, she was a +Catholic, and so by another act of Parliament any marriage with +her would be illegal. Yet just because of all these different +objections the prince was doubly drawn to her, and was willing to +sacrifice even the throne if he could but win her. + +His father, the king, called him into the royal presence and said: + +"George, it is time that you should settle down and insure the +succession to the throne." + +"Sir," replied the prince, "I prefer to resign the succession and +let my brother have it, and that I should live as a private +English gentleman." + +Mrs. Fitzherbert was not the sort of woman to give herself up +readily to a morganatic connection. Moreover, she soon came to +love Prince George too well to entangle him in a doubtful alliance +with one of another faith than his. Not long after he first met +her the prince, who was always given to private theatricals, sent +messengers riding in hot haste to her house to tell her that he +had stabbed himself, that he begged to see her, and that unless +she came he would repeat the act. The lady yielded, and hurried to +Carlton House, the prince's residence; but she was prudent enough +to take with her the Duchess of Devonshire, who was a reigning +beauty of the court. + +The scene which followed was theatrical rather than impressive.-- +The prince was found in his sleeping-chamber, pale and with his +ruffles blood-stained. He played the part of a youthful and love- +stricken wooer, vowing that he would marry the woman of his heart +or stab himself again. In the presence of his messengers, who, +with the duchess, were witnesses, he formally took the lady as his +wife, while Lady Devonshire's wedding-ring sealed the troth. The +prince also acknowledged it in a document. + +Mrs. Fitzherbert was, in fact, a woman of sound sense. Shortly +after this scene of melodramatic intensity her wits came back to +her, and she recognized that she had merely gone through a +meaningless farce. So she sent back the prince's document and the +ring and hastened to the Continent, where he could not reach her, +although his detectives followed her steps for a year. + +At the last she yielded, however, and came home to marry the +prince in such fashion as she could--a marriage of love, and +surely one of morality, though not of parliamentary law. The +ceremony was performed "in her own drawing-room in her house in +London, in the presence of the officiating Protestant clergyman +and two of her own nearest relatives." + +Such is the serious statement of Lord Stourton, who was Mrs. +Fitzherbert's cousin and confidant. The truth of it was never +denied, and Mrs. Fitzherbert was always treated with respect, and +even regarded as a person of great distinction. Nevertheless, on +more than one occasion the prince had his friends in Parliament +deny the marriage in order that his debts might be paid and new +allowances issued to him by the Treasury. + +George certainly felt himself a husband. Like any other married +prince, he set himself to build a palace for his country home. +While in search of some suitable spot he chanced to visit the +"pretty fishing-village" of Brighton to see his uncle, the Duke of +Cumberland. Doubtless he found it an attractive place, yet this +may have been not so much because of its view of the sea as for +the reason that Mrs. Fitzherbert had previously lived there. + +However, in 1784 the prince sent down his chief cook to make +arrangements for the next royal visit. The cook engaged a house on +the spot where the Pavilion now stands, and from that time +Brighton began to be an extremely fashionable place. The court +doctors, giving advice that was agreeable, recommended their royal +patient to take sea-bathing at Brighton. At once the place sprang +into popularity. + +At first the gentry were crowded into lodging-houses and the +accommodations were primitive to a degree. But soon handsome +villas arose on every side; hotels appeared; places of amusement +were opened. The prince himself began to build a tasteless but +showy structure, partly Chinese and partly Indian in style, on the +fashionable promenade of the Steyne. + +During his life with Mrs. Fitzherbert at Brighton the prince held +what was practically a court. Hundreds of the aristocracy came +down from London and made their temporary dwellings there; while +thousands who were by no means of the court made the place what is +now popularly called "London by the Sea." There were the Duc de +Chartres, of France; statesmen and rakes, like Fox, Sheridan, and +the Earl of Barrymore; a very beautiful woman, named Mrs. Couch, a +favorite singer at the opera, to whom the prince gave at one time +jewels worth ten thousand pounds; and a sister of the Earl of +Barrymore, who was as notorious as her brother. She often took the +president's chair at a club which George's friends had organized +and which she had christened the Hell Fire Club. + +Such persons were not the only visitors at Brighton. Men of much +more serious demeanor came down to visit the prince and brought +with them quieter society. Nevertheless, for a considerable time +the place was most noted for its wild scenes of revelry, into +which George frequently entered, though his home life with Mrs. +Fitzherbert at the Pavilion was a decorous one. + +No one felt any doubt as to the marriage of the two persons, who +seemed so much like a prince and a princess. Some of the people of +the place addressed Mrs. Fitzherbert as "Mrs. Prince." The old +king and his wife, however, much deplored their son's relation +with her. This was partly due to the fact that Mrs. Fitzherbert +was a Catholic and that she had received a number of French nuns +who had been driven out of France at the time of the Revolution. +But no less displeasure was caused by the prince's racing and +dicing, which swelled his debts to almost a million pounds, so +that Parliament and, indeed, the sober part of England were set +against him. + +Of course, his marriage to Mrs. Fitzherbert had no legal status; +nor is there any reason for believing that she ever became a +mother. She had no children by her former two husbands, and Lord +Stourton testified positively that she never had either son or +daughter by Prince George. Nevertheless, more than one American +claimant has risen to advance some utterly visionary claim to the +English throne by reason of alleged descent from Prince George and +Mrs. Fitzherbert. + +Neither William IV. nor Queen Victoria ever spent much time at +Brighton. In King William's case it was explained that the +dampness of the Pavilion did not suit him; and as to Queen +Victoria, it was said that she disliked the fact that buildings +had been erected so as to cut off the view of the sea. It is quite +likely, however, that the queen objected to the associations of +the place, and did not care to be reminded of the time when her +uncle had lived there so long in a morganatic state of marriage. + +At length the time came when the king, Parliament, and the people +at large insisted that the Prince of Wales should make a legal +marriage, and a wife was selected for him in the person of +Caroline, daughter of the Duke of Brunswick. This marriage took +place exactly ten years after his wedding with the beautiful and +gentle-mannered Mrs. Fitzherbert. With the latter he had known +many days and hours of happiness. With Princess Caroline he had no +happiness at all. + +Prince George met her at the pier to greet her. It is said that as +he took her hand he kissed her, and then, suddenly recoiling, he +whispered to one of his friends: + +"For God's sake, George, give me a glass of brandy!" + +Such an utterance was more brutal and barbaric than anything his +bride could have conceived of, though it is probable, fortunately, +that she did not understand him by reason of her ignorance of +English. + +We need not go through the unhappy story of this unsympathetic, +neglected, rebellious wife. Her life with the prince soon became +one of open warfare; but instead of leaving England she remained +to set the kingdom in an uproar. As soon as his father died and he +became king, George sued her for divorce. Half the people sided +with the queen, while the rest regarded her as a vulgar creature +who made love to her attendants and brought dishonor on the +English throne. It was a sorry, sordid contrast between the young +Prince George who had posed as a sort of cavalier and this now +furious gray old man wrangling with his furious German wife. + +Well might he look back to the time when he met Perdita in the +moonlight on the Thames, or when he played the part of Florizel, +or, better still, when he enjoyed the sincere and disinterested +love of the gentle woman who was his wife in all but legal status. +Caroline of Brunswick was thrust away from the king's coronation. +She took a house within sight of Westminster Abbey, so that she +might make hag-like screeches to the mob and to the king as he +passed by. Presently, in August, 1821, only a month after the +coronation, she died, and her body was taken back to Brunswick for +burial. + +George himself reigned for nine years longer. When he died in 1830 +his executor was the Duke of Wellington. The duke, in examining +the late king's private papers, found that he had kept with the +greatest care every letter written to him by his morganatic wife. +During his last illness she had sent him an affectionate missive +which it is said George "read eagerly." Mrs. Fitzherbert wished +the duke to give up her letters; but he would do so only in return +for those which he had written to her. + +It was finally decided that it would be best to burn both his and +hers. This work was carried out in Mrs. Fitzherbert's own house by +the lady, the duke, and the Earl of Albemarle. + +Of George it may be said that he has left as memories behind him +only three things that will be remembered. The first is the +Pavilion at Brighton, with its absurdly oriental decorations, its +minarets and flimsy towers. The second is the buckle which he +invented and which Thackeray has immortalized with his biting +satire. The last is the story of his marriage to Maria +Fitzherbert, and of the influence exercised upon him by the +affection of a good woman. + + + + + +CHARLOTTE CORDAY AND ADAM LUX + + +Perhaps some readers will consider this story inconsistent with +those that have preceded it. Yet, as it is little known to most +readers and as it is perhaps unique in the history of romantic +love, I cannot forbear relating it; for I believe that it is full +of curious interest and pathetic power. + +All those who have written of the French Revolution have paused in +their chronicle of blood and flame to tell the episode of the +peasant Royalist, Charlotte Corday; but in telling it they have +often omitted the one part of the story that is personal and not +political. The tragic record of this French girl and her self- +sacrifice has been told a thousand times by writers in many +languages; yet almost all of them have neglected the brief romance +which followed her daring deed and which was consummated after her +death upon the guillotine. It is worth our while to speak first of +Charlotte herself and of the man she slew, and then to tell that +other tale which ought always to be entwined with her great deed +of daring. + +Charlotte Corday--Marie Anne Charlotte Corday d'Armand--was a +native of Normandy, and was descended, as her name implies, from +noble ancestors. Her forefathers, indeed, had been statesmen, +civil rulers, and soldiers, and among them was numbered the famous +poet Corneille, whom the French rank with Shakespeare. But a +century or more of vicissitudes had reduced her branch of the +family almost to the position of peasants--a fact which partly +justifies the name that some give her when they call her "the +Jeanne d'Arc of the Revolution." + +She did not, however, spend her girlish years amid the fields and +woods tending her sheep, as did the other Jeanne d'Arc; but she +was placed in charge of the sisters in a convent, and from them +she received such education as she had. She was a lonely child, +and her thoughts turned inward, brooding over many things. + +After she had left the convent she was sent to live with an aunt. +Here she devoted herself to reading over and over the few books +which the house contained. These consisted largely of the deistic +writers, especially Voltaire, and to some extent they destroyed +her convent faith, though it is not likely that she understood +them very fully. + +More to her taste was a copy of Plutarch's Lives. These famous +stories fascinated her. They told her of battle and siege, of +intrigue and heroism, and of that romantic love of country which +led men to throw away their lives for the sake of a whole people. +Brutus and Regulus were her heroes. To die for the many seemed to +her the most glorious end that any one could seek. When she +thought of it she thrilled with a sort of ecstasy, and longed with +all the passion of her nature that such a glorious fate might be +her own. + +Charlotte had nearly come to womanhood at the time when the French +Revolution first broke out. Royalist though she had been in her +sympathies, she felt the justice of the people's cause. She had +seen the suffering of the peasantry, the brutality of the tax- +gatherers, and all the oppression of the old regime. But what she +hoped for was a democracy of order and equality and peace. Could +the king reign as a constitutional monarch rather than as a +despot, this was all for which she cared. + +In Normandy, where she lived, were many of those moderate +republicans known as Girondists, who felt as she did and who hoped +for the same peaceful end to the great outbreak. On the other +hand, in Paris, the party of the Mountain, as it was called, ruled +with a savage violence that soon was to culminate in the Reign of +Terror. Already the guillotine ran red with noble blood. Already +the king had bowed his head to the fatal knife. Already the threat +had gone forth that a mere breath of suspicion or a pointed finger +might be enough to lead men and women to a gory death. + +In her quiet home near Caen Charlotte Corday heard as from afar +the story of this dreadful saturnalia of assassination which was +making Paris a city of bloody mist. Men and women of the Girondist +party came to tell her of the hideous deeds that were perpetrated +there. All these horrors gradually wove themselves in the young +girl's imagination around the sinister and repulsive figure of +Jean Paul Marat. She knew nothing of his associates, Danton and +Robespierre. It was in Marat alone that she saw the monster who +sent innocent thousands to their graves, and who reveled like some +arch-fiend in murder and gruesome death. + +In his earlier years Marat had been a very different figure--an +accomplished physician, the friend of nobles, a man of science and +original thought, so that he was nearly elected to the Academy of +Sciences. His studies in electricity gained for him the admiration +of Benjamin Franklin and the praise of Goethe. But when he turned +to politics he left all this career behind him. He plunged into +the very mire of red republicanism, and even there he was for a +time so much hated that he sought refuge in London to save his +life. + +On his return he was hunted by his enemies, so that his only place +of refuge was in the sewers and drains of Paris. A woman, one +Simonne Evrard, helped him to escape his pursuers. In the sewers, +however, he contracted a dreadful skin-disease from which he never +afterward recovered, and which was extremely painful as well as +shocking to behold. + +It is small wonder that the stories about Marat circulated through +the provinces made him seem more a devil than a man. His +vindictiveness against the Girondists brought all of this straight +home to Charlotte Corday and led her to dream of acting the part +of Brutus, so that she might free her country from this hideous +tyrant. + +In January, 1793, King Louis XVI. met his death upon the scaffold; +and the queen was thrust into a foul prison. This was a signal for +activity among the Girondists in Normandy, and especially at Caen, +where Charlotte was present at their meetings and heard their +fervid oratory. There was a plot to march on Paris, yet in some +instinctive way she felt that such a scheme must fail. It was then +that she definitely formed the plan of going herself, alone, to +the French capital to seek out the hideous Marat and to kill him +with her own hands. + +To this end she made application for a passport allowing her to +visit Paris. This passport still exists, and it gives us an +official description of the girl. It reads: + +Allow citizen Marie Corday to pass. She is twenty-four years of +age, five feet and one inch in height, hair and eyebrows chestnut +color, eyes gray, forehead high, mouth medium size, chin dimpled, +and an oval face. + +Apart from this verbal description we have two portraits painted +while she was in prison. Both of them make the description of the +passport seem faint and pale. The real Charlotte had a wealth of +chestnut hair which fell about her face and neck in glorious +abundance. Her great gray eyes spoke eloquently of truth and +courage. Her mouth was firm yet winsome, and her form combined +both strength and grace. Such is the girl who, on reaching Paris, +wrote to Marat in these words: + +Citizen, I have just arrived from Caen. Your love for your native +place doubtless makes you wish to learn the events which have +occurred in that part of the republic. I shall call at your +residence in about an hour. Be so good as to receive me and give +me a brief interview. I will put you in such condition as to +render great service to France. + +This letter failed to gain her admission, and so did another which +she wrote soon after. The fact is that Marat was grievously ill. +His disease had reached a point where the pain could be assuaged +only by hot water; and he spent the greater part of his time +wrapped in a blanket and lying in a large tub. + +A third time, however, the persistent girl called at his house and +insisted that she must see him, saying that she was herself in +danger from the enemies of the Republic. Through an open door +Marat heard her mellow voice and gave orders that she should be +admitted. + +As she entered she gazed for a moment upon the lank figure rolling +in the tub, the rat-like face, and the shifting eyes. Then she +approached him, concealing in the bosom of her dress a long +carving-knife which she had purchased for two francs. In answer to +Marat's questioning look she told him that there was much +excitement at Caen and that the Girondists were plotting there. + +To this Marat answered, in his harsh voice: + +"All these men you mention shall be guillotined in the next few +days!" + +As he spoke Charlotte flashed out the terrible knife and with all +her strength she plunged it into his left side, where it pierced a +lung and a portion of his heart. + +Marat, with the blood gushing from his mouth, cried out: + +"Help, darling!" + +His cry was meant for one of the two women in the house. Both +heard it, for they were in the next room; and both of them rushed +in and succeeded in pinioning Charlotte Corday, who, indeed, made +only a slight effort to escape. Troops were summoned, she was +taken to the Prison de l'Abbaye, and soon after she was arraigned +before the revolutionary tribunal. + +Placed in the dock, she glanced about her with an air of pride, as +of one who gloried in the act which she had just performed. A +written charge was read. She was asked what she had to say. +Lifting her head with a look of infinite satisfaction, she +answered in a ringing voice: + +"Nothing--except that I succeeded!" + +A lawyer was assigned for her defense. He pleaded for her +earnestly, declaring that she must he regarded as insane; but +those clear, calm eyes and that gentle face made her sanity a +matter of little doubt. She showed her quick wit in the answers +which she gave to the rough prosecutor, Fouquier-Tinville, who +tried to make her confess that she had accomplices. + +"Who prompted you to do this deed?" roared Tinville. + +"I needed no prompting. My own heart was sufficient." + +"In what, then, had Marat wronged you?" + +"He was a savage beast who was going to destroy the remains of +France in the fires of civil war." + +"But whom did you expect to benefit?" insinuated the prosecutor. + +"I have killed one man to save a hundred thousand." + +"What? Did you imagine that you had murdered all the Marats?" + +"No, but, this one being dead, the rest will perhaps take +warning." + +Thus her directness baffled all the efforts of the prosecution to +trap her into betraying any of her friends. The court, however, +sentenced her to death. She was then immured in the Conciergerie. + +This dramatic court scene was the beginning of that strange, brief +romance to which one can scarcely find a parallel. At the time +there lived in Paris a young German named Adam Lux. The continual +talk about Charlotte Corday had filled him with curiosity +regarding this young girl who had been so daring and so patriotic. +She was denounced on every hand as a murderess with the face of a +Medusa and the muscles of a Vulcan. Street songs about her were +dinned into the ears of Adam Lux. + +As a student of human nature he was anxious to see this terrible +creature. He forced his way to the front of the crowded benches in +the court-room and took his stand behind a young artist who was +finishing a beautiful sketch. From that moment until the end of +the trial the eyes of Adam Lux were fastened on the prisoner. What +a contrast to the picture he had imagined! + +A mass of regal chestnut hair crowned with the white cap of a +Norman peasant girl; gray eyes, very sad and serious, but looking +serenely forth from under long, dark lashes; lips slightly curved +with an expression of quiet humor; a face the color of the sun and +wind, a bust indicative of perfect health, the chin of a Caesar, +and the whole expression one of almost divine self-sacrifice. Such +were the features that the painter was swiftly putting upon his +canvas; but behind them Adam Lux discerned the soul for which he +gladly sacrificed both his liberty and his life. + +He forgot his surroundings and seemed to see only that beautiful, +pure face and to hear only the exquisite cadences of the wonderful +voice. When Charlotte was led forth by a file of soldiers Adam +staggered from the scene and made his way as best he might to his +lodgings. There he lay prostrate, his whole soul filled with the +love of her who had in an instant won the adoration of his heart. + +Once, and only once again, when the last scene opened on the +tragedy, did he behold the heroine of his dreams. + +On the 17th of July Charlotte Corday was taken from her prison to +the gloomy guillotine. It was toward evening, and nature had given +a setting fit for such an end. Blue-black thunder-clouds rolled in +huge masses across the sky until their base appeared to rest on +the very summit of the guillotine. Distant thunder rolled and +grumbled beyond the river. Great drops of rain fell upon the +soldiers' drums. Young, beautiful, unconscious of any wrong, +Charlotte Corday stood beneath the shadow of the knife. + +At the supreme moment a sudden ray from the setting sun broke +through the cloud-wrack and fell upon her slender figure until she +glowed in the eyes of the startled spectators like a statue cut in +burnished bronze. Thus illumined, as it were, by a light from +heaven itself, she bowed herself beneath the knife and paid the +penalty of a noble, if misdirected, impulse. As the blade fell her +lips quivered with her last and only plea: + +"My duty is enough--the rest is nothing!" + +Adam Lux rushed from the scene a man transformed. He bore graven +upon his heart neither the mob of tossing red caps nor the glare +of the sunset nor the blood-stained guillotine, but that last look +from those brilliant eyes. The sight almost deprived him of his +reason. The self-sacrifice of the only woman he had ever loved, +even though she had never so much as seen him, impelled him with a +sort of fury to his own destruction. + +He wrote a bitter denunciation of the judges, of the officers, and +of all who had been followers of Marat. This document he printed, +and scattered copies of it through every quarter in Paris. The +last sentences are as follows: + +The guillotine is no longer a disgrace. It has become a sacred +altar, from which every taint has been removed by the innocent +blood shed there on the 17th of July. Forgive me, my divine +Charlotte, if I find it impossible at the last moment to show the +courage and the gentleness that were yours! I glory because you +are superior to me, for it is right that she who is adored should +be higher and more glorious than her adorer! + +This pamphlet, spread broadcast among the people, was soon +reported to the leaders of the rabble. Adam Lux was arrested for +treason against the Republic; but even these men had no desire to +make a martyr of this hot-headed youth. They would stop his mouth +without taking his life. Therefore he was tried and speedily found +guilty, but an offer was made him that he might have passports +that would allow him to return to Germany if only he would sign a +retraction of his printed words. + +Little did the judges understand the fiery heart of the man they +had to deal with. To die on the same scaffold as the woman whom he +had idealized was to him the crowning triumph of his romantic +love. He gave a prompt and insolent refusal to their offer. He +swore that if released he would denounce his darling's murderers +with a still greater passion. + +In anger the tribunal sentenced him to death. Only then he smiled +and thanked his judges courteously, and soon after went blithely +to the guillotine like a bridegroom to his marriage feast. + +Adam Lux! Spirit courtship had been carried on silently all +through that terrible cross-examination of Charlotte Corday. His +heart was betrothed to hers in that single gleam of the setting +sun when she bowed beneath the knife. One may believe that these +two souls were finally united when the same knife fell sullenly +upon his neck and when his life-blood sprinkled the altar that was +still stained with hers. + + + + + +NAPOLEON AND MARIE WALEWSKA + + +There are four women who may be said to have deeply influenced the +life of Napoleon. These four are the only ones who need to be +taken into account by the student of his imperial career. The +great emperor was susceptible to feminine charms at all times; but +just as it used to be said of him that "his smile never rose above +his eyes," so it might as truly be said that in most instances the +throbbing of his heart did not affect his actions. + +Women to him were the creatures of the moment, although he might +seem to care for them and to show his affection in extravagant +ways, as in his affair with Mlle. Georges, the beautiful but +rather tiresome actress. As for Mme. de Stael, she bored him to +distraction by her assumption of wisdom. That was not the kind of +woman that Napoleon cared for. He preferred that a woman should be +womanly, and not a sort of owl to sit and talk with him about the +theory of government. + +When it came to married women they interested him only because of +the children they might bear to grow up as recruits for his +insatiate armies. At the public balls given at the Tuileries he +would walk about the gorgeous drawing-rooms, and when a lady was +presented to him he would snap out, sharply: + +"How many children have you?" + +If she were able to answer that she had several the emperor would +look pleased and would pay her some compliment; but if she said +that she had none he would turn upon her sharply and say: + +"Then go home and have some!" + +Of the four women who influenced his life, first must come +Josephine, because she secured him his earliest chance of +advancement. She met him through Barras, with whom she was said to +be rather intimate. The young soldier was fascinated by her--the +more because she was older than he and possessed all the practised +arts of the creole and the woman of the world. When she married +him she brought him as her dowry the command of the army of Italy, +where in a few months he made the tri-color, borne by ragged +troops, triumphant over the splendidly equipped hosts of Austria. + +She was his first love, and his knowledge of her perfidy gave him +the greatest shock and horror of his whole life; yet she might +have held him to the end if she had borne an heir to the imperial +throne. It was her failure to do so that led Napoleon to divorce +Josephine and marry the thick-lipped Marie Louise of Austria. +There were times later when he showed signs of regret and said: + +"I have had no luck since I gave up Josephine!" + +Marie Louise was of importance for a time--the short time when +she entertained her husband and delighted him by giving birth to +the little King of Rome. Yet in the end she was but an episode; +fleeing from her husband in his misfortune, becoming the mistress +of Count Neipperg, and letting her son--l'Aiglon--die in a land +that was far from France. + +Napoleon's sister, Pauline Bonaparte, was the third woman who +comes to mind when we contemplate the great Corsican's career. +She, too, is an episode. During the period of his ascendancy she +plagued him with her wanton ways, her sauciness and trickery. It +was amusing to throw him into one of his violent rages; but +Pauline was true at heart, and when her great brother was sent to +Elba she followed him devotedly and gave him all her store of +jewels, including the famous Borghese diamonds, perhaps the most +superb of all gems known to the western world. She would gladly +have followed him, also, to St. Helena had she been permitted. +Remaining behind, she did everything possible in conspiring to +secure his freedom. + +But, after all, Pauline and Marie Louise count for comparatively +little. Josephine's fate was interwoven with Napoleon's; and, with +his Corsican superstition, he often said so. The fourth woman, of +whom I am writing here, may be said to have almost equaled +Josephine in her influence on the emperor as well as in the pathos +of her life-story. + +On New-Year's Day of 1807 Napoleon, who was then almost Emperor of +Europe, passed through the little town of Bronia, in Poland. +Riding with his cavalry to Warsaw, the ancient capital of the +Polish kingdom, he seemed a very demigod of battle. + +True, he had had to abandon his long-cherished design of invading +and overrunning England, and Nelson had shattered his fleets and +practically driven his flag from the sea; but the naval disaster +of Trafalgar had speedily been followed by the triumph of +Austerlitz, the greatest and most brilliant of all Napoleon's +victories, which left Austria and Russia humbled to the very +ground before him. + +Then Prussia had dared to defy the over-bearing conqueror and had +put into the field against him her armies trained by Frederick the +Great; but these he had shattered almost at a stroke, winning in +one day the decisive battles of Jena and Auerstadt. He had stabled +his horses in the royal palace of the Hohenzollerns and had +pursued the remnant of the Prussian forces to the Russian border. + +As he marched into the Polish provinces the people swarmed by +thousands to meet him and hail him as their country's savior. They +believed down to the very last that Bonaparte would make the Poles +once more a free and independent nation and rescue them from the +tyranny of Russia. + +Napoleon played upon this feeling in every manner known to his +artful mind. He used it to alarm the Czar. He used it to +intimidate the Emperor of Austria; but more especially did he use +it among the Poles themselves to win for his armies thousands upon +thousands of gallant soldiers, who believed that in fighting for +Napoleon they were fighting for the final independence of their +native land. + +Therefore, with the intensity of patriotism which is a passion +among the Poles, every man and every woman gazed at Napoleon with +something like adoration; for was not he the mighty warrior who +had in his gift what all desired? Soldiers of every rank swarmed +to his standards. Princes and nobles flocked about him. Those who +stayed at home repeated wonderful stories of his victories and +prayed for him and fed the flame which spread through all the +country. It was felt that no sacrifice was too great to win his +favor; that to him, as to a deity, everything that he desired +should be yielded up, since he was to restore the liberty of +Poland. + +And hence, when the carriage of the emperor dashed into Bronia, +surrounded by Polish lancers and French cuirassiers, the enormous +crowd surged forward and blocked the way so that their hero could +not pass because of their cheers and cries and supplications. + +In the midst of it all there came a voice of peculiar sweetness +from the thickest portion of the crowd. + +"Please let me pass!" said the voice. "Let me see him, if only for +a moment!" + +The populace rolled backward, and through the lane which they made +a beautiful girl with dark blue eyes that flamed and streaming +hair that had become loosened about her radiant face was +confronting the emperor. Carried away by her enthusiasm, she +cried: + +"Thrice welcome to Poland! We can do or say nothing to express our +joy in the country which you will surely deliver from its tyrant." + +The emperor bowed and, with a smile, handed a great bouquet of +roses to the girl, for her beauty and her enthusiasm had made a +deep impression on him. + +"Take it," said he, "as a proof of my admiration. I trust that I +may have the pleasure of meeting you at Warsaw and of hearing your +thanks from those beautiful lips." + +In a moment more the trumpets rang out shrilly, the horsemen +closed up beside the imperial carriage, and it rolled away amid +the tumultuous shouting of the populace. + +The girl who had so attracted Napoleon's attention was Marie +Walewska, descended from an ancient though impoverished family in +Poland. When she was only fifteen she was courted by one of the +wealthiest men in Poland, the Count Walewska. He was three or four +times her age, yet her dark blue eyes, her massive golden hair, +and the exquisite grace of her figure led him to plead that she +might become his wife. She had accepted him, but the marriage was +that of a mere child, and her interest still centered upon her +country and took the form of patriotism rather than that of +wifehood and maternity. + +It was for this reason that the young Countess had visited Bronia. +She was now eighteen years of age and still had the sort of +romantic feeling which led her to think that she would keep in +some secret hiding-place the bouquet which the greatest man alive +had given her. + +But Napoleon was not the sort of man to forget anything that had +given him either pleasure or the reverse. He who, at the height of +his cares, could recall instantly how many cannon were in each +seaport of France and could make out an accurate list of all his +military stores; he who could call by name every soldier in his +guard, with a full remembrance of the battles each man had fought +in and the honors that he had won--he was not likely to forget so +lovely a face as the one which had gleamed with peculiar radiance +through the crowd at Bronia. + +On reaching Warsaw he asked one or two well-informed persons about +this beautiful stranger. Only a few hours had passed before Prince +Poniatowski, accompanied by other nobles, called upon her at her +home. + +"I am directed, madam," said he, "by order of the Emperor of +France, to bid you to be present at a ball that is to be given in +his honor to-morrow evening." + +Mme. Walewska was startled, and her face grew hot with blushes. +Did the emperor remember her escapade at Bronia? If so, how had he +discovered her? Why should he seek her out and do her such an +honor? + +"That, madam, is his imperial majesty's affair," Poniatowski told +her. "I merely obey his instructions and ask your presence at the +ball. Perhaps Heaven has marked you out to be the means of saving +our unhappy country." + +In this way, by playing on her patriotism, Poniatowski almost +persuaded her, and yet something held her back. She trembled, +though she was greatly fascinated; and finally she refused to go. + +Scarcely had the envoy left her, however, when a great company of +nobles entered in groups and begged her to humor the emperor. +Finally her own husband joined in their entreaties and actually +commanded her to go; so at last she was compelled to yield. + +It was by no means the frank and radiant girl who was now +preparing again to meet the emperor. She knew not why, and yet her +heart was full of trepidation and nervous fright, the cause of +which she could not guess, yet which made her task a severe +ordeal. She dressed herself in white satin, with no adornment save +a wreath of foliage in her hair. + +As she entered the ballroom she was welcomed by hundreds whom she +had never seen before, but who were of the highest nobility of +Poland. Murmurs of admiration followed her, and finally +Poniatowski came to her and complimented her, besides bringing her +a message that the emperor desired her to dance with him. + +"I am very sorry," she said, with a quiver of the lips, "but I +really cannot dance. Be kind enough to ask the emperor to excuse +me." + +But at that very moment she felt some strange magnetic influence; +and without looking up she could feel that Napoleon himself was +standing by her as she sat with blanched face and downcast eyes, +not daring to look up at him. + +"White upon white is a mistake, madam," said the emperor, in his +gentlest tones. Then, stooping low, he whispered, "I had expected +a far different reception." + +She neither smiled nor met his eyes. He stood there for a moment +and then passed on, leaving her to return to her home with a heavy +heart. The young countess felt that she had acted wrongly, and yet +there was an instinct--an instinct that she could not conquer. + +In the gray of the morning, while she was still tossing +feverishly, her maid knocked at the door and brought her a hastily +scribbled note. It ran as follows: + +I saw none but you, I admired none but you; I desire only you. +Answer at once, and calm the impatient ardor of--N. + +These passionate words burned from her eyes the veil that had +hidden the truth from her. What before had been mere blind +instinct became an actual verity. Why had she at first rushed +forth into the very streets to hail the possible deliverer of her +country, and then why had she shrunk from him when he sought to +honor her! It was all clear enough now. This bedside missive meant +that he had intended her dishonor and that he had looked upon her +simply as a possible mistress. + +At once she crushed the note angrily in her hand. + +"There is no answer at all," said she, bursting into bitter tears +at the very thought that he should dare to treat her in this way. + +But on the following morning when she awoke her maid was standing +beside her with a second letter from Napoleon. She refused to open +it and placed it in a packet with the first letter, and ordered +that both of them should be returned to the emperor. + +She shrank from speaking to her husband of what had happened, and +there was no one else in whom she dared confide. All through that +day there came hundreds of visitors, either of princely rank or +men who had won fame by their gallantry and courage. They all +begged to see her, but to them all she sent one answer--that she +was ill and could see no one. + +After a time her husband burst into her room, and insisted that +she should see them. + +"Why," exclaimed he, "you are insulting the greatest men and the +noblest women of Poland! More than that, there are some of the +most distinguished Frenchmen sitting at your doorstep, as it were. +There is Duroc, grand marshal of France, and in refusing to see +him you are insulting the great emperor on whom depends everything +that our country longs for. Napoleon has invited you to a state +dinner and you have given him no answer whatever. I order you to +rise at once and receive these ladies and gentlemen who have done +you so much honor!" + +She could not refuse. Presently she appeared in her drawing-room, +where she was at once surrounded by an immense throng of her own +countrymen and countrywomen, who made no pretense of +misunderstanding the situation. To them, what was one woman's +honor when compared with the freedom and independence of their +nation? She was overwhelmed by arguments and entreaties. She was +even accused of being disloyal to the cause of Poland if she +refused her consent. + +One of the strangest documents of that period was a letter sent to +her and signed by the noblest men in Poland. It contained a +powerful appeal to her patriotism. One remarkable passage even +quotes the Bible to point out her line of duty. A portion of this +letter ran as follows: + +Did Esther, think you, give herself to Ahasuerus out of the +fulness of her love for him? So great was the terror with which he +inspired her that she fainted at the sight of him. We may +therefore conclude that affection had but little to do with her +resolve. She sacrificed her own inclinations to the salvation of +her country, and that salvation it was her glory to achieve. May +we be enabled to say the same of you, to your glory and our own +happiness! + +After this letter came others from Napoleon himself, full of the +most humble pleading. It was not wholly distasteful thus to have +the conqueror of the world seek her out and offer her his +adoration any more than it was distasteful to think that the +revival of her own nation depended on her single will. M. Frederic +Masson, whose minute studies regarding everything relating to +Napoleon have won him a seat in the French Academy, writes of +Marie Walewska at this time: Every force was now brought into play +against her. Her country, her friends, her religion, the Old and +the New Testaments, all urged her to yield; they all combined for +the ruin of a simple and inexperienced girl of eighteen who had no +parents, whose husband even thrust her into temptation, and whose +friends thought that her downfall would be her glory. + +Amid all these powerful influences she consented to attend the +dinner. To her gratification Napoleon treated her with distant +courtesy, and, in fact, with a certain coldness. + +"I heard that Mme. Walewska was indisposed. I trust that she has +recovered," was all the greeting that he gave her when they met. + +Every one else with whom she spoke overwhelmed her with flattery +and with continued urging; but the emperor himself for a time +acted as if she had displeased him. This was consummate art; for +as soon as she was relieved of her fears she began to regret that +she had thrown her power away. + +During the dinner she let her eyes wander to those of the emperor +almost in supplication. He, the subtlest of men, knew that he had +won. His marvelous eyes met hers and drew her attention to him as +by an electric current; and when the ladies left the great dining- +room Napoleon sought her out and whispered in her ear a few words +of ardent love. + +It was too little to alarm her seriously now. It was enough to +make her feel that magnetism which Napoleon knew so well how to +evoke and exercise. Again every one crowded about her with +congratulations. Some said: + +"He never even saw any of US. His eyes were all for YOU! They +flashed fire as he looked at you." + +"You have conquered his heart," others said, "and you can do what +you like with him. The salvation of Poland is in your hands." + +The company broke up at an early hour, but Mme. Walewska was asked +to remain. When she was alone General Duroc--one of the emperor's +favorite officers and most trusted lieutenants--entered and placed +a letter from Napoleon in her lap. He tried to tell her as +tactfully as possible how much harm she was doing by refusing the +imperial request. She was deeply affected, and presently, when +Duroc left her, she opened the letter which he had given her and +read it. It was worded thus: + +There are times when all splendors become oppressive, as I feel +but too deeply at the present moment. How can I satisfy the +desires of a heart that yearns to cast itself at your feet, when +its impulses are checked at every point by considerations of the +highest moment? Oh, if you would, you alone might overcome the +obstacles that keep us apart. MY FRIEND DUROC WILL MAKE ALL EASY +FOR YOU. Oh, come, come! Your every wish shall be gratified! Your +country will be dearer to me when you take pity on my poor heart. +N. + +Every chance of escape seemed to be closed. She had Napoleon's own +word that he would free Poland in return for her self-sacrifice. +Moreover, her powers of resistance had been so weakened that, like +many women, she temporized. She decided that she would meet the +emperor alone. She would tell him that she did not love him, and +yet would plead with him to save her beloved country. + +As she sat there every tick of the clock stirred her to a new +excitement. At last there came a knock upon the door, a cloak was +thrown about her from behind, a heavy veil was drooped about her +golden hair, and she was led, by whom she knew not, to the street, +where a finely appointed carriage was waiting for her. + +No sooner had she entered it than she was driven rapidly through +the darkness to the beautifully carved entrance of a palace. Half +led, half carried, she was taken up the steps to a door which was +eagerly opened by some one within. There were warmth and light and +color and the scent of flowers as she was placed in a comfortable +arm-chair. Her wrappings were taken from her, the door was closed +behind her; and then, as she looked up, she found herself in the +presence of Napoleon, who was kneeling at her feet and uttering +soothing words. + +Wisely, the emperor used no violence. He merely argued with her; +he told her over and over his love for her; and finally he +declared that for her sake he would make Poland once again a +strong and splendid kingdom. + +Several hours passed. In the early morning, before daylight, there +came a knock at the door. + +"Already?" said Napoleon. "Well, my plaintive dove, go home and +rest. You must not fear the eagle. In time you will come to love +him, and in all things you shall command him." + +Then he led her to the door, but said that he would not open it +unless she promised to see him the next day--a promise which she +gave the more readily because he had treated her with such +respect. + +On the following morning her faithful maid came to her bedside +with a cluster of beautiful violets, a letter, and several +daintily made morocco cases. When these were opened there leaped +out strings and necklaces of exquisite diamonds, blazing in the +morning sunlight. Mme. Walewska seized the jewels and flung them +across the room with an order that they should be taken back at +once to the imperial giver; but the letter, which was in the same +romantic strain as the others, she retained. + +On that same evening there was another dinner, given to the +emperor by the nobles, and Marie Walewska attended it, but of +course without the diamonds, which she had returned. Nor did she +wear the flowers which had accompanied the diamonds. + +When Napoleon met her he frowned upon her and made her tremble +with the cold glances that shot from his eyes of steel. He +scarcely spoke to her throughout the meal, but those who sat +beside her were earnest in their pleading. + +Again she waited until the guests had gone away, and with a +lighter heart, since she felt that she had nothing to fear. But +when she met Napoleon in his private cabinet, alone, his mood was +very different from that which he had shown before. Instead of +gentleness and consideration he was the Napoleon of camps, and not +of courts. He greeted her bruskly. + +"I scarcely expected to see you again," said he. "Why did you +refuse my diamonds and my flowers? Why did you avoid my eyes at +dinner? Your coldness is an insult which I shall not brook." Then +he raised his voice to that rasping, almost blood-curdling tone +which even his hardiest soldiers dreaded: "I will have you know +that I mean to conquer you. You SHALL--yes, I repeat it, you +SHALL love me! I have restored the name of your country. It owes +its very existence to me." + +Then he resorted to a trick which he had played years before in +dealing with the Austrians at Campo Formio. + +"See this watch which I am holding in my hand. Just as I dash it +to fragments before you, so will I shatter Poland if you drive me +to desperation by rejecting my heart and refusing me your own." + +As he spoke he hurled the watch against the opposite wall with +terrific force, dashing it to pieces. In terror, Mme. Walewska +fainted. When she resumed consciousness there was Napoleon wiping +away her tears with the tenderness of a woman and with words of +self-reproach. + +The long siege was over. Napoleon had conquered, and this girl of +eighteen gave herself up to his caresses and endearments, thinking +that, after all, her love of country was more than her own honor. + +Her husband, as a matter of form, put her away from him, though at +heart he approved what she had done, while the Polish people +regarded her as nothing less than a national heroine. To them she +was no minister to the vices of an emperor, but rather one who +would make him love Poland for her sake and restore its greatness. + +So far as concerned his love for her, it was, indeed, almost +idolatry. He honored her in every way and spent all the time at +his disposal in her company. But his promise to restore Poland he +never kept, and gradually she found that he had never meant to +keep it. + +"I love your country," he would say, "and I am willing to aid in +the attempt to uphold its rights, but my first duty is to France. +I cannot shed French blood in a foreign cause." + +By this time, however, Marie Walewska had learned to love Napoleon +for his own sake. She could not resist his ardor, which matched +the ardor of the Poles themselves. Moreover, it flattered her to +see the greatest soldier in the world a suppliant for her smiles. + +For some years she was Napoleon's close companion, spending long +hours with him and finally accompanying him to Paris. She was the +mother of Napoleon's only son who lived to manhood. This son, who +bore the name of Alexandre Florian de Walewski, was born in Poland +in 1810, and later was created a count and duke of the second +French Empire. It may be said parenthetically that he was a man of +great ability. Living down to 1868, he was made much of by +Napoleon III., who placed him in high offices of state, which he +filled with distinction. In contrast with the Duc de Morny, who +was Napoleon's illegitimate half-brother, Alexandre de Walewski +stood out in brilliant contrast. He would have nothing to do with +stock-jobbing and unseemly speculation. + +"I may be poor," he said--though he was not poor--"but at least I +remember the glory of my father and what is due to his great +name." + +As for Mme. Walewska, she was loyal to the emperor, and lacked the +greed of many women whom he had made his favorites. Even at Elba, +when he was in exile and disgrace, she visited him that she might +endeavor to console him. She was his counselor and friend as well +as his earnestly loved mate. When she died in Paris in 1817, while +the dethroned emperor was a prisoner at St. Helena, the word +"Napoleon" was the last upon her lips. + + + + + +THE STORY OF PAULINE BONAPARTE + + +It was said of Napoleon long ago that he could govern emperors and +kings, but that not even he could rule his relatives. He himself +once declared: + +"My family have done me far more harm than I have been able to do +them good." + +It would be an interesting historical study to determine just how +far the great soldier's family aided in his downfall by their +selfishness, their jealousy, their meanness, and their +ingratitude. + +There is something piquant in thinking of Napoleon as a domestic +sort of person. Indeed, it is rather difficult to do so. When we +speak his name we think of the stern warrior hurling his armies up +bloody slopes and on to bloody victory. He is the man whose steely +eyes made his haughtiest marshals tremble, or else the wise, far- +seeing statesman and lawgiver; but decidedly he is not a household +model. We read of his sharp speech to women, of his outrageous +manners at the dinner-table, and of the thousand and one details +which Mme. de Remusat has chronicled--and perhaps in part +invented, for there has always existed the suspicion that her +animus was that of a woman who had herself sought the imperial +favor and had failed to win it. + +But, in fact, all these stories relate to the Napoleon of courts +and palaces, and not to the Napoleon of home. In his private life +this great man was not merely affectionate and indulgent, but he +even showed a certain weakness where his relatives were concerned, +so that he let them prey upon him almost without end. + +He had a great deal of the Italian largeness and lavishness of +character with his family. When a petty officer he nearly starved +himself in order to give his younger brother, Louis, a military +education. He was devotedly fond of children, and they were fond +of him, as many anecdotes attest. His passionate love for +Josephine before he learned of her infidelity is almost painful to +read of; and even afterward, when he had been disillusioned, and +when she was paying Fouche a thousand francs a day to spy upon +Napoleon's every action, he still treated her with friendliness +and allowed her extravagance to embarrass him. + +He made his eldest brother, Joseph, King of Spain, and Spain +proved almost as deadly to him as did Russia. He made his youngest +brother, Jerome, King of Westphalia, and Jerome turned the palace +into a pigsty and brought discredit on the very name of Bonaparte. +His brother Louis, for whom he had starved himself, he placed upon +the throne of Holland, and Louis promptly devoted himself to his +own interests, conniving at many things which were inimical to +France. He was planning high advancement for his brother Lucien, +and Lucien suddenly married a disreputable actress and fled with +her to England, where he was received with pleasure by the most +persistent of all Napoleon's enemies. + +So much for his brothers--incompetent, ungrateful, or openly his +foes. But his three sisters were no less remarkable in the +relations which they bore to him. They have been styled "the three +crowned courtesans," and they have been condemned together as +being utterly void of principle and monsters of ingratitude. + +Much of this censure was well deserved by all of them--by Caroline +and Elise and Pauline. But when we look at the facts impartially +we shall find something which makes Pauline stand out alone as +infinitely superior to her sisters. Of all the Bonapartes she was +the only one who showed fidelity and gratitude to the great +emperor, her brother. Even Mme. Mere, Napoleon's mother, who +beyond all question transmitted to him his great mental and +physical power, did nothing for him. At the height of his splendor +she hoarded sous and francs and grumblingly remarked: + +"All this is for a time. It isn't going to last!" + +Pauline, however, was in one respect different from all her +kindred. Napoleon made Elise a princess in her own right and gave +her the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. He married Caroline to Marshal +Murat, and they became respectively King and Queen of Naples. For +Pauline he did very little--less, in fact, than for any other +member of his family--and yet she alone stood by him to the end. + +This feather-headed, languishing, beautiful, distracting morsel of +frivolity, who had the manners of a kitten and the morals of a +cat, nevertheless was not wholly unworthy to be Napoleon's sister. +One has to tell many hard things of her; and yet one almost +pardons her because of her underlying devotion to the man who made +the name of Bonaparte illustrious for ever. Caroline, Queen of +Naples, urged her husband to turn against his former chief. Elise, +sour and greedy, threw in her fortunes with the Murats. Pauline, +as we shall see, had the one redeeming trait of gratitude. + +To those who knew her she was from girlhood an incarnation of what +used to be called "femininity." We have to-day another and a +higher definition of womanhood, but to her contemporaries, and to +many modern writers, she has seemed to be first of all woman-- +"woman to the tips of her rosy finger-nails," says Levy. Those who +saw her were distracted by her loveliness. They say that no one +can form any idea of her beauty from her pictures. "A veritable +masterpiece of creation," she had been called. Frederic Masson +declares: + + She was so much more the typical woman that with her the defects +common to women reached their highest development, while her +beauty attained a perfection which may justly be called unique. + + No one speaks of Pauline Bonaparte's character or of her +intellect, but wholly of her loveliness and charm, and, it must be +added, of her utter lack of anything like a moral sense. + +Even as a child of thirteen, when the Bonapartes left Corsica and +took up their abode in Marseilles, she attracted universal +attention by her wonderful eyes, her grace, and also by the utter +lack of decorum which she showed. The Bonaparte girls at this time +lived almost on charity. The future emperor was then a captain of +artillery and could give them but little out of his scanty pay. + +Pauline--or, as they called her in those days, Paulette--wore +unbecoming hats and shabby gowns, and shoes that were full of +holes. None the less, she was sought out by several men of note, +among them Freron, a commissioner of the Convention. He visited +Pauline so often as to cause unfavorable comment; but he was in +love with her, and she fell in love with him to the extent of her +capacity. She used to write him love letters in Italian, which +were certainly not lacking in ardor. Here is the end of one of +them: + +I love you always and most passionately. I love you for ever, my +beautiful idol, my heart, my appealing lover. I love you, love +you, love you, the most loved of lovers, and I swear never to love +any one else! + +This was interesting in view of the fact that soon afterward she +fell in love with Junot, who became a famous marshal. But her love +affairs never gave her any serious trouble; and the three sisters, +who now began to feel the influence of Napoleon's rise to power, +enjoyed themselves as they had never done before. At Antibes they +had a beautiful villa, and later a mansion at Milan. + +By this time Napoleon had routed the Austrians in Italy, and all +France was ringing with his name. What was Pauline like in her +maidenhood? Arnault says: + +She was an extraordinary combination of perfect physical beauty +and the strangest moral laxity. She was as pretty as you please, +but utterly unreasonable. She had no more manners than a school- +girl--talking incoherently, giggling at everything and nothing, +and mimicking the most serious persons of rank. + +General de Ricard, who knew her then, tells in his monograph of +the private theatricals in which Pauline took part, and of the +sport which they had behind the scenes. He says: + +The Bonaparte girls used literally to dress us. They pulled our +ears and slapped us, but they always kissed and made up later. We +used to stay in the girls' room all the time when they were +dressing. + +Napoleon was anxious to see his sisters in some way settled. He +proposed to General Marmont to marry Pauline. The girl was then +only seventeen, and one might have had some faith in her +character. But Marmont was shrewd and knew her far too well. The +words in which he declined the honor are interesting: + +"I know that she is charming and exquisitely beautiful; yet I have +dreams of domestic happiness, of fidelity, and of virtue. Such +dreams are seldom realized, I know. Still, in the hope of winning +them--" + +And then he paused, coughed, and completed what he had to say in a +sort of mumble, but his meaning was wholly clear. He would not +accept the offer of Pauline in marriage, even though she was the +sister of his mighty chief. + +Then Napoleon turned to General Leclerc, with whom Pauline had for +some time flirted, as she had flirted with almost all the officers +of Napoleon's staff. Leclerc was only twenty-six. He was rich and +of good manners, but rather serious and in poor health. This was +not precisely the sort of husband for Pauline, if we look at it in +the conventional way; but it served Napoleon's purpose and did not +in the least interfere with his sister's intrigues. + +Poor Leclerc, who really loved Pauline, grew thin, and graver +still in manner. He was sent to Spain and Portugal, and finally +was made commander-in-chief of the French expedition to Haiti, +where the famous black rebel, Toussaint l'Ouverture, was heading +an uprising of the negroes. + +Napoleon ordered Pauline to accompany her husband. Pauline flatly +refused, although she made this an occasion for ordering +"mountains of pretty clothes and pyramids of hats." But still she +refused to go on board the flag-ship. Leclerc expostulated and +pleaded, but the lovely witch laughed in his face and still +persisted that she would never go. + +Word was brought to Napoleon. He made short work of her +resistance. + +"Bring a litter," he said, with one of his steely glances. "Order +six grenadiers to thrust her into it, and see that she goes on +board forthwith." + +And so, screeching like an angry cat, she was carried on board, +and set sail with her husband and one of her former lovers. She +found Haiti and Santo Domingo more agreeable than she had +supposed. She was there a sort of queen who could do as she +pleased and have her orders implicitly obeyed. Her dissipation was +something frightful. Her folly and her vanity were beyond belief. + +But at the end of two years both she and her husband fell ill. He +was stricken down by the yellow fever, which was decimating the +French army. Pauline was suffering from the results of her life in +a tropical climate. Leclerc died, the expedition was abandoned, +and Pauline brought the general's body back to France. When he was +buried she, still recovering from her fever, had him interred in a +costly coffin and paid him the tribute of cutting off her +beautiful hair and burying it with him. + +"What a touching tribute to her dead husband!" said some one to +Napoleon. + +The emperor smiled cynically as he remarked: + +"H'm! Of course she knows that her hair is bound to fall out after +her fever, and that it will come in longer and thicker for being +cropped." + +Napoleon, in fact, though he loved Pauline better than his other +sisters--or perhaps because he loved her better--was very strict +with her. He obliged her to wear mourning, and to observe some of +the proprieties; but it was hard to keep her within bounds. + +Presently it became noised about that Prince Camillo Borghese was +exceedingly intimate with her. The prince was an excellent +specimen of the fashionable Italian. He was immensely rich. His +palace at Rome was crammed with pictures, statues, and every sort +of artistic treasure. He was the owner, moreover, of the famous +Borghese jewels, the finest collection of diamonds in the world. + +Napoleon rather sternly insisted upon her marrying Borghese. +Fortunately, the prince was very willing to be connected with +Napoleon; while Pauline was delighted at the idea of having +diamonds that would eclipse all the gems which Josephine +possessed; for, like all of the Bonapartes, she detested her +brother's wife. So she would be married and show her diamonds to +Josephine. It was a bit of feminine malice which she could not +resist. + +The marriage took place very quietly at Joseph Bonaparte's house, +because of the absence of Napoleon; but the newly made princess +was invited to visit Josephine at the palace of Saint-Cloud. Here +was to be the triumph of her life. She spent many days in planning +a toilet that should be absolutely crushing to Josephine. Whatever +she wore must be a background for the famous diamonds. Finally she +decided on green velvet. + +When the day came Pauline stood before a mirror and gazed at +herself with diamonds glistening in her hair, shimmering around +her neck, and fastened so thickly on her green velvet gown as to +remind one of a moving jewel-casket. She actually shed tears for +joy. Then she entered her carriage and drove out to Saint-Cloud. + +But the Creole Josephine, though no longer young, was a woman of +great subtlety as well as charm. Stories had been told to her of +the green velvet, and therefore she had her drawing-room +redecorated in the most uncompromising blue. It killed the green +velvet completely. As for the diamonds, she met that maneuver by +wearing not a single gem of any kind. Her dress was an Indian +muslin with a broad hem of gold. + +Her exquisite simplicity, coupled with her dignity of bearing, +made the Princess Pauline, with her shower of diamonds, and her +green velvet displayed against the blue, seem absolutely vulgar. +Josephine was most generous in her admiration of the Borghese +gems, and she kissed Pauline on parting. The victory was hers. + +There is another story of a defeat which Pauline met from another +lady, one Mme. de Coutades. This was at a magnificent ball given +to the most fashionable world of Paris. Pauline decided upon +going, and intended, in her own phrase, to blot out every woman +there. She kept the secret of her toilet absolutely, and she +entered the ballroom at the psychological moment, when all the +guests had just assembled. + +She appeared; and at sight of her the music stopped, silence fell +upon the assemblage, and a sort of quiver went through every one. +Her costume was of the finest muslin bordered with golden palm- +leaves. Four bands, spotted like a leopard's skin, were wound +about her head, while these in turn were supported by little +clusters of golden grapes. She had copied the head-dress of a +Bacchante in the Louvre. All over her person were cameos, and just +beneath her breasts she wore a golden band held in place by an +engraved gem. Her beautiful wrists, arms, and hands were bare. She +had, in fact, blotted out her rivals. + +Nevertheless, Mme. de Coutades took her revenge. She went up to +Pauline, who was lying on a divan to set off her loveliness, and +began gazing at the princess through a double eye-glass. Pauline +felt flattered for a moment, and then became uneasy. The lady who +was looking at her said to a companion, in a tone of compassion: + +"What a pity! She really would be lovely if it weren't for THAT!" + +"For what?" returned her escort. + +"Why, are you blind? It's so remarkable that you SURELY must see +it." + +Pauline was beginning to lose her self-composure. She flushed and +looked wildly about, wondering what was meant. Then she heard Mme. +Coutades say: + +"Why, her ears. If I had such ears as those I would cut them off!" + +Pauline gave one great gasp and fainted dead away. As a matter of +fact, her ears were not so bad. They were simply very flat and +colorless, forming a contrast with the rosy tints of her face. But +from that moment no one could see anything but these ears; and +thereafter the princess wore her hair low enough to cover them. + +This may be seen in the statue of her by Canova. It was considered +a very daring thing for her to pose for him in the nude, for only +a bit of drapery is thrown over her lower limbs. Yet it is true +that this statue is absolutely classical in its conception and +execution, and its interest is heightened by the fact that its +model was what she afterward styled herself, with true Napoleonic +pride--"a sister of Bonaparte." + +Pauline detested Josephine and was pleased when Napoleon divorced +her; but she also disliked the Austrian archduchess, Marie Louise, +who was Josephine's successor. On one occasion, at a great court +function, she got behind the empress and ran out her tongue at +her, in full view of all the nobles and distinguished persons +present. Napoleon's eagle eye flashed upon Pauline and blazed like +fire upon ice. She actually took to her heels, rushed out of the +ball, and never visited the court again. + +It would require much time to tell of her other eccentricities, of +her intrigues, which were innumerable, of her quarrel with her +husband, and of the minor breaches of decorum with which she +startled Paris. One of these was her choice of a huge negro to +bathe her every morning. When some one ventured to protest, she +answered, naively: + +"What! Do you call that thing a MAN?" + +And she compromised by compelling her black servitor to go out and +marry some one at once, so that he might continue his +ministrations with propriety! + +To her Napoleon showed himself far more severe than with either +Caroline or Elise. He gave her a marriage dowry of half a million +francs when she became the Princess Borghese, but after that he +was continually checking her extravagances. Yet in 1814, when the +downfall came and Napoleon was sent into exile at Elba, Pauline +was the only one of all his relatives to visit him and spend her +time with him. His wife fell away and went back to her Austrian +relatives. Of all the Bonapartes only Pauline and Mme. Mere +remained faithful to the emperor. + +Even then Napoleon refused to pay a bill of hers for sixty-two +francs, while he allowed her only two hundred and forty francs for +the maintenance of her horses. But she, with a generosity of which +one would have thought her quite incapable, gave to her brother a +great part of her fortune. When he escaped from Elba and began the +campaign of 1815 she presented him with all the Borghese diamonds. +In fact, he had them with him in his carriage at Waterloo, where +they were captured by the English. Contrast this with the meanness +and ingratitude of her sisters and her brothers, and one may well +believe that she was sincerely proud of what it meant to be la +soeur de Bonaparte. + +When he was sent to St. Helena she was ill in bed and could not +accompany him. Nevertheless, she tried to sell all her trinkets, +of which she was so proud, in order that she might give him help. +When he died she received the news with bitter tears "on hearing +all the particulars of that long agony." + +As for herself, she did not long survive. At the age of forty-four +her last moments came. Knowing that she was to die, she sent for +Prince Borghese and sought a reconciliation. But, after all, she +died as she had lived--"the queen of trinkets" (la reine des +colifichets). She asked the servant to bring a mirror. She gazed +into it with her dying eyes; and then, as she sank back, it was +with a smile of deep content. + +"I am not afraid to die," she said. "I am still beautiful!" + + + + + +THE STORY OF THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE AND COUNT NEIPPERG + + +There is one famous woman whom history condems while at the same +time it partly hides the facts which might mitigate the harshness +of the judgment that is passed upon her. This woman is Marie +Louise, Empress of France, consort of the great Napoleon, and +archduchess of imperial Austria. When the most brilliant figure in +all history, after his overthrow in 1814, was in tawdry exile on +the petty island of Elba, the empress was already about to become +a mother; and the father of her unborn child was not Napoleon, but +another man. This is almost all that is usually remembered of her +--that she was unfaithful to Napoleon, that she abandoned him in +the hour of his defeat, and that she gave herself with readiness +to one inferior in rank, yet with whom she lived for years, and to +whom she bore what a French writer styled "a brood of bastards." + +Naturally enough, the Austrian and German historians do not have +much to say of Marie Louise, because in her own disgrace she also +brought disgrace upon the proudest reigning family in Europe. +Naturally, also, French writers, even those who are hostile to +Napoleon, do not care to dwell upon the story; since France itself +was humiliated when its greatest genius and most splendid soldier +was deceived by his Austrian wife. Therefore there are still many +who know little beyond the bare fact that the Empress Marie Louise +threw away her pride as a princess, her reputation as a wife, and +her honor as a woman. Her figure seems to crouch in a sort of +murky byway, and those who pass over the highroad of history +ignore it with averted eyes. + +In reality the story of Napoleon and Marie Louise and of the Count +von Neipperg is one which, when you search it to the very core, +leads you straight to a sex problem of a very curious nature. +Nowhere else does it occur in the relations of the great +personages of history; but in literature Balzac, that master of +psychology, has touched upon the theme in the early chapters of +his famous novel called "A Woman of Thirty." + +As to the Napoleonic story, let us first recall the facts of the +case, giving them in such order that their full significance may +be understood. + +In 1809 Napoleon, then at the plenitude of his power, shook +himself free from the clinging clasp of Josephine and procured the +annulment of his marriage to her. He really owed her nothing. +Before he knew her she had been the mistress of another. In the +first years of their life together she had been notoriously +unfaithful to him. He had held to her from habit which was in part +a superstition; but the remembrance of the wrong which she had +done him made her faded charms at times almost repulsive. And then +Josephine had never borne him any children; and without a son to +perpetuate his dynasty, the gigantic achievements which he had +wrought seemed futile in his eyes, and likely to crumble into +nothingness when he should die. + +No sooner had the marriage been annulled than his titanic ambition +leaped, as it always did, to a tremendous pinnacle. He would wed. +He would have children. But he would wed no petty princess. This +man who in his early youth had felt honored by a marriage with the +almost declassee widow of a creole planter now stretched out his +hand that he might take to himself a woman not merely royal but +imperial. + +At first he sought the sister of the Czar of Russia; but Alexander +entertained a profound distrust of the French emperor, and managed +to evade the tentative demand. There was, however, a reigning +family far more ancient than the Romanoffs--a family which had +held the imperial dignity for nearly six centuries--the oldest and +the noblest blood in Europe. This was the Austrian house of +Hapsburg. Its head, the Emperor Francis, had thirteen children, of +whom the eldest, the Archduchess Marie Louise, was then in her +nineteenth year. + +Napoleon had resented the rebuff which the Czar had given him. He +turned, therefore, the more eagerly to the other project. Yet +there were many reasons why an Austrian marriage might be +dangerous, or, at any rate, ill-omened. Only sixteen years before, +an Austrian arch-duchess, Marie Antionette, married to the ruler +of France, had met her death upon the scaffold, hated and cursed +by the French people, who had always blamed "the Austrian" for the +evil days which had ended in the flames of revolution. Again, the +father of the girl to whom Napoleon's fancy turned had been the +bitter enemy of the new regime in France. His troops had been +beaten by the French in five wars and had been crushed at +Austerlitz and at Wagram. Bonaparte had twice entered Vienna at +the head of a conquering army, and thrice he had slept in the +imperial palace at Schonbrunn, while Francis was fleeing through +the dark, a beaten fugitive pursued by the swift squadrons of +French cavalry. + +The feeling of Francis of Austria was not merely that of the +vanquished toward the victor. It was a deep hatred almost +religious in its fervor. He was the head and front of the old-time +feudalism of birth and blood; Napoleon was the incarnation of the +modern spirit which demolished thrones and set an iron heel upon +crowned heads, giving the sacred titles of king and prince to +soldiers who, even in palaces, still showed the swaggering +brutality of the camp and the stable whence they sprang. Yet, just +because an alliance with the Austrian house seemed in so many ways +impossible, the thought of it inflamed the ardor of Napoleon all +the more. + +"Impossible?" he had once said, contemptuously. "The word +'impossible' is not French." + +The Austrian alliance, unnatural though it seemed, was certainly +quite possible. In the year 1809 Napoleon had finished his fifth +war with Austria by the terrific battle of Wagram, which brought +the empire of the Hapsburgs to the very dust. The conqueror's rude +hand had stripped from Francis province after province. He had +even let fall hints that the Hapsburgs might be dethroned and that +Austria might disappear from the map of Europe, to be divided +between himself and the Russian Czar, who was still his ally. It +was at this psychological moment that the Czar wounded Napoleon's +pride by refusing to give the hand of his sister Anne. + +The subtle diplomats of Vienna immediately saw their chance. +Prince Metternich, with the caution of one who enters the cage of +a man-eating-tiger, suggested that the Austrian archduchess would +be a fitting bride for the French conqueror. The notion soothed +the wounded vanity of Napoleon. From that moment events moved +swiftly; and before long it was understood that there was to be a +new empress in France, and that she was to be none other than the +daughter of the man who had been Napoleon's most persistent foe +upon the Continent. The girl was to be given--sacrificed, if you +like--to appease an imperial adventurer. After such a marriage, +Austria would be safe from spoliation. The reigning dynasty would +remain firmly seated upon its historic throne. + +But how about the girl herself? She had always heard Napoleon +spoken of as a sort of ogre--a man of low ancestry, a brutal and +faithless enemy of her people. She knew that this bold, rough- +spoken soldier less than a year before had added insult to the +injury which he had inflicted on her father. In public +proclamations he had called the Emperor Francis a coward and a +liar. Up to the latter part of the year Napoleon was to her +imagination a blood-stained, sordid, and yet all-powerful monster, +outside the pale of human liking and respect. What must have been +her thoughts when her father first told her with averted face that +she was to become the bride of such a being? + +Marie Louise had been brought up, as all German girls of rank were +then brought up, in quiet simplicity and utter innocence. In +person she was a tall blonde, with a wealth of light brown hair +tumbling about a face which might be called attractive because it +was so youthful and so gentle, but in which only poets and +courtiers could see beauty. Her complexion was rosy, with that +peculiar tinge which means that in the course of time it will +become red and mottled. Her blue eyes were clear and childish. Her +figure was good, though already too full for a girl who was +younger than her years. + +She had a large and generous mouth with full lips, the lower one +being the true "Hapsburg lip," slightly pendulous--a feature which +has remained for generation after generation as a sure sign of +Hapsburg blood. One sees it in the present emperor of Austria, in +the late Queen Regent of Spain, and in the present King of Spain, +Alfonso. All the artists who made miniatures or paintings of Marie +Louise softened down this racial mark so that no likeness of her +shows it as it really was. But take her all in all, she was a +simple, childlike, German madchen who knew nothing of the outside +world except what she had heard from her discreet and watchful +governess, and what had been told her of Napoleon by her uncles, +the archdukes whom he had beaten down in battle. + +When she learned that she was to be given to the French emperor +her girlish soul experienced a shudder; but her father told her +how vital was this union to her country and to him. With a sort of +piteous dread she questioned the archdukes who had called Napoleon +an ogre. + +"Oh, that was when Napoleon was an enemy," they replied. "Now he +is our friend." + +Marie Louise listened to all this, and, like the obedient German +girl she was, yielded her own will. + +Events moved with a rush, for Napoleon was not the man to dally. +Josephine had retired to her residence at Malmaison, and Paris was +already astir with preparations for the new empress who was to +assure the continuation of the Napoleonic glory by giving children +to her husband. Napoleon had said to his ambassador with his usual +bluntness: + +"This is the first and most important thing--she must have +children." + +To the girl whom he was to marry he sent the following letter--an +odd letter, combining the formality of a negotiator with the +veiled ardor of a lover: + +MY COUSIN: The brilliant qualities which adorn your person have +inspired in me a desire to serve you and to pay you homage. In +making my request to the emperor, your father, and praying him to +intrust to me the happiness of your imperial highness, may I hope +that you will understand the sentiments which lead me to this act? +May I flatter myself that it will not be decided solely by the +duty of parental obedience? However slightly the feelings of your +imperial highness may incline to me, I wish to cultivate them with +so great care, and to endeavor so constantly to please you in +everything, that I flatter myself that some day I shall prove +attractive to you. This is the end at which I desire to arrive, +and for which I pray your highness to be favorable to me. + +Immediately everything was done to dazzle the imagination of the +girl. She had dressed always in the simplicity of the school-room. +Her only ornaments had been a few colored stones which she +sometimes wore as a necklace or a bracelet. Now the resources of +all France were drawn upon. Precious laces foamed about her. +Cascades of diamonds flashed before her eyes. The costliest and +most exquisite creations of the Parisian shops were spread around +her to make up a trousseau fit for the princess who was soon to +become the bride of the man who had mastered continental Europe. + +The archives of Vienna were ransacked for musty documents which +would show exactly what had been done for other Austrian +princesses who had married rulers of France. Everything was +duplicated down to the last detail. Ladies-in-waiting thronged +about the young archduchess; and presently there came to her Queen +Caroline of Naples, Napoleon's sister, of whom Napoleon himself +once said: "She is the only man among my sisters, as Joseph is the +only woman among my brothers." Caroline, by virtue of her rank as +queen, could have free access to her husband's future bride. Also, +there came presently Napoleon's famous marshal, Berthier, Prince +of Neuchatel, the chief of the Old Guard, who had just been +created Prince of Wagram--a title which, very naturally, he did +not use in Austria. He was to act as proxy for Napoleon in the +preliminary marriage service at Vienna. + +All was excitement. Vienna had never been so gay. Money was +lavished under the direction of Caroline and Berthier. There were +illuminations and balls. The young girl found herself the center +of the world's interest; and the excitement made her dizzy. She +could not but be flattered, and yet there were many hours when her +heart misgave her. More than once she was found in tears. Her +father, an affectionate though narrow soul, spent an entire day +with her consoling and reassuring her. One thought she always kept +in mind--what she had said to Metternich at the very first: "I +want only what my duty bids me want." At last came the official +marriage, by proxy, in the presence of a splendid gathering. The +various documents were signed, the dowry was arranged for. Gifts +were scattered right and left. At the opera there were gala +performances. Then Marie Louise bade her father a sad farewell. +Almost suffocated by sobs and with her eyes streaming with tears, +she was led between two hedges of bayonets to her carriage, while +cannon thundered and all the church-bells of Vienna rang a joyful +peal. + +She set out for France accompanied by a long train of carriages +filled with noblemen and noblewomen, with ladies-in-waiting and +scores of attendant menials. The young bride--the wife of a man +whom she had never seen--was almost dead with excitement and +fatigue. At a station in the outskirts of Vienna she scribbled a +few lines to her father, which are a commentary upon her state of +mind: + +I think of you always, and I always shall. God has given me power +to endure this final shock, and in Him alone I have put all my +trust. He will help me and give me courage, and I shall find +support in doing my duty toward you, since it is all for you that +I have sacrificed myself. + +There is something piteous in this little note of a frightened +girl going to encounter she knew not what, and clinging almost +frantically to the one thought--that whatever might befall her, +she was doing as her father wished. + +One need not recount the long and tedious journey of many days +over wretched roads, in carriages that jolted and lurched and +swayed. She was surrounded by unfamiliar faces and was compelled +to meet at every town the chief men of the place, all of whom paid +her honor, but stared at her with irrepressible curiosity. Day +after day she went on and on. Each morning a courier on a foaming +horse presented her with a great cluster of fresh flowers and a +few lines scrawled by the unknown husband who was to meet her at +her journey's end. + +There lay the point upon which her wandering thoughts were +focused--the journey's end! The man whose strange, mysterious +power had forced her from her school-room, had driven her through +a nightmare of strange happenings, and who was waiting for her +somewhere to take her to himself, to master her as he had mastered +generals and armies! + +What was marriage? What did it mean? What experience still lay +before her! These were the questions which she must have asked +herself throughout that long, exhausting journey. When she thought +of the past she was homesick. When she thought of the immediate +future she was fearful with a shuddering fear. + +At last she reached the frontier of France, and her carriage +passed into a sort of triple structure, the first pavilion of +which was Austrian, while the middle pavilion was neutral, and the +farther one was French. Here she was received by those who were +afterward to surround her--the representatives of the Napoleonic +court. They were not all plebeians and children of the Revolution, +ex-stable boys, ex-laundresses. By this time Napoleon had gathered +around himself some of the noblest families of France, who had +rallied to the empire. The assemblage was a brilliant one. There +were Montmorencys and Beaumonts and Audenardes in abundance. But +to Marie Louise, as to her Austrian attendants, they were all +alike. They were French, they were strangers, and she shrank from +them. + +Yet here her Austrians must leave her. All who had accompanied her +thus far were now turned back. Napoleon had been insistent on this +point. Even her governess, who had been with her since her +childhood, was not allowed to cross the French frontier. So fixed +was Napoleon's purpose to have nothing Austrian about her, that +even her pet dog, to which she clung as a girl would cling, was +taken from her. Thereafter she was surrounded only by French +faces, by French guards, and was greeted only by salvos of French +artillery. + +In the mean time what was Napoleon doing at Paris. Since the +annulment of his marriage with Josephine he had gone into a sort +of retirement. Matters of state, war, internal reforms, no longer +interested him; but that restless brain could not sink into +repose. Inflamed with the ardor of a new passion, that passion was +all the greater because he had never yet set eyes upon its object. +Marriage with an imperial princess flattered his ambition. The +youth and innocence of the bride stirred his whole being with a +thrill of novelty. The painted charms of Josephine, the mercenary +favors of actresses, the calculated ecstasies of the women of the +court who gave themselves to him from vanity, had long since +palled upon him. Therefore the impatience with which he awaited +the coming of Marie Louise became every day more tense. + +For a time he amused himself with planning down to the very last +details the demonstrations that were to be given in her honor. He +organized them as minutely as he had ever organized a conquering +army. He showed himself as wonderful in these petty things as he +had in those great strategic combinations which had baffled the +ablest generals of Europe. But after all had been arranged--even +to the illuminations, the cheering, the salutes, and the etiquette +of the court--he fell into a fever of impatience which gave him +sleepless nights and frantic days. He paced up and down the +Tuileries, almost beside himself. He hurried off courier after +courier with orders that the postilions should lash their horses +to bring the hour of meeting nearer still. He scribbled love +letters. He gazed continually on the diamond-studded portrait of +the woman who was hurrying toward him. + +At last as the time approached he entered a swift traveling- +carriage and hastened to Compiegne, about fifty miles from Paris, +where it had been arranged that he should meet his consort and +whence he was to escort her to the capital, so that they might be +married in the great gallery of the Louvre. At Compiegne the +chancellerie had been set apart for Napoleon's convenience, while +the chateau had been assigned to Marie Louise and her attendants. +When Napoleon's carriage dashed into the place, drawn by horses +that had traveled at a gallop, the emperor could not restrain +himself. It was raining torrents and night was coming on, yet, +none the less, he shouted for fresh horses and pushed on to +Soissons, where the new empress was to stop and dine. When he +reached there and she had not arrived, new relays of horses were +demanded, and he hurried off once more into the dark. + +At the little village of Courcelles he met the courier who was +riding in advance of the empress's cortege. + +"She will be here in a few moments!" cried Napoleon; and he leaped +from his carriage into the highway. + +The rain descended harder than ever, and he took refuge in the +arched doorway of the village church, his boots already bemired, +his great coat reeking with the downpour. As he crouched before +the church he heard the sound of carriages; and before long there +came toiling through the mud the one in which was seated the girl +for whom he had so long been waiting. It was stopped at an order +given by an officer. Within it, half-fainting with fatigue and +fear, Marie Louise sat in the dark, alone. + +Here, if ever, was the chance for Napoleon to win his bride. Could +he have restrained himself, could he have shown the delicate +consideration which was demanded of him, could he have remembered +at least that he was an emperor and that the girl--timid and +shuddering--was a princess, her future story might have been far +different. But long ago he had ceased to think of anything except +his own desires. + +He approached the carriage. An obsequious chamberlain drew aside +the leathern covering and opened the door, exclaiming as he did +so, "The emperor!" And then there leaped in the rain-soaked, mud- +bespattered being whose excesses had always been as unbridled as +his genius. The door was closed, the leathern curtain again drawn, +and the horses set out at a gallop for Soissons. Within, the +shrinking bride was at the mercy of pure animal passion, feeling +upon her hot face a torrent of rough kisses, and yielding herself +in terror to the caresses of wanton hands. + +At Soissons Napoleon allowed no halt, but the carriage plunged on, +still in the rain, to Compiegne. There all the arrangements made +with so much care were thrust aside. Though the actual marriage +had not yet taken place, Napoleon claimed all the rights which +afterward were given in the ceremonial at Paris. He took the girl +to the chancellerie, and not to the chateau. In an anteroom dinner +was served with haste to the imperial pair and Queen Caroline. +Then the latter was dismissed with little ceremony, the lights +were extinguished, and this daughter of a line of emperors was +left to the tender mercies of one who always had about him +something of the common soldier--the man who lives for loot and +lust. ... At eleven the next morning she was unable to rise and +was served in bed by the ladies of her household. + +These facts, repellent as they are, must be remembered when we +call to mind what happened in the next five years. The horror of +that night could not be obliterated by splendid ceremonies, by +studious attention, or by all the pomp and gaiety of the court. +Napoleon was then forty-one--practically the same age as his new +wife's father, the Austrian emperor; Marie Louise was barely +nineteen and younger than her years. Her master must have seemed +to be the brutal ogre whom her uncles had described. + +Installed in the Tuileries, she taught herself compliance. On +their marriage night Napoleon had asked her briefly: "What did +your parents tell you?" And she had answered, meekly: "To be yours +altogether and to obey you in everything." But, though she gave +compliance, and though her freshness seemed enchanting to +Napoleon, there was something concealed within her thoughts to +which he could not penetrate. He gaily said to a member of the +court: + +"Marry a German, my dear fellow. They are the best women in the +world--gentle, good, artless, and as fresh as roses." + +Yet, at the same time, Napoleon felt a deep anxiety lest in her +very heart of hearts this German girl might either fear or hate +him secretly. Somewhat later Prince Metternich came from the +Austrian court to Paris. + +"I give you leave," said Napoleon, "to have a private interview +with the empress. Let her tell you what she likes, and I shall ask +no questions. Even should I do so, I now forbid your answering +me." + +Metternich was closeted with the empress for a long while. When he +returned to the ante-room he found Napoleon fidgeting about, his +eyes a pair of interrogation-points. + +"I am sure," he said, "that the empress told you that I was kind +to her?" + +Metternich bowed and made no answer. + +"Well," said Napoleon, somewhat impatiently, "at least I am sure +that she is happy. Tell me, did she not say so?" + +The Austrian diplomat remained unsmiling. + +"Your majesty himself has forbidden me to answer," he returned +with another bow. + +We may fairly draw the inference that Marie Louise, though she +adapted herself to her surroundings, was never really happy. +Napoleon became infatuated with her. He surrounded her with every +possible mark of honor. He abandoned public business to walk or +drive with her. But the memory of his own brutality must have +vaguely haunted him throughout it all. He was jealous of her as he +had never been jealous of the fickle Josephine. Constant has +recorded that the greatest precautions were taken to prevent any +person whatsoever, and especially any man, from approaching the +empress save in the presence of witnesses. + +Napoleon himself underwent a complete change of habits and +demeanor. Where he had been rough and coarse he became attentive +and refined. His shabby uniforms were all discarded, and he spent +hours in trying on new costumes. He even attempted to learn to +waltz, but this he gave up in despair. Whereas before he ate +hastily and at irregular intervals, he now sat at dinner with +unusual patience, and the court took on a character which it had +never had. Never before had he sacrificed either his public duty +or his private pleasure for any woman. Even in the first ardor of +his marriage with Josephine, when he used to pour out his heart to +her in letters from Italian battle-fields, he did so only after he +had made the disposition of his troops and had planned his +movements for the following day. Now, however, he was not merely +devoted, but uxorious; and in 1811, after the birth of the little +King of Rome, he ceased to be the earlier Napoleon altogether. He +had founded a dynasty. He was the head of a reigning house. He +forgot the principles of the Revolution, and he ruled, as he +thought, like other monarchs, by the grace of God. + +As for Marie Louise, she played her part extremely well. Somewhat +haughty and unapproachable to others, she nevertheless studied +Napoleon's every wish. She seemed even to be loving; but one can +scarcely doubt that her obedience sprang ultimately from fear and +that her devotion was the devotion of a dog which has been beaten +into subjection. + +Her vanity was flattered in many ways, and most of all by her +appointment as regent of the empire during Napoleon's absence in +the disastrous Russian campaign which began in 1812. It was in +June of that year that the French emperor held court at Dresden, +where he played, as was said, to "a parterre of kings." This was +the climax of his magnificence, for there were gathered all the +sovereigns and princes who were his allies and who furnished the +levies that swelled his Grand Army to six hundred thousand men. +Here Marie Louise, like her husband, felt to the full the +intoxication of supreme power. By a sinister coincidence it was +here that she first met the other man, then unnoticed and little +heeded, who was to cast upon her a fascination which in the end +proved irresistible. + +This man was Adam Albrecht, Count von Neipperg. There is something +mysterious about his early years, and something baleful about his +silent warfare with Napoleon. As a very young soldier he had been +an Austrian officer in 1793. His command served in Belgium; and +there, in a skirmish, he was overpowered by the French in superior +numbers, but resisted desperately. In the melee a saber slashed +him across the right side of his face, and he was made prisoner. +The wound deprived him of his right eye, so that for the rest of +his life he was compelled to wear a black bandage to conceal the +mutilation. + +From that moment he conceived an undying hatred of the French, +serving against them in the Tyrol and in Italy. He always claimed +that had the Archduke Charles followed his advice, the Austrians +would have forced Napoleon's army to capitulate at Marengo, thus +bringing early eclipse to the rising star of Bonaparte. However +this may be, Napoleon's success enraged Neipperg and made his +hatred almost the hatred of a fiend. + +Hitherto he had detested the French as a nation. Afterward he +concentrated his malignity upon the person of Napoleon. In every +way he tried to cross the path of that great soldier, and, though +Neipperg was comparatively an unknown man, his indomitable purpose +and his continued intrigues at last attracted the notice of the +emperor; for in 1808 Napoleon wrote this significant sentence: + +The Count von Neipperg is openly known to have been the enemy of +the French. + +Little did the great conqueror dream how deadly was the blow which +this Austrian count was destined finally to deal him! + +Neipperg, though his title was not a high one, belonged to the old +nobility of Austria. He had proved his bravery in war and as a +duelist, and he was a diplomat as well as a soldier. Despite his +mutilation, he was a handsome and accomplished courtier, a man of +wide experience, and one who bore himself in a manner which +suggested the spirit of romance. According to Masson, he was an +Austrian Don Juan, and had won the hearts of many women. At thirty +he had formed a connection with an Italian woman named Teresa +Pola, whom he had carried away from her husband. She had borne him +five children; and in 1813 he had married her in order that these +children might be made legitimate. + +In his own sphere the activity of Neipperg was almost as +remarkable as Napoleon's in a greater one. Apart from his exploits +on the field of battle he had been attached to the Austrian +embassy in Paris, and, strangely enough, had been decorated by +Napoleon himself with, the golden eagle of the Legion of Honor. +Four months later we find him minister of Austria at the court of +Sweden, where he helped to lay the train of intrigue which was to +detach Bernadotte from Napoleon's cause. In 1812, as has just been +said, he was with Marie Louise for a short time at Dresden, +hovering about her, already forming schemes. Two years after this +he overthrew Murat at Naples; and then hurried on post-haste to +urge Prince Eugene to abandon Bonaparte. + +When the great struggle of 1814 neared its close, and Napoleon, +fighting with his back to the wall, was about to succumb to the +united armies of Europe, it was evident that the Austrian emperor +would soon be able to separate his daughter from her husband. In +fact, when Napoleon was sent to Elba, Marie Louise returned to +Vienna. The cynical Austrian diplomats resolved that she should +never again meet her imperial husband. She was made Duchess of +Parma in Italy, and set out for her new possessions; and the man +with the black band across his sightless eye was chosen to be her +escort and companion. + +When Neipperg received this commission he was with Teresa Pola at +Milan. A strange smile flitted across his face; and presently he +remarked, with cynical frankness: + +"Before six months I shall be her lover, and, later on, her +husband." + +He took up his post as chief escort of Marie Louise, and they +journeyed slowly to Munich and Baden and Geneva, loitering on the +way. Amid the great events which were shaking Europe this couple +attracted slight attention. Napoleon, in Elba, longed for his wife +and for his little son, the King of Rome. He sent countless +messages and many couriers; but every message was intercepted, and +no courier reached his destination. Meanwhile Marie Louise was +lingering agreeably in Switzerland. She was happy to have escaped +from the whirlpool of politics and war. Amid the romantic scenery +through which she passed Neipperg was always by her side, +attentive, devoted, trying in everything to please her. With him +she passed delightful evenings. He sang to her in his rich +barytone songs of love. He seemed romantic with a touch of +mystery, a gallant soldier whose soul was also touched by +sentiment. + +One would have said that Marie Louise, the daughter of an imperial +line, would have been proof against the fascinations of a person +so far inferior to herself in rank, and who, beside the great +emperor, was less than nothing. Even granting that she had never +really loved Napoleon, she might still have preferred to maintain +her dignity, to share his fate, and to go down in history as the +empress of the greatest man whom modern times have known. + +But Marie Louise was, after all, a woman, and she followed the +guidance of her heart. To her Napoleon was still the man who had +met her amid the rain-storm at Courcelles, and had from the first +moment when he touched her violated all the instincts of a virgin. +Later he had in his way tried to make amends; but the horror of +that first night had never wholly left her memory. Napoleon had +unrolled before her the drama of sensuality, but her heart had not +been given to him. She had been his empress. In a sense it might +be more true to say that she had been his mistress. But she had +never been duly wooed and won and made his wife--an experience +which is the right of every woman. And so this Neipperg, with his +deferential manners, his soothing voice, his magnetic touch, his +ardor, and his devotion, appeased that craving which the master of +a hundred legions could not satisfy. + +In less than the six months of which Neipperg had spoken the +psychological moment had arrived. In the dim twilight she listened +to his words of love; and then, drawn by that irresistible power +which masters pride and woman's will, she sank into her lover's +arms, yielding to his caresses, and knowing that she would be +parted from him no more except by death. + +From that moment he was bound to her by the closest ties and lived +with her at the petty court of Parma. His prediction came true to +the very letter. Teresa Pola died, and then Napoleon died, and +after this Marie Louise and Neipperg were united in a morganatic +marriage. Three children were born to them before his death in +1829. + +It is interesting to note how much of an impression was made upon +her by the final exile of her imperial husband to St. Helena. When +the news was brought her she observed, casually: + +"Thanks. By the way, I should like to ride this morning to +Markenstein. Do you think the weather is good enough to risk it?" + +Napoleon, on his side, passed through agonies of doubt and longing +when no letters came to him from Marie Louise. She was constantly +in his thoughts during his exile at St. Helena. "When his faithful +friend and constant companion at St. Helena, the Count Las Casas, +was ordered by Sir Hudson Lowe to depart from St. Helena, Napoleon +wrote to him: + +"Should you see, some day, my wife and son, embrace them. For two +years I have, neither directly nor indirectly, heard from them. +There has been on this island for six months a German botanist, +who has seen them in the garden of Schoenbrunn a few months before +his departure. The barbarians (meaning the English authorities at +St. Helena) have carefully prevented him from coming to give me +any news respecting them." + +At last the truth was told him, and he received it with that high +magnanimity, or it may be fatalism, which at times he was capable +of showing. Never in all his days of exile did he say one word +against her. Possibly in searching his own soul he found excuses +such as we may find. In his will he spoke of her with great +affection, and shortly before his death he said to his physician, +Antommarchi: + +"After my death, I desire that you will take my heart, put it in +the spirits of wine, and that you carry it to Parma to my dear +Marie Louise. You will please tell her that I tenderly loved her-- +that I never ceased to love her. You will relate to her all that +you have seen, and every particular respecting my situation and +death." + +The story of Marie Louise is pathetic, almost tragic. There is the +taint of grossness about it; and yet, after all, there is a lesson +in it--the lesson that true love cannot be forced or summoned at +command, that it is destroyed before its birth by outrage, and +that it goes out only when evoked by sympathy, by tenderness, and +by devotion. + +THE END + + + + + + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Famous Affinities of History V2, by Lyndon Orr +This file should be named ffnt210.txt or ffnt210.zip + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, ffnt211.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, ffnt210a.txt + +This text was produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +More information about this book is at the top of this file. + +We are now trying to release all our etexts one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. 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