EMPRESS EUGENIE.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 July 1921, Page 3

EMPRESS EUGENIE.

At a time when so many thrones In., but recently crashed, so many proud dynasties fallen from their high estate, the death of the ex-Entpress Eugene passed almost unnoticed. Yet this lady who is the subject of a volume of recollections by M. Auguste Filon, is for many reasons an interesting figure. Slu; was the sport of destiny; her career represents the extremes of fortune. Beautiful, accomplished, envied and admired, she queens it on the most brilliant stage of Europe. France is still par-excellence the great Continental Poweir, though war is soon to discover her weakness. Never before or since lias Paris sparkled with such glitter and ♦gaiety, for Louis Napoleon seeks to make himself popular among the people by pageantry, display, and lavish expenditure. There arc bnnd> j:: every open place; the streets blossom with uniforms; city improvements on a grandoise scale are being carried out. The Court is the most magnificent in the world in pomp and ceremony and outward show. The empress is on a pinnacle. Then the wheel turns, and the hollowness of it all is revealed. A few short months, and the city of light is a city of gloom; the fountains in the Tuilleries run with blood; the Empress, so lately courted and feted, is a homeless fugitive. The war, defeat, the anxious days of the Regency, flight and exile fold an asylum in England. But, the crowning sorrow of Eugene’s life is still to come. The Prince Imperial, the apple of her eye, is killed in Zuhilnnd. Everything has gone that lends zest to existence. Nothing remains but the monotonous daily round in her suburban retreat and the memory of departed glories. AT. Filon is well equipped to act as her biographer. He was her private secretary during the regency, was entrusted with the supervision of the Prince Imperial’s education between 18(57 and 1875, and has had access to a good deal of material hitherto unpublished. His chief object is to defend her name against certain charges which lie declares are absolutely without foundation. A tradition has grown up that depicts her as an ambitious, masterful, designing woman, who dominated her husband with results disastrous to France. Louis Napoleon was a commonplace person, with a talent for intrigue, but no strength of character, if it limit knowing it lie yielded to ! her influence; she is supposed to have prompted many of his mistakes and follies. In particular she did much to bring about the catastrophe of 1870 lint the theory of her responsbility for the war rests entirely upon a remark which she is said, or tlu* authority of Thiers, to have made to Ix’smml, the diplomat. Thiers for bis own pur- 1 pose spread the report that in the l course of a conversation about the war i she ejaculated, “This war is niy war!”: Lesourd, however, on being questioned, by a friend, categorically denied that j she bad over usejd these words, or | any words resembling them. He eon- I firmed his denial in writing formally testified to its truth, and empowered the Empress to publish it. The sequel shows Eugene in a creditable light. Roiiber. the friend mentioned, took the letter to her “but thought it only right to toll her that Al. Lesourd’s ruin was certain if ho gave, the lie direct to the bead of the Government, and also that it was necessary for Al. Lesourd to retain Ins employment in order to live. The Empress said nothing, but looked the letter away in a draw, where doubtless it lias remained to this flaw’’

Again, it has been said that as a. regent tho Empress exercised a most baneful influence on Louis Napoleon’s military policy. In answer Al. Filon insists that she had been made a scapegoat; she has had to bear the blame which should properly fall upon her advisers. "One forgets that the Empress actually did nothing but. tliausiiiit to the Sovereign as was her duty, the opinion of her Ministers. When however, she endorsed that opinion with so much emphasis she took upon herself with her usual courage and generosity a heavy responsibility which did not constitutionally rest with her and which a little care in wording might easily have avoided. She sheltered the men who ought to have sheltered her, and who were happy to be able to take refuge behind lut. Those who judge her severely because she prevented the Emperor from re-entering Paris and who accuse her of having brought aiioiit the disaster of Sedan ought, in justice, to ask themselves if another catastrophe would not have been the result of a. contrary resolution. What letters of blood would have covered that unwritten page of our history which described the return of the Sovereign into the midst of a! people maddened with exasperation and bitterness and thirst for vengeance.” Finally M. Filon refutes the most cruel slander of all, namely, that Eugenie deliberately incited tho Prince Imperial to take part in the Zulu war with the British forces hoping that he would revive the Bomipartist military prestige and pave ,the way to a- restoration. But, as a Emitter of fact, Eugenie was against the expedition. The Prince himself insisted on going. A lad of spit it, he chafed at the inactivity of his life, and compared himself to L’Aiglon, who faded away and died out of sheer ennui. Very reluctantly Eugenie at last yielded to his pressure.