TEARS AND ERMINE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5352, 16 November 1928, Page 3

TEARS AND ERMINE.

QUEEN HOBTENSE OF HOLLAND.

HER TRAGIC LIFE. Ermine and diamonds symbolise tli-a queen; but to the woman who wears ermine may be teay-stainied, the diamonds lustreless. Such was the lot of Hortense de Beauharnais, Queen of Holland, thanl whom no, unhappier woman has lived. Frank, sincere, loyal, supremely lovable, with great artistic talepts, she deserved! well of Fortune; persecuted by her. husband, deserted by her lover, bereft of 'her children, humiliated by arrest and banishment, she housed Tragedy for mate from childhood days spent in the shadow of the guillotine to the last days eked out in lonely exile ; such are Fortune’s vagaries. How much she suffered, she .alone could! tell; and in the “Memoirs of Queen Hortense,” edited by the late Prince Napoleon, she has to posterity the tragic story of her life.

Hortense was six years old at- the outbreak of the Revolution. Hurrying home from Martinique with her mother, the future Empress Josephine, she narrowly escaped death by shipwreck. Her father, the Viscomte Alexandre de Beauharnais, had espoused the popular cause and held high command, but tine; taint of nqble birth soon rendered him suspect, and with Josephine he was flung into prison, Hortenjese and her. brother being left in the care of their governess. One day a woman came to to fetch the children :— “The woman led us to the bottom of a garden in the Rue de 1 Sevres. Telling us not to make a sound, she let us into the; gardener’s c.ottage. Opposite there was a window opened and my. father and mother appeared. Filled with surprise and delight, I uttered a cry a,nd stretched out my arm towards my parents. They madie me a sign not to speak, but a .sentinel On duty at the foot of the wall had given the alarm, whereon th» unknown woman hurried us away. We leayned later that the window of the prison had been pitilessly walled: up. That was the last time I saw my father. A few days later he was no more.”

The g,uillqtin>n e had claimed him. Josephine being saved ifr’om a similar fate by the timely fall of Robespiere. Napoleon, now Hortense’s stepfather, decided to wed her to his brother, Louis. Louis had fallen in love witih another Mademoiselle Beauharntfis, a “poor relation,’” so Napoleon pro.mptly removed’ this obstacle by marrying the poor relation to; Lavalette. Louis, still proving obdurate, was sent on active service, and Hortenfese secretly rejoiced. Then Fate stepped in. One winter’s night a bomb was exploded between the carriage in, which Hortense was accompanying Josephinje to the theatre and the carriage in which Napoleon preceded them. It was an arrow escape with tragic c.onsequepces for Hortense for it decidled Napoleojn te hasten his brother’s marriage. Louis was recalled and ordered to propose, Hortense commanded! to accept; at a, ball at Malmaison the wretched pair unwillingly obeyed, and the marriage toojj place ip, January, 1802. Trouble began) before the Ihoneymoon was over, and from that moment Hortense had only one fepling towards her husband —that of fear. On receiving the Crqwn of Holland, Louis became a veritable tyrant to his wife. Servants we/re employed) to spy upon her, (her letters were open,ed; she was forbidden to appoint her qwn ladies-in-waiting, :or even to write to her mother without her husband’s consent :■ —

“A prisoner in my palace, I no longer dared to receive even the visits of my ladies-in-waiting or leave my apartment to go to one of thejm if shq happened to be ill. A footman who had followed one of the emigres abroad) was engaged to wait on me. He always slept in my ante-room, and. wrqte down how many times my young ladies came to see me. I often noticed that When he brought .wood fcjr the fire, without anyone asking for it, he would push aside the window cureains to see if there }vere; not someone; behind them.” Napoleon intervened frequently on Hortense’s behalf, but in vain. He had made their eldest son his heir. At the Tuileries, he wojuld make the child “sit in the middle of the table and le.t him touch everything. He gave him wine and coffee; and, though he frequently madie the child cry by pin|ching his cheek or hugging him too hard, he had known how to win his ;affection and could not come infto the room without my son stretching out h'is arms toward him.” Not even the; tragedy of this phild’s death or the joy of a third! son’s birth equid reconcile husband aftd wife, and in 1810 Hortense left Louis and returuned to Paris. There at a ball 4. young man annoyqd her by applauding her dancing too loudly. Next day the young man, accompanied by his mother, called to apologise. From then on Hortense was tortured by the fear that she was falling in love; “When people talked! to me I tried to tur.ni the conversation on the feelings of those who are in lovie; I trembled at the thought that I might experience those feelings, and if l° ve was described as a state of passion and 'frenzy I breathed more freely, saying to myself, ‘What a relief! Then I c,an,not be ip love.” Bu.t soon she realised the truth. Love had come to her—top lato; but the Comte de Flah:a,ut was soon ordered on active service— though no until a soti had bee;n born to them who, was destined to achieve renown in tihe day of the Second Empire ;%s the Due de Momy.

Then came Nopoieon’s downfall. Hortense succeeded in wringing from Louis XVIII. permission to remain in France with the title of Duchess of Saint Leu. But her tea,rs for Josephine’s death were hardly dry when this ccpifortable existence was c.ut shortt, for she rallied tcf Napoleon’s side during the Hundred Days and thug forever forfeited the favour of the Bourbons. Giving up the jewels to provide for Napoleom’a needs, she fled into exile. Agents of the Bourbons tracked her down; twice; she

was arrested ; G’overnjnent after Government refused her asylum. At last after two years of wandering, she found refuge at Augsburg.

Her elder son was torn fr.om her by his father; she herself was deserted even by her lover, who had married an Englishwoman. In despair she devoted her rqm:a,inin,g days to the education of her younger boy, but it was not given her to witness his ascent as Napoleon HI. to the throne of his great uncle.