PEN-AND-INK SKETCHES OF ROYALTY.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 61, 30 July 1879, Page 3

PEN-AND-INK SKETCHES OF ROYALTY.

THE EMPRESS EIJaENIE. We extract the following, graphically-, written article from Anecdotal Photographs m Mr. Laboucheto's journal. Truth : — The Empress Eugenic is, indeed-, the most delightful of women. Her beauty, which she still retains, was at one time splendid ; but she has also what La Fontaine called — ''" La grdce plus belle encore que la beaute." I have seenher repeatedly m State pageants, at Court receptions, on occasions when she^ was .travelling or receiving visitors m semiprivacy, and I have never seen any woman in 1 the circle around her who could vie with her m beauty. Her manners are exquisite. She has dignity without stiffness, and affability without the slightest touch of vulgarity. In the days when she helped to rule-the most restive people on earth, she was ever kind and merciful, happy to render service! to people m trouble, generous with money, faithful m keeping promises. .No act of spite was imputed to he?, though her patience was often sorely tried. She had not; the instincts of statesmanship, for her heavk was too warms her impulse too quick, and her wit too lively to makeher brood over the delays and tortuous methods by -which men are managed. At one time she begged that the IJmperor would let her attend the cabinet councils over which lie presided, and •his Majesty consented; but'he soon had to ■withdraw his permission, for the Empress startled steady-going politicians like MM. Rouher, and Baroche out. ;of* their senses. She was, to begin with, a most fervent Catholic, and could never be, made .to understand that, the French people, were not so after the same fasion as the Spaniards. She. would not have restored the Inquisition, but she had an idea that the soldiers should be.mage to attend Mas^ whether they liked it or- not ; and used to vex the souls of (Generals and Colonels asking them whether ;they discharged their religious duties properly ?,,; Thei'e.is no denying 'that she often gave the. Empejpr very impracticable advicei a^nd sometim.es made, his : Ministers shiver^ uhd«oj. brief squalls ofc that; ill- temper to: w,hi9Ji all pretty women are. liable.; but, on. the other hand, ebb. was 'cheerful, brave, and most helpful m hours of. trouble. When Oriini made his cowardlyt attempt on the Emperpr's life. outsidethe Opera House m 1858^ the ImperiaL couple, escaped, a miracle^; but the Empress/ neithe> , fainted' nor screamed, and on alighting, fijom. the. smashed carriage she insisted upon going into her box to show the audience that shelwas not hurt or afraid. Aasopn as she appeared on the Emperor's orm the.'audierice rose en masse, and she received their acclamations withjmmming eyeSjbut no sign of weakness. Again m 1865, when she visited the Hospital of Amiens during the cholera epidemicj j&W infection of the feyer wajcd was some-

thing very different from an official ceremony. She went courageously from bed to bed, talking to the patients, comforting them, promising them aid when they got cured, and leaving money meanwhUe for their wives and children. With admirable devotion she risked even the contagion *• of small-pox to go and carry hopeful words to some poor women who were recovering from this hideous disease. By»and-by, that is m 1870, when calamities had commenced, and the Emperor's throne was tottering, the Empress showed herself equally brave for herself and considerate for others. She did not, indesd, •vince that queenly, amazon spirit which would have impelled a woman like Elizabeth of England to got on horseback and overawe the revolutionary moba by placing herself at the head of the army, and vowing to lead the defence of Paris like a second Jeanne Hachette, or Joan of Arc. Such an attitude might perhaps have sav%d tho crown;., but, lacking the warrior n»"v«, Eugenic at least displayed the softer feelings of womanhood, for she refused to let a single drop of blood be shed m guarding the Tuileriea. There was something at Once touching and grand m her behavior on that fatal Sunday afternoon of the 4th of September, when the rabble were marching upon the palace. Hearing that hot-blooded courtiers had revolvers and talked of using them, she sent to beg them for her sake not to offer resistance j and tho command which she sent down to the officers of the palace guard was that they should " let the people pass." At three o'clock, when M. Ferdinand de Lesseps told her ->that the Second Empire was virtually at ah end, and that ■he had best leave France, the Empress tuvned to the faithful band of adherents — some 300 m number, who were gathered m the reception saloon — and made them her stateliest curtsey before retiring. On foing to her private apartments to put on er bonnet, she found that some servants had absconded with a small travolling jewelcase and a purse that had been prepared for her journey, so. that on landing at Weymouth two days afterwards she had only a valise fall of linen and 20 Napoleons m gold, which had been lont her by the Chevalier Nigra, As an instance of the confusion which prevailed at that epoch, I may men - tion that M. Wolmer, the Emperor's cashiei", assured me that he. had m hand, on September 4, £60,000 belonging to the Civil List, which the Empress migHt have drawn by cheque ; but she quite forgot to do so.