ROYAL LOVE STORY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXII, Issue 8963, 31 October 1907, Page 1

ROYAL LOVE STORY.

! By the death at Ohesuey, near Versailles, of tho Comte de Bechevet cue of the most enthralling of many love romances which distinguished tho Second Empire is recalled. Tho lato count was a son of tho famous English beauty. Miss Howard, afterwards Oouutcssodo Beauregard, and ho was believed by many to bo the sou of Napoleon HI., who certainly made him a count. There is some doubt as to what Miss Howard’s real name was. In her death certificate it _is given as Elizabeth Anne Haryctt. But it is suggested that it may have been Hargett. However that may bo, all opinions are agreed that she was a supremely beautiful woman. Her house in London was tho resort of fashionable men like the Duke of Beaufort, the Earl of Chesterfield, the Earl of Malmesbury, and Count D’Orsay. It was there that Prince Napoleon, a poor adventurer, met her, and became euarmoured of her. She was wealthy, and assisted him with her purse during his later years In Loudon. After tho Revolution of 1848 Napoleon wont to Paris, and she followed him. When he had been elected Prsesideut of the Republic, a neat little house was rented for her in the Rue dn Cirque, close to the Elysee Palace, Napoleon’s residence. When ho became Emperor, she clung to him tighter than ever—too tight to please him. But ho was fond of her; ho was easy going, and she uudoubtly had documents and letters of which she might have made awkward use of. So, in spite of the hostile critics, rooms were provided for her at St. Cloud. . She accompanied Napoleon 111 on his official journeys, demanding a conspicious place for iter carriage at reviews, and appearing exquisitively dressed and ravish iugly beautiful at tho Emrperor’s earlier entertainments at tho Tuilerics.

When ho decided to marry Mdlle. de Moutijo (now tho ex-Em press Eugenio) there wore some furious scenes with Miss Howard. To repay her loans and to purchase her silence, the Emperor gave her the chateau of Beauregard and tho title of comtcsso, but she never really forgave Napoleon for his desertion, and she so violently denounced him in private that tho secret police entered her rooms, and ransacked them from top to bottom for compromising documents. In 1805 the Emperor created her sou, Martin Howard, Count de Beohevot, tho new title being duo to tho protests of thoaiucieut family of Beauregard, who strongly objected to their name being conferod on Miss Howard. It was generally believed that the Count do Bechevet was Napoelou 111. ’s sou.