LINK WITH NAPOLEON.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 July 1920, Page 5

LINK WITH NAPOLEON.

DEATH OP EX-EMPRESS EUGENIE. Received July 12, 5.5 p.m. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, July 11. The ex-Empress Eugenie died while visiting Spain— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

[The death of the ex-Empress of the French at the age of 94 marks the disappearance of the last link of the Napoleonic era. As Mile, de Montijo, she married the last of the Napoleons, and when he lost his tJirone In 1870 she went to England, an!l there lived in retirement. The mother of the ex-Em-press hailed from Scotland. With the .reign of Louis XVI began the period of expiation for the crimes of the French monarchy and aristocracy, and with the defeat by Napoleon 111. followed by his flight to England, it ended. Throughout the troublous times in which Louis Napoleon directed the destinies of France, the late Empress Eugenie made Paris the seat of fashion, and the Court of the Tuileries owed much of its brilliance to her. Rarely has aiiy eount»y been so well served as was France by the Empress § Eugenie, who not only had an exceptional personality, but was the means of making France so attractive that money flowed thither from all quarters of the globe, thereby enabling the country to make a rapid recovery after the Franco-German war. She was the last Empress of France. When the second and last Empire fell, and both Emperor and Empress, together with their only son, had to take refuge in England, the ex-Empress was remarkable for her dignified courage and unfailing courtesy. This nigii courage sustained her in the two subsequent crushing Blows that fell—the death of the Emperor and the tragic end of the Prince Imperial at the hands of Zulus in 1871, when he was serving in the British Army. The people of England had a Vwftrm place in their heart for the bereaved Empress, and it must liave been some satisfaction to her to live to see the authors of the downfall of the Napoleonic dynasty suffer the same fate, Those who w~re privileged to know the ex-Empress fully realised her nobility and exceptional charm. It is given to few to go through such intense experiences and live to such an advanced age.]