THE OLD WOMAN'S WARNING TO THE BONAPARTES.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3347, 13 September 1879, Page 1

THE OLD WOMAN'S WARNING TO THE BONAPARTES.

A most curious example of what I suspect is but this kind of wisdom is to be found in the report of a prophecy of the death of Prince Louis, now in general circulation in Bonapartist society, though, it has not yet found its way into the journals. Before he left for the Cape it is said his mother, who is deeply superstitious, consulted one Mme. de SafFrey, who is believed to have the gift of second sight. Mme. de Saffrey enjoyed some distinction at the Tuileries, and though she did not follow the Empress into exile she is in frequent communication with her old patroness. She was the only person of the imperial entourage who did not hail the declaration of war against Prussia with, delight. Her utterance on the subject was indeed not explicit enough to be of much use, being confined to a mere petition of the Italian prorerb that what will be will be; but it was sufficient to give her great credit with the Empress. Her fired idea, it appears, is that the English are destined to be fatal to the Napoleonic race, and Bhe is said to hate" inconsistently urged the Empress to leave Chiselburst on that account, and live in Switzerland or Italy—as if destiny in the shape of the inevitable Briton could hot reach the family even there. She pro* fesses to see a confirmation of her prophetic misgivings in the refusal of England to declare for France in her hour of need, though anybody but a seer might fancy that Germany was the prime agent of the misfortunes of the w*r. At any rate she has steadily opposed Napoleonic foregathering with England from first to last, and when the Empress wrote to her about the Cape journey she repeated her mystic warning. This accounts for what I told you in March last, though I did not then know the reason of the Empress's opposition: to the project. The Empress was overruled in part by the young fellow's own eager desire to go, in part bj the counsel of the most active of the party chiefs, who have no faith in omens, but a good deal in the value of au advertisement," and who thought such a warlike adventure the best possible advertisement for the cause. The Empress's aversion to the journey continued to the last, and she was in a state of great dejection for some dayi after the Prince sailed.—-Corr. Now York Times.