Napoleon's Three Warnings.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4664, 15 December 1883, Page 1

Napoleon's Three Warnings.

A STHAN&E BTOBY OF THE GREAT CQBSICAN^

A3 UfABBATED BY FOUCHE.

The celebrated Fouche, Duke of Otranto, some time chief of the police to Napoleon, was retained but' a short.time, it is well known, in the service of the Bourbons, after their restoration to the throne of France. He retired to the town of Aix, in Provence, and there lived in affluence and ease upon the gains of his long aod busy career. On one occasion the company assembled in his salon, heardl from his lips the following story : .

By degrees, as Napoleon assumed the power and authority of a king, every thing about him, oven in the dayi? of the Consulate, began to wear a court-like appearance. All the old monarchical habitudesi were revived, one by one. Among other rivivals of this kind, the custom of attending Mass previous to the hour of audience was restored by Bonaparte, and he himself was punctual in his appearance at the chapel of St. Cloud on such occasions. Nothing could be more mundane than the mode of performing these religious services. The actresses of the opera were the chorists, and great crowds of busy, talkative people were in the habit of frequenting the gallery of the chapel, from, the windows of which the First Consul and Josephine could b&seen with their suites andtfrieuds. The whole formed merely a daily exhibition of the consular court foi 1 the people. - At one particular time the punctuality of Bonaparte in his attendance at mass was rather distressing to bis wife. The. quick and jealous Josephine had discovered that the eye of her husband was too much directed to a window in the gallery where there regularly appeared the form and face of a youDg girl of uncommon beauty. The chestnut tresses, the brilliant eyes, and graceful figure of this personage caused the more uneasiness to the Consul's wife, as the stranger's glances were bent not less often upon Bonaparte than his were upon her. "Who is that young girl? 1, said Josephine, one day at the close of the service; " what can she seek from the First Consul? I observed her drop a billet just now at his feet. He picked it up—l saw him." *No one could tell Josephine who the object of her notice precisely was, though there were some who declared her to be en migree lately returned, and who probably was desirous of the intervention of the First Consul in favor of her family. With such guesses as this the Consul's wife was obliged to rest satisfied for the time. After the audience of that same day had passed, Bonaparte expressed a wish for a drive in the park, and according went but attended by his wife, his brother Joseph, Duroo and Hortense Beauharnais. The King of Prussia had just presented Napo~ leon with a superb set of horses, four in number, and they were harnessed to an open chariot for the party. The Consul took it into his head to drive in person, and mounted into the coachman's -seat. The chariot set off, but just as it was turning into the park,; it went crash against a stone at the gate, aud the First Consul was thrown to the ground. He attempted to rise, but again fell prostrate in a stunned and insensible condition. Meanwhile the horses sprang forward with the chariot, and were only stopped when Duroc, at theirisk of his life, threw himself out and seized the loose rein. Josephine was taken out in a swooning condition. The rest of the party speedily returned to Napoleon, and carried him back to his apartment?. On recovering his senses fully, the first thing which he did was to put his hand into his pocket and pull out the slip of paper dropped at his feet in the chapel. Looking over his shoulder, Josephine read upon it these words:

"Do r.ot drive out in your .carriage this

day."

" This can have no allusion to our late accident," said Bonaparte. "No one could foresee that I was to play the part of coachman to-day, or that I should be awkward enongh to drive against a stone. Go, Duroc and examine the chariot."

Duroc obeyed. Soon After be returned, very pale, and took the First Consul aside. " Citizen Consul, 1' said he, " had you not struck the stone and stopped our drive, we had all being lost." " How so ? " was the reply. "There was in the carriage concealed behind the real seat a massive bomb charged with ragged pieces of iron, with a .

slow match attached to it, and kindled. Things had been so.arranged, that in: a , quarter of an hour we should, have been scattered, among the trees of the Park of Saint Cloud. Fouche must be told of this; Dubois must be warned ! " " Not a .word to them," replied Bonaparte. " The knowledge of one plot only engenders a second. Let Josephine remain ignorant of the danger she has escaped. Hortense, Joseph, Cambaceres—tell none of them ; and let the government journals say not a word about.my'fali." . ■-. The First - Consul was then silent for some time. " Duroc," ho said at length, " you will come to-morrow at mass, and examine with attention a young girl whom I shall point out to. you. She will occupy the fourth window in the gallery on tbe right. Follow her home, or cause her to be followed, and bring me intelligence of her abode, and her circumstances. It will be better to do this yourself; I would not have the police interfere in the matter." On the morrow the eyes of more than one person were turned to the window in the gallery. But the jealous Josephine sought in vain for the graceful figure of the young girl. She was not there. The impatient First Consul, and his confidant, Duroc, were greatly annoyed at her non-appeaa-ance, and small was the attention paid by them to the service that day, Their anxiety was fruitless. The girl was seen at Mass no more. ' 11. " The summers of Napoleon were spent chiefly atMalmaison—the winters at Saint Cloud and the Tuileries. • Winter had come on, and the First Consul had been holding court in the great apartments of the last of these palaces. It was the third of that ' month which the Republicans well called " Nivose,"^ and in the evening Bonaparte entered his carriage to go to the opera, accompained by his aide-de-camp, Lauriston, and Generals Lannes and Berthier. The vehicle was about to start when a female* wrapped in a black mantle, rushed out upon the Place Carousel, made her way to the midst of the guards about to -accompany Bonaparte, and held forth a paper to the latter, crying; "Citizen Consul, Citizen Consul, read! read!" Bonaparte, with that smile which Bourrienne describes as irresistable, saluted the petitioner, stretched out his hand for ' the missive.' "A; petition madam ?." said ho inquiringly and then continued: " Fear nothing: I shall peruse it and see justice done." " Citizen Consul"—-cried the woman, imploringly joining her hands. What she would have further said was lost. The coachman, who it was afterwards said was intoxicated, gave the lash to his horse, and they sprang off with the speed of lightning. The Consul, throwing into his hat the paper he had received, remarked to his • companions : " I could not well sffc her figure, but I think the poor woman is young." The carriage dashed along rapidly. It was just issuing from the street of St. Nicholas, when a frightful detonation was heard, mingling with and followed by the crash of broken windows and the cries of -injured passers-by. The infernal machine had exploded. Uninjured, the carriage of the Consul and its inmates was whirled with undiminished rapidity to the opera. Bonaparte entered the box with serene brow and unruffled deportment. He saluted, as usual, the assembled spectators, to whom the news of the explosion came with all the speed which rumour exercises - upon such occasions. All were stunned and stupefied. Bonaparte alone was per** fectly calm. He stood with crossed arms .listening attentively to the oratorio of Haydn, which was executed on that evening. Suddenly, however, he remembered the paper put into his hands. He took it out and read these lines : '-"In the name of heaven, Citizen Consul, do ' - not go to the opera to night, or if you do go, pass not through the street of St. Nicholas" On reading these words the Consul chanced to-raise his eyes. Exactly op- - posite to him, in a box on the third tire, sat . the young girl of the chapel of Saint Cloud, who, with joined hands, seemed to utter prayers of gratitude for the escape which had taken place. Her head had no covering but her flowing and beautiful chestnut . hair; and her person was wrapped in a dark mantle, which the Consul recognized as indentical with that worn by the woman who had delivered the paper to him at the 'carriage door on the Place Carousel. '" Go," said he, quietly but quickly, to Lannes : " go to the box exactly opposite to us, on the third tier. You will find a young girl in a black mantle. Bring her to the Tuileries. I must see her, and without delay." Bonaparte spoke thus, without raising his eyes, but to make Lannes certain of the person, he took the - general's arm and said, pointing upward, '• See there—look ! " Bonaparte stopped suddenly. The girl was gone. No black mantle was to be seen. Annoyed at this beyond measure, he hurriedly sent off Lannes to intercept her.' It was in 'vain. The box-keeper had seen such an individual, but knew nothing about her. Bonaparte applied to , Foucheand. Dubois, but all the zeal ot these functionaries failed in discovering her. 111. - Years ran on after the explosion of the infernal* machine and the strange accom- . panying circumstances which tended to ■■•' make the occurrence more remarkable in the eyes of Bonaparte. To the Consulate .'succeeded the Empire, and victory after victory marked the career of the great Corsican. At length the hour of change came. Allied Europe poured its troops into France, and compelled the Emperor ' to lay down the sceptre which had been so long shaken in»terror over half the - ; civilized world. The Isle of Elba became for a few days the most remarkable spot - on the globe, and finally the resuscitated empire fell to pieces anew on the field of Waterloo. Bonaparte ~was about' to quit France. The moment had come for him to set foot ' in the bark which was to convey him to the English vessel.- Friends who had followed the fallen chief to the very last. were standing by to give him a final adieu. He waved his hand to those around, und a smile was on the lip which ■ had given the farewell kiss to the imperial eagle. ,: At that instant a woman broke „ through the band that stood before Napo-' ' leon. She was in the prime of woman's life ; not a girl, yet young enough to re; tain unimpaired that beauty for which ' she had been remarkable among a crowd ' of beauties. Her features were full of anxiety and Badness,' adding interest to '-:" her appearance even at such a; moment. . - "Sire! sire!" said, she, presenting a ! - paper hurridly; " read! read!" ■ ' The Emperor took the paper presented to him. He shook his bead, and held tip "' tfie paper to his eyes.. After perusing its

contents he took it between his and tore it to pieces, scattering the fragments in the air. " Stop, sire ! " cried the woman, i " Follow the advice ! Be warned—it" is yet time!" " No! " replied Napoleon. And taking from his finger a beautiful oriental ruby] a valuable souvenir of his Egyptian can^ paigns, he held it out to the woman. She took it, kneeling, and kissed the. hand which presented it. Turning his head, Napoleon then stepped into the boat which awaited to take "'him to the vessel. The vessel took him to the barren rock of St. Helena. And there he died. Thus of three warnings, two were useless because neglected until the danger had occurred, and the third—which prognosticated the fate of Napoleon, if once in the power of his adversaries—the third was refected. " But who was this woman, Duke of , Otranto ?" 1 " That," replied Fouche, " I know not with certainty. The Emperor, if he knew, ultimately, seems to have kept the secret. All that is known respecting the i matter is that a female related to Saint 1 Regent, one of the authors of the explosion of the street St. Nicholas died at the hospital Hotel Dieu, in 1837, and that around;her neck was suspended, by a silk ribbon, the exquisite oriental ruby of Napoleon."