A SAD EMPRESS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1951, 8 January 1885, Page 4

A SAD EMPRESS.

Tub Empicss Eugenie spent a sad week with the Duchess <le Mouchy, in her new .house near the Hotel ties Invalides, Paris, recently. She was attracted to the scenes of her former triumphs, went to look at the balcony of the Ecole Militairn, wheie she witnessed many reviews in impel i«il state, was at Longchamps, St. Cloud, in the Tuilenea Gardens, and everywhere passed almost unnoticed. Her cousin, M. de Lesseps, hastened from Berry to pay his respects to her. She was paid many visits, but was not in a mood to leceive any but old and valued friends. It is not at all true that she wants to make peace between her cousin, Prince Napoleon, and Ins eldest son, whom she calls her pcttt-Hcvtu. ' She was very much agitated in going over the theatre in ivhicli the Imperial drama was played by her and the Emperor. But her general attitude was that of a person who, through much suffeiing, has come almost to be insensible. Her complexion is bleached as her hair. The eyes of pale blue have lost the faculty of lighting up. It would be hard to say whether they express indifference to most thing? or resignation. But they look as if they had cued so much that no more tears weie left in them. The Empress diove about in a plain cnupr. She was always in black crepe and merino. Her figure has lost all flexibility, and though the Cailsbad waters were of service to her, she has the stiff walk that rheumatism or the weight of years gives. The outlines of the shoulders, howu\er, retain some of their former elegance. As the adherents of Prince Victor are anxious to oiganUe an electoral campaign by next year, and to obtain pecumaiy assistance from the Empress, the house of the Duchess de Mouchy was closely watched when she was there. If the world lias not gone from her, shu has lost all taste for it. The seclusion of Farnborough sometimes weighs upon her. Ncvei theless she said she would bo gl.ul to return to it after her Contincnt.il ti ip. At Carlsbad she refused all exceptional honours and favours, li\ed quietly at an hotel, and took her place in a queue in an hotel. Her old vivacity has died out. If it had not she would tiy to biibjugate it, for she ascribes to her impetuous disposition the culminating erior of the Emperor's I'-ign, and another event for which she will mourn as long as life and consciousness remain to her. She has the generosity to admit the eiroibof judgment into which she was hurried, and which were attended with dmstious consequences, both for her family and for the nation over which, by an astounding freak of fortune, she became the sovereign. The Empress still thinks aloud, and talks often rapidly of what is on her mind. She ill bears any mental tension, unless in religious cxeicises, and has not the resources of music, embroidery, knitting or bewing, w Inch enabled Marie Anielie to beguile the tedium of a residence at Claiemont. Her infirmity prevents her walking as she wishes. She lives altogether at Fatnborough in the past, and among objects reminding her of departed glories Of the Emperor and of her ill-starred son, of whom she can now speak without falling into paioxysms of giief. The inner woman is chastened by affliction, and the outer woman faded : hut she is more interesting, perhaps, than when she had the prestige of beauty, a throne, and (externally) the most biilliant court in Europe. I have heard her compared to Henrietta Miria, who also had reason to deplore the impetuosity of her disposition. The Queen, however, had a trial in her old age to which the Empress has not been subjected. She lived in France when she was a discrowned Queen and widow in due po\erty. Her house at Bois Colombes was in the marshy pare of a wind-swept plain, and being too poor to buy fhcuood >,he had to stiy in bed in winter to keep herself warm. —London Truth.