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FROM MY LIBRARY CHAIR.

(By "John Lester.")

the Elba Interlude.

Last week _ I . carried the story of Napoleon and Marie iiouise down to tke French Emperor's disastrous Russian cam-

paign. An eyen-more . interesting period! in their relations one with thc other was j to follow. Austria's treachery and j Murat's defection meant the downfall of \ Napoleon.' . Crushed by the allied: armies, he returned post-haste to Paris, to find that Marie Louise, acting according to his own peremptory instructions, had fled the capital, abandoning the city to her husband's enemies. Only a few weeks previous he had bidden ,her farewell for the last time, as it happened, and fondly embraced his little son, the King of Rome, whom he was destined never to sec again.

- Napoleon. ?.

Marie" Louise. I

After Napoleon'« abdication, every dip- lomatic effort was made in Paris to pre-

vent Marie Louise from joining ber hus-1 band in Elba. It. was feared that she might become instrumental in effecting a reconciliation between her father and the deposed Emperor. There followed a most discreditable intrigue, in which Metternich and Franciß each shared, to the lasting dishonour of both-especially the latter. The Empress was granted the Duchy of Parma by the Allies, but obstacle after obstacle was placed in the way of her taking possession of her territory, at all events until such time as the image of Napoleon-should be, if not completely ob- literated, at least partly erased from her affections. Wearied out hy prolonged mental and physical distress. Marie Louise ceased to struggle against fate.

There can be little doubt that bad such a course of action been deemed advisable, Marie Louise would hare been allowed to . follow her husband into exile. But it

was not to be. The Kaiser and Metter- nich had decided that she must return

Count Metternich.

to her old love and become Austrian once again. The French attendants were incontinent- ly dismissed, but she was permitted to retain the ser- vices of Meneval, hçr devoted secre- tary, who remained faithful to his be- loved mistress for

many years. The Imperial treasury had been disgracefully pillaged by the Pro- visional Government. The Diplomatie Corps in Paris had'their fingers in the pie-Metternich, the arch-traitór Talley- rand, .- Castlereagh, Wellington," even,,, all sliared in the ill-gotten spoil. Marie Louise returned to her old home, practically a dependent upon her father'Js. bounty.

Meanwhile, Metternich and Ethers in- dustriously sought to widen the breach that, was fast opening out between the Empress and her deposed husband by assuring her of ^ Napoleon's infidelity, which occurred-so the story ran~-early "in Septembers "1814, nt ' the five-roomed

house called the. Hermitage, nestling . re- mote among the old chestnut trees on the heights of rocky Elba.

A rumour which speedily became cur^ rent, that the Empress and her son had visited Napoleon' by stèàlthT and that the former was "enciente" m consequence of the indiscrétion, was, of «ourse, a mere absurdity;-but it has -been more than sus- pected "that the mysterious -unknown was none other than : the notorious Madame Walèwska, wbosé devotion to the fallen Eninërior had survived all coldness and re- buffs. In any case, it is certain that during the following December a well known adventuress calling herself the Comtesse de-Rohan visited Elba, and . was complacently received by the Emperor. Thenceforward the pleasure-loving Marie Louise resolutely dismissed al! thought of her Imperial spouse from her mind, in^ " stalling in his stead thc oné-eyed, Cyclo ; pean spy-her tireless "surviellant," Count

Adam Albert von Neipperg.*

'Comte von Neipperg.~

We now come to thc most sordid part of a miserable Story. Pining for changé ?and diversion, Marie Louise -had

{>roposed a brief sojourn in -Aix, to

>e followed by a short tour through Switzerland. To this the wily -Metternich consented, on the primary condition that the King of Rome was to be left behind in Vienna as a kind of hostage, and Second- ly, that the Empress should be accom ponied by a Commissary of the Austrian Government. The mentor chosen for the guardianship- of the young Marie Louise was thc ( bastard, Comte von Neipperg, a man who although an unscrupulous liber- tine and utterly without principles, was yet possessed of very real aud striking

abilities.

Von Neipperg'6 mission was to wean the Empress from ail thoughts of her exiled lord, apd right well he -'performed his - infamous task. He. was unhampered by

any troublesome restrictions or restraints. In referring to Mnrie Louise, he is said to have made' unabashed the brutal asser- tion: "His Majesty, thc .Emperor,, gave lier to me. and lold mc to do with her what I would!" And, unfortunately?' from what history tells us of the Emperor Fran- cis of Austria, it seems only tito probable tlint the statement was in accordance with fact. If so, it must for ever remain un indelible stain on the dubious reputa- tion of that weak and avaricious niouarch. Of Metternich, nothing better could have . bpen expected; and doubtless .hp would,

bure excused himself, bad he Felt" that" . excuses'were necessary, on the ground*

.that diplomacy .covers a multitude of sins against one's neighbours.

The Duchy ot Parma.

It wae not until nearly a year subséquent to'"Napoleon's last effort and final down- fall, to be precise, on April 19, 1816, that Marie Louise took over the reine of govern- ment of her Duchy of Parma; and even then it was only through, the strenuous advocacy of Alexander; Czar of Russia, that the Treaty of Fontainebleau, which had franted her the territory iu 1814, was up

eld in regard to this particular clause. The ex-Empress's one serions rival to the Duchy, Maria Luigia, the late Queen of Etruria, now Duchess of Lucca, had come perilously near to frustating poor Marie Louise's hopes of an independent State for herself and her son by Napoleon, the "soi-disant" King of Rome. Indeed, hardly a year had elapsed since she as- sumed the control of the Tuscan Duchy, when ehe received the disquieting intel- ligence that'the Allies had issued a decree disinheriting her son, and awarding the succession to Carlo Luigi, son of Maria Luigia. Höwever, the ill tidings were a trine discounted by the promise that her offspring was upon her death to have thc Bavaro-Palatine feofs in Bohemia, with liberty to rule over them under the title of Duke of Reichstadt, and with this sop Alarie Louise had perforce to rest content The untimely death of the presumptive Duke in July, 1832, of course shattered all these fine plans, and to his last day Napoleon's young son was brought up apart from his mother in the Court of his father's most inveterate foe.

The ascendency that von Neipperg had j early acquired over his weak and selfish charge was, if anything, intensified upon

his appointment to the post of her 1 "chevalier d'honneur'^at the petty Court pf Parma. There is no reason to doubt that Marie Louise loved her mentor with one of those blind and desperate infatua- tions which are characteristic of shallow natures. For his sake she allowed her good name to be dragged through the mire

COUNT LEO TOLSTOY. From a caricature ly <3ulbrans60ti. The oentenary of hit birth was

celebrated'this year. "v

of European capitals, where her liaison; was made the subject of thc scoffs aridi, innuendoes of a society JO corrupt and de- cadent, that it seems strange that it, had not more toleration for the frailties xii others certainly no worse than itself..

Marie Louise bore von Neipperg three children, a boy and two girls, one of the latter surviving her birth only a few days; and although a morganatic marriage has beeii vaguely referred to by more than, one contemporary writer, 'they are not in agreement as "to its date;1 neither has it been, satisfactorily proved that any marriage ceremony was ever per-

formed between Marie Louise and her. paramour. '

Under the guidance of von Neipperg the Duchess's rule in Parma was mild and

beneficent; the "chevalier d'honneur,"., despite the imperfection of his moral prin-

ciples, showed himself to bc a wisc and' able counsellor. The Duchy was a hot-bed of revolutionists; the mysterious Carbo- nari were a power .in the land, for ever hatching their scatter-brain conspiracies.

The mediaeval-minded Duke of Modenn,

and the ever-suspicious Metternick, were : inclined to close with an iron grip on these opera-bouffe patriots, but Marie Louise was disposed to take a more mercifnl view of their machinations. That her leniency was slightly misplaced became evident when, encouraged by the success of the French revolution of 1830, the Parmeec riot-mongers rose in force, and, not for the first time in her chequered career,'Marie Louise was obliged to seek safety in flight, but the rising was soon suppressed, and

i ' - ? I

the Duchess's ' clemency once again shocked the sensitive-souls of Metternich and the Duke of Medena.

Later Days.

Von Neipperç died in 1829,. and five yeats later Marie Louise contracted a 'Be- eret marriage (the Duchess was addicted to secrecy) with her new Comptroller, Comte Charles de Bombelles, who came of ancient Alsatian legitimist, stock. In the following year, Marie Louise was once more plunged in mourning by the death of ¿he Emperor Francis. In a letter to Madame de Crenneville,-she writes:-"In him I have lost everything-the person I loved most in the world .... who waa

The Best Extract |

«fi "If you don't talk of things you X

Iknow nothing about, -people will A,

think you know far nore about them 4»

' than- they do."-From "JOSHUA'S ti». ÖREAM," by William J. Locke. *

Sent by Miss Marjorie Herbert, 7 X

Thompson-road, Claremont, who rc- ¡j, .ceives the award of 10/ offered week- if. ly for the best extract not exceeding rt» .ft 50 words from a modern novel. 4»

father, friend, counsellor to me in the most difficult circumstances of my life." Never did anyone mourn more easily than. Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, and never was anyone more readily consoled.

In 1836 the dreaded scourge 'of cholera descended upon Parma, and, to her credit be it said, Marie Louise slaved like a sis- ter of mercy in ministering to her suffering subjects. In those days she was a grand- mother, her daughter, the Contesse Albert tini Sanvitale, having given birth to a fine boy-"the biggest and finest child you can see," wrote the proud Duchesse to her friend, Madame de Creuneville.

But, though not much past middle agc,

--. . ?, ,_t_

(Marie Louise's allotfcedj span df life was

fast drawin^g'.tp.-á^cloiset"' Towards the end of 184l^shèLrèt«r&d ,to Her' Duchy after a visit-the final, one, as it proved-to her native land. Upon his death the depraved Pope Gregory XVI. had been succeeded by' thc liberal-minded Pius IX., and, de- spite a few minor disturbances which were easily suppressed, tbeS revolutionary fire brands .ofo.Enrope were riot loth to accept .a political1 amnesty. ?

But |ho days of Marie Louise were ^ibmbered.- After a brief illness she passed away, .surrounded^by sorrowing relatives áód friends, and "comforted by the last solemn rites of the .Church she had. loved

so-well. -Her demise was the result ot acute pneumonia, following on rheumatic pleurisy; but there were not lacking sinis- ter allegations of poison, allegations which could not be substantiated, and probably had no foundation of fact. Her mortal remains lay in state, first in the "chapelle ardente," then in the ducal chapel of Son Ludovico, and in January, 1848, on the fifth day of the new year, they were re- moved to Austria, and interred in the Im« . perial crypt of the Capuchin Church -'n

j Vienna. .

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