Marie Louise, The Island Of Elba, And The Hundred Days

MARIE LOUISE THE ISLAND OF ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS BY IMBERT DE SAINT-AMAND TRANSLATED BY ELIZABETH GILBERT MARTIN WITH PORTRAIT NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS 1891 CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. THE RETURN OF MARIE LOUISE TO AUSTRIA 1 IT. NAPOLEONS ARRIVAL AT THE ISLAND OF ELBA 11 III. QUEEN MARIE CAROLINE 22 IV. MARIE LOUISE AT Aix IN SAVOY 31 V. MARIE LOUISE IN SWITZERLAND 46 VI. MARIE LOUISE DURING-THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA ... 54 VII. THE RETURN FROM ELBA 82 VIII. MARIE LOUISE DURING THE HUNDRED DAYS Ill IX. THE FIELD OF MAY 138 X. WATERLOO 155 XI. NAPOLEON II 172 XII. MALMAISON 200 XIII. ROCHEFORT 214 XIV. THE BELLEROPHON 238 XV. THE NORTHUMBERLAND 2CO MARIE LOUISE, THE ISLAND OF ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. I. THE RETtTRJST OF MARIE LOUISE TO ATJSTBIA. TjlROM the double point of view of psychology I and history it is a sad but curious task to study the gradations by which the Empress Marie Louise was, little by little, transformed from a devoted and irreproachable wife into a forgetful, indifferent, and faithless one. When she left the soil of France, her sentiments toward her husband were still honest. If she had not rejoined him at Fontainebleau, the fault should be attributed to him rather than to her. To the very end she had fulfilled her duties as Regent with exactness and loyalty, and Napoleon rendered her entire justice on this point. We believe that, when she entered Switzerland, she was still minded to go to Elba very soon. During the early days of her sojourn at Schoenbrunn she remained more French than Austrian. She greatly preferred the Duchess of Montebello to any of the Viennese court ladies she showed high esteem for Madame de Montesquieu, M. I 2 ELBA, AND THE HUNDREDDAYS. de Bausset, and M. de M aeval, who constantly talked to her of Napoleon and of France she retained her husbands imperial coat-of-arms upon her carriages, her silver, and the liveries of her attendants. Her household was entirely French, and at the court of her father she was reproached with always playing the part of Empress. The Countess of Montesquiou, who continued to fulfil her functions as governess with the greatest zeal, talked unceasingly of the Em peror Napoleon to the little Bonaparte, as the unfortunate King of Eome was styled at Vienna. She taught the child to love his father and to pray for him. The Emperor Francis proceeded slowly and by degrees. He was too adroit to precipitate counsels or commands which at the first moment his daughter might have found cynical. He did nothing to wound or shock her. He permitted her to take the waters at Aix-les-Bains, which, in 1814, was still a French town, and where she went out driving in open car riages bearing the imperial arms of France. At this time the attitude of Marie Louise was still absolutely correct. But the crafty Austrian policy understood how to find a man who should succeed in turning the wife from her husband. This man was a military diplomatist, General Count Neipperg, a re lentless enemy of France and of Napoleon. Com plaisant, skilful, energetic, a thorough man of the world, an accomplished courtier, an excellent musi cian, he knew how to make his way by insinuation THE RETURN TO AUSTRIA. as well as by force. He was married to a divorced woman whom he had abducted from her husband, who was still living in 1814, and by whom he had several children. He had but one eye, having lost the other in battle, and hewore a black bandage to. hide the scar. He might have been the father of Marie Louise, for he was by twenty-one years her senior. Who could have imagined that this man would be the successor of the Emperor Napoleon General Neipperg, as husband of the Empress Marie Louise, is not less astonishing than the Widow Scar ron, the spouse of the Sun-King. In history we pass from one surprise to another, and find in destiny a fantastic something which causes the life of peoples as well as of individuals to seem like a dream...