Category: Biographies
At the beginning of the last century there dwelt in the city of Malaga in Spain a merchant named Kirkpatrick. Although descended from a Scotch family of distinction that had been forced by the fall of the Stuarts to flee their native land, this later scion of the race earned h...
As a child, Eugénie was seldom seen without a knot of violets in her hair or in her belt; and when the scorching summer sun of Spain made these blossoms scarce, a shepherd boy w...
1. Chapter IAt the beginning of the last century there dwelt in the city of Malaga in Spain a merchant named Kirkpatrick. Although descended from a Scotch family of distinction that had bee...
14. Chapter XIVEugénie’s grief at her husband’s death was deep and sincere. Over his bier she wept far bitterer tears than those she had shed during those dreadful days following her flight fr...
11. Chapter XIThe spirit of revolution may be quenched at times in the populace of Paris, but it is never entirely extinguished. Napoleon the Third had held their turbulence in check for near...
8. Chapter VIII“It was a strangely mixed society that formed the court of the Second Empire, and during this splendid period Paris became more than ever a brilliant social arena. New names and...
12. Chapter XIIThe Empress mean while was still at the Tuileries. One of the palace prefects had returned from the Assembly with news of what had passed, but she refused to desert her post eve...
10. Chapter XAs yet there had been no sign of change in Eugénie’s fortunes. The sun of empire was still apparently at its zenith. France deemed herself invincible. The throne seemed secured...
9. Chapter IXThe stairways and corridors in the Tuileries were so dark that they had to be lighted summer and winter; and this, with the bad ventilation, made the palace so unbearable in war...
6. Chapter VINapoleon’s position at this time seemed impregnable. France had played an honorable part in the Crimean War and covered herself with glory at the fall of Sebastopol. Yet the nep...
13. Chapter XIIIEarly on the morning of the eighth of September, the landlord of the Hotel York in Ryde was awakened by a loud knocking, and found a man and two women standing outside the door....
4. Chapter IVHowever the young Empress may have been regarded in other countries, it was generally agreed that she understood better than any of her predecessors how to hold the favor of the...
7. Chapter VIIBesides the annoyances caused by the ill-will of the anti-clerical party, Eugénie at this time had also sorrows and anxieties of her own to endure. Painful as her youthful passi...
3. Chapter III“The interest displayed by the people in their new sovereign was prompted by more than idle curiosity. The universal admiration she excited was genuine. Those noble features, en...
5. Chapter VEarly on the morning of the sixteenth of March, 1856, a son was born to the imperial pair, and a salute of a hundred and one guns proclaimed the great news to the public, who re...