MARIA LOUISA. 



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govern in bis absence. His ingenuous empress, his 

 mild and inexperienced companion, whom he had 

 always called ma petite oie, " my little goose," was 

 raised at once to the government of a tottering 

 empire, in the midst of intrigues and factions, in 

 days of perils and storms. Her task, however, 

 was not so difficult as might be supposed. She 

 received, by the mail from her husband, the 

 speeches she was occasionally to deliver before 

 the senate ; by her side was constantly sitting 

 Cambaceres, the archchancellor, the right eye of 

 Napoleon in all political transactions ; and the yea 

 and the nay, by which the regent answered all 

 questions, were always dictated by the nod of the 

 minister.* The destinies continued adverse ; the 

 French territory was invaded; the flood threatened 

 from every part. While Napoleon by marvellous 

 efforts checked the allies on the right, they pre- 

 vailed on the left, and arrived under the walls of 

 the capital. Maria Louisa, who had nothing to 

 fear from the besiegers, among whom were her 

 father and brothers, without waiting for the result, 

 insisted on being sent to Blois ; and thither she 

 was accordingly escorted by twenty-five hundred 

 men, the very soul of the garrison of Paris. Three 

 days after, the capital surrendered; and eleven 

 days later the emperor abdicated his crown at 

 Fontainbleau. 



Maria Louisa, willing or unwilling, always with- 

 out a will of her own, was obliged to follow her 

 father to Vienna. In his exile, in his mock empire 

 of Elba, Napoleon received visits from his mother 

 and sisters. Friends and servants appeared by 

 stealth, in haste, with a tear of regret, or with a 

 ray of hope for better days. Towards the August 

 of 1814, another visitor came; a fair lady with a 

 fair child in her arms, sailing from the neighbour- 

 ing shores of Italy, with an air of great precaution 

 and mystery. Napoleon received her with great 

 attention, covered the child with his kisses, and 

 clasped the mother to his bosom. There she 

 remained two days and two nights, jealously hidden 

 from public curiosity. Then, with the same 

 secrecy, preparations were made for her departure. 

 Napoleon accompanied her to her barge, and stood 

 upon the shore, long eagerly gazing upon the fad- 

 ing sail. Whence that lady had come, whither 

 she was going, who she was, could not then be 

 told. It became, however, afterwards, but too 

 c-rtain, that the lady was not, as history would 

 fiiin have recorded, Maria Louisa, nor the child, 

 the king of Rome.f 



From the Isle of Elba, Napoleon started for new 

 fortunes. His eagle once more spread its wings 

 over France ; his standard once more waved on the 

 battle-field. One of the first cares of his re-estab- 

 lished empire, was to assert his sacred rights over 

 his wife and child. But Austria no longer dreaded 

 his power.. Austria was now at the head of his 



* We find among the memoirs of that epoch a little anecdote 

 M> universally asserted, as to leave small doubt of its authenti- 

 city. Napoleon, who was not always careful in the choice of 

 hi* expressions, in a fit of impatience against some show of a 

 reluctant spirit on the part of his Senate, walking up and 

 down in H passion, and stamping- upon the floor had exclaimed, 

 " Get sont des ganachet," "They are blockheads." Maria 

 Louisa, who was not much beyond the elements in her 

 I'rench, timidly approaching him, asked for the meaning of 

 the word, ganaclte. Napoleon answered with visible embar- 

 r;i->im'nt, "Why, it means, clever fellows." Maria Louisa 

 treasured up the word. During her regency, being pressed to 

 answer some difficult question, " Let us consult the archchan- 

 rellor," said she, "qui est le plus grand qanache de torts," 

 (who is the greatest blockhead of all.) 



t It was afterwards understood, that she was a Polish 

 countess from Warsaw, the heroine of one of the few love in- 

 trigues in which Napoleon ever indulged. 

 VII. 



enemies ; and Maria Louisa, under the paternal 

 protection, and a prisoner in the Austrian court, 

 was learning to forget her husband, and embroider- 

 ing the banners which were to confront his eagle. 

 An attempt was made, by the friends of Bonaparte 

 at Vienna, to carry offhis empress and heir, whom 

 Napoleon had promised to present to the people 

 at the Champ de Mars. But the plot was discov- 

 ered, and Maria Louisa remained at Vienna till 

 after the battle of Waterloo. 



A fugitive, a prisoner, a victim chained, Prome- 

 theus-like, for torture, to the rock of St Helena, 

 Napoleon seemed never to think of his wife but 

 with the fondest affection. His empress and child 

 were the object of a profound anxiety. His let- 

 ters and messages to her were reiterated with vain 

 but incessant assiduity. The first question he 

 addressed to all visiters, was about her. To her 

 he gave his last thoughts, his last words. To her, 

 in his last will, he intrusted all he still fancied 

 himself to possess. To her love and kindness he 

 recommended all such friends as had any claims 

 upon his gratitude ; his veterans, the companions 

 of his glories, the sharers of his disasters. What- 

 ever might have been his opinion of his empress 

 during his life, he seems to have died her enthu- 

 siastic lover. 



At the epoch of the treaty of Fontainbleau, in 

 1814, the allies, having to dispose of the empress, 

 thought of indemnifying her for the loss of her 

 august titles, by giving her a share in the spoils of 

 Italy ; that unfortunate Italy, which, in all politi- 

 cal transactions, has always been dismembered and 

 parcelled to balance accounts. It was resolved, 

 that she should be duchess of Parma, Placentia, 

 and Guastalla, and her state was to be transmitted 

 to her son as legitimate heir. The attempts of 

 Murat, king of Naples, to make himself master of 

 Italy, the troubles of the whole peninsula, and 

 subsequently the return of Napoleon from the isle 

 of Elba, prevented the princess from being sent to 

 her states. After the battle of Waterloo, Bona- 

 parte's son was rebaptized ; instead of his paternal 

 name Napoleon, he was called Charles Joseph ; his 

 title of King of Rome was changed into that of 

 duke of Reichstadt ; he lost all right to his mo- 

 ther's succession, and was withdrawn from her 

 guardianship. 



Maria Louisa had no spirit and no capacity for 

 resistance. They bade her put off the arms and 

 liveries of her husband; to divest herself of the 

 title of empress ; to forget Napoleon ; to surrender 

 his son. In all she was obedient. Widowed and 

 childless, but surrounded with pomp and magnifi- 

 cence, all things being settled and disposed for her 

 reception, she left Vienna and hastened towards 

 her humble metropolis. Greeted and applauded 

 wherever she passed in her journey, she drew after 

 her the best part of the population of Lombardy. 

 Parma was crowded with strangers of all nations 

 and conditions. They were especially the friends 

 and servants of her husband, French and Italian 

 warriors of the Russian and German campaigns; 

 disappointed people, who looked to her as the 

 centre of their discomfited party, and to her sou 

 as the spes ultima mundi. 



The show and triumph displayed on the occa- 

 sion, the enthusiasm excited by her appearance, 

 were unexampled in the annals of Parma. The 

 first intoxication of the Napoleonists, however, 

 considerably abated, when they heard that her son 

 was not with her. The disappointment was still 

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