Chapter Page I The Youth of Eugénie 11 II Eugénie’s Marriage to Louis Napoleon 23 III Eugénie’s Personality 36 IV State Visit to England 42 V Birth of the Prince Imperial 49 VI The Empress in Politics 54 VII Private Life of the Empress 62 VIII Paris under the Second Empire 68 IX Eugénie as a Leader of Fashion 79 X Decline of the Empire 88 XI The War of 1870 97 XII Eugénie’s Flight to England 109 XIII The Empress in Exile 119 XIV Death of the Prince Imperial 126 Appendix 136
Eugénie _Frontispiece_ Empress Eugénie 30 Napoleon the Third 92 The Empress-Widow 134
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 his livelihood by the sale of wines which he dispensed with his own hand in a room at the rear of his shop. The business prospered and he became a rich man, exporting large quantities of Spanish wines to foreign countries; but he still kept his wine-room in Malaga, assisted by his four daughters, who did much to attract custom.
The lofty family traditions of the Kirkpatricks of Closeburn could scarcely have been expected to be remembered amid the practical duties of the merchant’s busy life, but his beautiful daughters were by no means unaware of their high descent nor without hope of elevating themselves once more to the rank of their ancestors. Of the four sisters, Manuela, the third, was the most aspiring as well as the most beautiful. Even when busy serving wine and chatting gayly with the gentlemen who frequented her father’s wine-room, her mind was constantly dwelling on the traditions of her house, and in the glories of the past she forgot the sordid surroundings of the present. Although a true daughter of the soil from which she sprang, Manuela was very different from the ordinary Spanish girl, who is often indolent and ignorant; for with her Scotch blood she inherited the energy without which her dreams and ambitions could never have been realized. Determined to rise in the world, and with nothing but herself and her beauty to depend upon, she decided that only a brilliant marriage could accomplish her ends; and to achieve this she was ready to use any means or make any sacrifice.
