The Happy Days of the Empress Marie LouiseImbert de Saint-Amand
History
The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise
Imbert de Saint-Amand
Marie Louise, Empress, consort of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1791-1847
Princess Julia, Queen of Spain;
Princess Hortense, Queen of Holland;
Princess Catherine, Queen of Westphalia;
Princess Elisa, Grand Duchess of Tuscany;
Princess Pauline, Duchess of Guastalla;
Princess Caroline, Queen of Naples;
The Grand Duke of Würzberg;
Princess Augusta, Vice-Queen of Italy;
Princess Stéphanie, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Baden;
The Hereditary Grand Duke of Baden;
The Prince Archtreasurer;
The Prince Vice-Constable.
As soon as the Emperor was seated, the Prince Archchancellor of the
Empire, followed by the Secretary of State of the Imperial family,
approached the throne, bowed low, and said: "In the name of the Emperor
(at those words Their Majesties rose), Sire, does Your Imperial and
Royal Majesty declare that he takes in marriage Her Imperial and Royal
Highness Marie Louise, Archduchess of Austria, here present?" Napoleon
replied: "I declare that I take in marriage Her Imperial and Royal
Highness Marie Louise, Archduchess of Austria, here present." The same
question was then put to Marie Louise in these terms: "Does Her Imperial
Highness Marie Louise, Archduchess of Austria, declare that she takes in
marriage His Majesty the Emperor and King, Napoleon, here present?" She
answered: "I declare that I take in marriage His Majesty the Emperor
and King, Napoleon, here present." Then the Archchancellor, Prince
Cambacérès, announced the marriage in these words: "In the name of the
Emperor and of the Law, I declare that His Imperial and Royal Majesty
Napoleon, Emperor of the French and King of Rome, and Her Imperial and
Royal Highness, the Archduchess Marie Louise, are united in marriage."
At the same instant the ceremony was proclaimed by salvos of artillery
fired at Saint Cloud and repeated in Paris by the cannon of the
Invalides. Napoleon must have felt a thrill of pride at this moment.
The Apollo Gallery, where the rite was celebrated, was full of pleasant
memories; there it was that the Ancients were sitting on that eventful
19th Brumaire when the foundations of his vast power were laid, and
there it was that he had uttered that ringing sentence, "Remember that I
march in the company of the God of Fortune and the God of War." There it
was that, May 18, 1804, he had said to the Senators who came to proclaim
the Empire: "I accept the title which you deem of service to the
nation's glory. I hope that France will never repent the honors with
which it loads my family." And in this same gallery he was marrying in
triumph the daughter of the Germanic Cæsars. The Palace of Saint Cloud
brought him good luck. And yet it was from this palace that he set out
two years later on the disastrous Russian campaign; and from there his
successor, sixty years later, started for a still more ruinous war. And
as for this Palace of Saint Cloud, so brilliant and radiant, what was
to become of it? But in 1810 no one could have felt such fears for the
future.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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