The Tragedy of St. HelenaRunciman, Walter Runciman, Baron
History
The Tragedy of St. Helena
Runciman, Walter Runciman, Baron
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 -- Captivity, 1815-1821
The allied monarchs were all represented at her funeral, and the
Prince of Mecklenburg (the Queen of Prussia's brother) was amongst the
mourners. It was of him the Court gossipers assiduously circulated
reports that he was paying suspicious attention to Josephine after the
divorce. Napoleon, on hearing of the flirtation through Fouche,
rebuked her with justifiable vigour on the ground of it being a gross
violation of dignity to go about with the Prince and others of lower
ranks to second-rate theatres, even under the cover of incognito. He
does not appear to have thought there was anything more than
Josephine's habitual lack of respect for herself and the high position
he had preserved for her, though according to the unreliable Madame de
Remusat Napoleon suggested to his divorced wife that she should take
Prince Mecklenburg as her husband. The same authority (?) asserts that
the Prince had written to Napoleon asking his permission, and,
further, says that Josephine told her this curious story. It is
entirely unsupported by either the words or actions of the Emperor
himself, and may be put aside as another of the fabrications of the
memoir writer.
That there was a flirtation there can be little doubt, but the
Prince's object may have been part of the political intrigue, rather
than carnal intercourse with a woman of nearly fifty years of age.
Josephine, always sorry for herself, a sieve of the first water,
susceptible to flattery, blind to device, yearning for admiration and
pity, was rejoiced to find attention extended to her from any quarter,
but coming from the Royal House of Prussia or any other royal
personage it was a dazzling compliment to the high esteem in which she
believed she was held, and enhanced the luxury of feeling that she was
the centre of international sympathy.
It was not that she had any malicious intent to do deliberate wrong to
Napoleon, or any thought of degrading herself. Her mind did not work
in these grooves. She was merely carried off her feet by vain love of
self-approbation, which led her far beyond the bounds of honourable
prudence. She was interred at Rueil amidst quiet solemnity, and in
1825 Eugene and Hortense erected a monument in her memory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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