THE INNOCENT EMPRESS

Tempered, portrait of Eugenie, the little Spanish Countess who came to France and married Louis Napoleon, the Prince President. Impetuous, independent, with a predisposition to melanoholy and fatalism, she had always been an ardent Bonapartist. An early disappointment in love convinced her that she would never make a love match, but her marriage to Louis offered other compensations, though it was never really compatible. The death of her slater, Louis' many affairs, the hostility of both masses and aristocracy, brought increasing dissatisfaction with the years. Her flair for position ended after the Maximillen-Carlotta fiasco and the Franco-Prussian war and defeat, and the spent the last years in lonely exile in England. A fair and sensitive appraisal.