menu_book Chapter 16

THE STORY OF THE EMPRESS MARIE- LOUISE AND COUNT NYPIRG VOLUME 2 OF FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Linda Dodge Famous Affinities of History by Lyndon Orr

volume two the story of the empress marie louise and count neyperg there is one famous woman whom history condemns while at the same time it partly hides the facts which might mitigate the harshness of the judgment that is passed upon her this woman is marie louise empress of france consort of the great napoleon and archduchess of imperial austria when the most brilliant figure in all history after his overthrow in eighteen fourteen was in tawdry exile on the petty island of elba the empress was already about to become a mother and the father of her unborn child was not napoleon but another man this is almost all that is usually remembered of her that she was unfaithful to napoleon that she abandoned him in the hour of his defeat and that she gave herself with readiness to one inferior in rank

yet with whom she lived for years and to whom she bore what the french rider styled a brood of bastards naturally enough the austrian and german historians do not have much to say of marie louise because in her own disgrace she also brought disgrace upon the proudest reigning family in europe naturally also french writers even those who are hostile to napoleon do not care to dwell upon the story since france itself was humiliated when its greatest genius and most splendid soldier was deceived by his austrian wife therefore there are still many who know little beyond the bare fact that the empress marie louise threw away her pride as a princess her reputation as a wife and her honor as a woman her figure seems to crouch in a sort of murky byway and those who pass over the high road of history ignore it with averted eyes in reality the story of napoleon and marie louise and of the count von neipurg is one which when you search it to the very core

leads you straight to a sex problem of a very curious nature nowhere else does it occur in the relations of the great personages of history but in literature balzac that master of psychology has touched upon the theme in the early chapters of his famous novel called a woman of thirty as to the napoleonic story let us first recall the facts of the case giving them in such order that their full significance may be understood in eighteen o nine napoleon then at the plenitude of his power shook himself free from the clinging clasp of josephine and procured the annulment of his marriage to her he really owed her nothing before he knew her she had been the mistress of another in the first years of their life together she had been notoriously unfaithful to him he had held to her from habit which was in part a superstition but the remembrance of the wrong which she had done him made her faded charms at times almost repulsive and then josephine had never borne him any children and without a son to perpetuate his dynasty

the gigantic achievements which he had wrought seemed futile in his eyes and likely to crumble into nothingness when he should die no sooner had the marriage been annulled than his titanic ambition leaped as it always did to a tremendous pinnacle he would wed he would have children but he would wed no petty princess the man who in his early youth had felt honored by a marriage with the almost dclise widow of a creole planter now stretched out his hand that he might take to himself a woman not merely royal but imperial at first he sought the sister of the czar of russia but alexander entertained a profound distrust of the french emperor and managed to evade the tentative demand there was however a reigning family far more ancient than the romanovs a family which had held the imperial dignity for nearly six centuries the oldest and the noblest blood in europe this was the austrian house of hapsburg

its head the emperor francis had thirteen children of whom the eldest the archduchess marie louise was then in her nineteenth year napoleon had resented the rebuff which the czar had given him he turned therefore the more eagerly to the other project yet there were many reasons why an austrian marriage might be dangerous or at any rate ill-omened only sixteen years before an austrian archduchess marie antoinette married to the ruler of france had met her death upon the scaffold hated and cursed by the french people who had always blamed the austrian for the evil days which had ended in the flames of revolution again the father of the girl to whom napoleon's fancy turned had been the bitter enemy of the new regime in france his troops had been beaten by the french in five wars and had been crushed at austerlitz and wagram

bonaparte had twice entered vienna at the head of a conquering army and thrice he had slept in the imperial palace at schnbrunn while francis was fleeing through the dark a beaten fugitive pursued by the swift squadrons of the french cavalry the feeling of francis of austria was not merely that of the vanquished toward the victor it was a deep hatred almost religious in its fervor he was the head and front of the old-time feudalism of birth and blood napoleon was the incarnation of the modern spirit which demolished thrones and set an iron heel upon crowned heads giving the sacred titles of king and prince to soldiers who even in palaces still showed the swaggering brutality of the camp and the stable whence they sprang yet just because an alliance with the austrian house seemed in so many ways impossible the thought of it inflamed the ardor of napoleon all the more impossible he had once said contemptuously the word impossible is not french the austrian alliance unnatural though it seemed was certainly quite possible in the year eighteen o nine napoleon had finished his fifth war with austria by that terrific battle of wagram which brought the empire of the hapsburgs to the very dust

the conqueror's rude hand had stripped from france's province after province he had even let fall hints that the hapsburgs might be dethroned and that austria might disappear from the map of europe to be divided between himself and the russian czar who was still his ally it was at this psychological moment that the czar wounded napoleon's pride by refusing to give the hand of his sister anne the subtle diplomats of vienna immediately saw their chance prince metternich with the caution of one who enters the cage of a man-eating tiger suggested that the austrian archduchess would be a fitting bride for the french conqueror the notion soothed the wounded vanity of napoleon from that moment events moved swiftly and before long it was understood that there was to be a new empress in france and she was to be none other than the daughter of the man who had been napoleon's most persistent foe upon the continent the girl was to be given sacrificed if you like to appease an imperial adventurer

after such a marriage austria would be safe from spoliation the reigning dynasty would remain firmly seated upon its historic throne but how about the girl herself she had always heard napoleon spoken of as a sort of an ogre a man of low ancestry a brutal and faithless enemy of her people she knew that this bold rough-spoken soldier less than a year before had added insult to the injury which he had inflicted on her father in public proclamations he had called the emperor francis a coward and a liar up to the latter part of the year napoleon was to her imagination a blood-stained sordid and yet all-powerful monster outside the pale of human liking and respect what must have been her thoughts when her father first told her with averted face that she was to become the bride of such a being

marie louise had been brought up as all german girls of rank were then brought up in quiet simplicity and utter innocence in person she was a tall blonde with a wealth of light brown hair tumbling about a face which might be called attractive because it was so youthful and so gentle but in which only poets and courtiers could see beauty her complexion was rosy with that peculiar tinge which means in the course of time it will become red and mottled her blue eyes were clear and childish her figure was good though already too full for a girl who was younger than her years she had a large and generous mouth with full lips the lower one being the true habsburg lip slightly pendulous a feature which has remained for generation after generation as a sure sign of habsburg blood one sees in it the present emperor of austria in the late queen regent of spain and in the present king of spain alfonso all the artists who made miniatures or paintings of marie louise softened down this racial mark so that no likeness of her shows it as it really was

but take her all in all she was a simple childlike german madchin who knew nothing of the outside world except what she had heard from her discreet and watchful governess and what had been told her of napoleon by her uncles the archdukes whom he had beaten down in battle when she learned that she was to be given to the french emperor her girlish soul experienced a shudder but her father told her how vital was this union to her country and to him with a sort of piteous dread she questioned the archdukes who had called napoleon an ogre oh that was when napoleon was an enemy they replied now he is our friend marie louise listened to all this and like the obedient german girl she was yielded her own will events moved with a rush for napoleon was not the man to dally josephine had retired to her residence at malmaison and paris was already astir with the preparations for the new empress who was to assure the continuation of the napoleonic glory by giving children to her husband napoleon had said to his ambassador with his usual bluntness this is the first and most important thing she must have children

to the girl whom he was to marry he sent the following letter an odd letter combining the formality of a negotiator with the veiled ardor of a lover my cousin the brilliant qualities which adorn your person have inspired in me a desire to serve you and to pay you homage in making my request to the emperor your father and praying him to entrust to me the happiness of your imperial highness may i hope that you will understand the sentiments which lead me to this act may i flatter myself that it will not be decided solely by the duty of parental obedience however slightly the feelings of your imperial highness may incline to me i wish to cultivate them with so great care and to endeavor so constantly to please you in everything that i flatter myself that some day i shall prove attractive to you

this is the end at which i desire to arrive and for which i pray your highness will be favorable to me immediately everything was done to dazzle the imagination of the girl she had always dressed in the simplicity of the schoolroom her only ornaments had been a few colored stones which she sometimes wore as a necklace or a bracelet now the resources of all france were drawn upon precious laces foamed about her cascades of diamonds flashed before her eyes the costliest and most exquisite creations of the parisian shops were spread around her to make up a trousseau fit for the princess who was soon to become the bride of the man who had mastered continental europe the archives of vienna were ransacked for musty documents which would show exactly what had been done for all other austrian princesses who had married rulers of france everything was duplicated down to the last detail ladies-in-waiting thronged about the young archduchess and presently there came to her queen caroline of naples

napoleon's sister of whom napoleon himself once said she is the only man among my sisters as joseph is the only woman among my brothers caroline by virtue of her rank as queen could have free access to her husband's future bride also there came presently napoleon's famous marshal berthier prince of neuchâtel the chief of the old guard who had just been created prince of wagram a title which very naturally he did not use in austria he was to act as proxy for napoleon in the preliminary marriage service at vienna all was excitement vienna had never been so gay money was lavished under the direction of caroline and berthier there were illuminations and balls the young girl found herself the center of the world's interest and the excitement made her dizzy she could not be but flattered and yet there were many hours when her heart misgave her more than once she was found in tears her father an unaffectionate though narrow soul spent an entire day with her consoling and reassuring her

one thought she always kept in mind which she had said to metternich at the very first i want only what my duty bids me want at last came the official marriage by proxy in the presence of a splendid gathering the various documents were signed and the dowry was arranged for gifts were scattered right and left at the opera there were gala performances then marie louise bade her father a sad farewell almost suffocated by sobs and with her eyes streaming with tears she was led between two hedges of bayonets to her carriage while cannon thundered and all the church bells of ian rang a joyful peal she set out for france accompanied by a long train of carriages filled with noblemen and noblewomen with ladies-in-waiting and scores of attendant menials the young bride the wife of a man whom she had never seen was almost dead with excitement and fatigue at a station in the outskirts of vienna she scribbled a few lines to her father which are a commentary upon her state of mind

i think of you always and i always shall god has given me power to endure this final shock and in him alone i have put all my trust he will help me and give me courage and i shall find support in doing my duty toward you since it is all for you that i have sacrificed myself there is something piteous in this little note of a frightened girl going to encounter she knew not what and clinging almost frantically to the one thought that whatever might befall her she was doing as her father wished one need not recount the long and tedious journey of many days over wretched roads in carriages that jolted and lurched and swayed she was surrounded by unfamiliar faces and was compelled to meet at every town the chief men of the place all of whom paid her honor but stared at her with irrepressible curiosity day after day she went on and on each morning a courier on a foaming horse presented her with a great cluster of fresh flowers and a few lines scrawled by the unknown husband who was to meet her at her journey's end there lay the point upon which her wandering thoughts were focused the journey's end the man whose strange mysterious power had forced her from her schoolroom had driven her through a nightmare of strange happenings and who was waiting for her somewhere to take her to himself

to master her as he had mastered generals and armies what was marriage what did it mean what experience still lay before her these were the questions which she must have asked herself through that long exhausting journey when she thought of the past she was homesick when she thought of the immediate future she was fearful with a shuddering fear at last she reached the frontier of france and her carriage passed into a sort of triple structure the first pavilion of which was austrian while the middle pavilion was neutral and the farther one was french here she was received by those who were afterward to surround her the representatives of the napoleonic court these were not all plebeians and children of the revolution ex-stable boys ex laundresses by this time napoleon had gathered around himself some of the noblest families of france who had rallied to the empire the assemblage was a brilliant one there were montmorences and beaumonts and adenards in abundance but to marie louise as to her austrian attendants they were all alike these were french they were strangers and she shrank from them

yet here her austrians must leave her all who had accompanied her thus far were now turned back napoleon had been insistent on this point even her governess who had been with her since her childhood was not allowed to cross the french frontier so fixed was napoleon's purpose to have nothing austrian about her that even her pet dog to which she clung as a girl would cling was taken from her thereafter she was surrounded only by french vases by french guards and was greeted only by salvos of french artillery in the meantime what was napoleon doing at paris since the annulment of his marriage with josephine he had gone into a sort of retirement matters of state war internal reforms no longer interested him but that restless brain could not sink into repose inflamed with the ardor of a new passion that passion was all the greater because he had never yet set eyes upon its object marriage with an imperial princess flattered his ambition

the youth and innocence of the bride stirred his whole being with a thrill of novelty the painted charms of josephine the mercenary favors of actresses the calculated ecstasies of the women of the court who gave themselves to him from vanity had long since palled upon him therefore the impatience with which he awaited the coming of marie louise became every day more tense for a time he amused himself with planning down to the very last details the demonstrations that were to be given in her honor he organized them as minutely as he had ever organized a conquering army he showed himself as wonderful in these petty things as he had had in those great strategic combinations which had baffled the ablest generals of europe but after all had been arranged even to the illuminations the cheerings the salutes and the etiquette of the court he fell into a fever of impatience which gave him sleepless nights and frantic days he paced up and down the tuileries almost beside himself he hurried off courier after courier with orders that the postilions should lash their horses to bring the hour of meeting nearer still

he scribbled love-letters he gazed continually on the diamond-studded portrait of the woman who was hurrying toward him at last as the time approached he entered a swift traveling carriage and hastened to campagne about fifty miles from paris where it had been arranged that he should meet his consort and whence he was to escort her to the capital so that they might be married in the great gallery of the louvre at campagne the chancellery had been set apart for napoleon's convenience while the chteau had been assigned to marie louise and her attendants when napoleon's carriage had dashed into the place drawn by horses that had traveled at a gallop the emperor could not restrain himself it was raining torrents and the night was coming on yet none the less he shouted for fresh horses and pushed on to suison where the new empress was to stop and dine when he reached there and she had not arrived new relays of horses were demanded and he hurried off once more into the dark

at the little village of courcelles he met the courier who was riding in advance of the empress's cortge she will be here in a few minutes cried napoleon and he leaped from his carriage into the highway the rain descended harder than ever and he took refuge in the arched doorway of the village church his boots already be-mired his great-coat reeking with the downpour as he crouched before the church he heard the sound of carriages and before long there came toiling through the mud the one in which was seated the girl for whom he had been so long waiting it was stopped at an order given by an officer within it half fainting with fatigue and fear marie louise sat in the dark alone here if ever was the chance for napoleon to win his bride could he have restrained himself could he have shown the delicate consideration which was demanded of him could he have remembered at least he was an emperor and that the girl timid and shuddering was a princess her future story might have been far different but long ago he had ceased to think of anything except his own desires he approached the carriage an obsequious chamberlain drew aside the leathern covering and opened the door exclaiming as he did so the emperor

and then there leaped in the rain-soaked mud-bespattered being whose excesses had always been as unbridled as his genius the door was closed the leathern curtain again drawn and the horses set out at a gallop for within the shrinking bride was at the mercy of pure animal passion feeling upon her hot face a torrent of rough kisses and yielding herself in terror to the caresses of wanton hands at soissons napoleon allowed no halt but the carriage plunged on still in the rain to campagne there all the arrangements made with so much care were thrust aside though the actual marriage had not yet taken place napoleon claimed all the rights which afterward were given in the ceremonial at paris he took the girl to the chancellery and not to the chateau in an ante-room dinner was served with haste to the imperial pair and queen caroline then the latter was dismissed with little ceremony

the lights were extinguished and this daughter of a line of emperors was left to the tender mercies of one who always had about him something of the common soldier the man who lives for loot and lust at eleven the next morning she was unable to rise and was served in bed by the ladies of her household these facts repellent as they are must be remembered when we call to mind what happened in the next five years the horror of that night could not be obliterated by splendid ceremonies by studious attention or by all the pomp and gaiety of the court napoleon then forty-one practically the same age as his new wife's father the austrian emperor marie louise was barely nineteen and younger than her years her master must have seemed to be the brutal ogre whom her uncles had described installed in the tuileries she taught herself compliance on their marriage night napoleon had asked her briefly what did your parents tell you

and she had answered meekly to be yours altogether and to obey you in everything but though she gave compliance and though her freshness seemed enchanting to napoleon there was something concealed within her thoughts to which he could not penetrate he gayly said to a member of his court marry a german my dear fellow they are the best women in the world gentle good artless and as fresh as roses yet at the same time napoleon felt a deep anxiety lest in her very heart of hearts this german girl might either fear him or hate him secretly somewhat later prince metternich came from the austrian court to paris i give you leave said napoleon to have a private interview with the empress let her tell you what she likes and i shall ask no questions even should i do so i now forbid your answering me metternich was closeted with the empress for a long while when he returned to the anteroom he found napoleon fidgeting about his eyes a pair of interrogation points

i am sure he said that the empress told you that i was kind to her metternich bowed and made no answer well said napoleon somewhat impatiently at least i am sure that she is happy tell me did she not say so the austrian diplomat remained unsmiling your majesty himself has forbidden me to answer he returned with another bow we may fairly draw the inference that marie louise though she adapted herself to her surroundings was never really happy napoleon became infatuated with her he surrounded her with every possible mark of honor he abandoned public business to walk or drive with her but the memory of his own brutality must have vaguely haunted him throughout at all he was jealous of her as he had never been jealous of the fickle josephine constant has recorded that the greatest precautions were taken to prevent any person whatsoever and especially any man from approaching the empress save in the presence of witnesses napoleon himself underwent a complete change of habits and demeanor where he had been rough and coarse he became attentive and refined his shabby uniforms were all discarded and he spent hours in trying on new costumes he even attempted to learn the waltz

but this he gave up in despair whereas before he ate hastily and at irregular intervals he now sat at dinner with unusual patience and the court took on a character which it had never had never before had he sacrificed either his public duty or his private pleasures for any woman even in the first ardor of his marriage with josephine when he used to pour out his heart to her in letters from italian battle-fields he did so only after he had made the disposition of his troops and had planned his movements for the following day now however he was not merely devoted but exorius and in eighteen eleven after the birth of the little king of rome he ceased to be the earlier napoleon altogether he had founded a dynasty he was the head of a reigning house he forgot the principles of the revolution and he ruled as he thought like other monarchs by the grace of god as for marie louise she played her part extremely well somewhat haughty and unapproachable to others she nevertheless studied napoleon's every wish she seemed even to be loving

but one can scarcely doubt that her obedience sprang ultimately from fear and that her devotion was the devotion of a dog which had been beaten into subjection her vanity was flattered in many ways and most of all by her appointment as regent of the empire during napoleon's absence in the disastrous russian campaign which began in eighteen twelve it was in june of that year that the french emperor held court at dresden where he played as it was said to a parterre of kings that was the climax of his magnificence for there were gathered all the sovereigns and princes who were his allies and who furnished the levies that swelled his grand army to six hundred thousand men here marie louise like her husband felt to the full the intoxication of supreme power by a sinister coincidence it was here that she first met the other man

then unnoticed and little heeded who was to cast upon her a fascination which in the end proved irresistible the man was adam albrecht count von there is something mysterious about his early years and something baleful about his silent warfare with napoleon as a very young soldier he had been an austrian officer in his command served in belgium and there in a skirmish he was overpowered by the french in superior numbers but resisted desperately in the mle a sabre slashed him across the right side of his face and he was made a prisoner the wound deprived him of his right eye so that for the rest of his life he was compelled to wear a black bandage to conceal the mutilation from that moment he conceived an undying hatred of the french serving against them in the tyrol and in italy he always claimed that had the archduke charles followed his advice the austrians would have forced napoleon's army to capitulate at marengo

thus bringing early eclipse to the rising star of bonaparte however this may be napoleon's success enraged niepurg and made his hatred almost the hatred of a fiend hitherto he had detested the french as a nation afterward he concentrated his malignity upon the person of napoleon in every way he tried to cross the path of that great soldier and though nieperg was a comparatively unknown man his indomitable purpose and his continued intrigues at last attracted the notice of the emperor for in eighteen o eight napoleon wrote this significant sentence the count von nieperg is openly known to have been the enemy of the french little did the great conqueror dream how deadly was the blow with which this austrian count was destined finally to deal him neipurg although his title was not a high one belonged to the old nobility of austria he had proved his bravery in war and as a duelist and he was a diplomat as well as a soldier

despite his mutilation he was a handsome and accomplished courtier a man of wide experience and one who bore himself in a manner which suggested the spirit of romance according to masson he was an austrian don juan and had won the hearts of many women at thirty he had formed a connection with an italian woman named teresa pola whom he had carried away from her husband she had borne him five children and in eighteen thirteen he had married her in order that these children might be made legitimate in his own sphere the activity of niepurgh was almost as remarkable as napoleon's in a greater one apart from his exploits on the field of battle he had been attached to the austrian embassy in paris and strangely enough had been decorated by napoleon himself with the golden eagle of the legion of honor four months later we find him minister of austria at the court of sweden where he helped to lay the train of intrigue which was to detach bernadotte from napoleon's cause in eighteen twelve as just has been said he was with marie louise for a short time at dresden hovering about her already forming schemes

two years after this he overthrew marat at naples and then hurried on post-haste to urge prince eugene to abandon when the great struggle of eighteen fourteen neared its close and napoleon fighting with his back to the wall was about to succumb to the united armies of europe it was evident that the austrian emperor would soon be able to separate his daughter from her husband in fact when napoleon was sent to elba marie louise returned to vienna the cynical austrian diplomats resolved that she should never again meet her imperial husband she was made duchess of parma in italy and set out for her new possessions and the man with the black band across his sightless eye was chosen to be her escort and companion when neipurg received this commission he was with teresa pola at milan a strange smile flitted across his face and presently he remarked with cynical frankness before six months i shall be her lover and later on her husband

he took up his post as chief escort of marie louise and they journeyed slowly to munich and baden and geneva loitering along the way amid the great events which were shaking europe this couple attracted slight attention napoleon in elba longed for his wife and for his little son the king of rome he sent countless messages and many courtiers but every message was intercepted and no courtier reached its destination meanwhile marie louise was lingering agreeably in switzerland she was happy to have escaped from the whirlpool of politics and war amid the romantic scenery through which she passed neipurgh was always by her side attentive devoted trying in everything to please her with him she passed delightful evenings he sang to her in his rich baritone songs of love he seemed romantic with a touch of mystery a gallant soldier whose soul was also touched by sentiment one would have said that marie louise the daughter of an imperial line would have been proof against the fascinations of a person so far inferior to herself in rank and who besides the great emperor was less than nothing

even granting that she had never really loved napoleon she might still have preferred to maintain her dignity to share his fate and go down in history as the empress of the greatest man whom modern times have known but marie louise was after all a woman and she followed the guidance of her heart to her napoleon was still the man who had met her amid the rain-storm at courcy and had from the first moment when he touched her violated all the instincts of a virgin later he had in his way tried to make amends but the horror of that first night had never wholly left her memory napoleon had unrolled before her the drama of sensuality but her heart had not been given to him she had been his empress in a sense it might be more true to say that she had been his mistress but she had never been duly wooed and won and made his wife an experience which is the right of every woman and so this neipurg with his deferential manners his soothing voice his magnetic touch his ardor and his devotion appeased that craving which the master of a hundred legions could not satisfy

in less than the six months of which nyprg had spoken the psychological moment had arrived in the dim twilight she listened to his words of love and then drawn by that irresistible power which masters pride and woman's will she sank into her lover's arms yielding to his caresses and knowing that she would be parted from him no more except by death from that moment he was bound to her by the closest ties and lived with her at the petty court of parma his prediction came true to the very letter teresa pola died and ben napoleon died and after this marie louise at niepurg were united in a morganatic marriage three children were born to them before his death in eighteen twenty nine it is interesting to note how much of an impression was made upon her by the final exile of her imperial husband to st helena when the news was brought to her she observed casually thanks by the way i should like to ride this morning to markenstein do you think the weather is good enough to risk it napoleon on his side passed through agonies of doubt and longing when no letters came to him from marie-louise

she was constantly in his thoughts during his exile at st helena when his faithful friend and constant companion at st helena the count las casas was ordered by sir hudson lowe to depart from st helena napoleon wrote to him should you see some day my wife and son embrace them for two years i have neither directly nor indirectly heard from them there has been on this island for six months a german botanist who has seen them in the garden of schnbrunn a few months before his departure the barbarians meaning the english authorities at st helena have carefully prevented him from coming to give me any news respecting them at last the truth was told him and he received it with that high magnanimity or it may be fatalism which at times he was capable of showing never in all his days of exile did he say one word against her possibly in searching his own soul he found excuses such as we may find in his will he spoke of her with great affection and shortly before his death he said to his physician and to marquis after my death i desire that you will take my heart put it in the spirits of wine and that you will carry it to parma to my dear marie louise

you will please tell her that i tenderly loved her that i never ceased to love her you will relate to her all that you have seen and every particular respecting my situation and death the story of marie louise is pathetic almost tragic there is a taint of grossness about it and yet after all there is a lesson in it-the lesson that true love cannot be forced or summoned at command and that it is destroyed before its birth by outrage and that it goes out only when evoked by sympathy by tenderness and by devotion end of the story of the empress marie louise and count neypurgh volume two of famous affinities of history by lyndon