SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
( Notice in this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent review.)
Let not the reader be headed off by Princess Bibesco's introduction, which displays Napoleon worship in a particularly tiresome form. The memoirs themselves are interesting, if slight, and the illustrations, which are charming, incidentally show repeated instances of Napoleon's fine taste in jewellery. Madame de Pellapra, Napoleon's mistress, seems to have been an attractive, headless creature. There is a story of her in the Hundred Days which is not without interest :— " In 1815, as Chateaubriand says, Napoleon invaded France alone,' when he found Mme-de Pellapra again by his side. She had just returned from the great military highways, where in a sort of operetta disguise she had gone to distribute tricolor cockades to Ney's army. Dressed as a peasant carrying her eggs to market, mounted on a donkey, she on one side and her three-coloured eggs on the other, no one thought of stopping her ! She laughed and rode on with no password but a joke. These things only happen in France and in French history. The soldiers threw away their white badges, crying, Ilooray for the hen that lays three-coloured eggs , II Students of human nature will find much to interest them in the story of her child's strange marriage.
Previous page
