are
now connected with many European thrones.

The son of Napoleon, called by his grandfather, the Austrian emperor,
the Duc de Reichstadt, but by his own Bonaparte family Napoleon
II., died at Vienna, July 22, 1832. The person from whom, during
his short, sad life, he had received most kindness, and to whom,
during his illness, he was indebted for almost maternal care, was
the young wife of his cousin Francis, the Princess Sophia of Bavaria,
who in the same week that he died, became the mother of Maximilian,
the unfortunate Emperor of Mexico, who, exactly thirty-five years
after, on July 22, 1867, was shot at Queretaro.

The Emperor Napoleon had made a decree that if male heirs failed
him, his dynasty should be continued by the sons of his brother
Joseph. Lucien, the republican, was passed over, as well as his
descendants; and Joseph failing of male heirs, the throne of France
was to devolve on Louis, king of Holland, and his heirs. Joseph
left only daughters, Zenaide and Charlotte. Louis Bonaparte when
he died, left but one son.

Louis Bonaparte was nine years younger than his brother Napoleon,
who by no right of primogeniture, but by right of success, was
early looked upon as the head of the family of Bonaparte. He assumed
the place of father to his little brother Louis, and a very
unsatisfactory father he proved. Louis was studious, poetical,
solid, honorable, and unambitious. His brother was resolved to
make him a distinguished general and an able king. He succeeded
in making him a brave soldier and a very good general; but Louis
had no enthusiasm for the profession of arms. He hated bloodshed,
and above all he hated sack and pillage. He had no genius, and
crooked ways of any kind were abhorrent to him. When a very young
man he fell passionately in love with a lady, whom he called his
Sophie. But his brother and the world thought the real name of
the object of his affection was Emilie de Beauharnais, the Empress
Josephine's niece by marriage. This lady became afterwards the wife
of M. de La Vallette, Napoleon's postmaster-general, who after
the return of the Bourbons in 1815, was condemned to death with
Ney and Labedoyere. His wife saved him by changing clothes with
him in prison; but the fearful strain her nerves suffered until
she was sure of his escape, unsettled her reason. She was not sent
to an asylum, but lived to a great age in an _appartement_ in Paris,
carefully tended and watched over by her friends