0, and gave birth to a son, March 29, 1811. In
accordance with the Treaty of Paris, she left France April 26, 1814,
renounced the title of Empress, and was created Duchess of Parma,
Placentia, and Guastalla. After Napoleon's death (May 5, 1821). "Proud
Austria's mournful flower" did not long remain a widow, but speedily and
secretly married her chamberlain and gentleman of honour, Count Adam de
Neipperg (_ce polisson_ Neipperg, as Napoleon called him), to whom she
had long been attached. It was supposed that she attended the Congress
of Verona in the interest of her son, the ex-King of Rome, to whom
Napoleon had bequeathed money and heirlooms. She was a solemn stately
personage, _tant soit peu declassee_, and the other potentates whispered
and joked at her expense. Chateaubriand says that when the Duke of
Wellington was bored with the meetings of the Congress, he would while
away the time in the company of the Orsini, who scribbled on the margin
of intercepted French despatches, "Pas pour Mariee." Not for Madame de
Neipperg.]

[347] [Napoleon Francois Charles Joseph, Duke of Reichstadt, died at the
palace of Schoenbrunn, July 22, 1832, having just attained his
twenty-first year.]

[348] [Count Adam Albrecht de Neipperg had lost an eye from a wound in
battle.]

[349] {577}[_La Quotidienne_ of December 4, 1822, has a satirical
reference to a passage in the _Courrier_, which attached a diplomatic
importance to the "galanterie respectueuse que le duc de Wellington
aurait faite a cette jeune Princesse." We read, too, of another
victorious foe, the King of Prussia, giving "la main a l'archduchesse
Marie-Louise jusqu'a son carrosse" (_Le Constitutionnel_, November 19,
1822). "All the world wondered" what Andromache did, and how she would
fare--_dans ce galere_. It is difficult to explain the allusion to
Pyrrhus. Andromache was the unwilling bride of Pyrrhus or Neoptolemus,
whose father had slain her husband, Hector; Marie Louise the willing
bride of Neipperg, who had certainly fought at Leipsic, but who could
not be said to have given the final blow to Napoleon at Waterloo.
Pyrrhus must stand for the victorious foe, and the right arm on which
the too-forgiving Andromache leant, must have been offered by "the
respectful gallantry" of the Duke of Wellington.]

[ew]

_She comes the Andromache of Europe's Queens,_
_And led by Pyrrhus arm on which she leans_.--[MS. M.]

[350] {578}[Sir William Curtis (1752-1805), ma