Mistress of the Elgin Marbles by Susan Nagel

Author:Susan Nagel [Nagel, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-062-02924-9
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2004-08-16T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

IN IRONS

Mary wanted her husband to be by her side by the time their fourth child was born. If Napoleon had met with Lady Elgin in public, his credibility would have been damaged. She was after all the wife of his most important prisoner. The first consul nonetheless expressed a personal interest in Mary, sending her miniatures of himself as tokens of appreciation, and they not only exchanged formal communiqués but also less formal messages via Talleyrand, Sébastiani, and Senator Fargues. Fargues, the representative to Napoleon’s government from the southwest district of France, had made her acquaintance when she had been his region’s most fashionable guest the previous summer. Fargues was quite taken with Lady Elgin and actually spent a good deal of his time working behind the scenes on her behalf.

Napoleon wanted to accommodate Lady Elgin, but he had a problem. How could he accomplish her request and not lose face with his own people? This was a question that he privately posed to Talleyrand, Fargues, and Robert Ferguson. Since the British had turned down the offer of an exchange between Boyer and Elgin, and since he himself had made the earl persona non grata, it would be virtually impossible to free him and allow the Elgins to live in Paris, where they would have high visibility. Mary, who was truly unable to travel due to severe back pains and swelling, would have to remain in Paris; she also hoped that these men would surrender to her charms. Would they yield, however, in time for her delivery?

In January, the Hôtel de Richelieu went bankrupt, forcing all lodgers to relocate. Mary moved to the Hôtel Prince de Galles on the rue Saint-Honoré with the assistance of Robert Ferguson, who felt pity and somewhat responsible for the plucky, elegant, and very pregnant wife of his friend. There she began, once again, to create a comfortable home, this time in anticipation of her husband’s arrival. She got half her wish. Elgin was allowed to leave the awful fortress, but Napoleon, still uncomfortable with Elgin’s appearance in Paris, only granted him permission to remain in the Pyrenees. The minute he was released, as Napoleon had predicted, it was “reported all over Paris that Elgin is at liberty,” and conversations at embassies in Paris and London buzzed with the talk of Elgin’s next role in foreign affairs. One evening at the American Embassy, a dignitary expressed his own opinion to Mary that he believed Lord Elgin would be England’s next ambassador to Vienna. When pressed, the American confided to Mary that it was actually not so much his own opinion as a rumor that had spread among the foreign diplomats. Mary secretly believed that her husband would be sent to Russia.

Meanwhile, Napoleon kept Elgin under constant surveillance. Permission for Elgin to live in Pau was granted, but local officials were secretly encouraged to try to ensnare him if possible in some kind of fraudulent activity. One morning, a woman who worked at the

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