by the very party for whom he had fought and bled, and indeed sacrificed everything.

Josephine, forgetting her wrongs, made every exertion to save her husband, but without success; and after being herself imprisoned, the future Viceroy of Italy being apprenticed to a carpenter, and the future Queen of Holland to a milliner, all parties were liberated by the events of the ninth Thermidor, and Eugène joined the army under the protection of General Hoche.

Various versions have been published of the circumstances under which Bonaparte and Josephine became first acquainted-all more or less romantic. M. E. Fourmestraux gives his own particular version of the incident:

"Appointed General-in-Chief of the Army of the Interior, Bonaparte had been charged by government to take all necessary measures for maintaining public tranquillity. One of his orders to this effect was to deprive the inhabitants of Paris of their arms.

"One morning Lemarois, one of his aide-de-camps, came in, followed by a boy fourteen years of age, who vehemently reclaimed a sword which the police had taken from him. Addressing Bonaparte, Eugène said to him: General, give me back my father's sword, my sole inheritance, and to which I cling more than to life!'

"Struck with the generous sentiments of the boy, Bonaparte had his sword at once returned to him.

"A few days afterwards the general was relating this incident of filial piety at a party at Barras's, at which Josephine happened to be present. She was introduced to Bonaparte, who congratulated her on having such a son, and was on his side charmed by her grace and amiability. Such were the circumstances which gave origin to a marriage from which came so much greatness and so many vicissitudes to the Beauharnais family."

Hortense was at this epoch at a boarding school kept by Madame Campan at Saint-Germain. She was, according to her historian, an apt and promising scholar. When Bonaparte on his return from Italy became first consul, the whole family were united in the Tuileries. Eugène, as aide-de-camp to the general, had won his spurs in Italy and in Egypt. Hortense, albeit between sixteen and seventeen years of age, seems to have been more amused than dazzled with the self-will and impetuosity of Bonaparte. “My father-in-law," she used to write to Madame Campan, "is a comet, of which we are but the tail; we must follow him without inquiring whither he is going. Is it for our happiness or for our misfortune ?" One day, at Malmaison, Hortense had not come down to dinner. Josephine went up herself for her, and found her busy at her drawings. Angry, as the first consul was waiting, she asked her if she expected to get her bread as an artist. "In the times in which we live," gravely responded the young damsel, "it is quite possible that it may be

so, mamma.'

Such was the influence of the first consul, that Hortense was soon sought in marriage. She admitted that she was not herself in a position to select a husband, but she reserved to herself the right of refusal in case the person did not please her, and she exercised it at once. The manner in which her claim to such a privilege was conceded by the first consul,

had great influence in cementing that esteem and regard for his will which attained its acme in after life.

Mademoiselle de Beauharnais was very fair, of a beautiful complexion, and graceful in her person. The expression of her countenance was that of mildness and benevolence, but her bearing was dignified. She was remarkable for her talent as an artist, as also as a musician. Her melodies, composed at various epochs of her life, have obtained an European fame. France is indebted to Hortense for the romance of "Le Beau Dunois," which opens with the strophe "Partant pour la Syrie la Syrie" All her romances and all her melodies met with greater or less success.

Malmaison had received its name "Mala Domus," from having once been the home of Norman adventurers who had been cursed by the people. But since that it had been exorcised and sanctified as a monastery, and, finally, had been turned into a country house. Bonaparte, before embarking for Egypt, had written to Josephine to secure a country residence for his return. She hesitated some time between Ris and Malmaison, but decided in favour of the latter.

When the general became first consul he installed himself in the Luxembourg, but the palace of the Medicis was only his political residence, his leisure hours were spent at Malmaison. The dignified silence and severe etiquette which became afterwards the law at the Imperial palaces of Saint Cloud and the Tuileries were then unknown. It was at that time not an uncommon thing to play at prisoner's base. On one side were Bonaparte, Lauriston, Rapp, Eugène, and the demoiselles Auguié; on the other Josephine, Hortense, Jerome, Madame Caroline Murat, Isabey Didelot, and De Luçay. They were all young people. The game would be followed by a collation, and in the evening by a play performed by themselves. Hortense was among the most successful. A friend wrote to Madame Campan, "Hortense is delicious, Madame Murat charming, Bourienne perfect, Jerome unique!"

It would appear that Bonaparte projected early a matrimonial alliance between his third brother, Louis, and Hortense. Bonaparte spoke to Louis about it after the affair of Marengo, but this young man had allowed himself to be captivated by a young lady he had met at his sister's school-since married-and it was not till on his return from Portugal that Josephine joined General Bonaparte in bringing about this projected alliance. The general was particularly attached to both parties, and when he sought to unite them it was that they might participate together of the brilliant future which he already in his mind destined for them.

But there existed contrasts in the two which never would marry, albeit they were united in person. Louis, although a soldier by profession, was not a soldier by nature. Nay, he had an innate antipathy to war, and mourned over the disasters entailed by it. He was not even ambitious. He loved retirement and study. Hortense, on the contrary, was endowed with an ardent temperament, to which ambition was by no means a stranger. Louis reproached her with frivolity and love of display; Hortense, on her side, would have preferred that Louis had distinguished himself more with his sword and less with his pen. Add to this, our biographer himself admits that the fact of the marriage being imposed upon them rendered it obnoxious to both.

66

Take place, however, it did, at least as far as the civil contract goes, on the 3rd of January, 1802, at the Tuileries, in the presence of the Bonaparte and Beauharnais families. "Never," says King Louis, in his Memoirs, was there a more gloomy ceremony; never did a young wedded couple feel more sensibly the presentiment of all the horrors of an ill-assorted and forced marriage." A first son was, however, born on the 10th of October, 1802, and Louis is said to have congratulated the mother with infinite grace and sensibility, but it would appear from a letter of Madame Campan's that Hortense did not reciprocate these demonstrations of affection. Madame Campan, indeed, accuses her former pupil merely with want of demonstrative sensibility, but she knew that in reality it arose from indifference to her husband.

We are assured, however, that she continued to be affectionate, modest, and natural in character. She especially continued to cultivate those arts which constitute her imperishable crown. Louis Bonaparte was recognised, on the proclamation of Napoleon as Emperor of the French, like his other brethren, a prince of the Imperial blood, and his second son, born on the 11th of October, 1804, received the names of NapoleonLouis. Eugène de Beauharnais was also created a prince, and Hortense became Princess Louis Bonaparte.

Whilst Napoleon was busy placing on his head the old iron crown of Lombardy, appointing his son-in-law viceroy, and, as was his custom, providing him with a wife, Prussia was threatening the Low Countries and the north of France. Prince Louis Bonaparte received orders to organise an army of the north, which he effected with so much promptitude that in a month's time his head-quarters were established at Nimeguen, and Prussia, met on two sides-Holland and France-hesitated to act. The prince on this withdrew his troops, much to the dissatisfaction of the Emperor, who had his designs on that countrydesigns which Louis Bonaparte did not share in, nor did he even care for the vain and empty honour of a crown. Indeed, when shortly afterwards the Batavian Republic was declared to be an hereditary sovereignty by Napoleon, as a punishment for its having carried on commercial relations with Great Britain, and a deputation came to solicit the prince-now designated Louis Napoleon-to accept the throne, he at once declined it. But when to his brother he professed as an excuse that the climate did not agree with him, the latter said roughly, "It is better to die king than to live a prince." And he was, like others, obliged to succumb before the indomitable will of the Emperor.

Hortense, called upon to share the sovereign power with her husband, was mainly cheered, we are told, by the thoughts of the additional amount of good which it would be in her power to do. But it was not without deep regret that she tore herself away from her country and her mother -she had never, indeed, been yet separated from the latter, except at rare and brief intervals.

The new king quitted Saint-Leu on the 15th of June, 1806, with the children and their mother; they arrived at the Palace du Bois, near the Hague, on the 18th, and made their public entry a few days afterwards. Their reception was much more enthusiastic than was expected. King Louis was personally known to the Dutch, and was both loved and respected by them for his personal qualities. The reputation of Queen

Hortense for goodness and benevolence had preceded her, and her youth and beauty came to add to the favourable feelings already awakened in her favour.

The young queen set to work at once devouring books that related to the new country of her adoption. In the list recommended by Madame Campan, we find the indispensable "Histoire Abregée," as also “Les Délices de la Hollande;" but we are told, although they are not mentioned, that "serious" books on the resources, the commerce, and independence of the old country of the Stadtholders were also transmitted or recommended for her perusal.

The court was also made to assume a brilliant appearance. Almost all who surrounded the queen were young like herself, and the costumes adopted by the officers of the crown and public functionaries were in a style of magnificence hitherto unknown to the republican simplicity of the Dutch people. Balls succeeded to festivals, and Queen Hortense danced, we are told, with "incomparable perfection."

Louis had accepted the throne with repugnance, but once at the head of affairs he frankly associated himself with the interests of Holland. The Emperor had selected his household, one by one he got rid of them all and surrounded himself with Dutchmen. The French troops he dismissed at once, and would only enter his capital with a national escort. M. de Broc, who had married Adèle Auguié, Hortense's bosom friend, was among those thus dismissed, but his wife remained with the queen. "The comfort of a sincere and devoted friendship became," we are told, "at this epoch more and more essential to Queen Hortense." It seems, in fact, that it is from this epoch that date the misunderstandings which took the place between King Louis and his wife of what had never before gone beyond mere coolness or indifference.

Napoleon rated his brother roundly for his conduct. "You have the best wife in the world, and the most virtuous, and yet you make her miserable. Let her dance as much as she likes, it is pleasant at her time of life. My wife is forty years of age; I write to her from the field of battle to go to a ball. You want a woman of twenty years of age, with all its illusions, to live like a nurse always washing her child. Unfortunately," he added afterwards, "you have a wife who is too virtuous; if you had a coquette she would lead you by the nose."

A further source of discomfort arose at the same time from Hortense's favouring the few French that remained at the court, whilst Louis treated them with manifest coldness. In this respect Hortense is said to have associated herself more intimately with the policy of the sovereign who constituted the glory of France than his own brother did. The proneness of the more frivolous among the French for scandal, which did not spare Marie Antoinette, nor even Josephine, when Bonaparte was in Egypt, found, it is well known, occasion for malevolent gossip in this misunderstanding, but the language of Napoleon's letter is of itself sufficient to drive such silly rumours back to the foul sources from whence they emanated.

The war with Prussia, in 1807, separated the king and queen for a brief time, and Hortense was enabled to visit her mother at Mayence. The death of their eldest son, Prince Napoleon-Louis, who perished after a few hours illness from croup, in the same year, had a great effect on both

the king and queen, and for once in their lives they mingled their tears in a common grief. Hortense took the loss so much to heart that her mother, the empress, came to meet her at Laeken, near Brussels, whither the king conducted her. Mademoiselle Avrillon relates in her " Memoirs" that the king himself "was likewise in a condition to excite pity: overwhelmed with grief, he was so likewise to such an extent by infirmities that he could scarcely walk." Distraction and change of scene were recommended as a cure for such poignant grief, and Cauterets, in the Pyrenees was selected. Queen Hortense was, it is said, afterwards joined here by the king, and she made long excursions in the mountains on horseback and on foot. She has left many reminiscences behind her of this visit to the Pyrenees. The house in which she dwelt, No. 2, Place St. Martin, is well known. One evening, caught in a storm, she had to be sheltered all night in a barn, still called "Grange de la Reine Hortense." On the bridge over the Gave, near Pierrefitte, is a little pyramid, on which is engraved, "La Vallée de Baréges a la Reine Hortense, 1807."

After a month's residence at Cauterets, the Queen of Holland returned to St. Cloud. The king had at the same time gone back to his states, which we have seen it was his wish to govern in the sense of their true interests. The said interests being essentially commercial, they were unfortunately totally opposed to the policy of the Emperor. Hence arose misunderstandings between Louis and Napoleon, as well as between Louis and Hortense. It was in vain that he went from the Hague to Utrecht, and from Utrecht to Amsterdam; King Louis was in every sense of the word a miserable man.

As to Hortense she had remained in France. She had returned from Cauterets enceinte, and on the 20th of April, 1808, she gave birth to Prince Charles Louis Napoleon, the present Emperor of the French, who was baptised in the chapel of the palace of Fontainebleau the 10th of November, 1810, and was held over the font by the Emperor and by the Empress Marie-Louise.

It is curious to think of what different versions have been given to the world of this epoch in the history of Hortense. J. A. St. John, in his biography of Louis Napoleon, says: "Louis, on arriving in Holland, determined, as far as possible, to conciliate the Dutch, but had unfortunately taken along with him a number of French courtiers, male and female, who, selecting the queen for their centre, revolved about her incessantly in a circle of vanity and frivolity, ridiculing the Dutch and their manners, and seeking to reproduce among the Dykes a second Paris. At length, under pretence of ill health, Hortense quitted the Hague, in search of better air, and proceeded to the château of St. Loo, situated at some distance from the capital; but very soon acquiring greater courage, effected her escape from Holland, and fled to be near the Emperor in Paris."

The same writer also intimates that there hangs an extraordinary degree of mystery about the age of the eldest son, and the epoch of Hortense's marriage. But, with regard to the latter, the errors of French writers have evidently arisen from the civil marriage having preceded the nuptial benediction by Cardinal Caprera, the churches being still closed at that epoch. Caroline Bonaparte, who received the nuptial benediction the same day, had been a much longer time wedded to Murat. As to