Queen Hortense: A Life Picture of the Napoleonic Era

by L. Mühlbach

ILLUSTRATIONS.

• [General Bonaparte suppressing the Revolt of the Sections, Frontispiece.]
• [View of the Tuileries.]
• [Portrait of Queen Hortense.]
• [Portrait of Madame de Staël.]

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QUEEN HORTENSE.

BOOK I.

DAYS OF CHILDHOOD AND OF THE REVOLUTION.

CHAPTER I.

DAYS OF CHILDHOOD.

"One moment of bliss is not too dearly bought with death," says our great German poet, and he may be right; but a moment of bliss purchased with a long lifetime full of trial and suffering is far too costly.

And when did it come for her, this "moment of bliss?" When could Hortense Beauharnais, in speaking of herself, declare, "I am happy? Now, let suffering and sorrow come upon me, if they will; I have tasted felicity, and, in the memories it has left me, it is imperishable and eternal!"