and a throbbing heart, Josephine, accompanied by her son
and daughter, ascended the stairs to a small circular family room where
they expected to find Napoleon. He was there with his brother Joseph. As
his wife and her children entered the room, Napoleon glanced sternly at
them, and instantly said to Josephine, in a severe and commanding tone,
almost before she had crossed the threshold,

"Madame! it is my wish that you retire immediately to Malmaison."

Josephine came near falling lifeless upon the floor. She was caught in
the arms of Eugene, who, in the most profound grief, had kept near the
side of his revered and beloved mother. He supported her fainting
steps, as, sobbing with anguish, she silently retired to her apartment.
Napoleon, greatly agitated, traversed the room with hasty strides. The
sight of Josephine had rekindled all his love, and he was struggling
with desperate efforts to cherish his sense of wrong, and to fortify
himself against any return of clemency.

[Illustration: THE INTERVIEW.]

In a few moments, Josephine and Hortense, with Eugene, were heard
descending the stairs to leave the house. It was midnight. For a week
Josephine had lived in her carriage almost without food or sleep.
Nothing but intensity of excitement had prevented her from sinking down
in utter weariness and exhaustion. It was a drive of thirty miles to
Malmaison. Napoleon was not prepared for such prompt obedience. Even his
stern heart could not resist its instinctive pleadings for his wife and
her daughter. He hastened from his room, and, though his pride would not
allow him directly to urge _Josephine_ to remain, he insisted upon
Eugene's returning, and urged it in such a way that he came back,
leading with him his mother and his sister. Napoleon, however, addressed
not a word to either of them. Josephine threw herself upon a couch in
her apartment, and Napoleon, in gloomy silence, entered his cabinet.
Two days of wretchedness passed away, during which no intercourse took
place between the estranged parties. But the anger of the husband was
gradually subsiding. Love for Josephine was slowly gaining strength in
his heart. On the third day, his pride and passion were sufficiently
subdued to allow him to enter the apartment where Josephine and Hortense
had kept themselves secluded, awaiting his pleasure. Josephine was
seated at a toilet table, with her face buried in her hands, and
absorbed in the profoundest grief. On the tabl