with the blood of innocence, and
then the gates were thrown open for the entrance of the conqueror.
Alexander, the Emperor of all the Russias, was hastening down from the
North, with his barbarian hordes, to aid the beleaguered city. Napoleon
tarried not at Vienna. Fearlessly pushing on through the sleet and the
hail of a Northern winter, he disappeared in the distance from the eyes
of France. Austria, Sweden, Russia, were assembling their innumerable
legions to crush him. He was far from home, in a hostile country. Rumors
that his rashness had led to his ruin began to circulate throughout
Europe.

Josephine was almost distracted with anxiety respecting her husband. She
knew that a terrible battle was approaching, in which he was to
encounter fearful odds. The most gloomy forebodings pervaded Paris and
all France. Several days had passed, during which no intelligence
whatever had been received from the distant army. Ominous whispers of
defeat and ruin filled the air. The cold blasts of a December night were
whistling around the towers of St. Cloud, as Josephine and a few of her
friends were assembled in the saloon, anxiously awaiting tidings from
Napoleon. It was no time for hilarity, and no one attempted even to
promote festive enjoyment. The hour of nine o'clock had arrived, and
yet no courier appeared. All hopes of any tidings on that day were
relinquished. Suddenly the clatter of iron hoofs was heard as a single
horseman galloped into the court-yard. Josephine almost fainted with
emotion as she heard the feeble shout, "Victory--Austerlitz!" She rushed
to the window and threw it open. The horse of the courier had fallen
dead upon the pavement, and the exhausted rider, unable to stand,
was half reclining by his side. In the intensity of her impatience,
Josephine rushed down the stairs and into the court-yard, followed by
all her ladies. The faithful messenger was brought to her in the arms of
four men. He presented to the empress a blurred and blotted line, which
the emperor had written amid the thunder and the smoke, the uproar and
the carnage of the dreadful day of Austerlitz. As soon as Napoleon saw
the field covered with the slain, and the routed armies of his foes
flying in dismay before their triumphant pursuers, in the midst of all
the horrors of that most horrible scene, he turned the energies of his
impetuous mind from the hot pursuit to pen a line to his faithful
Josephine, announcing the victory. The empres