n Eugene. In the society of her children the
unhappy mother found now her only solace.

While the Viscount Beauharnais was ready to defend his own conduct, he
was by no means willing that his wife should govern herself by the same
principles of fashionable philosophy. The code infidel is got up for the
especial benefit of dissolute _men_; their _wives_ must be governed
by another code. The artful woman, who was the prime agent in these
difficulties, affected great sympathy with Josephine in her sorrows,
protested her own entire innocence, but assured her that M. Beauharnais
was an ingrate, entirely unworthy of her affections. She deceived
Josephine, hoarded up the confidence of her stricken heart, and
conversed with her about _William_, the memory of whose faithful love
now came with new freshness to the disconsolate wife.

Josephine, lured by her, wrote a letter to her friends in Martinique,
in which she imprudently said, "Were it not for my children, I should
without a pang, renounce France forever. My duty requires me to forget
William; and yet if _we_ had been united together, I should not to-day
have been troubling you with my griefs."

The woman who instigated her to write this letter was infamous enough
to obtain it by stealth and show it to Beauharnais. His jealousy and
indignation were immediately aroused to the highest pitch. He was led by
this malicious deceiver to believe that Josephine had obtained secret
interviews with William, and the notoriously unfaithful husband was
exasperated to the highest degree at the very suspicion of the want of
fidelity in his wife. He reproached her in language of the utmost
severity, took Eugene from her, and resolved to endeavor, by legal
process, to obtain an entire divorce. She implored him, for the sake of
her children, not to proclaim their difficulties to the world. He,
however, reckless of consequences, made application to the courts for
the annulment of the matrimonial bond. Josephine was now compelled
to defend her own character. She again retired with Hortense to the
convent, and there, through dreary months of solitude, and silence, and
dejection, awaited the result of the trial upon which her reputation as
a virtuous woman was staked. The decree of the court was triumphantly
in her favor, and Josephine returned to her friends to receive their
congratulations, but impressed with the conviction that earth had no
longer a joy in store for her. Her friends did all