o allow her to take Eugene with her. He
gave a cold and positive refusal.

A few days after this, Josephine, cruelly separated from her husband and
bereaved of her son, embarked with Hortense for Martinique. She strove
to maintain that aspect of cheerfulness and of dignity which an injured
but innocent woman is entitled to exhibit. When dark hours of
despondency overshadowed her, she tried to console herself with the
beautiful thought of Plautus: "If we support adversity with courage, we
shall have a keener relish for returning prosperity." It does not appear
that she had any refuge in the consolations of religion. She had a vague
and general idea of the goodness of a superintending Providence, but she
was apparently a stranger to those warm and glowing revelations of
Christianity which introduce us to a sympathizing Savior, a guiding and
consoling Spirit, a loving and forgiving Father. Could she then, by
faith, have reposed her aching head upon the bosom of her heavenly
Father, she might have found a solace such as nothing else could confer.
But at this time nearly every mind in France was more or less darkened
by the glooms of infidelity.

The winds soon drove her frail bark across the Atlantic, and Josephine,
pale and sorrow-stricken, was clasped in the arms and folded to the
hearts of those who truly loved her. The affectionate negroes gathered
around her, with loud demonstrations of their sympathy and their joy in
again meeting their mistress. Here, amid the quiet scenes endeared to
her by the recollections of childhood, she found a temporary respite
from those storms by which she had been so severely tossed upon life's
wild and tempestuous ocean.

CHAPTER III.

ARREST OF M. BEAUHARNAIS AND JOSEPHINE.

A.D. 1786-A.D. 1793

Sadness of Josephine.--Dissipation of Beauharnais.--Repentance of
Beauharnais.--Josephine returns to France.--The jewels.--Anecdote of the
old shoes.--Hortense without shoes.--The kind old sailor.--The shoes
made.--Eventful life of Hortense.--Marriage of Hortense.--Queen of
Holland.--Death of Hortense.--Meeting of Josephine and Beauharnais.--
Influential character of Beauharnais.--Jacobins and Girondists.--The
Jacobins triumphant.--Fearful commotions.--The warning.--Alarm of
Josephine.--Beauharnais proudly refuses to attempt an escape.--
Entreaties of Josephine.--Arrest of Beauharnais.--Beneficence of
Josephine.--The children deceived.--Indiscretions.--Arrest of
Josephine.--Josephin