thereby sign your own
death-warrant, and Josephine would not survive it."

"She will have to survive it like myself," exclaimed the emperor,
impetuously. "I shall suffer no less--nay, I shall suffer more than she,
for she never loved me as I love her. Her tears will fall for the lost
splendor of the throne--not for her husband. But I shall bewail the
beloved wife."

"No, sire," said Duroc, almost indignantly, "you are unjust. The empress
loves you--you alone. She accepted the crown reluctantly and with
tearful eyes, and will not weep when she loses it. She will mourn for
her husband only, whom she adores, and not for the crown which adorns
but also oppresses her brow."

"Ah, what a warm advocate the empress has!" exclaimed Napoleon, smiling.
"Do you really believe that she loves me so disinterestedly?"

"Sire, I am convinced of it, and so is your majesty. The empress loves
in you her dear Bonaparte, and not the emperor. She loves you more
ardently than any other woman could do. Sire, permit an old, well-tried
friend and servant to warn you. Do not banish Josephine from your heart,
for she is your guardian angel."

Napoleon did not reply immediately, but looked melancholy and
abstracted.

"It is true," he said, after a long pause, "Josephine brought success;
until I married her every thing around me was forbidding and dark. She
appeared like a sun by my side, and we rose together."

"Sire, all will darken again, if you suffer your sun to set."

"Ah, bah! these are nothing but fantastic dreams!" exclaimed Napoleon,
after a brief silence. "I am the architect of my fortune--I alone.
Josephine did not assist me in erecting my edifice; she only adorned it
with her smiling grace. I shall do what fate and my people have a right
to expect of me, but I do not say that it must be done immediately. I
have time enough to wait; for as yet I do not stand on the pinnacle to
which I am aspiring. My plans are not yet accomplished. I hope that I
shall not die at so early an age as my father. I need ten years more to
carry out my purposes. A sovereign ought not to set too narrow limits to
his wishes; but mine--they are boundless. Like the conqueror of Darius,
I must rule the world, and I hope that my desire will one day be
fulfilled. Nay, I feel convinced that I and my family will occupy all
the thrones of Europe. Then it will be time for me to have a wife who
will give an heir to my empire, and a son to my heart. Until then, my