ith my children, shall go to a foreign land, and, as
the happiness of those I love is assured, I shall be able to bear the
misfortune that strikes only at my material interests, but not at my
heart. I am still deeply moved and confounded by the fate that has
overtaken the Emperor Napoleon and his family. Is it true? Has all been
finally determined? Write me on this subject. I hope that my children
will not be taken from me; in that case I should lose all courage. I
will so educate them that they shall be happy in any station of life. I
shall teach them to bear fortune and misfortune with equal dignity, and
to seek true happiness in contentment with themselves. This is worth
more than crowns. Fortunately, they are healthy. Thank Count Nesselrode
for his sympathy. I assure you there are days that are properly called
days of misfortune, and that are yet not without a charm; such are those
that enable us to discern the true sentiments people hold toward us. I
rejoice over the affection which you show me, and it will always afford
me gratification to tell you that I return it. HORTENSE[26]."

[Footnote 26: Cochelet, vol. i., pp. 275-277.]

CHAPTER XIV.

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE QUEEN AND LOUISE DE COCHELET.

In the meanwhile, Hortense was still living with her mother in Novara,
firmly resolved to remain in her retirement, sorrowing over the fate of
the imperial house, but quite indifferent as to her own fate.

But her friends--and even in misfortune Hortense still had friends--and
above all her truest friend, Louise de Cochelet, busied themselves all
the more about her future, endeavoring to rescue out of the general
wreck of the imperial house at least a few fragments for the queen.

Louise de Cochelet was still sojourning in Paris, and the letters which
she daily wrote to the queen at Novara, and in which she informed her of
all that was taking place in the city, are so true a picture of that
strange and confused era, that we cannot refrain from here inserting
some of them.

In one of her first letters Louise de Cochelet relates a conversation
which she had had with Count Nesselrode, in relation to the
queen's future.

"The Bourbons," she writes, "have now been finally accepted. I asked
Count Nesselrode, whom I have just left: 'Do you believe that the queen
will be permitted to remain in France? Will the new rulers consider this
proper?' 'Certainly,' he replied, 'I am sure of it, for we will make it
a condit