"Then we ought to love this emperor very dearly?" said the little Louis
Napoleon.

"Certainly; for you owe him many thanks."

The young prince regarded the emperor, who was conversing with the
empress Josephine, long and thoughtfully.

When the emperor returned to Malmaison on the following day, and while
he was sitting at his mother's side in the garden-house, little Louis
Napoleon, walking on tiptoe, noiselessly approached the emperor from
behind, laid a small glittering object in his hand, and ran away.

The queen called him back, and demanded with earnest severity to know
what he had done.

The little prince returned reluctantly, hanging his head with
embarrassment, and said, blushing deeply: "Ah, _maman,_ it is the ring
Uncle Eugene gave me. I wished to give it to the emperor, because he is
so good to my _maman_!"

Deeply touched, the emperor took the boy in his arms, seated him on his
knees, and kissed him tenderly.

Then, in order to give the little prince an immediate reward, he
attached the ring to his watch-chain, and swore that he would wear the
token as long as he lived[28].

[Footnote 28: Cochelet, vol. i., p. 355.]

CHAPTER XVII.

DEATH OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE.

Since Napoleon's star had grown pale, and himself compelled to leave
France as an exile, life seemed to Josephine also to be enveloped in a
gloomy mourning-veil; she felt that her sun had set, and night come upon
her. But she kept this feeling a profound secret, and never allowed a
complaint or sigh to betray her grief to her tenderly-beloved daughter.
Her complaints were for the emperor, her sighs for the fate of her
children and grandchildren. She seemed to have forgotten herself; her
wishes were all for others. With the pleasing address and grace of which
age could not deprive her, she did the honors of her house to the
foreign sovereigns in Malmaison, and assumed a forced composure, in
which her soul had no share. She would have preferred to withdraw with
her grief to the retirement of her chambers, but she thought it her duty
to make this sacrifice for the welfare of her daughter and
grandchildren; and she, the loving mother, could do what Hortense's
pride would not permit--she could entreat the Emperor Alexander to take
pity on her daughter's fate.

When, therefore, the czar had finally succeeded in establishing her
future, and had received the letters-patent which secured to the queen
the duchy of St. Leu Alexander hast