heir commencement. All France seemed to hail
the emperor's return with exultation. Every one hastened to assure him
of his unchangeable fidelity, and to persuade him that they had only
obeyed the Bourbons under compulsion.

The old splendor of the empire once more prevailed in the Tuileries,
where the emperor now held his glittering court again. There was,
however, this difference: Queen Hortense now did the honors of the
court, in the place of the Empress Marie Louise, who had not returned
with her husband; and the emperor could not now show the people his own
son, but could only point to his two nephews, the sons of Hortense.

The emperor had quickly reconciled himself to the queen; he had been
compelled to yield to her gentle and yet decided explanations; he had
comprehended that Hortense had sacrificed herself for her children, in
continuing to remain in France notwithstanding her reluctance. After
this reconciliation had taken place, Napoleon extended his hand to
Hortense, with his irresistible smile, and begged her to name a wish, in
order that he might fulfil it.

Queen Hortense, who had been so bitterly slandered and scorned by the
royalists, and who was still considered by the fleeing Bourbons to be
the cause of their overthrow--this same queen now entreated the emperor
to permit the Duchess d'Orleans, who had not been able to leave Paris on
account of a broken limb, to remain, and to accord her a pension
besides. She told the emperor that she had received a letter from the
duchess, in which she begged for her intercession in obtaining some
assistance from the emperor, assuring her that it was urgently Deeded,
in her depressed circumstances.

The emperor consented to grant this wish of his step-daughter Hortense;
and it was solely at her solicitation that Napoleon accorded a pension
of four hundred thousand francs to the Duchess d'Orleans, the mother of
King Louis Philippe[49].

[Footnote 49: La Reine Hortense en Italie, en France, et en Angleterre.
Ecrit par elle-meme, p. 185.]

A few days later, at Hortense's request, a pension of two hundred
thousand francs was also accorded to the Duchess of Bourbon, who had
also besought the queen to exert her influence in her behalf; and both
ladies now hastened to assure Hortense of their everlasting gratitude.
The fulfilment of her wish filled Hortense with delight; she was as
proud of it as of a victory achieved.

"I considered it a sacred duty," said she, "to