so many of his nearest friends and
relatives were deserting him.

On the twenty-second day of June the emperor sent in his abdication in
favor of his son, the King of Rome, to the chambers; and a week later
the chambers proclaimed Napoleon's son Emperor of France, under the name
of Napoleon II.

But this emperor was a child of four years, and was, moreover, not in
France, but in the custody of the Emperor of Austria, whose army was now
marching on Paris with hostile intent!

Napoleon, now no longer Emperor of France, had been compelled to take
the crown from his head a second time; and for the second time he
quitted Paris to await the destiny to be appointed him by the allies.

This time he did not repair to Fontainebleau, but to Malmaison--to
Malmaison, that had once been Josephine's paradise, and where her heart
had at last bled to death. This charming resort had passed into the
possession of Queen Hortense; and Napoleon, who but yesterday had ruled
over a whole empire, and to-day could call nothing, not even the space
of ground on which he stood, his own, Napoleon asked Hortense to receive
him at Malmaison.

Hortense accorded his request joyfully, and, when her friends learned
this, and in their dismay and anxiety conjured her not to identify in
this manner herself and children with the fate of the emperor, but to
consider well the danger that would result from such a course, the queen
replied resolutely: "That is an additional reason for holding firm to my
determination. I consider it my sacred duty to remain true to the
emperor to the last, and the greater the danger that threatens the
emperor, the happier I shall be in having it in my power to show him my
entire devotion and gratitude."

And when, in this decision, when her whole future hung in the balance,
one of her most intimate lady-friends ventured to remind the queen of
the disgraceful and malicious reports that had once been put in
circulation with regard to her relation to Napoleon, and suggested that
she would give new strength to them by now receiving the emperor at
Malmaison, Hortense replied with dignity: "What do I care for these
calumnies? I fulfil the duty imposed on me by feeling and principle. The
emperor has always treated me as his child; I shall therefore ever
remain his devoted and grateful daughter; it is my first and greatest
necessity to be at peace with myself[52]."

[Footnote 52: Cochelet, vol. iii., p. 149.]

Hortense therefore