ssion consisted of jewelry, and this she of
course intended to take with her. But she was warned that a troop of
enraged Bourbonists, who knew of her approaching departure, had quitted
Paris to lie in wait for her on her road, "in order to rob her of the
millions in her custody."

The queen was warned to take no money or articles of value with her, but
only that which was absolutely necessary.

General de Mueffling offered her an escort of his soldiers; Hortense
declined this offer, but requested that an Austrian officer might be
allowed to accompany her for the protection of herself and children on
the journey. Count de Boyna, adjutant of Prince Schwartzenberg, was
selected for this purpose.

On the evening of the 17th of July, 1815, the Duchess of St. Leu took
her departure. She left her faithful friend Louise de Cochelet in Paris
to arrange her affairs, and assure the safe-keeping of her jewelry.
Accompanied only by her equerry, M. de Marmold, Count Boyna, her
children, her maid, and a man-servant, she who had been a queen left
Paris to go into exile.

It was a sorrowful journey that Hortense now made through her beloved
France, that she could no longer call her country, and that now seemed
as ill-disposed toward the emperor and his family as it had once
passionately loved them.

In these days of political persecution, the Bonapartists had everywhere
hidden themselves in obscure places, or concealed their real disposition
beneath the mask of Bourbonism. Those whom Hortense met on her journey
were therefore all royalists, who thought they could give no better
testimony to their patriotism than by persecuting with cries of scorn,
with gestures of hatred, and with loud curses, the woman whose only
crime was that she bore the name of him whom France had once adored, and
whom the royalists hated.

Count Boyna was more than once compelled to protect Hortense and her
children against the furious attacks of royalists--the stranger against
her own countrymen! In Dijon, Count Boyna had found it necessary to call
on the Austrian military stationed there for assistance in protecting
the duchess and her children from the attacks of an infuriated crowd,
led by royal guards and beautiful ladies of rank, whose hair was adorned
with the lilies of the Bourbons[55].

[Footnote 55: Cochelet, vol. iii, p. 289.]

Dispirited and broken down by all she had seen and experienced,
Hortense at last reached Geneva, happy at the prospec