t of being able to
retire to her little estate of Pregny, to repose after the storms of
life. But this refuge was also to be refused her. The French ambassador
in Switzerland, who resided in Geneva, informed the authorities of that
city that his government would not tolerate the queen's sojourn so near
the French boundary, and demanded that she should depart. The
authorities of Geneva complied with this demand, and ordered the Duchess
of St. Leu to leave the city immediately.

When Count Boyna imparted this intelligence to the duchess, and asked
her to what place she would now go, her long-repressed despair found
utterance in a single cry: "I know not. Throw me into the lake, then we
shall all be at rest!"

But she soon recovered her usual proud resignation, and quietly
submitted to the new banishment that drove her from her last possession,
the charming little Pregny, from her "_reve de chalet_."

In Aix she finally found repose and peace for a few weeks--in Aix, where
she had once celebrated brilliant triumphs as a queen, and where she was
at least permitted to live in retirement with her children and a few
faithful adherents.

But in Aix the most fearful blow that Fate had in store for her fell
upon her!

Her action against her husband had already been decided in 1814, shortly
before the emperor's return, and it had been adjudged that she should
deliver her elder son Napoleon Louis, into the custody of his father.
Now that Napoleon's will no longer restrained him, Louis demanded that
this judgment be carried out, and sent Baron von Zuyten to Aix to bring
back the prince to his father then residing in Florence.

The unhappy mother was now powerless to resist this hard command; she
was compelled to yield, and send her son from her arms to a father who
was a stranger to the boy, and whom he therefore could not love.

It was a heart-rending scene this parting between the boy, his mother,
and his young brother Louis, from whom he had never before been
separated for a day, and who now threw his arms around his neck,
tearfully entreating him to stay with him.

But the separation was inevitable. Hortense parted the two weeping
children, taking little Louis Napoleon in her arms, while Napoleon Louis
followed his governor to the carriage, sobbing as though his heart would
break. When Hortense heard the carriage driving off, she uttered a cry
of anguish and fell to the ground in a swoon, and a long and painful
attack