passport that she had received for this purpose mentioned two sons, and
Hortense now possessed but one; and it was necessary for her to provide
a substitute for the one she had lost.

She found one in the person of the young Marquis Zappi, who, compromised
more than all the rest, joyfully accepted the proposition of the Duchess
of St. Leu, promising to conform himself wholly to her arrangements,
without knowing her plans and without being initiated in her secrets.

Hortense then procured all that was necessary to the disguise of the
young men as liveried servants, and ordered her carriage to be held in
readiness for her departure.

While this was being done in secret, she publicly caused all
preparations to be made for her journey to Corfu. She sent her passport
to the authorities for the purpose of obtaining the official _visa_ for
herself and sons, and had her trunks packed. Louis Napoleon had looked
on, with cold and mute indifference, while these preparations were being
made. He stood by, pale and dejected, without complaining or giving
utterance to his grief.

Becoming at last convinced that he was ill, Hortense sent for a
physician.

The latter declared that the prince was suffering from a severe attack
of fever, which might become dangerous unless he sought repose at once.
It was therefore necessary to postpone their departure for a day, and
Hortense passed an anxious night at the bedside of her fever-shaken,
delirious son.

The morning at last dawned, the morning of the day on which they hoped
to fly; but when the rising sun shed its light into the chamber in which
Hortense stood at her son's bedside, who can describe the unhappy
mother's horror when she saw her son's face swollen, disfigured, and
covered with red spots!

Like his brother, Louis Napoleon had also taken the same disease.

For a moment Hortense was completely overwhelmed, and then, by the
greatest effort of her life, she summoned her fortitude to her aid. She
immediately sent for the physician again, and, trusting to a sympathetic
human heart, she confided all to him, and he did not disappoint her.
What is to be done must be done quickly, immediately, or it will be
in vain!

Hortense thinks of all, and provides for all. Especially, she causes her
son's passport to Corfu to be signed by the authorities, and a passage
to be taken for him on the only ship destined for Corfu now lying in the
harbor. She instructs the servants, who are con