veying trunks and
packages to the vessel, to inform the curious spectators of her son's
intended departure on this vessel. She at the same time causes the
report to be circulated that she has suddenly been taken ill, and can
therefore not accompany her son.

The physician confirms this statement, and informs all Ancona of the
dangerous illness of the Duchess of St. Leu.

And after all this had been done, Hortense causes her son's bed to be
carried into the little cabinet adjoining her room, and falling on her
knees at his bedside, and covering her face with her hands, she prays to
God to preserve the life of her child!

On the evening of this day the vessel destined for Corfu hoisted its
anchor. No one doubted that Louis Napoleon had embarked on it, and every
one pitied the poor duchess, who, made ill by grief and anxiety, had not
been able to accompany her son.

In the mean while Hortense was sitting at the bedside of her delirious
son. But she no longer felt weak or disquieted; nervous excitement
sustained her, and gave her strength and presence of mind. Her son was
at the same time threatened by two dangers--by the disease, which the
slightest mistake might render mortal; and by the arrival of the
Austrians, who had expressly excepted her son Louis Napoleon from the
benefits of the amnesty. She must save her son from both these
dangers--this thought gave her strength.

Two days had now passed; the last two vessels had left the harbor,
crowded with fugitives; and now the advance-guard of the Austrians was
marching into Ancona.

The commandant of the advance-guard, upon whom the duty of designating
quarters for the following army devolved, selected the palace of
Princess Canino, where the Duchess of St. Leu resided, as headquarters
for the commanding general and his staff. Hortense had expected this,
and had withdrawn to a few small rooms in advance, holding all the
parlors and large rooms in readiness for the general. When they,
however, demanded that the entire palace should be vacated, the wife of
the janitor, the only person whom Hortense had taken into her
confidence, informed them that Queen Hortense, who was ill and unhappy,
was the sole occupant of these reserved rooms.

Strange to relate, the Austrian captain who came to the palace to make
the necessary preparations for his general's reception was one of those
who, in the year 1815, had protected the queen and her children from the
fury of the royalis