ts. For the second time he now interested himself
zealously in behalf of the duchess, and hastened forward to meet the
general-in-chief, Baron Geppert, who was just entering the city, in
order to acquaint him with the state of affairs. He, in common with all
the world, convinced that her son, Louis Napoleon, had fled to Corfu,
declared his readiness to permit the duchess to retain the rooms she was
occupying, and begged permission to call on her. But the duchess was
still ill, and confined to her bed, and could receive no one.

The Austrians took up their quarters in the palace; and in the midst of
them, separated from the general's room by a locked door only, were
Hortense and her sick son. The least noise might betray him. When he
coughed it was necessary to cover his head with the bedclothes, in order
to deaden the sound; when he desired to speak he could only do so in a
whisper, for his Austrian neighbors would have been astonished to hear a
male voice in the room of the sick duchess, and their suspicions might
have been thereby aroused.

At last, after eight days of torment and anxiety, the physician declared
that Louis Napoleon could now undertake the journey without danger, and
consequently the duchess suddenly recovered! She requested the Austrian
general, Baron Geppert, to honor her with a call, in order that she
might thank him for his protection and sympathy; she told him that she
was now ready to depart, and proposed embarking at Livorno, in order to
join her son at Malta, and go with him to England. As she would be
compelled to pass through the whole Austrian army-corps on her way, she
begged the general to furnish her with a passport through his lines over
his own signature; requesting in addition that, in order to avoid all
sensation, the instrument should not contain her name.

The general, deeply sympathizing with the unhappy woman who was about to
follow her proscribed son, readily accorded her request.

Hortense purposed beginning her journey on the following day, the first
day of the Easter festival; and, on sending her farewell greeting to the
Austrian general, she informed him that she would start at a very early
hour, in order to hear mass at Loretto.

During the night all necessary preparations for the journey were made,
and Louis Napoleon was compelled to disguise himself in the dress of a
liveried servant; a similar attire was also sent to Marquis Zappi, who
had hitherto been concealed in t