ad become imminent,
Napoleon carried out a promise that Josephine should see the King of
Rome. The meeting took place at Bagatelle. She hugged and kissed the
child with motherly affection, and her tears flowed with profusion.
The scene was touching, and proved to be the everlasting farewell.
Strange as it may appear, Josephine formed an enduring affection for
Napoleon's natural son, afterwards Count Colonna (Alexander Walewska),
and for his mother, Marie Walewska. She loved the child and treated
him with the same indulgence as she did her own grandchildren. The
mother was a regular visitor, and no one was more welcome at Malmaison
than she. These incidents of magnanimity, characteristic of Josephine,
would make her not only attractive but lovable, were it not there are
also left on record flaws which show that she was seriously lacking in
probity and fidelity to him to whom she owed everything. Her maternal
affection and loving care of her children are without reproach, and
her generosity to worthy and unworthy people was extraordinary. She
loved Napoleon with peculiar eccentricity. His honour and interests
were never a consideration. She allowed herself to be surrounded at
Malmaison during the Russian campaign with Royalist plotters and
treachery of the most implacable character. She poured out her woes to
them with acceptable results, and nothing that would damage him and
draw sympathy to herself was left uncommunicated. Her whole thought
was of herself. She did not intend to be false or cruel to him, and
yet she was both cruel and false.

As soon as the Allied Armies had taken possession of Paris, the
irrepressible Madame de Stael made a call on Josephine to ascertain
how she stood now towards her former husband. She promptly asked her
whether she still loved him. Josephine resented the impertinence, so
the Duchesse de Reggio relates, and told some of her visitors that she
had never ceased to love the Emperor in the days of his prosperity,
and it was unthinkable that she should cease to do so in his
adversity. Unhappily for Josephine, she adopted a most astounding
course of showing her devotion by agreeing to the visits, first, of
the Emperor of Russia, and then the other sovereigns and foreign
dignitaries. She gave balls and treated the enemies of France, and
especially the Tsar, as though they were the real descendants of the
builders of the Temple to Jehovah. She and Hortense walked about the
grounds linked to Al