Project Gutenberg's Hortense, Makers of History Series, by John S. C. Abbott

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Title: Hortense, Makers of History Series

Author: John S. C. Abbott

Release Date: February 20, 2008 [EBook #24659]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Makers of History

Hortense

BY JOHN S. C. ABBOTT

WITH ENGRAVINGS

NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
1902

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by

HARPER & BROTHERS,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.

Copyright, 1898, by LAURA A. BUCK.

[Illustration: HORTENSE.]

PREFACE.

The French Revolution was perhaps as important an event as has occurred
in the history of nations. It was a drama in three acts. The first was
the Revolution itself, properly so called, with its awful scenes of
terror and of blood--the exasperated millions struggling against the
accumulated oppression of ages.

The second act in the drama was the overthrow of the Directory by
Napoleon, and the introduction of the Consulate and the Empire; the
tremendous struggle against the combined dynasties of Europe; the
demolition of the Empire, and the renewed crushing of the people by the
triumph of the nobles and the kings.

Then came the third act in the drama--perhaps the last, perhaps not--in
which the French people again drove out the Bourbons, re-established the
Republican Empire, with its principle of equal rights for all, and
placed upon the throne the heir of the great Emperor.

No man can understand the career of Napoleon I. without being acquainted
with those scenes of anarchy and terror which preceded his reign. No man
can understand the career of Napoleon III. unless familiar with the
struggle of the people against the despots in the Revolution, their
triumph in the Empire, their defeat in its overthrow, and their r