s letter was sent to Josephine to be transmitted by her to Hortense.
She received it on the first of June, and immediately sent it to her
daughter, with a letter which implies that Hortense had already
anticipated the wishes of Napoleon, and had sent the princes, after a
brief visit, to Josephine at Strasbourg. Soon after this it would seem
that little Louis Napoleon, who was evidently the favorite of his
grandmother, perhaps because he was more with her, accompanied Josephine
to St Cloud. About a fortnight after this she wrote to Hortense from
that palace:

"I am happy to have your son with me. He is charming. I am attached to
him more and more, in thinking he will be a solace to you. His little
reasons amuse me much. He grows every day, and his complexion is very
fine. I am far from you, but I frequently embrace your son, and love to
imagine to myself that it is my dear daughter whom I embrace."

And now we approach that almost saddest of earth's tragedies, the
divorce of Josephine--the great wrong and calamity of Napoleon's life.
The event had so important a bearing upon the character and the destiny
of Hortense as to demand a brief recital here.

It is often difficult to judge of the _motives_ of human actions; but at
times circumstances are such that it is almost impossible to misjudge
the causes which lead to conduct. General Savary, Duke of Rovigo, the
intimate personal friend of the Emperor, and one better acquainted with
his secret thoughts than any other person, gives the following account
of this momentous and fatal act:

"A thousand idle stories have been related concerning the Emperor's
motives for breaking the bonds he had contracted upwards of fifteen
years before, and separating from one who was the partner of his life
during the most stormy events of his glorious career. It was ascribed
to his ambition to connect himself with royal blood; and malevolence has
delighted in spreading the report that to this consideration he had
sacrificed every other. This opinion was quite erroneous, and he was as
unfairly dealt with, upon the subject, as all persons are who happen to
be placed above the level of mankind.

"Nothing can be more true than that the sacrifice of the object of his
affections was the most painful that he experienced throughout his life;
and that he would have preferred adopting any course than the one to
which he was driven by the motives which I am about to relate. Public
opinion in gener