ith the same
freedom, the same familiarity as ever.'

"Bonaparte soon disappeared, and I heard only the sound of his retiring
footsteps. Oh, how quickly does every thing take place on earth. I had
once more felt the pleasure of being loved."

In reference to this melancholy event, Napoleon said, at Saint Helena:

"My divorce has no parallel in history. It did not destroy the ties
which united our families, and our mutual tenderness remained unchanged.
Our separation was a sacrifice, demanded of us by reason, for the
interests of my crown and of my dynasty. Josephine was devoted to me.
She loved me tenderly. No one ever had a preference over me in her
heart. I occupied the first place in it, her children the next. She was
right in thus loving me; and the remembrance of her is still
all-powerful in my mind. Josephine was really an amiable woman: she was
so kind, so humane. She was the best woman in France.

"A son, by Josephine, would have completed my happiness, not only in a
political point of view, but as a source of domestic felicity. As a
political result it would have secured to me the possession of the
throne. The French people would have been as much attached to the son of
Josephine as they were to the King of Rome, and I should not have set my
foot on an abyss covered with a bed of flowers. But how vain are all
human calculations! Who can pretend to decide on what may lead to
happiness or unhappiness in this life!"

The divorce of Josephine, strong as were the political motives which led
to it, was a violation of the immutable laws of God. Like all
wrong-doing, however seemingly prosperous for a time, it promoted final
disaster and woe. Doubtless Napoleon, educated in the midst of those
convulsions which had shaken all the foundations of Christian morality,
did not clearly perceive the extent of the wrong. He unquestionably felt
that he was doing right; that the interests of France demanded the
sacrifice. But the penalty was none the less inevitable. The laws of God
can not be violated with impunity, even though the violation be a sin of
ignorance.

CHAPTER VI.

THE DEATH OF JOSEPHINE.

1810-1816

Marriage of Napoleon and Maria Louisa.--Hortense goes to
Navarre.--Letter from Josephine.--Louis Bonaparte abdicates.--Madame
Broc.--"Partant pour la Syrie."--Illness of Napoleon Louis.--Letter from
Eugene.--Napoleon arrives in Paris.--Letter from Josephine.--Death of
Madame Broc.--Hortense at Aix.--Di