eet death in
many conflicts. I can no longer fear it. To me death would now be a
blessing. But I would once more see Josephine.'"

Immediately after Josephine's arrival at Navarre, she wrote to Hortense,
urging that she should join her at that place. In the letter she said:

"I can not tell you how sad I am. I have had fortitude in afflicted
positions in which I have found myself, and I shall have enough to bear
my reverses of fortune; but I have not sufficient to sustain me under
absence from my children, and uncertainty respecting their fate. For two
days I have not ceased to weep. Send me tidings respecting yourself and
your children. If you can learn any thing respecting Eugene and his
family, inform me."

Two days after this, Hortense, with her two sons, joined her mother at
Navarre. Paris was soon in the hands of the Allies. The Emperor
Alexander invited Josephine and Hortense to return to Malmaison, where
he established a guard for their protection. Soon after Napoleon
abdicated at Fontainebleau. Upon the eve of his departure for Elba, he
wrote to Josephine:

"I wrote to you on the 8th. Possibly you have not received my letter. It
may have been intercepted. At present communications must be
re-established. I have formed my resolution. I have no doubt that this
billet will reach you. I will not repeat what I said to you. Then I
lamented my situation. Now I congratulate myself thereon. My head and
spirit are freed from an enormous weight. My fall is great, but at least
is useful, as men say. Adieu! my dear Josephine. Be resigned as I am,
and ever remember him who never forgets and never will forget you."

Josephine returned to Malmaison, and Hortense repaired to Rambouillet,
to join Maria Louisa in these hours of perplexity and disaster. As soon
as Maria Louisa set out under an Austrian escort for Vienna, Hortense
rejoined her mother at Malmaison. Alexander was particularly attentive
to Josephine and Hortense. He had loved Napoleon, and his sympathies
were now deeply excited for his afflicted family. Through his kind
offices, the beautiful estate of St. Leu, which Louis Bonaparte had
owned, and which he had transferred to his wife, was erected into a
duchy for her advantage, and the right of inheritance was vested in her
children. The ex-Queen of Holland now took the title of the Duchess of
St. Leu.

On the 10th of May the Emperor Alexander dined with Josephine at
Malmaison. Grief, and a season unusually dam