e journey was
resumed towards the frontiers. It was the intention of Hortense to take
refuge in a very retired country-seat which she owned at Pregny, in
Switzerland, near Geneva. At some points on her journey the Royalists
assailed her with reproaches. Again she was cheered by loudly-expressed
manifestations of the sympathy and affection of the people. At Dijon the
multitude crowding around her carriage, supposing that she was being
conveyed into captivity, gallantly attempted a rescue. They were only
appeased by the assurance of Hortense that she was under the protection
of a friend.

Scarcely had this melancholy wanderer entered upon her residence at
Pregny, with the title of the Duchess of St. Leu, ere the French
minister in Switzerland commanded the Swiss government to issue an order
expelling her from the Swiss territory. Switzerland could not safely
disregard the mandate of the Bourbons of France, who were sustained in
their enthronement by allied Europe. Thus pursued by the foes of the
Empire, Hortense repaired to Aix, in Savoy. Here she met a cordial
welcome. The people remembered her frequent visits to those celebrated
springs, her multiplied charities, and here still stood, as an
ever-during memorial of her kindness of heart, the hospital which she
had founded and so munificently endowed. The magistrates at Aix formally
invited her to remain at Aix so long as the Allied powers would allow
her to make that place her residence.

It seemed as though Hortense were destined to drain the cup of sorrow to
its dregs. Aix was the scene of the dreadful death of Madame Broc,
which we have above described. Every thing around her reminded her of
that terrible calamity, and oppressed her spirits with the deepest
gloom. And, to add unutterably to her anguish, an agent arrived at Aix
from her husband, Louis Bonaparte, furnished with all competent legal
powers to take custody of the eldest child and convey him to his father
in Italy. It will be remembered that the court had decided that the
father should have the eldest and the mother the youngest child. The
stormy events of the "Hundred Days" had interrupted all proceedings upon
this matter.

This separation was a terrible trial not only to the mother, but to the
two boys. The peculiarities of their dispositions and temperaments
fitted them to assimilate admirably together. Napoleon Louis, the elder,
was bold, resolute, high-spirited. Louis Napoleon, the younger, was
gen