by listening ears,
and reported to the committee as a conspiracy for the overthrow of
the Republic. The arrest of Josephine was ordered. A warning letter from
some friend reached her a few moments before the officers arrived,
urging her to fly. It was an early hour in the morning. There was little
sleep for Josephine amidst those scenes of terror, and she was watching
by the side of her slumbering children. What could she do? Should she
abandon her children, and seek to save her own life by flight? A
mother's love rendered that impossible. Should she take them with her in
her flight? That would render her arrest certain; and the fact of her
attempting to escape would be urged as evidence of her guilt.

While distracted with these thoughts, the clatter of armed men was heard
at her door. With anguish which none but a mother can comprehend, she
bent over her children and imprinted, as she supposed, a last kiss upon
their cheeks. The affectionate little Hortense, though asleep, was
evidently agitated by troubled dreams. As she felt the imprint of her
mother's lips, she threw her arms around her neck and exclaimed, "Come
to bed, dear mamma; they shall not take you away to-night. I have prayed
to God for you."

Josephine, to avoid waking the children, stepped softly from the room,
closed the door, and entered her parlor. Here she was rudely seized by
the soldiers, who regarded her as a hated aristocrat. They took
possession of the house and all its furniture in the name of the
Republic, left the children to suffer or to die as fate might decide,
and dragged the mother to imprisonment in the Convent of the Carmelites.

When the children awoke in the morning, they found themselves alone and
friendless in the heart of Paris. The wonderful events of their lives
thus far had rendered them both unusually precocious. Eugene in
particular seemed to be endowed with all the thoughtfulness and wisdom
of a full-grown man. After a few moments of anguish and tears, in view
of their dreadful situation, they sat down to deliberate upon the course
to be pursued. Hortense suggested that they should repair to the
Luxembourg and seek the protection of their father in his imprisonment
there. But Eugene, apprehensive that such a step might in some way
compromise the safety of their father, recalled to mind that they had a
great-aunt, far advanced in life, who was residing at Versailles in deep
retirement. He proposed that they should seek refu