Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1867-02-15

NAMED IN France, whie Josrphihe re-
turned to Martinique, accompanied by her
children. 5,{ A b
In that island she remained till the news
of the Revolution, when, perhaps, fear for
the life of her husband induced her to
return to France, and it was during the
journey home that an incident TO moralize
over occurred. The little Hortense, the
mother Of an Emperor, wore away the
only pair of shoes she had by dancing
about, and her little ftet were cut and
bleeding. A rough sailor made her new
pair out of an old boot of his own, and in
thes. botches the mother of Napoleon the
Third was once more happy and dancing
about 2-
The pair of boots are historical, for Jo-
sephne kept them. and when, in after days,
she was Empress of the French, she
showed them stored up in her grand jew
, els--they were the ".jewels of her mem-
ory. and she kept them by her till the day
came when she foated towards God, as we
all must, alone, each with his dread account.
Her husband soon fell victim to the
Revolution, and she was widow. Then
she was prisoner, a p or /" aristocrat," con-
demned to die for the crime of her birth.
1t was now that the prophecy of the old
woman began to take possession of her
mind, and when several ladies were be-
wailing their own fate and hers too, she
actually smiled, and told them the guilo-
tine would never drink their blood nor her
own; that she would become Queen of
France, and that The ladies near her should
form part Of her royal househould.
AS she spoke, they heard the jailor give
, his dog a kick, and say =" Out of the way
!, Robespierre And SO she OWNED that
| Robespierre had fallen, since his name
/ sake, the poor dog, had been called and
! kicked in one and the same moment.
, But The bad days had not yet passed
. from Josephine. She was saved from
. death but not from poverty, and she had
| y Deg almost Ill tfutT 10 liNc-
1t was in 1895 that Napoleon, then
a Commandant of Paris, first saw Josephine.
j He met her at ministerial soiree, but he
e fifst became interested ia her life when she
called 10 thank him for restoring TO her
e son Eugene the sword his dead father had
/ worn, and which had been yielded up to
! the government on the disarnling Of the
n citizens.
v The fire of love once alight in Napo-
$ Icons heart, it sooa burned brightly, and
within a very few months from the time
when they first saw each other, Josephine
and Napoleon were married.
That Napoleon absolutely adored his
wife is proved by many instances of ex.
lreme forethousht and consideration. On
he went, the conquering Napoleon, daily
gaining mo and more power, while Jose
phine gained new Napoleonists by her
tact and policy, not the least of which was
, at a quiet little estate called Malmaison,
and all her thoughts seemed centered in
her garden.
AT last Napoleon was declared Consul,
and Josephine was the wife of the man at
whose disposal res,ed thirty millions of
men.
From Malmaison TO the Palace of Lux
emburg was an ascent; but that Palace
was soon found inconvenient, and the con-
sui had his wife, Madame Bonaparte, then
removed to the Tuileries," the palace of
the old kings.
By this time Josephine was ihirty-six
men admired her SO heartily, and she ap-
peared SO beautiful that she might have
been called sixteen, and no one would
have denied the assertion. A few years
and the prediction of the old woman away
in Martinique was fulfilled. Josephine
was an Empress-and an Empress of
5 France.
And now she had touched the highest
pitch of all her earthly glory. and it is
satisfactory TO know that while she sat up
. on the throne she was gentle, charitable,
courteous and never vulgar.
Her misfortune has been the misfortune
of many women who have had but one
{ misfortune-she bore no imperial children.
The Emperor wished to continue the line,
and he divorced her.
There is no more touching page in his
tory than that recounting Josephine's un-
| hesitating obedience to Napoleon's wish.
She laid down her crown without mur-
mur, and retired into private life back to
the little estate at Malmaison, which she
had quilted for so much grandeur, and
, where she returned to the old gardening
pursuits of her comparatively earlier and
humble days.
J Perhaps the most touching portion of
, ! tI,iS pafbatic historical cbooto, :. IL