The Detroit times., 1913-09-09
CHAPTER XVI:
The Mother Of a Prince.

The walls OF the palace at Ancona
dropped TO the sea: against them the
waves danced Out OF the blue wa
ter lay feet Of fishing. boats, and
the wind tapped torn sails, and the
sunlight glanced on battered hulls
and Uttered decks. The woman who
sat by an open window of the palace
pushed the black trailing OF her gown
from her. as II the sOmberness hurt
her eyes she laid her head against
the window-frame and stared at the
breeze-tossed waves and the fishing
fleet.
1T may be our only hope of escape
those wretched boats" she said,
half aloud. and her blue eyes were
full OF sadness, almost of hopeless
ness.
A sound caught her ear, and she
lifted her head quickly. The door
into the next room was partly open
and some one moved there, that was
all. She turned. the lines OF her figure
falling again into melancholy pose.
The doctar takes q long time"
she spoke. and gazed out once more
TO the water.
There had been a spirited young
girl years before who had romped in
the gardens of Malmaison, who had
led the laughter which echoed through
those avenues OF lime and plantain,
whose sweetness and vivacity had
drawn the figure Of Napoleon himself
into the vortex Of gladness which was
her atmosphere. Always brightness
seemed to follow her through the en-
chantment of the place; always she
seemed to move in gaiety. Today, on
March morning of 1880, this was
she-Hortense.
The daughter oil France she had
been, the queen OF Holland, and now
for years an exile. Here. ILL fugi-
tive. In her nephew's palace at An
coma, with the Austrians at the gate
of the city, she waited In anxiety al
most more intense than she could
bear the word of the doctor as to her
son. Five days before. at Forli, her
elder boy had died, and her sore
heart stirred with sickening throb
as she thought Of this other-Louis-
now her only child. lying in the room
beyond In high fever, iii with the
disease with which his brother had
FALLEN. A woman's soul might we'll
be overcrowded with such sorrow and
suchs fear, but there was more. Her
two boys had thrown In their lot
shortly before with the italian revo-
lutionists, and had fought, and had
distinguished themselves. And now
that the revolution of the Romagna
was failure, that the Austrian army
was advancing VIGOROUSLY, now that
death had taken the older to safety,
the yOunger-Louis--th invalid lad
In the room beyond, was In imminent
danger. He was excepted from the
general amnesty; the natural ways
Of escape were closed. for the authori-
ties of Tuscany and of Switzerland
had let her know that the Prince
would not be permitted in those ter.
ritories. From Rome two of her sons
uncles, Cardinal Fesch and King Je-
rome, had sent word that II he were
taken by the Austrfans he was lost.
And at the moment when Hortense
had decided to carry her boy on to
'nSy ny "oy VI SOfiu, al AuStr1an
fleet appeared In the Adriatic.
But the spirit and the wit of the
girl OF Malmaison were strong in the
woman who must save her son.
Wherever she went she made new
friends. so winning was her person
slity: wherever she went she found
old friends who had not forgotten
her. There had been q young Eng.
fish earl In the Malmaison days who
had lost his heart to the piquant
fascination Of the Princess Hortense
a. she laughed at him from the side
Of Josephine. He had gone away
saddened. but had never quite forgot
ten hts French sweetheart. At Flor.
ence. . month before. he had ap-
Ipeared, and to his influence she