The Empress Josephine | Page 4

I. Introduction II. The Young Maid III. The Betrothal IV. The Young
Bonaparte V. The Unhappy Marriage VI. Trianon and Marie Antoinette

VII. Lieutenant Napoleon Bonaparte VIII. A Page from History IX.
Josephine's Return X. The Days of the Revolution XI. The 10th of
August and the Letter of Napoleon Bonaparte XII. The Execution of
the Queen XIII. The Arrest XIV. In Prison XV. Deliverance
BOOK II.
THE WIFE OF GENERAL BONAPARTE.
XVI. Bonaparte in Corsica XVII. Napoleon Bonaparte before Toulon
XVIII. Bonaparte's Imprisonment XIX. The 13th Vendemiaire XX. The
Widow Josephine Beauharnais XXI. The New Paris XXII. The First
Interview XXIII. Marriage XXIV. Bonaparte's Love-Letters XXV.
Josephine in Italy XXVI. Bonaparte and Josephine in Milan XXVII.
The Court of Montebello XXVIII. The Peace of Campo Formio XXIX.
Days of Triumph
BOOK III.
THE EMPRESS AND THE DIVORCED.
XXX. Plombieres and Malmaison XXXI. The First Faithlessness
XXXII. The 18th Brumaire XXXIII. The Tuileries XXXIV. The
Infernal Machine XXXV. The Cashmeres and the Letter XXXVI.
Malmaison XXXVII. Flowers and Music XXXVIII. Prelude to the
Empire XXXIX. The Pope in Paris XL. The Coronation XLI. Days of
Happiness XLII. Divorce XLIII. The Divorced XLIV. Death

BOOK I.
THE VISCOUNTESS BEAUHARNAIS.
CHAPTER I
.
INTRODUCTION.
"I win the battles, Josephine wins me the hearts." These words of
Napoleon are the most beautiful epitaph of the Empress Josephine, the
much-loved, the much-regretted, and the much-slandered one. Even
while Napoleon won battles, while with lofty pride he placed his foot
on the neck of the conquered, took away from princes their crowns, and
from nations their liberty--while Europe trembling bowed before him,
and despite her admiration cursed him--while hatred heaved up the
hearts of all nations against him--even then none could refuse
admiration to the tender, lovely woman who, with the gracious smile of

goodness, walked at his side; none could refuse love to the wife of the
conqueror, whose countenance of brass received light and lustre from
the beautiful eyes of Josephine, as Memnon's statue from the rays of
the sun.
She was not beautiful according to those high and exalted rules of
beauty which we admire in the statues of the gods of old, but her whole
being was surrounded with such a charm, goodness, and grace, that the
rules of beauty were forgotten. Josephine's beauty was believed in, and
the heart was ravished by the spell of such a gracious, womanly
apparition. Goethe's words, which the Princess Eleonore utters in
reference to Antonio, were not applicable to Josephine:
"All the gods have with one consent brought gifts to his cradle, but,
alas! the Graces have remained absent, and where the gifts of these
lovely ones fail, though much was given and much received, yet on
such a bosom is no resting-place."
No, the Graces were not absent from the cradle of Josephine; they,
more than all the other gods, had brought their gifts to Josephine. They
had encircled her with the girdle of gracefulness, they had imparted to
her look, to her smile, to her figure, attraction and charm, and given her
that beauty which is greater and more enduring than that of youth,
namely loveliness, that only real beauty. Josephine possessed the
beauty of grace, and this quality remained when youth, happiness, and
grandeur, had deserted her. This beauty of grace struck the Emperor
Alexander as he came to Malmaison to salute the dethroned empress.
He had entered Paris in triumph, and laid his foot on the neck of him
whom he once had called his friend, yet before the divorced wife of the
dethroned emperor the czar, full of admiration and respect, bowed his
head and made her homage as to a queen; for, though she was
dethroned, on her head shone the crown in imperishable beauty and
glory, the crown of loveliness, of faithfulness, and of womanhood.
She was not witty in the special sense of a so-called "witty woman."
She composed no verses, she wrote no philosophical dissertations, she
painted not, she was no politician, she was no practising artist, but she
possessed the deep and fine intuition of all that which is beautiful and
noble: she was the protectress of the arts and sciences. She knew that
disciples were not wanting to the arts, but that often a Maecenas is
needed. She left it to her cousin, the Countess Fanny Beauharnais, to be

called an artist; hers was a loftier destiny, and she fulfilled that destiny
through her whole life--she was a Maecenas, the protectress of the arts
and sciences.
As Hamlet says of his father, "He was a man, take him for all in all, I
shall not look upon his like again;" thus Josephine's fame consists not
that she was a princess, an empress anointed by the hands of the pope
himself, but that she was a