The Empress Josephine | Page 5

noble and true wife, loving yet more than
she was loved, entirely given up in unswerving loyalty to him who
rejected her; languishing for very sorrow on account of his misfortune,
and dying for very grief as vanished away the star of his happiness.
Thousands in her place, rejected, forgotten, cast away, as she
was--thousands would have rejoiced in the righteousness of the fate
which struck and threw in the dust the man who, for earthly grandeur,
had abandoned the beloved one and disowned her love. Josephine wept
over him, lamented over his calamities, and had but a wish to be
allowed to share them with him. Josephine died broken-hearted--the
misfortunes of her beloved, who no more loved her, the misfortunes of
Napoleon, broke her heart.
She was a woman, "take her for all in all"--a noble, a beautiful woman,
a loving woman, and such as belongs to no peculiar class, to no
peculiar nation, to no peculiar special history; she belongs to the world,
to humanity, to universal history. In the presence of such an apparition
all national hatred is silent, all differences of political opinion are silent.
Like a great, powerful drama drawn from the universal history of man
and represented before our eyes, so her life passes before us; and
surprised, wondering, we gaze on, indifferent whether the heroine of
such a tragedy be Creole, French, or to what nation she may owe her
birth. She belongs to the world, to history, and if we Germans have no
love for the Emperor Napoleon, the tyrant of the world, the Caesar of
brass who bowed the people down into the dust, and trod under foot
their rights and liberties-- if we Germans have no love for the
conqueror Napoleon, because he won so many battles from us, yet this
does not debar us from loving Josephine, who during her lifetime won
hearts to Napoleon, and whose beautiful death for love's sake filled
with tears the eyes of those whose lips knew but words of hatred and
cursing against the emperor.
To write the life of Josephine does not mean to write the life of a

Frenchwoman, the life of the wife of the man who brought over
Germany so much adversity, shame, and suffering, but it means to
write a woman's life which, as a fated tragedy or like a mighty picture,
rises before our vision. It is to unfold a portion of the world's history
before our eyes--and the world's history is there for our common
instruction and progress, for our enlightenment and encouragement.
I am not afraid, therefore, of being accused of lacking patriotism,
because I have undertaken to write the life of a woman who is not a
German, who was the wife of Germany's greatest enemy and oppressor.
It is, indeed, a portion of the universal drama which is unfolded in the
life of this woman, and amid so much blood, so much dishonor, so
many tears, so much humiliation, so much pride, arrogance, and
treachery, of this renowned period of the world's history, shines forth
the figure of Josephine as the bright star of womanhood, of love, of
faithfulness--stars need no birthright, no nationality, they belong to all
lands and nations.

CHAPTER II
.
THE YOUNG MAID.
On the 23d of July, 1763, to the Chevalier Tascher de la Pagerie,
ex-lieutenant of the royal troops, a resident of the insignificant spot of
the Trois Islets, on the island of Martinique, was borne by his young,
rich, and beautiful wife, a first child.
The loving parents, the relatives and friends had longed for this child,
but now that it was come, they bade it welcome without joy, and even
over the brow of the young father hung the shadow of a cloud as he
received the intelligence of the birth of his child. For it was a girl, and
not the wished-for boy who was to be the inheritor of the valuable
family-plantation, and the inheritor also of the ancient and respectable
name of Tascher de la Pagerie.
It was, however, useless to murmur against fate. What was irrevocable
had to be accepted, and welcome made to the daughter, who, instead of
the expected heir, would now lay claim to the rights of primogeniture.
As an inheritance reserved for him who had not come, the daughter
received the name which had been destined to the son. For two hundred

years the name of Joseph had been given to the eldest son of the family
of Tascher de la Pagerie, but now that there was none to whom the
Chevalier, Ex-lieutenant Joseph de la Pagerie could leave his name as a
legacy, the family had to be satisfied to give the name to his daughter,
and consequently she received at baptism the name of Joseph Marie