Napoleon, the present President of the
French Republic, is the only surviving offspring of this uncongenial
union.

The gay and handsome Duroc, who had been the accepted lover of Hortense,
was soon after married to an heiress, who brought him, with an immense
fortune, a haughty spirit and an irritable temper, which embittered all
his days. The subsequent life of Hortense presents one of the most
memorable illustrations of the insufficiency of human grandeur to
promote happiness. Josephine witnessed with intense solicitude the utter
want of congeniality existing between them, and her heart often bled as
she saw alienation growing stronger and stronger, until it resulted in
an entire separation. Hortense might easily have won and retained the
affections of the pensive but warm-hearted Louis, had she followed the
counsels of her noble mother. Josephine, herself the almost perfect
model of a wife, was well qualified to give advice in such a case. The
following letter, written to Hortense some time before her separation
from Louis, exhibits in a most amiable light the character of
Josephine.

_To Queen Hortense._

"What I learned eight days ago gave me the greatest pain.
What I observe to-day confirms and augments my sorrow. Why
show to Louis this repugnance? Instead of rendering him more
ungracious still by caprice, by inequality of character,
why do you not rather make efforts to surmount your
indifference? But you will say, he is not amiable! All that
is relative. If not in your eyes amiable, he may appear so
to others, and all women do not view him through the medium
of dislike. As for myself, who am here altogether
disinterested, I imagine that I behold him as he is, more
_loving_, doubtless, than _lovable_, but this is a great and
rare quality. He is generous, beneficent, feeling, and,
above all, an excellent father. If you so willed, he would
prove a good husband. His melancholy, his love of study and
retirement, injure him in your estimation. For these, I ask
you, is he to blame? Is he obliged to conform his nature to
circumstances? Who could have predicted to him his fortune?
But, according to you, he has not even the _courage_ to
bear that fortune. This, I believe, is an error; but
he certainly wants the _strength_. With his ascetic
inclinations, his invincible desire of retirement and study,