,
arm in arm, descended the stairs, conversing in earnest
whispers, followed by Eugene."

This Ouvrard, to whom allusion is made above, was a famous banker in
Paris, of enormous wealth, and engaged in the most wild and extravagant
speculations.

It now began to be rumored that Napoleon would soon be crowned as king.
Very many of the nation desired it, and though there was as yet no
public declaration, vague hints and floating rumors filled the air.
Josephine was greatly disquieted. It seemed more and more important that
Napoleon should have an heir. There was now no prospect that Josephine
would ever become again a mother. She heard, with irrepressible anguish,
that it had been urged upon her husband that the interests of France
required that he should obtain a divorce and marry again; that alliance
with one of the ancient royal families of Europe, and the birth of a
son, to whom he could transmit his crown, would place his power upon an
impregnable foundation. Josephine could not but perceive the _apparent_
policy of the great wrong. And though she knew that Napoleon truly and
tenderly loved her, she also feared that there was no sacrifice which
he was not ready to make in obedience to the claims of his towering
ambition.

One day she softly entered the cabinet without being announced.
Bonaparte and Bourrienne were conversing together. The day before, an
article appeared in the Moniteur, evidently preparing the way for the
throne. Josephine gently approached her husband, sat down upon his knee,
affectionately passed her hand through his hair and over his face, and,
with moistened eyes and a burst of tenderness, exclaimed, "I entreat
you, mon ami, do not make yourself a king. It is Lucien who urges you
to it. Do not even listen to him."

Bonaparte, smiling very pleasantly, replied, "Why, my dear Josephine,
you are crazy. You must not listen to these tales of the old dowagers.
But you interrupt us now. I am very busy."

During the earlier period of Napoleon's consulship, like the humblest
citizen, he occupied the same bed-chamber with his spouse. But now that
more of regal ceremony and state was being introduced to the consular
establishment, their domestic intercourse, to the great grief of
Josephine, assumed more of cold formality. Separate apartments were
assigned to Josephine at a considerable distance from those occupied by
her husband, and it was necessary to traverse a long corridor to pass
from o