ught
and prayer, regain composure. Her friends consented to this arrangement,
and she took refuge in the convent at Panthemont. Here she spent a few
months in inexpressible gloom. William made many unavailing efforts to
obtain an interview, and at last, in despair, reluctantly received the
wealthy bride, through whom he secured an immense inheritance, and with
whom he passed an unloving life.

The Viscount Beauharnais often called to see her, and was permitted to
converse with her at the gate of her window. In the simplicity of her
heart, she told her friends at the convent of her attachment for
William; how they had been reared together, and how they had loved from
childhood. She felt that it was a cruel fate which separated them, but a
fate before which each must inevitably bow. At last she calmly made up
her mind to comply with the wishes of her friends, and to surrender
herself to the Viscount Beauharnais. There was much in the person and
character of Beauharnais to render him very attractive, and she soon
became sincerely, though never passionately, attached to him.

Josephine was sixteen years of age when she was married. Her social
position was in the midst of the most expensive and fashionable society
of Paris. She was immediately involved in all the excitements of
parties, and balls, and gorgeous entertainments. Her beauty, her grace,
her amiability, and her peculiarly musical voice, which fell like a
charm upon every ear, excited great admiration and not a little envy.
It was a dangerous scene into which to introduce the artless and
inexperienced Creole girl, and she was not a little dazzled by the
splendor with which she was surrounded. Every thing that could minister
to convenience, or that could gratify taste, was lavished profusely
around her. For a time she was bewildered by the novelty of her
situation. But soon she became weary of the heartless pageantry of
fashionable life, and sighed for the tranquil enjoyments of her island
home.

Her husband, proud of her beauty and accomplishments, introduced her at
court. Maria Antoinette, who had then just ascended the throne, and was
in the brilliance of her youth, and beauty, and early popularity, was
charmed with the West Indian bride, and received her without the
formality of a public presentation. When these two young brides met in
the regal palace of Versailles--the one a daughter of Maria Theresa and
a descendant of the Caesars, who had come from the co