e takes leave of her sleeping children.--A mother's
tears.--Brutality of the soldiers.--Josephine dragged to the
Carmelites.--Forlorn condition of the children.--They find a
protector.--Gloomy forebodings of Beauharnais and Josephine.

Josephine remained in Martinique three years. She passed her time in
tranquil sadness, engaged in reading, in educating Hortense, and in
unwearied acts of kindness to those around her. Like all noble minds,
she had a great fondness for the beauties of nature. The luxuriant
groves of the tropics, the serene skies which overarched her head, the
gentle zephyrs which breathed through orange groves, all were congenial
with her pensive spirit. The thought of Eugene, her beautiful boy, so
far from her, preyed deeply upon her heart. Often she retired alone to
some of those lonely walks which she loved so well, and wept over her
alienated husband and her lost child.

M. Beauharnais surrendered himself for a time, without restraint, to
every indulgence. He tried, in the society of sin and shame, to forget
his wife and his absent daughter. He, however, soon found that no friend
can take the place of a virtuous and an affectionate wife. The memory
of Josephine's gentleness, and tenderness, and love came flooding back
upon his heart. He became fully convinced of his injustice to her, and
earnestly desired to have her restored again to him and to his home. He
sent communications to Josephine, expressive of his deep regret for the
past, promising amendment for the future, assuring her of his high
appreciation of her elevated and honorable character, and imploring her
to return with Hortense, thus to reunite the divided and sorrow-stricken
household. It was indeed a gratification to Josephine to receive from
her husband the acknowledgment that she had never ceased to deserve his
confidence. The thought of again pressing Eugene to her bosom filled a
mother's heart with rapture. Still, the griefs which had weighed upon
her were so heavy, that she confessed to her friends that, were it not
for the love which she bore Eugene, she would greatly prefer to spend
the remnant of her days upon her favorite island. Her friends did every
thing in their power to dissuade her from leaving Martinique. But a
mother's undying love triumphed, and again she embarked for France.

In subsequent years, when surrounded by all the splendors of royalty,
she related to some of the ladies of her court, with that unaffected
sim