pose that he was absent from
home in consequence of ill health. When at last she obtained permission
to visit, with her children, her husband in prison, they detected the
deceit. After returning from the prison after their first interview,
Hortense remarked to her mother that she thought her father's apartment
very small, and the patients very numerous. She appeared for a time very
thoughtful, and then inquired of Eugene, with an anxious expression of
countenance,

"Do _you_ believe that papa is ill? If he is, it certainly is not the
sickness which the doctors cure."

"What do you mean, my dear child?" asked Josephine. "Can you suppose
that papa and I would contrive between us to deceive you?"

"Pardon me, mamma, but I do think so."

"Why, sister," exclaimed Eugene, "how can you say so?"

"Good parents," she replied, "are unquestionably permitted to deceive
their children when they wish to spare them uneasiness. Is it not so,
mamma?"

Josephine was not a little embarrassed by this detection, and was
compelled to acknowledge that which it was no longer possible to
conceal.

In the interview which M. Beauharnais held with his wife and his
children, he spoke with some freedom to his children of the injustice of
his imprisonment. This sealed his doom. Listeners, who were placed in an
adjoining room to note down his words, reported the conversation, and
magnified it into a conspiracy for the overthrow of the republic. M.
Beauharnais was immediately placed in close confinement. Josephine
herself was arrested and plunged into prison, and even the terrified
children were rigidly examined by a brutal committee, who, by promises
and by threats, did what they could to extort from them some confession
which would lead to the conviction of their parents.

Josephine, the morning of her arrest, received an anonymous letter,
warning her of her danger. It was at an early hour, and her children
were asleep in their beds. But how could she escape? Where could she go?
Should she leave her children behind her--a mother abandon her children!
Should she take them with her, and thus prevent the possibility of
eluding arrest? Would not her attempt at flight be construed into a
confession of guilt, and thus compromise the safety of her husband?
While distracted with these thoughts, she heard a loud knocking and
clamor at the outer door of the house. She understood too well the
significance of those sounds. With a great effort to retain