ife of rancorous parties raged with
unabated violence, and blood flowed freely. The reign of the mob still
continued, and it was a mark of patriotism demanded by the clamors of
haggard want and degradation to persecute all of noble blood. Young
girls from the boarding-schools, and boys just emerging from the period
of childhood, were beheaded by the guillotine. "We must exterminate,"
said Marat, "all the _whelps_ of aristocracy." Josephine trembled for
her children. Poverty, and the desire of concealing Eugene among
the mass of the people, induced her to apprentice her son to a
house-carpenter. For several months Eugene cheerfully and laboriously
toiled in this humble occupation. But the sentiments he had imbibed
from both father and mother ennobled him, and every day produced new
developments of a lofty character, which no circumstances could long
depress.

Let such a woman as Josephine, with her cheerful, magnanimous,
self-sacrificing, and generous spirit, be left destitute in any place
where human beings are congregated, and she will soon inevitably meet
with those who will feel honored in securing her friendship and in
offering her a home. Every fireside has a welcome for a noble heart.
Madame Dumoulin, a lady of great elevation of character, whose large
fortune had by some chance escaped the general wreck, invited Josephine
to her house, and freely supplied her wants. Madame Fontenay, also,
who was a woman of great beauty and accomplishments, soon after her
liberation was married to M. Tallien, to whom she had tossed the note,
inclosed in a cabbage-leaf, from her prison window. It was this note
which had so suddenly secured the overthrow of the tyrant, and had
rescued so many from the guillotine. They both became the firm friends
of Josephine. Others, also, soon became strongly attracted to her by the
loveliness of her character, and were ambitious to supply all her wants.

Through M. Tallien, she urged her claim upon the National Convention for
the restoration of her confiscated property. After a long and tedious
process, she succeeded in regaining such a portion of her estate as to
provide her amply with all the comforts of life. Again she had her own
peaceful home, with Eugene and Hortense by her side. Her natural
buoyancy of spirits rose superior to the storms which had swept so
mercilessly over her, and in the love of her idolized children, and
surrounded by the sympathies of appreciative friends, days of ser