.[1]

[Footnote 1: Jerrold's Life of Napoleon III.]

But whether it was with a Sophie or an Emilie, Louis Bonaparte fell
in love, and Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Josephine, gay,
lively, poetical, and enthusiastic, had given her heart to General
Duroc, the Emperor Napoleon's aide-de-camp; therefore both the young
people resisted the darling project of Napoleon and Josephine to
marry them to each other. By such a marriage Josephine hoped to
avert the divorce that she saw to be impending. She fancied that
if sons were born to the young couple, Napoleon would be content
to leave his throne to the heir of his brother Louis, whom he had
adopted, and of his step-daughter, of whom he was very fond. But
Louis would not marry Hortense, and Hortense would not have Louis.
At last, however, in the excitement of a ball, a reluctant consent
was wrung from Louis; then Hortense was coerced into being a good
French girl, and giving up Duroc. She and Louis were married. A more
unhappy marriage never took place. Husband and wife were separated
by an insurmountable (or at least unsurmounted) incompatibility of
temperament. Louis was a man whose first thought was duty. Hortense
loved only gayety and pleasure. He particularly objected to her
dancing; she was one of the most graceful dancers ever seen, and
would not give it up to please him. In short, she was all graceful,
captivating frivolity; he, rigid and exacting. Both had burning
memories in their hearts of what "might have been," and above all,
after Louis became king of Holland, each took opposite political
views. Louis wanted to govern Holland as the good king of the Dutch;
Napoleon expected him to govern it in the interests of his dynasty,
and as a Frenchman. The brothers disagreed most bitterly. Napoleon
wrote indignant, unjust letters to Louis. Hortense took Napoleon's
side in the quarrel, and led a French party at the Dutch court.

Intense was the grief of Louis and Hortense, Napoleon and Josephine,
when the eldest son of this marriage, the child on whom their hopes
were set, died of the croup at an early age. Hortense was wholly
prostrated by her loss. She had still one son, and was soon to
have another. The expected child was Charles Louis Napoleon, who
was to become afterwards Napoleon III.

Soon after Louis Napoleon's birth, King Louis abdicated the throne
of Holland. He said he could not do justice to the interests and
wishes of his people, and satisfy his b