ch would not permit him to say a
single word capable of insulting misfortune; the Empress had only
one prayer to make to him, and that was for her children."]--

This visit was soon followed by those of the other Allied Princes.

"The King of Prussia and the Princes, his sons, came rather
frequently to pay their court to Josephine; they even dined with her
several times at Malmaison; but the Emperor Alexander come much more
frequently. The Queen Hortense was always with her mother when she
received the sovereigns, and assisted her in doing the honours of
the house. The illustrious strangers exceedingly admired Malmaison,
which seemed to them a charming residence. They were particularly
struck with the fine gardens and conservatories."

From this moment, however, Josephine's health rapidly declined, and
she did not live to see Napoleon's return from Elba. She often said
to her attendant, "I do not know what is the matter with me, but at
times I have fits of melancholy enough to kill me." But on the very
brink of the grave she retained all her amiability, all her love of
dress, and the graces and resources of a drawing-room society. The
immediate cause of her death was a bad cold she caught in taking a
drive in the park of Malmaison on a damp cold day. She expired on
the noon of Sunday, the 26th of May, in the fifty-third year of her
age. Her body was embalmed, and on the sixth day after her death
deposited in a vault in the church of Ruel, close to Malmaison. The
funeral ceremonies were magnificent, but a better tribute to the
memory of Josephine was to be found is the tears with which her
children, her servants, the neighbouring poor, and all that knew her
followed her to the grave. In 1826 a beautiful monument was erected
over her remains by Eugene Beauharnais and his sisters with this
simple inscription:

TO JOSEPHINE.

EUGENE. HORTENSE.

CHAPTER II.

1814.

Italy and Eugene--Siege of Dantzic-Capitulation concluded but not
ratified-Rapp made prisoner and sent to Kiow--Davoust's refusal to
believe the intelligence from Paris--Projected assassination of one
of the French Princes--Departure of Davoust and General Hogendorff
from Hamburg--The affair of Manbreuil--Arrival of the Commissioners
of the Allied powers at Fontainebleau--Preference shown by Napoleon
to Colonel Campbe