ter Germany as a wooer, but as a soldier, and I do not
desire to seek myrtle-crowns, but laurels!"

"But, my husband, when you have gained fresh laurels and new territories
with the blood of your soldiers, then, I suppose, Josephine is to be
sacrificed?"

Napoleon did not reply. He paced the room slowly and with a bowed head.
Standing still, he looked with sad eyes in his consort's tearful face.

"Josephine," he said, in a grave voice, "you have a noble heart, and it
will bear the truth. Yes, there may be a day when we shall have to part,
although I love you, and I know well that you are the only faithful
friend on whom I can rely! Judge, therefore, what pangs it will cost me
when obliged to come to the terrible resolution to separate from you,
my guardian angel! But I belong to my people--I belong to my glory! My
power has assumed such gigantic proportions that I must support it with
foundations that cannot be overthrown. The Emperor Napoleon must have a
successor; if you had given birth to one, I should never have parted
from you. Now all hope is gone, and I shall, perhaps, be compelled one
day to look for a consort among the daughters of kings. I really do not
wish to do so, but my duty to my people makes it imperative."

"No, not your duty, but your ambition!" cried Josephine, with streaming
eyes. "You have sacrificed every thing for that--your tranquillity, your
conscience, the blood of your soldiers, and now your wife!"

"Yes, it is as you say, Josephine," exclaimed Napoleon; "it is my
ambition that separates me from you, and compels me to part with her who
has been my glory and my life for sixteen years! It is ambition that
points its iron arm at my imperial crown, and commands me to look for
another empress, that I and my son may enter the ranks of legitimate
princes. I have formed vast plans; I shall soon effect new convulsions:
I shall vanquish all my enemies, and Europe will have to recognize me as
her master. But when nothing remains to wish for--when I have so
ascended as to leave no heights above me, then I shall think of securing
the happiness and peace of my people and of my empire. To do so, I am in
need of a direct heir. For myself, I ask and wish for nothing; but my
glory belongs to France. After my death my contemporaries will say of
me, 'He was the only one who could strive for universal good, while his
individual wishes had been gratified; others thought only of
themselves--Bonaparte's wishes a