ong journeys; and often, at
midnight, when just setting out on some expedition, he has found her in
readiness.

"No, love," he would say, "no, no, love, do not ask me; the fatigue
would be too much for you."

"Oh, no," she would answer; "no, no."

"But I have not a moment to spare."

"See, I am quite ready;" and she would drive off, seated by Napoleon's
side.

From having mingled in scenes of gayety from her earliest days, and from
the pleasure which her presence was sure to diffuse, and perhaps, it may
be added, from a nature singularly guileless, that could see no evil in
what appeared to her but as innocent indulgences, she was led into
expenses and frivolous gratifications which were by no means essential
for a mind like hers. Dishonest tradesmen took advantage of her
inexperience and extreme easiness, and swelled their bills to an
enormous amount; but her greatest, and far most congenial outlay, was in
the relief of the distressed. She could not endure to deny the petition
of any whom she believed to be suffering from want; and this tenderness
of heart was often imposed on by the artful and rapacious. Those who,
from interested motives, desired to separate her from Napoleon, felt a
secret satisfaction in the uneasiness which her large expenditure
occasionally gave him. To their misrepresentations may be ascribed the
violent bursts of jealousy by which he was at times agitated; but he was
ever ready to perceive that there was no foundation to justify them. It
was during one of their separations, that the insinuations of those
about Napoleon excited his jealousy to such a degree, that he wrote a
hasty letter to Josephine, accusing her of _coquetry_, and of evidently
preferring the society of men to those of her own sex.

"The ladies," she says, in her reply, "are filled with fear and
lamentations for those who serve under you; the gentlemen eagerly
compliment me on your success, and speak of you in a manner that
delights me. My aunt and those about me can tell you, ungrateful as you
are, whether _I have been coquetting with any body_. These are your
words, and they would be hateful to me, were I not certain that you see
already they are unjust, and are sorry for having written them."

Napoleon's brothers strove to alienate his affections from Josephine;
but the intense agony which he suffered when suspicion was awakened,
must have proved to them how deep these affections were. Perhaps no
trait in Josephine's