ia was probably well aware, did not
necessarily prevent her being happy with her husband.

No testimony more reliable than that of the queen her self can be given;
and she expresses herself as follows in her second letter to his Majesty,
the King of Wurtemburg:--

"Forced by policy to marry the king, my husband, fate has willed
that I should find myself the happiest woman in the universe. I
feel towards my husband the united sentiments of love, tenderness,
and esteem. In this painful moment can the best of fathers wish to
destroy my domestic happiness, the only kind which now remains to
me? I dare to say that you, my dear father, you and all my family,
do great injustice to the king, my husband; and I trust the time
will come when you will be convinced that you have done him
injustice, and then you will ever find in him, as well as in myself,
the most respectful and affectionate of children."

Her Majesty then spoke of a terrible misfortune to which she had been
exposed. This event, which was indeed terrible, was nothing less than
violence and robbery committed on a fugitive woman defenseless and alone,
by a band at the head of which was the famous Marquis de Maubreuil,
[A French political adventurer, born in Brittany, 1782; died 1855.]
who had been equerry of the King of Westphalia. I will recur in treating
of the events of 1814 to this disgraceful affair, and will give some
particulars, which I think are not generally known, in regard to the
principal authors and participants in this daring act of brigandage.

In the following month of September, a courier from the Russian cabinet
arrived from St. Petersburg, bearing a letter to his Majesty from the
Emperor Alexander; and among other magnificent gifts were two very
handsome fur pelisses of black fox and sable martin.

During their Majesties residence at Fontainebleau, the Emperor often went
out in his carriage with the Empress in the streets of the city with
neither escort nor guards. One day, while passing before the hospital of
Mont Pierreux, her Majesty the Empress saw at a window a very aged
clergyman, who saluted their Majesties. The Empress, having returned the
old man's salutation with her habitual grace, pointed him out to the
Emperor, who himself saluted him, and ordering his coachman to stop, sent
one of the footmen with a request to the old priest to come and speak to
them a moment, if it were not too great an exertion. The