to
soothe the fierce passions and temper the violent acts of her lord. Her
devotion to him was perfect: she partook his labours as far as he would
permit her to do so, submitted to all his caprices, and, with a dark
presentiment that his ambition would one day cast her aside, continued
to centre the whole of her existence in the contemplation of his glory.

Long before Napoleon assumed the imperial title, his hopes of offspring
from this union were at an end; and, at least from the hour in which his
authority was declared to be hereditary, Josephine must have begun to
suspect that, in his case also, the ties of domestic life might be
sacrificed to those views of political advantage, which had so often
dissolved the marriages of princes. For a moment she seems to have
flattered herself that Napoleon would be contented to adopt her son: and
Eugene, as we have seen, was indeed announced, at the period of his
alliance with the royal family of Bavaria, as the successor to the
throne of Italy, in case his father-in-law should leave no second son to
inherit it. Louis Buonaparte afterwards wedded Hortense de Beauharnois,
and an infant son, the only pledge of their ill-assorted union, became
so much the favourite of Napoleon, that Josephine, as well as others,
regarded this boy as the heir of France. But the child died early; and
the Emperor began to familiarise himself with the idea of dissolving his
own marriage.

There is now no doubt that, as early as the conferences of Tilsit, the
scheme of such a connection with the imperial family of Russia was
broached; and as little that Alexander treated the proposal with
coldness, in consequence of the insuperable aversion with which the
empress-mother (a princess whose influence was always commanding)
persisted in regarding the character of Buonaparte. At Erfurt this
matter was once more touched upon; and a second rejection of his
personal alliance was probably the chief of not a few incidents at that
meeting, which satisfied Napoleon as to the uncertain condition of his
relations with the Russian court. Then, however, he had abundant reasons
for dissembling his displeasure: and the pretext of difficulties arising
from difference of religion was permitted to pass.

Fouche was one of the first to penetrate the secret thoughts of
Buonaparte: and he, with audacity equal to his cunning, ventured to take
on himself the dangerous office of sounding the Empress as to this most
delicate