ing my son was to come to
France. I know very well that I have transgressed a law. I am well aware
of the risks we run. You have a right to cause our arrest. It would be
just."

"Just?" responded the minister, "no; legal? yes." The result of some
anxious deliberation was that, in consideration of the alarming sickness
of the young prince, they were to be permitted, provided they preserved
the strictest incognito, to remain in the city one week. The king also
granted Hortense a private audience. He himself knew full well the
sorrows of exile. He spoke feelingly of the weary years which he and his
family had spent in banishment from France.

"I have experienced," said he to Hortense, "all the griefs of exile. And
it is not in accordance with my wishes that yours have not yet ceased."
Hortense also saw the queen and the king's sister. There were but these
four persons who were allowed to know that Hortense was in Paris. And
but two of these, the king and his minister, knew that Prince Louis
Napoleon was in the city. But just then came the 5th of May. It was the
anniversary of the death of the Emperor at St. Helena. As ever, in this
anniversary, immense crowds of the Parisian people gathered around the
column on the Place Vendome with their homage to their beloved Emperor,
and covering the railing with wreaths of immortelles and other flowers.
Had the populace known that from his window an heir of the great Emperor
was looking upon them, it would have created a flame of enthusiasm which
scarcely any earthly power could have quenched.

The anxiety of the king, in view of the peril, was so great, that
Hortense was informed that the public safety required that she should
immediately leave France, notwithstanding the continued sickness of her
son. The order was imperative. But both the king and the minister
offered her money, that she might continue her journey to London. But
Hortense did not need pecuniary aid. She had just cashed at the bank an
order for sixteen thousand francs. Before leaving the city, Louis
Napoleon wrote to the king a very eloquent and dignified letter, in
which he claimed his right, as a French citizen, who had never committed
any crime, of residing in his native land. He recognized the king as the
representative of a great nation, and earnestly offered his services in
defense of his country in the ranks of the army. He avowed that in Italy
he had espoused the cause of the people in opposition to aristo