or a look, transports me to the very place
which she would wish to banish from my thoughts.

"Hortense's figure is daily becoming more and more graceful. She dresses
with great taste; and though not quite so handsome as your sisters, she
may certainly be thought agreeable when even they are present.

"Heaven knows when or where you may receive this letter. May it restore
you to that confidence which you ought never to have lost, and convince
you, more than ever, that, long as I live, I shall love you as dearly as
I did on the day of our separation. Adieu. Believe me, love me, and
receive a thousand kisses.

"JOSEPHINE."

There was at that time a very celebrated female school at St. Germain,
under the care of Madame Campan. This illustrious lady was familiar with
all the etiquette of the court, and was also endowed with a superior
mind highly cultivated. At the early age of fifteen she had been
appointed reader to the daughter of Louis XV. Maria Antoinette took a
strong fancy to her, and made her a friend and companion. The crumbling
of the throne of the Bourbons and the dispersion of the court left
Madame Campan without a home, and caused what the world would call her
ruin.

But in the view of true intelligence this reverse of fortune only
elevated her to a far higher position of responsibility, usefulness, and
power. Impelled by necessity, she opened a boarding-school for young
ladies at St. Germain. The school soon acquired celebrity. Almost every
illustrious family in France sought to place their daughters under her
care. She thus educated very many young ladies who subsequently occupied
very important positions in society as the wives and mothers of
distinguished men. Some of her pupils attained to royalty. Thus the
boarding-school of Madame Campan became a great power in France.

Hortense was sent to this school with Napoleon's sister Caroline, who
subsequently became Queen of Naples, and with Stephanie Beauharnais, to
whom we shall have occasion hereafter to refer as Duchess of Baden.
Stephanie was a cousin of Hortense, being a daughter of her father's
brother, the Marquis de Beauharnais.

In this school Hortense formed many very strong attachments. Her most
intimate friend, however, whom she loved with affection which never
waned, was a niece of Madame Campan, by the name of Adele Auguie,
afterwards Madame de Broc, whose sad fate, hereafter to be described,
was one of the heaviest blow