Here we find Hortense anxiously awaiting news about the war against Austria. She, according to her custom, also tries to relieve the suffering of a person in distress.
Dear Eugène,
Saturday, 6 Vendemiaire, year XIV, September 28, 1805.
Everyone is gone. Paris is Sad. The war makes all minds anxious.
Louis has the order, if the English land, to go to the coast with what troops he has. We have learned by telegraph that the Emperor has arrived in Strasbourg. I believe that he will not delay in crossing the Rhine. The first news of this is being awaited with much impatience.
We are in a crisis and I hope we will come out of it as happily as we have done in the past.
Everyone's fear is that the Emperor will expose himself to danger. About that, there is nothing to be done or said. One must only hope.
I have seen M. de Beaufort. He is really very unhappy. He accepts with gratitude your proposal but as he has nothing in the world, he only asks to be lodged and fed. You will give him then what you would like to. All this will only be for a time, because at the death of his father, he will have the fortune. Can you believe that during the three months that he has just spent with him, his father made him pay rent? You will make him very happy to give them a little hole, for they require for their needs only a room and a closet. I'm waiting for your answer to send them away. Farewell, my dear Eugene, I embrace you tenderly. My little children are doing very well.
HORTENSE.
Hortense and Josephine Bonaparte’s Letters are available here.
The memoirs so far are available here.