This is a serial about why Hortense broke the law. Previous entries are here. The painting below is by Hortense of her son, Napoleon Louis.
In the events of July, he [Metternich] had said: "Do we believe that we are afraid of giving constitutions” Since then, he has not spoken of it any more and the allied cabinets managed to reassume control in France. But since everything was peaceful in Tuscany and in good order, it was from the surrounding countries that emissaries were being sent to my son, and I begged him to protect himself against such advances.
I represented to him the private and public misfortunes brought about by the revolutions, and I advised him to use his influence to calm the effervencence I saw everywhere. He agreed with me that the moment had not yet come but that he could not prevent it from coming soon, and that he would never follow but the road of honor and disinterestedness.
All that I discovered in him of elevation, of worth, of distinction, charmed me, but I lived in anxiety. Like a miser, I wanted to bury the two treasures that I had left and I I thought I saw everyone eager to take them away from me.
I left for Rome on the 15th of November, the day of my feast, a sad birthday since my brother, whose feast was falling on the same day, no longer existed, and even more sad since that day I held my dear child for the last time.
He came to take me on horseback to the second post. He was radiant with joy and health and on his horse which he had trained to jump ditches. He told me that he had taken the same route to accompany his father when he had gone to Rome, and that returning during the evening alone, as a knight looking for adventure, he had perceived far enough in the mountain a considerable light. Then leaping hedges and ditches with his horse, he had come across the fields near an isolated house which was on fire. The poor people who lived there had lost their minds over it. They were without water, without help, they only mourned. My son added with charming simplicity: "I could help! I took command
