This is part of a series about why Napoleon’s stepdaughter Hortense broke the law. When we last left off, Hortense was fleeing revolution which was coming to her winter home, Rome.
Hortense writes:
[I’m bringing with me the other] unfortunate man. I leave before daybreak, expressly so that I will not be recognized at the gates of Rome. However, a man recognizes me, gives me a sign, and keeps it a secret: he is friendly to me.
Further, along at a post, there is a troop which will defend Civita-Castellana, and whose chief was the jailer of the poor officer with me, who, in his situation, trembles to be discovered.
Finally, we cross the border, and the expression of his joy, of his gratitude, shows enough all that he suffered in the past, and all the tortures he feared. As for me, I don't exist; with each carriage I see from afar, I think I see my children, then I lose hope; then I convince myself that my fears are in vain.
When I received their letters, I wrote to them to stay, that I was coming, that I asked them not to come to meet me, that I was well escorted. They will have followed my desire, I am wrong to worry. But as I repeat it to myself, the more I convince myself, the more my fear increases. I cannot hide all my anxieties from those who are with me. M. de Bressieux, who had accompanied in -
To he continued.
Cela fait partie d'une série expliquant pourquoi la belle-fille de Napoléon, Hortense, a enfreint la loi. La dernière fois que nous nous sommes arrêtés, Hortense fuyait la révolution qui arrivait dans sa maison d'hiver, Rome.
Hortense écrit:
