This is part of a series about why Hortense broke the law. When we last left off Hortense was going to the Austrian authorities trying to get their help to pull her sons out of a revolution which she feared would trap and kill her sons.
Hortense writes:
[by what] means? or go with them? I only saw Turkey. Smyrna, of which the Duke of Rovigo had spoken to me a great deal, and which was the place where he spent his exile, that was the place I had fixed on. But this fight that I foresaw made me feel death in my soul.
"The Austrian army will enter." These poor Italians, unarmed, will be beaten; and I must be near the battlefield to save the vanquished who are so dear to me! So I was ready to give in to despair; I threw myself on my knees: "0 my God!” I cried, “let them come back to me alive, I ask no more!”
All my nights were spent in similar agitations, and my days were spent resisting my husband, who wanted to see me leave immediately, who made me write to General Armandi (1) and who himself used all means to get his children out of the course they had taken. He did not want to send them either their horses or the means to live away from him. They were gone, strong in their conscience and rich in courage, without thinking of tomorrow, and I saw them abandoned without help and without support in the midst of danger. While we were overwhelmed with worries, my children, no less restless, were tormented by everything they did.
In Rome, the dismay was great. This conquering name is finally showing up! They cried from all sides. Diplomats wanted to make it the pretext for the intervention which had been already QUITE PLANNED.
I saw a letter from a diplomat, where he said: "These young people who always believe themselves to be imperial princes, if they were caught, would see what they really are, by how we would treat them.”
Cardinal Fesch and King Jerome, who remained in Rome, sent them orders and prayers to leave the army. In agreement with their father, they wrote to the provisional government of Bologne that they were harming their cause; to general -
(1) the former tutor of my son Napoleon, who had been called by the insurgents to occupy important posts.
To be continued.
Napoleon Louis
Cela fait partie d'une série sur les raisons pour lesquelles Hortense a enfreint la loi. La dernière fois que nous nous sommes arrêtés, Hortense se rendait auprès des autorités autrichiennes pour essayer d'obtenir leur aide afin de sortir ses fils d'une révolution qui, elle le craignait, pourrait piéger et tuer ses fils.
Duc de Rovigo
Louis Napoleon