This is part of a series where we’re translating a book by Hortense’s reader and friend Madame Cochelet. When we last left off, Napoleon had left for the fatal campaign of 1813. Hortense went to her country estate where she was getting tips on helping people from a local philanthropist.
[Hortense wanted to] learn from him how to make this miraculous soup; it was almost the multiplication of loaves! At lunch, we had to serve this soup, and the Queen intended to eat it first and find it excellent. Everything was carried out as it had been arranged. But when the sisters saw this soup of bone, and Mr. Cadet de Vaux, with all the eloquence of a teacher, tried to explain to them that bones are much more nutritious than any other food, the fear took them, they became all pale and trembling: "How, sir, it is these bones of the dead, that you want to feed our poor?"
“My sisters, you are big beasts!” Cried M. Cadet de Vaux, with anger which made them tremble; because at that moment he was holding a big kitchen knife and he could have thrown it at someone’s head.
I, who had wanted to attend the food trial, managed to restore peace without difficulty; but the sisters always repeated among themselves: "They are, however, bones! Who tells us that these are not dead bones?”
At breakfast, M. Cadet de Vaux, seated at the table next to the Queen, saw him eat the soup he had made, heard him repeat that it was excellent. He was triumphant! He had no idea that Her Majesty, who usually ate almost nothing, and who was nervous like no one, said to me after lunch: “I had the virtue of swallowing this soup; as usual, I was not hungry; and then the idea that I ate something that is not usually eaten, made my heart so sick that I thought for a moment that I would not be able to fulfill my role until the end.
I told the Queen about the scene of the sisters in the kitchen; she laughed a lot and said to me: "I did well to have had good courage before M. Cadet de Vaux, because he would not have said it, but he would have thought it as well, that I was also a big beast.
It must be said, the fearful ideas of the sisters spread, and the bone broth was a dud, it was not accepted, and the good meat soups remained.
I have heard since then that they have made use of these gelatin broths in Paris; no doubt it was not our sisters who propagated the concept.
A page arrived, on May 6th, to bring to the Queen a letter from Marie-Louise: it was the announcement of a great victory won at Lutzen.
The Emperor, the Viceroy (Prince Eugene, Viceroy of Italy, elder brother of Queen Hortense) were doing well.
Joy burst out among us: “Ah!” cried the Queen, "here is our national honor raised! I no longer doubt peace; we will finally have it!”
So each of us makes plans. Finally there are no more fears, no more pain, and health must return when there is no more torment.
The next day, the Queen went to see the Empress. She then learned of the unfortunate death of the Duke of Istria, of this Marshal Bessières, under whose orders Prince Eugène had made his first campaigns in Italy and in Egypt.
His wife was one of the Queen's most esteemed friends. She no longer thinks of her fatigue; she goes to Croissy, where this unhappy widow was, and runs to bring her consolations -
To be continued.
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Cela fait partie d'une série où nous traduisons un livre du lecteur et ami d'Hortense, Madame Cochelet. Lorsque nous nous sommes arrêtés pour la dernière fois, Napoléon était parti pour la campagne fatale de 1813. Hortense s'est rendue dans sa propriété de campagne où elle recevait des conseils sur l'aide d'un philanthrope local.
