This is part of a series where we’re translating the account of why Hortense Bonaparte broke the law. When we last left off, Hortense found a way to get a passport to Britain for herself and her 2 sons to escape the Austrian military that was deployed, in part, to capture her sons for daring to speak out.
Hortense’s husband Louis was hurting himself with anxiety so she told him what he wanted to hear - that she’d obey him - to get him to calm down so he wouldn’t exacerbate his chronic illnesses.
Hortense writes:
[Hortense’s estranged husband Louis], often repeated to me: "I leave you to take care of them alone. I feel that I am too sick to be able to do it.”
He offered me his traveling carriage, since one of mine had brought M. de Bressieux to Rome.
Everyone thinking that I was going to my children and embarking with them in Ancona, my passport was signed without difficulty.
The Englishman to whom I confided brought me the passport that made my life. It was under the name of one of his relatives, and covered with all the signatures required.
I will not describe my emotion, my recognition, it has remained deeply engraved in my heart.
He urged me not to waste time, since the Austrians were to be in Bologna the same day. I fixed my departure for the next morning, March 10th.
One thing embarrassed me a lot. At the gates of Florence, you have to give your name. We had without doubt, an exit visa on the passport.
One needs one for the English passport that I have, so as not to inspire suspicion; when I show it at the first city where I take the foreign name, what if they notice that the name is not the same as at at the exit from Florence, what will I say?
It was one of the things that caused me the most embarrassment, and perhaps it was unnecessary; but when I thought what tender interests I was going to have to save, nothing seemed too small to be neglected.
I had sent the youngest of my valets to my children, with two horses.
How painful it had been to break my husband's orders in that! I had only a valet with me still suffering from sciatica, and two footmen.
My coachman bringing my traveling equipment from Rome had broken their leg when they came down from the Florence bridge; I would have had to employ a stranger and that was what gave me great concern for the outing that I wanted to undertake.
As soon as night came, we started off with my horses led by the groom in postillon, and my sick valet put himself -
To be continued.
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Cela fait partie d'une série où nous traduisons le récit de la raison pour laquelle Hortense Bonaparte a enfreint la loi. La dernière fois que nous nous sommes arrêtés, Hortense a trouvé un moyen d'obtenir un passeport pour la Grande-Bretagne pour elle-même et ses 2 fils pour échapper à l'armée autrichienne qui a été déployée, en partie, pour capturer ses fils pour avoir osé parler pour les droits du peuple.
Le mari de Hortense, Louis, se faisait du mal avec l'anxiété, elle lui a dit ce qu'il voulait entendre - qu'elle lui obéirait - pour le calmer afin qu'il n'aggrave pas ses maladies chroniques.
