This is a series where we translate a book by Hortense’s friend, Mme. Cochelet. This passage recounts the copious amount of crying that Marie Louise was engaged during the last night she ever saw Napoleon.
After Napoleon loses his throne, Marie Louise seems disgusted at the idea of being near him. Later on, she tells her friend she never felt a thing for him.
Mme. Cochelet writes:
[Hortense went to see] the Empereur and the Empress. She had come home quite late, and she was still very moved by the grief that the Empress had shown regarding her husband.
She had cried so much about this separation, that the Queen had stayed as long as possible near her to try and calm her down.
"I like to see this attachment," she said; “she cries as my mother cried when he left her, and I believe she is sincere when she shows herself so distressed.”
On February 2, we were told that the Grand Duke Constantine [of Russia] had promised that his troops would warm themselves up in the ashes of Paris.
Terror was at its height; one only thought of placing his most precious objects in a safe place; but that was the difficult part.
We only met after we had said, "Where did you hide your jewelry?" Someone I knew had the door of a small cabinet walled in, after having filled it with everything he cared about most.
Several clocks with pendulums were put away with the precious objects with which they were sealed: unfortunately they had forgotten to stop them, and for another eight days, ringing all at once, they signaled the hiding place to all the neighbors.
But the wounded were already sent to Paris, the theater of war was getting closer. I had been instructed by the Queen to send a large quantity of household linen to her “daughters” at Écouen [Napoleon and Hortense’s school for girls] and to Saint-Denis to make lint.
The Queen herself gave the example of doing this work. We were plunged in the greatest sadness when, on February 11, the announcement of a victory came to fill Paris with the most lively joy.
In a few moments, the streets filled with a joyful crowd, which believing us successful, collided and embraced each other.
"Finally victory is still faithful to us!”
This is what we thought. The weather was wonderful. King Joseph (ex-king of Naples and Spain) passed a review of the National Guard and the garrison on the boulevards in the midst of cries, a thousand times repeated, of: "Long live the Emperor!"
The weather continued to support our hopes. It was the most beautiful in the world and it seemed to be in harmony with our public joy.
On February 15, we saw a considerable number of prisoners from the Russian and Prussian guards march past. Their presence was the confirmation of our successes. The crowd swelled to watch them pass.
Some elegant women from the Faubourg Saint-Germain mingled in with their oppositional feelings; they sneaked signs of hope and consolation to the prisoners, and slipped into their hands either money or bundles of belongings. However, these men had only been taken for two days and did not appear to have experienced very great miseries up until then.
People like that live in a spirit of hostility to their true interests.
Who were these women so sensitive to the failures of the armies that were invading us? A rumor arose, the discontent became so marked that it required the arrival of the National Guard to save those people from popular outrage.
On February 21, Count Tascher arrived in Paris. I have not yet spoken of this excellent friend, whom I esteem - as I do his wife.
He was the first cousin of the Empress Josephine. He arrived at 14 years of age from Martinique, he was immediately placed in the military school of Fontainebleau, from which he graduated like the -
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Il s'agit d'une série où nous traduisons un livre de l'amie d'Hortense, Mme. Cochelet.
Ce passage raconte la quantité abondante de pleurs que Marie Louise a engagés la dernière nuit où elle a jamais vu Napoléon.
Après que Napoléon a perdu son trône, Marie Louise semble dégoûtée à l'idée d'être près de lui. Plus tard, elle dit à son amie qu'elle n'a jamais rien ressenti pour lui.
