This is the story of how Hortense Bonaparte’s sons were lured into an unwinnable revolution through appeals their good nature. This resulted in the death of her son, Napoleon Louis - Napoleon’s nephew and “second heir”.
Napoleon’s son, Napoleon François would also soon be dead. Both young men were in their 20s, apparently taken by “natural causes”.
The same “natural causes” that had supposedly killed Emperor Napoleon a few short years before in 1821. A death that gave the plausible deniability of appearing to be of “natural causes” was certainly not beyond the capacity of assassins of that time.
This story takes place in the early 1830s.
…
Hortense writes:
During the day, I went for walks, alone with my lady, around the ramparts. I would sit for hours on a bench. The weather was magnificent.
This contrast of the calm of nature with the agitation of the most cruel fears, causes an impression which is difficult to express. In all my little expeditions, I always stopped in a church.
With what feeling I asked God to preserve the life of my children! There is also something calm in these large buildings intended for prayer, which contrasts less with our agony than the appearance of beautiful nature.
You feel more comfortable with your pain; it does not fall on the heart to suffocate us, as when the image of happiness surrounds us.
One day I received the visit of Count Campello de Spoleto. My children had stayed with him. He spoke to me of them in detail and with an enthusiasm which could have flattered a mother if he had not shown me the dangers they had already run.
My son Napoleon had gone with two hundred men against a troop of armed brigands recruited from convicts, who, mixed with a few soldiers, came in the name of the Pope to retake the towns of Terni and Spoleto.
In the woods, they fought hand to hand. My son Napoleon, in the middle of bullets and spikes, defended himself like a lion.
At the moment when he was terrifying a brigand who was going to kill him, by shooting him at close range with a rifle, Napoleon was showing him mercy when a dragoon came to pierce the brigand with a saber.
The Count described to me the entry of my son to Terni, bringing his prisoners back, and taking in his remarkable handsomeness and the service he had just rendered, there was a general admiration of him.
Well, Napoleon Louis was, he said, sorry that this dragoon had taken the life of the man to whom he had just shown mercy.
My son Louis [future Napoleon III], for his part, was near Civita-Castellana; he had effected the assault on it and believed himself to be successful, since all the means of defense had not yet been taken.
Napoleon François who had been healthy prior to his capture.
…
Napoléon François qui était en bonne santé avant sa capture.
C’est l’histoire de la façon dont le fils d’Hortense Bonaparte a été attiré dans une révolution impossible à gagner en faisant appel à sa bonne nature.
Cela a entraîné la mort de son fils, Napoléon Louis - neveu de Napoléon et «deuxième héritier».
Le fils de Napoléon, Napoléon François, serait lui aussi bientôt mort.
Les deux jeunes hommes étaient apparemment pris par des «causes naturelles».
Les mêmes «causes naturelles» qui avaient soi-disant tué l'empereur Napoléon quelques années auparavant en 1821. Une mort qui donnait le déni plausible d'apparaître comme des «causes naturelles» n'était certainement pas au-delà de la capacité des assassins de cette époque.
