This is the story of how Hortense Bonaparte’s sons were lured into a revolution they couldn’t win with appeals to their pure motives from secret society people. When we last left off, Hortense’s sons were still okay.
Hortense writes:
Quite a strange thing happened, which I found out about later, an engineer officer who remained faithful to the Pope, and who, in Rome, had given lessons to my son, seeing him from afar was making cleverly calculated hostile comments and said with a sort of pride: "See this young man as he excels in all this; yet it was I who was his master.”
The Bologna orders and the arrival of General Sercognani forced my children to leave these places. The general had told me during his visit that he was trembling to see such precious young people expose themselves so much, and that it was the first reason which had determined him to assert his rights, when taking the command that we entrusted to him.
All these details did not reassure me. However, this brigand, who had shot Napoleon [Hortense’s older son] at point blank range and whose rifle had not fired, proved to me that he had escaped a very great danger.
I liked to believe that there was destiny in this, and that Providence would keep it up for me.
On March 17, I was even more agitated than usual; I walked into my room, not knowing where to rest my imagination. My eyes were mechanically drawn to these dirty and smoky walls which surrounded me.
All were filled with inscriptions, dates, which idle people like to write in the inns to leave a memory to recover, no doubt, of their journey and their impressions.
Suddenly the idea occurred to me that I was in this fertile month which for -
to be continued.
…
C’est l’histoire de la façon dont les fils d’Hortense Bonaparte ont été attirés par une révolution qu’ils ne pouvaient pas gagner en faisant appel à leurs motivations pures de la part des gens de la société secrète.
La dernière fois que nous nous sommes arrêtés, les fils de Hortense étaient encore bien.
Ceux qui n'apprennent pas l'histoire sont condamnés à la répéter.