Let’s have another look at Hortense’s Memoirs. If you want to read the book it is available for free at the side bar in English and French. Use the widget on the sidebar to translate the text below into pretty much any language.
Here we see how various individuals mysteriously develop agendas in concert with each other all at once. The ones clearly playing their roles in a larger scheme seem to all decide it’s time for Josephine to leave France. What’s the plan? Napoleon always believed Josephine to be a source of luck to him. Napoleon’s luck does abandon him at his second marriage. We have also learned in many places that misfortune followed Marie Louise - she absolutely believed herself cursed - and this was clearly the case based on various circumstances of her life.
At St. Helena, Napoleon is told that Marie Louise said all she ever had to do was cry and she could get her way with him. He appears to be surprised at this. On another occasion at St. Helena, Napoleon says that Marie Louise would pester him and cry until she would finally get her way.
If Marie Louise had been really so jealous concerning the affections of Napoleon, why wasn’t she crying at the sight of Hortense? It was thought around the courts of Europe - including in that of Austria - that Napoleon’s second wife might have been Hortense.
Hortense’s memoirs continues:
The account of the danger which my mother had been in on the Lac du Bourget the day before I arrived made me tremble. She had left Aix to visit the Abbey of Hautecombe. The weather had been fine when she left, but on her return a storm had come up while she was in the middle of the lake.
The wreaths and extra canvas hangings with which the vessel had been adorned in her honor added to her danger, as they offered more resistance to the wind. It seemed certain that the boat would sink.
Monsieur de Flahaut and Monsieur de Pourtales had already made their preparations for rescuing her in case the ship went down. All the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, aware of the Empress's danger, had gathered on the shores and awaited some opportunity to come to her aid.
By the exercise of great courage and skill the crew managed to weather the storm. The vessel arrived safely in port, and a kind Providence spared me the horrible misfortune which had threatened me.
Monsieur de Flahaut's very brief leave of absence expired. He returned to Paris. My mother made a little trip into Switzerland while I remained alone at Aix.
The waters were so excellent for my chest and so good for my general health that had it not been for my children I should have still further prolonged my stay. The Emperor wrote me to come back to Paris to be with my children.
My mother, whom I visited at Geneva, was sorry to see me leave. She feared the Emperor, as he never wrote her, wished to have her stay out of France. She had bought the estate called Pregny, on the edge of the lake.
But although it was very attractive nothing could take the place of her own country and her beloved Malmaison. Letters from certain people who always wish to meddle in the affairs of others advised her to settle in Italy with her son.
She asked me to find out what the Emperor thought of this plan. For the first time the idea occurred to her that she might be in the way, and that the Emperor might abandon her. This thought pained her deeply.
I arrived at Fontainebleau where all the court had assembled. My children were waiting for me there. The evening I arrived the Emperor came to see me with the Empress. He showed her to me with an air of satisfaction.
“Look at her figure," he said. "If it is a girl it will be a little wife for your son Napoleon, for she must not go out of France or marry outside the family.
Naturally we could not speak of my mother that evening. I asked him to receive me the following morning. When I talked with him, I felt how pleased he would be if my mother of her own accord decided to live with her son in Italy.
“I am obliged to think of my wife's happiness," he said to me. "Things have not developed as I hoped they would. She is alarmed by your mother's attractiveness and the hold people know she has on me. I know this for a fact. Recently I wished to go out with my wife to Malmaison. I do not know whether she thought your mother was there, but she began to cry, and I was obliged to turn around and go somewhere else. However, whatever happens I shall never oblige the Empress Josephine to do anything she does not want to do. I shall always remember the sacrifices she made for me. If she wishes to settle at Rome, I shall have her appointed governor of the city. At Brussels she could hold a brilliant court and at the same time do good to the country. It would be still better and more suitable if she were to go and live with her son and grandchildren. But write her that if she prefers to return to Malmaison I shall do nothing to prevent her." I assured the Emperor that to return was the only course she desired to follow, and my mother arrived shortly afterwards.
A little later I gave the Emperor a message from her to the effect that having been his wife and Empress of the French she no longer wished for any other title, that all she desired was the right to live and die in her country, surrounded by her friends.
The original French is available below:
