File:The history of Hortense, daughter of Josephine, Queen of Holland, mother of Napoleon III (1870) (14781943095).jpg

Identifier: historyofhorten00abbo (find matches)
Title: The history of Hortense, daughter of Josephine, Queen of Holland, mother of Napoleon III
Year: 1870 (1870s)
Authors: Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot), 1805-1877
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Publisher: New York, Harper
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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ds,who paid their respects to Hortense, in accord-ance with the etiquette of courts, invariablyaddressed each of the princes as Your RoyalHighness, Hortense had not accustomed themto this homage. She had always addressedthe eldest as Napoleon, the youngest as Louis.It was her endeavor to impress them with theidea that they could be nothing more than theircharacters entitled them to be. But after this,when the Bourbon Government assumed thatNapoleon was an usurper, and that popularsuffrage could give no validity to the crown,then did Hortense, in imitation of Napoleon atSt. Helena, firmly resist the insolence. Thendid she teach her children that they wereprinces, that they were entitled to the throneof France by the highest of all earthly author-ity—the almost unanimous voice of the Frenchpeople—and that the Bourbons, trampling pop-ular rights beneath their feet, and ascendingthe throne through the power of foreign bay-onets, were usurpers. Madame Cochelet, the reader of Queen Hor-
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IIORTKNSE AND HER CHILDREN. 1814.) The Sokkows- of Exile. 219 Conversation with the princes. tense, writes, in her interesting memoirs : Ihave often seen her take her two boys on herknees, and talk with them in order to formtheir ideas. It was a curious conversation tolisten to, in those days of the splendors of theempire, when those children were the heirs ofso many crowns, which the Emperor was dis-tributing to his brothers, his ofl&cers, his allies.Having questioned them on every thing theyknew already, she passed in review whateverthey should know besides, if they were to relyupon their own resources for a livelihood. Suppose you had no money, said Hor-tense to the eldest, ^ and were alone in theworld, what would you do, ISTapoleon, to sup-port yourself? I would become a soldier, was the reply,* and would fight so well that I should soonbe made an officer. And Louis, she inquired of the younger,^ how would you provide for yourself? The little prince, who was then but aboutfive

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