Queen Hortense: A Life Picture of the Napoleonic EraMühlbach, L. (Luise)
History
Queen Hortense: A Life Picture of the Napoleonic Era
Mühlbach, L. (Luise)
Hortense, Queen, consort of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland, 1783-1837 -- Fiction
Louise de Cochelet was still sojourning in Paris, and the letters which
she daily wrote to the queen at Novara, and in which she informed her of
all that was taking place in the city, are so true a picture of that
strange and confused era, that we cannot refrain from here inserting
some of them.
In one of her first letters Louise de Cochelet relates a conversation
which she had had with Count Nesselrode, in relation to the
queen's future.
"The Bourbons," she writes, "have now been finally accepted. I asked
Count Nesselrode, whom I have just left: 'Do you believe that the queen
will be permitted to remain in France? Will the new rulers consider this
proper?' 'Certainly,' he replied, 'I am sure of it, for we will make it
a condition with them, and without us they would never have come to the
throne at all! It is not the Bourbons, but it is we, it is all Europe,
that arranges and regulates these matters. I therefore trust that they
will never violate the agreement. Rest assured that the Emperor
Alexander will always support the right.'
"All of these strangers here speak of you, madame, with great
enthusiasm. Metternich, who doubtlessly recollects your great kindness
to his wife and children, inquired after you with lively interest.
Prince Leopold is devotedly attached to yourself and the Empress
Josephine, and ardently desires to be able to serve you both. Count
Nesselrode thinks it would be well for you to write to the Emperor
Alexander, as he takes so warm an interest in your affairs.
"The old nobility is already much discontented; it considers itself
debased, because it sees itself mixed with so many new elements."
"Come to Malmaison with the empress," she writes a few days later, "the
Emperor Alexander will then go there at once to meet you; he is anxious
to make your acquaintance, and you already owe him some thanks, as he
devotes himself to your interests as though they were his own. The Duke
of Vicenza, who demeans himself so worthily with regard to the Emperor
Napoleon, requests me to inform you that the future of your children
depends on your coming to Malmaison.
"The Emperor Napoleon has signed an agreement, that secures the future
of all the members of his family; you can remain in France, and retain
your titles. You are to have for yourself and children an income of four
hundred thousand francs.
"It is said here that the Faubourg St. Germain is furious over the
brilliant positions provided for the imperial family and the empress.
This is their gratitude for all her goodness to them.
"You wish to make Switzerland your home. Count Nesselrode thinks you may
be right, that it is a good retreat; but you should not give up the one
you have here, and should in any event retain the right to return
to France.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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