Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team THE HAPPY DAYS OF THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE BY IMBERT DE SAINT-AMAND _TRANSLATED BY_ THOMAS SERGEANT PERRY _ILLUSTRATED_ CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I. EARLY YEARS II. 1809 III. THE PRELIMINARIES OP THE WEDDING IV. THE BETROTHAL V. THE RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTY VI. THE AMBASSADOR EXTRAORDINARY VII. THE WEDDING AT VIENNA VIII. THE DEPARTURE IX. THE TRANSFER X. THE JOURNEY XI. COMPIÈGNE XII. THE CIVIL WEDDING XIII. THE ENTRANCE INTO PARIS XIV. THE RELIGIOUS CEREMONY XV. THE HONEYMOON XVI. THE TRIP IN THE NORTH XVII. THE MONTH OF JUNE, 1810 XVIII. THE BALL AT THE AUSTRIAN EMBASSY XIX. THE BIRTH OF THE KING OF ROME XX. THE RECOVERY XXI. THE BAPTISM XXII. SAINT CLOUD AND TRIANON XXIII. THE TRIP TO HOLLAND XXIV. NAPOLEON AT THE HEIGHT OF HIS POWER XXV. MARIE LOUISE IN 1812 XXVI. THE EMPRESS'S HOUSEHOLD XXVII. DRESDEN XXVIII. PRAGUE THE HAPPY DAYS OF THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE INTRODUCTION. In 1814, while Napoleon was banished in the island of Elba, the Empress Marie Louise and her grandmother, Marie Caroline, Queen of Naples, happened to meet at Vienna. The one, who had been deprived of the French crown, was seeking to be put in possession of her new realm, the Duchy of Parma; the other, who had fled from Sicily to escape the yoke of her pretended protectors, the English, had come to demand the restitution of her kingdom of Naples, where Murat continued to rule with the connivance of Austria. This Queen, Marie Caroline, the daughter of the great Empress, Maria Theresa, and the sister of the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, had passed her life in detestation of the French Revolution and of Napoleon, of whom she had been one of the most eminent victims. Well, at the very moment when the Austrian court was doing its best to make Marie Louise forget that she was Napoleon's wife and to separate her from him forever, Marie Caroline was pained to see her granddaughter lend too ready an ear to their suggestions. She said to the Baron de Méneval, who had accompanied Marie Louise to Vienna: "I have had, in my time, very good cause for complaining of your Emperor; he has persecuted me and wounded my pride,--I was then at least fifteen years old,--but now I remember only one thing,--that he is unfortunate." Then she went on to say that if they tried to keep husband and wife apart, Marie Louise would have to tie her bedclothes to her window and run away in disguise. "That," she exclaimed, "that's what I should do in her place; for when people are married, they are married for their whole life!"