Hortense wept daring the whole of the ceremony. Josephine, knowing
that this union, which commenced so inauspiciously, was her own
work, anxiously endeavoured to establish a more cordial feeling
between her daughter and son-in-law. But all her efforts were vain,
and the marriage proved a very unhappy one (Memoirs de Constant).

Napoleon III. was the son of the Queen of Holland (Hortense
Beauharnais).]--

Napoleon said at St. Helena that he wished to unite Louis with a niece of
Talleyrand. I can only say that I never heard a word of this niece,
either from himself, his wife, or his daughter; and I rather think that
at that time the First Consul was looking after a royal alliance for
Louis. He often expressed regret at the precipitate marriages of his
sisters. It should be recollected that we were now in the year which saw
the Consulship for life established, and which, consequently, gave
presage of the Empire. Napoleon said truly to the companions of his
exile that "Louis' marriage was the result of Josephine's intrigues," but
I cannot understand how he never mentioned the intention he once had of
uniting Hortense to Duroc. It has been erroneously stated that the First
Consul believed that he reconciled the happiness of his daughter with his
policy. Hortense did not love Louis, and dreaded this marriage. There
was no hope of happiness for her, and the event has proved this. As for
the policy of the First Consul, it is not easy to see how it was
concerned with the marriage of Louis to Hortense, and in any case the
grand policy which professed so loudly to be free from all feminine
influences would have been powerless against the intrigues of Josephine,
for at this time at the Tuileries the boudoir was often stronger than the
cabinet. Here I am happy to have it in my power to contradict most
formally and most positively certain infamous insinuations which have