frightful to them, and caused them intense anxiety, as they found when
they awoke that they were passing through a thick forest. This ludicrous
incident threw Hortense into fits of laughter; for hardly had they
expressed their alarm when they found themselves deluged with an
odoriferous froth, which explained the cause of the explosion. A bottle
of champagne, placed in one of the pockets of the carriage, had been
uncorked; and the heat, added to the motion of the carriage, or rather
the malice of the young traveler, had made it explode with a loud report.

When mademoiselle arrived at Plombieres, her mother's health was almost
restored; so that the pupil of Madame Campan found there all the
distractions which please and delight at the age which the daughter of
Madame Bonaparte had then attained.

There is truth in the saying that in all evil there is good, for had this
accident not happened to Madame Bonaparte, it is very probable she would
have become a prisoner of the English; in fact, she learned that
'La Pomone', the vessel on which she wished to make the voyage, had
fallen into the power of the enemies of France. General Bonaparte, in
all his letters, still dissuaded his wife from the plan she had of
rejoining him; and, consequently, she returned to Paris.

On her arrival Josephine devoted her attention to executing a wish
General Bonaparte had expressed to her before leaving. He had remarked
to her that he should like, on his return, to have a country seat; and he
charged his brother to attend to this, which Joseph, however, failed to
do. Madame Bonaparte, who, on the contrary, was always in search of what
might please her husband, charged several persons to make excursions in
the environs of Paris, in order to ascertain whether a suitable dwelling
could be found. After having vacillated long between Ris and Malmaison,