and married her to a prefect of the Empire.

If the Empress showed so much tenderness for a daughter who was not her
own, it is impossible to give an idea of her love and devotion to Queen
Hortense and Prince Eugene, which devotion her children fully returned;
and there was never a better or happier mother. She was very proud of
her children, and spoke of them always with an enthusiasm which seemed
very natural to all who knew the Queen of Holland and the Vice-King of
Italy. I have related how, having been left an orphan at a very early
age by the Revolutionary scaffold, young Beauharnais had gained the heart
of General Bonaparte by an interview in which he requested of him his
father's sword, and that this action inspired in the General a wish to
become acquainted with Josephine, and the result of that interview, all
of which events are matters of history. When Madame de Beauharnais had
become the wife of General Bonaparte, Eugene entered on a military
career, and attached himself immediately to the fortunes of his step-
father, whom he accompanied to Italy in the capacity of aide-de-camp. He
was chief of squadron in the chasseurs of the Consular Guard, and at the
immortal battle of Marengo shared all the dangers of the one who took so
much pleasure in calling him his son. A few years later the chief of
squadron had become Vice-King of Italy, the presumptive heir of the
imperial crown (a title which, in truth, he did not long preserve), and
husband of the daughter of a king.

The vice-queen (Augusta Amelia of Bavaria) was handsome and good as an
angel. I happened to be at Malmaison on the day the Empress received the
portrait of her daughter-in-law, surrounded by three or four children,
one upon her shoulder, another at her feet, and a third in her arms, all
of whom had most lovely faces. The Empress, seeing me, deigned to call
me to admire with her this collection of charming heads; and I perceived