lava poured into the valley of the Roxelana until it filled it up
entirely, burying houses, gardens and plantations alike. There is no
trace even of a valley now, and the stream makes its way underground
to the sea. Napoleon the Great's first wife, Josephine de la Pagerie,
was a native of Martinique and retained all her life the curious
indolence of the Creole. Her gross extravagance and her love of luxury
may also have been due to her Creole blood. Her first husband, of
course, had been the Vicomte de Beauharnais, and her daughter,
Hortense de Beauharnais, married Napoleon's brother, Louis, King of
Holland. This complicated relationships, for Queen Hortense's son,
Louis Napoleon, afterwards Napoleon III., was thus at the same time
nephew and step-grandson of Napoleon I. M. Filon, in his most
interesting study of the Empress Eugenie, points out that Napoleon
III. showed his Creole blood in his constant chilliness. He chose as
his private apartments at the Tuileries a set of small rooms on the
ground floor, as these could be more easily heated up to the
temperature he liked. According to M. Filon, Napoleon III. shortened
his life by persisting in remaining so much in what he describes as
"those over-gilt, over-heated, air-tight little boxes."

The well-known greenhouse climbing plant lapageria, with its waxy
white or crimson trumpets of flowers, owes its name to Josephine de la
Pagerie, for on its first introduction into France it was called La
Pageria in her honour, though with the English pronunciation of the
name the connection is not at first obvious.

It is not so generally known that Madame de Maintenon, as Francoise
d'Aubigne, spent all her girlhood in Martinique.

The coloured women of Martinique have apparently absorbed, thanks to