The Memoirs of Queen Hortense Vol. I by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, Spain & Portugal, France, Military
ISBN: 9781786258380
Publisher: Wagram Press
Published: 2016-01-27T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER VI—THE QUEEN OF HOLLAND: THE COURT OF KING LOUIS (MAY, 1806—APRIL, 1807)

Prince Louis Is Called to the Throne of Holland—A Last Glimpse of France—Arrival at the Hague—Public Rejoicing, Private Misery—Trip to the Rhineland—The Battle of Jena—Two More Admirers—Portrait of Talleyrand—Home-Life of the King—A Domestic Peace-Treaty and Why It Was Not Signed.

SUCH moments of innocent amusement were of brief duration. Youth needs them, but as soon as I returned to my home I found myself once more in an atmosphere of sternness and severity. My sorrows were not yet complete.

A delegation headed by Admiral Ver Huell arrived from Holland, and my husband informed me one morning that the Emperor had just told him that he, Louis, was to be King of Holland.

“I do hope you will not accept the appointment,” I exclaimed. As a matter of fact I expected my husband to make the same objections he had employed when it was a question of giving a throne to his son, and I thought he would refuse this crown which he did not seem anxious to obtain. As soon as the question of his nomination came up Caroline called on us.

“I attended the marriage of Prince Eugène at Munich,” she said, “only on the express understanding with the Emperor that I was to have the Dutch crown. I do not wish to remind him of his promise without your consent, but will you not allow me to do so?” Both my husband and I assured her that we should be delighted to see her receive the crown, but she did not succeed in getting it.

My fate had ordained that these royal honors were to be the bitterest of all my afflictions since they involved a separation from all that was dear to me, from all I had in the way of consolation, from my family, from my friends, from the land which I had been taught to love so dearly, at a time when I was already miserable. I admit that my husband’s calm manner surprised me. I did not believe he was ambitious, yet I recognized that he was well pleased with what had occurred. Until then every change had been a source of annoyance to him. But now he enjoyed the idea of becoming independent, of becoming his own master and, what was more, of becoming my master at the same time. No longer would any social decorum, any sense of obligation restrain him from exercising his rights over me. Freed from the proximity of his brother he had no longer any cause to fear him. This, as I understood later, was the reason for his secret joy and the apparent resignation with which he accepted the offered throne.

As for me I had no illusions as to my fate; I knew my hardships would increase. For a moment I had the idea of flinging myself at the Emperor’s feet, revealing all the torments I suffered with my husband, and begging permission not to be obliged to follow him

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