counsels of her grandmother concerning conjugal fidelity.

Baron de Bausset observes that there was at this moment a likeness between the positions of these two dethroned sovereigns, one of whom was claiming the Duchy of Parma and the other the Kingdom of Naples. More vivacious and ardent than her granddaughter, Marie Caroline seemed greatly irritated by the legal obstructions put in her way by all the Powers, not excepting Austria. "I do not know," adds M. de Bausset, "whether to attribute the fact to her vexation at the circumspect Austrian diplomacy, or simply to her natural politeness and the sympathy she thought it her duty to feel for the innocent victim of a greater political convulsion than that of which she complained and which she had, in fact, provoked. In any case, it is certain that she had sufficient greatness of soul to appreciate the fidelity and devotion of those who had followed the fortunes of her granddaughter. Even in speaking of Napoleon, though she did so with the frankness of an enemy, yet it was that of an enemy not blind to his great qualities. Convinced by all the Empress said, that the Emperor had always treated her with the utmost" kindness, and that she had been overwhelmed with the most touching and tender solicitude, the Queen of Sicily prevailed on her to wear again a portrait of Napoleon which her timidity had caused her to hide away in a jewel-case. Nor did she fail to be most amiable and caressing to the young Napoleon, though

M. de Bausset says very

he was her enemy's son." justly that such conduct displayed as much intelligence as delicacy.

Marie Louise and her grandmother, Queen Marie Caroline, were together only a few weeks. The Empress went to Aix, in Savoy, June 29, 1814, to take the baths. They were never to meet again. On September 7 the old Queen went to bed, feeling very well. Two hours later she was found dead, with her right hand extended to the bell-rope she had been unable to reach, and her mouth half-open, as if she had vainly tried to call for assistance. A stroke of apoplexy had put a sudden term to her troubled career.

Baron de La Tour-du-Pin, then the French Minister at Vienna, communicated the news to Prince Talleyrand in a despatch dated September 8, 1814: "I have the honor to inform you that the Queen of Naples had an attack of apoplexy during the night, which carried her off instantly. The Princess had never been in better health. That very morning Count de Préville, formerly an officer of the French navy, and now attached to that of the King of the Two Sicilies, had arrived here from Parma. He brought news from the King which fully satisfied the Queen. She approved the applications he had made to the Austrian court. The Queen kept M. de Préville with her all day, and chatted about Sicily and all her affairs with her usual vivacity. She sent him away at ten o'clock, and went to bed; at mid

night, the maid who slept near her, hearing a slight movement, asked if she needed anything, and, receiving no answer, she rose, and found that the Queen was already dead.”

She was buried at Vienna, with great pomp. Baron de La Tour-du-Pin wrote to Prince Talleyrand, September 14, 1814: "The obsequies of the Queen of Naples took place on the 10th; the Mass was celebrated on the 12th. The whole imperial family assisted at it, with the exception of the Empress. The Diplomatic Corps was not invited, as it is not customary. I thought, however, that the French Minister could hardly allow this circumstance to interfere with his giving some more particular mark of interest than was due from others, and I was present at the funeral. It seemed to me that they were pleased with this attention. Prince Leopold's sorrow has been most touching to everybody. On the day of his mother's death he sent a messenger to Madame the Duchess of Orleans [Marie Amélie, daughter of Marie Caroline and wife of Louis Philippe], by whom the news was doubtless carried more quickly than by the one I sent Your Highness."

Marie Louise heard of her grandmother's death with great pain. In spite of the short time they had spent together, her sorrow was deep and keen. With Marie Caroline disappeared one of the most singular figures of the century.

IV.

MARIE LOUISE AT AIX IN SAVOY.

"ARIE LOUISE left Schoenbrunn, June 29,

MA

1814, to take the baths at Aix in Savoy. She had found it somewhat difficult to obtain her father's permission to undertake a journey which must have appeared strange. In 1814 Savoy still belonged to France, and the former Empress of the French was going to live simply as a private person in a town whose sovereign she had been only three months before. Napoleon felt strongly the singularity of this proceeding. General Bertrand wrote to M. de Méneval from Porto-Ferrajo, July 3, 1814: "If the Empress has waited at Vienna for an answer to her letter, the Emperor desires that she should not go to Aix; if she is already there, that she should not remain more than one season, and that she should return as soon as may be to Tuscany, where there are baths which have the same properties as those of Aix. They are nearer to us and to Parma, and the Empress could have her son there with her. When M. Corvisart recommended the waters of Aix, he was reasoning as if the Emperor and she were still

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at Paris; besides, he knew nothing of these Tuscan baths, which have similar qualities. Her going to Aix displeases the Emperor all the more because there are probably no Austrian troops there now, and she may be exposed to insults from adventurers. Moreover, it will doubtless be disagreeable to the sovereigns of the country to have her so near. There would be no such inconveniences in Tuscany."

But Marie Louise had taken good care not to wait for her husband's permission to start. She was determined to go to Aix, whose waters she deemed indispensable to her health, and where she expected to meet the Duchess of Montebello, whom she then considered her dearest friend. She left her son at Schoenbrunn, in charge of the Countess of Montesquiou, and started in company with the Baron of Méneval and the Countess of Brignole. She travelled as the Countess of Colorno, which was the name of one of her chateaux in the Duchy of Parma. When she passed through Munich she found Prince Eugene de Beauharnais and his wife at the station, and went to supper with them and the Princess Royal of Würtemberg, destined soon to become the fourth wife of the Austrian Emperor.

On the 10th of July Marie Louise reached the inn of Sécheron, close to Geneva. There she was met by her brother-in-law, King Joseph, who lived in the Villa Prangins on the shore of the lake, and who gave her a hearty welcome. As she seemed to regret not having ordered saddle-horses to be provided for